#link in source and notes if youre interested!

[literaryvein-reblogs]

more words to describe your character's feelings

Doubt

begrudge, controvert, despair, disapprove, disbelieve, discountenance, dissent, fume, hesitate, lovelorn, mind, mistrust, objection, oppugn, question, reject, repudiate, rue, scruple, skepticism, suspect, wonder

Elated

affect, alleviate, appeal, appeasement, arrest, attract, awe, bedazzle, bemuse, brighten, charm, defuse, divert, elevate, enamor, encourage, endear, enliven, enthrall, enticement, excite, fascinate, fortify, galvanize, gladden, gratify, hearten, inflame, inspire, interest, invigorate, lighten, matter, perk up, prod, rally, reassure, rouse, satisfy, strike, tantalize, temper, tickle, touch, wake/waken, whet

Fear

apprehension, dismay, horror, panic, terror, trepidation

Hate

abhor, abominate, aggression, anger, antagonism, atrocity, bad blood, blow up, burn, deplore, detest, disdain, disinclination, disrespect, dissent, enmity, execrate, frown, fury, horror, incivility, inhumanity, lament/lamentation, loathe, malice, odium, outrage, pique, rancor, resent, revulsion, seethe, spite, umbrage, venom, wrath

Love

acceptance, admiration, adoration, adulation, affection, amour, appreciate, approval, attention, bask, bewitched, canonize, charity, consideration, constancy, delight in, dig, discrimination, dote on/dote upon, enamored, enjoy, esteem, exult, fall for, fascinated, favor, flame, fond, get a kick out of, gratitude, idolize, leaning, like, mad, mercy, passion, predilection, prize, rapture, respect, revere/reverence, savor, taste, thrill, treasure, venerate, zeal

Of concern

afraid, alarm, anxiety, apprehension, concern, craze, dismay, distraction, distress, encumbrance, feeling, foreboding, guilt, hang up, horror, jitters, jumpy, misgiving, obsession, one-track mind, passion, petrified, puzzled, question, suspicion, terror, trouble, weight, wonder, worry

Surprise

alarm, appall, astound, backfire, bedazzle, bewilder, confound, dazzle, dumbfound, electrify, frighten, overwhelm, petrify, shock, startle, stun, stupefy, terrify

NOTE

The above are concepts classified according to subject and usage. It not only helps writers and thinkers to organize their ideas but leads them from those very ideas to the words that can best express them.

It was, in part, created to turn an idea into a specific word. By linking together the main entries that share similar concepts, the index makes possible creative semantic connections between words in our language, stimulating thought and broadening vocabulary.

Source ⚜ Writing Basics & Refreshers ⚜ On Vocabulary Definitions of Emotions in Psychology ⚜ More Word Alternatives for Emotions

[stjohnstarling]

My favourite alternative news resources for staying informed:

Garbage Day — As an internet user, you are affected by the state of the internet — I’ve long read this newsletter for its analysis of culture through the lens of internet ephemera, but in recent weeks Garbage Day has also become one of the very best sources of breaking news and analysis about the ongoing coup. Even if you subscribe to nothing else in this e-mail, you are certain to discover a variety of journalists and news publishers via this publication (many of the independent journalists linked below I originally found via a link in Garbage Day.)

404 Media — As a reader of my work, you are affected by US anti-pornography laws, which limit freedom of sexual expression online — Sam Cole (ex-senior editor for Motherboard) at the independent news publication 404 Media does the best reporting on news related to these topics of any individual journalist I'm aware of. 404 Media is an internet and technology news platform that was co-founded by four journalists: a writer, two senior editors, and the editor-in-chief of Motherboard.

What the Fuck Just Happened Today? — As a person who lives in the world right now, you are, unfortunately, affected to some extent by US politics — WTFJHT delivers an extremely lucid, concise, once-per-day summary of US political news.

Law Dork — As a person affected to some extent by US politics, it is in your interest to understand US law. Chris Geidner (US Supreme Court expert and ex-BuzzFeed legal editor) is the best source I can recommend for informative, detailed reporting + analysis of, in particular, LGBTQ+ political and legal issues in US news.

Erin in the Morning — Erin Reed (trans rights activist and ex-digital director for TheAmerican Independent) is one of the best sources for all news regarding the fight for trans rights in the US; in-depth coverage of the wave of anti-trans legislation and how people are fighting back. Very difficult and vitally important work.

Notes on the Crises — Nathan Tankus (economist and self-taught monetary policy expert.) This is a finance-focused publication that has pivoted to full-time coverage of Elon Musk's activities within the treasury. It has been one of the first places to break news of Musk's activities and has been cited in the lawsuits against him.

Popular Information — Judd Legum (founder of the now-defunct ThinkProgress.) Highly influential investigative reporting; also publishes the newly-minted Musk Watch, focused on Elon Musk’s activities.

Public Notice — Aaron Rupar (ex-Vox journalist.) Notable reporting on the activities of the US right wing for a progressive audience.

WIRED — Believe it or not, the tech-focused magazine WIRED has been consistently publishing what is universally considered to be some of the best reporting on all breaking news WRT Elon Musk’s ongoing bureaucratic coup.

[stottlemorgan]

A Dog is a Dog / Low Honour Arthur Morgan x Female Reader (Smut 18+ MDNI)

Summary: Arthur returns to camp in the middle of the night after being gone for weeks. Will this time be any different? Tags: Smut, 18+, MDNI! Angst within smut. P in v mostly, kissing, grinding, Arthur bring a rude bastard and not in a fun way. He's a little bit pushy and very aloof. Word count: 4,250. Author’s Note: This fic is purely self-indulgent but after posting snippets, I've had people very interested in it, so thank you my loves! <3 I'm not suuuuper enthralled by parts of it but my enthusiasm at my own writing tends to wax and wane quite rapidly. I hope you enjoy, my dears. Ao3 Link. All photos above are sourced from Pinterest.

Blankets and pillows unbelonging to you grow heavy with the floral musk of your sheened skin in the early summer warmth. Yet another sennight has passed and the cot you doze in feels as though it belongs less and less to the man who owns it. Days spent growing quieter with each morning that you wake alone; your stomach clenching alongside your fists as you anticipate the abrupt return of the wild dog who has so firmly locked his jaws into your rump.

The camp is draped in a slumbersome blanket of indigo; the communal campfire bidding the previous day a farewell with its last lingering smoulder. The warm whispering breeze weaves between the strong legs of a Hungarian Thoroughbred as it slows to a thumping trot before halting, followed by equally heavy boots meeting the dirt. The clunk of spurs and the whip of reins being thrown over a hitching post disquiets the still night air. Two firm pats to the horse’s neck sound out as a hand sinks into the satchel at its side, retrieving an apple and guiding it to the horse’s mouth with a satisfying crunch. Steady steps soon follow, working a purposeful path through the camp and into the tent where you lay amidst your dreams.

“Girl.”

A baritone voice grates through the gentle sough of the soft summer wind and your sleepy breaths.

“Girl.”

The word is reiterated, low and impatient as hands move to pull off boots, dropping them loudly one after the other. A brief furrow of your brow is met with a deep nasal huff and a palm coming to roughly shove your shoulder, “Up.” Another shove of your shoulder streamlines your senses further. Blurs of bronze and blue blend through your fluttering lashes as you stir. Your upper lip curls, a weak grumble croaking through your throat. Yet another rude shove into your arm strengthens your gentle grousing into a truculent groan. The rustling of the sheets as you turn over toward the object of your annoyance clashes uglily with the shucking off and discarding of a jacket.

“Mmhn– Arthur?” You rasp, inhaling deeply, your hands coming up to rub some focus into your vision before your muscles tingle with the urge to stretch. A slow shudder streams up through your body as you reach above your head, your back and hips arcing. As a quiet strained sound leaves you, your blinking eyes are greeted with the sight of Arthur unbuttoning and pulling off his shirt, letting it fall to the floor.

Through the dim and fuzzy night, you drowsily register the soft and strong shapes of his body. The faint gleam to his unwashed skin, the hug of his jeans around his thighs as he pushes his hips forward to unfasten his gun belt and lets it drop with a clank. The slight plushness of his stomach that bunches at the waistband of his jeans as he takes a hefty seat on the cot beside you. The warm, thick veins that snake through the skin of his hands and arms as he unbuttons his jeans with one hand and reaches out with the other to palm greedily at your hip through the blanket before moving to your waist, then your breasts. A surprised, shaky gasp fills your lungs and he subtly responds with a low hum as he clumsily lifts his hips, yanking his jeans and drawers down in a few jagged motions before kicking them off to the floor. You bring your hands down to bat his away but it quickly moves from your chest to pull the blanket draped over you down, his eyes trailing over your wrinkled chemise.

He shifts to face you more, taking a deep breath, savouring the special way your flowery musk mingles with the sharp remnants of his own. Your attention is drawn to the peek of his flushed cock as it bobs upwards from between his thighs, and then to the tug of a smirk which bares his teeth for the briefest moment.

“My bed comfortable enough for you, Miss?” A tilt of his head and a raise of his brow only adds to the cattish tone of his voice. Your mind lags, snagged on slumber, on the rosy tip of his cock, on the acrid scent of his sweat as he leans in over you, his hands grabbing the hem of your chemise. “Up, sit up.” He grumbles and before you can properly follow, he tugs the garment up, bringing you with it.

“Arthur.” You protest, your voice cracking, but he keeps pulling, forcing your arms up and taking it off over your head, baring your upper half. He presses the bunched up chemise to his face for a moment, his eyes closing. The quiet meaning behind the covetous gesture muddles your annoyance with a hot flash of yearning and you very almost whine. He throws it to the floor and leans back in. A strangled sound bursts from you as his mouth opens against the softness of your stomach. You sit up further, swaying a little as you push a palm into his head, knocking his hat off in the process. He glares up at you and bites down, his teeth smarting your flesh.

“Arthur!”

“Quit your whinin’.” Arthur warns as he climbs onto the cot, it dipping greatly with the added weight. He pushes your thighs apart and ducks down, mouthing at your ribs. You writhe and sigh, a hotness flowing from his mouth down through to your core, your drawers starting to stick to your skin from more than just the humidity. With a huff, you push yourself up the cot with your feet but he’s quick to grab your waist and firmly pull you back down as if you’d not even tried. You grunt and push his head but he grabs your wrist and thumps it back into the cot. His eyes flit up to meet yours and they’re dark, the usual springy hues of his irises clouded over by a familiar and nasty hunger. Your hand twitches, about to move again but the way his eyes widen slightly gives you pause.

“Stop.” He breathes against the skin of your breast.

“You drunk?” You whisper as he closes his lips around your soft nipple, swirling his tongue until it grows hard. Your mouth drops open and you shudder out a sigh to which the edges of his mouth curl into a smile. He continues until he draws a whimper from you. Until your head lolls to the side. Until he feels your back delicately bow. He teases with his teeth briefly, and his hands squeeze low on your hips, dipping into your skin. His breath draws and releases, deep and shaky through his nose, and a quiet rumble of triumph vibrates in his throat when he feels the faintest buck of your hips. Gotcha.

He releases your nipple with a quiet pop and licks his lips, “No.” He murmurs and palms about your sides, fiddling with your drawers until he pinches the fabric and drags them down. You huff as he unceremoniously bends your leg and pulls the drawers to your knee, and repeats with the other leg. He then slips your drawers from your calves in one move, throwing them away, and uses the moment where your legs are raised to press down against you, your underthighs warm against his solid chest. His cock throbs as he presses the underside flatly against your clit, his balls resting warm and heavy against your ass. A sigh seeps from his chest, tired and low, soothed.

“Then what–”

He clicks his tongue, shaking his head, his brow furrowing and you let out a little vexed breath in response. A moment passes quietly between you. He thumbs at behind your knees, his head tilting as he just watches you. Your flushed, aggrieved expression. Your chest rising and falling that bit quicker. Your arms resting either side of your head, no longer making any attempts to move. He loves it when you wait for him. He loves it when you accept what he so desires to give you. You feel his cock twitch and he feels the tension move through your legs as your toes curl. He takes in the faint wince that curls your upper lip and pinches your brow. A lazy smirk pulls at his mouth and in tandem with how his grip on your legs tightens, so does the ticklish want coiling through your gut. It takes you another moment to find your voice again, 

“Where you bee–?” He thrusts and your eyes roll back, a tight whimper bursting from you as he warms his thick cock between your slick folds. He groans quietly, rocking his hips languidly, his hands finding your breasts. He circles the pads of his thumbs gently over your nipples, the sensation drawing the hairs on your skin towards him as your skin tauts and prickles. “Where–” You huff out but cut off with a sharp gasp when he laps at the sensitive skin behind one of your knees. Your corresponding foot kicks in the air, your leg seizing and he hums into your skin, the roll of his hips picking up.

