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
I FORGOT ABOUT WHUMPTOBER SO HERE ARE THE LAST 5 PROMPTS IM SO SORRY
(there will be another post with the rest)
Bedside Vigil #27
Jimmy leżał na szpitalnym łóżku, a jego dziecięca twarz poruszona była niespotykaną dla niej szarością. Finn miała podkrążone oczy, przekrwione od wielogodzinnej warty przy łóżku podopiecznego. Była rozbudzona od wyrzutów sumienia i zdeterminowania, jak gdyby sama jej obecność miała uzdrowić rannego chłopca.
Wina uwydatniła jej zmarszczki na twarzy, zgarbiła ramiona, tętniła tępym bólem w biodrze.
—Przepraszam, młody. Miałam się upewnić że będziesz bezpieczny, a nawet to mi nie wyszło — mruknęła ochryple, sen ociężale ciągnął jej powieki w dół. — To się nie powtórzy. Naprawde myślałam, że dopilnowałam wszystkiego. Miałeś być bezpieczny.
Westchnęła, zmieniając pozycję na niewygodnym krześle. Noc trwała.
#28 Creative Restrains
Heligarda znała swoje granice. Każda lekcja była próbą zachowania twarzy, pokazania swoich kompetencji i zdolności magicznych, ale mimo jej starań uczniowie zaczęli zauważać. Lekkie drżenie rąk zdradzało jej wycieńczenie, a mimo to starała się demonstrować kolejne zaklęcia.
Musiała znaleźć kolejne wytłumaczenia, dla swojego złego samopoczucia. Że miała słabą odporność i często była przeziębiona, że miała problemy ze snem i łatwo się męczyła, że musiała wykonywać skomplikowane zaklęcia wcześniej i jej siła magiczna była już wyczerpana.
Ale oni i tak patrzyli na nią w ten sposób, który tak ją bolał. Była autorytetem, który stopniowo walił się, przez błąd popełniony lata temu.
#29 Fainting
—Wszystko w porządku? — zapytał złotowłosy czarodziej, siedzący w pierwszej ławce. Widział jak profesor Heligarda zachwiała się, zatrzymała i oparła o wielkie, dębowe biurko.
Hela kiwnęła głową, ale twarz wyraźnie jej pobladła, a wielowarstwowe szaty, pod którymi ukrywała wycieńczoną sylwetkę, nagle zaczęły jej ciążyć. Dreszcz przeszył ją ostro, aż przestała mówić.
—Tak. Lekkie przeziębienie — odpowiedziała słabo, z tym swoim niepodważalnym autorytetem. Ale następny krok sprawił, że w oczach jej pociemniało, a mroczki przysłoniły wzrok.
Chciała coś powiedzieć, podeprzeć się mocniej, ale nogi miała jak z waty, a ręce zapomniały jak się poruszać.
The workshop went dark, the second the power went down. Tools stopped working, the silence became heavy.
"I'm going to check it," someone said, looking for the flashlight. "We have to call someone, those outbursts are too often, right, Finn?"
She didn't answer, but her shallow gasps were the only thing, that determined her position.
"Yeah, yeah... Call..." Finn spoke, her voice barely audible. She drew another shaky breath.
But her thoughts were somewhere else, in a dark place. In a tight space between the rocks of a collapsed, underwater cave. Where she saw them for the last time.
Finn has heard of people, whose family members did not survive the expeditions. She has seen them many times, waiting at the entrance of the Dome, waiting for them to come back home. But how could they do it? The pressure was deadly, the routes dangerous and there was only one instance when someone got back on their own. They haven’t lost faith, even if it was a ridiculous thing to believe. But for Finn there was no hope, she has seen too much to even think that he would go back.
Most of them thought of her as a hero, as the one who came back despite the injuries. The one that has survived the most deadly expedition of the Research Group. But she has never seen herself this way, she didn’t consider herself as one the survivors, because she believed she hadn’t made it back to the Dome. To safety.
