Famous whumpee sick before their first big interview/public event. They're a rising star, still new to the spotlight, so the pressure is immense and their manager is no help, only reminding them of how hard they worked to book this so whumpee better not mess up.
It never mattered how they felt. Sick, tired - those were excuses. What mattered was that they could perform. Manager was right. If they stopped every time something happened, they wouldn't have made it this far. Whumpee sighed. They've been run down for days. Exhausted as they were, they kept going.
Stylist remarks on how warm Whumpee feels as they do their hair, taking extra time to hide the dark circles and ill complexion. When they almost stumble out of the chair, Stylist urges them to sit back down, but Whumpee rushes off. Lateness is not acceptable.
Whumpee sat heavily in the car. Everything hurt. They took a breath, trying to reassure themselves by repeating Manager's guidance, though both the words and their breath felt shallow.
The lights were blinding. Smile, stand straight. You're doing great. They blinked. Right, a question - it was getting hard to keep up. They felt like they were suffocating it was so hot. Deep breaths. They tried, broke into a harsh cough before they could respond. A reporter offers a glass of water which they accept with a smile and trembling hand.
Somehow they pull it off*. But their body gives up as they head backstage. Before getting out of view, whumpee's legs buckle, their eyes roll back, and they pass out in front of the media.
(*bonus if media starts analyzing tiny details in pre-collapse screenshots/video, talking about all the ways they seemed off, "diagnosing" them, etc.)
hey anon how does marriage sound because i love you for this.
ok but seriously this is one of my favourite things ever and there's so much to get into. i really love the idea of whumpee pushing themself so far in this scenario, only to be told once they've collapsed that they didn't have to do that.
#1: to get to where they are now, whumpee was raised with ridiculously high expectations. even as a kid, people pushed them to go far. they've been overworked their whole life to get to this point and raised in such a toxic environment that it never occurred to them that getting to the actual industry might not really be like that. sure, there's a lot of pressure. but it's also run by humans, most of whom have empathy and do actually care about whumpee.
#2: at some point in the not-so-distant past, whumpee switched managers and teams. their old team was really abusive, constantly pushing whumpee past their limits and hurting them badly in the process. but whumpee was so used to it that they didn't realise it wasn't normal.
so now, when they're sick under their new management, whumpee is insisting that they're fine and can go on because that's what they think is expected of them. they don't want to cause a fuss or make their managers mad by complaining.
their team raise a few eyebrows, but decide to let whumpee go on anyway because they're very insistent, but behind the scenes, everyone is worried. worried enough that they're almost prepared for when whumpee finally collapses.
whumpee comes to, slightly disoriented, surrounded by medical people, and they're terrified because they think they're about to be in so much trouble. but their new manager just asks why whumpee didn't say they were feeling so ill.
(cue my favourite: "Whumpee, what did you think I was going to do you?" followed by new manager's horror as whumpee recounts even the mildest punishment whumper would give them for trying to skip out on an event)
AND THE MEDIA ANALYSING THE MOMENTS LEADING UP TO IT anon you get ALL the bonus points. again, this is one of my favourite things ever because it's just so public. there's so much scrutiny, and if it happens once it's likely to happen again, so now whumpee feels like they're constantly being picked apart.
no one will stop talking about it. whatever the event was actually about doesn't matter anymore, because all anyone will say about it is "oh, did you see whumpee passed out? yeah, like they proper collapsed" and then the clip gets brought up again and again and again.
and technically it's not that big of a deal. whumpee just fainted. they're sick. it happens. but for whumpee, who has never been allowed to be any of those things before, especially not publicly, it's terrifying (even moreso if the sickness is directly related to some other whumpy event they're trying desperately to keep a secret, and now they're scared that people will start scrutinising their old interviews in the same way and realise what whumper was doing to them).