#desert whump

[mynightingalecomplex]

David 2025

Edit to add: I don't know why they're so tiny. May reupload to fix 🤣

[yougivemewhumperflies]

Let’s Talk Desert Villain Whump

Because it’s just that good.

Why a desert? Maybe there’s a lost artifact hidden in the desert, and the protagonists race against the antagonists to reach it first. Or maybe there’s some kind of survival training/test where characters either band together or end up sabotaging each other as they try to come out on top.

So many things can go wrong in a desert.

Dehydration is #1. Progression from headaches and fatigue to dizziness, confusion, and eventually fainting.

Then there’s skin damage, caused by relentless sun exposure. If someone is desperate enough to travel during the daytime without proper protection, then they’ll look forward to sunburn, blisters, and skin constantly peeling and/or itching. 3rd degree burns are definitely possible from sun exposure.

Speaking of protecting skin, don’t forget about sandstorms that can shoot microscopic rocks into your eyes and blind you.

Flash floods. Everyone expects the dehydration and heat, but unexpected rain can unleash a sudden, raging current that washes away anyone and everything in its way. Especially if someone decided to get some shade in a canyon.

Less obvious but still whumpy: wildlife and vegetation. Scorpion bites, venomous snakes, and prickly cacti all can threaten you with pain and deadly venom.

Oh ho ho and if we’re going fantasy, you could come up with all sorts of nasty desert monsters. Anything from colossal sand golems to packs of desert wolves to mind-controlling scarab beetles.

Now, how to go about hurting our dear villain whumpee.

Throwing sand or dust in their eyes, blinding them as they howl with rage.

Wrestling, trying to pin each other down but the sand keeps shifting all around, also burning them as it sneaks beneath their clothes. Maybe their face gets ruthlessly pressed into the boiling hot sand.

Finally facing off against them after weeks of hard racing to get to the hidden treasure. Their skin is ravaged and peeling, their lips blistered. They’re lean, unsteady on their feet. As much as they’re after the treasure, they can’t stop looking at the protagonists full pack of food and water.

Finding them left for dead, abandoned by their team. Reviving their fainted, emaciated body and sharing meager resources with them even though they definitely stole some from the protagonists earlier.

Knocking them out and tying them up because they’re that hostile, but the protagonists can’t just leave them there to die. So the villain is tied to the back of a horse or camel for the rest of the trip.

A big kick sends the antagonist sprawling into a patch of cacti. They scream as thousands of needles—some large and barb-like, others like tiny shards of fiberglass—pierce their flesh from head to toe. They struggle to get out, every placement of their limbs sending more needles into them. Later, the trust they offer their enemy, letting them pull out each of the big, bloody barbs stuck in their skin.

I’m not even diving into the tiny needles, that merits its own post. Desert whump is so underutilized for villain whumpees, we need more of it!

[letitbehurt]

Whumpees stranded or held captive in the desert:

Heatstroke—nausea, vomiting, sweating, the shakes, severe exhaustion

Whumpees tied to a post with no food or water, left to the mercy of the sun. And the sun has no mercy here.

Sand. Everywhere. In their eyes, stuck to their skin with sweat, coating the back of their throat. No amount of coughing will relieve the pain of breathing it in.

A good old-fashioned scorpion sting or snake bite

Metal restraints. That iron gets really hot after a while.

The desert gets very cold at night. Whumpee’s sunburn doesn’t stop the violent shivers from wracking their body until morning.

Buried alive in a tomb

Whumper pressing Whumpee’s face against the blistering sand

Caretaker secretly tilting a flask of water to Whumpee’s lips, glancing back often to make sure they aren’t being seen showing the prisoner mercy

Leather whips coated with sand. Blood splattering the desert floor. Rope burn from jerking against the restraints with every blow.

Collapsing on the crest of a dune

[secret-w-l]

🌪️Whump Writers!🌵

I’m going to write a prompt-y thing, and you finish it off in a reblog!

Wild West Themed

It can be whatever you want! Comforting, gory, betrayal, etc.

Ready? Let’s write!

—————————————————

Whumpee had been trudging through the barren desert land for hours now. They had on only pants and a loose fitting white shirt, neither of which were doing much to protect them from the desert’s unforgiving terrain and the sun’s unbearable heat.