“Where I’ve been don’t matter.”

Pleasure and aggravation swirl in your stomach, making you feel drunk with both the want for Arthur and the burning urge to smack him. You find yourself reaching for his head, trying to pull him down, to kiss him, but the column of his neck stays locked straight as he watches his cock glisten with your arousal, his lips parted. You join him in peering down at the sight and a shaky moan slips from you before you look back up to his steadily flushing face. Through the haze, you notice that his beard has grown, the scar on his chin buried beneath bristling hazel hair. You also notice that his hair isn’t in fact pomaded back as you’d thought but tied back.

His eyes flit to yours and immediately back down in response to the sudden doting look on your face, “I miss–” you squeak only to watch him swiftly press down onto you, catching your mouth with his. Stop talking. Stop looking. Light traces of rum and something savoury coat your mouth as Arthur’s tongue licks at your teeth and curls against your own, moving in sloppy tandem with each thrust of his twitching cock between your folds. Your hands grasp at his hair, feeling the leather strap tying it back and pulling him ever closer, letting him in as you always do, as he always hopes you will. The both of you moan into one another’s mouths, so similarly heated that his breath shakes at the vulnerability of the moment. You feel his hands squeeze your waist before one trails down to stroke your swollen clit, teasing the building pressure between your thighs. The way your thighs push at his inner arms, trying to open further, and the huff from you that warms his mouth draws a strained gasp from him as he pulls back. He brings that same hand to your mouth, palm up, resting the tips of his fingers against your bottom lip.

“Spit,” he orders breathily, and you lift your head a bit, pooling some saliva into your mouth before dribbling it onto his flattened fingers, “Gonna need more than that for me, darlin’.” He gives a slow thrust of his hips and you shiver, having to force yourself to pay attention in order to drool into his hand further. He grunts in appreciation before brushing the remaining spit from your lips and moving to slather his cock with it, his gaze drawn to your soaked core. He returns to slowly rocking his hips, his now fully slickened cock pulling a gasp from you as your slightly cooled saliva makes contact with your tingling warm tissue.

“Arthur, please, it’s been–”

“You know I ain’t here to talk.”

Arthur takes hold of your underthighs yet again, holding them apart and pushing them upwards until your knees brush your shoulders. You yearn to pull him down again, to hold him close, but the set of his jaw stops you. He arches his back, pulling his hips back a little more with each thrust, his cock slowly sliding down your centre until his tip notches into the rim of your core.

“We can talk some other day.” His hands come to hold your shoulders. Despite the gulp that thickens in your throat and the way your hands grip the blanket as you realise what’s coming, you snark up at him, 

“When’s that, then?”

“God, just shut up–” He bares his teeth as he pushes his cock slowly but firmly all the way in, a growl in his throat underscoring the keening moan that slips from your gaping mouth. Your mind blanks, your thoughts simmering down to just feeling as he uses your shoulders to keep you steady and carelessly starts up a rough rhythm that makes your feet bounce either side of his head. His body rolls against you, the soft ridges of his length rubbing against your plush walls with each eager thrust. A whine shakes in your throat and your head falls back into the cot, your core squeezing around his cock and your back begging to arch. Arthur bites down on a curse, his hands sliding down your chest to massage your breasts, pinching your nipples between his thumbs and the sides of his forefingers. “S’nice, ain’t it? You shuttin’ up for a second?” He stickily mouths his way up your chest to your neck. Your response is a breathy mewl, your hands snaking around his shoulders and threading into the hair at the nape of his neck. He hums into your skin, suckling and steadily biting harder and harder until you cry out. He keeps his teeth locked into your purpling flesh as he picks up the pace, the familiar buzzing pressure forming in your stomach causing you to dig your nails into his scalp.

“Oh, Arthur–”

He releases the skin of your throat with a wet sound, his voice ragged, his teeth tacking against your glowing skin as he speaks, “Better not be another question, girl–”

“Don’t stop!” Your voice comes out loud and pleading, your toes curling. Arthur feels your walls starting to pulse and a shivering groan tears through his chest. Driving himself deeper, enough so that his cock meets your sweet spot, he circles his hips, grinding his pelvis against your clit. His curly pubic hair burns at the soft tissue and your moans only louden. The cot beneath squeaks and groans along with you, growing egregiously noisy when Arthur grasps the top edge of it, pulling and using it to keep both depth and speed. A sonorous whimper bursts from you, out into the quiet of the night, and Arthur licks his lips,

“Yeah?” He breathes, his cock throbbing as he grinds into you.

You give a dumb low-lidded nod, your hands clammy and pawing around to grab hold of his face. His lips press into a thin line and he growls, so close to release that he quells the ache in his chest at the feel of your affectionate and needy gaze flickering about his face, instead roughening his movements and forcing you over the edge.

“Arthur– Oh, my Arthur!” You keen breathlessly, squeezing his cock with your walls and his head with your hands. Your hips rock as much as you can muster in an uneven rhythm as your orgasm snakes through your spasming muscles, tingles of bliss gracing your sheeny skin. Arthur almost looks pained, his lashes fluttering, his breaths strained as he maintains a white-knuckle grip on the edge of the cot. He draws out his thrusts, deciding to fuck out the sweet feeling threatening to bloom in his heart. Each whimper you let out, the way you let him carry on, your shaking thighs, the glimmer of tears in your eyes– he finds himself itching with the compulsion to evade the tenderness but he can’t.

His orgasm strangles him, a shuddering groan searing his throat and you take the chance to tug him down into a messy kiss that very almost makes him spill within you. With a panicked gasping moan into your mouth, Arthur arcs his hips back to quickly slip out of you before slamming forward, his warmly slickened cock sliding up your centre and spurting his release over your stomach as his balls tighten against your clit. His weight drops to his elbows and he partially smothers you as his heaving chest brushes your own. Your legs fall open as he releases them and slips his hands beneath your back. He cradles you, lost in the sensation of your lips gliding against his again and again. You gently hold his face, feeling his jaw muscles flickering as he kisses you and a small laugh puffs from your nose when you feel some of his hair fall forward and tickle your cheeks. He feels the smile in your lips against his own and he pulls back, a stuporous expression melting the usual tension from his brow. Your smile fades slightly, a stirring of worry in your gut, the usual question suffocating you both.

Will he leave?

Arthur lifts himself with a grunt and moves to kneel back on the cot but, as he’s halfway there, he gives a heavy sigh and ducks back down. He plants a singular, firm kiss to your mouth before pulling back again, standing up. You remain where you are, your lips slick with his spit, your skin tightening with his drying spend as you blink up at him. A nervous hope spindling around your spine, you quietly watch Arthur wipe himself down with his shirt before he passes it to you. You clean yourself up as much as you can, casting him the occasional glance while he unties his hair and runs his fingers through the knots. He lifts his head and gives a scrunch of his nose, avoiding your attention as you sit up and drop his shirt to the floor. His voice is slurred and overly casual,

“Ain’t got nowhere to be ‘til Sunday.”

“Sunday?”

“Mhm.”

You recall how you had laid in bed that morning, having woken to the sounds of Uncle playing the banjo and to the dull aching yen in your lungs at the thought of being three days from yet another Sunday parted from the man who seems to not fully understand that he tucks your heart into his satchel along with his revolver each time he leaves. Three days until Sunday. Is he suggesting that he’ll be staying for three days? Arthur sinks back down onto the cot and you watch his throat undulate as he tries to form actual words in place of snapping, “I know it’s been a while–”

“Just over a month,” you answer and shift, curling up on your side, facing the canvas of the tent, exhausted and ever used to his excuses. You let your eyes flutter shut, letting the gentle throb in your core and the tingling of your mouth remind you of the fleeting affectionate embrace Arthur had held you in moments ago.

“Don’chu start with me, woman,” he grouses firmly, climbing into the cot with you and grabbing the blanket that had made its way to the bottom. His tone makes you tut, sensing his already thinning patience that, despite its innate fragility, wears slower when it comes to you.

“Start what? Ain’t nothin’ to start when you keep endin’ things,” you peck back at him, and barely a second passes before he sighs irritatedly and forces his arms around your waist, pulling you back against him.

“You’re lucky I didn’t end what was just happenin’, darlin’.” His chest hair tickles your back as he pushes your hair out of the way with his face, whispering lowly against your neck, “Lucky you kept your mouth shut long enough to give us both a good time.”

He begins to mouth slowly at your throat, one of his hands grasping your hip, the other coming up to knead your breast. In spite of your enjoyment of his touch, you frown, slapping his hand. You let your head grow heavy against the pillow as you grumble,

“You’re a bastard.” His shoulders shrug with a quiet chuckle as he continues his ministrations and speaks between lapping at your neck,

“I been tellin’ you that, sweetheart.” You sigh, your mind and body aswirl with tiredness, hurt, and the bubbling arousal that lingers in your loins at the presence or mere thought of Arthur. Your voice softens into a slur as his repetitive movements and warmth begin to lull you into sleep,

“Whatever, Arthur.”

“Mm, whatever, darlin’,” he responds quietly. He rests his head on the pillow behind yours, letting his focus glide up and down your spine, seeing the way you tuck your feet up, the way your hands lay against the cot. He feels the rise and fall of your chest as sleep fully takes you, relaxed and deep. He takes a bigger breath in and holds it, savouring your soap and the sweet tang of your sweat. A cold guilt settles into his bones before it freezes into a stiff and sick self-loathing. He sighs out the breath, and it blows gently into the back of your hair, along with the spark of desire he had to stay. He can’t do this. 

Taking a sliver of your dreams along with him, Arthur is uncharacteristically careful as he quietly detaches himself from you and collects some fresh clothes from the chest at the foot of his cot. As he dresses, he casts half-glances over at your sleeping form, your mussed hair and the way your cheek is smushed into the pillow drawing a soft curse from his lips. Longing flows through his chest, heavying his breaths as he pulls on his boots.

Steady steps exit the tent, working a purposeful path back toward the Hungarian Thoroughbred. With two firm pats to the horse's neck, the whip of reins being retrieved from the hitching post and the clunk of spurs sounds out into the quiet of the night as Arthur mounts the horse, landing weightily with the burl of his stature but also an awful load of feelings and questions choking him of much thought other than get out of here.

“Girl,” he grunts, tugging the reins and guiding the horse away from camp, gradually falling into a trot.

An inappreciable breeze breaks through a small gap in the tent flap, creeping up your bare back and through the hair at the nape of your neck as if to mock the touch of your lover. You fight the heaviness of your eyes as you rouse, the muggy summer heat already having set in for the day, blinding your bleary vision with the vivid bluish hues of the tent canvas. Kneading at your oily face, you lift your hips to turn over only to halt with a whine when a familiar string of discomfort threads through your abdomen. “Bastard,” you whisper to yourself, an equally familiar upset flooding your limbs and soon enough your eyes. Your watery gaze drifts about, steadily picking up on a few unwonted items strewn about the floor.

Arthur’s gun belt. His hat. His jacket. The shirt and pants he had stripped himself of are sprawled across the grass. For once, the tent looks lived in, as lived in by Arthur as your heart is. Dreamy visions of the night before begin to dance through your mind as well as warm your sticky and sore body.

The kiss he gave, awkward but filled with something. How he held you until you fell asleep. How he held his tongue more than usual, lacking the venom but maintaining the usual aloofness. A gentle whirl of tentative affection flurries in the depths of your chest, shaking your breath. He has left behind things which he knows he’ll have to come back for within a day. Within the stifling summer heat, which pales in comparison to the overwhelm of your realisation, you lay back into the cot. Unfocused, you stare up at the canvas, wondering whether these hiccups in his usual behaviour were due to anything in particular, wondering about the permanence of them. Overhearing the early morning goings on of your fellow camp mates, you debate whether to exit Arthur’s tent so soon. You know there is no way you hadn’t woken anybody with your mewling pleasure, with the creaking cot, with Arthur’s grunting and the smack of his skin against yours. You have done many, many times before to the displeasure of some and the ardent curiosity of others.

