Homegrown, Organic, Certified “Whumper-Free” Whump
I was going to say “cage-free” up there too but then I realized that’s not always the case…
Anyway. Here’s the thing, folks. It could just be the blogs I happen to follow, but I’ve noted a fairly recent trend of people lumping torture fic in with whump fic, or using the terms interchangeably. Specifically, I’ve seen posts implying that there needs to be a “whumper” character hurting a “whumpee” for a fic to be considered whump (and while this isn’t inherently torture, most of how it’s interpreted as prompts and fics tends to be).
I just wanted to set the record straight. There is no need whatsoever for one character to purposefully/personally hurt another character in whump. That’s just limited thinking. Heck, the only thing “required” for a whump fic is a situation in which one character accepts their vulnerability in a situation (and, arguably, overcomes it with or without help), which usually involves an injury or illness. *Old man voice* back in my day, “whumper” was a term exclusively used for a person who enjoyed consuming/creating whump content.
Can torture be a part of the injury or the cause of the vulnerability? Sure! Is is required? Absolutely not! In fact, I’d argue that torture is only a very small segment of the whump world, and similarly, the presence of torture does not a inherently a whump fic make. (Straight up non-whump torture fic exists, and that’s fine to use/enjoy as it’s own tag/separate category!)
So, what other situations can you use to create whump without using a “whumper” or torture?
Falls- tumbling off a cliff and breaking a bone
Burns- saving another character from a fire and ending up with their own injuries
Bites/stings- sticking their hand somewhere to accomplish a mission, ending up envenomated
Poison- accidentally eating something not meant for eating/surviving an assassination attempt
Friendly fire- character ends up accidentally shooting his friend
Lost- hungry, tired, cut off from all communication or resources
Storms- whumpee gets hit with flying debris
Floods- whumpee gets swept away from friends and injured
Lightning- whumpee gets struck by lightning
Cold- falling into an icy lake or being stranded in the cold with no way to warm up
Heat- dehydration, heatstroke, hyponatremia from needing to do hard work in the heat
Collapsed building- getting trapped when a building collapses
Low-resource setting- something that would be perfectly treatable is now possibly deadly due to not having the right equipment/medication
Active shooter- whumpee catches a stray bullet and has to wait for the building to be cleared to get help
Bombing- getting caught up in a blast, losing hearing or vision, catching shrapnel
War- high stress, bullets, bombs, desperate people, getting trapped behind enemy lines without help
Bank hostage situation- busman’s holiday-type situation where the whumpee just happens to end up trapped and needing rescue without being the target- possibly injured, ill, or slated to be killed
Fear- specific phobia or just plain situational fear
Another characters death- mourning, grief, disbelief
Mental illness- specifically ones that mess with the ability to regulate emotion
titsay
baratheonpilled
vaporwave
theartofmadeline
yousharknotpass
izzy806
blakekathryn
jbbartram-illu
turnnoffyourmind
