whatiswhump

[whatiswhump]

A whumpee that the world has passed by.

They been in the hospital so long that friends and family stopped visiting a long time ago. A release date is no longer discussed and they start to forget they ever thought they could leave to begin with.

Being kept here till kingdom-come has become a forgone conclusion. Dreams of escape and a real life fizzled out long ago.

It scares the new patient- Whumpee seems so normal… so fine… what did they do for an unofficial life sentence? And what’s to say it won’t happen to them??

[whatiswhump]

I just finished the first season of school spirits and I’m obsessed with Wally 🥲 poor little ghost man 🥹😭

[whatiswhump]

I love when they mistake the gentlest character for the most terrible villain and unnecessarily extreme force is used to imprison them.

They are locked away with every precaution; dozens of guards, restraints of every sort… They are treated as uncommonly dangerous with maximum security when in reality, they could never harm a soul.

But of course, nobody asked them that…

[whatiswhump]

A whumpee that has never been in control but others don’t know or realize this. So they are villainized for what was done to them- what people think they are.

They have no idea that they are the latest antagonists controlling and hurting Whumpee. And Whumpee is too timid and hurt to make anyone understand that they never wanted any of what Whumper pushed them into. Instead they silently take the abuse and punishment.

[whatiswhump]

When large swaths of time pass and Whumpee is still there… Still enduring… do they think they will ever see a time when it isn’t this way?

Will they imagine their family forgetting them? Or forget themselves how long they’ve been here?

Will they become so accustomed to their new reality that seasons and years begin to not register as clearly as they lose track of time and perspective?

[whatiswhump]

FEBUWHUMP - DAY EIGHT

“hey, hey, this is not time to sleep”

[whatiswhump]

ur profile pic got me to watch Hannibal

Haha I love that- I will ADMIT…

… I’ve never watched it all the way through, I just like will when he’s going insane and confused and adorable. And then when he’s framed etc 🥲 hope you like it though!

[whatiswhump]

I absolutely adore your blog, always my go to for my whumpy needs. I would love a genuinely mental illness guy with erratic behaviour have an intervention and subsequently hospitalised with genuine caretakers. Of course with all the restraints and drugging.

It had been raining for days. Raining and raining and raining. Even in his dreams now. He had been having dreams about drowning.

…So maybe nightmare was a better name for what was happening.

He hadn’t been going to classes lately either. The emails were adding up in the inbox, texts too. He would respond eventually, just not now. Not now. There was too much to do.

And there was just so much rain. He couldn't breathe.

One shrouded morning, or early night? There was a knock at his door. He’d been ignoring those. He ignored this one too. But it got louder, more insistent. There was a voice too. Yelling at him to come out.

He went to his window, suspicious and annoyed. Outside there were police officers. One was still yelling.

They were here to arrest him? It had to be it, why else?

They finally realized what he was working on was important. Inconvenient. So very inconvenient. But this was inevitable, he knew.

One glanced over to the window and spotted him, then the rest did too. He darted out of view, heart racing. They were coming to get him, the recognition in their eyes was clear enough evidence to support the conclusion.

He ran to the back into the kitchen and didn’t bother to put shoes on or change his dressing gown for a slicker. Instead bursting out to the back garden and into the downpour. Taking the gate would surely mean being spotted so he knew he’d have to go over the wall. He began to scale it but suddenly, heart stoppingly, there were hands on him. Holding him- dragging him down.

How had they pursued him so quickly?

“Leopold! You’re not in trouble! Just calm down, we need to speak with you!”

He writhed and fought, he tried to land a fist on any of his attackers but they were too strong, they pulled him down and pinned him to the ground.

“He’s not going to go without a fight.” Someone grumbled.

“Tell ems we’re gonna need their help. This one’s a case alright.”

Now he was surely going to drown, they were holding him down, the grass was soaked, sloshing. They were going to kill him. He began to fight harder.

“Leopold, calm down! We are here to help, this is a wellness visit!”

They knew his name.. if they knew that what else did have filed on him?

