whumpappreciation

[whumpappreciation]

river cartwright’s only hobby is throwing himself at situations then acting surprised when the situations happen to him

[whumpappreciation]

BEHOLD!!!! a new fic, slow horses edition! featuring river whump, river comfort, and lamb-typical snark! enjoy :D

[whumpappreciation]

two feral arthurs are better than one

[whumpappreciation]

Lazarus - Episode 11

[whumpappreciation]

whumptober 2024 masterpost!

day 1 - race against the clock - illya kuryakin

day 2 - trust issues - illya kuryakin

day 3 - "i warned you" - illya kuryakin

day 4 - hallucinations - sakari nurmi

day 5 - sunburn - illya kuryakin

day 6 - not realizing they're injured, "it's not my blood" - illya kuryakin

day 7 - unconventional weapon - river cartwright

day 8 - sleep deprivation, isolation chamber, forced to stay awake, "leave the lights on" - river cartwright

day 9 - bruises - river cartwright

day 10 - passing out from pain - sakari nurmi

day 11 - seeing double - river cartwright

day 12 - "just a little more" - lech wicinski

day 13 - familial curse - river cartwright

day 14 - no-holds-barred beatdown - illya kuryakin

day 15 - painful hug - peter sutherland

day 16 - swamp, wound cleaning - illya kuryakin

day 17 - nowhere else to go - river cartwright

day 18 - shivering - sakari nurmi

day 19 - abandoned cabin - illya kuryakin

day 20 - emotional angst, shoulder to cry on - river cartwright

day 21 - friendly fire - sakari nurmi

day 22 - bleeding through bandages, tourniquet, reopening wounds, "oh, that's not good" - illya kuryakin

day 23 - forced choice - illya kuryakin

day 24 - equipment failure - illya kuryakin

day 25 - stitches - river cartwright

day 26 - nightmares - river cartwright

day 27 - motion sickness - river cartwright

day 28 - cctv - sakari nurmi

day 29 - "who said you could rest?" - river cartwright

day 30 - "what have i done?" - eddie diaz

day 31 - asking for help - illya kuryakin

[whumpappreciation]

I can't but mention that I'm very, very excited about quite a few WIPs, especially Drive the Wedge by @altschmerzes, Fleuve and mangroves by @abubblingcandle, Into the Trees with Empty Hands by @cartwrong and Still The Bone Remembers by @tenderhooked (yay, there's a new chapter!) 😍

[whumpappreciation]

if you've never dodged gunfire to reach your unconscious friend, are you even friends at all

[whumpappreciation]

Whump & Carries/Drags

After going down that Combat Medic rabbit hole, allow me to put heavy emphasis on the one-person drag. Specifically, the Neck Drag pictured at the bottom right of this image.

Yes, we see the support carry, arm drag, and pack-strap carry very frequently in fiction. I would really, really like to see the Neck Drag used more frequently (please do hmu if you have written or read something with this drag being used <3).

The neck drag is when the injured party clasps their hands together behind the medic's neck, or the medic ties their hands together if they're unconscious. The medic then bear crawls forward until cover or safety is reached, where they can change to an easier carry or drag position, address immediate medical needs, or get carrying assistance from another medic. If the injured party is heavy, the medic would have to crawl forward in short bursts (almost like a scooting motion).

This makes for a very uncomfortable but effective way of extraction for the injured party. Now, if you like romantic tension when writing, this is a great form of forced proximity because the characters are practically on top of one another for the entire duration of this carry - not to mention the medic has to straddle the injured party at the start. Obviously they would have more pressing matters in mind, but us writers are all the same and you know it <3

So, take this idea and run with it! I already mentioned this resource in a previous post, but I'll share it again if you want to see more details. It's very helpful for writing research! Plus there are video demonstrations on how to apply different types of tourniquets, and of course the different carries and drags like the ones mentioned above.

Ran out of brain juice, so I'll stop here. I'm serious about recs with the neck drag though!

