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Blake Case Timeline: Unpacking the Taylor of it all

AKA Everything you never wanted to know about the media strategy of a celebrity scandal!

OK, I don’t actually know anything, but I am a girl with a keen interest in the media and how it’s used to cover a subject, and have a certain skill set that is appropriate for the task.

When I started drafting this post, I didn’t intend to do a deep dive at all. My interest was piqued over the link between the People article dropping about Blake Lively and Taylor’s mended friendship, Travis unfollowing Ryan Reynolds on Instagram, and the news of Taylor being subpoenaed in Blake and Justin Baldoni’s case. I was going to pick a few articles from the “trusted” outlets to show how each side covered the situation to show how easy it is to tell how stories are spun.

However, because I can’t be normal about anything, I ended up going down the rabbit hole of this case, and mainly about how Taylor has been used by both sides to tell it. Now, you get to go down the rabbit hole with me.

I'm putting the post under a cut because it's long as hell and I want to save your dashboards ✌️

First things first, this review is specifically about Taylor. I am not commenting on the actual case itself (although I do have thoughts, naturally, especially now). I’m not here to litigate Blake or Baldoni’s cases (mostly). I’m here to show how their respective PR teams use Taylor in their strategies, and how Taylor’s team itself responds to it. Consider this a crash course in media literacy or something, if you’ve never had the pleasure of doing your own kind of media review.

I’m mostly presenting the media itself here and keeping my commentary to a minimum, to keep the focus on similarities or differences between language and narratives used. I’ve obviously got my own thoughts about what is happening and each party’s strategies, especially after reading a large volume of articles not only about Taylor, but the case itself (as well as the non-case PR being used to promote the parties). But I don’t want to distract from this task at hand, and I don’t want to claim myself as an expert by any means.

That being said, while I don’t want to colour anyone’s perspective ahead of time, here are a couple of notes about the methodology as it were:

I focused mainly on the main outlets that are covering the case and evidently have ties to the actual parties: Entertainment Tonight (which is infamously and very clearly Taylor’s team’s go-to), PEOPLE (which is IMO very obviously Blake and Ryan's, after doing this analysis) and The Daily Mail (which is definitely Baldoni’s).

I’ve also included TMZ and Page Six, because— spoiler alert— they’re used by all three IMO. (Both also have known ties to Baldoni’s team… But Page Six in particular appears to be Blake-Ryan friendly now.)

THAT being said… ALL outlets are used by ALL parties in this, including by Taylor’s team. (Again, IMO, but it’s a very educated opinion.)

Now, a few disclaimers about these sources:

Many of these outlets these are tabloids. Ultimately, take everything with a grain of salt, for the most part. Some much larger than others.

Entertainment Tonight and People are, by and large, two of the most trusted outlets in entertainment journalism and have been for decades, because of their strong ties to celebrities’ own publicists. (In other words, most of the stories you’re going to read in these outlets writ large are directly sourced by the celebrities’ publicists. If either of them says “a source close to [the celebrity] tells us…” you can be pretty much guaranteed it came directly from their PR team.) And, as noted above, ET is currently Taylor’s team’s most trusted outlet (for Reasons).

I’d say the other outlets are far more in the “grain of salt” category. That being said, TMZ does have close ties to many celebrities and is used by their publicists (including Taylor), but because they are so salacious and at times even unethical, you have to keep your eyebrows raised. (And in this case, TMZ has an in with Baldoni’s team via their history with the Depp-Heard trial, and his lawyer speaking directly to TMZ.)

Normally, I’d personally filter source credibility by their title, e.g. “an exclusive source close to x/a close insider to x” is more reliable than “a source with knowledge of x” is more reliable than “this paper has learned” is more reliable than “a source tells us” is more reliable than “someone told us” is more reliable than no mention of sources at all.

However, given the nature of this lawsuits, and the nature of entertainment journalism as a whole, that is a lot muddier in this case.

For instance, Page Six and The Daily Mail run a lot of “exclusives,” but believe me, after reading many of those “exclusives,” they’re clearly full of shit. As an example, in an unrelated article in recent months, Page Six ran an “exclusive” with a source saying Taylor was making Nashville her home base now that tour was over so that she could be closer to Travis in Kansas City. Um, she is indeed closer to Travis, however it happens to be under the same roof in whatever city they happen to be living in this off-season if you catch my drift. If anyone has read the recent “exclusive” in The Daily Mail about, um, Taylor and Travis’ extracurricular activities, you can also glean that there’s no way they’d be privy to any of that information, especially not about an infamously private pop star. So “exclusive” does not necessarily mean “truthful.”

In other words, you still need to use your brain cells. However, when an “exclusive” contains or repeats language or information that tracks with what is said by other (reputable) sources, it gives it more legitimacy and points to it coming from the same provider. Because even professional publicists are not above using seedier tabloids in order to fight fire with fire. (Including Taylor’s.)

Finally, general disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, nor a publicist. I'm just a girl with a blog who likes words.

With all that out of the way, we're off to the races! This is long and dense and probably interesting to about three people, but here it is! (I've added more thoughts at the very end.)

***

Context: The Lawsuits

Initial New York Times publication of Blake's complaint - December 21, 2024

Original NYT link (view in your browser's Reader Mode to get past the paywall) or internet archive link.

Blake's initial suit filed in December 2024 addresses her allegations of sexual harassment and subsequent personal retaliation. The events detailed in her complaint mainly occurred during the actual production of the movie and the following publicity tour.

I highly encourage people to read the complaint. There's so much being spun about the case (from both sides tbh), but this spells out what the actual basis of it is. Yes, it's Blake's filing, so obviously it comes to her defence and is clearly her side of the story. But even at that, the collection of evidence is compelling in terms of her actual legal case regarding her sexual harassment and the resulting smear campaign in the media and online. Especially because, for these purposes, the collected communications outline the strategy Justin Baldoni's team designed in order to execute the campaign against Blake in retaliation for her actions, including the deliberate inclusion of Taylor in their tactics. The PR team claimed "we can bury anyone," and essentially have endless resources at their disposal to do so.

Of note, this is the first direct reference to Taylor in these communications in August 2024, calling back to her relationship with Blake and more importantly, the link between Taylor's fanbase and Blake's as a threat to JB's image:

So incredibly glad that the press went so well today and from what I know, Justin felt incredibly supported. He is lucky to have you all. We took the day today to do some research and get digital quotes in from the two teams we use that get the best results. As you are both aware, we are in a predicament that we just do not know the outcome of right now. Saying that, full transparency is key here, we have seen the most innocuous issues tum giant due to socials or the hugest crisis have no effects on social whatsoever- you just cannot tell at this stage. But, BL does have some of the TS fanbase so we will be taking it extremely seriously.

While the rest of this particular message doesn't reference Taylor directly, I'm including it as an example of how the team planned to use (and manipulate) social media influence to take down Blake, because it demonstrates how it's done for smear campaigns in general:

We also understand audience is not solely JB fanbase but, the studio so it is covering all bases time. Quote one: $175k - this will be for a 3-4 month period and includes: website (to discuss) full reddit, full social account take downs, full social crisis team on hand for anything - engage with audiences in the right way, start threads of theories (to discuss) this is the way to be fully 100%protected. Quote two $25k per month - min 3 months as it needs to seed same as above - this will be for creation of social fan engagement to go back and forth with any negative accounts, helping to change narrative and stay on track. All of this will be most importantly untraceable. There is a lot more to both of these quotes but, easier to discuss via phone in terms of capabilities and what I have personally experienced in and out of crisis scenarios. Either way, I do feel it is better to be safe but - I do realize costs are something I am sure you did not count on when you took on this project nor, this situation."

Taylor is also mentioned in one of the PR team's projected response scenarios following those conversations:

As part of this, our team can also explore planting stories about the weaponization of feminism and how people in BL's circle like Taylor Swift, have been accused of utilizing these tactics to "bully" into getting what they want.

(The PR team's texts and emails were obtained by a subpoena Blake filed in September in pre-discovery prior to filing her suit in December. The publicist's former employer also filed a suit of their own against them in December, for among other things, conspiring to steal clients to start their own agency. The publicist used her work devices to communicate about the case and draft the strategy, and the former employer had the devices forensically audited after she left, which is the content included in the subpoena. The majority stakeholder in the publicist's new PR agency representing JB, which was formed in summer 2024, is Scooter B.)

Justin Baldoni's countersuit - January 16, 2025

Link to complaint

This is his team's response to Blake's lawsuit. It contains his side of the story, namely the background info about the alleged evening he met Taylor in passing at Blake's home and which he claims was a pressure tactic by both Blake and Taylor so that he'd accept Blake's script changes. This includes the infamous text message exchange where Blake calls Taylor and Ryan her "dragons," which he takes to mean they'd fight him if needed.

According to the timestamps on these exchanges, this appears to have happened in or around April 2023, before shooting began on the movie. (Thus before the recorded instances of harassment happened on set referred to in Blake's lawsuit.)

According to JB's account, he let Blake take a pass at a scene in the script and was concerned over the changes she made that differed from the source material, so he "diplomatically" told her they'd see how it would be incorporated into the final scene. Also according to him, Blake was "seemingly stung" by his response, and did not speak to him for several days, until she responds to him in what would become the now-famous Khaleesi exchange. According to him:

Lively was referring to an earlier meeting where Lively summoned Baldoni to her New York penthouse where Baldoni was greeted by Ryan Reynolds, who launched into enthusiastic praise for Lively’s version of the scene. Hours later, as the meeting was ending, a famous, and famously close, friend of Reynolds and Lively, walked into the room and similarly began praising Lively’s script.

Presumably, the famous friend is Taylor. (It's unclear when the prior "meeting" took place, though it would have been before April 14, 2023, which is the night this text conversation took place according to the time stamps. There's no mention if the meeting was days or weeks or months before, although noting that it happened at Blake's home in NYC and that Taylor was training then rehearsing then on tour in 2023, presumably the public nature of her schedule narrows down the time frame.) JB alleges that that meeting combined with Taylor's praise and the text messages below amounted to a threat with which he needed to comply.

JB responds to Blake's text confirming that he's working on the scene they're discussing, allegedly coming to this decision after feeling pressured by Blake and Taylor:

Great! Also was working on rooftop scene today, I really love what you did. It really does help a lot. Makes it so much more fun and interesting. (And I would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor) You really are a talent across the board. Really excited nd [sic] grateful to do this together.

Excerpt of Blake's long text that presumably refers to Taylor:

[...] As for [redacted] and Ryan (and [redacted] for that matter). I'm the luckiest motherfucker on the planet to have them as my "Dance Moms" level stage moms. They are embarrassingly effusive. That said, they're also my most trusted partners and the people I go to first with anything creative I touch. And I'm the person they each go to first. That reciprocal creativity and support has been one of my life's greatest and most fulfilling gifts. When they loved and signed off on the pages, I felt good to send them to you. They asked what you thought specifically after. They checked in so many times. I told them that you laughed a bunch and said it's probably a blend but you appreciate my passion so much. Which of course didn't feel great for me. Or them. To have my passion praised instead of any specific contribution. Or even just that you didn't like the pages. Which was fine also. So I think they wanted you and me to see how they felt about the work because they've been by my side for far too many experiences where I've been overlooked. I spoke to you about this when we first met. They've watched me hand write scripts bc the director is too afraid to send the FDX file yet he scans and has someone hand type all 120 pages of my pencil rewrites. They've watched me be hired as a writer and paid a significant fee for it but on the condition that I never ask for credit, which I could give a shit about, it's more the principle of the dynamics at play. They've watched the other side of it too where I'm told at signing on that I'm wanted as a true collaborator, but once we get to work, I'm really just wanted as a 'yes man' audience and actor. Both Ryan and [redacted] have established themselves as absolute titans as writers and storytellers outside of their primary gig- just singing or just acting or [redacted] just directing. I'm so lucky to have them as creative barometers. But also to have them as the people who prop me up and make sure I'm seen for all I can, and do, offer. Because they know firsthand all I contribute. They also know I'm not always as good at making sure I'm seen and utilized for fear of threatening egos, or fear of affecting the ease of the process. They don't give a shit about that. And because of that, everyone listens to them with immense respect and enthusiasm. So I guess I have to stop worrying about people liking me. If you ever get around to watching Game of Thrones, you'll appreciate that I'm Khaleesi, and like her, I happen to have a few dragons. For better or for worse, but usually for better. Because my dragons also protect those I fight for. So really we all benefit from those gorgeous monsters of mine. You will too, I can promise you.

Later, in May 2024, nearer to the release of the movie, a conversation between studio executives mentions Taylor re: Blake asking her to use My Tears Ricochet in the trailer. (Justin alleges in his suit that Blake was withholding obtaining Taylor's approval of the song until her editor had time to cut her own version of the trailer. Notably, the studio seemed to easily agree to Blake's request.)

Blake is calling Taylor to approve the song. She of course just reached out saying she is asking for time with [redacted] her editor. We know it was conditional on signing contract – but asking if you will reconsider – so [redacted] can release this trailer and Blake does not change her [mind] re calling Taylor Swift.

***

Fallout: Taylor in the Press

Daily Mail - January 17, 2025

link to article

WARNING: DM is generally less than trustworthy *in most cases* when it comes to Taylor (but does have relationships with other celebrities). This is not labelled an "exclusive" nor does it claim that "sources tell Daily Mail" or anything similar, so normally I would assume the chances are even lower that this is reputable. However, I am including it for now because it seems to be the first public discourse about Taylor's feelings on the matter -- whether or not it's true, it sets the scene for the rumours all parties are trying to address. It also shares language/context that gets repeated later, which does make me wonder if it doesn't actually have legitimacy after all. On the other hand, as will become clearer with other excerpts from DM, it's evident that DM has a source with JB's team. So, take it with a grain of salt, but it is the first "reaction" to JB's filing:

'Taylor is proud of the film because her music was featured in it, which gave her a sense of involvement, though she wasn’t fully aware of the extent of the project’s developments,' they said. 'She is confused by the claims in the suit, as her connection to Blake is purely a friendship, with no interest in influencing or controlling Blake’s projects.' The source insisted that Taylor did not purposely plan to be there during the meeting. Instead, they said she was simply coming over to hang out with her pal but arrived while the meeting - which was supposed to have been wrapped up - was still going. 'She finds Justin’s interpretation of the encounter perplexing, and those close to her suspect she’s being drawn into the situation as a means to target Blake,' the insider continued. 'This was the first time that Taylor ever met Justin. She had no idea who he was and Taylor was simply being polite. She was polite to him as she is to everyone she meets.'

Daily Mail - January 29, 2025

link to article

Usual disclaimer about DM. I am including it for now because it does label it as an "exclusive," although the sourcing is murky. So, take it with a grain of salt, but on the rumour that there is a rift brewing between the two friends:

Lively later appeared to threaten Baldoni by comparing herself to Game of Thrones character Khaleesi in a series of text messages in which she referred to Reynolds, 48, and her best friend as her 'dragons'. The ‘uncool and unnecessary’ description was reportedly the final straw for Swift who had never planned to be at the meeting, but arrived at Lively’s New York penthouse to find it was still ongoing. ‘For the time being she is taking a step back from Blake because she doesn’t want to get tangled in this more than she already has – which is far more than she ever needed to be,’ an insider told DailyMail.com. ‘Her friends also think that Blake’s "I’m Khaleesi, and like her, I happen to have dragons" text to Justin was uncool and unnecessary because she was essentially used as an intimidation tactic. She was referred to as some kind of pet or possession. ‘Taylor shouldn’t even be involved in this at all. She was only going over to visit Blake and Ryan with the understanding that the meeting would be over.' [...] A second source said: ‘Taylor has politely backed away from it all. She is conscious of her own image and hates that she was even mentioned.'

Page Six - January 29, 2025

link to article

This seems to be the first article with a "source" refuting the tension between Taylor and Blake:

Taylor Swift and Blake Lively remain good friends despite Justin Baldoni dragging the pop superstar into his ongoing legal drama with the actress, Page Six can confirm. A source tells us that reports that Swift, 35, is trying to distance herself from Lively, 37, given the public relations nightmare are “not true” and that the two women do not have a strained relationship. Swift has yet to speak out, however, on her close friend’s legal issues with Baldoni, 41. Page Six has reached out to her and Lively’s reps for comment.

(I'm using "source" because it's specifically highlighted in the article title so that's generally more "backed up." Also, it sounds very similar to the following statement in People...)

