oops-its-whump

[oops-its-whump]

“fisselig (german, n.) - being flustered to the point of incompetence; a temporary state of inexactitude and sloppiness that is elicited by another person’s nagging” would suit Chris i feel like!

This is probably one of the shortest things I’ve ever decided to go ahead and publish with tags, but after something @comfy-whumpee and I were talking about this morning, I couldn’t help myself.

TIMELINE: Early in Chris’s time at the shelter, probably post-Safehouse Raid miniseries but not by much.

CW: Brief references to pet whump and dehumanization. Also, content warning for attitude.

“Chris.” Jake’s voice holds a ragged edge of annoyance and Chris looks up from where he sits on the floor, frowning down at a series of books he is carefully stacking from longest and widest to smallest and thinnest. It looks like a tower, and he’s pulled every book off of Nat’s bookshelves to make it so tall. 

Chris cocks his had, one of the books in his hands. It’s a paperback so the cover is shiny and gray, sort of dappled with a lighter gray, with a gold symbol on the front and gold letters Chris can’t read. “What?”

“You’re up for dish duty tonight, remember?”

Chris frowns, looking back at the tower of books, then back up at Jake. He has to crane his head all the way back to see him from the floor. “Can, can I do it, um, do it later? I’m, I want to, to, to to finish this.”

“Chris, you’ve said you’ll do it later three times now-”

“And I mean it, I’ll, I’ll, um, I’ll do it later.”

“It’s almost nine-thirty, so do you want to tell me when exactly later is?” The edge of annoyance getting stronger in Jake’s voice, and he sighs. “You know what, just-... never mind. It’ll be faster if I just do it instead of waiting for you. What are you doing, anyway?”

“Building.”

“Using books?”

“Yes.” Chris frowns, irritated in ways he can’t quite define at being questioned. “Jake, I-I, I, I can do it, just let me finish this one, um, one, one, one one one one... single thing.”

“You’ve been working on ‘one single thing’ for hours, Chris, and it won’t take that long to do the dishes. Besides which-”

Chris lets his had drop back, eyes closing, a wash of his own annoyance now. His fingers rub over the smooth cover of the book in his hands, but it doesn’t have enough texture to soothe him at all. 

“-you’ll have to put all those books up when you finish this, anyway.”

“What?” Chris groans. “Why? I’ve been, um, been been been working on this for, for, for hours.”

“For what reason, though? Because books are supposed to be on the shelves, and-”

“Fine!” Chris, a sudden burst of temper blaring through him, kicks out and knocks over the whole tower of books in a sudden clatter of hardcovers with dustjackets and paperbacks. Jake flinches back, blinking as Chris pushes himself to his feet. “Fine! It doesn’t, doesn’t even matter. I’ll, I’ll just do it now! I’m going to, to, to-to-to the bathroom first, if that’s, if, if that’s okay with you!”

“I just-... what? Um.” Jake looks like a fish, mouth opening and closing, and it feels, it feels really good to see him look that way. “Do... whatever you have to do, Chris, I was just-”

“Thanks! Thanks for permission to, to, to to to pee!” Chris stomps away, the feeling of his feet slamming into the floor feels good, feels... right, like he’s showing Jake how mad he is just in how he walks. He slams the door behind him so hard it rattles in the frame, takes a deep breath, and then runs water in the sink and splashes it over his face.

He doesn’t actually have to use the bathroom. He just didn’t want to do the dishes right away and let Jake... let Jake win.

He’s elbow-deep in dishwater muttering angrily to himself when he realizes he shouldn’t have been mean to Jake just trying to get him to do what he said he’d do, but now it feels like it’s too late to apologize, and he doesn’t really want to, anyway.

He’ll have nearly finished the dishes before he wonders if he should be scared of how Jake is going to feel about him yelling.

Meanwhile, Jake stares at the books all over the floor, blinking. After a second, there’s a sound that makes him look up, to see Nat leaning against the doorframe, hand over her mouth, trying with everything she has in her not to laugh.

“What... what the fuck just happened, Nat?”

Nat grins at him - he can’t see her smile, but he can see the crinkle in her nose, the crow’s-feet at the corners of her eyes, the sparkle of good humor. “Welcome to teenagers, Jake,” She says, and there’s laughter in her muffled voice, too.

“... what?” Jake blinks. He blinks again. “Teenagers? What?” Nat drops her hand, smiling brightly, and the remaining annoyance sinks out of Jake as what Nat is trying to say sinks in. “You mean...”

“Vince brought us a frightened rescued pet,” Nat says, cocking her head so her braid falls to one side behind her. “But what you just saw is a kid. All hormones and impulse control problems. If he feels safe enough to be a dick about having to do his chores...”