[whumpappreciation]

DC’s Pennyworth’s whumps’ list

(referred to main character Alfred Pennyworth, portrayed by Jack Bannon)

Season 1

.01: bad memories in dream and rough awakening, scars on his back and eyebrown, sad at a funeral, brief argument, brief fight, punched in the face and blood from his nose, nightmares and rough awakening, argued with his father, upset, shocked and heavily panting, worried, blackmailed, under gunpoint, into a gunfight, fought, hit at his neck and knocked out, handcuffed, fought, ambushed and parents under gunpoint, under gunpoint, fought, hit in the gut and punched on the face, bloody nose, bruised cheekbone.

.02: provocked a bar fight, chased, fought, fallen on the back from upper floor.

.03: harsh confrontation with his girlfriend’s father, upset, argued with his girlfriend, surrounded, hit by explosion blast and flown to the ground, harsh confrontation with his father.

.04: attacked and fallen to the ground hitting his head, chased, fought against multiple opponents and punched in the face, rough fights and repeatedly hit at the stomach with a bat, bloody wound on his eyebrown, grunting in pain, manhandled and handcuffed, roughly slammed face down against a car hood, repeatedly punched and slapped, taken and blindfolded, blood from his nose, manhandled, hit in the back, fought, bruised face, upset and in dispair after his fiancèe’s murder.

.05: grieving and feeling guilty, faltering and supported, upset and cracked, hallucinations and PTSD, slapped in the face.

.06: attacked and fought, hallucinations induced by drugged tea, fresh and red scratches all over his torso.

.07: still grieving and upset, under gunfire, heavily panting after a chasing.

.08: ambushed and under gunpoint, upset and pale, headache, surrounded and under gunpoint by the police.

.09: arrested and interrogated by the police, sentenced to prison without a trial, in prison, receiving upsetting news, fugitive.

.10: on a run, fought, old scar on his back, upset and worried, brief fight, forced to shoot his own father, into an explosion and hissing ears (plus Wayne’s whump).

Season 2

.01: argued, nightmare.

.02: painful emotional confrontation, conflicted, blackmailed, worried, in a car with the kidnappers and brief fight, under heavy gunfire, upset.

.03: nightmare, rough fight, fallen and leg stuck, screaming in pain, attacked and fought, badly limping, crying and grieving.

.04: nightmare and rough awakening, grieving and sad, difficult memories and upset, harsh confrontation and knife pointed at him, conflicted and slapped in the face.

.05: nervous and conflicted, upset and argued, slapped in the face and badly argued with his mother, thrown out his home, shocked.

.06: nervous and conflicted, into a gunfight, upset, punched in the face and bloody nose, badly argued with Daveboy.

.07: nervous and tense, pensive and doubtful (plus Gully’s whumps).

.08 Part 1  Part 2: under gunpoint and surrounded, hands tied and manhandled, stabbed at his flank, groaning and bloody, gun pointed at his head, hunted down, uneven run and badly panting for fatigue and pain, hallucinations, treated himself somehow to stop the bleeding, laying bloody and weak, rough fight and wound bleeding again, uneven walking pushing against his bleeding wound, punched at his wound and roughly fallen to the ground, fought and fallen again, dragging himself and heavily panting, hallucinations, helped getting up and walking, many grunting and groaning (plus Gully’s whumps).

.09 Part 1 Part 2: laying asleep on the couch, rough awakening and grimacing in pain, T-shirt stained with blood from the wound of the previous episode, groaning sitting up, grunting and holding his flank, fought twice, under gunpoint and surrounded, punched, bruised face and manhandled, hit at his head with telephone handset and (deliciously) screaming in pain, heavely panting and bloody wound, hit again in the same spot and knocked out, dragged away, handcuffed to a chair and annoyed, upsetting news and shocked, speechless, upset and badly argued, heavely panting, locked into a cell and holding his flank, entrapped, manhandled and handcuffed, looking weak and exhausted, hit at his stomach then his knee with a rifle butt, (lovely) screaming in pain, on his knees heavily panting, into a gunfight.

.10: still bruised and injured from previous episodes, spitting blood, grimacing, upset and harsh confrontation, angry and tears in his eyes, grimacing in pain, under gunpoint then under gunfire, into a war battle (plus Gully’s whumps).

Season 3

.01: disappointed, uneasy, rough awakening.

.02: worried sick and upset.

.03: attacked from behind with a bat and fallen to the ground, bar fight, under gunpoint, annoyed.