PEOPLE - January 30, 2025

Link to article

In contrast to the Daily Mail article a day prior claiming Taylor and Blake are cooling off, this sourced article in People alleges they are fine:

Taylor Swift and Blake Lively's friendship hasn't faltered amid Lively's legal drama with Justin Baldoni. There's been no rift between the singer and actress despite reports of a strained relationship between Swift, 35, and Lively, 37, sources confirm to PEOPLE.

(Reminder: "sources confirm to PEOPLE" = generally from the horse's mouth)

Entertainment Tonight - January 30, 2025

link the post

Consistent with the People article, ET's source claims there is no impact on their friendship:

It’s been a dramatic few months for Blake Lively, but she still has Taylor Swift by her side.⁠ ⁠ Amid the ongoing legal battle between Lively and her ‘It Ends With Us’ co-star-director, Justin Baldoni, ET has learned that the singer and actress remain close pals and nothing has changed in their friendship.⁠ Meanwhile, a source tells ET, "Taylor supports Blake as she does with all of her friends." ⁠ This comes after a report making the rounds claimed Swift was "taking a step back" from the friendship after the singer was seemingly referenced in Baldoni’s lawsuit against Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds.⁠

I will note that it is curious to me that the direct quote states that Taylor supports Blake's case, but doesn't actually reference the rift allegations or her feelings. It makes me wonder if ET was extrapolating the friendship status from the "Taylor supports Blake" quote, or if they were given indication that that was the case and paraphrased it.

ET also published another post on the same day about Taylor supporting Travis at the Super Bowl. It doesn't reference the case at all, but IMO is consistent with many of the other statements her team made and would continue to make throughout the spring: that Taylor is focused on her personal life, and implicitly by focusing on that wants no association with a legal case that has nothing to do with her. (In other words, IMO they've tried to pivot the narrative away from the case repeatedly, until later in the spring when Taylor got dragged into it for real.)

TMZ - February 5, 2025

link to article

TMZ interviews JB's lawyer on his podcast, and this seems to be the first time the prospect of Taylor being subpoenaed and deposed comes up as a negotiation tactic for his case. (Again: given the obvious bias of the guest, take it all with a grain of salt.)

Harvey [Levin] hammers Bryan [Freedman] about potentially deposing Taylor … because she's central to the dispute by virtue of her involvement in an infamous meeting between Justin, Blake and Ryan. Taylor was there when Blake and Ryan met with Justin to discuss the rooftop scene in "It Ends With Us" ... it's the scene Blake rewrote and the meeting led to Justin's 2 AM voice note to Blake. Bryan is cagey about calling Taylor for a deposition, but watch the clip and read between the lines … a Taylor depo is on the table and Bryan can use it as a big bargaining chip to get a settlement. Yes, we're already talking settlement because as Harvey and Mark explain … there is no way this case is actually going to trial … for the very reason that none of these celebrities want to be subjected to depositions, courtroom testimony and especially cross-examinations. Taylor's the biggest star of them all though, and our read is that Blake and Ryan will do anything to keep their best friend from being grilled by Bryan … which could benefit Justin in the end.

In short: IMO JB's team seems to explicitly be using Taylor from the jump as a means to call Blake's bluff and get her to back down.

Entertainment Tonight - February 6, 2025

link to post

Given the reliability of the source (i.e. Tree's regular go-to), this feels like the "key message" Taylor's team is trying to issue about her stance on the case:

There’s no bad blood between Taylor Swift and Blake Lively – but a source tells ET that the singer is steering clear of the drama.⁠ ⁠ While Taylor’s name has come up amid Blake’s legal battle with her ‘It Ends With Us’ co-star and director, Justin Baldoni, the source says the singer “doesn’t want to be brought up at all or involved in any drama, especially since this isn’t related to her.”⁠ ⁠ The source adds of Taylor, “She wants to stay uninvolved."⁠ ⁠ That being said, the source notes, “Taylor is still close with Blake, but she is focused on her own life and everything she has going on. She is in a great place and wants to keep moving forward.”

(I bolded the "uninvolved" because this will come up again.)

US Weekly - February 6, 2025

link to article

US Weekly (as far as I know) does not typically have reliable/exclusive sourcing re: Taylor, so again: take this with a grain of salt. But it gets quoted in later Daily Mail articles and shares language with others, so it's here for recording purposes for its "exclusive":

Despite Taylor Swift’s name being mentioned in Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s ongoing legal saga, multiple sources tell Us Weekly that the pop star was not involved in the production of It Ends With Us. “Taylor has always been Blake’s friend, but Taylor doesn’t have any involvement in the case. She wasn’t part of the movie,” the source says. “Taylor was not a producer on the film and had no creative involvement.” [...] While she and Blake are friends, this case is now a legal matter for the courts to resolve,” the insider adds. “Dragging Taylor into it is unnecessary and misrepresents what really happened.”

(Reminder: publicists aren't above using a wide range of outlets that reach different demographics to get a point across, sometimes even with different angles being addressed.)

TMZ - February 6, 2025

link to article

TMZ marks this as an exclusive. On a personal note, FULL DISCLOSURE: when this article first dropped at the time, I thought that this was shit-disturbing from JB's camp, given that it is well known TMZ has close ties to his PR team via the Heard-Depp trial. AND right in this article, they talk to JB's own lawyer in their podcast. So, I figured they were trying to drive a public wedge between Blake and Taylor. Given the context we have now, and the similarity in language to other articles about it, I think it isn't unlikely (and perhaps, pointedly, in fact very likely) that it could instead be from Taylor's team. So, choose your own adventure.

Taylor Swift feels she was used by Blake Lively in her war with Justin Baldoni, and she resents Blake calling her one of her "dragons" and leveraging her name. As we reported, there was a critical meeting at Blake and Ryan Reynolds' NYC penthouse with Justin to discuss a scene that Blake had rewritten for "It Ends with Us." Justin has said the meeting got super heated, and he felt ambushed because Ryan and Taylor showed up. But a well-connected source close to Taylor tells TMZ … Taylor came to Blake's apartment at the time Blake told her to, not knowing anyone else would be there. In other words, Taylor had no idea there was a meeting going on with Justin. The source goes on to say … Justin was about to leave after the 2-hour meeting as Taylor walked in, and she was introduced to him for the first and only time. We're told all Taylor said to Justin was how excited she was to see the movie because he was her friend's boss. Our source says Taylor believes Blake timed her meeting with Justin so Taylor would arrive before he left and is baffled by Blake later characterizing her as her "dragon." The source adds, "It's weird to say that about a friend." As Daily Mail reported, friends of Taylor's called the dragon remark, "Uncool and unnecessary." [...] And there's more … the source says Taylor is also learning Blake has been inappropriately leveraging her name for a long time, like telling a young actress that Taylor "cast her," which simply did not happen. [...] This is a huge falling out ... Taylor is godmother to one of Blake and Ryan's kids. But, one source close to Blake has a different take, telling TMZ ... Blake believes the relationship is "not strained" with the two still talking regularly. Another source close to the situation says Taylor was pissed about the extent to which she was involved, and specifically she was angry about the "dragons" remark … but Blake has since apologized, they had a good cry and hugged it out.

(The fact that there are three different sources cited, with differing narratives, is... interesting.)

Page Six - February 6, 2025

link to article

Another "exclusive" about Taylor's feelings about being involved in the case, sharing similar language about feeling "used" as TMZ:

Taylor Swift “can’t help but feel used” by her pal Blake Lively, a source exclusively tells Page Six. The insider says the pop superstar “doesn’t appreciate being referred to as one of Blake’s dragons” after Lively’s alleged texts were revealed in a countersuit filed by her “It Ends With Us” co-star and director, Justin Baldoni. The alleged texts don’t specify who the “Gossip Girl” alum’s “dragons” are, but it’s believed by many that the actress was referencing husband Ryan Reynolds — and the Grammy-winning singer. [...] According to the source, “Taylor really wishes Blake hadn’t dragged her into this whole situation.” Swift, 35, and Lively, 37, “have been friends for years and Taylor cherishes genuine friendships, but she can’t help but feel used at this point,” the source tells us. The “Fortnight” songstress “wants to keep out of this drama as much as possible,” the insider says.

NOTE: given the consistency of how all of these Feb. 6 "exclusives" repeat the same key messages, namely wanting to be uninvolved in the "drama" and particularly Page Six and TMZ re: feeling used, this would lead me to believe they're likely coordinated and from the same source. (Source likely being: Taylor's team.)

Entertainment Tonight - February 7, 2025

link to post

This doesn't directly reference the case, but IMO is clearly a response to it, getting ahead of speculation as to why Blake is not attending the Super Bowl with Taylor after having been by her side at several games, including the big event, the previous year:

Blake Lively isn’t planning to join Taylor Swift at this year's Super Bowl. 🏈⁠ ⁠ Ahead of Super Bowl LIV, a source told ET that Blake had a blast with Taylor last year, but doesn't plan to join her in New Orleans as the Kansas City Chiefs take on the Philadelphia Eagles.⁠ ⁠ "Blake is not planning to join Taylor at the Super Bowl this year. They had a blast together last year, but this year Taylor is bringing others along," the source shared and did not specify what friends Taylor will be bringing.⁠

TMZ - February 7, 2025

link to article

This story is about Blake not appearing in Taylor's suite at the Super Bowl, although candidly, I don't think she was ever planning on being there given her retreat from the public eye even before the bombshells in JB's lawsuit. This mostly rehashes the previous article with a little different wording, following up on the assertion in the previous article that the friendship was fine:

We're told, despite what Blake thinks, their friendship is fractured after a text surfaced where Blake told Justin Baldoni she was Khaleesi (from 'GoT') and hubby Ryan Reynolds and Taylor were her "dragons." Taylor has not seen Blake in a while ... she's been spending lots of time with Travis and hasn't been in New York recently, but we're told the distance is more than geographic. TMZ broke the story ... Taylor was royally pissed off and, as a well-connected source close to Taylor told us, she was never her dragon. In fact, although Blake tried to make Justin believe Swift was siding with her over a script dispute, Taylor never had a dog in the fight. As we reported, Blake had invited Taylor over to her penthouse and Swift had no idea there was a meeting going on between Blake and Justin. Taylor walked in as Justin was leaving, and all she did was tell him she was excited to see his movie. To add insult to injury, we're told Taylor later learned Blake was name-dropping TS all over town. We also reported Blake believes her relationship with Taylor is not strained, although that's not what we're hearing from our sources regarding Taylor's feelings about the whole thing. Blake says they had a good cry and hugged it out. Even if that happened, there are unquestionably hard feelings on Taylor's side.

Entertainment Tonight - February 11, 2025

link to post

This doesn't reference Blake's case, but I'm including it here because... that's kind of the point. The message from Taylor's team is: Taylor and Travis want to be out of the headlines and take time off together to enjoy their private lives:

"Taylor and Travis are still going very strong," a source tells ET. "She has been supportive of him since his Super Bowl loss."⁠ ⁠ ⁠[...] So, what’s next? "They’re now focused on relaxing and taking time off," the source adds. And after an intense football season and Taylor wrapping up her record-breaking, two-year Eras Tour, that downtime is well deserved.

Page Six - February 18, 2025

link to article

This "exclusive" repeats a similar narrative found in the articles from earlier in the month.

Taylor Swift “needs space” from Blake Lively after her name was dragged into the ongoing lawsuits between the “Gossip Girl” alum and her “It Ends With Us” co-star and director Justin Baldoni. The pop superstar “is taking a break from their friendship right now,” a source exclusively tells Page Six. “Taylor is really hurt by this whole situation and feels like a pawn.” According to the insider, the Grammy winner, 35, “is keeping her distance” from Lively, 37, and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, 48. “Taylor wants nothing to do with this whole ordeal,” our source tells Page Six. “She has always been a loyal friend to Blake and doesn’t appreciate being thrown into this at all.”

(Again: take with a grain of salt. They could have a source, or they could just be repeating what they've heard elsewhere.)

TMZ - February 20, 2025

link to article

A user on Twitter digs up clips from the press junket for It Ends With Us, in which JB claims that he showed an actress' audition tape to both Blake and Taylor who he says both loved her, and another clip in which Blake says Taylor supported her through every step of the film process. Presumably this is the same actress that an earlier article claims Blake told Taylor got her cast, and equally that Taylor was unaware of that statement, although admittedly that's not confirmed.

Daily Mail - March 1, 2025

link to article (will need reader mode to access)

WARNING: Usual warning about DM applies, heavily so here. However, I am including it for now because it does label it as an "exclusive," although the sourcing is murky, and I have added thoughts below. So, take it with a grain of salt, but it states:

Now, another source claims: 'Taylor appears to have distanced herself from her best friend, who has accused a man of sexual harassment, despite being the godmother of her [Blake's] children.' 'Taylor is a sexual assault victim and spent more than a year of her life fighting for a case that she knew she would win. She has donated money to sexual assault victims' funds,' the insider said, adding: 'If Taylor truly supported Blake, would she not want to publicly back her?' 'Some people feel [Taylor] should be offering comfort and using her platform to rally Swifties in support of what is right,' the source said. 'Instead, Taylor appears to have gone silent and is staying out of the public eye. This will likely play a role in Justin's defense.' But, our source now says, her apparent refusal to address any accusations levelled against her, and her failure to speak out in support of her long-time friend, could be a nail in the coffin for Lively. 'If Taylor does not believe Blake,' the insider claimed. 'She will be the smoking gun in this case.'

That last line leads me to believe it's not likely from someone in Blake or Taylor's camps. Blake's statements have all centred on the friendship being intact. Taylor's statements have reiterated that Taylor was not involved, therefore has nothing to contribute to the case, and wants to be removed from the narrative entirely, so it's unlikely she'd be considered a "smoking gun" imo. Also: JB's lawyer has already stated by this point that someone of Taylor's stature could be important to depose for the information they may hold, which will be repeated later on in other articles. Again, DM has sources in JB's camp, and from their very own strategy document one of their preferred tactics is to sow discord and use Blake's relationship with Taylor against them both, so make of that what you will.

Deadline - March 6, 2025

link to article

While this article doesn't have anything to do with Taylor directly, it's noteworthy to me because it addresses the conflict between Blake and JB's teams about what information should be protected in the case. According to the judge hearing it:

What’s going on between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni is “a feud between PR firms.” [...] Building off the judge’s starting comment and obviously trying to avoid getting into the minutiae like much of this case has for better or worse, Lively and Reynolds’ attorney Meryl Conant Governski cut to the bottom line. “The parties in this case, on both sides, include people whose entire living is made off providing information to the press and content creators,” the Willkie Farr & Gallagher lawyer said in the hearing. “There are 100 million reasons for these parties to leak information because the PR value is greater than complying with the court’s orders.” Lead Baldoni lawyer Bryan Freeman rejected that premise today, as he has many times in previous filings and media appearances. “No one has any intent of harming Ms. Lively in any way” as to her allegations, the often-pugilistic litigator told the court. “My clients have a right to defend themselves … that is in no way abusing the victim.” In that vein, off the top of the hearing that lasted about 70 minutes, Judge Liman made it clear he was aware of how the Vision PR-represented Lively and the TAG- and RWA-represented Baldoni’s clash was playing out in the media, and accusations that parties on both sides were leaking to the press.

It does raise my eyebrows that, presumably in the interest of "fairness," Blake's own lawyers are implying that both sides have reason to want to leak to the press to win the PR war, thus justifying seeking what is essentially a gag order in the best interests of both parties.

Eventually the judge does partially grant Blake's request for certain disclosures that could "cause significant injury":

On Thursday, March 13, Judge Lewis J. Liman ruled that while certain confidential materials will remain protected, an “Attorneys’ Eyes Only” designation can only be applied if their disclosure is "highly likely to cause a significant business, commercial, financial or privacy injury." The decision follows Lively’s request for stricter safeguards to prevent private details from leaking to the media or circulating within Hollywood. The judge acknowledged the risk of sensitive information spreading through industry gossip, writing in his ruling. "And where confidential information is not disclosed to the media, it may spread by gossip and innuendo to those in the tight artistic community in a position to do harm to one or the other of the parties but in a manner that might not be readily and immediately detected."

