the agony of a character learning that someone they care for was hurt and then needing to explain to that person that it wasn't okay. trying to keep their composure as whumpee talks about what happened to them but doesn't seem to get that it wasn't alright. that it was wrong, that it shouldn't have happened to them.

maybe they're accustomed to this sort of treatment. maybe whumper fucked with their head until they couldn't see which way was up anymore. maybe they've convinced themself that it wasn't that bad, that it was really nothing, that it doesn't matter.

just. the pain first of learning what happened to whumpee, and then having to explain to whumpee that it matters. that it was wrong. that it's okay to not be okay after that.

i'm taking the word 'neurotypical/NT' away from the internet until people learn to stop using it as shorthand for 'someone who does/feels/prefers something that i, personally, do not, and therefore i assume anyone who does can't possibly have the same Brain Situation as me or in fact any Brain Situation at all.'

appreciate beloved former minnesota wild leadership and current arizona coyotes player matt dumba for refusing to let the league off the hook about this. he absolutely read them for filth, and he’s long been an outspoken voice in the conversation around the way the league fails and harms anyone who isn’t a rich cishet white boy. co-founder of the hockey diversity alliance and prominent player of colour, he’s got a lot to say about the ways the nhl never meant for hockey to be for everyone.

anyways. i was proud to have him on the wild and i hope arizona knows what a gem they have in him. we need more guys to stand up like this, and to keep pushing back even though the tape ban was reversed.

the question, you see, is not ‘is it too ooc for this character to cry’ but rather ‘what circumstances would push this character to cry’

this is the whump wisdom, go forth and make that character cry

being aromantic and into whump is like. shoutout to whump for being a great opportunity to engage with stories about intimacy and vulnerability and powerful emotion and physical interactions with other people and intense relationships that are not presumptively based in romance. what would i do without you.

"these characters' relationship is just too weird to be platonic" "they can't be Just Friends they're way too weird" "they may not be dating but whatever they have going on is way too weird to be platonic" i'm starting to think none of you guys know what 'platonic' means tbh. anyways, skill issue.

putting a fake [x] button on ads in phone games that are actually just part of the ad and not the real ‘close this fucking ad’ button should be a crime punishable by death.

gen fic appreciation post. i love you gen fic. i love you serious, plot-heavy gen fic. i love you funny, lighthearted gen fic. i love you angsty whump and h/c gen fic. i love you emotionally complex and intimate gen fic. i love you super long chaptered gen fic. i love you oneshot gen fic. i love you strictly canon adherent gen fic. i love you alternate universe gen fic. i love you crossover gen fic. i love you gen fic about queer identity and relationships. i love you found family gen fic. i love you gen fic.

(edited to add: by ‘gen fic’ this post is NOT referring to rating. it is referring to fic that is not about and does not prominently feature romance, regardless of rating.)

hand-shaped bruises. bracelets of finger imprints on wrists, branded on shoulders or throats or hips. the lack of plausible deniability. the way anyone seeing it can tell something Happened. someone who cares sees it and there’s no hiding the ongoing whump anymore. the photographs memorializing it. the moment a sleeve slips and a friend or coworker or roommate asks “whoa, what happened?”

just. the obviousness of it. the distinctness of it. hand-shaped bruises my beloved.

a character who has bottled up something terrible that happened to them. maybe it's something they saw, maybe something done to them, whatever it is it's profoundly traumatized them. they keep going, pushing it down, dismissing concerns, or even having suppressed it long enough nobody even knows to be concerned at all. and then one day they talk. one day, because they finally can't take it anymore, or they were so triggered they can't keep it in, or something messed with their control (fever, drug, etc) that they just spilled it out.

and the entire time they're talking, they're shaking so hard it makes it difficult to speak. their friends/teammates/whoever try to listen and try to help, extremely alarmed with how seriously they're affected, but the shaking just keeps getting harder. they're not crying, they're just. shaking.

whump enjoyers y'ever just get struck by like... bloodlust. like. you've got your usual levels of whump enjoyment. and then all of a sudden you're struck by the intense need to watch or read or write or draw something Extremely Whumpy. like I Need To Experience Someone Going Through Agonizing Horrors Right Now Immediately. y'know. the bloodlust comes upon ya.

the audible damage to a whumpee's voice from the harm that's come to them... hoarse and quiet from being choked, or from screaming until their voice gives out, or from crying so hard for such a long time. the raspy way everything is forced out, the way their voice cracks and squeaks, the way they wince and cringe and swallow hard before trying again. it hurts to listen to them.

if you are aromantic and have Tried To Exist In Fandom Spaces you may be entitled to financial compensation-

when a character is so afraid that they’re shaking. no matter how put together or stoic or compose they normally are, when they reach the point where they’re so terrified they can’t control their physical reactions? trembling, breathing hitching, maybe the clink of handcuffs where their hands are shaking in their restraints. shaking so hard they can’t escape noticing it - and can’t escape their captor noticing either.

really gonna need everyone who intends to be posting about, following, etc, the met gala tonight to be acutely fucking aware of the racism, antisemitism, misogyny, islamophobia, and other ENORMOUS bigotries behind karl lagerfeld and how reprehensible it is to have an event like this themed and styled after a man like that.

things in whump that mess with emotional control my beloved. would this character normally cry? they will now! would they normally be able to pretend to be unaffected? now they’re shaking uncontrollably. this can come in so many ways too:

exhaustion

drugged whumpee

blood loss or shock

extreme trauma

just. whenever a character has a wildly decreased ability to control their emotional reactions or displays!!