.04: handcuffed (for fake), under heavily gunfire, argued, under gunpoint, handcuffed (plus Wayne’s emotional whump).

.05: under gunfire.

.06: feeling guilty, painful memories, under gunpoint, heavily breathing, slapped twice.

.07: brief scuffle and under gunpoint (memories of the past), rough awakening, painful twinges at his head, groaning in pain and on his knees, under gunpoint, groaning in pain again and painful memories, regaining consciousness roughly, brief scuffle, under gunpoint, feeling deep remorse and silent tears in his eyes, badly groaning in pain and on his knees, holding his head wincing, regaining consciousness roughly, tied to a chair and psychic ring around his head, forced to relive painful memories, pushed to the ground by explosion blast (memory of the past), rescued, shacked, crying (memory of the past).

.08: receiving upsetting news, angry and bickering, argued and manhandled, hit and knocked out, dragged, hit by electrical shot, witnessing his friend’s death, mourning (plus Gully’s and Daveboy’s whumps).

.09: badly argued, sprayed with soporiphiv gas and passed out, taken away, handcuffed to the ground, punched twice in the face, rough fight (plus Wayne’s whumps).

.10: brief scuffle twice, squeezed and screaming in pain, argued twice, chased by a mad and murderous crowd.

[whumpappreciation]

[whumpappreciation]

Murderbot episode 5, this Friday! The whump continues!

[whumpappreciation]

It was gonna look like they'd been killed by a vicious, rogue SecUnit.

And I had no choice in the matter.

Well, fսck that.

Murderbot 1x04 "Escape Velocity Protocol"

[whumpappreciation]

Shaking in excitement for episode 4 of Murderbot!!! These images just got released!! WHUMP!

[whumpappreciation]

Murderbot 1x04 "Escape Velocity Protocol"

[whumpappreciation]

Murderbot 1x04 "Escape Velocity Protocol"

[whumpappreciation]

Slow Horses 4x02 (p2)

[whumpappreciation]

Whumptober #22

A/N: Surprise! This is a precursor to day 8. I actually had this one planned ages and ages ago, before I'd written 8. I tried to write them so that each one could stand on its own and not be too confusing, since they're being posted out of order. Anyway, enjoy!

xxx oh, that's not good

"I didn't see any sign of him," Guy frets as she and Lamb reconvene at the front entrance of the house.

"Are you surprised?" Lamb says. "These guys aren't exactly geniuses but they're not stupid enough to keep a kidnapped MI:5 agent in their hall closet! Come on, we've still got loads of places to look, and not a lot of time to do it before those idiots come back. Stables next."

Guy sighs and nods. "Right."

Her expression is one of deliberate focus as she exits the house and heads toward the stables, gun in hand. She's so focused on the stables, in fact, that she doesn't bothering observing the rest of her surroundings, which is probably why she doesn't notice the many pairs of boot-prints in the mud. And why she doesn't notice Lamb stopping to look at them. He doesn't call after her, partially because he's confident there's no one waiting in the stables to ambush her, precluding the need for backup, but mostly because he can't be arsed.

He follows the prints to a pair of basement bulkhead doors round the east side of the house. There's a heavy chain and padlock keeping them shut, but the lock obviously cheap. All it takes to get it open is a large stone Lamb finds on the ground and a few heavy blows. He highly doubts there's anything in the darkened basement that he'll need to shoot, but he draws his gun anyway before pulling the doors open and making his way down the steps. It's dark at the bottom, and it takes a moment for his eyes to adjust.

When they do, he can see that he's in the right spot.

“Fuuucking hell,” he murmurs, holstering his weapon before stepping further into the basement. “Christ, Cartwright, you alive?”

The figure huddled against the far wall stirs slightly, but offers no other response. Lamb makes an annoyed sound in the back of his throat (or worried, more like – not that River will be able to tell, the state he's in) and crouches next to the younger agent. There's old blood in his hair, dark red matting the blonde over his left ear and dried onto his neck. An ugly purple-yellow bruise stretches over his jaw on the same side, a few days old. A gash on his right cheekbone looks newer. Lamb doesn't need to see to know that his torso likely took the worst of it; ribs and kidneys tend to be favored targets of this sort of brainless thug. River’ll probably be pissing blood for a day or two, and he'll be hurting for a bit, but he seems surprisingly okay given the circumstance.