(Source: People, March 13)

Daily Mail - March 12, 2025

link to article

In an article about Hugh Jackman being subpoenaed in the case, Taylor is mentioned regarding how she promoted Deadpool on her Instagram account, as did Hugh. The cross-promotion is one of the things that is cited as being why he is being subpoenaed, alleging he had direct knowledge of what was happening (re: the "Nicepool" character):

The source also pointed out that Jackman 'helped promote It Ends with Us' and that Reynolds appeared to include 'several not-so-subtle disses about Baldoni' in Deadpool & Wolverine, adding: 'It's unlikely Hugh wasn't aware of this.' 'Not only this, but Hugh helped promote It Ends with Us in the same way that Taylor did when they did their group shot for the cross-promo with Deadpool,' they continued. 'The timing of the premieres is also no coincidence.'

Page Six - March 12, 2025

link to article

Again, a Page Six "exclusive" is reader beware. It shares the same sentiment as more legitimate sources, though:

Taylor Swift is “not afraid” after Justin Baldoni’s lawyer said there’s a chance the singer could be deposed in the actor’s ongoing legal battle with her friend Blake Lively. A source exclusively tells Page Six that the pop superstar “is a strong woman and she’s not hiding from anything.” “Taylor is simply enjoying some alone time with Travis [Kelce] and being under the radar for a little bit,” the insider says.

(I will note that in other articles about Blake specifically, unrelated to Taylor's involvement, the "strong woman"/not hiding language was used about her. Perhaps a coincidence. Or not.)

Page Six - April 7, 2025

link to article

This is the first time we hear about Blake's feelings about the alleged rift:

Blake Lively has apologized to Taylor Swift for dragging the pop star into her ongoing legal battle with Justin Baldoni, a source exclusively tells Page Six. “It was important to Blake to be on good terms again with Taylor. It was never her intention to hurt Taylor or cause any harm to their friendship,” an insider explains. “Blake missed their friendship and she hopes they can put this whole thing behind them.” The source says that Swift “appreciated” Lively’s apology and “felt it was genuine and heartfelt.” “[Taylor] has no hard feelings and is ready to move forward,” the insider adds.

Daily Mail - April 23, 2025

link to article (note you'll need to use reader mode or other means to get past the paywall)

The Daily Mail breaks the news that Taylor is also expected to be subpoenaed for the case:

Now, a source has told the Daily Mail that Jackman and Swift – who has not been seen with her best pal Lively since being hauled into the mess – will most ‘definitely be served this week.’ [...] A source has claimed Jackman and Swift will most ‘definitely be served this week.’ ‘It could happen at any time,’ they told the Daily Mail

(Again: DM has direct sources in JB's camp.)

Entertainment Tonight - April 23, 2025

link to post

Taylor Swift and Hugh Jackman, Ryan Reynolds’ 'Deadpool & Wolverine' co-star, are both likely to be subpoenaed in the 'It Ends With Us' dispute.⁠ ⁠ While neither star has been served yet, a source tells ET that "Taylor does not want to be involved in Blake’s legal battle with Justin. She and Travis have been laying low, traveling, and enjoying some time off and quiet time together."⁠

PEOPLE - April 24, 2025

Two articles pertaining to the case were published on this day.

The first article of the day speculated that Taylor and Hugh Jackman may be subpoenaed for the case:

link to first article

"Anyone that had any knowledge of this situation will be subpoenaed, no matter of their celebrity status," the source says. However, another insider says Swift and Jackman are "not privy to anything going on," adding that claims they will be subpoenaed are "smoke and mirrors and trying to distract from the allegations against Baldoni."

The second article published later in the day on April 24 delved into the impact of the case on Blake and Taylor's relationship in (personal) detail.

It's notable that PEOPLE highlights in the title that this is an "exclusive source," indicating that this is almost certainly sourced from someone close to one of the parties involved. (And most likely from Blake's team given the context):

link to article

Swift “was really hurt,” a source tells PEOPLE, after being implicated in Lively’s ongoing legal battle with Justin Baldoni over behind-the-scenes conflict on their movie It Ends with Us. "Blake knew she and Taylor would come back from this at some point and that their friendship wasn’t done for good,” the insider says of the legal difficulties. “Taylor was really hurt by this situation, so she’s relieved they were able to recover from this and put it all behind them because it wasn’t something she took lightly,” they add.

(It's also notable to me that an article the following day is also highlighted as "exclusive," featuring an "exclusive interview" with Ryan. I'm not saying that Ryan was the source of the previous article, to be clear, but rather that would lead me to believe, personally, that they're part of the same round of publicity strategy re: People given the timing. In other words, they're all from the same source in Blake's camp. Especially given the volume of "happy" fluffy PR stories -- without mention of the case -- that PEOPLE publishes at the same time about the couple and their projects.)

Page Six - April 28, 2025

link to article

After social media users figure out Travis unfollowed Ryan Reynolds on Instagram the previous weekend, Page Six gets this off-the-record exclusive:

Travis Kelce is intentionally trying to distance himself from Blake Lively’s ongoing drama with Justin Baldoni. Page Six has exclusively learned that the Kansas City Chiefs tight end unfollowed Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, on Instagram because of the “It Ends With Us” actress’s messy legal nightmare. [...] It is also unknown how Kelce’s girlfriend, Taylor Swift, feels about the unfollowing. Her reps could not be immediately reached for comment. However, it has been widely reported that the pop superstar, 35, is not as close with Lively as she once was.

Daily Mail - May 3, 2025

link to article

This is almost assuredly sourced by JB's team, given the confirmation that Taylor was issued a subpoena in the case and will be interviewed by JB's lawyer. Ultimately, the article mainly rehashes the case, but it does also detail that Travis is expected to be subpoenaed as well, along with Hugh Jackman.

As the Mail can exclusively reveal, the actress's best friend Taylor Swift – almost certainly the most powerful woman in showbusiness – has been dropped, centre-stage, into the whole unsalutary mess, and served with a subpoena by Baldoni's lawyers. After weeks of rumours that it was coming, the subpoena has been issued compelling Swift to submit to an interview by Baldoni's 'streetfighter' lawyer Bryan Freedman under oath – never a pleasant experience for anyone. Freedman is one of the most powerful and feared litigators in the entertainment industry. He has represented actors and celebrities including Kevin Spacey, accused of assault; Kate Beckinsale; Julia Roberts and Bella Thorne. A source said: 'Taylor Swift has now been subpoenaed. Some subpoenas are being sent this week, some depositions are in the process now of being scheduled. People often push back and say that they can't for various reasons, but you really cannot get out of it.' And that's not all: I can further reveal that Swift's boyfriend, the American football star Travis Kelce, will soon receive a subpoena of his own, as will Lively and Reynolds' friend, Wolverine star Hugh Jackman. [...] A little over a week ago, US magazine People – apparently briefed by pro-Lively sources – published a piece saying that the two women's friendship was back on track, much to Lively's 'relief' after a difficult period. 'Blake knew she and Taylor would come back from this at some point and that their friendship wasn't done for good,' the insider said. 'Taylor was really hurt by this situation, so she's relieved they were able to recover from this and put it all behind them because it wasn't something she took lightly.' Yet, embarrassingly, days later there came another almighty bombshell when Kelce stopped following Reynolds on Instagram. In a world where a thumbs up or down on social media speaks more words than People magazine could fit in a whole article, everyone was left in no doubt as to the real state of Lively and Swift's friendship. Swift does not, herself, follow anyone on Instagram, but Kelce following Reynolds was one outward sign of the close relationship between the couples – and now that's gone. At around the same time, Swift was a guest at their mutual friend Gigi Hadid's 30th birthday party in New York – and Blake Lively was nowhere to be seen, adding to the impression that she is now being shunned by Swift and her friendship group. Gossip columnist Rob Shuter said that the model 'had to pick between Taylor and Blake... and, ultimately, she picked Taylor'.

***

The Rundown: A Tumblrina's Thoughts

I don't want to delve too deeply into it, because there are so many heightened emotions around this for a lot of reasons.

I've said this many times, but I think it bears repeating: the Taylor issue in the media is separate from Blake's very valid legal case. I see this as being three separate issues: Blake's case about sexual harassment, Baldoni's case about creative differences and extortion, and Taylor's reaction to being (unfairly) involved. They're all intertwined, of course, but the legal issues are very obviously separate from Taylor's.

What I'm trying to say is that you can have feelings about how Taylor is being used, while still having different feelings about the very real case at play. Unfortunately, going by public statements and actions, Taylor and Blake's friendship seems to be collateral in what is shaping up to be a nasty, messy legal fight.

(Call me a cupcake, but yes, I absolutely believe Taylor's version of events. One, because I'm her fan first and foremost, so I give her the benefit of the doubt. Two, because even though JB's team implied her presence pressured him, if he actually felt that she was involved, she would have been named in the lawsuit IMO. It's clear she's just a ploy to get at Blake. And three, not to fly too close to the sun, but if you look at the time frame of when the "meeting" happened... I think you can draw your own conclusions about what might have been going on. At the very least, Taylor had bigger fish to fry.)

My thoughts on it all aren't really important, but if I had to draw a conclusion around it, it's that Taylor is being used (perhaps both unintentionally and deliberately) by both Blake and JB's sides to defend themselves-- and that must feel really, really shitty for someone who doesn't have any involvement in the case. JB dragging her into the case is in zero way surprising as a media tactic, and is the best way he can keep his side of the story out there with assured headlines. (Again: it's from his publicist's own mouth via the planning document.) Blake's response seems innocuous at first glance, but when taking in the fulsome view of the media response, it does unfortunately feel like leaning on Taylor's image to defend her own. Everything is fine! Well, everything's not fine, but we worked it out. Well, we worked it out and Taylor is still sensitive about it. Actually, Taylor's still really upset.

The thing that is abundantly clear is that Taylor's team persistently tried to steer the narrative away from the case, underscoring her lack of involvement at all beyond being Blake's friend and pivoting repeatedly to what she wanted to convey: Taylor is on break, Taylor is leading a private life right now and focused on her family, Taylor doesn't want anyone using her, Taylor doesn't know anything. It was to be expected that JB's team would ignore that, but I presume it was particularly hurtful that Blake's team ignored it as well. That is just me speculating, but there are dots dotting throughout the evolution of the statements. Taylor's request for privacy seems to have fallen on deaf ears, particularly by people who should know better.

One thing that jumped out at me is that the narrative around Taylor's involvement mostly died out after the initial frenzy after JB's suit was filed in January, particularly after the February 6 blitz of, "Taylor feels used and she needs time to cool off, but they'll work it out." It seemed to have done the trick, beyond a few whispers here and there about subpoenas (again, mostly from Daily Mail, which comes from JB's camp). However, the stories appearing in April about the rift between Taylor and Blake over the case and how they mended their friendship and are fine now seem to have stirred the pot yet again, especially since, candidly, it seems like they came directly from Blake's team. (Not to be a conspiracy theorist... But that also coincided in an uptick in publicity for Blake's new movie, along with obviously JB's subpoenas.)

I'd imagine it must have been especially frustrating to have a friend bring it up again in the press, when you'd made it clear that your stance was to leave you out of it and worked so hard to stress that to the press and to mostly successful results. With that context, it's not surprising Taylor's team was quick to rebuke those statements, even through non-traditional methods.

This is me putting on yet another speculative hat, but having read press about the case in general throughout this period, and not just the Taylor articles, another thing that struck me is that once JB filed his suit and his lawyer started talking about deposing celebrities, and specifically Taylor, there wasn't a single statement that I can find by Blake's team denouncing that effort as a fishing expedition when the lawsuits were filed. To me, the most natural response to JB's claims by her PR and legal teams would have been, "This is a desperate attempt by Baldoni and his team to distract the public from the very serious allegations he is facing by Blake and the other women who worked with him on the movie, because he knows his own claims are baseless." Nothing of the sort came out until after the news of the subpoenas hit at the end of April.

It obviously wouldn't have stopped JB's team from doing whatever they wanted, but it would make Blake's team's position clear about where they stand regarding her friends and collaborators being dragged into the case, and shifted the narrative back to the alleged victims in the case. However, her team's silence on that front I think must feel especially worrisome to some of said friends and collaborators (like Taylor), who, I would wonder, might feel like they're being hung out to dry a little.

(Again, candidly: not to delve into the legal case, but having read both the filings and the press outside of the Taylor of it all, I suspect they didn't issue a blanket denouncement of the depositions because at the time, Blake's team was trying to subpoena Baldoni's phone records. Glass houses etc. I also have other Thoughts about the matter. But. Well. It diverges from the Taylor of it all and nobody here cares lol.)

This is a little outside of the Taylor of it all, but taking a macro look at everything between December and now, it seems like this is ultimately a battle of PR strategies. Which, duh. But what I mean by that is JB's team is waging modern social media warfare, using all means to muddy public opinion, and again, this is from his team's own words. Troll farms, fake or "influential" accounts to offer counter-narratives, podcasts, his team speaking directly to the press, etc. The goal is to blanket the field. On the other hand, Blake's team seems to be following a traditional PR effort, relying on reputable outlets like friendly magazines (PEOPLE) and talk shows, and putting out feel-good stories to counter the negative press. E.g., there are SO many follow-up stories to every It Ends With Us story about seeing Hugh's play (no mention of the case), cute stories she tells about her kids on talk shows, her and Ryan showing up at x event, press about their new movies, awards, etc. They're blanketing the field in another way.

Meanwhile, Taylor is caught in the middle, when all she wants to do is: be radio silent and live her life. So on the one hand, she's got the attack dogs on JB's side pulling her in to their narrative, and on the other she's got the positive PR blitz on Blake's low-key pulling her in too. And what's even worse, maybe even spreading an agenda that isn't truthful to her own experience, and banking on her silence as tacit support or approval.

From Taylor's PR standpoint, this is kind of a fascinating exercise to me too, because you can see the nuance in her own team's strategy. If I had to describe it, it's that it uses its most friendly outlet, ET, as the pulpit, and the others as the *whispers* to fill in the blanks. By that I mean, it uses their most trusted source (and again: we as fans all know why it is) to relay their high-level, top-line messages: Taylor does not want to be involved, Taylor is focused on her private life out of the spotlight, Taylor has no knowledge of the situation. Those are the key messages that get repeated nearly every time it makes a statement to ET. This is the party line, and what Taylor's unofficial official statement is.

But then, her team also fights fire with fire by dropping nuggets in all the other outlets, even the less-reputable ones, and IMO that is by design. Firstly, because it sends messages across different audiences (who aren't all consuming everything Taylor related like we are as fans), and secondly, and perhaps more pointedly, to address the other parties' publicists in their own preferred outlets. There's also perhaps an added layer of plausible deniability, because sources like TMZ or Daily Mail or Page Six aren't necessarily reliable when it comes to Taylor so you could in theory deny where the info is coming from, but all it takes is looking at the spirit and the wording of the statements to know where the likely origin is.

So while Taylor isn't going to give an exclusive to ET saying she felt manipulated by Blake and is taking a step back from her to process the hurt she feels, giving an even more off-the-record account to a place like TMZ, where there are already questions of bias and salaciousness, allows her to get her story out there and beat them at their own game. Sometimes you have to roll in the mud a little, which is why it seems like these seedier tabloids got some of the juiciest stuff to paint a broader picture of what was actually happening while Taylor was publicly silent. Maybe another analogy is, um, ET is Khaleesi and the other tabloids are the dragons?

And a note about Page Six: I know a lot of people may have found it strange that that tabloid, of all places, got the confirmation that Travis unfollowed Ryan on purpose, but in reading all this, it actually makes perfect sense. For one thing, confirming to a smaller outlet like this avoids the media storm it would have been if it had been an official statement or "sources tell" quote to ET or PEOPLE. But for another: Page Six is extremely Blake and Ryan-friendly these days. (Again, which surprises me, because of the outlet's connection to JB's publicist, but things may have changed idk.) Like, it seems like it's second only to PEOPLE in positive press for the couple. (Meaning: they are being fed stories by their PR team.) So, using B&R's own preferred source to confirm an action that indicates that their spin of the situation with Taylor is not accurate is kind of ballsy, and also very pointed. It's one step away from saying, "Actually, that's not true, Ellen Blake."

If I can make one more comment about it all, it's that I think Blake's team is worrying about and reacting to the short-term effects of JB's bad press (e.g. the depositions) instead of the long game of her and Ryan's broader reputations and the case itself. And if I could speculate, Taylor would be someone who knew better than anyone about the value of staying silent about a personal issue unless needed to play the long game of maintaining your reputation, and knowing what fights are worth fighting and what are just mud-slinging. (And perhaps that advice and experience might have fallen on deaf ears itself.) I have more thoughts about the Blake of it all and even the JB of it all, but it's a separate issue from this specific post about Taylor.

