Red Carpet Whump

[redcarpetwhump]

hey folks welcome to redcarpetwhump. i've been on the hunt for content about (fictional) famous whumpees and public whump scenarios for a while now, and while i've found some fabulous stuff, it's very difficult to come across lots of it at once. so i've made this blog!

here ye shall find:

anything within the public eye & media industries

behind the scenes whump

sports & professional athlete whump

lots and lots of passing out on the red carpet

asks with more ideas are very welcome and would make me very happy. my only rule is that all prompts must not be about anyone real. when i say "famous/celebrity whumpee", i mean a fictional character. no rpf please! other than that, ask away.

this is a sideblog. main -> @pain-in-the-everywhere

[redcarpetwhump]

People dig wayyyy too far on the internet to try to find material to cancel famous Whumpee. Instead, they find buried court cases, pictures of Whumpee that are barely recognisable as them, videos of them being hurt. And suddenly everything Whumpee had buried in the past is trending and the latest topic of gossip.

[redcarpetwhump]

Whumper is a fashion designer. Whumpee has been free of them for years now. They've built themself a life. They're famous and thriving in their industry, and they've just been nominated for a huge award that they're 100% going to win, but they can't enjoy the moment because their skin is crawling. They need to get out of their clothes and burn them, because who is the talented person who made them that everyone has spent the whole night praising?

Whumper.

[redcarpetwhump]

Whumpee is an understudy for the lead role in a play. The lead actor is someone super famous and important, so obviously when they get sick they're given top priority and given the day off to make sure it doesn't get worse. Which means Whumpee is forced to go on... but they're not feeling great either.

In fact, they're feeling a hell of a lot worse than the actor they're stepping in for. But they can't say no because otherwise the show will be cancelled, and even if they do say something they're met with a dismissive "just go on and see how it goes."

Then after the show Whumpee has to deal with the public's disappointment at not getting to see the lead actor, coupled with complaints about Whumpee’s sub-par performance, with no sympathy or recognition that Whumpee is very not okay.

[redcarpetwhump]

haven't seen much about musician whumpee, so hear me out: singer whumpee who lost their voice hours before an important performance and desperately tried to restore it through any means available. enter a frustrated manager who blamed the singer for being "careless with their health" and told the singer to pull themselves together or risk damaging their hard earned reputation. the singer broke down in the dressing room, with tears ruining their makeup and sobs worsening their hoarse voice.

bonus point if whumpee's vocal problem didn't come from a sore throat, but because whumpee got into a fight earlier in the day and whumper strangled them so hard they nearly blacked out.

oh this is brilliant. the whump reveal here is particularly tasty because it has to happen. whumpee can't pretend that nothing's wrong, because they can't sing. they can hardly talk. not to mention the fact that they're still shaking and terrified from the attack.

are their bruises? do they have enough makeup to cover them? does the manager's reaction change when they find out the truth?

(could whumper actually be the manager? maybe whumpee was already planning on pulling out of the performance. their manager couldn't make them do it, but they didn't think whumpee had a good enough excuse, so they choked whumpee out to give them something real to complain about.)

and how do whumpee's bandmates react? do they confront whumpee outright, or just exchange quiet glances with each other because they're not sure what else to do? something's wrong, but whumpee isn't talking, and when they do, they're sure as shit not being honest.

whumpee has to cancel the performance. obviously. they can't go out like that, with a wrecked voice and tears still on their face. but cancelling makes people try reeeeeeeally hard to find out why. how long before something gets out?

[dystopianranpoeart]

As a trained opera singer, this happens way too much. I personally have really bad allergies, so I always need to cough. It makes doing stuff frustrating. Whilst in my lessons, I can almost never sing to my full potential because I can’t breathe properly (or because there’s a bunch of phlegm in my throat). It’s especially bad if I ate something before. Apple? Throat & mouth is itchy. Chocolate? Phlegm and itchy throat. Watermelon? Now you sound like you’ve been smoking 6 packs a day since you were 11. SHT sucks.

It’s usually why I’m in a choir lol. You can cover it easier. But the thing about being able to sing properly in a room full of high schoolers who have no fucking clue what they’re doing is that you’re neutrally the loudest one there. At least for me, though I also have no control over how loud I am half the time.