They kept speaking but he was consumed with trying to free himself, even as it seemed more impossible with every second of their unrelenting pressure.

Suddenly something sharp bit him. He cried out and he- he became slower, sluggish. God, they poisoned him.

“Leo, buddy. The medic just gave you a sedative, it’s going to help you calm down so we take you to a good place. A place to help you.”

Hands were heaving him up, he wanted to fight but it was all gone. He could barely squint to keep the rain out of his eyes.

“Shit, he’s bleeding.”

“He’s a mess,” A casual officer commented, “Pity who’s gonna have to clean him up. Can smell you a mile away through the rain too, christ almighty.”

“Doesn’t feel like he’s eaten in months- good thing his friends called-” A voice next to him said in light reply.

“Alright lads, comments to a minimum, he’s still awake. Let’s get him to the car.”

They loaded his dead weight into the back seat of a car and two people sat on either side of him. He absently noticed they were covered in mud too. And his feet were bare. Why didn’t he have any shoes on?

Then suddenly he was being lifted out of a car. A woman was saying his name. Where were his shoes?

-

He woke very slowly. The first thing he was aware of was something in his nose. He tried to rub at it but his hands were caught on something, and one of them stung when he shook them harder, fighting what was holding them, panic constricting his throat.

“Leo, dear- Leo, calm down now” A face appeared above him, lined and warm, but clearly concerned.

“Whea-” He tried to demand answers, but all that came out was a slur.

“It’s okay honey, you’re being taken care of, you’re getting help- You can relax,” She reached out to hold his face and terrified he jerked back, only to be met with a downy pillow blocking his retreat.

“He’s gonna need more haldol, gonna pull out the tubes otherwise…” A different voice said out of view.

He was crying again and couldn’t breathe. This had to be a nightmare.

“Oh- it’s okay honey, I know this is frightening but you’re okay,” A hand was passing a syring to the woman in his eye sight, “I’m just gonna give you something that’ll help, you’ll be okay-”

Oh my god, she was going to poison him, that’s what the needle was for, she’d jab it right into his heart while he was pinned here!

But instead she… she went to a hanging bag of liquid and injected it into there instead… He didn’t understand- he didn’t-

-

“Your friend called local services, they were concerned about you. Said you hadn’t spoken to anyone in weeks, didn’t seem to be eating or sleeping either. The officers were simply stopping by on a wellness visit. Do you understand why they had to bring you here?”

They had him pinned again, tying him down like an animal. How could he speak to someone like this? Let alone someone with manufactured sympathy with an act to distract him from what was really happening.

“Leo do you understand why the police brought you here?”

He glared at the woman in the worn out polyester suit, “No- I don’t know! This can’t be legal!” Tears were threatening his bleary eyes again. He had been brutally kidnapped but his captors only wanted to speak in hushed voices and practiced looks of worry.

“You were severely dehydrated, incredibly emaciated, probably not eating on a regular schedule for some time now. You were dangerously close to perishing if the police hadn’t intervened. And these are just the physical implications.”

“I was fine.” He grumbled without looking at the woman.

“Leopold, at the moment, with the information we have, we have to treat this as a psychotic episode, some of my colleagues would describe it as a ‘break’. Do you know what that means?”

“You just want me to think I’m insane- you all do. I was on the brink of something very important before I was kidnapped and brought here to be tied down and drugged. I-“

“What were you working on?” She redirected, crossing her legs and smiling slightly, she spoke as if he were her elementary aged child coming in from recess.

He went silent. He wouldn’t give them any information and he sure as hell wouldn’t eat or drink anything they gave him.

If they killed him via injection or the nasogastric tubes, at least it wouldn’t be by his own hand.

“I hope soon you feel comfortable to exchange more information with me. The sooner that happens, the sooner we can help you. In the meantime we will work to stabilize you and get you back to feeling more like yourself.”

“Myself? How do you know what that looks like? You don’t know me.”

“No I don’t, but I’d like to get to know you.”

Oh he understood it now, they were keeping him alive only to get valuable information first. That was smart he conceded. He had a lot of information that he was certain they wanted.