This was entirely too long, and there isn't much point to it, but like I said, I'm utterly fascinated by the ways in which PR is used in a professional capacity, and how many different factors are in play for a single issue, especially when it starts turning into crisis management. And to be clear, it isn't a crisis on Taylor's end, but Blake's crisis management is affecting Taylor's personal life, and it's a tangled web to weave.

And if you made it this far... Cheers, friend! 🥂

#blake case #wavesoutbeingtossed: the anthology #<- because this is a double album's worth of writing lmao #writing letters addressed to the fire #waves makes waves about discourse

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campingwiththecharmings · 2 days ago

Text

The Set Up

AN: Inspired by a prompt from this list. I'm not sure how I feel about this as it didn't turn out the way I wanted but I'm posting it anyway lol. Happy Star Wars Day! May the 4th Be With You 😊

(Un-beta’d)

Your friends set you up with The Perfect Guy™️

Rated: M-ish (very, VERY slight, honestly just rating it this just in case lmao) Words: 1,218 Pairing: Poe Dameron x Reader (pretty sure it's GN, please let me know if that's incorrect) Warnings: References to sex but no overt sexual content, awkwardness, drinking/tipsiness, mentions of past drunkenness, please let me know if I missed anything. AO3

——————

“Let us set you up,” they’d said. “It’ll be so fun,” they’d said. “We have the perfect guy for you,” they'd said.

The Perfect Guy. Right.

Just so happens you’ve already dated this particular Perfect Guy.

Well, maybe “dated” wasn’t the right word. “Had a history with,” maybe? Or, more like “shared a bed with”...

It was late last year, after one of many missions in the Outer Rim. You’d been having a drink at the Cantina, drowning your sorrows after the loss of a friend. He’d been doing the same for similar reasons. You’d gotten to chatting, commiserating, slinging back drink after drink, and had soon ended up outside Poe’s quarters sloppily making out against the door. He’d been solid, and warm—and such a good kisser—and Maker, you’d just needed the comfort he was offering. So, you’d slept together. You don’t remember too much, just flashes here and there, but it must’ve been awful because the next morning, he was nowhere to be found. You’d been embarrassed to say the least but thankfully you didn’t really run in the same circles. You’d never told anyone about it and it appeared he hadn’t either, so you’d just tried to forget about it.

“Poe,” you say, voice shaking slightly. “Long time no see.”

He has the decency to look at least a little uncomfortable, which gives you some hope that he’s not a complete nerf herder.

“About that–”

You cut him off with a hand, shaking your head. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”

He pauses, lips still parted. He nods after a moment, briefly averting his gaze.

An awkward silence falls between you before he breaks it with a question. “Still drink spice rum?”

Your eyes widen a little in surprise—he remembered your preferred drink? “Oh, um, yes.”

He smiles gesturing toward the bar. “Can I get you one?”

After a moment’s hesitation, you nod. So, this date was still on then?

He returns and hands you the glass of rum, just the smell of it putting you a little more at ease. “Thanks.”

Silence falls between you again, but it’s less awkward somehow.

“How’s BB-8?” you ask, gingerly sipping on your drink.

Poe’s eyes light up at the mention of his droid and it kind of warms your heart a little. “He’s good, thanks. Just got back from a mission in the Mid Rim so he’s getting cleaned up by the techs at the moment.”

You nod, trying to make yourself relax a little. “So the mission was successful then? I know you can’t go into details but…”

He nods enthusiastically, his mouth otherwise occupied with his Jet Juice. “Yes, definitely successful.”

“Good,” you reply, wetting your lips.

Poe’s gaze briefly drops to your mouth and your skin heats. You swallow hard, the memory of what kissing him felt like popping into your mind unbidden.

Kriffing hell, you had to get out of here.

But you don’t, instead choosing to torture yourself with more awkward conversation. You talk about a lot of things, but none of it feels natural. Not even after four spice rums. Finally, after what feels like an eternity, he offers you an out, explaining that he has an early call tomorrow. Relieved, you jump to your feet, swaying a little, your head spinning a little. Maker, maybe four spice rums was too many on an empty stomach…

You feel Poe’s hands on your shoulders as he tries to help steady you, a concerned look on his face.

“You okay?”

You chuckle, slightly embarrassed. “I think I just…stood up too fast.”

He looks unconvinced but doesn’t try to stop you as you move to walk away from the table you’d been sitting at, your legs feeling like jelly.

“Hey, um, maybe I should walk you back?” he offers, eyebrows raising hopefully.

You shake your head, then immediately regret it, the quick movement making the room spin.

“Okay,” you hear Poe say, his warm, strong hands steadying you once more. “I’ve got you, it’s alright.”

He threads your arm through his, his voice soft as he directs you to wrap your fingers around his forearm for more balance. It gets better the longer you walk, your feet less clumsy, the room less…spinny. You’re pretty much back to normal by the time you make it to your quarters.

Wordlessly, you key the door code in, the familiar snick of the door opening reaching your ears.

“Thanks for walking me back,” you tell him softly, staring resolutely at your feet.

“Of course, anytime,” he says, slowly releasing you from his hold. “You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine,” you chuckle breathlessly, stealing a brief glance at him. “Just a little embarrassed.”

He tsks, leaning his shoulder against the wall beside the door. “Embarrassed? What for? Not like I haven’t seen you drunk before.”

You snort, shaking your head at the low blow. “This is true.”

He’s smiling when you finally meet his eyes, the tension between you thawing slightly. You stare at each other for a moment, Poe’s face shifting before he looks away. He chews his lip, drawing your attention as he says, “I know you said you didn’t want to talk about it but—”

“I still don’t,” you interject, averting your gaze once more. “Look, I get it. It was bad. Let’s just…be adults and move on, okay?”

Poe’s brow furrows at your words. “What was bad?”

You scoff, not daring to meet his gaze. “You know.”

“I really don’t,” he argues, sounding genuinely perplexed.

You sigh, annoyance flickering in your chest. “The sex obviously.”

“Y–you thought it was bad?” he asks after a beat, stepping a little closer to you.

His proximity forces you to meet his eyes.

“You’re the one that left,” you whisper, swallowing thickly as you begin to walk into your room. “Good night, Poe.”

His hand on your bicep halts your progress and you snap your head back toward him, the quick movement making the hallway spin for a moment.

“You were the one that left.”

Your mouth opens and closes wordlessly before you respond. “What?”

Poe leans in, close enough that you can feel his breath against your cheek. “I left to go get breakfast for both of us and when I came back, you were gone.”

No, that’s…that’s not possible…Is it?

“I–,” you begin, exhaling heavily. “When I woke up, you were gone. So I thought—-”

He curses under his breath, releasing your arm as he runs a hand through his curls. “Listen, I would never—,” He pauses, swallowing hard before continuing. “I’m so sorry you woke up alone.”

His words ignite a spark in your chest, the warmth of it permeating, spreading out toward your fingertips. “Thanks.”

“Could we—,” he begins, wetting his lips. “Could we maybe start over?”

You smile softly, meeting his earnest brown eyes. “I think I’d like that.”

He smiles back, relieved.

—

The next date you have ends in Poe's quarters again, but this time you remember every second—every kiss, every sigh, every brush of skin against skin. It's so good. He makes sure you know he's still there in the morning, too, waking you up with his head between your thighs.

Maybe your friends were right, maybe he is actually The Perfect Guy.

If you enjoyed this, please let me know! I appreciate every single reblog and/or comment. Thank you. 💖

🌟 Masterlist 🌟

i am no longer doing a taglist. please follow @charmingupdates for updates and turn on notifications.

#poe dameron x you #poe dameron x reader #poe dameron fic #poe dameron fanfiction #poe dameron reader insert #my fic

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saaltskies · 1 day ago

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Anthea and Concordia don’t show up or do much and it is very sad because they are so interesting. They only show up twice (one appearance in each game) but those appearances add some valuable and interesting context and information specifically about N’s upbringing.

Along with N, they were also children adopted by Ghetsis and are N’s adopted older sisters tasked with the role of being his caretakers which is kinda messed up because they were kids too. We don’t know their ages, but they would be only a few years older than N and were forced into the role of a mother when they were still children themselves. There is also an interesting thing in how they are girls and I would not be surprised if Ghetsis specifically picked girls to take care of N because he sees child rearing as a woman’s job and put them in charge of raising and taking care of him while Ghetsis served as a teacher of sorts to make him into a king. It is completely like him to do that.

A very interesting thing is how they had some level of awareness of what Ghetsis was doing. They clearly had stuff figured out by the time you met them in the castle, and two years later when you meet them in the ex Team Plasma safehouse, they know enough to call it grooming and to know what that is and that that is what Ghetsis was doing (and I loooooove how the game used that word and called it what it is and didn’t shy away from saying he was groomed), but I do wonder at what point in their lives they started figuring things out. They care a lot about N and when they met you they made sure to tell you that he is a good person, Ghetsis has just been manipulating him. They want to help him get out of there and break free from Ghetsis and his own ideals keeping him prisoner (haha prisoner of a formula). I wonder if they have tried telling him but it didn’t really work because N is so stuck in this mindset and Ghetsis had a lot of control over him and also they wouldn’t be able to say or do much to attempt to persuade him anyway because there is the risk of Ghetsis finding out what they are doing and punishing them (this is especially scary because Ghetsis is clearly not above killing children. He tried to kill both protagonists he would absolutely kill them or hurt them in some other horrific way if they defied him). There are also other things to consider like they probably didn’t know what to do with their doubts, and of course they were brainwashed too and are also in the cult mindset and probably supported Team Plasma a lot at least at first.

I do find it interesting that they don’t do much and don’t seem to have an identity outside of N. This is almost definitely not intentional and they probably just don’t do much in the games, but it is fun to get stuff out of it anyway. It is interesting because with the Team Plasma being a cult thing you kinda lose a sense of identity. The members are less their own people and more a collective whole. They all dress the exact same, all of their minds are focused on the liberation of pokemon and refusing any other ideas and outside forces, they all worship N like you would a god and think of him as this great savior, and they are isolated from the rest of the world to keep them under Ghetsis’s control. Many members who left after they found out what Ghetsis was doing couldn’t move on and split off to another Team Plasma faction where many continue to wear their uniforms and call N their lord and keep their beliefs but stop stealing and dedicate their lives to atoning for their wrongdoings and many are waiting and hoping for their Lord N to return (as if it’s Jesus’s second coming or something. yikes). Anthea and Concordia are among these. While they are separate from the rest of Team Plasma with their titles of goddesses, their lives since being adopted by Ghetsis as children has completely revolved around N and with that their identities. Even after leaving, the only thing they talk about to you is N and they remain in the broken off Team Plasma that follows N and hates Ghetsis. You could say that their characters completely revolve around N because THEY do. Their whole identities and lives are based around him and despite getting away from Ghetsis, they still won’t move on and start living their own lives like N has started doing. They voice their wishes for N to move on and do what he wants with his life but they won’t do it themselves and it’s very sad.

I really hope if a Unova legends game is ever made these two have a bigger role or at least show up more.

#i wrote this for my sister who is playing bw2 for the first time rn and finished bw a while back and thought sure i'll put it here too #hehe i like this game #pokemon #pokemon bw #sky yaps

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booksandabeer · 1 day ago

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Thunderbolts Ramblings

Hi hey hello, I am back after a short self-imposed hiatus. Can I interest you in 2500 words of chaotic ramblings about the Thunderbolts movie? Fair warning: I only just saw it for the first time last night, so I'm still sorting through all my many, many thoughts. This is not a review or meta or anything really. I guess this is what people call A Reaction Post? Ew.

Maybe it's a little bit of everything.

First things first: I really enjoyed watching this movie. Yes, it is flawed. Yes, there are things that I would change, but it is a coherent and cohesive creative work that actually has ideas, features great performances, and that was obviously made with love and care—and that alone makes it easily the best thing the MCU has put out in years, and I'm glad I decided to go and see it in theaters.

(I will put the rest under a 'keep reading' for length and spoiler reasons)

TB is a good, very competently made movie that manages to be incredibly entertaining and funny, and at the same time takes its themes and characters seriously. It has great pacing and momentum, is tightly plotted (a lean 2 hours runtime; imagine that!), finds smart and organic ways to deliver exposition, and all the actors have great chemistry with each other. The score by Son Lux fucking slaps! Practical effects and stunts! Real locations! No 30-minute CGI slop battle at the end where the majority of the audience checks out after ten minutes and starts looking at their phones!

I have to say that for all the promo noise that was made in advance about how the movie was basically made by an all-star team of A24 below-the-line people, it is not able to shake the ugly-ass Marvel “house style” completely, but we get a sleeker, more stylish version of that dreaded flat grey aesthetic and it does actually work here because it makes sense within the context of the film’s plot and more importantly as a visual representation of its themes. The effect of the void looks extremely cool and scary—people actually gasped out loud in my theater when it took the little girl. (Honestly this was horrifying in the very best way because it interrupts a scene at the exact moment when I started to roll my eyes at the cheesiness of it all…and then it did THAT and HOLY SHIT.)

Like I said above, this is a very funny film. It’s also a very sad one. It’s about sad, broken, lonely people and it deals with depression, isolation, and suicidal ideation in a way that is surprisingly nuanced. Could it be more nuanced? Of course. Is it at all subtle about its central metaphor? Absolutely not. But maybe let’s all calm the fuck down for a second here and remember that this is still a superhero movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and there are limits to what they can and are allowed to do within the narrative and commercial restraints of that world.

And honestly? The world is on fire right now and we are going through a real bleak fucking moment in time (to put it mildly), so I cannot find it in me to be a cynical asshole about a movie in which the Power of Friendship saves the world and evil is defeated via the most dramatic group hug in the history of ever. That said, while I loved this as the climax of the movie and the solution to the Bob/Void conflict, I wasn’t fully convinced as to how all of the characters actually got there. Yelena, sure. But that’s because they did some excellent character work to establish her connection with Bob, and it’s similarly very understandable why Alexei would follow her into the void immediately. But Ava? Walker?? And least of all, Bucky who has never even met Bob and just knows him as that weird Sentry dude with a bad bleach job and a suit that even Homelander would deem too tacky, and who, oh yeah, almost killed him literally five minutes ago? I don’t buy it.

And speaking of my pal, my buddy, my Bucky…I don’t really know what to say here, so let’s just get it over with. He’s barely in the movie. Seriously, it’s a CA:CW situation all over again. If you’ve watched the trailers then you’ve already seen 95% of his scenes. The remaining 5% of his screen time he pretty much spends standing around in the background making reaction faces. Look, I had no great hopes or expectations, so I’m not mad or even surprised at all, but I am still a little disappointed and, frankly, just confused as to what the thought process is here. I simply don’t understand what’s the deal with Mr. Baseball Cap and his Marvel Parliament (cannot believe I just typed that out, what a truly ridiculous & self-important name) continuing to refuse to give Bucky anything of substance to do in these projects. Just…why? You have this widely beloved character with so much juicy narrative potential, so much fascinating backstory to explore, whose own harrowingly traumatic journey makes him uniquely suited to the very story you’re trying to tell with this movie, AND you have a very popular and incredibly charismatic performer playing him who also just so happens to be riding an absolute career high at the moment…and you give him almost nothing meaningful to say or do? Why???

That said, every time he shows up and he actually gets A Moment? He’s fucking electric. I of all people shouldn’t be surprised by Sebastian Stan anymore and admittedly I am very biased—I’m not that far gone down the fangirl rabbit hole not to realize that—but it is truly wild how every time the camera is actually on him it’s like oh ok, hello, the movie star is here now, everybody else can shut up and melt into the background please. Every other actor just looks small by comparison (with Pugh being the only real exception). He brings both a razzle-dazzle and a gravitas to the role that feels completely at odds with the ridiculously little narrative weight that is afforded to his character. What a waste. No wonder Sebastian has seemed monosyllabic and quiet at best and listless and lowkey shady at worst during interviews. Because what really is there to talk about for him? Not much, really.

Let's just run through the other characters quickly because this already getting so long.

