Weapons. Trained, tested, forged in steel and fire. Failure is an inevitability that ends in death. Pain should not be felt--it should be recognized, familiar, and inconsequential
Martyrs. In the form of servants and princes, of leaders and underdogs. If blood is necessary, the martyr will lift their hands and offer it all
Shields. Like tempering a sword, but only to bear and not to lash out. Wounds are medals--not symbols of pride, but symbols of worth. A pretty shield is useless; scars mean a job well done
Experiments. Raised on the cold comfort of a lab table. Restraints are only necessary when they're not in their right mind. Is it honorable, to be twisted beyond recognition? Or is it just a necessary evil?
Monsters. Cruelty, caution, and regarding one as a creature beyond reasonable thought is tempering in its own right. But if you keep a leash at the right length, perhaps the massecre won't reach you. One can hope.
Idols. Pretty face, pretty name, pretty hands around their shoulders and throat. There to seduce, manipulate, force any feeling to come to the surface and twist it to their favor. Any genuinity stays locked behind the guilded cage that surrounds their pretty little heart
Trophies. Status and wealth and the traditions that keep someone at their heels, on their knees, to display and serve and decorate one's ballroom.
Sacrifices. Drenched in honorable clothes, prepared and adored and cleansed. The gift of hope at the cost of one's life. Is it taken with no fight? How can you escape the ropes you were born in?
Toxic family stuff isn’t always screaming matches or broken plates. Sometimes it’s quiet control. The expectation to shrink, the pressure to be perfect, the guilt that rides shotgun. It’s complicated. And it’s deeply, deeply personal.
✧ Make the love real, but conditional. One of the most damaging things about toxic family is the illusion of love. It’s not “I love you no matter what.” It’s “I love you when you obey.” Let your character notice that.
✧ Control shows up in micro ways... Who’s allowed to speak. Who’s allowed to feel. Who apologizes first, even when they’re not wrong. Control doesn’t need to be loud. Sometimes it’s a raised eyebrow or a guilt trip.
✧ Let them question reality. Toxic families are great at gaslighting. Your character might constantly wonder, Was it really that bad? Am I being dramatic? Let them doubt their own memories. That internal confusion is real.
✧ The guilt will be crushing. Leaving a toxic family doesn’t feel empowering at first. It feels selfish. It feels wrong. It feels like betrayal, even when it's survival. Show your character grieving the fantasy of the family they wish they had.
✧ Let them try to earn love. Your character might work their ass off trying to “be good,” hoping maybe this time they’ll be enough. Toxic families move the goalposts. Let that break them a little.
✧ Show emotional whiplash... One moment everything is warm and nostalgic. The next, it’s tense and full of landmines. That unpredictability is the dynamic. Use it.
✧ Don’t make the villain cartoonish. Even the abuser might think they’re doing what’s best. They might bake cookies and say “I’m just worried about you.” That’s what makes it so damaging. Write them like people, flawed, manipulative, real.
✧ Let your character unlearn in layers. Even after they leave, they still flinch. Still fold under pressure. Still crave approval. Recovery isn’t clean. But it’s worth it. And when they finally say no, even just once, let it be electric.
Relatives tend to share mannerisms and if you want a nice little detail for your stories, I recommend including that.
A father and son share the same restless or anxious movement like chewing on the inside of their lip or tapping their fingers. A mother and daughter both raise their eyebrows when they’re in deep thought. Two siblings both tilt their heads when something is intriguing. A younger brother copies his older brother’s posture. A grandchild copies the way their grandfather crosses his arms behind his back when he walks. A father throws his hat down when his sports team loses and his child grows up to do the same.
Adding niche similarities between my characters and their families is one of my favourite things to develop and one of my favourite ways to connect them despite whatever relationship and differences they may have.
They could hate their family and yet they tap their foot side to side when they’re standing in one spot like their father does, and they scrunch their nose when they close their eyes like their mother did. This can be used to portray your character’s struggle with their family, and amplify their fear over ending up like their family. It’s a subtle addition and yet it adds more depth to their turmoil.