You shift onto your side, facing out to the rest of the tent, trailing your sleepy focus over Arthur’s belongings and dangling an arm toward the floor. You graze your knuckles over his gun belt, your nails catching on the bullet casings with a quiet, twinkling rhythm beneath which the distant thumping trots of a nearing horse sounds. The thwip of reins followed by a wary greeting call of his name from John brings your heart into your throat; whether it be from excitement or dread still remains elusive to you but one seed of hope nestles itself into the far too long barren garden of your stomach.

He’s come back to you.

Tags for my sweethearts: @thundermartini @zae-heeyyy @pinescent-and-gingerbread @frillydolle @arthurmorganist @thesweetestapplepie @thoughts-of-bear @kayyqua @thedilfdiaries - Apologies if I miss anyone, just dm me or comment below to have me tag you <3

[summertiide]

hence nothing remains except for our regrets

sometimes you just gotta smash your interests together like playdough!!! here's the Great God Grove gods in OFF's style!

shoutout to @weirdalchemy for the sketch of Huzzle Mug's pose and a ton of help in working out the other ones!

the full-sized + unsprited sketches / some assorted rambling under the cut!

link to the bizzyboys!

turning them into little 200px max sprites lost some of the detail i really enjoyed on some of them (thespius basically lost all of his hair flowers, and bauhauzzo lost a few nice rock-chipping details i was super fond of u_u), so i figured i'd include my sketches also!

a few extra design notes from while i was trying to figure everything out

i wanted to keep Miss Mitternacht really simple, and tried to lean into the early-game boss sort of look! (i was also trying to remember how to get the sketchy-pencil texture to translate into the smaller versions, oops)

Cobigail and Inspekta were the first ones i thought of when i decided to make all of them! Cobigail's jumpscare face was an instant pick, even if i lost all of those extra little lines in the spriting process

drawing typewriters is a nightmare. people who draw Click Clack all the time at his typewriter are stronger than i could possibly imagine

i got stuck on Thespius for a while, and he was the second to last one i finished - he's a lover, not a fighter!!! i wound up sort of trying to take an angle similar to Sugar's in OFF, an optional boss who you have to deliberately go for (i have this distinct vision in my mind of a boss track for him called "Swansong")

Bauhauzzo is meant to look kind of stuck in the ground, like an obelisk!

Inspekta was taken for sort of a "busted doll" look, from that bit in the art book where they said he was animated to "move like a plushie"! he was my favorite of the bunch to work on, even if the hands were kind of a Situation

it was kind of a bummer that more of King's eye-veil didn't turn out in the sprite, but i couldn't quite find a way to make it show up without making it hide her face too much! people drawing her posing with the sword was a huge source of inspiration, though, it just felt right

i might do more of these sometime soon - maybe the Bizzyboys as a sort of group fight? i also thought about doing a Godpoke Batter type of look but i couldn't quite figure out how to finagle that, but i may try again later on!

[elvirable]

Instincts

[ Astarion x f!Reader/Tav ] | ao3 link

rating: explicit | word count: 3.7k | status: complete themes/tags: vaginal sex, vaginal fingering, creampie, feelings realization, denial of feelings, light angst at the end, you know the sex scene after the tiefling party?, yeah so this is it, with astarions pov, already catching feelings smh, smut is halfway through, just skip to after all early dialogue

----------------------------------------------------

Little did he know that evening, that was the beginning of his simple plan crumbling apart.

In other words: Astarion has been struggling to balance century-long instincts with newfound feelings, an undeniable connection. He carries out his simple little plan as intended, but meets complications he didn't quite expect. ----------- A/N: so i hung up my cod medals of honor to write this.. i've been playing for a month now. originally posted without proofreading, but its now edited for grammar and some terms -----

It was hard not to have fun around you.

Something of a child-like giddiness would buzz through his nerves whenever you sauntered over, his marbled red eyes wouldn't dare to miss a beat of the vision you were. Swaying hips and that deceivingly coy face. Of course, you were strikingly beautiful – a wickedly delectable sight – but that wasn’t the only source of his carnal anticipation.

It was just you, the enigmatic little thing you were. 

Admittedly, Astarion believed he had read you like an open book the moment he laid eyes on you. It was an instinct of his: gathering a cerebral repository of notable ticks and body language, facial twitches, and octave changes in those around him. Watchful, constant observations.

He had chalked you up to a sort of stoic character at first. Graceful, to a degree, in your manner of subtly balancing the world around you. A stable composure, quick and quiet without brash or idle chatter.. unlike that Gale. You were a less flagrantly repulsive hero-type crafted in his mind – but he had still expected you to be oh-so predictable with a shallow drive for self-emaciating ‘justice’. Whereas the others wore their baggage like a garment, you held your cards close to your chest – like a chameleon suddenly thrust into the spotlight.

Yet the sun rose and fell two or three times around the wilderness of Elturel, when he found himself pleasantly contradicted. He normally didn’t dedicate much attention towards someone he believed he so easily pegged, but his interest began to pique. Just enough to leave him sitting with an edge and a consuming desire to peer in closer. 

Maybe it was the way your mouth twitched into a quiet smile during his verbal antics on the road or the firm passiveness you held from the blighted village to the drama of Emerald Grove; an intoxicatingly confusing blend of traits you harbored. The closer he watched you, the less blurred you became. You didn’t fear being authentic and enforcing boundaries to those who attempted to use you – but you weren’t cruel; you met the world around you just as it was, without discrimination. No unnecessary harm, no free handouts either. 

Or perhaps it was your sarcastic remarks that stirred what little glee he had in him; an especially delicious and refreshing insight into your humor. While he could care to give a critical note or two on your lack of blatant cruelty, Astarion respected your compelling demeanor; he witnessed how all these companions turned their eyes so frequently to you with decision.

But what he did know for sure was the eye contact.

Gods, the first time your heads swiveled mid-strife and your gazes locked with a rich crackle – the memory alone was enough to stupefy him! Something strange stirred, something that didn’t sit comfortably. He didn’t know  what to make of it.

With all this said, that same sensation boiled inside his stomach as he mulled over his every interaction with you. He recalled that moment of midnight – when all was still and you had caught him prepared to taste your throat. Your wary stare pierced through him, washing away briefly the desperate pangs of blood-thirst and left him feeling.. nervous. 

Ugh, how he despised the feeling. 

He was sickened when all those ledgers of observations caved in on himself, caught in his pale throat. He had taken such an overwhelming liking to you – to the extent, he had realized, that he was drawn to your guidance, your approval; a repulsive frustration at the time enough to coil through his cold veins. Without much to say, however, he was adamantly relieved when you conceded and soon regularly allowed him to drink from your slender neck. 

His trail of thoughts glossed over your stifled grunts onto the following morning: when you came to his defense as everyone felt the need to chime in with their unfettered prejudices. And how his ease, his excitement around you became persistently potent – a fresh energy that filled him as you spurred on his teasings and whims. Astarion noticed your subtle release of your ever-strong walls, just enough so he could relish in your humor and affable side.

There was always a hesitation at doting on the sensation that rose inside him at these thoughts of you. He surmised he was merely back in the practice; where he spun honeyed words and charmingly guile eye contact, to wrap his target around his finger. Any little edge of control he could grasp onto, the familiar taste of influence he used to know so well. These habits of two hundred years were kicking in. He’d play the part and – sooner or later – this eagerness to please would be reversed onto you.

Whether it was his own willful denial or the culmination of fate’s ever-spinning thread, the first crumble began the night of the tiefling party.

.

Cool and clear was the star-freckled night. Everything was too merry for him: the wide-toothed grins of the tieflings, sharp strums of the lute, the chatter. Even the wine was downright awful, pungent and tart like vinegar. 

Astarion would’ve normally indulged in his bitter mood, but it was the sight of your drunken smile that diffused his prior desire to complain.

How interesting, he thought as his eyes lapped up your squinted grin and eased laughter. It was helplessly infectious to see you so earnest, casually prattling on in conversation throughout the camp. 

Red eyes followed while you made your rounds, encouraging the tiefling’s dancing lights spell and conversing with the bard. Astarion even raised a brow at the playful expression that washed over your face as you spoke to the hulking druid by the name of Halsin.  When you strolled over to Shadowheart and he caught that carefully provocative glint in the raven-haired cleric’s eyes – a chord of jealousy grew taut inside his chest.

He had half the mind to feel insulted that you hadn’t wandered in his direction yet, but that was quickly dispersed when he noticed you dismiss yourself and head towards a wooden crate near the riverfront. 

Almost like a shadow, Astarion swept in your direction. Whether it was to merely take in your smile up close or to put his plan in motion, he settled on the latter. You were rifling through the crate that held what could barely pass as wine, muttering a quiet curse about the little tiefling probably pocketing a bottle or two.

“Here’s my little treat with her cheeks all flushed,” the words dripped from his mouth with a sweet cadence. “You will come to my bed tonight, won’t you?”

You swiveled at the sound of his voice, raised brow accompanying your hazy smile. The influence of wine lowered your usual wariness, and he caught the realization flutter across your face; there was no constitution in attempting to act reserved, especially with the rapport you two had grown. Amusement was written all over your face, hardly concealed – you had decided to play along.

“A little treat? You can do better than that.” 

“Oh, I certainly can. It would be my pleasure.”

He leaned closer, half-lidded eyes darkening and breath heavy with a mischievous delight. You watched him expectantly, reveling in what would pour from his lips.

“How about this one,” he loosened his posture, as if you both were stowed away from the entire world instead of dawdling along the outskirts of the shoddy camp. “All these accolades from the tieflings are nothing compared to the sound of my name, cried from your lips.”

Astarion watched the smile further spread across your soft lips, the wickedly sweet crinkle in your eyes while you crossed your arms. An exhilaration rose underneath his suave demeanor, even the bemused snicker invigorating.

“Is that the best you can do?” came your quick quip.

“Hmm, let me give it another go,” his voice was thick with arousal, a hungry glint in his eyes. “Every part of your perfect body whispers temptation – it’s as if the Gods made you just to ruin me.” 

His words clung to the air for a moment. The deliberate onslaught of poetic pleasantries laced with such ardent lust, the hum of the wine – Astarion studied your face swirling in thought. Heat had built up from the lower half of your body up to your cheeks, a quiet neediness wavering in your stance and threatened to boil to the surface of your skin.

Gods, you were thinking, it had been the longest time and you’ve been touch-starved.. more so under the urgency of all the trouble you had been thrust into. You never trusted a pretty boy, but you'd be damned if his flowered prose didn't stir something in you; you had never been the subject of such pursuits, real or not. Desire rushed through you, coiling in your stomach.

There was a beckoning in his eyes as they clutched onto yours, imporing you to draw closer, and his boyish features were even more alluring when caressed by the moon’s glow. However, you couldn’t bring yourself to trust those flowery words. They were tinted with an air of rehearse.

“Did these really work on Cazador’s targets?”

“Well, they’re working on you, aren’t they?”

A mild bashfulness buzzed through the warmth on your cheeks, as you couldn’t really deny it. 

“How about if I said these little words… everyone’s favorite,” Astarion continued, pausing for effect.

“I love you.”

Sly amusement colored his face. He had succeeded in riling up the intrinsic urge, no matter how much you tried to conceal it. How adorable you were when your gaze fluttered briefly.

“Having fun, are you?” you observed, smile holding on your lips.

As he had mused earlier, he was. It was hard not to whenever around you.  

.

Festivities settled down, the entire camp fast asleep once the wine crate had emptied and bellies were full. Only the chittering of crickets could be heard amongst the trees.

The forest, usually dressed in potent darkness, stilled beneath the moonlight. A serene, subtle beauty of the night – one Astarion was very accustomed to knowing, to living . He had done this so many times it had become second nature – the salacious rendezvous, the secrecy and fleeting thrill of them all. 

He had contemplated before, the image of you melting in the throes of pleasure. He wondered whether you preferred his hands gentle or rough, what sounds would dribble from your lips – if they sounded as sweet as you tasted. 

Though nothing could prepare him for the reality, which far surpassed fantasy; the pretty little thing you were, bare figure caressed by the lowlight, slowly making your way towards him.

“There you are. I’ve been waiting.”

You offered him a coy smile, cheeks still warm and rosy. An ache rushed between your legs at the sight of him sauntering forward, his well-formed broad physique. Lean, yet muscular – and the soft details of his appearance; the crease of laughter lines, the curl of his lashes. Just the anticipation of it all served enough to make you wet.

“Waiting since the moment I set eyes on you. Waiting to have you,” he leaned closer, desire coating every syllable.