“He feels safe here,” Jake says, and looks the direction Chris went in. “I’ve never-”

“We’ve never had a teenager who needed us before. Now we do. Be proud of yourself, Jake. You’re the first person he feels secure enough with to be kind of a brat with.” Nat walks past him, patting him on the shoulder as she goes. “You told me once you always wondered what it’s like to be a big brother. Well, here you go.”

“But I-”

Nat just waves, heading out the front door, humming happily to herself. Jake is left to stand there, looking at the mess on the floor, before he sighs, huffs out laughter, and rubs one hand over his face. 

“Fucking teenagers,” He says, but there’s a smile in his voice now, too.

---

Tagging: @burtlederp​, @finder-of-rings​, @endless-whump​, @whumpfigure​, @slaintetowhump​, @astrobly​, @newandfiguringitout​, @doveotions​, @pretty-face-breaker​, @boxboysandotherwhump​, @oops-its-whump​ @moose-teeth, @thatsthewhump

[oops-its-whump]

Whump prompt #66 🖤

They stumble up to the cabin, the windows glowing a warm yellow. Someone must be home, someone they hope would be willing to help them. They knock and try to call for help, but thier voice is cracked and broken form the bitter cold. They a slump against the door and pass out...

Wrapped in fuzzy blankets, they awaken to the crackle of wood in the fireplace, a cup of hot tea placed near them, an iron shackle around thier ankle.

[oops-its-whump]

“My little pet…” The whumper dragged a rough finger down the whumpee’s face, tracing the drying lines of blood and fading bruises. Drousy and unfocused, the whumpee pressed themselves closer to the whumper, watching the morning light drench them both in apricot orange. The whumper pressed their cheek to the whumpee’s bloodied hair, humming softly into their ear. 

“Mine.” 

[oops-its-whump]

Prompt #15

“does that look clean to you?” the whumper shook his head in disappointment “you promised me a clean room and so far you haven’t delivered”

The whumpee stared down at the floor and the dark red that he had been trying so desperately to mop up. the bucket of water was tainted with the blood that was still slowly flowing from the wounds all over his body. 

“I’m sorry” he trembled “I’m almost done, I promise”

“I suppose I could give you more time…” the whumper sighed and reached out to grip the whumpee’s chin “but then you wouldn’t learn, would you?”

[oops-its-whump]

Darkness Finds Me

So this is a kinda-whump thing I wrote a few months ago. I had originally submitted it to another blog but I thought I would post it here and try to get my writing out! I don’t think this needs any warnings, but please let me know if it does!

Darkness Finds Me

I’m running and running as fast as my bare and bruising feet can allow me against the jagged and branchy forest floor. I can never stop. Stopping means the end. Stopping means my life ends again. Darkness will take me; they will take me from my life again and give me more pain because “You belong to me,” they say. I can’t do it anymore, I can’t be obedient and obey Darkness. I need to be free.

I’ve been running for what feels like hours before I finally feel safe enough to stop in the forest. Unfortunately, my energy has completely died out and I cannot even do the mere task of climbing the tree and I lean against as if it were an upright bed. Now that I am resting, I can feel the burning pain in my feet and the cuts reopening as if the wounds were superglued together once, only to be ripped apart now from my sprinting. But even amidst that pain and my own personal torture, my exhaustion is winning out, helping to dull the sensation. My mind slows, my worries starting to fall apart piece by piece. Darkness can’t find me now. They would have to look for me for hours at the least. And I’ll be long gone by then.

Just as I feel I’m about to fall asleep, the smoky hand that I know so well wraps around my throat. “You think you can run? I will always find you, darling,” Darkness mocks in my ear amongst my kicking and thrashing, amongst my panic growing and growing, amongst my choked pleas. Nothing stops them; my body is too weak to actually fight back and do anything worthwhile. My freedom is dying right before my eyes. I can’t lose, I can’t go back to them, I can’t let Darkness take me to the home that isn’t really home because all I know there is pain and hurting.

I lose. I go back to them. I let Darkness take me to the home that will forever be my home.

[oops-its-whump]

The whumper's voice is little more than a growl. "Look at me."

The whumpee whimpers, their head ducked down. The whumper grabs the whumpee by the chin, fingers diging hard into the bone of their jaw as they jerk them up to face them, and the whumpee closes their eyes with a cry of terror.

"Look at me," the whumper repeats, their words taking on a deadly demanding rumble.

The whumpee opens their eyes, wet with pooling tears as they meet the whumpee's gaze.

[oops-its-whump]

How do you come up with last names for characters? I’m trying to write a whump thing and I need a last name for my whumpee. I know his first name is going to be Liam

I mean I just pick 'em, to be honest.

Danny, I wanted his name to be absurdly and uttery American Normal. Hence, Michaelson. Jake's last name needed to be as strong-sounding as his first. Collins just sounded good after Ora/Oracle.

