Red Alert has SO much potential for whump.
His paranoia is constantly used as a punchline a lot in canon and fandom, his fear and distrust seen as a joke. The stress and anxiety over not being treated seriously…
Red Alerts probably isolated along the autobots, not exactly on purpose but. His frequent outbursts and bouts of mistrust make him stand out like a sore thumb. Mecha treat him differently, not necessarily badly, but condescendingly, even without meaning to.
Maybe he wasn’t always like this. Maybe there was a time he was “normal”. He was just more.. uptight. More worried. So when he became Security Director of the Ark, he did his best to protect and maintain order aboard the ship.
Maybe a few months into his job, thats when he starts noticing weird stuff happen. Things are left in his hab, some are taken. He feels like hes being watched, and the feeling gets worse with time. It only gets worse. He finds listening devices and tiny cameras in his berth, washracks, walls, ceiling, everywhere.
He freaks out, obviously. Tears up half his hab to find the others. He sends his findings to Prowl, who says he’ll look into it. Red ends up getting moved out his hab and into a new one. Prowls investigation doesn’t get anywhere, unfortunately. But he does agree to double security efforts and install a camera right outside Reds hab.
Red is obviously freaked out. He has no idea how long its been going on for, or how, or why, or even who.
Things seem normal for a few cycles, until things just get even weirder. Red feels like hes being followed 24/7. He notices things moving around in his hab, and he also notices things being taken again. He looks through the camera feed outside his hab, and there’s.. no one there.
Things only get worse. He becomes more closed off and anxious, his relationships with mecha desintegrating as he neglects them. Hes consumed by this fear, of not knowing the intentions of his stalker, or who they are.
He becomes visibly stressed. His physical state shows signs of stress. His paint is chipping due to his poor maintenance, his protoform aching and graying, his vocalizer spitting static, etc.
Then he has his first public meltdown when he discovers yet another bug in his hab. He checks the camera feed again, and finds nothing. He goes to Prowl to help file an investigation, which Prowl refuses, saying theres nothing he can do.
After that outburst, gossip spreads around like wildfire. Mecha start treating Red differently, which worsens his increasing paranoia and isolation, causing his outbursts and anxiety attacks to only increase.
Now enter Inferno. (Probably) Red Alerts only friend. Inferno doesn’t treats Red Alert differently than the others. In a good way. Probably. Red Alert thinks that Inferno probably has some ulterior motives- maybe trying to gain access to the main terminal, plant a bug in his hab, etc. But… none of that has happened so far. Red Alert tries to figure out Inferno, but theres nothing there. Hes just a normal guy who just wants to befriend Red Alert. (Or is he?)
Red Alerts opens up about the weird phenomenons happening. Like the feeling of being watched, the strange devices he finds in his hab that he swears are bugs, things constantly going missing too… Inferno believes Red Alert, and promises to help find this.. stalker. Red Alert is finally glad to have someone that believes in him
Things only start getting weirder, and Red Alert more desperate. He installs another camera in his hab, trying to catch the culprit. But when be returns from his shift, and finds it practically ransacked, he checks to footage only to find nothing. The only other person who knows about the camera is Inferno.
Red Alert accuses Inferno, who react shocked and hurt. Inferno can’t believe that his best friend would accuse him of such a thing.
Red Alert feels guilty afterward. Inferno was the only mech he trusted— well… felt like he should trust. So he goes back and apologizes, and Inferno accepts.
The stalking and bugging and random gifts seem to have stopped, but Red Alert feels more anxious as of now. Inferno suggests that maybe it really was all just in his head.. and Red Alert believes him. After all, after hearing the same thing over and over again, he tends to believe it now. After all, hes just a paranoid glitch. He doesn’t know any better.. But Inferno does.
(Wow that was a lot lmfao. The general gist is that Inferno is the stalker. He believes that he can “fix” Red Alert. But, more than that, he wants to have that power over Red Alert. Like. He wants to be some mechs entire world, especially someone so vulnerable as Red.
I havent rlly proofread this because Im lazy (idk how ao3 authors can betaread their own works. Id probably cry) but yeah! Poor red. Sorry if this is hard to read lol. I was just blabbering half the time haha ^^)
ah no this is beautiful !!! the panic and stress with no way to combat it and no one to confide in, and when he finally opens up, it all gets 300% WORSE
ah poor red,, now that he is suspicious mecha are getting suspicious of him, what a vicious cycle. plus they make fun of him for his fears, invalidating and belittling him, until he starts to believe he has no self-worth too,, yesss
Inferno is so captivated trying to cage him in and control him,,, that's so funn