Their feet were raw- the sand and the stone had clawed at the soles of them until they bled. But Whumpee had to keep walking. No matter what.

They couldn’t stop until…

—————————————

I can’t wait to see what happens next! (( Even if you simply enjoyed reading this, reblog it to spread it to other writers in the community! Thanks, and happy whumping! ))

[sunshiline-writes]

Desert Whump Prompts

As a true desert rat, I decided to give people some desert whump prompts for your liking. a lot of this is mostly environmental whump but yeah. Let me know if you'd like me to do more!!!

The sun is so bright and is in the sky for so long, if you leave a whumpee outside in the sun they will BAKE so quickly. Tie them to a post with their shirt off and let them BURN.

Make a whumpee work in the sun and give them heatstroke. Fainting, vomiting, dizziness, headache, feeling like you want to crawl out of your skin. Its very FUN! 

Nighttime in the desert in contrast is very COLD so if you really want to punish whumpee for having heatstroke during the day, leave them out at night with no blankets (or clothes) and see if they like that better! 

Cacti are also very fun to throw a whumpee in! There are different types of cacti too! If you want to throw your whumpee into a pit of jumping cactus they’re very small and their needles hook into the skin. They also itch like a bitch even when they’re out of the skin.

 

Tie a whumpee to a saguaro cactus! Their needles can grow up to two to three inches long! So tying up a whumpee to that type of cacti nice and tight, so they sink into the needles (free acupuncture!!) can also be very fun 

Rattlesnake bites! Those are very painful and very very deadly. They can kill you if you don’t get to the hospital fast enough. They cause chills, seizures, vomiting, muscle spasms, and more.  Very fun if a whumper has the anti venom and likes to watch how whumpee reacts to the snake bite 

[aceofwhump]

Ok, this is a weird one and very specific, but recently I rewatched a video of a kpop group where they’re kidnapped and tortured in a desert (pentagon-basquiat, for those interested) and it made me want torture, desert, apocalypse, chained up, etc whump.

So, do you know of any? I prefer shows.

I know the third resident evil movie, the second maze runner, and the kdrama black knight are in the desert, but I was hoping for some more. I know it’s pretty specific so don’t worry about it too much 🙂

Oh that's very specfic lol. Here are some desert related whump I can think of:

Mad Max: Fury Road

Stargate Universe 1x03

Around the World in 80 Days 1x03

This brief scene in Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries Crypt of the Tears

Lucifer 3x01

The Good The Bad and The Ugly

Star Trek Enterprise 1x24

I haven't watched it yet but Dune probably has some stuff for you.

Some other things that happen in a desert: The Mummy, Stargate original movie, Lawrence of Arabia, Prince of Persia, Agents of Shield 3x05.

That's all I've got :)

[clickerflight]

October 2023 - Sandstorm: Part 13

I am once again having a quarter life crisis. At least my whump story will always be here for me.

Masterlist

Part 12

Content: Demon whumpee, mer whumpee, stranded, desert whump, scorpion sting, twisted ankle, semi immortal whumpee, cuffed together, whumpee on whumpee violence (delirious biting)

.........................................

The ground had turned from sand to hard dirt and rocks halfway through the day. Laurance wandered over the ground, trying to avoid the cacti, rocks, and piles of dirt on the ground. Matsu held on for dear life, piggy backed on Laurance with their food and water pinned between the two of them or tied into their shendyts. 

Laurance already wasn’t in a good mood. He had stepped on three cactuses so far because Matsu had thrashed unexpectedly, the venom that the scorpion used was burning a hole in Matsu’s foot so his leg was drenched in blood and pus, and Matsu had fainted several times, and Laurance suspected a couple of times were due to his heart stopping before his body healed him up enough to bring him back to life. 

All Laurance could do was walk and pray. 

Matsu moaned, pressing his face into Laurance’s shoulder. Laurance thought nothing of it until another wave of pain hit Matsu and the half mer bit into Laurance’s shoulder with his sharp teeth. 