“You don’t have me yet,” you matched the pulse of his words, emanating a playfulness to goad him on further.

Greedy lips suddenly met yours, and you were pressed against the tree trunk. His palms gripped the back of your thighs, swift dexterity almost catching you off guard. You instantly melted, like a puddle, in his grasp; your soft lips just as eager, skin aching and impatient for his touch. You never realized how sensitive you were, how truly touch-starved until you fought the gasp that escaped your throat.

Astarion didn’t waste a beat, carefully laying you onto the grass below while he drawled slow kisses along the curve of your neck. Fervent yearning permeated from your skin; you wanted more, and he was prepared to give you everything .

He drank in the sight of your arousal, eager to please you yet potently roused from the position he was in: you were such a delectably pretty thing sprawled beneath his weight, completely bare and vulnerable. Wide eyes bashfully beckoning him to just taste you.

“Part those precious legs for me, beautiful.” He directed, his voice less of a growl this time – instead more sweet. Soft. 

You could feel your face heat up further at his words, following his command without hesitation. Tender hands trailed along the soft skin of your thigh, his intense eyes briefly leaving yours to watch his fingers lingered over your folds – you were glistening with slick , fevered arousal.

“Oh my, you’re already so wet for me.”

His voice was almost a whisper now, as a keen excitement rushed through his veins. A twitch pressed against his briefs, his cock already hard and eager especially when his eyes darted towards your rosy. So willing, ready to indulge his every whim. For a moment, he settled in your vulnerability – a sight he didn't expect to see. You were always full of such delicious surprises.

He shook the thought from his mind, allowing a sly smile to return to his lips.

“Who knew you were so needy?”

Your cheeks flushed, timid lips scrambling to form a defensive retort before he slipped two fingers inside. Only a quiet gasp left your mouth as your soaking warmth struggled to adjust, tightening around his digits. You were barely able to comprehend the words he said, instinctively bucking your hips.

“ Astar ..” your breath hitched before you could even finish, when his fingers began a slow pace. Teasingly slow, you would beckon, but there was nothing you could even fathom whispering anymore. Your walls began to clench, eager to receive his unwavering attention.

Hums of pleasure pulsed through your every nerve, rapidly as he fastened the curling pace of his fingers. Every hitched and quiet whimper encouraged him, his palm soaked with your slick. He relished the sight of your round breasts rising and falling feverishly, your heat clenched around him – his cock further hardened, precum no doubt pooling on the fabric of his briefs. 

All you could manage was to focus on the pleasure mounting between your legs, thighs now quivering with anticipation. His thumb slid up to your swollen clit, never breaking pace, to draw teasingly slow circles. He adjusted his weight to lean closer to your face, the sudden attention causing an overwhelming shyness to press your eyes shut. Your thighs trembled more now while his fingers beckoned and lured your pleasure to spur closer and closer.

“Look at me,” he whispered, his voice the gentlest you’ve ever heard. 

He couldn’t place the sensation – of feeling entranced in a sense, when whimpers of pleasure fumbled from your beautiful lips. Astarion almost felt lost, nearly mesmerized, when you kept those pretty eyes trained on his. He could feel his eyes soften at your vulnerable stare, and all at once everything inside him craved to slide into your warmth. To feel you melt into him, to hit every right spot to make you sing, for every sweet prayer cascading from your lips to be for him.

“Mmf..” You were left in a sudden foggy haze, a mix of pleasure and confusion when he abruptly withdrew his fingers. You couldn’t fathom any words to speak, only furrowed your brows in a hazed and disorientated manner.

“I’m sorry, love.” His breathless laugh seemed dazed before the low, heaviness returned to his tone, “You were practically just begging with those lovely eyes of yours.”

He leaned downwards to plant soft, reassuringly delicate pecks across the nape of your neck; each a mantra to affection, leaving a buzz in their wake. Carefully he peeled down his briefs with a wasted moment to rub his eager cock against your slick warmth.

Your moans sounded even sweeter closer to his ear, and a delighted sigh pressed from his lips onto your skin. His throbbing cock was met with some resistance as the length and girth was suffocated by your tightening walls, warm spasms at the sensation being filled. 

A guttural, low moan hummed from his throat. Fuck, you were so perfectly tight.

His cock pulsed at the sudden attention, aching with pleasure and a warm buzz radiating through his skin. He paused for a moment, needing to relish every second it felt to be now pressed so deep inside you. The softness of your skin, delicate cues of pleasure washing over your face, how your warm walls enveloped his cock.

You moaned as he pushed more of his length inside your needy warmth, tears beginning to well up in the corner of your eyes. Pleasure and slight pain blurred, the tip of his cock almost pressed against your soft cervix and a rouse of heat traveling up your spine. 

His hands gripped the globes of your ass to adjust his leverage, slowly but deliberately digging his hips against yours with each thrust. His body was achingly ready, alive with frantic urge. He was incapable of any pretty words to whisper, tangled groans replacing his usual velvet tongue.

As he pounded quicker into your warmth, your pulsating soft walls sucked his cock tighter and deeper with each buckle. He nestled his head into the nape of your neck. Sweat formed on his pale forehead as he wrestled with his restraint, his cock stroking in and out, hitting pleasure points you never knew existed and relishing in your shameless cries – desperate for him.

Soft, warm pleasure unraveled across you in hot waves. If you had the mind, you could only hope that no one could hear you two – the sounds and wet smacks of his skin colliding against yours – but all you could do was turn your pleasured cries and whimpers into soundless gasps.

Your lips parted, hips bucking before your back arched from the ground. Every fiber of your body attempted to get closer to him, and his to you. Of some act of grace, your hand caressed his face, lifting him to face yours.

Oh, how he wanted to melt right there. 

Eager eyes met each other, brows furrowing together into a soft, tender stare. Astarion’s hips began to buck erratically for a moment as he struggled to regain his resolve. Once steadied, he continued to bury deeper into you in every perfect way. You were clenched so tightly, so divinely around him while his name trickled as a whisper from your lips. 

“You – fuck .. “ you couldn’t be bothered to form a proper sentence, every whim of comprehension overwhelmed by new heights of white pleasure. You were lulled into a stupor, and his grip tightened at your garbled pleas.

“Thaaat’s it,” Astarion practically begged, voice ragged, his eyes never leaving your beautiful face as it twisted with sweet expressions. An eagerness gnawed inside him, to push you to the edge of your pleasures. You were so perfect while you cried his name, taking all of him so well. 

“Come for me, sweet girl –” Hushed and delicate was his tone, only causing you to surrender any inhibition.

Heat wound tightly in your abdomen, lashes wet with the tears trailing down your warm face. Every nerve was wound so tight, finally snapping into a rush of white hot pleasure that left your skin flushed and tingling. You tried to whine out his name, but it spilled out into broken gasps as you reached your fingers to grip his silver curls. 

His hips began to stagger, riding out your pleasure until he could no longer postpone the succumb to pleasure. They lost their rhythm, and a low moan rumbled from his throat as he surrendered to the overwhelming sensation of your tightening walls, pressing into you.

You could feel his cock throbbing in you, as your nerves are slow to fizzle from the glowing buzz, and it swelled. Your slick walls were overstimulated nearly by his desperate, choppy thrusts before a cry escapes his lips – his cum flooded into you, thick and hot. He felt waves of warmth, so real and alive. So helplessly right.

The air was silent, as you both collected your breaths in hurried gasps. Astarion peeled his weight off of you only to roll onto his back, by your side. Your body felt light and completely slack, almost boneless as you sunk into the earth underneath you. Aftershocks of pleasure still rippled throughout your nerves. 

Both of you laid sweaty, flushed, exhausted, lacking the energy to care. You broke the silence with a wobble in your voice.

“Fuck, you came inside me..” you stated the obvious, reeling from pulsing nerves and vision hazy. 

“I’m sure the druids have something that’ll take care of that..” Astarion said breathlessly, extending an arm to wipe the sweat glistening off his forehead. 

He waited for a quiet laugh or a retort, but neither came.

Turning his head, he was met with the vision of your exhausted figure fast asleep. Slowly your chest rose and fell, face at ease – a vulnerability he had only seen when you were in deep sleep, if you weren't tossing and turning.

The quiet sat with him while he attempted to gather his thoughts, his experience. He had seen an entirely different side of you – exposed delicate. Part of his conscience pooled with guilt. 

He had a plan. A nice simple plan. It wasn’t foreign to casually bed strangers, seducing and manipulating them into following his every whim. Hells, this had been routine for two hundred years . The count was lost on how many nights he spent using people like ragdolls, only to be lured back into the hands of Cazador.

Astarion returned his gaze to the stars glistening above, attempting his best at reducing it to the odd circumstances or perhaps he was simply out of practice. 

Regardless – even if it was more than a fluke – he had already fucked things up. The thought felt tainted now, uneasy and riddled with remorse. 

Little did he know that evening, that was the beginning of his plan crumbling apart.

[arcanistsanctum]

‎‎​‌‏‏. Reverse:1999 Resource Guide

These are links to some of the archives, lorecrafters and guidemakers that I follow and regard highly for their expertise, dedication, and contributions to the community. Making this list is also for my convenience.

If you know other sources, please share them! I will edit the post and add them here. Maybe one day I will also contribute to transcripts on a separate blog. We don't have enough of such precious records for a heavily lore and story-based game! Feel free to share your lorecrafting website/blog/channel too!

Archives

Websites/Blogsites

Huiji (CN) - CN Fanwiki, written in CN, with consistent updates. Really goated. Gamekee (CN) - Another CN Fanwiki, also written in CN. Some pages may not be updated. Arcanist Sanctum (Global) - That's us! R1999 Logs (Global) - Has some main, event and anecdote story transcripts. Reverse: 1999 Wiki (Global) - EN Fanwiki. They may be behind on working through some profiles, records and transcripts. UTTU Merui (Global and CN) - The website is also WIP. But it is shaping to contain news (including EN translations for CN updates), character profiles, story transcripts, music list, timeline, and I believe recorded CGs too.

Repositories

Myssal's Assets Repository (CN) - In-game assets. It has everything. Myssal just that goated. reverse 1999 png (CN) - PNGs/cutouts telegram. Russian language but you can use character tags by clicking on pinned message. They accept requests, but you probably will have to ask them in Russian. Their cutouts can be accessed and downloaded by going through post comments. Posts with arrows. reverserenders (Global) - official art renders tumblr blog. They accept requests!

Documents

Abyss_Idiot's links (Global) - Transcripts, archives and general lore. Actually lots of records done by several Discord members. May not be updated. As of making this list, I haven't seen anything from 2.0 onwards.

Youtube

八咫烏_Merui (CN & Global) - Event and main story playthroughs without commentary Reverse: 1999 Timekeeper (Global) - They have everything recorded. And I mean everything. Reverse 1999 Archive (Global) - On hiatus (?), they pretty much covered event and main stories up to Notes on Shuori.

Lorecrafting & Story Analysis

Youtube

Apeironite - Pretty chill format. Interesting in-depth analyses. As of now, I don't know any other YT content creator who tackles on game lore as much as he has. FructoseTolerant - While there have yet many Reverse:1999 character analysis content in her channel, once she does post one, it's really good. I recommend watching and listening to her thoughts!

Guidemakers

Websites/Blogsites

Prydwen (CN & Global) - Tierlists, psychube recs and character guides Gnomon (Global) - I am in-love with this website tbh. Has all character information, including sprites! Effect descriptions, material sources and descriptions, resonance build (up to R15), psychube recs, team recs, and very easy to follow guide on how to play each character + rotations! Also has information on series of dusks artefacts and mechanics, reveries in the rain guides, and tips for mane's bulletin! GAAAAAHHH!

Documents

Discord Community Tierlist (CN) - Tierlists, calculators, builds. Likely where most of the global theorycrafting started. bluforest's Scuffed Page for Recommended Resonance Layouts (CN) - Also has resonance codes! Spiritzhl's Unit Build Guide (CN) - Psychubes, resonance, portrays, reveries and euphoria info, critter rehabilitation guide. Arcalive Reverse 1999 (outdated) - Written in KR. Resonance and psychube recommendations, calculators.