Yelena: Florence Pugh is the undisputed lead, and Yelena the beating heart of the movie. I love that she got such a central role here and got to show so many different facets of her character. She’s on fire. I don’t care how fucking cool and how checked out of the MCU you are (while simultaneously talking about nothing else and seeing this on opening weekend, lol), but if you seriously want to tell me that you don’t feel anything at all when she says “But I have so many [regrets]!” in a devastatingly tear-choked voice, then I think you’re either a liar or dead inside. I would also like to once again express my gratitude that they are dressing her in clothes that she can actually move and breathe and fight in. And guess what? She still looks unbelievably fucking hot.

Ava: I’m not a big Ant-Man person (I’ve only seen the first two movies once and the little interest I had in the third one died the moment I saw that disastrous trailer), so I barely remembered her and therefore had no great expectations, but I liked her, I thought she was really interesting and a great counterweight to the more impulsive and abrasive Yelena. Hannah John-Kamen seems to be a graduate of that very particularly British School of Jaw-Acting. You know that kind of jaw-forward type of performing…very jaw-y…jaw-based? See also: Keira K., Hayley A., etc., you know the exact type of actress that people on this website keep insisting is somehow both uniquely and universally appealing to all bisexual women…and I just cannot confirm that. Sorry. Anyway, H J-K is good in the movie, I look forward to seeing her again and also congratulations to her agent for negotiating that special “with” billing in the end credits because…what. How? But hey, good for her.

Bob: This is maybe unfair to the character, which is quite well-written, and to Lewis Pullman, who does a great job portraying the wildly different personalities (?) of Bob/Sentry/The Void and yet manages to hold on to an emotional throughline AND be endearingly funny at the same time, but all I could think about while watching this was that this guy is tailor-made (or, you know, genetically engineered…ha!) for the tumblr/AO3 whump girlies. The fanfic is going to be wild. Good character, good performance, GREAT decision to immediately depower him and therefore set him up for an “learning to control/balance your abilities with the darkness inside of you” arc in the next movie(s). Still, I will always wonder about what could've been if my beloved Steven Yeun hadn't had to drop out of the role.

Alexei: I have very complicated feelings about this character. Objectively, he is an awful, awful person who has done terrible things to people—including the ones that he claims to love. Thanks to David Harbour, he’s also got a big boisterous personality, a striking physicality, and he’s legitimately and wildly hilarious. He made me laugh out loud multiple times! And yet, I cannot help but be very skeptical about this #GirlDadification of a character that literally trafficked human beings and was ultimately fine with handing his “daughters” over to an organization that enslaved them, mentally and physically abused them, groomed them to be child soldiers, forcibly sterilized them, and had them kill other little girls when, again, they were still children themselves. Idk, kind of makes the bile rise up in your throat while you’re still laughing at cute jokes about Wheaties boxes and pee wee soccer teams.

Walker: Speaking of complicated characters…I have to say, I enjoyed him immensely in this movie. Which, mind you, is very much not the same as liking him. There’s already a lot of heated discourse about the character and if he deserves a redemption arc and whether or not he’s actually given one in this movie. I honestly neither understand the Walker stans who truly think he’s a poor little meow meow with a heart of gold and is really just misunderstood good guy nor his haters who are up in arms because they seem to think that the movie also genuinely believes that and portrays him as such. I think they’re both wrong and that the movie actually does a great job of showing that he’s a pathetic little asshole who blames everybody but himself for his failures and takes out his insecurities on other people that he perceives as weaker than him, while also not forgetting that he is still a human being worthy of some empathy. And bless Wyatt Russell for leaving behind any vanity and throwing himself into portraying this character as a deeply, deeply unpleasant person. Even his fighting style is ugly—all brute force and no finesse. The fact that any of the team members can stand to be in a room with this insufferable man for even just a few minutes without throwing a punch at him says much more about their humanity and innate goodness than it says about him and his supposed redeemability.

Valentina: I realize that I’m probably the only person in the world who thinks so, but both Valentina as a character and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, as an actor, were the weak links for me in this movie. Despite having seen her appear in one tv show and two movies now, I still do not understand Valentina’s motivations in the slightest—there’s never any explanation given for why she does what she does or what she ultimately hopes to achieve with it (see also her assistant Mel, a complete non-character, whose reasons for working for her evil boss—and continuing to work for her even after she clearly recognizes her as evil and sort of kind of but not really "betrays" her to Bucky et al—are even more opaque). Valentina's shame-room scene only makes her less legible as a person and a villain, and except for one brief moment, she herself doesn’t seem to be bothered or affected by it at all, so I don’t even know why it was included. JLD did not work for me here, not because she isn’t a very talented actress, but because she’s simply miscast and/or misdirected. She clearly has a lot of fun dialing it up to eleven playing the hubristic comic book villain, but since all the other actors give performances that are at least to a certain degree grounded in an approximation of realism, she just comes across as tonally off and like she’s in a different movie than everyone else.

Sidenote: I have to say that it did amuse me endlessly to see this awful woman who carelessly uses and abuses enhanced humans like they are little more than glorified dolls for her to play with under the guise of wanting to “protect the world” (lol) standing behind the bar of Avengers Tower pouring herself champagne in the very spot where a certain someone mixed his cocktails and monologued about his own greatness. Was this intentional? Honest-to-god lèse-majesté in an MCU movie? Please be serious, that’s never going to happen. But my god, did it make me cackle with glee!

Stray thoughts because omg this is so long:

If I was a Taskmaster/Antonia fan, I would be rioting in the streets right now. Why even bring her back if this is what you're going to do with her? I know the MCU iteration of the character wasn't exactly popular, but wow, to give her such an unceremonious and meaningless death was just mean, bordering on cruelty.

I was pleasantly surprised that aside from the dishwasher joke, the "disarming" Bucky scenes were handled sensitively and seriously. Yeah, sorry I just do not find disability jokes funny. Bonus points to Ava for immediately picking up Bucky's arm to return it to him.

I'm not going to touch the final end credits scene with a ten foot pole because the discourse about what happens in it and how a certain character is referenced/talked about is already absolutely bonkers unhinged in many different ways and I have no desire to wade into that. Folks are being real normal about it, that's for sure, and I would remind them that these are fictional characters, who cannot be blamed for stupid things they say or do or don't say or do. Blame the writers, directors, producers, executives, who are the ones who actually have agency and authority over what is shown and said on screen.

Ok, one thing about that scene because I was so distracted by it that I almost missed everything else: WHAT in the everloving 90s bodice ripper cover model hell is THAT HAIR??? I mean he looks good, because he always looks good, but wow. Yes, yes, I know most of you like that hair. It's fine. The new suit is badass though.

I have so many more things to say, but I will stop now. I'm not even sure if anybody will read this far, but hey thanks if you did and let me know what you thought of the movie.

Just to reiterate, in case this wasn't clear: I liked the movie. I liked it a lot, even. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not about to go shout from the rooftops that Marvel is so back!!! or something like that. But. This is a giant step in the right direction. More of this please.

#thunderbolts #thunderbolts spoilers #thunderbolts*#thunderbolts* spoilers #this is the ONLY time i will use that stupid asterisk jsyk #mcu #movie ramblings

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sunshades · 1 day ago

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I’ve never read the stranger and I’m so curious about the Marie thing because I honestly don’t hear much about the two’s relationship outside of Meursault liking boobs.

RIGHT i was kind of curious because what i knew from friends going into the book was really kind of. the boobs? while it feels like limbus fans have always been REALLY excited about her in the way we were about other "love interest" characters (queequeg who was obviously going to be one of the most important characters in c5, being so defining of ishmael and of the homosexual subtext in moby-dick, and catherine whom we knew since release was at the crux of heathcliff's story as she is in wh) to the point i see her added to so many ship charts as an otp for meursault, so i was wondering if she really had such a cool and interesting dynamic that everyone was looking forward to it so much despite there having been no hint at her even existing. granted i'm excited at the thought of penelope since odypen is an incredibly important part to the odyssey (despite being. very aware there's no way we're getting a canon lesbian marriage 😭) even if nothing has hinted at her either...

so now i finished it and YEAH basically. to spoil an 80 year old novel- yeah the extent to their relationship is that they go to the movies, they go swimming together and they have sex. there is some stray moments where meursault shows a slight interest in her as a person (like wanting to know where she's going when she says she's busy, but then not thinking about asking her, i thought that bit was kind of endearing) and by the end when he's in prison he associates the thought of her to that of freedom, but beside that... 🤷‍♂️? there is no actual "dynamic" the way i expected from seeing people talking about limbus meursault's potential relationship with her.

THE metaphorical level of their relationship is INTERESTING- while i haven't done readings about it yet, i do think basically every character in the book is readable as representing a type of institution and the absurdity and corruption of it, so marie represents a very bleak (but realistic!) look on the institution of marriage and of romantic love at all. meursault has moments where he thinks/learns about a couple other relationships, that of his neighbour salamano with his late wife, and of his mom with her "boyfriend" at the hospice. in both cases the concept that is observed is that humans like to have a companion, especially as they grow older and weaker. salamano didn't care much for his wife, but when she died he felt lonely, so he got a dog instead. similarly, meursault never knew his father, but put his mom in the hospice when he realized they didn't have anything to tell each other- she resented him, but there she made friends and became close with a man. it's a thing all about convenience, in a sense. the relationship with marie too is framed in this context: meursault enjoys spending time with her and enjoys the sex, but anything else isn't relevant to him. his life is defined by the physical experience, the rest is... well, not serious!

as for marie herself, i think she's... and you'll forgive me for being dismissive of a female character-- vapid? i feel like that's the most accurate word sdtgyhufjdkg. it's not her fault, we see her through meursault's eyes, which means her interiority is kind of limited, but i think that is the idea. she is nice, she likes swimming, she smiles a lot, she is vaguely bothered by meursault's behavior and the fact he doesn't really love her or consider her special, but not enough to leave him. i think that too is supposed to be commentary on how love and marriage is something sought after out of a need and convenience more than anything sentimental, because it is considered the way one (especially a woman!) must lead a normal life.

so at the end: i'm genuinely not sure where this idea of marie as one of the "love interest" characters is coming from... but! i'm incredibly curious to see how canto 10 adapts the concepts she's tied to. considering the city doesn't really have like... well i guess the entire patriarchal structure of Marriage And Kids -and in fact we know canonically for some people (like fixers) it's widely considered a bad idea- i am really thinking they might not make her a character at all, unless there's some stuff specific to n corp. that meursault is going to explore. even if they adapted her, her role, like in the book, should be to reflect on meursault's indifference to life, his struggle to connect with the world, because that world IS weird and disconnected, much like he is. a good marie should reflect that as well i think.

on a sillier note. well. very obvious what my ultimate dealbreaker was:

#ask the bell #anonymous #limbus company #limby og #also idk if the screenies are a good translation cuz i read mine in italian and only grabbed the first pdf i found to comment on it with fr #*ends #VERY LONG REPLY ALERT!!! i kept remembering stuff while writing. gently picks anon up i didnt mean to paragraph blast u. have a lovely day #it is a very good book btw it goes by much faster than i thought #added more in reblog SORRY

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us3rnam3-r3dact3d · 3 days ago

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the world (it burns through me)

Chapter 28: Angel, Sweetheart, Darlin'

Ao3 | 4.5k Words | Angel, Sweetheart, and Darlin's POVs

Angel would know their husband anywhere. The world isn't right when Asher isn't smiling. David says goodbye. Sweetheart has their teeth around the problem. Milo's betrayal blossoms. Porter gives advice on a clean murder. Darling is ready for this to be over. Sam proposes.

TW: Medical stuff, blood and injury, smoke inhalation, intubation, mentions of death, grief, arguments and conflict, murderous intent.

Everything went fuzzy after the bathtub, and you were pretty grateful for that fact when it came down to it. A fire slowly encroaching on you as you laid helplessly and bled… that was a vision you didn’t want to visit you in your dreams.

What you remembered was heat and smoke and the pound of palms on your chest. Everything was strange and muddled, the twist of fingers in your skin, the ground pressed into your back. You were lost in the movement and burn of your surroundings, but you knew Davey was there the minute his hands were on you. You would know your husband’s touch no matter how lost you found yourself. You would feel him pressing gentle pleas like compressions into your rib cage until it cracked under the pressure.

Things shifted back into focus bit by bit. You managed to open your eyes to a light like nothing else, bright and cold and sterile. You groaned but it didn’t escape your throat. Someone spoke over you and Davey responded, but you couldn’t make out the words. You still had one foot in unconsciousness, even as Davey dragged you back from the brink.

More words, hands on your face, not Davey’s, covered in rubber and freezing fucking cold. Something pressed against your jaw and them forced its way into your mouth. Plastic slid into your throat.

Intubation. That was not a good sign.

Your mind and body reconnected inside the hospital. Pain slammed into you, certain and unrelenting. You couldn’t deny it, couldn’t escape it. You struggled against your own body, throat flexing around the tube inside of it, as hands pressed down on your chest and hips to keep you steady. You wanted to comply, to do as the paramedic said, to calm down, calm down, to be a good patient, but you didn’t have much choice at the moment. The pain was impossible, and the only response that was appropriate was to thrash against it like a snake with the head cut off.

Someone had done compressions. There was a tube in your throat. Dying gasps.

You’d put it in writing in your twenties. You didn’t want to live on machines. You didn’t want a ventilator to be in the same fucking room as you, let alone breathe for you. So if they couldn’t straighten this shit out, this was it.

It would be okay. Davey would be okay. This would shatter him for a few years, but he was not alone.

Please, you tried to say, but your voice was choked and missing, please, Ash. Take care of him. Take care of him.

Davey’s hands were still on you, planted on your chest, unrelenting. There was shouting by many strange voices. Orders given and followed. Doctors and nurses surged around you as you blinked your eyes open.

“Sir, you should say goodbye.” One of the doctors instructed while cutting the remains of your shirt to free up your chest. Somebody attached sensors to your battered skin.

“What?” David snapped, fingers flexing against your ribs. “What are you talking about?”

“This will be very intensive surgery. We recommend you take a moment before they go into the operating room.” The doctor replied. David’s face went red, and he looked like he might start screaming again.

Asher appeared like an answer to your prayers, soot smeared across his cheek.

“Hey, guys,” Ash raised his voice, drawing attention in the way only a leader could, “I know time is of the essence, but can we slow down for a sec?” Movement slowed, voices silenced. Ash turned to Davey. “Say goodbye.” Ash ordered. “You’ll regret it if you don’t. So say goodbye.”

Davey turned to you, his dark eyes wide and wet, plain terror spread across his features.

Davey had known his mother was Navajo for all his life, but he hadn’t started learning about that part of him until after he met you. You were given the chance to watch as he unraveled the complex webs of his relationship with his culture. You watched him learn his language, bit by bit from distant cousins. You watched him grow his hair out. You learned to tie his tsiiyééł.

He had told you once, in the middle of your endless curious questions, that there wasn’t really a word in Diné bizaad for ‘goodbye.’ He said that it was too final, too much of an ending. The closest thing he had translated more closely to ‘alright then- see you later.’

“Hágoónee,” he said anyway, finality in his tone, an ending spread across his features. You blinked up at him, smoke choking out your voice, bruise and blood pressing into your head and chest.

Alright then.

You watched as he was shuffled away, as the doctors descended on you from all sides, smothering out every other sense with the smell of rubbing alcohol and hunter green scrubs. You couldn’t see Davey anymore, but you blinked your goodbye into the sterile ceiling.

See you later.

When you came back to yourself, the first thing you were aware of was a pounding ache in the back of your throat. You swallowed, uninhibited. No tube. Thank God. Davey had been going crazy lately, and you were afraid, somewhere in the depths of you, that he would override your medical directive and put you on a machine just to keep from losing you.

You could see the haze of lights through your closed eyelids, and you could hear the buzz of fluorescents and the beep of machines. Still in the hospital, it seemed.

“You need a break.” It was Asher’s voice, hushed and gentle. There was another person, too. A gentle drag of breath. Davey. You would know your husband’s heavy sigh anywhere. “Some food. Some sleep. A shower.”

“I’m fine, Ash.” Davey replied. He sounded so tired, right back on the defense. Asher, though, was better at this than you were. He had been unwinding Davey’s bullshit for the entirety of their shared lives.

“No,” Asher said, voice quirking at the end like he was teasing, “you are not. Your spouse is lying in a hospital bed after surviving one of the worst house fires we’ve ever seen. So I seriously can’t imagine how in the world you could be okay. But you are not helping yourself by perching over their bedside like a freaking gargoyle. So go get a cup of vending machine coffee and breathe for a few minutes.”

Another sigh. A chair creaking. Footsteps receding.