“We’ll keep sending meals and snacks over in case you’re in the mood for anything. For now, we will have to continue the NG tube and IV. The second you start eating and drinking those can go away, do you understand?”

Again, the kindergartner approach, why did she have to keep asking if he understood?

“You won’t get anything from me. It’s only a matter of time before you realize that and execute me.”

The woman pursed her lips ever so slightly and adjusted her sitting position. Small signs, Leo knew, that indicated her annoyance. She was good but not that good.

“Leopold, I’m going to let you rest. Please consider what I mentioned. Consider the possibility that we are here to help.”

In a moment the woman was gone and he was alone with his tubes and wires again.

How long, he wondered, until they discovered what he already knew? How long until they marched him to a shooting line or slipped something into his IV once they understood he’d be of no use to them?

If they wanted to play this game of concerned caregivers, perhaps he could play too- buy himself some time to plan an escape. He knew he at least had to try.

[whatiswhump]

The Nestling

july 2025

“Let’s go, Finch. Get a move on—”

Alfie looked up, startled, at the orderly towering over his chair in the sun-filled day room.

“You’re holding up the whole group,” Hugh added, yanking him up by the arm and shuffling the confused young man toward a small knot of patients waiting near the gated doors at the far end of the room.

They’d made the announcement for the daily walk a few minutes earlier, but Alfie had tuned it out, same as always. Walks on the grounds were reserved for Level 3 patients and above—the “trusted” ones, those who’d earned their privileges or never lost them in the first place.

From time to time over the years, he’d been allowed out under supervision, but that hadn’t happened in... a long while. Maybe a year. Maybe longer. He couldn’t say.

“I’m allowed to—?”

“You’re on the list,” Hugh cut in, giving him a nudge. “But I’ll make sure you’re off it tomorrow if you piss me off today.”

They always expected him to know what was on their papers. Not once, in all his years here, had anyone ever let him see more than a glimpse of the endless charts—not unless they dropped one by mistake. And even then, just a snatch of a line. He was always the last to know and they acted like it was his fault.

But he of course would never comment on this outloud. Like just about every other thought in his head, he dutifully kept it to himself, storing it away in his faulty vault where that thought would get mismanaged and lost like every other one.

It was June. he knew by the fully unfurled leaves on the mammoth trees covering the grounds. A nurse once told him that the hospital had been founded in the 1850s but the trees on the endless acres had been here long before.

Once in the group, he was surprised how easily he kept pace. Most of the others shuffled, slowed by age, illness, or the daily flood of addling pills.

They moved together in single file silence, most familiar with the path: down the halls, through locked doors, past the great hall, out to be scanned briefly for contraband, then released into the sunlight.

Alfie followed the man ahead of him, head down, unwilling to risking anything that might get him struck from the list again. And he would have the whole mile long walk if a new admittee didn’t have a break down as they turned to loop back to the ward building.

He was used to this, of course, he usually kept his eyes down and tried not watch. The safest recourse was to look the other way and hope it wouldn’t be you in a day or two.

So when the new man threw himself onto the ground, refusing to lift himself from his spot, Alfie stiffly and habitually, averted his attention to anything but the staff converging on him. 

He didn’t look. He didn’t need to. He knew how it would go: two orderlies, someone crying, a needle. That was the pattern. That was how it always ended.

He turned his eyes to the base of a tree instead. A very large, very old oak. They never had trees as big as these in the city but he remembered impressive walnuts and maples from the farms he worked on when he was younger. Some boys used to climb them.

He had always relished the shade they provided in the winter and the wind they broke in the winter. 

Something chirped. Close.

He glanced upward, expecting to see a teenage robin watching him—nothing. Then he looked down.

There, writhing faintly in the grass, was a baby bird. Pink, raw, blind. Its feather-spikes stood like needles across its frail little body.

It opened its mouth and screamed again—thin, pitiful, louder than it should’ve been capable of.

Alfie looked back up into the canopy. The nest had to be impossibly high. How had it survived the fall?