Imagine a whumpee with asthma who needs their inhaler after every song. Imagine a disabled whumpee who needs crutches in order to stand. Imagine a whumpee with tonsil issues who constantly has to force their voice due to bronchitis, pharyngitis, etc. imagine a tone deaf whumpee that gets slapped every time they get the wrong note. Imagine a whumpee who has to redo a line over and over and over because they just can’t get the rhythm down. Imagine a whimper at a high school level, forced to sit in a choir with all their peers, listening to them fail over and over and always talk and being envious of them. Their life isn’t revolved around music. Their life isn’t revolved around this.

Imagine a whumpee forced into state, then country, then to get disqualified because they were found doing something they shouldn’t have been. Imagine a whumpee successfully climbing their way to the top, to finally be free of the bone-crushing pressure of winning, only to be dragged to another competition the next day. Imagine a whumpee being thrown music to learn for said competition and only having a few hours. Imagine whumpee being forced back to school the next day, after the weekend, after long, long plane trips, just for people to bombard them with congratulations and signatures.

Imagine whumper suddenly sitting in their choir, smiling at them from the corner of the room. Imagine whumper sitting outside their practice room and hearing their mistakes. Imagine whumper being there, haunting them, every time they turned a corner.

Bonus points if whumper is abusive/hurting them at home.

What would caretaker do? What would caretaker do when they discover how stressed whumpee is? What would they do when whumpee never texted them like they said they would? What would caretaker do when they walk down to whumpee’s house uninvited, just wanting to see them again, only to hear whumpee’s broken, hoarse voice forcing out notes that don’t even sound human anymore?

[redcarpetwhump]

So I was listening to the radio, as one does, and a commercial or news or whatever comes on, talking about.. football or softball or something and about trading the player and I was just like.

We casually talk about trading a human based on what? Vibes?

But imagine a Whumpee who knows they can be traded at any time for any reason, and they might find out right before a game or something

oh this has some wonderful blackmailing potential. whumper is some superior person working for whumpee's sports team. they want whumpee to keep quiet about what's happening behind closed doors. they also have secrets about whumpee that, if released, would be easy grounds for getting whumpee traded to another team. and maybe whumpee wants to go somewhere else, but not if it means those private things become public when it's revealed why they were disposed of. so whumpee keeps their mouth shut and endures whatever whumper is doing to them, and, in turn, whumper keeps their mouth shut too.

another idea is that the entire sports league is riddled with corrupt and awful people, so whumper uses trading whumpee as a threat. "oh, you don't like it here? i could always send you somewhere else. then you'd see how nice we are."

or perhaps being traded was a punishment to whumpee for speaking out about something. abuse they went through, related to their sport or not, that is taboo in some way, and their current team don't want to be associated with it so off whumpee goes. hopefully their new team is a little more supportive, but whumpee can't be sure.

or it's simply that whumpee has finally found a home with their current team. they've got friends, a safe space, routine, safety, a family. but now they're terrified of putting even a hair across the line because what if one day management decides they're not wanted anymore and shuffles whumpee off to another team where they'll have to rebuild all of that from scratch?

and the fact that it could happen at any time with no warning. whumpee's whole life just gets uprooted. and for what? because someone wanted them gone, or because someone wanted them closer? not only will they have to leave behind their old team, they might have to relocate. change everything. and still carry on like they're totally fine.

[redcarpetwhump]

i love this blog so much 😤 im so happy to see that others people enjoy this trop + the asks FEED me.

lots of love

my diet is 99% asks from you guys and let me tell you i have never been more nourished. i only made this blog a month ago but there's already over 100 of you here! isn't that awesome???

[redcarpetwhump]

idk if this is your jam but. famous scientist whumpee.

they used to really like their work but they discovered something and whumper noticed and it's not going well for whumpee. working on applications they don't approve of, forced to work unreasonable hours, interviews with the media or investors where whumper made them a script and it's really just Not True. whumper getting irrationally angry about them not getting results (even tho that's not How Science Works.). constantly thanking their team and/or boss (whumper) for the opportunity and the support and everything.

oh also whumper threatening them with Bad Things if they don't get those Grants.

i've never thought of this before but i like it a lot.

where my mind immediately jumped to was whumper getting so frustrated with whumpee not producing the desired results that they start making whumpee part of the experiment.

