#bbu community days

[bbu-on-the-side]

BBU Community Days 2024! In April!

Thank you, BBU community, for existing! To celebrate this community and our shared universe, I'll host a second instance of the BBU Community Days.

The event is open to everyone who enjoys the BBU. You don't have to be a writer or a long time participant, or anything, it's enough to just be someone who is fascinated by the universe! There's also no need to fill in all the prompts; no completionist badge will be awarded. The only "rule" is: if you want to boost your own content, please always boost someone else's too.

This year's prompts are in parts similar to last year's, some even stayed the same due to their success and popularity. Looking forward to seeing your new takes to it.

[Rules]

All prompts and a transcript of the image can be found under the cut as well.

April 14 / Community Prompt: (Re)Introduction / (Re-) Introduce yourself and give a little overview about your BBU writing / creations, favorite tropes, and the like.

April 15 / Worldbuilding Prompt: Questions (and Polls!) / What's an open question you've always asked yourself about the BBU?

April 16 / Writing Prompt: "RULES" / Write a BBU story based on the one-word-prompt and share it!

April 17 / Showcasing Prompt: Boxies / Talk about your current favorite boxie OCs (one of your own, one or more by someone else) with commentary on what makes them special to you!

April 18 / Creation Prompt: Memes & Prompts / Create a BBU meme (that would work in-universe or as a meta commentary - your call!), or curate a little BBU prompt list to inspire fellow writers, artists or roleplayers!

April 19 / Community Prompt: Favorites New & Old / Talk about the writers, characters or stories that most inspired your BBU journey - and if possible include a "new" favorite that you discovered (or that has only been been written) after last year’s event!

April 20 / Worldbuilding Prompt: Inspiration / What's an idea about the BBU worldbuilding that particularly inspires you, be it to daydream or to write?

April 21 / Writing Prompt: "OUTSIDE" / Write a BBU story based on the one-word-prompt and share it!

April 22 / Showcasing Prompt: Handlers or Owners / Talk about your current favorite BBU whumper OCs (one of your own, one or more by someone else) with commentary on what makes them special to you!

April 23 / Creation Prompt: In-Universe Media / Create a piece of media that could exist within the BBU!

April 24 / Community Prompt: Fanwork / Create a piece of fanwork (fanart, fanfic, moodboard, playlist…) for someone else’s BBU story, character, setting, pairing, or whatever inspires you about them!

April 25 / Worldbuilding Prompt: Archetypes / What’s a standard element of BBU worldbuilding you love to come back to in your own writing, and that makes you happy to see in others’? What are potential spins to it?

April 26 / Writing Prompt: "MADE FOR IT" / Write a BBU story based on the prompt and share it!

April 27 / Showcasing Prompt: Caretaker / Talk about your current favorite BBU caretaker OCs - be it pet lib activists, kind (?) owners, a boxie's loved ones... - (one of your own, one or more by someone else) with commentary on what makes them special to you!

April 28 / Creation Prompt: Collaboration / Create a piece of BBU content together with another community member! 

[whumperwithwings]

BBU Community days day 5? Prompt

Whumpee is a famous actor who goes to an event, but is kidnapped by a fan who doesn’t think that they portrayed a character ‘right’. Said fan then turns them in to the WRU, who are glad to be able to get such a high price for somebody who just so happens to look like a famous celebrity.

[maracujatangerine]

April 20 / Worldbuilding Prompt: Inspiration / What's an idea about the BBU worldbuilding that particularly inspires you, be it to daydream or to write?

It definitely has to be the healing…

The way boxies slowly relearn how to be human again, how to acknowledge their own needs and desires, that they themselves matter. Not only the role that they fulfil for someone else, or the usefulness that they can bring to the table, but them, as people.

I like how physical and mental healing go hand in hand. Sure, in fits and starts, and with some steps forward followed by several steps back, but that boxies having their physical needs met usually also helps with their mental healing.

I also really like how friends and caretakers can help, but that the boxies have to take the steps to heal by themselves.

[ashintheairlikesnow]

BBU Community Days

@bbu-on-the-side * {Day 8} Barcode

-

CW: Police harassment, derogatory/demeaning language, prostitution, implied dubcon

The asshole officer shines a flashlight right in his face, half-blinding him, and he winces and turns his face away. "What the fuck-"

"I said turn it over. Show me."

