Whumptober 2026: Pumpkin Spice and Pain 🧡
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Listing Series
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Who Do You Hate? by Sohotthateveryonedied
Fandoms: Batman: Arkham Knight Genesis (Comics), Batman: Arkham - All Media Types, Batman - All Media Types, Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
01 Oct 2026
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Jason sneers even though he’s trembling like a leaf. “What, Mister Jay couldn’t come down to torture me himself? He had to send a representative? Laaaame.”
The shadow takes a step closer, into the faint light of the overhead bulb.
The boy is shorter than Jason. He can’t be older than ten or eleven. It’s like looking at a mini Joker—green hair, white skin, and all. Like the creep and Harley fucking procreated, as if the world needed those two clowns multiplied.
“You’re just a kid,” Jason whispers. The boy grins like invisible fingers are pulling the corners of his mouth up for him. Jason’s stomach roils in response. “Are you…Are they keeping you here, too? How’d you get here?”
The kid doesn’t say a word. He just keeps smiling.
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That's Rough, Buddy by Sohotthateveryonedied
Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Batman and the Signal (Comics)
02 Oct 2026
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Duke is already on the move, running towards the source of the howl. Like hell is he letting Damian brag about getting to fight a werewolf. He’s too distracted trying to duck under all the low branches in the darkness that he isn’t watching his step. His suit is armored, but every uniform has its weak points. Joints, for one.
Clang!
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They Say Love is the Best Medicine by Sohotthateveryonedied
Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, Batman (Comics), Batman and Robin (Comics), DCU (Comics)
02 Oct 2026
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“Yes, it was a full dose,” Damian reports in the passenger seat beside him, one hand at his earpiece while he fills Damian in on the night’s events. His other hand, gloveless, rests open and upturned on the center console—an invitation for Bruce to grab if he needs it. He doesn’t. “I tried. Obviously, he’s too stubborn to listen to anyone with sense.”
“I c-can hear you,” Bruce manages past his chattering teeth, grimacing.
“Oh, hush, Father.” To Alfred, he says, “Yes, I offered to drive home, but he wouldn’t let me.”
“Y-You’re in m-middle school.”
Series
- Part 3 of Whumptober 2026: Pumpkin Spice and Pain 🧡
- Part 4 of Cuddle Pollen Saga
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Trolley Problem by Sohotthateveryonedied
Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, Batman (Comics), Robin (Comics), DCU (Comics)
06 Oct 2026
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Tim can’t stop picturing that man’s eyes when the bullet struck between them. The way his body slumped in his chair, kept from falling to the floor only by the chains holding him captive. The way Bruce roared.
“Master Tim,” Alfred says. Tim forces his eyes back open, biting his cheek to maintain his composure. “Are you going to make me beg?”
“A civilian died. It was my fault.”
Alfred merely nods. He must have been expecting as much. “I’m sure you weren’t as responsible as you feel you are.”
If only he knew.
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Old Wounds by Sohotthateveryonedied
Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
08 Oct 2026
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When you’ve replaced all of the old wood planks in the Ship of Theseus with fresh ones, can it still be called the Ship of Theseus?
When you’ve been dunked in a healing pit and lost all of the scars that made your body yours, is it still your body? Are you still you?
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If We Make It Through the Night by Sohotthateveryonedied
Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, Batman (Comics), Batman & Dracula: Red Rain, DC vs. Vampires (DC Comics), DCU (Comics)
10 Oct 2026
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A warm bag was shoved into his hand. Bruce could smell it from here, and before he'd made the conscious decision, he was already sinking his newly grown baby fangs into the plastic sack and gulping down the thick O-negative blood.
“Oh, my,” Alfred marveled, no longer fearful. More…fascinated. “I’m going to have to make another run to the blood bank. I was unsure how much you needed, so I only stole three bags. We may have to rely more on animal blood if your thirst stays so…fervent.” He handed over another bag as soon as Bruce finished off the first, and Bruce gulped that one down, too. He felt better after that.
“You should kill me,” Bruce said with a slight lisp as he adjusted to the fangs cramming up his mouth. Even his voice sounded different, like there was a growl hiding in his windpipe.