It couldn’t be more than a week old.

The man, what was his name Jermaine? Had begun to wail loudly as two orderlies were lifting him. The group was beginning to move again. 

Alfie, feeling a bit panicked, looked down at the bird, heart clenching.

It wouldn’t last long here. The parents wouldn’t retrieve it … in fact, it was more likely a fox would come by in the next few hours to eat it.

Before he realized he’d made the decision, he bent, scooped the tiny thing up, and slipped it into the threadbare pocket of his robe.

The warmth of his body quieted it. The screaming softened to a weak, rhythmic peeping.

He held his breath during the final inspection. No one checked too carefully. Just a glance, a nod. A command to move along.

In the day room, he didn’t dare remove it. Instead sneaking furtive peeks into the robe. He could feel the hatchling breathing—slow, steady. Maybe even asleep.

He felt its fluttering warmth against him like a secret.

He kept it there all afternoon devising a strategy to feed it with well chewed bites from dinner. If he was careful enough-

But it woke too soon-

It woke hungry. It began to cry.

A sharp, repetitive chirping, louder now. Insistent. Frantic. Alfie felt his chest twist with fear. 

“Why are you chirping?” Another patient asked, his voice high and suspicious. Frank maybe- he was always watching people sideways, eyes too round.

Alfie blinked, caught off guard. He didn’t have a lie ready.

“I hear it too!” another patient shouted. Heads turned. Faces lifted.

Frank and another man started toward him. The manic patients never stayed still for long. New stimuli was always a magnet.

“I don’t—know.” Alfie tried. His voice didn’t sound convincing even to him.

“No, I heard it again! It’s you!” someone called.

They closed in. Alfie stood suddenly, backing up toward the far wall, shielding the lump in his robe.

“What do you have? What is it?” Frank demanded.

Just then, the charge nurse stepped in. “What’s going on here? Mr. Hilliard? Mr. Finch?”

The hatchling chirped again as if feeling his panic and needing to agree.

Frank pointed. “It’s in his pocket!”

The nurse sighed. “Mr. Finch, show me what you’ve got.”

His face flushed hot. He hesitated—just a moment—then gently pulled the hatchling out.

“It—it fell out of its nest,” Alfie stammered. “It wasn’t going to survive—”

She let out a short laugh. Not mocking, exactly. More surprised. Amused by the childish contraband. Her 7 year old had done something similar recently.

“Finch’s finch!” someone in the back shrieked, laughing wildly.

“Mr. Finch,” The nurse repeated, more firmly now.

Alfie stepped back again. He didn’t want Frank—or anyone—to touch it. It was too fragile-

Another orderly stepped in. “Hand it over. It needs to go back outside.”

Alfie clutched it to his chest. “It’ll die out there.”

“And what’ll happen to it in here?” the orderly countered, already holding out his hand.

“Can we keep it?” someone cried. “Please!”

Others joined in, their voices hopeful, chaotic.

Alfie looked around the room, defensive, panicked.

“A wild bird is not a pet,” the orderly said flatly, stepping forward.

“But-” Alfie croaked. “I’ll put it back where you found it,” the man added. “Let nature take its course.”

He took the hatchling from Alfie’s palm. The tiny creature shrieked in protest as it was carried away.

Alfie didn’t resist. But his chest ached.

“Alfred, you should have known better,” The nurse said without cruelty, but without patience either, “You need to wash your hands-”

An orderly forcefully guided him after the young lady. At the tap in the hall she took each of his hands and vigorously lathered them in soap like he was a child. 

Alfie returned to the window just in time to watch the orderly appear outside and toss it carelessly under the first tree.

It was a grackle, he thought to himself. Not a finch.

The next day, miraculously, his privileges remained. Still on the walk list. Still Level 3.

But “Finch’s Finch” had become a refrain. A mocking nickname. Staff said it. Patients repeated it. Everyone enjoyed the repetitive turn of phrase to tease him, how foolish he had been, how very stupid.

Alfie said nothing.