Youtube

Jakazin (CN & Global) - Comprehensive character guides Devibul (CN) - Puzzle guides, character showcases Destroth (Global) - Comprehensive character guides, showcases

Useful Tools

Kornblume (CN & Global) - Character planning and summoning history Closure++ (CN) - Planning and calculations, and written in CN. Here's MaTeIriA's guide to using it if you can't understand CN like me. It does have a built-in EN language option but it doesn't work for me. I don't know if it works for you. Depending on your device, you may also have to zoom out to see the entire page. Timekeeper (Global) - Summon tracking

[bsotted]

"The subtext that undergirds this new anti-racist discourse—that Black-white relationships are inherently fraught and must be navigated with the help of professionals and technical experts—testifies to the impoverishment of our interracial imagination, not to its enrichment. More gravely, anti-color-blind etiquette treats Black Americans as exotic others, permanent strangers whose racial difference is so chasmic that it must be continually managed, whose mode of humanness is so foreign that it requires white people to adopt a special set of manners and 'race conscious' ritualistic practices to even have a simple conversation."*

*(emphasis mine)

By: Tyler Austin Harper

Published: Aug 14, 2023

The hotel was soulless, like all conference hotels. I had arrived a few hours before check-in, hoping to drop off my bags before I met a friend for lunch. The employees were clearly frazzled, overwhelmed by the sudden influx of several hundred impatient academics. When I asked where I could put my luggage, the guy at the front desk simply pointed to a nearby hallway. “Wait over there with her; he’s coming back.”

Who “he” was remained unclear, but I saw the woman he was referring to. She was white and about my age. She had a conference badge and a large suitcase that she was rolling back and forth in obvious exasperation. “Been waiting long?” I asked, taking up a position on the other side of the narrow hallway. “Very,” she replied. For a while, we stood in silence, minding our phones. Eventually, we began chatting.

The conversation was wide-ranging: the papers we were presenting, the bad A/V at the hotel, our favorite things to do in the city. At some point, we began talking about our jobs. She told me that—like so many academics—she was juggling a temporary teaching gig while also looking for a tenure-track position.

“It’s hard,” she said, “too many classes, too many students, too many papers to grade. No time for your own work. Barely any time to apply to real jobs.”

When I nodded sympathetically, she asked about my job and whether it was tenure-track. I admitted, a little sheepishly, that it was.

“I’d love to teach at a small college like that,” she said. “I feel like none of my students wants to learn. It’s exhausting.”

Then, out of nowhere, she said something that caught me completely off guard: “But I shouldn’t be complaining to you about this. I know how hard BIPOC faculty have it. You’re the last person I should be whining to.”

I was taken aback, but I shouldn’t have been. It was the kind of awkward comment I’ve grown used to over the past few years, as “anti-racism” has become the reigning ideology of progressive political culture. Until recently, calling attention to a stranger’s race in such a way would have been considered a social faux pas. That she made the remark without thinking twice—a remark, it should be noted, that assumes being a Black tenure-track professor is worse than being a marginally employed white one—shows how profoundly interracial social etiquette has changed since 2020’s “summer of racial reckoning.” That’s when anti-racism—focused on combating “color-blindness” in both policy and personal conduct—grabbed ahold of the liberal mainstream.

Though this “reckoning” brought increased public attention to the deep embeddedness of racism in supposedly color-blind American institutions, it also made instant celebrities of a number of race experts and “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) consultants who believe that being anti-racist means undergoing a “journey” of radical personal transformation. In their righteous crusade against the bad color-blindness of policies such as race-neutral college admissions, these contemporary anti-racists have also jettisoned the kind of good color-blindness that holds that we are more than our race, and that we should conduct our social life according to that idealized principle. Rather than balance a critique of color-blind law and policy with a continuing embrace of interpersonal color-blindness as a social etiquette, contemporary anti-racists throw the baby out with the bathwater. In place of the old color-blind ideal, they have foisted upon well-meaning white liberals a successor social etiquette predicated on the necessity of foregrounding racial difference rather than minimizing it.

As a Black guy who grew up in a politically purple area—where being a good person meant adhering to the kind of civil-rights-era color-blindness that is now passé—I find this emergent anti-racist culture jarring. Many of my liberal friends and acquaintances now seem to believe that being a good person means constantly reminding Black people that you are aware of their Blackness. Difference, no longer to be politely ignored, is insisted upon at all times under the guise of acknowledging “positionality.” Though I am rarely made to feel excessively aware of my race when hanging out with more conservative friends or visiting my hometown, in the more liberal social circles in which I typically travel, my race is constantly invoked—“acknowledged” and “centered”—by well-intentioned anti-racist “allies.”

This “acknowledgement” tends to take one of two forms. The first is the song and dance in which white people not-so-subtly let you know that they know that race and racism exist. This includes finding ways to interject discussion of some (bad) news item about race or racism into casual conversation, apologizing for having problems while white (“You’re the last person I should be whining to”), or inversely, offering “support” by attributing any normal human problem you have to racism.

The second way good white liberals often “center” racial difference in everyday interactions with minorities is by trying, always clumsily, to ensure that their “marginalized” friends and familiars are “culturally” comfortable. My favorite personal experiences of this include an acquaintance who invariably steers dinner or lunch meetups to Black-owned restaurants, and the time that a friend of a friend invited me over to go swimming in their pool before apologizing for assuming that I know how to swim (“I know that’s a culturally specific thing”). It is a peculiar quirk of the 2020s’ racial discourse that this kind of “acknowledgement” and “centering” is viewed as progress.

My point is not that conservatives have better racial politics—they do not—but rather that something about current progressive racial discourse has become warped and distorted. The anti-racist culture that is ascendant seems to me to have little to do with combatting structural racism or cultivating better relationships between white and Black Americans. And its rejection of color-blindness as a social ethos is not a new frontier of radical political action.

No, at the core of today’s anti-racism is little more than a vibe shift—a soft matrix of conciliatory gestures and hip phraseology that give adherents the feeling that there has been a cultural change, when in fact we have merely put carpet over the rotting floorboards. Although this push to center rather than sidestep racial difference in our interpersonal relationships comes from a good place, it tends to rest on a troubling, even racist subtext: that white and Black Americans are so radically different that interracial relationships require careful management, constant eggshell-walking, and even expert guidance from professional anti-racists. Rather than producing racial harmony, this new ethos frequently has the opposite effect, making white-Black interactions stressful, unpleasant, or, perhaps most often, simply weird.

Since the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, progressive anti-racism has centered on two concepts that helped Americans make sense of his senseless death: “structural racism” and “implicit bias.” The first of these is a sociopolitical concept that highlights how certain institutions—maternity wards, police barracks, lending companies, housing authorities, etc.—produce and replicate racial inequalities, such as the disproportionate killing of Black men by the cops. The second is a psychologicalconcept that describes the way that all individuals—from bleeding-heart liberals to murderers such as Derek Chauvin—harbor varying degrees of subconscious racial prejudice.

Though “structural racism” and “implicit bias” target different scales of the social order—institutions on the one hand, individuals on the other—underlying both of these ideas is a critique of so-called color-blind ideology, or what the sociologist Eduardo Bonilla-Silva calls “color-blind racism”: the idea that policies, interactions, and rhetoric can be explicitly race-neutral but implicitly racist. As concepts, both “structural racism” and “implicit bias” rest on the presupposition that racism is an enduring feature of institutional and social life, and that so-called race neutrality is a covertly racist myth that perpetuates inequality. Some anti-racist scholars such as Uma Mazyck Jayakumar and Ibram X. Kendi have put this even more bluntly: “‘Race neutral’ is the new “separate but equal.’” Yet, although anti-racist academics and activists are right to argue that race-neutral policies can’t solve racial inequities—that supposedly color-blind laws and policies are often anything but—over the past few years, this line of criticism has also been bizarrely extended to color-blindness as a personal ethos governing behavior at the individual level.

The most famous proponent of dismantling color-blindness in everyday interactions is Robin DiAngelo, who has made an entire (very condescending) career out of asserting that if white people are not uncomfortable, anti-racism is not happening. “White comfort maintains the racial status quo, so discomfort is necessary and important,” the corporate anti-racist guru advises. Over the past three years, this kind of anti-color-blind, pro-discomfort rhetoric has become the norm in anti-racist discourse. On the final day of the 28-day challenge in Layla Saad’s viral Me and White Supremacy, budding anti-racists are tasked with taking “out-of-your-comfort-zone actions,” such as apologizing to people of color in their life and having “uncomfortable conversations.” Frederick Joseph’s best-selling book The Black Friend takes a similar tack. The problem with color-blindness, Joseph counsels, is it allows “white people to continue to be comfortable.” The NFL analyst Emmanuel Acho wrote an entire book, simply called Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, that admonishes readers to “stop celebrating color-blindness.” And, of course, there are endless how-to guides for having these “uncomfortable conversations” with your Black friends.

Once the dominant progressive ideology, professing “I don’t see color” is now viewed as a kind of dog whistle that papers over implicit bias. Instead, current anti-racist wisdom holds that we must acknowledge racial difference in our interactions with others, rather than assume that race needn’t be at the center of every interracial conversation or encounter. Coming to grips with the transition we have undergone over the past decade—color-blind etiquette’s swing from de rigueur to racist—requires a longer view of an American cultural transition. Civil-rights-era color-blindness was replaced with an individualistic, corporatized anti-racism, one focused on the purification of white psyches through racial discomfort, guilt, and “doing the work” as a road to self-improvement.

Writing in 1959, the social critic Philip Rieff argued that postwar America was transforming from a religious and economic culture—one oriented around common institutions such as the church and the market—to a psychological culture, one oriented around the self and its emotional fulfillment. By the 1960s, Rieff had given this shift a name: “the triumph of the therapeutic,” which he defined as an emergent worldview according to which the “self, improved, is the ultimate concern of modern culture.” Yet, even as he diagnosed our culture with self-obsession, Rieff also noticed something peculiar and even paradoxical. Therapeutic culture demanded that we reflect our self-actualization outward. Sharing our innermost selves with the world—good, bad, and ugly—became a new social mandate under the guise that authenticity and open self-expression are necessary for social cohesion.

Recent anti-racist mantras like “White silence is violence” reflect this same sentiment: exhibitionist displays of “racist” guilt are viewed as a necessary precursor to racial healing and community building. In this way, today’s attacks on interpersonal color-blindness—and progressives’ growing fixation on implicit bias, public confession, and race-conscious social etiquette—are only the most recent manifestations of the cultural shift Rieff described. Indeed, the seeds of the current backlash against color-blindness began decades ago, with the application of a New Age, therapeutic outlook to race relations: so-called racial-sensitivity training, the forefather of today’s equally spurious DEI programming.

In her 2001 book, Race Experts, the historian Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn painstakingly details how racial-sensitivity training emerged from the 1960s’ human-potential movement and its infamous “encounter groups.” As she explains, what began as a more or less countercultural phenomenon was later corporatized in the form of the anemic, pointless workshops controversially lampooned on The Office. Not surprisingly, this shift reflected the ebb and flow of corporate interests: Whereas early workplace training emphasized compliance with the newly minted Civil Rights Act of 1964, later incarnations would focus on improving employee relations and, later still, leveraging diversity to secure better business outcomes.

If there is something distinctive about the anti-color-blind racial etiquette that has emerged since George Floyd’s death, it is that these sites of encounter have shifted from official institutional spaces to more intimate ones where white people and minorities interact as friends, neighbors, colleagues, and acquaintances. Racial-awareness raising is a dynamic no longer quarantined to formalized, compulsory settings like the boardroom or freshman orientation. Instead, every interracial interaction is a potential scene of (one-way) racial edification and supplication, encounters in which good white liberals are expected to be transparent about their “positionality,” confront their “whiteness,” and—if the situation calls for it—confess their “implicit bias.”

In a vacuum, many of the prescriptions advocated by the anti-color-blind crowd are reasonable: We should all think more about our privileges and our place in the world. An uncomfortable conversation or an honest look in the mirror can be precursors to personal growth. We all carry around harmful, implicit biases and we do need to examine the subconscious assumptions and prejudices that underlie the actions we take and the things we say. My objection is not to these ideas themselves, which are sensible enough. No, my objection is that anti-racism offers little more than a Marie Kondo–ism for the white soul, promising to declutter racial baggage and clear a way to white fulfillment without doing anything meaningful to combat structural racism. As Lasch-Quinn correctly foresaw, “Casting interracial problems as issues of etiquette [puts] a premium on superficial symbols of good intentions and good motivations as well as on style and appearance rather than on the substance of change.”