"you're not trying hard enough, whumpee. you're not giving enough."

so whumper turns whumpee into their lab rat and human test subject, and suddenly they're making major developments. their findings could genuinely change the world.

and, of course, whumper wouldn't want to steal whumpee's spotlight. they let whumpee do all the interviews. watch whumpee stumble over the right words and try not to panic as the reporters ask "how did you figure this out?". laugh as whumpee runs out of generic answers and just starts lying to avoid revealing what's actually happening in the lab, because they're scared of what whumper will do to them if they talk.

(even moreso, they're scared of what science might do to other people if whumpee talks. because what's happening to them is inhumane, but also the benefits for everyone else... well, maybe they could sacrifice a few to help the many?)

i also love the idea of the biggest consequence of the truth being revealed being that whumpee is the one to get in trouble for lying about the findings. wasting resources and time. misleading other scientists and putting false information into important fields. and by the time people have gotten over that to realise maybe whumpee is really not okay, it's almost too late to help them.

[redcarpetwhump]

whumpee who is very vocal about a topic. advocating against abuse, maybe they played the role of a victim in a movie and now they're being praised for it. or maybe they revealed something from their past and receive a lot of support.

whumper watching an interview or reading posts to whumpee. mocking. "you're so brave, aren't you. so strong"

yes yes yes yes yes. this is something i do so often with my celebrity ocs. there's so many ways to go about it, but my favourite is when the advocacy is very personal to whumpee, but it looks completely performative because it's not safe for them to admit they've been through what they're talking about. especially if the abuse situation is ongoing.

because whumpee is rich and famous, it seems really shallow to talk about this as if they can understand. because there's more than just empathy in the way they speak. it's like they have experience with it, but they don't. they can't. so people take it as whumpee speaking over "actual survivors" or downplaying what it's really like to live with trauma because "they played a character with PTSD in a movie and now they think they know what it's like??? what the fuck???"

and whumper's involvement oh my goddddd. letting whumpee go out there and make all these speeches and raise all this awareness to put an end to the horrific things they talk about, then laughing because when the cameras are turned off and whumpee and whumper are alone, it's clear whumpee's words are entirely empty.

"you're so brave in front of the cameras, telling people you want to help them. so brave, and so full of shit," whumper laughs. whumpee flinches. "go on, stand up to me like you stand up for them. put a stop to it."

another thing i love doing with this trope is having whumpee publicly base their advocacy off abuse they've experienced "in the past", but in reality it's a cover-up for something that's still ongoing. nobody is going to question that things are wrong now if whumpee says they've escaped the problem. everyone knows they have PTSD. everyone knows they might act differently sometimes or have bad days. everyone knows it happened to them. so when they see all the signs that things are really not good on whumpee in the present, they assume they're just going through a rough patch with memories from the past.

[painwithoutplot]

i really like it when a whumpee who is forced to do something (usually some kind of sports or performance), held to unattainable standards in that thing, brutally "punished" for failing to meet those standards, etc, actually does really deeply love doing that thing. i like seeing how that relationship gets twisted and how it can be harder to escape the whump situation when, like, this really is your one true passion. and yet

[painwithoutplot]

like wgat happens when the thing you throw yourself into to cope is also The Whump Thing. what then

[redcarpetwhump]

famous whumpee and fan who accidentally became caretaker in an emergency situation since whumpee was separated from their team and couldn't be in touch with them at the moment (bad reception, no Internet, you know the drill). either way, whumpee was... incapacitated. the fan ran into whumpee while trying to evacuate. normally, this would be the luckiest day of the fan's life and they would take lots of selfies with whumpee. unfortunately they're too deep into survival mode to think about that. the fan wanted to help whumpee get somewhere safe, out of genuine concern for their fave. whumpee, on the other hand, didn't trust caretaker so easily because, well... they've had unpleasant experience with creepy fans, and who's stopping this one from taking advantage of the dire situation? whumpee stepped back from the fan, insisting they need to leave whumpee alone or they'll call the police. taken aback by whumpee's words, the fan apologised and headed the other way. they were only a few meters away when whumpee collapsed with a loud thud. they turned back and found out whumpee's been hiding an injury which needs immediate attention. they have no choice but to rely on the fan to survive :)

those previous fan experiences must have been bad for whumpee's first instinct to be to call the cops. they're fucking terrified. they know they're hurt. they know they're on their own, but still they can't face the idea of letting this stranger help them.