Or on the flip side, it can help show how much your character admires their family by emulating them. It can help show how important their bond with their family is to them by showing those shared, unconscious similarities.
Shared mannerisms are a small detail but they will be noticed by somebody and appreciated.
WHUMPTOBER is a month-long, prompt-based creation CHALLENGE (think: Inktober, but whumpier). There are four prompts for each day of the month, giving 124 for you to play with! There is also a list of 18 alternative prompts that can be subbed in for any day to give participants as much creative freedom as possible.
All prompts are meant to serve as inspiration without being taken literally (e.g. you don’t have to include the exact wording of prompts into your work). Feel free to run rampant on interpretation. For example, if the prompt is “flame", you could create something with reference to a candle/campfire, your character could have suffered a burn, or the flame could be a reference to an ‘old flame’ - an old relationship. It’s truly down to you!
You can produce work in any media you choose, including but not limited to: writing, visual artwork, photo/video/audio edits, paper crafts and elaborate recommendation lists (not just a list of links). You can participate as much or as little as you want (i.e. you don’t have to do ALL the prompts if you don’t want to) and prompts can be used in any order. They are also free to use even after the event ends.
Please make sure to read the Event Info and FAQ carefully, as most of your questions will be answered there already. For everything else, you are welcome to come to our ask box or ask questions in our Discord server here.
Information on how to TAG is here.
This year’s AO3 Collection can be found here.
This year’s playlist can be found here.
The ‘Anatomy of a Whumptober Prompt’ post can be found here.
And our 'Resources for Writing Sensitive Topics’ post is here.
We’re very excited to see the community come together for yet another year of Whumptober! Go ham with the prompts, and support your fellow creators - we wish you all the best of luck, but most importantly: HAVE FUN!
Happy whumping,
Mods Vanne, Yenn, Kitty and Surro
Text versions of the prompts, including a google doc format, are posted below the cut!
A Google Doc of the prompts can be found here for easy copy-and-pasting!
Whumptober 2025 Prompt List
No. 1: “Please don’t cry”
Lamb to Slaughter | Ceremony | Beg for Forgiveness
No. 2: “You’ve got a lot of nerve to dredge up all my fears.”
Prophecy | Sewer | Taking Accountability
No. 3: “I look in people’s windows, transfixed by rose golden glows.”
Isolation | Candlelight | Found Family
No. 4: “Don’t be scared, I’ve done this before.”
Non-Human Whumper | Iron Rod | Loss of Powers
No. 5: “My panic’s at the ceiling, but I’m face down on the carpet.”
Quivering | Dream Journal | Phobia
No. 6: “No grave can hold my body down.”
Caught in a Net | Medical Restraints | Pinned to the Wall
No. 7: “Tell me that you’re okay, and I’m fine.”
Trapped with the Enemy | Elevator | Pushed Beyond Breaking Point
No. 8: “Oh horror, oh horror, what did you see?”
Self-Inflicted Injury | Held at Gunpoint | Dissociation
No. 9: “We’ll make it alright to come undone.”
Touch | Flashbacks | Scalding
No. 10: “There’s nothing you can ever say, nothing you can ever do.”
Without Consent | Secrets | Lips Sewn Shut
No. 11: “Can you get through all the pain inside you?”
Hidden Injury | Laceration | Forced Reveal
No. 12: “It’ll be for nothing.”
Cardiac Arrest | Sacred Place | Withholding Medical Treatment
No. 13: “How dull is it to pause, to make an end, to rust unburnished.”
Never Enough | Insignia | Forced Retirement
No. 14: “In the end, it’s worthwhile.”
Ignoring an Illness | Body Bag | Wounded Caretaker
No. 15: “You can take a break, if you just tell me that it hurts.”
Failed Rescue Attempt | Body Part in the Mail | Live-Streamed Torture
No. 16: “I’ve had the rug pulled beneath my feet.”