(An AU in which the Waynes are attacked by a vampire named Joe Chill. Thomas and Martha die. Bruce isn’t so lucky.)
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If I Cannot Inspire Love... by Sohotthateveryonedied
Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, Batman (Comics), Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010), DCU (Comics), Detective Comics (Comics)
12 Oct 2026
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Jason forces his eyes open, squinting at the ghost before him. There is blood on Alfred’s warm, wrinkled hands. They’re both on the ground, Alfred kneeling in front of Jason where he’s sprawled on the cold cement floor.
Jason ripped out his stitches. Blood dribbles down over his neck, into his shirt collar. He’s—he was—
Bruce.
Jason sits up, scrambling away from Alfred’s touch. He clutches his bleeding throat. Alfred looks exactly how Jason remembered him. Kind. Patient. Still reaching for Jason’s neck with those healing hands, trying to help the boy who could never be helped. And then, over his head, past the small cell in the Batcave that Jason’s been thrown into like a rabid animal, Bruce stands outside the bulletproof glass, watching. Cowl-less. Heartless.
(An AU in which Jason didn’t wait to count to three before he pulled the trigger during the showdown with the Joker in Under the Red Hood. The Joker is dead. Batman slit Jason's throat. Now what?)
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Some Ghosts Are Never Gone by Sohotthateveryonedied
Fandoms: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Detective Comics (Comics), DCU (Comics), Robin (Comics)
12 Oct 2026
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“That’s ‘cause I’m the best. Right, Dad?”
Jason never called Bruce “Dad” when he was alive, but they’ve come a long way since then. They are much closer now. Bruce spends hours each day holed up in Jason’s bedroom working on cases or just sitting there thinking, listening to Jason talk his ear off about whatever pops into his head.
Jason would never complain, but Bruce knows he’s been lonely ever since Tim entered the picture. Neither Alfred nor Barbara even acknowledge Jason anymore, too preoccupied with training Tim to bother checking in with poor Jay. And Dick hasn’t said a word to or about Jason since—
Bruce ruffles Jason’s hair, picking out little bits of ash and debris. Boys will be boys. “That you are, Jay.”
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Aren't You Out Past Your Bedtime? by Sohotthateveryonedied
Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, Batman (Comics), Catwoman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
14 Oct 2026
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Selina sighs and tosses aside the knife. She brings the phone back to her ear. “Go back to your meeting, babe. I’ll call you later.”
“Did I hear Dam—”
She drops the phone onto the couch and hurries over to help the kid inside. She’s seen Damian in worse shape before, but the blood dripping down his temple and the way he’s clutching his left arm close to his chest suggests this isn’t a social visit. “I almost put a knife through your leg, kid. You could’ve called ahead.”
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Flightless by Sohotthateveryonedied
Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, Batman (Comics), Nightwing (Comics), DCU (Comics)
16 Oct 2026
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“M-My—” Dick rips off the blankets and yanks up the fabric of his shorts, searching for the source of the agony, trying to tamp out the hot static, but there’s nothing—there’s nothing there.
“It’s phantom pain, baby,” Barbara murmurs, taking Dick’s trembling hands away from where his right leg is being shredded apart. “It’s not there, remember?” She turns on the bedside lamp and pushes down the blankets so he can see the empty space where his right knee used to be. “Breathe, Dick. It’s okay. It’s not real.”
Right. Dick swipes the sweat out of his eyes with the back of a shaking hand. Right, they’ve done this before. Every night, they do this.
(Sequel to Icarus, so you should probably read that first if you want this to make sense.)
Series
- Part 10 of Whumptober 2026: Pumpkin Spice and Pain 🧡
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And My Love He Has Stolen Away by Sohotthateveryonedied
Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, Batman (Comics), Nightwing (Comics), DCU (Comics)
18 Oct 2026
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After Dick gets shot in the head, instead of Bruce showing Dick the footage of himself getting shot in the Nightwing suit and traumatizing him like he does in the comics, the Batfamily collectively agrees not to tell Dick anything about their secret identities. No Batman, no Robin, no Nightwing. Just to give his mind the time it needs to recover.