and then they collapse, and they don't get a choice. oh this is wonderful. i love it when whumpees are scared of their caretakers, and this is made extra fun when caretaker has no idea who they're dealing with. they have information they think is correct based on being a fan, but there's a huge difference in knowing something about someone and actually knowing them.

caretaker tries to make whumpee as comfortable as possible, wracking their brain for anything whumpee has said in interviews that they like or brings them comfort, while simultaneously wondering if doing that might be a terrible idea because is that not kind of stalker-ish? they're a stranger. they don't need to know i paid that much attention.

so what do they do? where do they take whumpee? somewhere private, ideally, but they've got to do it without drawing attention because whumpee is freaked out enough as it is. adding more people to the mix will just make it worse. but caretaker is so out of their depth here that they're not sure they can avoid it.

[redcarpetwhump]

thoughts on whumpee begging to be hurt a certain way because if they don't it could be too visible and then they won't be allowed out and it'll mean more time with whumper and they really can't.

(perfect way to meet caretaker. good old "i understand you're angry but please- anything but my face- please-")

oh this is good. this is so good. the idea of having to negotiate with whumper about where and how they'll be hurt because whumpee knows there's nothing they can do to prevent it. it's just damage control. (cue some internalised victim-blaming because i asked for this. i told them to hurt me there. i literally begged them to do it.)

for any whumpee, this is awful, but especially one whose whole life is in the public eye. injuries that someone else could leave the house with and hope no one would notice have to be covered in at least three ways in case someone decides to look too closely at a photograph or record them in public without whumpee realising.

and this kind of whump reveal to caretaker is my absolute favourite. pain and abuse is so common for whumpee that it's expected. and caretaker is confused and horrified because first of all, what the fuck??? and second of all: whumpee is surrounded by people all the time. they have entire teams dedicated to their personal appearance and life. the media never leaves them alone. and nobody has ever said anything about this. which means either nobody has noticed, or they have and are just... letting it happen.

[redcarpetwhump]

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.

two options for this:

#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).

[redcarpetwhump]

Actress Whumpee, Cold to public but caring in private Manager Caretaker and Creepy Fan Whumper who wants to know all of Whumpee's traumatic backstory but Manager Caretaker just beats them up. And Whumpee and Caretaker are lesbians :>

i love creepy fan whumpers because they can get away with so much before anyone actually does something about it. they're just a fan. it's weird, sure, but ultimately it's harmless. until whumper is doing more than asking invasive questions and making assumptions. they're digging up buried records, talking to people whumpee has cut out of their life for literal safety purposes, spreading information they really should not know on the internet like it's gossip.

and, of course, people will pick up on these things and ask whumpee to comment. it all sounds ridiculous at first. there's no way any of that could have happened to whumpee, and there's no source for any of whumper's claims. but as whumper posts more and more, things do kinda start to add up. whumpee did miss this event at this time. they did look kinda unwell here. they have never accepted questions about xyz.

all of this digging into their backstory is sending whumpee into a nervous breakdown. it's more trauma on top what they've already got, and it's making them spiral. panic attacks, flashbacks, paranoia. they're not sleeping or eating properly, and they're so so scared. but still, they try to hide it, and, to a degree, they succeed. everyone knows them to be very aloof, cold, and somewhat avoidant. but they're more snappy than usual and eventually their composure breaks.

but regardless of how well they hold up in front of the cameras, caretaker is there to see whumpee behind the scenes. and they notice things are up immediately. whumpee is terrified at first because they don't want to be dropped by their manager or be told they're being an inconvenience because of all of this, but caretaker is nothing but supportive. supportive and angry on whumpee's behalf, because while whumpee might not be able to push back against this, caretaker certainly can. and when they're given the opportunity, boy do they fucking go for it.

before anyone comes at me: i try to keep all of my prompts gender neutral for ease of imagining any character in any scenario. please make your characters ladies and lesbians. my focus is just on stuff directly relevant to the whump.

[redcarpetwhump]

Singer whumpee who has finally hit their breaking point. And they decide to make it all public. With one last song before their manager, whumper, can stop them. Tech is given an extra track and cues, but they can't rehearse because its gonna be a surprise for Whumper! Everyone whumpee tells beforehand is under the impression it will be good surprise.

Then, after the usual concert comes to an end, whumpee gets the crowd's attention and tells them this may be their last show. Why? Because of their manager. Because Whumper told them if whumpee told anyone what Whumper did to them, Whumper would ruin their career. Well, why can't whumpee do it themselves?