Yet the problem with the therapeutics of contemporary anti-racism is not just that they are politically sterile. When anti-color-blindness and its ideology of insistent “race consciousness” are translated into the sphere of private life—to the domain of friendships, block parties, and backyard barbecues—they assault the very idea of a multiracial society, producing new forms of racism in the process. The fact that our media environment is inundated with an endless stream of books, articles, and social-media tutorials that promise to teach white people how to simply interact with the Black people in their life is not a sign of anti-racist progress, but of profound regression.

The subtext that undergirds this new anti-racist discourse—that Black-white relationships are inherently fraught and must be navigated with the help of professionals and technical experts—testifies to the impoverishment of our interracial imagination, not to its enrichment. More gravely, anti-color-blind etiquette treats Black Americans as exotic others, permanent strangers whose racial difference is so chasmic that it must be continually managed, whose mode of humanness is so foreign that it requires white people to adopt a special set of manners and “race conscious” ritualistic practices to even have a simple conversation.

If we are going to find a way out of the racial discord that has defined American life post-Trump and post-Charlottesville and post-Floyd, we have to begin with a more sophisticated understanding of color-blindness, one that rejects the bad color-blindness on offer from the Republican Party and its partisans, as well as the anti-color-blindness of the anti-racist consultants. Instead, we should embrace the good color-blindness of not too long ago. At the heart of that color-blindness was a radical claim, one imperfectly realized but perfect as an ideal: that despite the weight of a racist past that isn’t even past, we can imagine a world, or at least an interaction between two people, where racial difference doesn’t make a difference.

[ Via: https://archive.today/8zfvc ]

[rovermcfly]

English subtitles for the German remake of Ghosts:

or

Thank you to @average-imperfection for proofreading and finding some awesome solutions for difficult translations! I recommend coming back to this post and checking for updated versions of the subtitles regularly! On that note, I will always welcome any suggestions for changes.

Tutorial for how to watch the show with the subtitles:

Download the Open Subtitles Add-On:

2. Download the subtitle file of the episode you want to watch from one of the links above 3. Open the episode you want to watch on the ARD Mediathek Streaming Site:

4. Click on the Open Subtitles Add-On

5. Click on the button that says "Click or drop file to this area to upload"

6. Upload the subtitle file 7. On the video, click the subtitle icon and select "English" in the category "Untertitel"

The subtitle file will automatically be synced to the video, no further steps required.

If you encounter any problems or have any questions, feel free to ask me!

I would appreciate it if you guys could show your support by sharing this with anyone you see who's interested in watching but doesn't speak German.

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

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.

ETA May 6, 2025: Another passage about the tension between JB and Blake discusses herself and the cast unfollowing him on social media, accusing her of dropping “crumbs” to make the public think JB did something wrong, referring to how she learned this tactic from a “celebrity friend.” I imagine you can deduce which friend the complaint is inferring:

On information and belief, Lively induced the other cast members to shun Baldoni, in an early attempt to give fans the impression that Baldoni had committed an egregious sin, something so egregious that no one wanted to even take photos with him or have him around. Lively was leaving what she had earlier referred to as “crumbs,” a social media strategy she had learned from a close celebrity friend: to give fans just enough to allow them to come to their own conclusions, thereby launching an army of detectives that, on information and belief, Lively hoped would turn against Baldoni.

***

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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'.

ETA May 9, 2025:

PEOPLE - May 8, 2025

link to article

Blake's lawyer issues a statement to People about the case. He does not directly mention Taylor by name, but this is the first forceful statement from Blake's team, on the record, alluding to her involvement and specifically about how JB's team is leading a fishing expedition in order to distract from its own defence:

Gottlieb argues that public conversation surrounding Lively and Baldoni's legal battle has strayed from the core of the case. “We think there have been a lot of distractions put up to deflect attention from the retaliation campaign that was launched against her,” he claims. “And we expect and hope that in discovery we'll have an opportunity to really focus on what we believe to be the core part of the case, which is that this retaliation campaign was launched against Ms. Lively for her having raised concerns about sexual harassment.” [...] Over the last few months, Baldoni's team has said they may subpoena major celebrities like Taylor Swift and Hugh Jackman. “It’s completely unclear what claims or defenses in the case any of these celebrities… have any relevance to at all,” Gottlieb says. “This is a case about what happened to Blake Lively when she raised claims of sexual harassment on the set. It’s not a case about how songs were chosen for the movie. It’s not a case about fictional Marvel characters in Deadpool movies.” “You have to ask the question, then, why are these people being subpoenaed?” he continues. “Do they have any actual relevance to the case at hand? You can't just go around subpoenaing people because they're famous and you think it will generate a bunch of headlines. And the federal courts don't tolerate that kind of behavior.”

JB's lawyer also responded to the statement in his own interview, claiming Blake started it by bringing her friends into the case:

Freedman went on to criticize Lively’s conduct and public positioning, accusing her of leveraging her celebrity network to shape the narrative. “Although obviously uncomfortable for the Lively parties, the truth is not a distraction. The truth has been clearly shown through unedited receipts, documents and real-life footage. More to come,” he says. “Blake was the one who brought her high-profile friends into this situation without concern for their own personal or public backlash. As the truth shows, she used her 'dragons' to manipulate Justin at every turn.”

ETA May 9, 2025:

TMZ - May 9, 2025

link to article

This is the only direct statement Taylor's team has made about the case, on the record, and it is also the strongest quote issued so far. (Note the "spokesperson" source.) Once again, it disavows her involvement in the case, and blasts JB's legal team for dragging her into it to sensationalize their own defence:

Taylor Swift is being dragged further into the Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni beef -- she just got hit with a subpoena in the case. Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... Baldoni's attorney Bryan Freedman has now subpoenaed Taylor as a witness in the Lively-Baldoni legal war. Taylor's camp is blasting the subpoena, because they say she was minimally involved in the drama on the set of "It Ends With Us" … which sparked a nasty legal war between Blake and Justin. A spokesperson for Taylor tells TMZ … "Taylor Swift never set foot on the set of this movie, she was not involved in any casting or creative decisions, she did not score the film, she never saw an edit or made any notes on the film, she did not even see 'It Ends With Us' until weeks after its public release, and was traveling around the globe during 2023 and 2024 headlining the biggest tour in history." The rep adds … "The connection Taylor had to this film was permitting the use of one song, 'My Tears Ricochet.' Given that her involvement was licensing a song for the film, which 19 other artists also did, this document subpoena is designed to use Taylor Swift's name to draw public interest by creating tabloid clickbait instead of focusing on the facts of the case." As we reported, Justin claims Taylor was more involved than just licensing a song, he says she gave a thumbs up to his casting of Isabela Ferrer as young Lily Bloom.

The same official statement from Taylor's spokesperson (Tree) is also given to Entertainment Tonight and People. It was later shared in other places, like trade papers like Variety to tabloids like The Daily Mail, etc. Clearly it was a coordinated blitz on Taylor's team to make their stance exceptionally clear. (I'm not going to do a full sweep on who published and had it confirmed to them, you get the point.)

ETA May 11, 2025

PEOPLE - May 10, 2025

link to article

Blake's team reacts to JB's lawyer's statement earlier in the week suggesting (imo sarcastically) that tickets should be sold to the trial, owing to the idea that it's being tried in the court of public opinion. They once again invoke Taylor's name, blasting JB's team subpoenaing of her and bluster about "selling tickets" as a distraction from the serious nature of the sexual harassment claims:

Blake Lively's team slammed Justin Baldoni's lawyers' suggestion to sell tickets to her upcoming deposition for their It Ends With Us legal battle and for subpoenaing Taylor Swift. "Mr. Baldoni, Mr. Sarowitz, and team continue to turn a case of sexual harassment and retaliation into entertainment for the tabloids, going as far as suggesting that they sell tickets to a concert venue - Madison Square Garden - to witness Ms. Lively’s deposition, to subpoenaing Taylor Swift, a woman who has given a voice to millions all over the world," a rep for Lively, 37, said in a statement, referring to Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios co-founder Steve Sarowitz. "This is a very serious legal matter, not Barnum & Bailey’s Circus," the statement continued. "The defendants continue to publicly intimidate, bully, shame and attack women's rights and reputations. Including in the past month seeking to strike down for all, a powerful California victims' rights law, calling it 'unconstitutional,' " the rep added. "The disturbing actions by a billionaire, men who made their careers as 'female allies' and their team continue to show their true colors.”

***

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! 🥂

[bratgifs]

ˋ°•*⁀➷ free gif pack: clara galle.

♡ ⸺ linked in the source you will find #161 medium-sized gifs of CLARA GALLE in season one, episode one of olympo. these gifs were made by me from scratch, so please like or reblog to show your support if you found this useful ! note: this pack will be updated as each episode is completed, depending on user interest (meaning, if you'd like more, please make sure to reblog this post! it's the only way i'll know there's a desire for this project!)

[dannyriccsystem]

CHAPTER SIX - SERIES INFO

WARNINGS: Implications of cheating, mean reader, Y/N usage

PAIRING: Oscar Piastri x Ballerina!Reader

CHAPTER SUMMARY: Lando lets the little moment between you and Oscar slip, and chaos ensues.

NOTES: I have a crush on Y/N. Going back to requests after this!

<<< PREVIOUS CHAPTER | NEXT CHAPTER >>>

Y/N’S MESSAGES ☆ OSCAR PIASTRI

bhamroyalballet

liked by your.username and others

bhamroyalballet Our dancers have been working extra hard for our newest show, La Sylphide! Check our pinned post for tour details, and the link in our bio to buy tickets!

tagged your.username

—

username1 - So excited!

♥︎ by author

username2 - Everyone is looking so good! Especially Y/N

♥︎ by author

your.username - ❤️

♥︎ by author

your.username - 🙂❤️

♥︎ by author

bhamroyalballet - 👀 Are you flirting with us?❤️

> your.username - Heavens no, admin.

♥︎ by author

username3 - interesting…

username4 - Y/N’s so pretty!!

♥︎ by author

lilyzneimer - Such a beautiful show :)

♥︎ by author

your.username - ❤️

♥︎ by author

> username5 - They’re bonding

> username6 - Address the rumors.

> username7 - Leave Lily and Oscar alone!!

> username8 - Homewrecker

f1gossipofficial

6.3k likes

f1gossipofficial Anonymous source confirms that Oscar Piastri and Y/N L/N, a ballerina that’s recently featured on the McLaren youtube channel, shared an off screen kiss while practicing their dancing!

tagged oscarpiastri, your.username

—

username9 - I wouldn’t put it past her 🙄

username10 - This isn’t surprising. She’s so full of herself

username11 - Why does everyone blindly believe shit like this?

username12 - Right? Y/N would not touch that man with a 50 foot pole 😭

> username13 - She’s so funny I love her

username14 - I doubt this. She was literally insulting him the whole video 😭

username15 - Crazy work…

username16 - Ew

Y/N’S MESSAGES ☆ OSCAR PIASTRI

Y/N’S MESSAGES ☆ LILY ZNEIMER

OSCAR’S MESSAGES ☆ LANDO NORRIS

OSCAR’S MESSAGES ☆ LILY ZNEIMER

YOUR STORY ☆

STORY REPLIES

→ lilyzneimer - This made me laugh, I can’t lie 🥲

your.username - Don’t take offense miss Lily. You’re perfect for each other

♥︎ liked by lilyzneimer

→ oscarpiastri - 🙄

your.username - 🙄 yourself

→ lando - That’s not what I saw!

your.username - You see a lot, it seems.

→ username17 - Sure

→ username18 - Beautiful as ever

→ username19 - EVERYBODY HEAR ME OUT

→ username20 - BODY SO TEA, THE BRITISH ARE COMING!

♥︎ liked by your.username

username20 - Idk, they don’t seem that interested imo

username21 - I think they’d make cute friends nonetheless

username22 - Interesting indeed…

username23 - I’M SCARED, I LIKE LILY AND OSCAR…

your.username

liked by oscarpiastri and others

your.username And so the tour begins. I’ll see you all in Orlando, 5/3/25.

—

username24 - Orlando… Awfully close to Miami

bhamroyalballet - The Sylph is Sylph-ing ✨

♥︎ by author

username25 - WOOO Y/N TOUR Y/N TOUR

oscarpiastri - See you in America 🇺🇸💪

your.username - I’ll be seeing you nowhere.

> lilyzneimer - 😂

♥︎ by author

> username26 - What an icon…

♥︎ by author

lilyzneimer - Can’t wait for you to come back to the UK…

♥︎ by author

Taglist! Comment to be added

@wierdflowerpower @imagine-it-was-us @suliigwp @dozyisdead @apfelzeugs @stxrlvrzz @vhkdncu2ei8997 @gigigreens @oddends @kick127

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Villain Motivations

A superhero like Batman would be nothing without a supervillain like the Joker. 

