#manager whumper

There’s whumperless whump in the toxicity of the industry. Of selling your talent and body on stage, of abandoning your creativity to conform to the industry. The vulnerability of your entire life being known and every action or inaction judged, especially when whumpee isn’t a perfect person by any means.

whumpee develops a very weird view of them as somewhat of a parental figure while also deeply resenting them. they know they can't leave, and it's of their own fault, in their mind.... whenever they try, they get overwhelmed and fail, and maybe whumper even mocks them about it....

I love the amount of shame involved with this trope. Shame from Whumper, mocking Whumpee for their lack of independence while simultaneously preventing them ever achieving it. Shame from the public, because it's obvious Whumpee has everything done for them. They're spoiled and lazy and should be better than this. They're a grown adult for fuck's sake. And then the shame Whumpee directs at themself because everyone else is thriving and doing well for themselves, and Whumpee can't even bring themself to say no to what Whumper wants them to eat for dinner.

I also think this is really fun is Whumpee does get away from Whumper, and very quickly realises that the amount of control they were under is not normal at all. At first, their new management think Whumpee is spoiled and a brat for just expecting their team to do everything for them. But then New Manager walks in on Whumpee trying to do something basic for themself and just sobbing in frustration because they can't. And even if they in theory know how, just the act of executing the task without support is so overwhelming that they physically cannot get it done.

Also the public's perspective of Whumpee is going to shift—or perhaps be confirmed—when Whumpee switches management. For a while, they're visible more unkempt and disorganised. Everyone mocks them. Oh yeah, welcome to the adult world. Not everything gets handed to you on a silver platter.

I really enjoy whumper reminding them of this past as a way to pressure them into staying. without whumper, they'd be nothing, they'd still be struggling to survive. and maybe whumpee justifies this themselves, in their own head, ignoring what whumper does because they don't want to give up their new life and the benefits of it. because whumper is so kind, to lead them into this...

+ bonus points for the pressure to keep up whatever initially pulled whumper to whumpee. their talent. if they underperform, this life is gone, and so is whumper's benevolence. whumper is constantly putting pressure on them to go harder, go faster, keep up, lest they fade into irrelevancy and back into poverty. it happens to so many people... you don't wanna be one of them, do you?

YES I have so many OCs that fit this exact scenario. As well as the pressure and fear of maintaining their new lifestyle and not losing everything they've gained, I really want to talk about how isolating it must feel as well.

Whumpee can't relate to all these other rich people around them who've grown up with money or had time to fall into that lifestyle, but they can no longer relate to people of their old social class either. If people don't know Whumpee grew up in poverty, Whumpee is going to look like a right prick liking posts about financial struggles on the internet or saying they can relate to people who can't afford to stay in their own houses. And even if people do know, Whumpee has money now. They're exactly who they used to be jealous of, living a life they never could have dreamt of. The life of someone who never gave two shits about the kind of person they used to be, and therefore is not welcome in their old community anymore.

Whumper taking advantage of this isolation, this lack of community. "Don't worry, Whumpee. I'll help you figure out who you are (You're mine)." Whumpee now relies on them not only for the money, but to navigate this entirely new world that they don't understand at all. Even if they gathered up enough of their own funds to leave Whumper behind, the social aspect of it all is too daunting for Whumpee to deal with alone. They're trapped and they can't get out. (Also quite fun if Whumpee only appears to be rich on the surface, but all of their money comes directly from Whumper, or Whumper takes such a huge cut of their salary that if they leave then they will lose it all).

And all the pressure on Whumpee to keep getting better at what they do. SO GOOD. They can't fail, they can't even slip up a tiny bit. One mistake and it's all over. They'll be back where they started and everyone will know. They're so overwhelmed, so scared all of the time, and nobody has any sympathy for them because they're famous and rich and what could they possibly have to worry about????

Another thing that could be quite fun is Whumpee maintaining the habits they picked up while living in poverty. They're meticulous with their budgeting, they pick one thing over another rather than indulging in both, they still steal things sometimes because they forget they don't have to anymore, and they use all of their belongings until they're literally crumbling in their hands.