Even without his memories, however, Dick Grayson is still a detective, and he quickly figures out that his family is hiding something from him. He begins to suspect that perhaps Bruce Wayne is not the kindhearted family man he portrays himself to be. How else are Dick's siblings getting all of those mysterious bruises? Why do they keep disappearing in the middle of the night? What is Bruce doing to them in that creepy secret room behind the grandfather clock in his office?
Series
- Part 11 of Whumptober 2026: Pumpkin Spice and Pain 🧡
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We Will Be the Best by Sohotthateveryonedied
Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Batman and Robin (Comics)
19 Oct 2026
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Dick climbs onto the big bed and burrows under the covers. “Alfie just left. You’re going to work now?”
The cover is that Damian’s Batman patrols are just night shifts at the hospital. It’s easy to lie to an eight-year-old about their extracurriculars. Cass has been living at Stephanie’s apartment since Bruce died and Cass relabeled herself Orphan, so she doesn’t have to sneak around the way the others do. Jason claims he’s out partying all night. Tim doesn't bother to explain anything he does, ever.
Damian tucks Dick’s stuffed elephant, Zitka, in alongside him. “I’ll be back in the morning to take you to school.”
“I saw the news today,” Dick says. “They said Tony Zucco got out. The police let him go home.” Damian groans inwardly. He was hoping to put this conversation off for as long as possible. He told Tim to keep the news channels off. “Why didn’t they put him in jail?”
(How Dick became the fifth Robin in my Reverse Robins AU)
Series
- Part 12 of Whumptober 2026: Pumpkin Spice and Pain 🧡
- Part 9 of Reverse Robin AU
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20mg (Take With Food) by Sohotthateveryonedied
Fandoms: Nightwing (Comics), Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
22 Oct 2026
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When Dick was a freshly orphaned eight-year-old, the same phenomenon struck him. Even when he was so hungry it felt like his organs were digesting themselves, he couldn’t eat anything without the taste flooding him with dread. Bruce and Alfred spent months bargaining and worrying over their hungry disappointment.
It didn’t take long for the pair to catch on that the issue was mental and not physical. Dick’s entire life had been ripped out from under him and the only thing he could control was what he ate (or didn’t eat). They found tricks along the way to get him back on track. The same strategies proved effective years later when Dick stopped eating again—not because he couldn’t this time, but because he didn’t want to.
If he calls Bruce, Dick knows for a fact that his father will drop everything and come to Blüdhaven to help Dick dig himself out of this hole like he did the first time and every time after, but Dick has no interest in being helped this time.
Series
- Part 3 of *shoots dick grayson with eating disorder ray*
- Part 13 of Whumptober 2026: Pumpkin Spice and Pain 🧡
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The Secret by Sohotthateveryonedied
Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
24 Oct 2026
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“What happened to you as a child…The terror, the pain, the horrors. But that secret is one that neither of us should have kept. You needed repair, and instead I gave you an outlet to act out on. For that, I apologize.”
Something was off with Jason. Bruce couldn’t put his finger on what it was, initially. It took a long time for the inkling to shape into a theory, and then for that theory to become quiet certainty. In hindsight, Bruce knows now how deeply he failed Jason. Before the Joker. Before Felipe Garzonas, even.
Bruce knew what Jason was hiding. He was the world’s greatest detective and Jason’s father. He knew what happened to street kids who got backed into corners or had to resort to unseemly methods of survival in a city like Gotham. Bruce knew how to identify what were blatant symptoms of a trauma survivor. He just didn’t want to face it.
Series
- Part 14 of Whumptober 2026: Pumpkin Spice and Pain 🧡
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I've Always Wanted to Be Like You by Sohotthateveryonedied
Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, Batman (Comics), Batman and Robin (Comics), DCU (Comics)
26 Oct 2026
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Everyone knows that Bruce Wayne has OCD. Good thing Damian is nothing like that. All of his behaviors make perfect sense to him. Everyone likes it better when their bedroom is tidy and their injuries are symmetrical. Everyone forces themselves to imagine graphic scenarios of their entire family dying in horrific ways so that the universe balances out and doesn't make it actually happen, right? Right?
Series
- Part 15 of Whumptober 2026: Pumpkin Spice and Pain 🧡