"Show you what?"

The officer sighs, sounding wearied, and the runaway pet wants to punch him in his stupid smug face. He thinks he's tired? He didn't spend the last day hiding from pouring rain that has streets flooded and people in rain boots half-wading when they have to go out. "You know what. Turn your wrist over and show me your barcode."

"I don't have to do anything." The pet's chin juts out, eyes narrowed to slits against the glare of light still aimed right at him. "Come back with a fucking warrant."

"Okay, I would, but you aren't in a house. You aren't even inside. This is an alley. This is public space and you are causing discomfort to the people who actually do live here. Come on, Boxie, wrist out. Let me see it."

"I don't have a fucking barcode. What, is it illegal to sit now? I'm just sitting. I'm not harming anyone."

The officer looks like he might just sigh so heavily with irritation that he blacks out. The pet waits, a little hopeful, but it doesn't happen. "Listen. Look. You get up and walk away, I'll pretend I never saw you. Nice people in this neighborhood, they don't want you whoring around for your dinner, got it?"

His heart stops - for just a second - before it beats again. He swallows, hard. Some of his defiance has faded before he finds a retort. "What-... What makes you think-"

"I've seen you before, buddy. Down by the warehouse district."

"Why not arrest my John?"

"Your John?"

"Well, how the hell did you think I got here from the warehouse district in the first place, numbnuts? We were having a good time til his fucking girlfriend called."

"... Jesus. Come on. Up you go, get outta here and I won't even look. Just get."

He doesn't have a choice. The runaway pushes himself uneasily to his feet, watching as the cop backs up to give him some space. There's that, at least.

His stomach growls.

When did he eat last? Shit. A day ago? Two?

The flashlight is pointed down, now, and he can see the cop's face. Honestly, he's seen worse. The guy looks pretty fit, too. And Jesus, he's so hungry...

"I don't suppose you'd give me a ride," He says, cocking his head to the side. Defiance slips into practiced seduction with only a shiver of self-loathing down his spine. "I can pay for it."

"Don't bribe me. You don't have a fucking cent or you wouldn't be a whore, Boxie."

"I didn't say I'd pay with money." He smiles, like this is a silly flirty joke between them. "Trust me, I'm good at this. I'm so good. Don't you ever wonder what fucking a Romantic is like? Like a Lamborghini with spread legs, yeah? You drive me back to the warehouse district, you don't check my barcode, and I make this the best shift you've worked in days..."

The cop thinks, jaw working, looking off to one side and then the other. The pet watches him take off his wedding ring and slip it into his pocket with a mix of triumph and hatred.

"Right. Yeah. Get in the back. We'll find a place to park."

His heart thumps and his wrist itches under the ink as he slides into the back of the squad car, with doors that don't open from the inside and a screen he can't break through. Maybe he'll be murdered and dumped in a ditch somewhere. Maybe the cop will just take him to jail.

Or maybe he really will drive him back.

It's always a roll of the dice when he offers himself for a ride.

Sooner or later he'll run out of luck.

[gottawhump]

Discipline

Carlisle

CW/TW: vaguely implied noncon, pet whump, minor caretaking a grown whumpee, BBU/WRU, shock collar. Carlisle’s a bit older here. For BBU Community Day 3: Discipline. @bbu-on-the-side it’s three days late, but it’s done.

Ellis. His new Pet, from the Shelter, is named Ellis.

He helps Carlisle keep his room clean, brings him snacks while he studies, listens to him reading stories until he falls asleep in his cot at night.

Ellis is a constant in his life, more than his parents who are often away on business or the household Pets, whose faces change regularly. He is always there.

So when the boy comes home from visiting friends one day, he notices when Ellis is not there to greet him. He is not puttering around the big house, making himself busy and useful, helping out the Domestics at their chores.

Carlisle’s stomach drops out. Sent to a farm upstate, he thinks bitterly. But surely his parents wouldn’t do that to him, get rid of his Ellis without at least talking to him first? He’s not sure.

He finds the man in his clothes closet, curled up on the floor, tears silently streaming down his scarred face. When he sees him, Ellis smiles up at him. It looks as real as all his other smiles have been, but this time Carlisle sees how he puts it on over his pain.