It took you a few minutes to gain back control of your muscles, but when you did, you turned your head, neck twinging, and cracked your eyes open. Asher was still at the door, staring down the hall, his face uncharacteristically severe. The world just didn’t seem right when Asher wasn’t smiling.

You opened your mouth and only air came out, a rush of cracking lips and lungs. Asher’s head spun around, eyes wide.

“Oh my God!” He barked, tripping over himself to get to your bedside. “Oh my God!” He said again as he paused over you, hands hovering. You managed to gain control of your right arm and waved towards the water cup that was sitting on the rolling bedside table. Asher snatched it and helped to guide the straw to your mouth. As you tensed to sit up, pain sparked through your chest. You gulped down water anyway, brow furrowing.

You cleared your throat, swallowed as the straw retreated.

“Hey, girl,” you croaked, your voice barely a whisper. Asher laughed. The world righted itself.

“Hey,” he replied. His smile stayed but tears sprung to his eyes. “Hey.” Just when you thought he was about to cry, a shadow cut through the light from the hallway.

Davey looked tired. Worn down, more accurately. The smell of house fire accompanied him. The cup of vending machine coffee that was in his hand crashed to the floor.

“Angel,” he breathed. Tears sprang to your eyes at the sight of him. The terror of the situation slammed into you all at once. You couldn’t catch your breath. You squeezed your eyes shut, hoping that, if you couldn’t see Davey staring at you like you’d just risen from the grave, you could go back to the numbness you’d woken up into.

Hands framed your throat and face. You would know your husband’s touch, eyes closed or dying or hyperventilating from delayed shock.

“It’s okay,” Davey’s voice sucked up your attention, grounded you in your spot. “I’m here. I’m here, Angel, I’ve got you.”

You focused in on that voice, that low rumble, and let it drown out the drill of your heart monitor and the chatter of nurses rushing to check on you at the news that you were awake. Fuck everything else, your husband was telling you that everything would be alright.

Despite yourself, despite your instincts, despite the thrum of pain in your chest, you believed him.

You were spending far more time inside of Dahlia General than you were comfortable with lately, and the cafeteria food wasn’t getting any better. You poked half-heartedly with your plastic fork at the cold coffee cake that Milo had snagged from the overnight cart for you. He was sat across from you, his eyes downcast. He still smelled like smoke. Colm paced the length of the deserted cafeteria, phone to his ear, as he coordinated with the team on the ground outside the Shaw house and his detectives at the station.

“Quinn’s little friend ratted out a few more hidey holes,” Colm stepped back towards your little rickety table, slipping his phone back into his coat pocket. “And I’m sure we’ll get more out of him in the next few days.”

“Please remember,” you said into your coffee cake as you broke it apart with your fork, layer by layer, “that Ben is a victim in this scenario too. No untoward interrogation techniques.”

“He set you up,” Milo pipped up. He sipped at his vending machine coffee and winced like he did with every swallow. Snob. “So, he’s a fucking asshole and whatever you want to do to him is fine by me.” He raised his styrofoam cup to Colm in cheers.

“Quinn tortured him.” You said. “He put Ben through the same things he put Trouble through. Let’s not forget that someone we care about could have turned out similarly. Ben is somebody’s son. So let’s talk about him like he’s a human being.”

Silence from both Greers. It was a familiar speech to you, something you had to repeat to cops often enough it was almost passionless at this point. Or perhaps that was due to how exhausted you were.

In truth, the sight of Ben’s face still brought a spark of anger and dread to the forefront of your mind. His features, daring to look apologetic, had been the last shred of safety you’d known before Quinn carved you up. It was burned into your mind, and when Colm told you that Ben had been picked up and charged with accessory to attempted murder, you felt sick satisfaction churn in your stomach like bile.

Milo cleared his throat.

“So we got more places to flush out?” He asked. Colm nodded.

“And they’re awake,” Colm said, “so once I can take their statement, I’ll have more information.” You let out a sharp sigh.

“Thank God,” Milo breathed, “I thought David… you know.”

“That kid can’t take another loss.”

“Don’t question them tonight.” You said. “We’ll bother them in the morning. Let them both rest some.”

“Every second counts in this.” Colm protested. You set down your fork and stood, rolled your shoulders back.

“I don’t intend to waste them.” You huffed. “I need those addresses.” Both Greers stared at you, mouths similarly agape.

“No,” Milo said at the same time Colm said:

“Not on your own!”

Always the challenge with them. You snagged your phone from your pocket and started typing out a message as you finished addressing them.

“Ansel is already at the first location, I’ll meet him there.” You brushed your curls from your face. “You’re right, Colm, we have limited time, and I’m wasting it here, easing your anxieties. Please find a way to handle those on your own.”

You left your coffee cake on the table and turned to the winding corridors of the hospital. You knew them well by now, and you paced through the hallway steadily.

You were a bloodhound and you had his scent. You had your teeth around his fucking throat and you just needed to bite.

Milo caught up to you halfway to the guest parking lot.

“Hey!” He snapped, grabbing your shoulder. You bit back a wince as the skin on your stomach protested to the strange movement. The knots of scar tissue were firming and growing stiff. Your body rejected small twists and tugs on the skin with tight discomfort, sometimes jolting you with pain you couldn’t ignore. It was inconvenient at best and dangerous at worst, catching you at the worst times. You really had to get that dealt with.

“I’ve gotta go,” you murmured. Teeth around the problem, if you lost the scent he’d slip away. He had been slipping away from you for months. Enough. You were ending this tonight, you were putting him behind bars tonight.

“Sweetheart,” Milo’s voice called to you, pulled you from your singular focus. He was a liability to your work. When he commanded your attention, he got it, no matter what else needed it. “Slow down. Talk to me, please!”

“I am not letting him get away with this.” You hissed. “David built that house from the fucking foundation. They almost-” you choked around the words. Tears burned at the back of your eyes and you growled in frustration. “He almost killed my friend tonight and I am taking him in for it. He’s going to face a jury and I’m going to lay out every crime he’s committed and he’s going to fucking fry!”

You’d raised your voice more than you intended. A handful of hospital employees were glancing your way as they carried on with their business. Milo stared at you for a long, tense moment.

“California got rid of the death penalty in 2019.” He finally said.

“That was an executive order from the Governor.” You seethed. “Not legislation. So that could change.”

You didn’t believe in capital punishment before Quinn Fox. You also didn’t understand why people had the urge to kill before him. But now, with scar tissue pounding with your pulse and your friend nearly dead a few floors up, you got it. The pleasure of killing twitched in your muscles. You wanted to introduce Quinn Fox to his fate personally. You wanted to wrap your hands around his throat and squeeze. You wanted to watch the burn in his eyes go out.

“What is this guy doing to you?” Milo asked. His face held the ingredients of betrayal. You swallowed.

“Guys like Quinn Fox have always been out there, Milo.” You said. “Serial killers and rapists and child molesters. This one just happened to hit close to home. He’s not doing anything to me, this is the world I live in! This is the shit I worry about! The shit I wanted to keep at bay but they just keep coming!”

“Baby-”

“Everytime one goes behind bars there’s ten more! Like fucking roaches, they just keep popping up! And I’m doing what, exactly? Following around cheating spouses? Investigating insurance fraud? Waste of my fucking time! I blew it in the force and now I’m being fucking wasted while these guys are killing people!”

“Hold on, can you-”

“But I can take care of this. I can take care of him.” Milo went silent as your hatred quieted. You felt it bouncing around in your core. It kept you going, kept your body moving even as it begged to stop.

“You’re gonna get yourself killed.” Milo said it softly, as though it were already true.

“Then I’ll take him with me.”

Betrayal blossomed fully across his features.

It was better this way. If you burned out on this case, it would be easier for him. If he was pissed, the grief would pass him by. You turned and kept walking, hand pressed into your stomach. The pulse of your scars kept you centered, focused.

“So I guess all that talk about forever was bullshit.” His voice was quiet when he spoke again, but you still heard it over the pound of your heart.

You didn’t turn back to look at him. You didn’t have to. When you closed your eyes, it was always him; his face smiling back at yours as he spun you around the empty living room of your house. As you each agreed that you didn’t need rings. That you didn’t need a marriage certificate to show what you meant to each other. That you both knew what forever looked like.

You swallowed. Teeth around the problem. You’d bite down and be done with it. Forever could wait until then.

You kept walking.

You had second degree burns on six percent of your body, and Dr. McDreamy was peeling back necrotic skin and debris from the patches across your back.

You were no stranger to burns, and despite your wealth of experience surrounding injuries of all kinds, you maintained that burn debridement was the most painful experience a human could endure. You’d seen grown men scream and cry during them, chief among them being Gabriel Shaw.

Of course, that didn’t mean much. Gabriel Shaw cried during sad movies. Gabriel Shaw cried when he thought a bit too hard about how much his son had grown. Gabriel Shaw cried when a baby was just a bit too cute. He might have been a big and burly firefighter, but what he was at his core was a cry baby, and a proud one at that.

You didn’t cry. You didn’t scream. You gripped your hands into fists so hard your too-long nails cut into your palms. You pressed them in and out of the crescent wounds, let that ground you, pull your mind away from the feeling of being skinned.

“Almost done here,” McDreamy spoke for the first time since he’d greeted you on his way into the room. As chatty and casual as he had been upon your first meeting, he was equally quiet and reserved now. He must have sensed how volatile you were at the moment.

You didn’t reply. You closed your eyes. You ran through your plan one more time.

You knew a guy who could get you a gun in three hours. You’d call him as soon as you were done here. It would be registered stolen, so nobody else would be implicated. You’d contact Quinn, ask him to meet you back at the Moonbound. Tell him he'd proven his point and he could have you. Maybe you would get lucky and it would work twice. You’d kill him as soon as he walked through the door. Someone would hear the gunshot, but you’d call the cops yourself just to be safe. Maybe laying out his own abuses would help you in court and you’d get off easy, maybe you’d rot in a cell for the rest of your life. You weren’t sure whether you cared which eventuality came to pass.

Either way, this would be over. You just needed this to be over.

“I can feel you brooding.” you could hear the shit-eating grin in McDreamy’s voice. “I know this is unpleasant, but don’t plot my murder for helping you.”

“Not yours.” You growled. You knew it was stupid to announce your plans, but you couldn’t help it. It had been your intent all along, when you’d started looking for Quinn with more purpose. He needed to die. He needed to die for what he had done to you. He needed to die for what he was yet to do. He would hurt people, your people, other people, until he was dead. He was in perpetual motion, always toiling away at the object of his obsession until they broke and he got bored. But you had never broken. Maybe that was why he had fixated so fiercely onto you, so fiercely that he tried to destroy everything around you.

Mission accomplished. He had broken you. What you were certain he hadn’t bet on, however, was that you were much more dangerous in pieces than you were whole.

“If I may suggest,” Porter said from behind you. His tweezers dropped into his metal tray. Something cold smeared across your back. “A syringe full of air. Stick it in a vein, empty it. Once the air bubble circulates and reaches the heart… cardiac arrest. Bloodless. Clean. It’ll look like a heart attack and no one will ever need to know.”

You twisted, surprised. He had that answer ready real quick.

There was a knock on the exam room door. It cracked open a second later. Sam stepped in, his face drawn.

“Hey,” he said softly. He ran his eyes over you, taking in the burns. Those brown eyes flicked from you to Porter.

“Second degree.” Porter reported. “Six percent. Debrided, and I’ve started in on the silver sulfadiazine.” He stepped around you and flashed Sam a white-toothed smile. “Care to finish up for me, Dr. Collins?”

“Don’t call me that.” Sam sneered. “Go. I got it. Please check in-”

“Already done.” Porter snapped off his gloves and snagged a chart from the counter above the scrub station. He handed it over and made his way out of the room. “If either of you need anything,” he said, his front half stuck through the doorway, “you have my number.” The door clicked closed.

Sam flipped through the chart ravenously. He shook his head, tutting softly before letting out a sharp breath.

“Are…” you swallowed and tried to take the bite out of your voice, “are they okay?” Sam glanced up at you.

“Um…” he shook his head, “they’re alive and all their parts are attached.”

“I guess that’s something.” You sighed.

“Broken sternum,” Sam said, “which was what their surgery was concerning. That’s bound to be from the compressions. Usually that break doesn’t require surgical intervention, but in combination with the three broken ribs on their right side, we had to go in and maintain the structure of their chest.” He swallowed. “Alexis supervised and made sure their cardio thoracic system was intact. All good there. They… okay, respiratory arrest at the scene was due to smoke inhalation. The cardiac arrest was due to lack of oxygenation. They lost enough air that their heart couldn’t pump anymore.”

“I know what oxygenation is.” You snapped. You closed your eyes. He didn’t deserve this. Sam, to his credit, acted as though you’d never opened your mouth.

“We’re treating the smoke inhalation with an oxygen drip. They were intubated at the scene but indicated in a medical directive they didn’t want to be ventilated. They’re responding well on just the drip and we’ll make adjustments as needed. No carbon dioxide poisoning, that would have been the primary concern. That’s good, that bodes well.” He flipped a page. “Damn.” He sighed.

“What?” You looked up, hungry for what had surprised him.

“Their arms were bound, right?” He asked, brown eyes meeting yours. You nodded. “They were cut on the scene. Sometimes, when circulation has been cut off and you suddenly reintroduce it, patients can develop something called compartment syndrome. The blood rushes back into the limb and causes it to swell. By the time they got to the hospital, it was pretty bad, no time for a clean release of pressure. Our orthopedic surgeon was concerned we were too late and noted that he recommended amputation of both arms at the elbow but…” Sam shook his head. “Alexis wouldn’t let him. She and Porter performed simultaneous fasciotomies. Two seven inch incisions down both forearms. That… that’ll be a bitch to heal and we don’t know if they lost function in their arms yet. We’ll just have to wait.”

You puffed out a breath. It was bad. Really fucking bad. Sam nodded and closed the chart.

“Sammy,” you croaked. When you heard your own voice, you realized from the tone of it that you were going to cry. “I can’t keep doing this.”

“He can’t do this forever,” Sam said softly,

“He’ll keep hurting people,” you whispered. You weren’t angry anymore and you couldn’t pretend to be. “I’ve gotta-” you swallowed a wounded sound. “I can’t just wait for him to stop. He’ll outlast me.”

“What do you wanna do?” He asked. He was closer now, his hand sliding along the back of your neck, cradling your head.

“I want to kill him.” You said softly. No anger. No pretense. Just factual intention.

Sam was quiet for a very long time. He pressed his lips to the crown of your head.

“I will not lose you to this.” He said, and it sounded like a vow.

“I think…” you shook your head, rubbing your awkward buzz cut into his face. He breathed you in, smoke and all, “I don’t think you ever had me. I think he’s been… holding me hostage.”

“Bullshit.” He withdrew before kneeling, knees on the creaky metal step up on the exam table, looking up at you from between your knees. It was his turn to be angry. “Bullshit! Are you kidding me? You are not some half person who’s been torn apart by this mother fucker. Now you say you want him dead, and that tells me you’re about to do something real stupid. I don’t blame you one bit. But a judge is gonna take one look at you and throw you in a cell somewhere. No. I will not have it. You want him dead, I’ll kill him.”

“Sammy,” you breathed, “that’s romantic and all-”

“Well thank you, I am a charmer.”

“Sammy.”

“Stay with me.” He said. He rose to lock his arms around you, avoiding the burns on your back. “Stay with me. I won’t lose you. I can’t lose you to this.”

“Okay.” You relented. You were so tired. You wanted this over with. And you knew that if you left him to his own devices, Quinn would keep coming. Eventually, he would come for Sam. He would try to force you to choose him or he would kill Sam to drive the final nail in the coffin.

But Sam begged you to stay on his knees and sounded like he was proposing marriage. When you closed your eyes, you could envision lips wrapped around the words I do. That image was enough, for now. You would kill Quinn whenever he came and hold on to that image as long as you could.

“I love you.” you said, and it didn’t whiter in your mouth. “I love you. I love you.”

Once you started, you couldn’t stop.

#redacted asmr #my redacted content #redacted audio #firefighter story #redacted sam #redacted david #redacted darlin #redacted asher #redacted milo #redacted colm #redacted sweetheart #redacted angel #redacted porter #redacted alexis

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anime-rambles · 1 day ago

Text

Relax! Please?

