The whumper lets their whumpee go. They tell them that they're free to leave, that they don't want to see them again. It's a lie, of course.
They don't know if whumpee will return. They hope they will. If not, well... they would just have to hunt them down and kill them. Such a shame, but they can let them tell anyone.
Three days later, there's a knock on their door. They open it to see whumpee staring at them, shaking, eyes glossy with tears, pleading whumper to take them back, whatever it is they did wrong, they're so sorry, they won't do it again, please-
They're still shaking when whumper wraps them in their arms, smiling. They're never letting their pet go again.
Conditioned Whumpee who thinks Caretaker is their new master, where Caretaker calls Whumpee by a pet name, sweetie/sweetheart/darling/angel/etc etc, and Whumpees takes this to mean that Caretaker has renamed them because they didn't like their old name
Pet whumpee's ownership transferring from a sadistic whumper to a carewhumper.
Carewhumper fits them with a new shock collar & Whumpee is terrified. But then Carewhumper only uses light shocks to correct unwanted behavior & praises Whumpee for how quick they are to learn. "It's so nice how you never even make me use the higher settings :)"
Carewhumper notes how well Whumpee responds to affection and praise, so they make sure to shower Whumpee with it, especially when Whumpee is clearly uncomfortable or struggling with a task.
Carewhumper using gentle encouragement where pet's previous owner was cruel. Pet slowly getting used to this strange style of ownership, but never taking it for granted. They start automatically seeking out Carewhumper's reassurance whenever they're nervous or upset.
Carewhumper is very happy to hold them and pet them and tell them how good they're being.
Obsessed with So Many Things happening to one character. They're injured in a multitude of ways, freezing, starving, haven't slept in days, are starting to run a fever...but for whatever reason they can't rest. And they keep going until they're all but dead on their feet. It isn't even a proper collapse then, just a gradual and steady realization that oh, my body isn't letting me move anymore I guess I'll die???
But then of course they're brought somewhere safe - finally safe - and even then they feel like they can't let their guard down, struggling to stay awake until they're hallucinating from fever and lack of sleep.
Hurt/Comfort is such an interesting thing. It’s basically an entire genre of fanfiction. I’d argue it satisfies a very basic, vital need–the same way that horror satisfies the basic need to be scared in a safe, controllable space.
And yet it doesn’t really have an equivalent outside of fan culture. "Tearjerkers” can sometimes come close, they’re probably the closest thing to a mainstream hurt/comfort genre that there is. But those types of books and movies don’t usually focus on the “comfort” aspect in the same way, and don’t make use of tension and release.
I think every good hurt/comfort fic makes use of tension and release just as horror does, whether the writer is consciously aware of it or not. Though of course the tension and release in h/c comes from different sources than in horror. Instead of anticipating something frightening, you anticipate the intimacy and/or validation that comes from the “comfort” part you know is eventually coming. That’s what provides release of the tension built up during the “hurt” scenes.
I could write a goddamned essay about this it’s so fascinating.
This is a great definition/analysis of it! I’ve been interested in this too. It’s always been my favorite fanfiction genre. It’s to the point where reading just angst is not enough, there is something left unfulfilled if the character does not have the ‘tension and release’ and just remains under whatever stressor at the end. I think part of the reason I like it so much, is often in mainstream media characters DO NOT have that ‘healing moment’, shall we say. Too often, there may be a sad/traumatic/stressful event and the character is shown to just pick themselves up from it and move on like nothing happened. Which is not realistic as we all know, so I think the hurt/comfort genre in fanfiction is a kind of a response to that. The “filling in the blanks” of when a character needs a moment of healing or validation to continue onward, because that in a sense is more relatable then the “super hero” character who can move through it like nothing damaged them.
imo h/c is also built on the trust between two or more people. that when one of them falls there WILL be someone to validate their pain, soothe their wounds (physical or emotional), and not only pick them back up but remain with them even when they’re back on they’re feet. it’s not hurt/recovery; it’s not the super-human, masochist bullshit mentioned above.
h/c builds a world in which we (as readers and in part as the parts of characters we identify with) are given permission to fall apart. h/c is the freedom to show pain because you know that there are people who will notice you being hurt – and will do their best to not only comfort you, but will also validate your reasons for being hurt, take your side completely, and help you get to the place you need to be to recover.
