Or Water Fountains, Public Washrooms, Outdoors Tables, Etc, Etc

Or water fountains, public washrooms, outdoors tables, etc, etc

Whumptember 2023 Prompts

rules | alternate prompts | tags and posting | ask box

1. “Did I do good?

Mentor whumper | Young hero | Blood loss

2. “Let me do this for you.”

Sacrifice | Guilt | Caretaker turned whumpee

3. “This can’t be it”

Betrayal | Left to die | Running away

4. “Where are they?”

Kidnapped | Left behind | Desperation 

5. “What do you want me to do?”

Owed a favor | Whispered conversation | Sneaking around

6. “I didn’t do this”

Framed | Bloody clothes | Behind bars

7. “No one will believe you”

Behind closed doors | Fake smiles | Touch aversion 

8. “Don’t come back”

Kicked out | Saying goodbye for the last time | Lashing out 

9. “This was always going to happen”

Doomed relationship | Opposing sides | Fatal wound 

10. “What are you doing to them?”

Brainwashed | Hanging from their wrists | Phone call 

11. “There’s nothing else I can do”

Last resort | Character death | Medical whump

12. “I can’t leave again”

Homecoming | Multiple responsibilities | Failed rescue 

13. “You don’t remember me, do you?”

Finally free | Open arms | Clothes that don’t fit

14. “I’m on my way. Just hold on a little longer”

Bleeding out | In and out of consciousness  | Voice cracking

15. “I thought you were dead”

Faked death | Under the radar | Trail of blood

16. “Can I go home now?”

Young whumpee | Captive | Chains around the wrists

17. “Can you come pick me up?”

Sensory overload | Feeling like someone’s watching | Bad luck

18. “You said I’d be safe here”

Ambushed | Paranoia | Being watched

19. “You are not a hero. You’re a child playing dress up. Now take off that silly mask and go home.”

Villain mentor | In over their head | Trembling 

20. “We can’t all win”

Failure | City in ruin | Boot on throat 

21. “Take me with you”

Failed escape | Stumbling | Too weak to move

22. “I’m getting bored”

Captive whumpee | New whumper | Electrocution 

23. “Is that blood?”

Passing out | Hyperventilating | New scars

24. “You have to promise I’ll come back”

Muffled screams | Returning home | Uncommon restraints

25. “I won’t leave you here”

Desperate measures | Fireman’s carry | Head lolling

26. “You aren’t supposed to be here! You have to leave now”

Unexpected visitor | Explosion | Caretaker turned (accidental) whumper

27. “I thought you, of all people, would understand why I did what I did.”

Reluctant villain | Old friends | Cornered 

28. “I never should have let it come this far”

Failed hero | Hospital stay | Begging for help

29. “You told me this was the right thing”

Mislead | Blood on hands | Too late 

30. “You were in my way”

Stabbed in the back | Whimpering | Chained to a wall 

My turn to reverse the boys

Today in absolutely bonkers decisions Bruce Wayne has made: Send Jean-Paul Valley as Azrael to Alaska to protect Tim during the Contagion arc. Without giving Tim or Alfred a heads up.

You know. Jean-Paul. The guy whose deeply-ingrained programming lead to him spiraling into excessive violence while standing in for Batman and strangling Tim in an attempt to kill him. But hey! He snapped out of it and is very sorry!

Bruce. Bruce, no.

nothin' quite like how a dog loves

let dead dogs lie - silas denver melvin // red dog - elizabeth frink // how to be a dog - andrew kane // domestication syndrome - dhole b // no origin found // for your own good - leah horlick // pleasure - beth cavener // it will come back - hozier // i am a dog. i have blood all over my teeth. - uhode // same poem as directly previous

You know what?  I’m not picking a side in this because I get where each of these characters is coming from.  None of them are right and none of them are wrong. Tim has had his entire life burned down again, so many people he loved are dead, and it feels like this is salt in the wound, that he’s being stripped of Robin when he needs it most. Damian is a child who is saying viciously hurtful things, but he thinks he has to fight for his place in anything, he thinks he has to destroy anyone who might come for what he has, he has to destroy Drake to secure a place for himself, because that’s what he’s been taught.  Dick is the only person who has shown him anything stable in this place, of course he’s going to fight with everything he has, he’ll cut open anyone who comes at him, because that’s what’s been hammered into him since he was born. And Dick’s coming at this from his own experiences–he says right there that Tim is his ally, his equal, Dick’s not his mentor.  Dick is asking for someone to help him, not be someone else he has to take care of, because when is it Dick’s turn to mourn his father’s loss, too?  When is it Dick’s turn to mourn that he’s been forced to put on the cape and cowl that he hates wearing?  When is it Dick’s turn to have someone acknowledge that he had to give up his entire life to pick up Bruce’s?  And what is he supposed to do, when he’s trying to hold everything together because everyone else is pulling things apart? Tim’s at the age (and possibly older) than when Dick knew he himself needed to become his own person, to step up into a role that was uniquely his–and I don’t think he’s wrong about Tim being ready for that, either.  Tim is traveling around the world as Red Robin here, he’s doing his own thing, he’s doing his own investigations, Tim is ready to be his own superhero, not the role of Robin. Tim’s holding onto this for what feels like less because he needs the role of Robin specifically, Batman’s protege, and more because he wants to hold onto something familiar.  I keep thinking of that scene in Adventure Comics where he tells Kon about how he tried to clone him, that he knew it wouldn’t be his Kon, but at least it would have been something.  This feels similar, in a lot of ways. Tim wants the familiar, he feels like he’s losing everything he loved, and he just wants something, regardless of whether or not it was the true thing that he was actually longing for.  That’s why he can’t have any sympathy for an eleven year old child who needs a lifeline.  That’s why he can’t see that Dick needs help, rather than help from Dick.  Because Tim’s losses are mounting too fast and too high and it’s ripping him apart. They’re all just barely holding on by their fingertips and have so little left over to give each other, Dick doesn’t have time to be gentle with Tim, Damian doesn’t have the emotional tools to be gentle with anyone, Tim doesn’t have the emotional resources to do more than just make it through the day, they’re all a mess, they’re all not right and they’re all not wrong.