Laurance yelped, nearly dropping Matsu as the mer’s head lolled back, blood dripping down Laurance’s shoulder and the mer’s chin. Laurance hissed and kept walking, looking down at Matsu’s foot to see the blackened wound. It wasn’t looking any better, but it didn’t look any worse either. Maybe Matsu was going to start healing soon. Laurance hoped so. Having to haul his hallucinating friend across a desert was almost worse than anything Yor and Kulor had done to them. 

“It’ll be okay,” Laurance whispered. “We’re going to make it. We’re gonna be okay. We’re almost there. Just-”

He spotted the snake in his path before he got too close. He stopped in his tracks as it sunbathed, content and right in the middle of the road. There were cactuses on either side, which actually seemed to point that this was literally some kind of road, so Laurance couldn’t walk around. If Anisha were here, this would be easy. She wasn’t able to speak to animals, but she was wonderful with reptiles. He’d seen her convince hungry snakes to unwrap themselves from unwary prey. Which was himself half the time. 

Laurance sighed heavily. He took a few steps back, hoisting Matsu up higher on his hips and then ran and jumped over the snake. The snake didn’t seem to mind, however, Laurance slipped in the dust on the other side and crashed to the ground, his ankle burning with a sudden and fierce pain. Matsu rolled out next to him, only kept from flying into the cactuses by the chain between the two of them. 

Laurance laid on the ground for a long moment, gasping for air and filled with terror and anger. He would have to keep carrying Matsu across the desert with a messed up ankle in the hot sun for at least another day and a half if Matsu didn’t heal quickly, and he just didn’t have the strength to keep going. Laurance laid there, his ankle throbbing as he tried to force himself back up, but he couldn’t bring himself to. 

Maybe if he just got some water. That was an easier step in between him and his goal, but when he lifted his head to see where all the water skins were, he found that three of them had popped, draining their precious fluid everywhere when he was sulking and there was one left. 

Laurance put his head back down, gritting his teeth as he tried to keep his gasping breaths from turning into sobs. He wasn’t getting any water until they got somewhere because Matsu needed it more. Laurance was going to lose his mind. He curled up around his leg and continued to lay there as Matsu writhed on the ground helplessly, sick out of his mind. 

Laurance didn’t realize he’d fallen asleep until he came awake, shivering so hard his teeth were chattering. Matsu had fallen asleep next to him. Laurance looked over at Matsu’s foot and sighed a breath of relief. It was healing. There was a scabby wound there, but it didn’t seem to be actively trying to kill the mer. Laurance slowly sat up, rubbing his aching head and checking his own ankle. It had swollen a little, but the depression nap seemed to be a good thing. Laurance put a little weight on his foot, and while it hurt, it wasn’t too bad. 

Laurance turned and shook Matsu to see if he could get his friend to wake up. Matsu opened one eye, looking up at Laurance before grumbling and closing his eyes again. “S not even morning, Laur,” he sighed. “Let me sleep. We’ve already walked for half the night.”

“No, that was last night,” Laurance said with. “You know, last night when you got stung by a scorpion and have been out of your mind while I had to carry you.”

Matsu’s eyes snapped open and he sat up to look at his foot. 

“Oh, yeah. It’s healing though,” Matsu said cheerfully, looking at Laurance properly now. “Ugh, you look like hot garbage, though, what happened to you?”

“You did,” Laurance said, rolling his eyes as he slowly got up and went around picking up their things. “Thanks for biting me, by the way.”

“Oh, stars, I’m sorry, Laurance,” Matsu said, testing his own feet out to see if they would take his weight. 

“It’s alright. Not like you did it on purpose,” Laurance said, but even as he said that and rolled his shoulder forward to grab something, he felt a tight and painful urge to dull all of Matsu’s teeth. He picked up the next object with his other arm. 

“So, how far did we get?” Matsu asked. He felt bad that Laurance had to carry him, of course, but another part of him was ecstatic that they made progress without him having to be mentally present for it. Sure, he was in a lot of pain, but he honestly didn’t remember much of it. 

He frowned when Laurance gave him a sheepish look. “Um…. maybe a few hours? We started when the sun was rising but well, when the sky was almost overhead there was, ah, a snake, and I jumped over it and, ah, twisted my ankle.”