Villains enrich your story by providing obstacles for your hero to overcome.

In the same way that your protagonist’s wants and desires should be clear, your villain should have well-defined motivations to help the reader better understand the root cause of their villainy.

Tips for Writing Villain Motivations

An authentic, three-dimensional villain has clear motivations. Their motivations help us understand their goals, desires, and character traits. If you find yourself experiencing writer’s block when trying to determine your villain’s motivation, try following these tips to help clarify their aims and goals:

Use backstory to explain your villain’s motivation. The most interesting villains have compelling backstories that explain how they became bad guys in the first place. In Marvel’s Avengers comic books and film series, the supervillain is Thanos. We learn that Thanos used to live on the planet Titan, a world ravaged by overpopulation and resource scarcity. He believes that the rest of the universe is primed to suffer the same fate, so he develops a plan: destroy half of all lifeforms in the universe, thus sparing the remainder the same fate that befell his home planet. In this way, Thanos’s motivation to do evil things is explained through his backstory and point of view about humanity.

Explain your villain’s relationship to power. Most villains share a desire to obtain power. Some villains only want to have power over your main character. Others want to take over the world and achieve ultimate power. When crafting your big bad, you should analyze your evil villain’s relationship to power. Why does the bad guy in your story seek power? Are they trying to prove something? Are they trying to mask a childhood wound or deficiency? What do they hope to accomplish by achieving power?

Give your villain a strong connection to the protagonist. The best villains are inextricably linked to the protagonist in some way.

Make sure your villain has weaknesses or vulnerabilities. A good villain should feel like a real person, and real people have vulnerabilities. Their vulnerabilities might be internal, such as an abundance of pride or a willingness to trust untrustworthy people. Weaknesses can be external as well: In The Lord of the Rings, Sauron is greatly weakened if he is without the One Ring. These vulnerabilities have a storytelling purpose: If your villain is invincible, then the protagonist’s goal of defeating them can never be realized. These weaknesses can also serve as good motivations for your villain, as the bad things that they do throughout the story may be rooted in a desire to overcome their vulnerable character traits.

Root your villain’s motivations in real life. Few people are evil for the sake of evil. Villains who appear to be psychopaths or criminal masterminds usually have motivations that are rooted in real-life struggles that normal people face every day. Perhaps they began as a good guy who was corrupted by greed. Maybe their dark side can be explained by a fear of losing their loved ones. Whatever their reason for doing evil deeds, your villains and antiheroes’ character motivations should be rooted in a relatable desire or emotion. Readers are more likely to be engaged in your villain’s own story and character development if they can recognize seeds of themselves in your antagonist.

Source ⚜ More: Notes & References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[yourlocaltreesimp]

A soul, so familiar

Synopsis: Fae Rulie. He’s swooning and is being equally adorable and dumb about it.

Note: This is my only day off since… like what? mid august? No clue when i’ll actually have a moment to breathe again. So here’s the product of me being the largest rulie simp to walk the earth.

☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★

Link had a problem, and quite a large one at that. You see, what you must understand is that through his many gruelling adventures, holding the entire triforce, and the general shit show that is his life, he has not much learned about his body. Or at least he’s still rather unfamiliar with the bizarre nature of his fae bloodline.

At most it’s lead for some very funny, if not embarrassing, moments. Like the time he’d accidentally dropped 100 rupees for a single jar of honey, being so craved for sugar he’d decided in some odd part of his mind to pay the man back. And of course that time he drank so much mead and woke up in the middle of a forest he never recalled entering.

There was very little of himself that he was aware of. Aside from his own experiences, he had no way to tell what exactly he was capable of.

For the most part, He was ok with it. After all, it was the source of very little discomfort. He’d gained a good control of his magic to harm and to heal accordingly, he keeps an extra emergency jar of honey just in case, and tries his hardest to not accidentally make promises. The line between hylian and fae had blurred to the point where he was simply just himself.

Amidst the crowds of people, he didn’t feel much different. Of course, they don’t get the acute cravings for sugar to where they’d gladly go bankrupt. And sure, they don’t have to worry about uttering deals that literally bargain power over people’s souls. But for the large part, Link was normal.

He could experience life as any other person did.

Well, that was before he fell head over heels for you.

He was a dork. That much was expected by everyone— including himself. There was no hiding the flush that adorned his freckled cheeks and spread all the way to pointed ears. Everything you said and everything you did was target to fluster him. Watching you dance and cackle by firelight had his heart radiating with warmth, his nerves spitting and cracking with the wood. He wished, quietly, longingly, that one day he could envelop you as wholly had the fire did. To caress your skin with such soft, reverent light and only serve to highlight just how striking you were.

His ears would wiggle just slightly at the sound of your laughter, hardly disturbing the soft curls of light brown hair. He’d swoon over the music of your laugh, or your voice when caught on something interesting, not noticing how clearly it showed to anyone willing to look.

He bore his genuine, crooked grin. Not just to you, but to the world. He found joy in every little moment in the usually missed corners of his day, because he could find something that tied back to you.

His life had suddenly been filled with so much colour and so many senses that he’d never had or felt before. And as much as the bubbling feeling scared him, he found himself wanting to protect you. He couldn’t let you, this burning streak of fire that had given so much depth to his one shot at living, be snuffed out.

He wanted so badly to adorn you in spells and wards to keep you safe from others and their prying eyes. The people of his home are not safe, but perhaps with the right words and the right magic he could keep you safe.

He didn’t let himself, he couldn’t.

He’d never whisper a single blessing into your skin if you weren’t the one who’d requested it.

But the feelings persisted. His love for your strengthened without any tending to, as did his desire to protect you, to hide you away and keep you safe and comfortable. And such was his problem: to love you so much in a manner that no hylian could understand.

He doubted even you would understand just how much you’re loved.

Regardless, he’d been an anxious wreck for weeks before he could even begin to come up with the obvious solution to his problem. If it were the fae part of himself that demanded so fervently your company, then perhaps catering to it would ease his yearning.

So he began to leave you gifts. Practical things at first, things he could explain away. Some new tools he’d seen you’d been eyeing, a nicer pack to keep all your belongings together, a fluffier bedroll to provide you good comfort… Some clothes he enchanted lightly to keep you safe.

But that slowly shifted. Of course, he only got more giddy the more you’d don the items he’d gotten. He’d gotten you much more since then, but none of them could compare to the engraved silver ring he’d just gotten.

The band was carved to make two hands holding a heart, an intricately carved crown on top, all set together in a small velvet bag and placed carefully among your items.

He watched happily, swooning over your soft smile as you slipped the ring on and thanked him for it. The kiss on the cheek made him utterly buzz, more than any life spell ever could.

Silver jewellery was the finest gift among the fae. It was their most precious metal and happened to be the most common form to supplement large payments. But this particular ring was notable to the traveller for one particular reason, its use in courtship.

He was over the moon the next few days, unable to even look in your direction without a nervous smile and flushed cheeks. Not only had his dearest love accepted his courtship, but you treat him so softly. His very soul tried to reach out, to cradle and cherish yours when he was too shy to do so.

And for once in the story of his life did he feel the warmth returned.

He could catch similar longing stares and could find trinkets and clothes he doesn’t remember buying.

It was almost burning, the sense of being loved. He wasn’t aware of how something he’d spent so long pining for could be so foreign. Yet at the same time it’s so homey. Being loved by you felt so routine, so familiar to him that he couldn’t find it within himself anymore to be shy, as if in some other lifetime you’d done the same.

As if he’s already bashfully linked pinkies with you or spent sunny afternoons braiding the stems of flowers.

There was a tangible amount of tension between the two of you, the longing hope to be loved as wholly as one felt for the other.

When you finally kissed, your lips were sweeter than any honey and he could convince himself to not let go.

[c4erul3um]

Hero X x Fem!Reader

First of all, english is not my first language, so sorry if there are any mistakes. And I haven't written anything in so long, so it may be a bit cringe, idk.

Second, there are literally zero fanfics on this hot white haired guy, so I took it into my own hands and wrote this short fic.

Also, here is AO3 link.

Word count: 2,1k

Summary: Y/N was never a big fan of this people playing heroes game, she always found it a little sad. From my point of view, the moment you become a hero, you lose a sense of life, you lose your privacy, and mostly, your identity. People don't realise their beliefs and words shape the person they deem their "hero." I was never interested in this, until today.

⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘

In this world, trust is everything, but so is fear. Trust is a variable thing in heroes day to day life, it gives them their power and helps them strive in their pursuit through the ranking system, and on the very top, the throne, sits the hero X.

I was never a big fan of this people playing heroes game, I always found it a little sad. From my point of view, the moment you become a hero, you lose a sense of life, you lose your privacy, and mostly, your identity. People don't realise their beliefs and words shape the person they deem their "hero." I was never interested in this, until today.

Rushed footsteps echoed on the sidewalk of a busy street of the loud city, people are either running to their jobs, waiting for their morning coffee, or just talking. Y/N was in the first category.

Having overslept a little, she had just about ten minutes to get to her job.

"Dammit, if I continue this way…I should be able to get there on time" she mumbled to herself, as she ran. But of course, luck was never on her side. She heard people screams somewhere before her. 'Another villain?..Isn't there one almost everyday?' Y/N thought.

As she finished that thought, the ground under her broke, opening into neverending darkness, swallowing her whole.

She screamed, falling in the eternal darkness lying under the almost regal city above. And as she thought her end was inevitable, sudden snap echoed in the darkness. Changing the gloomy environment to a astonishing range of colours, swirling and changing their shapes.

"What.." She said out loud, falling slowly, looking all over the beautiful phenomenon. She startled, the feeling of arms around her shoulders and legs, instantly snapping her head to the source of the feeling.

Her eyes met black ones, even with the yellow tint from the glasses on his nose, she could tell they were black. The mysterious person just looked at her, smiling slightly, almost in reassurance, but she could tell the smile was no genuine, somehow practiced.

Her eyes trailed down, noticing the eye beating X on his tie. 'So this must be the omnipotent hero X..' Y/N noted to herself. Looking up at him again.

"Thank you for saving me, but, um, could you…could you let me down now..?" She said a bit nervously, who wouldn't be in the presence of the enigma hero X is. Yes, she didn't care about heroes, but some of Y/N's coworkers could be quite loud with their argumenting about who the best hero is. And X was sometimes quite a hot topic between the office workers.

X's brows rose just a tad bit, he looked to be what, surprised, pleased, maybe something inbetween? Like it was the first time someone didn't throw themselves at him, and just asked nicely if they could be put down.

His arms loosened up, he bend over slightly, letting Y/N jump out of his arms easily onto the distorted pavement under them, or whatever it is. As her feet touched the ground, Y/N instantly brushed off her office skirt, jacket and patted down her hair, as they were all over the place from her fall.

"Pardon me for asking, but, do your powers allow for teleportation or something? Nothing against you, but I don't plan on becoming a celebrity from being seen with you." Y/N said, turning to him. hoping he doesn't take any offence in her weird question.

He just smiled and nodded at her, snapping his fingers.

The scene changed from colourful to a darker alley, by the looks they were somewhere near the initial place she goes through everyday to work. Y/N turned to X, looking up at him, just to find him already staring at her with his head tilted a little.

"Thank you again for saving me, I have to go now." She bowed slightly while saying that, them rushing out of the alley into the still busy streets, hoping to get to her work place somewhat on time.

What she didn't notice was her job ID falling out of her pocket.

X didn't even have time to call out to her to let her know her ID slipped from her pocket. He sighed, picking it up and noticing that she worked in the same building as him.

'What a coincidence.' He thought, snapping fingers on his other hand, changing into his normal persona, putting the card in the pocket of his jacket and walking out of the alley, the watch on his wrist buzzing, notifying him of his late arrival to work.

"Shit shit shit shit." Y/N kept whispering under her breath, searching through her pockets. 'Fuck, must have slipped somewhere during the attack. She sighed loudly, slumping her slouders, she will have to get a new ID tommorrow.

She walked to the reception, telling the lady about the lost ID, showing proof of her identity and filing out a questionnaire to get a new one. Y/N would have to explain to her boss why she was late, but she hoped her boss would take it okay, she was always on time, after all.

After filling up the document and giving it to the lady, she was led through the gate, going to the elevator, up to her boss's office, she knocked.