Dread collected in his chest as they walked. He knew they would pass the side entrance where he had watched the orderly cast the little nestling off.

He told himself it should be gone, should have died. But a terrible part of him hoped foolishly that it might have been left alone to live another day until its feathers filled out and it could fly away.

And when he saw it—

Stiff. Curled in on itself. Feet and head tucked like it had tried to disappear—… a horrifying numbness seeped over. He forgot where he was and stopped, standing still while the rest of the group trudged on.

Eventually a set of hands took him by the shoulders guiding him forward.

No one else noticed. No one else cared.What he’d hoped for had been foolish. Irrational.

No one was ever going to save that little life. Least of all him.

@cursedscribbles @voidwhump @castielamigos-whump-side-blog @aliceinwhumperland @whump-it @professional-idiocy @ziptiewhump @angrystudentgoopfire @jaxonjekkels @clubbem @simplygrimly @whole-and-apart-and-between @bumpthumpwhump @rosesareviolentlyread @whumpasaurus101 @hurting-fictional-people @burtlederp @thelittlegirlwithcurlyhair @crystalquartzwhump @rotfern @sentientpileofmoss @tea4valencia

[whatiswhump]

If it be is okay to ask what is Dr. Harris backstory? What was his childhood like and why is he so obsessive?

Part of me wants to delve into him and part of me wants him to be this larger than life figure that controls alfies life with very little extraneous info... I still love when Alfie learned about his children and felt a little shocked that someone so evil lived a perfectly normal life in a house somewhere...

So I like this line of inquiry but i will have to think on it

[whatiswhump]

Hi friend ❤️ How are you?

hi :) about to post. Was just a bridesmaid in two weddings and accidentally cut my left pinky finger in half right before I left for the second! Luckily I got it glued and turns out I dont really use that finger for anyhting woohoo

So I havent been around, as we all know, but ive been writing a lot and now need to organize

[whatiswhump]

Harris is the og gaslighter isn't he

You better believe it. He honed the craft on his psychiatric subjects back in the 1930s. As far as he is concerned, its about focusing on the most dominant reality! HIS reality :)

[whatiswhump]

What would Dr. Harris do if he found out his patient is not heterosexual? Is he old fashioned in that way (it being the 50s)?

Excellent question.

He has actually been aware for some time that its a possibility for Alfred but he finds the topic of orientation very boring. He also knows that Alfie himself may not really understand the full extent of what he felt for Del. But his feelings for Del or anyone else that isnt him are not all that interesting to him and so he wouldn't bother pursuing that route of inquiry.

Harris is quite accepting and new age in that he doesnt give a fuck about who is with who, he only cares if they have a deeply interesting psyche that he can manipulate and torture (ehm Alfie).

Every time he recieves a 'homosexual' case across his desk, he rolls his eyes and just gives them the standard treatment that he considers the catchall... Luckily some of his other colleagues are more focused (frightened) by these cases and he is all but willing to let them take care of those cases, as he dosent feel it falls under the umbrella of psychiatry to begin with.

[whatiswhump]

Soviet jeans, 3/5

Renars is a sane young man in Soviet Latvia who gets committed to a psychiatric hospital for political reasons. They say he is a “public danger” and that he must be evaluated and receive treatment.

[whatiswhump]

Soviet Jeans, scene 2/5

Renars is a sane young man in Soviet Latvia who gets committed to a psychiatric hospital for political reasons. They say he is a “public danger” and that he must be evaluated and receive treatment

[whatiswhump]

@babymicky that’s max from Roswell!

“The Test Subject” aka my lab rat edit 🥲

By whatiswhump

Song: Can’t Pretend by Tom Odell

In no particular order: Roswell, Dark Angels, Old Guard, the OA, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gen V, Iron Fist, Captain America Winter Soldier, the X-Files

[whatiswhump]

Soviet Jeans, scene 1/5

Renars is a sane young man in Soviet Latvia who gets committed to a psychiatric hospital for political reasons. They say he is a “public danger” and that he must be evaluated and receive treatment.