I consider it the default genre of fanfiction tbh. Plot-driven action fics exist but they tend to be written by newer-to-contributing fans who are still developing their writing and don’t care to grapple with emotional aspects yet for whatever reason. Angst happens, but when it doesn’t have the comfort element authors will point it out like, ‘watch out for angst’ or joking about their propensity to write sad things without a comfort element. Similarly with fluff, when people choose to write only happy things they tend to talk about it, either in the terms of using fanfiction as a safe-ish space generally, or that they’ve written a happy fic when they normally don’t, that sort of thing.
So, so much fanfiction is H/C. No label required. If something isn’t labelled ‘angst’ it can be startling to find no happy-ish resolution, even if the summary gave no indication it would have a happy ending. It’s almost as if the default structure of a fic, without a label marking it as an exception, is ‘something shit happens to the character, someone makes it better for them’. I’ve been in fandom for about twenty years and it’s always been that way.
In the world we currently inhabit, it’s no wonder that’s still such an appealing idea.
“…and will do their best to not only comfort you, but will also validate your reasons for being hurt, take your side completely, and help you get to the place you need to be to recover.”
This is so true and it makes me so sad that so many of us didn’t have that, and still don’t, and that it’s partially why h/c needs to exist. But thankfully it does. 🥰
Adam would never admit this, but Ray did scare him a little bit. It wasn't that Ray was actually an effective bully, it was more that he had a couple inches on Adam and serious daddy issues. There was also the chance that Ray would accidentally hurt Adam, worse than he himself was truly capable of. Freak accidents could always occur.
It had started simply enough: Ray had been picking on Adam’s friend Y/n during lunch. Now, it wasn’t that Adam like-liked Y/n, because he really, truly, most definitely, 100%, probably didn’t, but he couldn’t stand by while Ray picked on her. So, he’d instigated. Ray had rounded on him and bolted, and so did Adam. They’d run through the lunchroom and the school, dodging teachers, the principal’s grabbing hand, and other students until eventually Adam (who felt that his lead in the race would save him from a serious ass-kicking) burst outside. He’d hesitated, looking left and right, breathing heavily but not badly, and hurried to one side. He had felt, with his advantageous lead and stable (so far) breathing, that he’d win. He had not. Adam fucking tripped and went sprawling. Ray had been on him in a second, yanking him to his feet and pinning Adam up against a wall, glaring at him. Adam's mouth went a mile a minute. Quips, jabs, one liners, some of them even pretty good. They had flowed out automatically, the easiest thing in the world for him. It wasn't until Adam had said something about Ray and Chuckie being too stupid to snark anything back that Ray had really reacted.
“You turds are standing here like a couple of mute mimes, ventriloquist dummies with no puppetmaster. You really think I'm going to be scared of a couple of meat bags who can't even talk?” Or something like that. Adam couldn't really remember what it had been right now, as he was on his back on the ground, Ray's foot stomped down into his chest.
“You think you're so funny, Reid.” Ray had sneered. He had grabbed Adam by the front of his shirt and jerked him forward and around, pushing him to the ground. “Well, we'll see how funny you are when, …when you've lost!” Ray had put his foot on Adam's chest triumphantly. Chuckie had offered up his hand for a high five, a lumbering and slow gesture, a stupid grin on his face, and Ray smacked it, smirking down at Adam.
“That's your best? Really?” Adam snarked back from the ground, to which Ray pressed his foot down harder. This was when it began. It, the pressure. Then It, the crushing feeling, the internal collapse of systems intended to keep you alive. Damn it, he’d been fine running, even. You'd think providing oxygen to a 98 pound twelve year old would be an easy task, but no, apparently not for Adam's lungs. He sucked in a thin, wheezy breath, looking up at Ray. Adam tried to glare but the fear was setting in. He did the only thing he knew how. “Step any harder on me and I'll have to petition your mom to stop being so fat. The weight was…” he gasps slightly as pain snaked through him, “transferred to you in bone density. Thank God not in fat density, or you'd be enormous.”
Ray looked presently peeved at this, and moved to punch Adam in the face. Adam sucked in another wheezing breath. Chuckie stood stupidly alongside Ray.
“Leave him alone!” An indignant shout rung out across the lot.