He kneels down next to him, even as Ellis tries to rise to his knees.

“What happened, Ellis?”

“I-I disobeyed an order. Carlisle couldn’t believe his ears. Ellis never disobeyed. “I’m all right, young Sir. Dis-dis-discipline is a nec-necessary and, and humane part of maintaining a Pet’s training. It’s my fault. It won’t happen again. I’m sorry.”

“But what happened?”

“I’m not supposed to tell you.”

it takes a while, as he settles Ellis onto his cot, taking off the hard black shock collar and gently replacing it with Ellis’ soft bright green leather collar, getting him a drink of water, before he gets the whole story out. Direct questions are useless; he has to ask around the topic, gleaning the truth from the Pet’s answers.

What he thinks happened enrages him.

He hides his rage behind a practiced smile. People-his parents-tend to dismiss angry teenagers. He keeps his voice calm and reasonable.

“I want Ellis.”

“He’s already yours.”

He ignores the mild condescension. “No, I mean, for real. I want him signed over to me.”

“You know you’ll inherit all of the Pets when we’re gone.”

“I know, but I want Ellis to be mine now.”

“Why the urgency?”

If he isn’t supposed to know, he can’t bring the real reason up. But Pets aren’t the only ones who can talk around an issue. “He’s useless today because of how someone disciplined him earlier. I don’t want that to happen again. If he’s mine, legally, then I’m in charge of how and when he’s disciplined.”

There’s hesitation, and he braces for more argument.

“Fine.” A few mouse clicks, a few keystrokes. “It’s done. He’s completely your responsibility now, Carlisle. I hope you’re ready.”

“I am.” Well, he thinks he is.

That night, Ellis wakes Carlisle up with his nightmares, something he hasn’t done since the first few months after bringing him home from the shelter. He goes back to sleep quickly, when he sees their familiar bedroom, once he apologizes.

“You’re a good boy, Ellis.”

Tagging for Old Friends: @painful-pooch @justplainwhump @redwingedwhump @maracujatangerine @honeycollectswhump

[comfy-whumpee]

@bbu-on-the-side​ Day 10 is in-universe media.

BBU Refurbox customer service emails

https://comfy-whumpee.tumblr.com/post/663240950611574784/birdhouse-inbox

Subject: My box boy

Hi

My boxie dropped a plate because of us saying the word ‘refurbished’. Every time we say this he freaks out and starts crying. We have started doing furniture upholstery as a hobby and we have to use this word a lot.

Please fix this!

Bani

BBU Help At Home social media

https://comfy-whumpee.tumblr.com/post/692669181476438016/the-feed

James @spoonboy22

Help at home claims to be sooo ethical but my mom’s domestic is terrified of knives

Help At Home @helpathome ✅

@spoonboy22 Sorry to hear that, James! Do you have the product number? We will look into it further for you 👀 Our pets are never physically harmed in training, so we are confident it isn’t from us!

BBU “pet lib call for action to desperate owner self help reddit thread”

https://comfy-whumpee.tumblr.com/post/702293736225488896/the-forum

r/boxieadvice holepunch5309 two hours ago

Office pet beat up by other staff (advice)

Posting this from a throwaway so I don’t get fired. My company is a small business that has a boxie in the head office. He technically belongs to the manager but he was bought with company funds. He does hospitality, cleaning, filing and stuff. But recently the heads of department have started hurting him.

And I haven’t posted this on its own before:

BBU Refurbox Christmas holiday ad!

(Refurbox and Help at Home are both my creation but questions welcome!)

[whumperhive]

BBU Community Days - Introduction

Hey, hey, hello! Call me Bee, this is my first introduction; and I'm a bit late to these Days, unfortunately! But I'm here now!

I use they/them! I am 19, and generally just scampering around reading all of y'alls stuff before stuffing it in my mouth and scampering away like a lil' chipmunk!!!

I enjoy BBU for the worldbuilding, the loss and recovery of what makes a person them, the effects of trauma in general, and more! I also enjoy exploring non-human characters, in any role, and their views or how others view them in a BBU setting! And like I said earlier, I also enjoy reading such things as well, along with pet whump in general!