Pairing: Bakugou x Reader

Warnings: **** they are both 18, and in the final year of UA. *** Anxiety, being overwhemled, neurodivergant,

Word Count: 1700+

A/N: This one a little bit personal with some of my own struggles, either way, I hope you enjoy. - TIFF <3

Summary: life? Overwhelming. School? Overwhelming. Your friends? Overwhelming. The dorms? Overehemling, there is not break to it all, or is there?

Permanent Taglist: @jasmine2042003 @jazzylove @amypop122 @misssugarless @plutounderbridges @butterscotch-babie @backoftheletter @gojosslvt @himi-yuu @ebiharachan @black-rose-29 @kenzi-woycehoski @ally-glow @tati-the-fangirl @theobsessedreader @ebiharachan

BNHA/MHA Taglist: @hornehlittleweeblet2 @mystiqueewrites @belzeblitz @moonygeno413 @ace-the-side-character @unlogical-ella @moonseye @vaellee @corruptowlette @pasteldaze @24-7-multifandomsimp @yetoadet @ninetyeightrins @kirissluttypebble @elaineplayz @phantomalchemist @tigerd-draws @kunaigirlx44 @jujutaku @adventures-in-a-heartbeat @cmars59 @upinacloud @yourdragonsfire @uwiuwi @burningbluegalaxy @kirislilwhorewife @kuzusouda-and-terumaru-blog @kat-perdue @lazyafgurl @bratty-fics @eraserheads-sleeping-bag @eijiandkatspebble @queerest-monster-luver @sjhanny @falling4fandoms @lunamoonbby @carriebell1515 @atsushiki @caydetoshinori-jakeryder @corruptowlette @ariallaisawesome @moonroyalt @mushi42 @katbug37

TAGLIST

MASTERLIST

You had many issues with moving into the dorms in U.A, the main being around everyone all the time. Your life was one of constant masking. Masking how you felt and acted. It was exhausting having a full day in school of being happy and laughing, making everyone smile and picking everyone up and then when you came home you had the same again with your family.

For the first 2 years in U.A you had an apartment in the city and was able to get away from everything and not live in the dorms. You could mask all day and come home and become a shell, the same for when you went home to see family. Your parents were under the illusion that you were living on U.A campus but during a very heated argument they found out about your apartment and your bubble was burst. Year3 you had to live on campus. Everyone was very excited to finally have you in the apartments, the girls had sleepover nights, there were homework times, movie nights, games nights…. Everything was tiring and everything was way too much for you.

Bakugou had noticed something about you since living in U.A, he noticed how much you smiled and laughed, or more so how much of it you faked. Every moment he could he’d watch you, you became interest to him. Although he became a but of the joke to the bakusquad on his crush but he just didn’t care. He noted how tired you looked and how much he really wanted to help you but didn’t know how.

It was late on a saturday everyone had left to see family or to head out on some event that you really didn’t have the energy from. Sneaking into the kitchen you started to make some food, your hair was down and messy and clothes very oversized. Bakugou sat on the sofa simply scrolling on his phone and he noted you in the kitchen. Your shoulders were dropped and your face blank. Your body on autopilot. He stood, making his way over to you and lent on the counter across.

“Hey nerd.” He startled you. Quickly you jumped and turned to him, putting on a huge smile.

“Bakugou my favourite blasty, how are you, didn’t head out with the others no?” continuing cooking, you played into the happy normal self you portray. “You know you don’t have to do that with me?”

Pausing, you turn to him and smile. “What are you talking about? I’m just cooking, unless you want to make those stunning spicy noodles again” You giggle.

“I’m sure, yeah, I can make them for you but I mean the other thing?” He presses to you and takes over the cooking.

“What other thing?” you smile, jumping up on the countertop and watching him. “I mean all of this.” He jesters to all of you, confused. You just look at him. “You mean? Me being myself? I’m afraid that I don’t understand what you are trying to ask me to stop doing.”

Bakugou started to plate the noodles and hand them to you. “Just this whole thing, you don’t need to do it around me.” Taking them, you nood, loosening your soldiers a little bit, understanding what he is saying to you. You instantly start to relax going back into the neutral form you were in before you noticed Bakugou there. Bakugou smirks to himself and starts to eat his noodles beside you, bumping his elbow against your leg. You felt comfortable and seen for the first time in your life.

The front door opened with a bang, and the noise of your friends in this distance meant the solitude for today was over. You quickly finished your noodles and placed your bowl beside you. “Kats, prepare yourself.” You whispered, he just looked at you.

“OMG Y/N you will not believe what I got today.” Mina said as she entered the kitchen. You straightened your shoulders and started to put your mask back on. Bakugou watched as you did and something in him shattered. “OMG Min, you have to show me!” jumping off the counter you join her and she starts to go through her bag.

Movie night had started to drag on, Denki had chosen this comedy trilogy and currently we were on the second one. Everyone was laughing and enjoying themselves but you simply couldn’t relax. Everything was too much, the sound of someone chewing popcorn nearby, someone rattling candy wrappers, somebody was rattling keys in their pocket, the volume on the tv was slightly too high so it would distort on certain sounds, the volume number was also on an odd, the blanket that you shared has this smell to it, it wasn’t a unclean smell but it was a very strong carpet smell that hurt your nose, you could feel the tag on your shirt rub against your neck and your sock kept on slipping off your ankle, no matter how many times you pulled it up. All of these kept your focused, not the movie. You just simply laughed when everyone else laughed. You could feel eyes on you and would look around seeing Bakugou trained on you.

“Also guys, Movie night, Denki’s choice, he won today and didn’t pass out when the waitress spoke to him.” Sero said to the group. “Wow, proud of you.” You laugh, sending him a high five. Bakugou watched as you interacted with everyone, he watched how you navigate all the conversations, and how not one of them noticed how tired you were and how much you were hiding. Kirishima joined Bakugou's side, crossing his arms over one another. “So you tell her yet? You both looked very cozy when we all walked in.” Bakugou scoffed at his friend and shoved him a little bit.

+++

“Hey babe, you okay?” Mina whispered from the floor beside you. You smiled at her. “Yeah, I’m just super tired, I’m going to sneak off.” She smiled back and nodded, In a type of way like I got you girl, I’ll cover.

Jumping up from the sofa, you crept out the room and up the stairs. Bakugou watched you leave and looked across the room, to see if anyone would notice if he went after you. Mina was locked on to him. She pointed her eyes up the stairs and raised her eyebrows at him. Baukgou shook his head and left after you.

Bakugou stopped at your door and tried to listen before knocking. He couldn’t hear you in there, all he could hear was the gentle sound of the wind against your curtain and knew you were in the balcony. Luckily you and Bakugou had rooms beside one another and had a shared balcony.

Entering his own room he grabbed a hoodie and joined you. You looked up when he opened his balcony door, closing it behind him.

“Hey Bakugou, what are you doing here?” You smile at him. Immediately putting back on your mask. “Can you just stop?” You’re startled by his response, your mind going into overdrive trying to understand what he could mean and what you had done to him to make him upset.

“Bakugou, I’m really sorry but I don’t know what I’ve done, or what I did to make you an-” You tried to speak but he was instantly beside you, leaving against the wall of the balcony. “Wow, wow, hang on, I’m not mad or anything, I just want you to relax.”

You are taken aback, he wants you to relax? “But I am?” You reply. “You’re not though.”

“Bakugou I am, I think I would know.?”

“But you are not though, you keep on putting up this act, every time someone walks into a room. Or when someone needs something from you. You just put on this show and as school is going on you just look so much more tired and I want to help you.” He says and places a hand on yours making you look into his eyes.

“Oh..” You drop your head and with it your mask. “Bakugou there's nothing to help with, it’s just always been this way.” You look at him again.

“Help me understand then.”

“I’ve just always been this way. At home with my younger siblings and my parents I became the uplifter. Any tears or issues I fixed with a smile, made everyone laugh and forget about fights. It was the same in U.A but sometimes it all becomes too much for me and I just need to not do anything or not put on this show or mask, and it’s just difficult in these dorms because everyone is so excited for me being here and what not, I just don’t get anytime to deflate? If that makes sense.” You laugh and look at him. Bakugou nods at you to continue on. “-that’s all really, the big ph/n secret. Don’t get me wrong, I love all my friends and you but it’s just too much sometimes and I need to put the mask down.”

“You love me?” He asks, raising his eyebrow. “Ahhh, no, I mean yes, but like in a friends friends way but also not in a friends friends way.” You sputter and put your hands into your face and turn away from him. Bakugou stood for a moment thinking about what to do. He took a step towards you, wrapping his arms around you, pulling you close. You froze in his arms. “I love you too in a friends, friends way but also not in a friends friends way.” He chuckles into your neck and you laugh back.

“I want you to be comfortable around me y/n, I want you to come to me when you need a break, just a simple tap on my knee and we’ll come away and come up here and be just us. You can drop the mask without worry of being judged and being questioned why you're not 100% smiling or something okay?” You turn in his arms and look up at him. “You mean it?”

“Yes, listen y/n, I really like you and I want you to relax and be happy, trust me?” He says, holding his hand to your face. Resting your face on his hand, you take a breath. “I really like you too.”

Bakugou smiles at you, a genuine smile that takes over his entire face and in turn yours too. “First genuine smile I’ve seen out of you in a long time.” He chuckles, using your hands you gently push him away laughing. “Come here.” He says again, holding your face and brings his face to yours. Your lips touch.

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elliespassagerprincess · 8 hours ago

Note

Hello can you write a fic based off of ‘1 step forward and 3 steps back’ by Olivia Rodrigo ? thank you! <3

One Step Forward, Three Steps Back: ellie williams x reader

hi anon! i hope you like it:) I tried something new adding ellies pov.. i hope you dont mind:)

This story is based off the song one step forward, three steps back by olivia rodrigo. If you can, please listen to the song as you're reading:)

Pairing: ellie williams x fem!reader

requests are open, send me your thoughts:)

Warnings: Emotional manipulation, toxic patterns, heartbreak, strong language, emotional dependency, insecurity

Summary: In which your relationship always put you 3 steps back

Masterlist

"You got me fucked up in the head, boy."

You wish you could blame it on the trauma.

On the broken world. On the things she’s seen. The things you’ve seen.

But deep down, you know it’s more than that.

It’s her.

And it’s you.

And it’s this thing you keep calling love just to justify how much it hurts.

You’re sitting on her porch again, arms wrapped around your knees, watching as the sun dips behind the mountains. Her guitar is silent inside. So is she.

You said something wrong today.

You don’t know what, exactly—but her face changed. Her mouth pressed into that tight, unreadable line. She stopped laughing, handed you your coat, and mumbled something about needing to be alone. That was hours ago.

And you’re still here. Because she never told you to leave.

But she didn’t ask you to stay either.

Ellie’s hot and cold. Gentle and cruel. Soft one day, distant the next.

She kisses you like you’re the only thing anchoring her to the earth. Then pushes you away like she can’t stand to be touched.

You never know which version you’re going to get.

It’s always a guessing game.

A test you didn’t sign up for.

A trap she doesn’t even know she’s laying.

And every time you think you’re getting somewhere—one step forward—

She pulls away. Shuts down. Disappears.

Three steps back. Every. Time.

You remember the first time she let her walls down.

It was raining, the kind of cold that seeped through your bones. She had a nightmare and showed up at your door looking half-dead. You held her until she stopped shaking. She cried into your neck. Whispered “Don’t leave.” And you didn’t.

She kissed you like she meant it.

You thought it meant something.

Maybe it did.

Maybe it didn’t.

She never said.

"Do you love me, want me, hate me? Boy, I don’t understand."

Sometimes she calls you “baby.” Soft. Real.

Sometimes she calls you “dude,” or doesn’t say anything at all, just grunts and walks past you like you’re nothing.

It fucks you up.

You lay awake wondering what you did.

You second-guess everything you said, every look, every breath.

You practice conversations in your head, afraid that the wrong word will make her disappear again.

You used to be confident.

You used to be whole.

Now, you flinch when she raises her voice. You smile too quickly when she’s calm. You praise her for the bare minimum just because it means she isn’t angry.

You’re in love with someone who’s only ever half-there.

But god, when she’s there—

She’s everything.

ELLIE'S POV (ellie is refered to as you because its her pov! pls don't get confused. i tried writing it from her perspective lol)

“And maybe in some masochistic way, I kind of find it all exciting...”

You don’t mean to hurt her.

You really don’t.

But something in you breaks every time they get too close. Every time they see too much. Every time they look at you with those eyes full of hope and softness and trust.

You don’t deserve that.

You never did.

You love her. You know you do. But love feels like a leash—tight and terrifying. It means responsibility. It means hurting them, eventually. And you’ve already hurt too many people.

You don’t want to be that person again.

So you push. You pull.

You leave the room when things get too quiet. You snap at them when they ask what’s wrong. You disappear, come back, kiss them like they’re the air you breathe, and then say something that makes them question if any of it was real.

You hate yourself for it. But you don’t stop.

Because part of you—dark and broken and mean—likes the chaos.

At least you know how to survive in chaos. You don’t know how to survive in love.

YOUR POV

“Maybe I’m just not as interesting as the girls you had before.”

You hear her mention Dina in her sleep.

Just once.

A murmur. A sigh.

A name you’ve never asked about but always felt lingering.

You pretend you didn’t hear.

But the silence after that is louder than anything she’s ever said.

You try to leave. You pack your bag. You don’t say goodbye. You make it to the gate.

And she’s there.

Looking at you like she’s drowning. Like you’re the last thing keeping her above the surface.

“I’m sorry,” she says. “I just... I don’t know how to do this.”

You hate how fast you crumble.

You kiss her again. You stay again.

And it’s good. For a while.

Until the next wrong word. The next cold shoulder.

The next time you’re sitting on her porch wondering what the fuck you did wrong.

Because with Ellie Williams, it’s always one step forward... three steps back.

And you never know which one is coming next.

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misskingshit · 2 days ago

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So close yet so far

summary: They both want it with all their might, they need it. But how difficult can it be to face their own fears just to be together?

note: I really hope nobody notices how much I fcking love Bucky lol.. xoxo

IMPORTANT: I wanted to make something clear, this type of attitudes in a partner in real life its completely unacceptable, this is pure fiction and I wrote this knowing the intetions and feelings behind every character, you do not accept this type of rection or attitude from anyone!, in any case, reach out to someone, a parent, a teacher, a friend, dont be scared!. I know bucky its not being violent or abusive but Idk why I just wanted to say this in case someone needs to read it.

chapter I - chapter II - chapter III - chapter IV

Unseen Tension

Bucky had been trying his best to ignore it, to keep his cool. But no matter how many times he told himself it wasn’t a big deal, he just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. You and Peter had been spending more and more time together lately, talking about tech, helping with upgrades for your suits, laughing over some joke only the two of you found funny. It wasn’t anything bad, but to Bucky? It might as well have been an affair.

You didn’t notice it, of course. To you, Peter was just another friend, another person in the family, and you were just being nice, helping him out. You had no idea how much Bucky’s blood was boiling whenever he saw the two of you too close, too comfortable.

He walked into the living room where you and Peter were sitting on the couch. Peter was explaining some new tech idea to you, leaning in slightly, gesturing with his hands as he spoke. Your eyes were locked on him as you nodded along, a smile tugging at your lips.

It was innocent. Too innocent. But to Bucky, it felt like a dagger in his chest.

“Hey, Bucky!” you called out, noticing him standing in the doorway, but his gaze was fixed on you and Peter. He didn’t respond immediately, his jaw tightening as he watched Peter's hand move a little too close to your shoulder.

“You alright, Buck?” Sam’s voice came from behind him, but Bucky didn’t acknowledge him.

He wasn’t alright. Not at all. The way Peter smiled at you, the way you laughed, made Bucky feel like he was losing you.

The Breaking Point

Later that night, Bucky found himself pacing the hallway, his mind running in circles. His anger kept rising, but he couldn’t exactly put a finger on why. He tried telling himself it was just his protective instinct kicking in. But deep down, he knew it was more than that.

The moment he walked into the training room, though, the frustration he’d been bottling up exploded.

You were standing there, talking to Peter, as usual. And, as usual, Bucky saw things differently. Your laugh, the way Peter reached out to hand you a device, the way your fingers brushed ever so lightly—it was too much.

His fists clenched, and before he even realized it, he was already moving toward you both.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Bucky's voice rang out, low and threatening.

You turned toward him in surprise. “Bucky, what—?”

Peter looked up from the tech in his hands, confused. “Uh, hey, man. We’re just talking.”