Ray's head swiveled to see who it was. The girl from lunch. The quiet one. He smirked. “Go home, you're not involved in this.” He pulled back from Adam, his foot still on his chest, baring his own chest to the girl. He was trying to look big and scary. Ray almost didn't even bother really looking at her, he figured she would be scared off pretty easily, but at the last second caught a glimpse of her expression. His eyes snapped up, a thin trail of dread trickling down him. He saw anger. Crystal clear, unfiltered fury. More than Ray had ever seen, even from his mom when he failed tests. She also looked calm, like she knew precisely how to… how to…
“Let him go,” Y/n said firmly. “Before I have to fuck you up, Ray.”
This made Chuckie nervous; he took an unconscious step backward. Ray looked to him desperately, betrayed. “Chuck,” he hissed.
Adam wheezed tightly again, hands twitching against the concrete, searching for something to hold onto.
She stalked towards the three, a menacing stature about her. Determination, Certainty. “Go, Ray. Before I have to bring you home in a bag.” Y/n was two feet from him when his nerve finally broke. He stepped off Adam, who gasped and coughed, and took a couple nervous steps backward. Y/n looked at him darkly, shooing him away with her hands.
Ray really wanted to be tough, but he kind of believed her. Maybe she would bring him home in a bag. Maybe she was insane or something. He took another couple steps away, still hesitating, looking for an opening he could hurt her through. But there were none, so he ran. Chuckie ran with him of course, much more slowly.
Y/n called, “You're a bitch, Ray! Everyone knows it!” Then she was on her knees, talking to Adam very gently. “What's wrong?”
He wheezed, hands grabbing at his chest. He looked briefly at her, the panic now evident in his brown eyes.
“Asthma attack, Ok. Where's your inhaler?” Y/n said quickly, hands at the ready, hovering in the air over Adam. “You have it with you, right?” Her eyes flashed to his, suddenly nervous.
Adam nodded, coughing, and grappled with the front pocket of his jeans. Y/n pushed his hands away quickly–they fell uselessly to the ground–and wrestled the inhaler from his pocket. She pulled the cap off and tossed it aside, bringing the inhaler to Adam's mouth.
“Ready?” Y/n asked.
He couldn't respond, just coughing and wheezing. He reached for her and grabbed her arm tightly, pulling it towards himself.
Y/n put the inhaler in his mouth and triggered it. “3… 2… 1…” she counted down for him, watching his face closely. Adam let his breath out in a burst of air. Y/n rested a light hand on his chest, keeping the inhaler near his face. “Good?” she asked quietly.
He shook his head, weakly pulling her arm back towards him, brown eyes wide with anxiety and focused on the next dose of medicine. He winced as his lungs wracked with pain again. She put the inhaler back in his mouth and triggered it again. Y/n counted again, watching him closely. Adam relaxed slightly, closing his eyes as he held his breath. He let his breath out slowly, the correct way, and sighed. His eyes flickered open, looking at Y/n with a surprised, trusting expression. He didn't talk for a long minute, just laying tiredly on his back, staring at this girl in front of him. Adam dimly realized that he still held her wrist and awkwardly let go, hand falling to the ground.
Y/n asked, “Should you sit up?”
Adam nodded, tiredly trying to get himself up. Y/n helped quickly, pulling him up by the arms. Adam ended up slumped against her, which made Y/n blush slightly. She supported his weight though, figuring that he needed the contact. Adam still didn't say anything, just breathing slowly. Y/n grabbed his hand and pushed the inhaler into it, wrapping his fingers around it for him. “There you go,” she said softly, feeling awkwardly self-conscious about holding Adam like she was. That wasn’t something that people who were just classmates did.
“Thanks,” Adam finally said. “Ray is a bitch.” He continued to just slump against her, trying to pretend that he would get up soon and that he wasn’t really liking being this close to her. He didn’t have a crush on her.
She nodded, smiling. They sat there in the quiet for a long time. Adam toyed with his inhaler and glanced shyly up at her and away quickly again when their eyes meet. He breathed slowly. “What makes you brave enough to…” Adam asked quietly, his eyes tracking her face.
She shrugged, jostling Adam slightly, looking off into the distance as she considered the question. The way Adam was leaning on her reminded her of the one time when she was a child and had found a puppy with a hurt foot. She’d cradled him too, as a protector. “I just know how to scare him. He's not really that big.”
“Bigger than me,” Adam mumbled, still fiddling with his inhaler.
“Everyone's bigger than you, Adam,” she teased, laughing. Y/n looked back to him, catching a smile on his face.
Adam was laughing too. He found he didn't mind when Y/n teased him. He pushed himself up, sitting alone now.