Repressed Trauma | Permanent Marker | Disorientation
No. 17: “Tell me there’s a hope for me.”
Internal Bleeding | Coma | Redemption
No. 18: “As the world caves in.”
Dystopia | Ruins | Environmental Whump
No. 19: “You’re on your own, lost in the wild.”
Dehumanisation | Living Weapon | On Patrol
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: The Pitt (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Frank Langdon & Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, Frank Langdon & Trinity Santos
Characters: Frank Langdon, Trinity Santos, Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, Dennis Whitaker, Dana Evans, Donnie Donahue
Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Frank Langdon Needs a Hug, Hurt Frank Langdon, Blood and Injury, Stitches
Series: Part 3 of the price of penance
Chapter Summary:
He hates this. He hates it, hates it, hates it.
The aircon blows ice-cold air despite it trickling towards the end of summer outside, his patients are slow to answer questions and give him the background information he needs to help them, and he’s going to pull a muscle in his neck at the rate he spends looking around for Robby.
You all seem to like these, so here is another batch of writer asks! These questions are a little more relaxed than the last two. Followers can send an ask with a number OR you can reblog and answer everything like a Q&A.
I always see a lot of “idk if i’m a writer” in the tags for these so let me just say in advance, yes you are and you can play.
What is the crackiest* thing you’ve ever written? (*I mean this with great affection)
Has writing a fic ever changed your opinion of a character?
Tell us about a headcanon you invented for a fic
Have you ever written a fic inspired by a tumblr post?
How do you know when you’re finished writing a fic? At what point do you call it done?
When do you title your fics? Before you write them? As you write them? While posting to AO3 and that “Work Title” field is staring at you?
Navigate to your complete list of works on AO3. What are your top 5 Additional Tags?
Tell us your shortest and longest titles of all time
The two fandoms you’ve written the most have been suddenly crossed with each other! What AU are you writing?
What’s a phrase you catch yourself using in multiple fics, not necessarily on purpose?
Oh no! You’re posting a fic to AO3 and completely forgot to write a summary. What is your summary-writing strategy?
Do you write in order, jump around the draft, or a mix? Something else?
Congratulations, you’ve just finished the WIP you’ve been working on for months! How are you going to celebrate?
Is there a word or phrase you intentionally use in every fic?
How many times has someone nodded in your current WIP? This is for posterity so be honest
Describe your current WIP with just emojis
When you get a new fic idea, what does that look like in your mind? Does it play out like a film? Do you imagine lines of dialogue or a certain moment? Does a character just sit there staring at you?
If you have noticed themes emerging in your writing, what are they? What broad themes and topics do you enjoy exploring?
It’s a lovely morning in fandom land and a horrible goose is running rampant through your folders. How many WIPs is it going to step on?
What’s the story behind your pen name?
Without getting into any discourse, just thinking as a writer approaching characters, would you ever write about your NOTP? If you did, do you think that would change how you feel about it? (If you’ve done this, how did it go?)
Do you have a fixed writing routine, or do you write when you have time? Is there a time of day when you prefer to write?
What is your #1 distraction when you’re trying to write? If it’s a pet, post a pic
What colors, sights, sounds, textures, etc. inspire you? Do certain environments make you feel more creative than others?
Someone you know outside of fandom has heard that you’re a writer. “I’d like to read something of yours!” they say with sincere enthusiasm. “Where can I find it?” What’s your answer?
Do you have a routine you run through before you write?
Share a random sentence from a WIP. The less context, the better. Be confusing.
You’re out and about, nowhere near your home, when a fantastic story idea pops into your head! What do you do?
Have you ever actually remembered one of those 3am “I’ll remember it in the morning” ideas?