Whumpee gives the cue for the shocked tech team to start the surprise track. This song is so incredibly different from all of whumpee's normal ones. This song is angry and painful as Whumpee screams it. The song tells what whumper did to them.

By the end of the song, whumpee collapses to their knees, hugging themselves as they let out heart shattering sobs on stage, in front of everyone.

this is such a dangerous thing for whumpee to do i can only think of the consequences. because whumpee might have had enough, but whumper sure as hell isn't going to let them just walk away. especially not after that.

so while the media is kicking up a storm about whumpee's performance, trying to decipher its meaning and how much of it is true, whumpee just disappears. no one can get hold of them. some people think it's because they need a break after clearly losing it on stage. other people have a better look at whumpee's new lyrics and realise that whumpee could be in serious trouble.

and what do the crew do? sure, they're surprised by an extra song being added last-minute, but how surprised are they at the contents of the lyrics? did they see any signs that whumper was abusing whumpee this way? or were they totally oblivious? can any of them help whumpee testify and get whumper taken down, or does whumper threaten them into silence?

so many possibilities.

[redcarpetwhump]

Another situation I'm compelled by: famous caretaker and bodyguard whumpee. Maybe because of whumpee's proximity to caretaker, they have a fan base of their own.

Whumper is caretaker's manager, and planned on whumping caretaker, until whumpee stepped in and volunteered to take the whump for caretaker (without their knowledge of course). Caretaker is worried about whumpee, who doesn't say anything about the bruises now showing up.

It all comes to a head when whumpee, out at an event with caretaker, collapses for seemingly no reason next to the red carpet.

i'm eating this post alive holy shit. nobody expects the bodyguard to collapse. nobody's even looking at them, they're so distracted by caretaker. so when whumpee goes down, everyone's initial reaction is shock. and then concern, obviously, but that concern could easily be directed at caretaker, because why else would whumpee be hurt unless they were trying to protect caretaker from something?

(and collapsing specifically on the red carpet!!!! my favourite!!!!)

nobody knows whumpee or cares about them enough to assume someone is targeting them specifically. they're a bodyguard. they're meaningless. they have no power. there's no point. which makes it so easy for whumper to get away with.

it's so easy to hide whumpee's injuries as well. bodyguards aren't supposed to do the talking or look all happy and smiley. nor are they supposed to wear fancy outfits that could reveal something. unless whumpee is literally at the end of their pain tolerance, they're probably carrying on like nothing is wrong.

and the one person who whumpee is actually close to and who could actually do something about it being caretaker... yeah whumpee is truly alone in this because caretaker can't find out. if they do, then they're both in danger. whumper will start hurting caretaker too, and then all whumpee's pain will have been for nothing.

[redcarpetwhump]

Compelled by the idea of both a famous whumpee and famous caretaker. Maybe whumpee wasn't famous before the whump and its only caretaker's involvement that made them famous. Maybe whumpee was famous as a true crime documentary victim and people suspect ill intentions from caretaker. Maybe whumpee or caretaker are at different levels of fame, so when they're spotted together, one of them is accused of being a clout chaser. Caretaker's fame and status being both a shield and a magnifying glass for whumpee. Maybe whumper is also famous and its only caretaker's public support of whumpee's testimony that anyone believes whumpee. Maybe caretaker's public support of Whumpee's testimony is what drives people to doubt whumpee. Maybe whumper's identity isn't known to the public so people suspect famous caretaker AS whumper.

It's all so juicy.

the idea of people assuming caretaker is whumper because they're supportive of whumpee is so good. also the different levels of fame??? so much you can do with that. i can imagine a kind of caretaker-turned-whumpee situation here where caretaker is the more famous of the two, so offers themself up to whumper as a 'better investment' to give whumpee a break.

"It will be easier. I have more influence, more money. I can get people to stop asking questions. And I've been in the public eye for ages, I can handle the scrutiny. Whumpee... they can't."

and the amount of bad famous people that only other famous people know are bad because they public only gets a carefully curated image of them... what the world sees as whumpee sucking up to more-famous whumper to try to boost their career, caretaker immediately recognises as whumpee being trapped. how do they know? because they've been in whumpee's exact place before.

which puts the three of them in a predicament because it's going to be very difficult to settle this between them without something getting out.