“Oi," Lamb says loudly, giving Cartwright's shoulder a firm shove. River's brow crinkles into a frown and he grimaces, blue eyes fluttering open. His gaze lands on Lamb and he groans, letting his eyes fall back shut. Lamb prods at him. “If you think I'm gonna carry you out of here, think again."

Cartwright opens his eyes again, staring up at the low ceiling. He takes two deep breaths (But not that deep, Lamb notes) and then slowly starts to push himself up on his elbows. He doesn't say anything, hardly even seems to notice, when Lamb reflexively puts a hand on his back to help him get upright.

Lamb doesn't like it.

“What," he says, putting a sneer into his words in the hopes of drawing some sort of reaction. “Don't tell me you don't have something smart to say. No, ‘I’d’ve had it’? No, ‘Where the hell have you been’?"

Cartwright sighs, but the corner of his mouth twitches. “I’d’ve had it," he says, and looks up at Lamb. “And where the hell have you been?"

Lamb bites back a smirk, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, you'll be fine. Come on!"

He turns, pulling his mobile out as behind him Cartwright makes his way, groaning, to his feet. Shirley answers after the first ring.

"Yeah?"

"I found Cartwright," Lamb says. "Hurry up and finish what you're doing and meet us out by the cars." He glances over his shoulder as he returns his mobile to his coat pocket. Cartwright is swaying slightly, but there's a determined set to his expression. Lamb raises an eyebrow at him. "You coming?"

Cartwright gives him a shaky thumbs-up. "Yep."

xxx

It's not a sunny day—far from it, seeing as they're in the English countryside in October—but the daylight is still far brighter than the hole in the ground where River's been held the last three days. Or maybe it's four? He's lost track. Regardless, he finds himself wincing as he emerges from the basement as the relative brightness sends bursts of pain through his skull.

"Lamb!" Louisa's voice. "He's not in the stables. Where did you go?" She looks over Lamb's shoulder and her eyes widen. "River!"

"Hey, Louisa," River says, raising his hand in a sheepish wave.

Louisa steps around Lamb and grabs River's arms, looking him over, brow furrowed. "You alright?"

River shrugs. "Oh, you know..." He looks up at the back of Lamb who, unsurprisingly, didn't stop to watch Louisa and River's reunion. "I'm surprised Lamb came himself."

"Yeah. Marcus and Shirley are here, too."

"Really?" River frowns. "All of you are here?"

"Well, not all of us. Roddy's still at Slough."

River snorts. "He doesn't count."

Marcus and Shirley are already at the cars when they get there, and Shirley grins as soon as she sees River, straightening up from where she'd been leaning against Marcus's car.

"Were they keeping you in the stable?" she says. "'Cus that would be really fucking embarrassing."

"It was the basement, actually," River says dryly. He's not sure why he expected anything else from her.

"Because we're Slow Horses," Shirley continues as if River hadn't spoken. "Horse. Stable. It's funny."

River shoots her a sarcastic smile and holds up his middle finger. Shirley scowls.

"Rude."

He opens his mouth to answer, and is interrupted by the loud crack of gunfire.

"Get down!" Lamb shouts, and River thinks it's a little funny that he bothers saying it; they're all already moving, diving for cover behind the parked cars. They may be Slow Horses, but they're still Service. They aren't just going to stand around while a sniper opens fire on them.

“Shit!" Shirley cries as a round strikes the dirt near her. "Where is that coming from?”

“Uh – barn.” Marcus is the one who answers. “Hayloft, I think.”

Lamb growls. “You didn’t clear the fucking barn?”

“You called and told us you had River! You didn’t say anything about clearing the barn!”

“I said to finish what you were doing, I didn’t think I had to fucking spell it out! Bloody well should have known, though, you’ve all the sense of a toad. Didn't clear the fucking barn..."

"We can return fire, but I don't know what good it'll do us," Marcus says. "He's got better cover, better range, a better vantage point..."

“He’ll run out of ammunition eventually,” Shirley says, and Lamb lets out a bark of laughter.

“Yeah, I suppose we could just roll around in the dirt here and hope the bastard is stupid enough to waste all of his bullets. Anyone else have any bright ideas they'd like to share? Cartwright?”