Finish this sentence with your fandom’s variation(s): No beta, we die like _________
i love a good “they say you came back wrong but you actually came back completely the same” post, but sometimes someone just comes back wrong. sometimes they do come back different and maybe even worse. sometimes a character can’t escape the fact that they came back warped and dented and a misshapen amalgamation made from the pieces of who they used to be, and they can barely even try to pretend otherwise. nothing beats the character who knows they came back wrong and, on top of that, has to deal with everyone else’s emotions around how they’ll never be the person they were
You come back wrong, or do you? What came back wears your face. Has your memories. The only person who might have noticed the difference is only too eager to accept the changes in return for having you back.
But did you come back?
Your old body still rots in a grave, you can go look at it in the graveyard if you like. You don't. You were back because you left things unfinished the first time. You don't think about the rest you're being denied by being brought back.
You live your life the way you're told it was supposed to go. You try not to step out of that path, after all, this is what you were brought back for and it seems like a waste to get it wrong. It helps that you don't feel particularly attached to the people around you, which is probably wrong. Your memories tell you you should love them. Shouldn't those memories make you love them?
Everyone is so glad you came back, they don't mind. They dismiss the difference, the distance.
we've all heard of came back wrong. but what if you came back right?
you're the same as you were the day you left. you still like all the things you did before, the posters in your room, the food in the fridge. it's like nothing has changed.
but just because you didn't change doesn't mean the rest of the world didn't.
your younger sibling is taller now, making their own plans with friends they didn't used to have. your best friend no longer likes the show you know used to be their favourite. the house has been rearranged, repainted, the roads have been changed. and you're still the same person you were when you left, now a step out of place with the rest of the world. you didn't come back different at all, but everything changed while you were gone
something something about watching the world go by while you're stuck in one place
Instead of "you came back wrong", I came back wrong and no one will tell me why.
No one will even tell me I'm wrong, I just feel it in the way their voices are so cheerful and strained, how they look at me and smile too hard, until it looks like it hurts their faces, like they're smiling to keep from screaming.
I came back wrong and I know you gave up so much for me, things I'm terrified to even ask, things you'd cry to tell, but you won't, you'll never even tell me you failed.
Everything is exactly the way I remember it, everyone, even you, except now you've spent too long and awkward a time in a room with a stranger and can't think of a polite way to leave (or ask them to)
I wish you would just tell me the truth, or listen when I say I KNOW I came back wrong, instead of changing the subject or insisting it's fine, everything's fine, it's so much better with me here, your dreams come true. But that would be admitting it was for nothing.
So we both sit here. Until one of us cracks. If there's mercy, it'll be at the same time.
I love the "came back wrong" trope but from the opposite side.
Imagine you are dead. And then you are RIPPED from the embrace of decay into the world of the living again. Your memories are hazy and you don't recognize any of these people, but they act like they're close to you? Like they love you? So you try to get your memories back, to act like you belong here, but everybody tries to forget you died. And you can't. It is omnipresent. And just trying to grapple with that fact pushes the people who "love" you away, and they're incapable of understanding, and they're so confused, what's wrong N̶̄̀O̶͛͗T̷̉́ ̷͋͝Y̴̎̌Ȍ̴̈U̸̓R NÄM̴̃͑E̵̾̇? And you just need them to understand, you aren't that person! You aren't! You don't know who that person is! You don't know why any of this is happening, but they're unwilling to bend, they keep insisting you are that person, your memories will come back, everything will be normal again, and you want to scream and cry and claw yourself open to show them you're different. Your existence as a being wholly separate from whoever you "used to be" is a sin unto itself. All you can do is scrabble for life and to them, you're killing whoever they loved to do it.
Came back wrong? How about came back right, except that the world you came back to is wrong. Came back just like waking up from a long nap only to find that the people who love you broke themselves into shards and bloody bargains to get you back.
There are new stains that nobody will explain, hidden beneath the rug in the upstairs hallway. Your mother's left eye is clouded and strange. The cat no longer goes near your brother. There's a sharp-edged shadow now, under your lover's smile.
Everybody says you must be remembering wrong, but your sense of smell is just as good as ever. The closet that used to smell like cedar and cinnamon smells like sulfur, now, and nobody will tell you why.
and still, the dawn rises @crypticcrackshot - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