But Bucky didn’t care about that. His eyes burned with jealousy as they locked onto Peter, who had the audacity to stand there so close to you.

“Get your hands off her, Parker,” Bucky snapped, his voice laced with venom. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

Peter froze, his expression shifting between bewildered and unsure. “I didn’t mean anything by it, Bucky.”

Bucky ignored him and stepped closer to you, his hands grabbing your wrist and pulling you to him. “I don’t want you close to her anymore, Parker. Got it?” His voice was a low growl, as though every word he spoke was laced with warning.

You yanked your wrist away, anger flashing in your eyes. “Bucky, you’re being ridiculous—”

But Bucky wasn’t listening. Without another word, he took a hold of your arm again, this time more forcefully, and began leading you out of the room.

As Bucky pulled you down the hallway, he didn’t care that you were protesting, trying to get free from his grip. The only thing in his mind was that he needed to get you alone. Away from Peter. Away from anyone who might take you from him.

When he reached his room, he slammed the door shut behind him, his chest heaving as his anger spilled out. He was shaking, trying to contain the rage that had been building inside him for days.

You tried to break free from his grip, but Bucky was relentless. “Let go of me, Bucky!” you shouted, but he just pulled you into his room, slamming the door with his back.

“No,” he growled. “Not until you understand. I don’t care if you don’t feel the same way, but I’m not letting anyone get that close to you. Not him. Not anyone.”

His voice was so cold, so intense, and you took a step back, shocked. “What the hell is wrong with you? Peter is just—he’s just a friend.”

But Bucky wasn’t listening. In one swift motion, he grabbed your wrist again and pulled you toward him. You gasped as he cut you off with a kiss—hard, demanding. His lips were rough against yours, almost punishing. His hands moved to your back, pulling you even closer, his body pressed against yours.

You tried to pull away, but the intensity of the kiss held you captive. It was a storm of emotion, of jealousy, of ownership. And despite yourself, your body betrayed you, responding to him, to the heat, to the fire he was lighting inside you.

“You’re mine,” Bucky breathed against your lips when he pulled away, his hands gripping your hips as if to ground you to him. His eyes searched yours, fierce with need. “And I’m not letting anyone take you from me. Not him. Not anyone.”

You stood there, breathless, unsure of what to say, of how to feel. The air between you was thick with something neither of you had acknowledged before.

But then Bucky kissed you again, more desperately this time, and for a moment, you let him. Let him take the control that you didn’t know he was seeking.

As the door to Bucky's room slammed shut, Tony Stark was sitting in the security room, watching the cameras. He had been keeping an eye on the compound, and something about the way Bucky had stormed off earlier left him uneasy.

But what he saw on the monitors made his blood run cold. His daughter, his baby girl, in Bucky's arms, the two of them kissing like the world had faded away. He sat there, his jaw clenched, his mind racing.

“What the hell?” Tony muttered to himself, his hand gripping the edge of the desk.

He immediately stormed toward Bucky’s room, practically bursting through the door. “What the hell is going on here, Bucky?”

Bucky was standing at the edge of the bed, his chest rising and falling with anger, while you were still catching your breath, trying to make sense of everything.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Tony’s voice was laced with rage, his eyes locking onto Bucky. “She’s my daughter, Barnes. Not yours. You don’t get to do this. What happened to respecting boundaries?”

Bucky didn’t back down, his stance unwavering as he stared Tony down. “I’m not letting anyone take her away from me,” he growled.

Tony’s fist clenched, a vein popping in his neck. “You’re out of your mind, Buck. Don’t you ever touch my daughter again.”

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wildsaltair · 7 months ago

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currently so obsessed with Russell Crowe’s ability to emote so subtly yet powerfully. I just marvel at how naturally good he is at it

#the head tilts the eye crinkles the eyebrow quirks the way his eyes move #and so many more! things i don’t know how to put into words!!#and he’s just a natural!!!#even when he’s super young and inexperienced he does it naturally #it adds such depth to every performance #and it’s even more so as he gets older!#he brings so much gravitas and confidence and charisma the more experience he has #genuinely a master of nonverbal communication #he must really study people to make his characters feel more real #i love his interviews where he talks about his craft #he puts such thought and feeling into every role and it’s so impressive to see it in action #i am constantly in awe of him <3 #i over analyze all the gifs y’all make of him #because there’s so much depth!!!#in just a few frames of every movie!#hands down one of the very best actors of the generation #and my all time favorite #russell crowe #text posts

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langfield · 5 months ago

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do you think vinh was actually in love with safi? i know he starts doubting that he ever was in chapter 5, but if he wasn’t actually in love what do you think his true feelings for her were? emotional attachment maybe? on safi’s side, i think it’s interesting how even after knowing about vinh’s statement about maya she still decides to hook up with him for a time (only to eventually stop sometime prior to the game?? maybe they had another falling out idk). their relationship in general is just very fascinating to me lmao.

god, the safi-vinh dynamic is certainly one filled with intrigue because of all the intense emotions attached to the people within it ; aimed at each other and also at the bystanders whom haunted around their not so defined relationship. there’s just so much baggage attached to them, you know? mostly painful things and a general sense of betrayal or regret, creating a potion of this general wishy washy bullshit that’s hard to parse through … more so in safi’s case than vinh’s, but i’ll touch upon that later! as for your question about vinh and his true feelings, well.

maybe he was in love with safi once upon a time. maybe the fact he believed that he was in love with her is really all that matters. i suppose it depends on what your definition of romantic love and utter devotion is. it’s undeniable he cared fiercely for safi, enough so to become jealous of max ( safi’s object of obsession ), swear off serious relationships in hope she’d want him back, and to engage in a general meddling within her life to make sure she comes out of situations as unscathed as possible. i mean, he schemes to steal a cow skull and then proceeds to throw it through her windshield in an attempt to save yasmin’s and safi’s relationship … it is very extra of him to do, in fact it’s a literal crime, and the game has both max and safi acknowledge the intensity of said action in episode four. we see the memory of the hedgehog he proudly displays on his desk, the carelessness in which safi treats it, her ‘i’ll buy you another one if it breaks’, and how vinh simpers beneath that offer because he doen’t want a new one, he wants this one, the one safi gave him : a gift that was likely unprompted, some sort of surprise maybe, given to him on a whim and cherished better than any other possession he owns. we also see how he breaks it when she dies. then there’s photos upon photos of safi on his phone and it’s implied he takes pictures after they sleep together and -- that isn’t even touching upon how he practically gives up on himself after her death. the mask drops, he starts trying to branch out and find acting gigs elsewhere, wanting to leave caledon forever, and there’s a sense of raw anger and loneliness he feels when she’s gone. he stops hooking up and pushes everyone away besides max, whom he clings to, and it’s a lot, right? there’s love there. obsession, probably. in many ways he’s still the ‘puppy’ following safi around like gwen said, only without maya this time. he waits and stews and he wants, certainly, for her to love him … but was it purely romantic love? who’s to say!

i think vinh wanted safi as his girlfriend before, maybe when things weren’t so tense, and he still believed that fiercely even when he stopped wanting it. i don’t think he knew where his feelings started to dwindle into something less excited and more resigned, or when he started looking for someone else. his priority remained with safi and with yasmin and thus there wasn’t a lot of time to dissect his heart, a rather vulnerable act he already struggles with anyway. he’s a repressive sort of man. he doesn’t do a lot of introspection because he has an act to maintain, a reputation to follow. but i do believe that by the time double exposure takes place, vinh’s love for safi has indeed shifted because his attraction to max veers on something that isn’t purely sexual. there is an undeniable interest, both in dead and living world, that he’s either embracing or squirming away from … i do not think vinh had many crushes at all when he was in love with safi. i don’t think he allowed himself that luxury, because he didn’t want to move on from her, or put himself off the market in case she wanted him again, in bed or in some profound, loving sense. lots of waiting. lots of surrendering, ‘she’ll come around, we’ll make up’, and hoping despite himself. so his romance with max proves to me that vinh is somewhat right in saying ‘or i thought i was’ when talking about safi and being in love with her, because he was before, but he isn’t exactly in love with her now, if that makes sense? i’d say an emotional attachment is a good title for what they have by the time of the games events.

( i do not wish to diminish vinh’s feelings, but i also think there’s a case to be made that he was rather desperate when he thought himself in love with safi ; there was a lot of insecurity within him back when he was a student, weighed down by the fact he was poor and not your standard run-of-the-mill white man … as an adult he scoffs at his acting abilities and wields his power as head of abraxas with a rather tight fist, as though it’s the only control he’s ever had before. it’s rather clear his only two friends were safi and maya and that vinh hasn’t had any since them -- was desperate to stay on their heels despite the fact he was never really apart of whatever they had. it’s not a stretch to speculate that vinh was, perhaps, a cocktail mix of loneliness and desperation rather than strictly in love with safi. maybe confused his all-consuming need to be around her as desire, or maybe just enjoyed feeling wanted by safi enough to mix his wires. after all, why was it safi he was in love with and not maya? vinh also uses sex as a means of coping, as seen by his rather active sex life in game via hookup apps and reggie, so maybe his sex with safi was just that. coping. in it’s own way. regardless, he did love her, or so he thinks so, and to me i think that’s enough, speculation aside )

safiya’s side of things is much more difficult than vinh’s, who is more obvious about his feelings towards her than he thinks he is. there are some brief contradictions, like how it’s stated that safi doesn’t care for vinh ( which is true ) and yet she also acknowledges that when she split apart and lost herself, all that was left of her was moses, lucas, gwen, and vinh. we know that moses and gwen matter to safi, or mattered, and that at one point safi might’ve admired lucas … so where does that leave vinh? if she doesn’t hate him like gwen or lucas now, and if she doesn’t cherish him like moses or max, why is he still apart of her? what does that mean? is it just a metaphor for their times with maya, and how safi will always be connected to that past with vinh because of her love for the caledon’s personal dead girl? was her sleeping with vinh about maya too? or did she actually care for vinh once, albeit weakly and casually, and did that fleeting moment of affection count when she vanished into everyone who’s ever thoroughly affected her life? and, as you said, it’s so fascinating that she hooks up with vinh at all post maya death … it feels strange and odd and unlike her. even in their intimate picture together after fooling around she is nothing but angry, disinterested, her underwear and bra are already back on ( if they were ever off at all? ) and while that’s on account of safi just hating photos, i also think it’s a testament to how irritable she finds vinh’s presence when stuck in it. it’s not a happy photo really, even vinh’s expression is a little red-eyed, forced, like he was likely wasted the night prior. i wouldn’t be surprised if safi was only able to be with vinh if she was … you know … literally out of her mind drunk or high or what have you.

though, that’s just speculation of course. my vague take on things is that safi went to vinh whenever she was partied out or if she was feeling particularly destructive that day ; choked with self loathing over her mom or maya and so sex with vinh was a means for her to feel even worse. some sort of self harm, some sort of outlet where she could be particularly cruel and evil without consequence, because vinh would take it and roll over -- could even be her way of controlling things too, like vinh with abraxas, because we know vinh has no issues with being led around in the bedroom, so that’s some food for thought. i don’t think she thinks about it after or remembers it much … she really doesn’t think about vinh unless it suits her or if she needs to. i always notice how, in episode four, safiya immediately knows what max is talking about when she asks if safi’s ever transformed into amanda, gwen, or lucas. she owns up immediately, confesses, and understands intimately what situation max is referring to. but when max asks about vinh and the phone, there is a brief moment where safi just stares blankly at her -- like she’s thinking about it, like she doesn’t even remember, before it finally clicks after a beat. either she wears vinh’s metaphorical skin a lot ( which, to be fair, she does pretend to be vinh a lot in game ) or she literally thinks of him so little she’ll forget everything about him in minutes. both are likely! she doesn’t even recall what type of alcohol he likes, calling it bougie japanese brandy ‘or whatever’ … and can’t be assed to remember his phone’s pin number exactly, only vague details about a magician scientist that she clearly thought was boring and lame when vinh told her said story, if her hostility and complete forgetfulness is anything to go by. for me, it’s easy to get caught up in a ‘safi did care! she had to!’ angle about vinh, although the game repeatedly shows you over and over again that she does not. she doesn’t even care that max kissed him really, if anything, she’s more jealous of vinh being with max given some of her remarks :

( i know, technically, safi’s ‘come again?’ is more nervous than jealous per se … but there is a certain air to it, especially given the ‘i can be your new boyfriend’ comment as seen above lol. if she loves max and doesn’t care for vinh, i can only imagine how she’d feel about their romance in particular! )

and, of course, there’s that part in episode four where safi can disguise herself as vinh in order to tear lucas a new one. i enjoy that part for many reasons! seeing how safi feels so much more comfortable in someone else’s skin than her own is fascinating and makes for good foreshadowing … but there is also the reveal of her opinions on vinh, unabashed and shameless, when she is finally giving him an ounce of thought :

it’s interesting! she doesn’t care for him, really, doesn’t loathe him like lucas or gwen or her own mother, but there’s a level of vitriol regardless. she thinks him fake. she thinks him a coward. she thinks he’s scared of facing consequences and that he only acts in his own self interest and she hates every bit of that. while safi can confess to doing maya wrong and hating herself for it, she never allows vinh that same courtesy. even says as much to max, claiming that only she had the humanity to regret her choice while vinh apparently didn’t. and yet … she doesn’t hate him? doesn’t feel strongly towards him? he’s still apart of her, a large part, and she can get along with him fine on crosstalk if she so pleases and she can hate his guts but, when the raw truth is revealed, she apparently feels nothing towards him at all? it is fascinating to think about is all. how she doesn’t wish him dead but doesn’t care if he’s alive either despite everything they’ve been through, even though she hates gwen and lucas and her mother more. it’s rather mean, though that’s what makes it so complex and interesting. it shows that safi only ever cares ( and oh, does she care fiercely, obsessively ) for a very slim group of people, and that when push comes to shove, everyone else can fend for themselves for all she cares. she would protect moses and max in a heartbeat, without thought, and the piece of her within them tries valiantly to keep them safe by locking them away from the world ( another thing to dissect, certainly! ), but she doesn’t really extend such empathy towards the innocents caught in her crossfire. she may be tormenting lucas and gwen specifically, but everyone else was going to be collateral damage and safi was fine with that. at least a little bit. vinh falls in that category of inevitable damage, i think, despite their closeness and despite their history, and you can tell that’s what really wounds him at the end of things. safi couldn’t even torment him, didn’t have the want or energy to do so, he was valiantly apart of her and safi didn’t even care about that. very interesting! it’s also heartbreaking in many ways to see two people who should’ve been able to lean on each other, who should’ve loved one another, be nothing but strangers at the end of things. an example of how tragedy doesn’t always bring people closer. sometimes it drives you worlds apart from the one you should be grieving with, which can be seen in other life is strange games, most notably with chloe and joyce, i think.

anyway! tldr : it’s complicated and worth exploring. there are many ways you can interpret their relationship and i highly encourage everyone to find what angle is most interesting to them! and i don’t blame you for finding their dynamic fascinating because it’s easily one of my favorites in double exposure … i don’t think of it often, but it’s always lingering in the back of my mind. regardless, i hope this word vomit is helpful! if i brought up more questions than answers, i do apologize. but thank you so much for such a fun question <3 it was an absolute blast, and tickled my brain enough to pump this out asap.

#my asks.#life is strange double exposure #vinh lang #safiya llewellyn fayyad #ohhhh these two. THESE TWO!!!! i genuinely have no clue what’s going on with them #but there’s a palpable sense of pain no matter how you swing their dynamic and i love it #lots of yearning and dismissal and an ache you know? hate. betrayal. love. obsession …#you could name the feelings between them but putting an actual label on things is what’s most difficult #which. ironically. fits their relationship in its entirety haha #many thoughts and feelings — i just hope this captures even a sliver of them anon!!!#i will also say i tentatively think safi and vinh slept together before maya’s death at LEAST one time #because that makes sense as to why safi would be more inclined to do it again. even after #i also think she stopped after max came into the picture. as vinh words it ‘she was obsessed’ with max #and never stopped talking about her … so i think she stopped with vinh entirely. she’s so far up max’s ass she stops having time for him #or something like that. lol #ANYWAY! i do think vinh loved safi and i do think four years ago safi at least cared for vinh #but she certainly doesn’t anymore. and though he’ll always love her i don’t think it’s romantic anymore either #that’s my take!!! as bland as can be!!!!#thank you sm again !!!

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