River, who's only been half-listening to most of the conversation, looks up at the sound of his name. “Erm – what? Sorry?”

Lamb’s irritated expression shifts slightly, his forehead creasing in the middle. Then his eyes flick downward, then back up again, eyes slightly narrowed in suspicion. “Are you hit?”

"What?" Louisa says sharply.

River looks down to where his hand is clasping his hip. He hadn't even noticed he was doing that...He lifts his hand away from his side enough to catch a glimpse of bright red before quickly replacing it, swallowing hard to quell the nausea that tries to rise up.

“Yup. Yeah, I--I think so. Yeah."

He's not sure he would've realized if not for the sight of blood. Adrenaline is a hell of a thing.

"Jesus," Marcus says.

Louisa's voice is tight with near-panic. "We have to get him out of here!"

"It's fine!" River's voice is loud, almost shrill. It comes out too insistent. He swears internally, then takes a breath and forces a smile that he hopes looks less manic than it feels. "I'm alright, it's a good guy wound."

Shirley makes a face. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

"The good guys in action movies, they always – you know what, never mind!" His mind is racing. He's pretty sure adrenaline is supposed to bring clarity, but his thoughts are all noisy and competing for attention. The one that makes it out of his mouth, before he has time to really process it, is, "This is a good thing."

"How?!" Louisa and Shirley cry in baffled unison.

There's an opportunity here for River to turn something humiliating—having to be rescued from the ex-military meatheads that had managed to kidnap him—into a win. He just has to make them see it.

"Look, now that their secret hideout isn't a secret anymore, they're just going to go deeper underground. Whoever's shooting at us is alone right now. We can press him for information, I--" He falters momentarily as he sees the doubt plainly written on his co-workers' faces. "I can distract him, and you can sneak around the back of the barn and get the jump on him. We might not get another chance."

"You'll distract him?" Lamb chuckles. "What, for the two seconds it takes to blow your head off? All that'll do is give me an extra pile of paperwork to fill out."

"But--" River begins.

"We're not here for him, Cartwright, we're here for you. And we have you, so we're gonna fuck off back to London. Let the Dogs deal with these pricks."

River blinks in surprise. Of all of them, he'd thought Lamb was the most likely to agree that they should try and get something out of this shitshow. If Lamb notices his shock, he doesn't mention it.

"Guy, Cartwright and I'll go in your car. Dander, you're with Longridge – Christ, I feel like I'm arranging a carpool. Anyway, whoever is up there isn't a very impressive shot, or Cartwright wouldn't be alive right now, but still: move fast."

There's an exchange of glances, some nods. No one counts down, but somehow everyone starts moving at once – Marcus and Louisa yanking open driver's side doors and clambering in, keeping their heads down and trying to make themselves as small as possible (an easier task for Louisa than Marcus) as Lamb and Shirley get into back seats. River is waiting for it, for the sound of gunfire to pick up again, but it doesn't come. He should feel relieved that they aren't being shot at, but all he feels is dread.

"Cartwright!" Lamb barks.

River is still sat in the gravel beside Louisa's car. He's sitting there when a man in a balaclava comes out from behind the small garden shed the cars are parked next to.

Oh, that's not good.

The man's got a gun raised, and it's aimed right at Louisa's head and fuck if River is going to let her get killed. His body doesn't feel like his own as he launches to his feet and places it between the gun and Louisa. There are two loud pops, and then he's falling and the man in the balaclava is falling, too and Louisa is screaming his name but he can't gather the breath he needs to answer because it feels like he's just been kicked in the chest by the world's angriest horse and he can't breathe--

Someone grabs him under the armpits from behind and pulls, and that's enough to shock his lungs back into working.

He screams.

When his vision returns, he realizes he's in the backseat of Louisa's car. He's more than slightly mortified to find that he's laying partially in Jackson Lamb's lap, one of Lamb's hands held tightly against the bullet hole in River's chest.

"Drive!" Lamb yells, and the car lurches into motion and the only sound River makes this time is a low, strangled groan.

River isn't particularly religious, never has been, but as he bleeds and bleeds and tries to breathe in the backseat of Louisa's car, he finds himself pleading with whatever higher power is out there to please, please not let him die in Jackson Lamb's arms.

xxx