Matsu stared at him, and then the spilled items. “And we’ve just, what, been laying here for the rest of the time?”

Laurance nodded again, not quite meeting Matsu’s eye. “I had a really bad day.”

Matsu nodded, hiding his disappointment. “Okay, yeah, that’s fine. Things happen.”

“And when I fell it popped a lot of our water. We have one left.”

Matsu closed his eyes, taking a slow, soothing breath. “Yeah, okay, yeah.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

Laurance gave him a pitiful look, one that said he knew it wasn’t okay. “You can have it.”

“Nah, we’ll share it.”

“You need it more.”

“You know what,” Matsu said quickly, “Let’s not talk about this right now, yeah? Let’s get walking.”

Laurance nodded vaguely, looking around to make sure he had everything before they turned and limped together down the road. 

…………………………………..

By the end, Matsu and Laurance had their arms around each other to help one another limp along. They were making a depressing amount of progress, but it was better than nothing. Matsu was mostly healed, but even though the wound was gone his ankle still hurt down to the bone. 

Still, he could walk pretty much fine. 

Laurance was not so lucky. They finally had to stop near morning when Laurance’s ankle finally just gave out on him. 

Laurance sat in the dust, slowly rotating his ankle to test how much movement he had. He sighed heavily, stretching out on the ground, shivering as his body started to cool off from the effort of traveling through the night. 

Matsu sat down next to him and sighed softly. "Do you think they'll catch up with us?"

“I don’t know,” Laurance said. “I don’t think so. But tomorrow should hopefully be our last day on the road.”

“It better be,” Matsu said, giving the water skin a disparaging look. 

Laurance nodded, leaning into Matsu as they sat on the edge of the road, the stars shining above them. Here, near the end of their journey, Laurance looked up at them. 

The skies were clear for miles around with no major light pollution to be seen on this entire planet. Well, maybe the mage cities on the other side of the globe, but that wasn’t their concern. 

Matsu leaned back, looking up at them as well. “I wonder what stories these people tell about the stars.”

Laurance nodded. “Anisha might know.”

Matsu snorted. “Yeah, she’d be talking our ears off about them.”

“And then Kira would tell her to shut up and go to sleep.”

“Yeah.”

Silence fell between them as Laurance wondered about their wives once again and where they were. There wasn’t much that could get between Anisha, Kira, and their husbands. The worry inside him curdled in his gut as he turned his attention to a certain set of stars to find some comfort. 

“There’s the Protector,” Laurance said gently, pointing out the set of stars. They were shaped in the symbol of the Telari, the first dragons. The protectors of the universe that were to work with the other base races to make progress and learn everything they could in this life. The stars were bright and a slightly blue hue, bluer than the others, making them seem brighter in comparison. They weren’t really stars, he supposed, but really any light in the sky that was far enough up could be considered a star. The Telari had used some sort of magic to set their symbol in the skies in every world they went to. People had tried to track down where these stars were placed because they seemed to be visible in the exact same way on each planet, but after you left the haze of the atmosphere, they disappeared. 

That probably made them not stars, then. It was likely an enchantment placed on the planet that affected the minds of all those who lived there. An enchantment that seemed to have outlasted their enchanters. 

Matsu stared at them, his bright eyes tracing their shape before he sighed and nudged Laurance. “We should sleep.”

“Fine,” Laurance said, curling up just as he had previous nights to let Matsu curl up on top of him. With that, the two were asleep.

Part 14

[redd956]

Desert Themed Whumps

Getting stuck/lost in a sandstorm

Heatstroke

Whumper pouring out Whumpee's water in front of them

Sunburns

Cloaked and built by desert Caretaker coming across a half-dead Whumpee coated in sand

Whumper being a magical being, in charge of an oasis, collecting their victims from the desperate wanderers of the desert

Freezing in the cold of night of the night

Getting attacked by a desert animal

Ice Elemental or Nature Elemental or Water Elemental stuck in the desert

Caretaker bregudgingly dragging Whumpee back to the nearest city or shelter

Fair Skinned Whumpee contrasted by Dark Skinned Caretaker

Being blinded by sand

Collapsing right before making it to an oasis