“I'll have to teach you my tricks.” She smirked.
Adam nodded quietly, triggering another puff off the inhaler into his mouth.
“Do you usually have to do more than once?” Y/n asked curiously.
Adam held up a finger to show that he needed a second. Y/n waited patiently. He let out his breath slowly, then speaking. “For the worse ones.”
“Oh. Okay.”
Quiet again. Adam looked shyly between the ground and Y/n, who pretended not to notice. She looked towards the playground.
The awkwardness present wasn't only because these were two awkward middle schoolers, though that wasn't helping at all, …it was because Y/n had had a crush on Adam Reed for a little while now. Sure, he was scrawny and had asthma but who really cared? His jokes in class always made her want to cry laughing, and he seemed to not care about all the stupid stuff teachers were always trying to make kids care about. It was kind of like he knew what was important in life. Like he knew there was something bigger out there. He looked at her and her insides would do flips and turns and some shy part of her brain would urge ‘look away, look away right now!’ So she stared at the playground. Y/n could feel his gaze on her, and saw in her peripherals that he seemed just as nervous as her. He was looking at her and then away, then glancing back.
The most hopeful part of her brain whispered quietly, ‘What if he likes me too?’ But the protective part was quick to reprimand, ‘don't think like that, he probably doesn't.’ Y/n glanced quickly at him, their eyes met, and she looked away.
Adam looked away too, blushing.
He wasn't sure why he was feeling so nervous all of a sudden, he'd never felt nervous around Y/n before. Usually she would just let him copy off her homework and would trade good snacks at lunch. It was chill. Maybe he was feeling weird ‘cause she'd saved him from Ray, not that Adam wouldn't have survived on his own, he would have been fine. Maybe it was because she had been so smart about his inhaler, or like… something about her not judging him, or… he glanced at her again, noting the pinkish color on her cheeks and ears.
‘Oh, dear god no, please no,’ some part of Adam’s mind pleaded. He glanced at her again. ‘Fuck. …That’s it, we’re fucked. We’re fucked for sure.’ He tried to shush his racing mind, and think like one coherent thought at least but before he knew it was going to happen his mouth said, “Wanna come over and see a movie?” This was punctuated by a mental ‘Fuck! No! What are you doing?!’ But it was too late, he’d said it. Now he was trapped. He stared hopelessly at Y/n, waiting for her to… crush his heart, maybe? Perhaps he was still too young for that. Would she accept? She wasn’t even looking his way, what if she said no? Would he just die on the spot?
Y/n turned to him with an abashed smile and said, “Sure.” She was blushing.
‘Dear god, no! You’ll get cooties or something, god, stop!’ “We could watch something at my house, I’m sure my mom could bring you home after,” Adam said, trying to play it super cool. His hands danced nervously around the plastic inhaler.
She nodded. “That… that sounds good, I’ll bet my dad could pick me up too if needed.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and looked nervously at him, never wanting to look away but also thinking, ‘I need to blink, did I blink enough? Or too much? God, I’m the worst. This is terrible.’
“My mom should be here soon, we could…” He gestured to the pickup area of the parking lot.
“Yeah.”
-
Y/n and Adam were sitting on the sofa before the big screen, Alien playing. Ellie was at the kitchen table, trying desperately to comprehend her husband’s tax filing system.
The tension was palpable. Y/n and Adam could basically feel electrical vibrations passing between the two of them. Neither were watching the movie.
“Do you like the… movie?” Adam asked softly, looking to Y/n.
“Yeah, I think so.” Y/n smiled, looking back at him.
Adam glanced over his shoulder at his mom, then to Y/n. His whole brain was screaming not to, but he hesitantly placed his hand onto Y/n’s. His breath hitched nervously, as he waited for her to punch him in the face or scream in disgust, but… her fingers laced into his calmly. Adam glanced up at her, face beet red. She smiled, squeezing his hand in her own.
Adam looked shyly back to the TV, a grin creeping onto his face.
Should I include written works or stick to the gifs?
include written works (50% of posts)
include written works (25% of posts)
include written works (5-10% of posts)
Do Not include written works
Voting ended onOct 5, 2023
Written works included would be my original works, usually between 100-500 words, some about 1k words, and reblogs that I particularly enjoyed.
Part of what I like in whump is just seeing it for myself, so I will always include at least 50% gifs, probably a lot more than 50% even if the top poll option wins.