My one and only series is Amaranthine Apricity, a "Choose Your Own Adventure" series inspired by such similar series like "Stray" by @sowhumpshaped! You can find the Masterlist Here! My posting on here and on Double A may be sporadic, so I apologize! This blog is a hobby blog, and my motivation comes and goes!

I hope you all enjoy my writing here as just a little creature behind a laptop!

@bbu-on-the-side

[whumppsychology]

BBU Community Days!

@bbu-on-the-side

{Day 7: Details} What's a detail of BBU worldbuilding you always wanted to dive into? (Newly emerging professions, legal aspects, pet fashion, economic side effects, societal aspects, facility workplace ethic, history, safehouse organisation, deconditioning…) Do it now, and ramble a bit!

One thing I've kinda wanted to see from the community something like a "humane treatment of pets" campaign. I know we've got the Pet-Lib-ers (and adjacent) but I'm talking more about something that isn't trying to liberate the pets, but still trying to get them some better treatment. Something like the BBU equivalent of the ASPCA or PETA* or something, and all that entails. I'm talking pamphlets, logos saying "not tested on pets," telethons, depressing commercials at the holidays, ect...

Something like:

(Featuring Sophie via this picrew and a semi-stray cat I met in Egypt also sorry not sorry for the crappy quality, I made this on my phone in like 5 minutes)

*I know these orgs. are problematic, but I'm using them to get my point across, but also! wouldn't that be fun to cover...

Edit: I just realised this also counts for day 10:In-BBU-Media so ha! Two for one!

[pumpkin-spice-whump]

BBU Community Days - Day 1

* {Day 1: Introduction} Introduce yourself and give a little overview about your BBU writing / creations. If you want, this is the moment to advertise yourself!

@bbu-on-the-side

Hey guys! I introduced myself when I first made my blog about a year and a half ago but that was a year and a half ago… so.

I’m Van! I’m almost 20, and I’ve been into whump for literally as long as I can remember, but I’ve only been writing since I was about 11. I have three (slowly) ongoing whump stories, 847481: Jesse, Kensington, and Reap the Harvest.

My BBU story is 847481: Jesse. It is about a platonic/domestic boxboy named Jesse who nannies for three young girls, Abigail, Eva, and Harper. He has pretty severe OCD and anxiety (no that’s not me projecting whatttt) and is routinely physically and sexually abused by his owners, Mr. and Mrs. Bakeman.

Although there is a lot of noncon elements in the story, none of it is or will ever be explicit. It is all mostly just heavily implied. Jesse's OCD could be triggering, especially for those with intrusive thoughts, as Jesse struggles a lot with harm OCD (towards himself and others).

I love love love my readers and hope I can get more people interested in this story, as this is by far my longest one on tumblr!

[covertuneshq]

Charli xcx - Guess (Special Edition with Lyrics) ft. Billie Eilish

[sleepyone232]

Happy mothers day y'all!!!!

I personally don't celebrate it, but it's still nice to draw

[bbu-on-the-side]

BBU Community Days | Day 2 | Questions (and Polls?)

Masterpost | Rules

Transcript:

What's an open question you've always asked yourself about the BBU? Ask it, and see if other writers have found answers to it! Feel free to add a poll, too.

Check out the others' questions and discuss your answers!

Reminder: Tag this blog or use #bbu community to be reblogged!

[whumperwithwings]

BBU Community days day 10?/April 23: In-universe media

I fucking hate this drawing, but it’s an ad! (At least I drew something serious, I haven’t in too goddamn long)

[highwaywhump]

BBU community days, day 5!

{Day 5: Meme/Prompts} Create a BBU meme (that would work in-universe or as a meta commentary - your call!), or curate a little BBU prompt list to inspire fellow writers, artists or roleplayes!

I've tried to make some in-universe memes, from different persepctives in the boxboy universe. They were really fun to make so I hope they make sense!

Firstly, memes by college students who are contemplating their choices:

Memes found in handler group chats, making fun of new handlers:

Memes from pet lib group chats:

Lastly, a red pill meme for people in denial:

@bbu-on-the-side

[ashintheairlikesnow]

BBU Community Days

@bbu-on-the-side {Day 13} Safety

-

CW: Pet whump, BBU, referenced violence, scars, memory loss

Safety is as easy and as simple as the collar around his neck. Every night, Peter Renford goes to sleep with a soft cloth one that he can't even really feel, and pulls the blankets up to nearly cover his own head until he is bathed in the dark.