She smiled as widely as ever, laughed as much as before, but her mind stayed there, in the collapsed tunnels, in the dangerous caves. In the Great Deep. Nobody knew, she came back wrong. She didn’t make it at all.
disabilities are not superpowers, that being said having auditory processing disorder my entire life made me insane at freestyling, cause my mental libary of homophobic phrases (rhymes) is massive and keeps expanding every day
Machines were humming softly, all the lights where on and monitors where bipping rythmically. The technicians gathered around her, but none of them made a sound. It was off, they shouldn't have seen like this.
The tube was sticking out of her mouth, breathing for her, rising her chest mechanically. Forcedly.
"Hi, we brought you flowers and 'get well soon' cards."
They knew the state she was brought to the medbay, that she was barely alive.
"We hope that you will wake up soon. The workshop seems empty without you."
She didn't move. Another breath was pumped into her lungs.
My head was pounding with pain from the hit. I remember the thud,followed by people screaming my name, running towards me as my vision started to spin. It was hard to focus and nearly Impossible to think, however I was still trying to find that one face, that was worth taking all of the risks of getting injured. But he was nowhere to be seen.
"Where is he? Is he safe?" I shouted, trying to overcome the mess happening around me.
"Miss Finn, don't move to much. You hit your head pretty bad."
Raphael took a fast glance at Finn, who was showing Jimmy new tools, they had bought for the workshop.
"I can't believe that after all of this... I'm glad she can still smile. Still live," he sighed, his expression carried years of worry. "She'd sold her soul, broke her bones just to help others, to carry the expeditions. She wouldn't admit it but she's the heart of this place."
Gregor nodded absentmindedly.
"I can't believe either. I was sure she will never walk again. I was there when they brought her. Those fractures..."
Finn hated the celebration, the crowd of people, names of fallen researchers she hasn't heard in years. All of this was just too much.
When Selise started her speech, she simply walked away, no wanting to hear any of it. Her chest was heavy with grief, hands trembled, when she say at the chair on the hallway. She met the gaze of a colleague from other fraction.
"I also don't like it. The speeches. They make me remember the worst moments of my life," he spoke.
"You're on your own, completely lost and we are worrying about you, Finn," Raphael's voice was tight, anger dropping from each word. "All I want from you is to eat, rest and do a fucking bare minimum. Do you understand what I'm saying? There are people that want you alive and well, and you just..."
He threw his hands, Finn's face was pale.
"I'm doing bare minimum, just... I don't think that there's any point in that," she whispered hopelessly. "It's hard to even get up from bed sometimes. I feel like all I can do is disappoint everybody around."
Sonya was looking at Finn, her eyes flaming with rage that had grown since her parents didn't return from an expedition. The hatred she had been growing for years was blooming, as she could finally get revenge she had been yearning for since that night years ago.
"I imagined this moment so many times. There were nights when the only thing keeping me alive was the thought of giving you a taste of your own medicine."
Finn barely opened her eyes. Her face was swollen; she had a few broken ribs, and her hip was screaming from sitting in one position. Her wrists and ankles were zip-tied to the chair. She smiled bitterl.
"You would do me a favor by killing me," she said, her voice tired. "I should've died there with them. With him."
Finn's eyes were glistening with tears, and Sonya's expression changed. Her lips were still twisted with anger, but her face softened as she realized that she wasn't the only one who had lost that day. But that was only for a moment.
She grasped Finn's face by the jaw, squeezing painfully.
"I don't care. You took them. That's enough for me to make you suffer."
Finn was lying on the bed, her breathing peaceful, wrinkles soothed; she looked calmer than any night Jimmy had seen her. She always tossed in her sleep, always talked; sometimes the nightmares made her wake up with a gasp or a scream. But this time it was quiet, steady, calm.
"Hi, I came to visit you. I don't know if you can hear me, but I came yesterday and told you about the school project, Miss Finn." Jimmy poured his backpack out onto the hospital linoleum. "I've got an A, as usual. You would be proud of me; I spoke in front of the whole class."
His expression suddenly changed. He started picking at her skin gently.
"I'm so tired, Miss Finn. They told me you'd eventually wake up, yet it's been a week and you still haven’t. I'm afraid… I think they lied to me. I miss you, Miss Finn. Please, wake up."
Jimmy took her shoulder and shook it desperately.
"Wake up! Miss Finn, wake up! Wake up!" he screamed over and over again, until they dragged him away, before he could hurt her.