I don't worry too much about last names, I just pick them and go with it.

Oh, and Killan's name was just... "What's a fantasy sounding surname? Aaaaaaand Josta."

So basically, don't overthink it! In a lot of cases, your character surname isn't really going to come up that often anyway! I usually just say pick something that 'reads' well with the first name, don't use something with too much alliteration unless you're talking about superheroes or you really really love the surname, and for the love of God, make it culturally appropriate, please please please if you are writing a character whose name is based on naming conventions for a culture you are not a part of, please do the research to figure out how naming conventions work in that culture and how it would affect your character's name.

For instance, common Russian naming conventions hold that a person's middle name would be a patronymic. So Antoni's original name is Artyom Vladimirovich, because his father's name was Vladimir. To name him, say, Artyom Dimitri would ring immediately and instantly false to any Russian reader or anyone who is culturally familiar with Russian names.

Do the research!

Also, don't assume a surname from a culture you are not familiar with. One post that cycles around here often mentions the movie Mean Girls, in which one of the only Asian characters given any lines at all has a Vietnamese first name and a Korean surname. It's clear no research was done, it's clear to anyone who watches the movie who knows anything about basic naming conventions for either of those cultures that the movie frankly gave no shits about getting this one fucking detail right. Trust that it is worth your time to get those details right.

You are an effect handing your readers a level of basic respect that frankly should just be assumed but too often isn't, and that is worth so, so much.

Also, and this is only tangentially related, if you do inadvertently make a mistake when it comes to naming conventions of a character, please be open to communication from people from that culture letting you know about it. There's absolutely nothing wrong with making changes as a result of acquiring information you did not previously have.

Sorry, this kind of ended up going off track... I hope it was still helpful for your question.

[oops-its-whump]

What kinds of things do you have to decide on when making characters? Like I’m trying to make a “character sheet” for my whumpee and whumper because Im trying to get into the whump scene a bit (and I am scaredddd)

So... I start with a single idea, and for some reason my fucked up brain extrapolates everything else in a sort of anxiety-fueled psychedelic download of information. If the character is asked any sort of question or must react to a stimulus, they give me the answer. They usually know themselves better than I do. I've never used a character sheet!

I've heard they are so helpful, though, if they do work for you. I wouldn't be familiar with the ins and outs. I invite anyone to give their 2 cents!

I wish you luck on your writing! I can't wait to see it!

[oops-its-whump]

(I asked this to @whump-tr0pes too but I also look up to you as a writer so I thought I could ask you too) What kinds of things do you have to decide on when making characters? Like I’m trying to make a “character sheet” for my whumpee and whumper because Im trying to get into the whump scene a bit (and I am scaredddd)

Honestly, I just start writing. The more I plan something the less motivation I have to write it, so I kind of have to wing the first few stories while I get a sense of the personalities of everyone involved and where I want it to go! So I usually have  generalized idea of what they look like, their personalities are sort of vaguely sketched out, and I think of the specific situation, and I just... go. If the characters change during the first few scenes, that’s fine! Maybe my story changes a little, also good!

You can see that in the progression of my work, no doubt. Jake is basically personality-free in his initial appearance in a Kauri drabble, but has a personality of his own and his own small arc (the safehouse raid arc) in the narrative. 

Most of the questions I answer - how do they take their coffee, stuff like that - I don’t have that knowledge already. I just make it up based on how I feel about the character, how they would answer, and go with it!

So, my thing is that I try to decide the ‘kind’ of whump I want - Danny’s was a total psychological and physical breakdown during long-term captivity alongside a caretaker/whumpee who the whumper loves, Chris’s is full on focused on trauma recovery and a human trafficking survivor in the BBU rebuilding his life when he can’t go back to, and doesn’t remember, the life he lived before. Kauri’s was intimate whump with a whumpee who STARTS the story broken and gradually rediscovers his strength and finds a way to leave. Killan is... Killan was an accidental OC in a conversation with @wildfaewhump that turned into an actual narrative and story, an exercise in “what if this kid’s life just got progressively worse in a bunch of different ways until I have to let him be saved or I’ll feel like I’M the monster?”

Once I have that basic concept, I think of the characters, but even then I really just start writing them and let them talk to me as they go. I had no idea what Kauri looked like until I wrote his first drabble. I had no idea what his personality would be. No idea. I just started writing a scene with an idea I had, which was “what if @the-host-and-colton had a fan who also had a Box Boy”, and the piece unraveled itself!

I’m sorry if this isn’t helpful. If you’re a planner, it definitely isn’t, but I am NOT a planner, planning and outlining is very detrimental to my momentum. I just start writing and see wtf happens. But I know a lot of people who plan and have a lot of lore and knowledge about their characters before they ever get started, too!