It never takes long for him to fall asleep. When he dreams, he doesn't remember most of them beyond the memory of a soccer ball, pounding cleats, sitting at a kitchen table with a box of fried chicken from the KFC down the road and fighting with his brother over who gets the last of the mashed potatoes and gravy. The chemical-salt taste lingers somewhere under the headache already pounding behind his temples when he comes awake, groaning and shifting along the air mattress he sleeps on, on the floor of a tiny room that was a half-bath before his Madam made it his bedroom.

He stretches, and the scars layered over his back from neck to ass protest. They don't move like regular skin, and he winces. New welts throb, waking up right with him.

For a second, behind the headache and the pain in his back and knees, Peter knows that something is terribly, horribly wrong about this.

He knows, even though he doesn't want to know, that his name isn't Peter Renford.

But he can't remember what it was.

Then he fumbles clumsy sleep-slowed fingers to his neck, slipping the cloth collar away from skin that doesn't remember how to be bared. His heart beats too quickly - to have a collar removed is to be in danger, at risk. It is what happens when Madam really hurts him. Keeping it on is a promise between pet and owner that each will keep the other safe.

Outside, just beyond the door, he hears footsteps. A muttered grumble tells him it's Sebastian, heading downstairs to make breakfast and coffee. Dex, silent as a grave, must be right behind him, but you never hear Dex.

Seen and not heard, perfectly made, Madam always says. I do not make mistakes.

Except for Peter.

But Madam didn't train him. She just got the failure that no one else wanted to buy.

Peter swallows, nervous at the way he can feel air on skin, and scrambles to the box of collars laid out by collar next to the bed. He finds a good one, simple navy leather with a silver buckle, and pulls it on.

As soon as he feels it, the welcome familiar constriction and cool leather warming to his skin, his fear falls away.

Safe.

He's safe.

It's quick work to pull on a sweater and pants, run fingers through his hair, and try a few more stretches. Madam isn't home this week, she's at a conference, and so the house can stay soft and he and Seb can laugh about anything they want while Dex watches with little crinkles at the corners of his eyes.

Just him and his brothers, for a few more days.

The last dregs of his dream whisper, They aren't your brothers. You aren't supposed to be here.

But those thoughts aren't safe.

So he locks them away, and by the time he gets downstairs, Peter Renford has forgotten the dream entirely.

Except for the feeling, still lingering, that something is terribly wrong here.

[gottawhump]

Barcode

115

CW/TW: brainwashing and conditioning, pet whump, BBU/WRU (with attendant warnings), lady whump.

I didn’t expect this character to want this much development. He was supposed to be a plot point. I tried writing this from her POV, but she didn’t cooperate.

At the moment these two exist in a liminal state between my two BBU series.

So, here’s my submission, @bbu-on-the-side, for BBU Community Day, day 8: Barcode:

She doesn’t know what she is.

He knows she’s a Romantic by the way she tilts her head, how she glances up through her eyelashes, from the mannerisms trained into both of them.

A Pet knows another Pet.

But she doesn’t know herself, he thinks, the owner’s special Romantic. She wears a ring, not a collar.

There’s no barcode on her wrist.

He makes mistakes. That’s why he keeps getting sent back, getting wiped and refurbed and rehomed. That’s what the handlers tell him.

Maybe he’s wrong.

He hopes he’s wrong. She takes him out of the cellar sometimes, or out of the guest room, when the owner is gone. She talks to him over a meal, like he was a person.

Because we are the same.

Maybe he’s wrong.

She came out of the Facility remembering her life with the owner, the one in the pictures around the house. But she doesn’t question why the children shown are not there. She doesn’t ask to revisit the adventures shown.

Her dark curly hair covers her neck now, and she doesn’t leave the house without the owner.

She doesn’t know, and 115 knows it’s a secret. And maybe he’s wrong.

Then, one evening before a party, she asks him to help her put up her hair. When he coils and pins up the long dark hair, he sees the barcode on the back of her neck. 251892.