"Yes?" Came out male voice, signaling for her to go in. When she walked in, she closed the door behind her, looking at her boss. He was an average guy in his 40's, formal attire and tired face, nothing interesting.

"Good morning, I'm sorry for being late, but on my way to work I was caught in the crossfire of villain attack."

He sighed, his head propped up on his hand.

"It's fine, I heard about it. I know you are never late, so I will forgive it now, but don't let it happen again." He said.

'Huh, how am I supposed to not let it happen again, it wasn't…whatever.' Y/N thought bitterly, nodding and walking out of the office. Right to the coffee station, where she pressed the buttons on the machine, making herself a cup. As she turned to her left, Y/N noticed a guy taking all the sugar that was there, and he noticed too. Eyes widening he had nervous smile on his face, still holding all the sugar bags that come with the stationery.

Y/N just looked at him with blank stare, then held up her hand, the one not holding her coffee and made a grabby motion.

The thief still looked nervous, but gave her one of the prepackaged sugar on the palm of her hand. She still looked at him, making grabby motion again, he gave her another one. Then she smiled and happily walked to her office station.

Random office guy just looked at her retreating form, he smiled slightly, interested in her reaction to her missing ID, which now laid on the desk in her office station.

When Y/N walked up to her desk, she noticed her work ID, along with note that said.

'You forgot this ~ X' with a smiley face on the bottom.

Y/N was momentarily creeped out about how he got the adress to her work place, but then she face palmed, realising it was written on the ID. She chuckled, putting it to her inside breast pocket.

What she didn't see was the random office guy peeking around the corner, looking at your reaction, and smiling to himself while walking to his own desk.

Few days later, Y/N was sitting on the roof of her apartment complex, eating some snacks she brought with her, just overlooking the buzzling streets.

When she heard silent footsteps behind her, she looked over her shoulder at the intruder of her peace, almost choking on her food when she realised it was X walking towards her. To not choke, she downed almost half of her water bottle, coughing because of her scratched throat.

After her fit, she looked at him nervously, he was looking at her with concern in his eyes, as if asking if she is okay.

Y/N nodded her head, signaling that she was indeed fine and patted the spot next to her for him to sit. X slid down next to her, but still leaving some space between them. Neither of them said anything, just looking over the city, enjoying the silence of the other.

"You want some?" Y/N said to X, offering her snack to him, he stared at the bag for a moment, and took a piece, humming at the taste as he ate the piece. Y/N left the bag between them, letting him take as much as he wanted.

They sat there like that for maybe an hour, munching on snacks, chilling and not saying anything, for nothing had to be said between them.

Y/N then looked at her phone, noticing it was almost time for he to go sleep. She got up, breaking the tranquility, her joints cracking from the long sitting. She turned to X.

"Thank you for the ID by the way, didn't notice it was missing until I got to work." She smiled warmly.

He looked up to her, smiled, and nodded his head, still not saying anything.

'Doesn't seem like the talking type, then.' Y/N said internally. Turning to walk away she spoke over her shoulder.

"Bye bye mister X." And walked through the door to her complex, leaving X sitting alone on the roof.

X chuckled, staying there for few more minutes, then snapping his fingers and vanishing.

Two days after her rooftop sitting with the most popular hero, she found herself sitting there again. The wind blowing on her hair, the night making the city look ethereal.

Then somebody tapped her on shoulder, she yelped, her soul leaving her body, she threw her hands up, swirling around to fight off the unexpected threat.

Then she noticed it was just X, she put her hand over her beating heart, willing it to calm down. She heard him snicker, looking smug at getting her scared like that.

"Hey stop that! I could have fell off the roof!" She yelled at him, frowning, causing him to start laughing more, hiding his face from her.

Her gloomy face started to crack, leaving her laughing as well, although not as intensely as X. After he calmed down, he sat next to her again, leaving some space between them.

"What are you even doing here, aren't you supposed to patrol or whatever heroes do?" Y/N asked X, tilting her head.

X just shrugged, he still had to say his first words to her, Y/N didn't really mind, understanding the want to be quiet in this loud world.

"Have you already ended for the day, then?" She asked him. X nodded at her question.

'So just yes or no questions then, okay.' Y/N thought, turning her head ahead, again staring at the astonishing city before them.

Then she remembered something, looking at the grocery bag she had next to her, rumaging through it, she pulled out the snack she offered to X the other day, giving him the whole package.

"This is for saving me the other day." He looked genuinely surprised, as if he wasn't used to receiving gifts or anything in general.

When she thought about it, people don't usually show gratitute to their heroes, getting used to being saved by them, sometimes not even taking them as human beings. Well, somited they werent exactly humans, per se, some of them wearing masks, hiding their humanity. And some were literal furries, like the hero no. 5 The Johnnies, who looks like cosplayer you could find at comic con. And one was just straight up dog, like no. 8, Ahu.

X took the bag, lowering his head as a silent thanks, putting it on his lap, he smiled, genuinely, not the smug or practiced smile he usually wore, but real one. Y/N smiled back at him, she swears he looked a bit nervous, or maybe shy.

Y/N then looked at the city again, taking in the atmosphere, letting herself relax for few more minutes. Getting up, stretching her sore body.

"Very well, I shall be going mister hero, enjoy your night, goodnight." Y/N said as she walked away from X back through the roof door inside.

"Goodnight." X said quietly after she left. He got up from his sitting position and snapped his fingers, vanishing into thin air again, leaving no trace of his stay.

⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘

Thanks for reading! If you have any criticism or feedback, I would be happy :>

[edensvessel]

How to Study Resources

Many people in the modern day pagan/polytheist communities are young. As such, a majority of them are neurodivergent, like I am. For me, that means a majority of the language used in resources is difficult to understand. This was originally going to be a post about that, but the more I wrote, the more I realised that many people, neurodivergent or not, just... don't know how to study resources. So, if you are someone that also struggles, I now present to you... my full guide on how to study resources.

Little disclaimer: I myself am a hellenic polytheist, but this guide is for anyone that struggles with understanding information from resources, whether you are a hellenic polytheist, norse polytheist, kemetic polytheist, etc. Though do understand that I am writing from the perspective of a hellenic polytheist, so I am bound to make mistakes when it comes to religions I am less educated on. You are always welcome to adjust anything I say here to fit your own religion accordingly.

Let's get started.

Firstly, you have to find resources. Many people happen to get stuck here, unfortunately.

How do I know what to research to begin with? When starting out, the general consensus among the polytheist/pagan communities is to research the related historical practice. How the deities were worshipped, what contexts they were worshipped in, the history of the deities, etc etc... all of these are very important factors to consider as a beginner. Only by knowing the history can you then delve deeper into specific terms and specific paths that may be right for you!

How do I find resources? Unfortunately, a lot of resources are behind paywalls or just plain hard to find. Here is a list of websites that I personally use and recommend:

scholar.google.com

academia.edu

pdfdrive.com

library.memoryoftheworld.org

libcom.org

libretexts.org

standardebooks.org

By the way, just a reminder that if you find a resource but there is a pesky paywall in your way, you can probably find it on archive.org for free!

How do I choose a resource though? If you are part of hellenic polytheism, then theoi.com is a great resource, but I always like to add primary sources into my research + not everyone reading this will be part of helpol. Try to find primary sources, first and foremost. Then read historical accounts. Then read secondary sources. Also, make sure your author is reliable! (that link is only for hellenic polytheism though, apologies. If you are not part of hellenic polytheism, then looking into who the author is/was as a person and what sort of contributions they made and beliefs they held never failed me personally!)

Found your resource? Made sure the author is reliable? Wonderful! Now what?

This is usually where the procrastination hits for me. Either that, or I get hyperfocused for a while but never complete it and then lose interest.

To avoid that, break things down and establish a routine. You do not have to finish a book in a day, or understand everything you read straight away. Setting those kinds of expectations for yourself will only make things so much more difficult.

Instead, make a routine for yourself. Outlined below is my routine:

Getting into the mindset. I always like to get myself into the mindset of studying by praying, whether this is studying for school or studying a resource. Since my entire life is devoted to lord Apollon, I pray to Him for it. However, if I am researching a specific god, I will typically pray to them instead. However, sometimes I do not have the spoons to write out a prayer, so I typically just adjust my surroundings instead. Turning my LED lights to a warmer colour and putting on some lofi music usually helps me! The studyblr community has great tips for this part! I also recommend I Miss My Cafe.

Reading. First, I try to read without annotating or taking notes. This is the time to take in the information, to try and grasp what I am reading. This is usually the most difficult part for me, because a lot of academic sources tend to use advanced language and sentence structures that are difficult for me to understand. Unfortunately, the only tip I have for this part is to read as slowly as you need. Do not be ashamed for taking your time. Typically, I only like to read one paragraph before I move onto the next step.

Annotation. This is where I re-read the paragraph I just read. Typically, I like to re-word the paragraph in a simpler way for me to understand. Sometimes I notice little patterns that may connect back to something I've read prior, whether in another book or earlier in the same book. When that happens, that is something I add too! Remember, you do not have to annotate. If it makes it easier, then perfect! If it does not, discard it.

Consult study tools. This is where I cross-reference with other resources. This is how the entire process repeats again. Though, you do not just have to use books for this part! YouTube videos, podcasts, online resources, etc etc...these always help too!

Application. After vetting the information, consider how it would apply to your life, if at all.

Of course, that's just my routine. You are always welcome to use it, but I also greatly encourage you to create your own routine so that you can cater it to your learning style!

I also recommend setting a time limit for yourself. If you have not completed a chapter within the time limit, that is okay! The most important thing about researching is making sure you are not guilting yourself into biting off more than you can chew. Take your time, you have a lot of it.

Research is vital to religions like ours, and research should be something everyone can do! Just because you may need some accommodations does not make you any less intelligent. We all learn differently. That is okay.

I hope this post can serve as something helpful for those who struggle in this area, and as a reminder that you are not alone in your struggles. If you have any questions or would like further clarification on some points, feel free to reach out!

Xaire ♡

[icebearpopsicle]

⁠✧Baby Steps⁠✧

(Shouta Aizawa X G.N. Reader)

Warnings: Aizawa is 38 here, age gap (like it's 13 years), smut part is shitty and kinda rushed, excessive use of the word "as" because i literally cannot write, gentle dom, aizawa is kinda overbearing, dub con(?) jus towards the end though,

Word count: 2.3k+ words

Author's note: this is shitty but i hope you enjoy it ♡ ♡/ aizawa is out of character/ smut is bad cuz i am even worse at that sorry ༎ຶ⁠‿⁠༎ຶ/

You stretched your back, hands clasped behind your head, hearing the faint sound of your spine cracking against the support of your chair. It has been hours since you started scrolling, looking for a job, your palm sweaty from holding the mouse. A click here, a click there, and a scroll downwards, then upwards again. You had recently moved here after graduation, and while you were managing well initially, the high cost of your apartment and day-to-day expenses had become too much to sustain without a source of income.

You scrolled further down when the computer screen displayed some words that caught your interest:

Name: Shouta Aizawa

Age: 38

Requirement(s): Babysitter

Requirement Information: 2 kids

Salary: To be negotiated later on

Contact details: aizawashouta@gmail.com / XXXXX-XXXXX

Posted 1 hour ago

Okay, yeah, that was pretty brief, but the timing gave you hope that you might just get the job, so you clicked on his phone number and started typing away on your keyboard.

"Hello, I saw your post about wanting a babysitter and I was wondering if the spot was still free?"

You hit the send button and got up from your seat for the first time in hours for a small break. After about 20 minutes, you checked for a response and opened the chat again.

"Yes, it is. If you're interested, please come tomorrow at 8 am if you're available," followed by a link to his location.

A smile claimed your lips at the excitement of finally landing a job after so many tries.

When you saw his age, you definitely didn't expect him to be this... hot? Which father of two kids is this hot?

"Good morning. I believe you contacted me yesterday evening, yeah?" His smooth, deep voice is like music to your ears as you look at the sleep-deprived man towering over you. Rough stubble covers his face, his hair cascading to his shoulders, as his broad shoulders lean against the door frame.

"Oh... ah... yes, good morning. It was indeed me who contacted you... sir," you reply as he gestures for you to enter his house. You then take notice of his lavish yet cozy home, with toys scattered in the hallway. You both enter the kitchen, and he jerks his head toward a seat at the table with a low hum.

"Would you like to drink anything?" he asks, picking up his mug from the table as you shake your head.

"I am gonna be asking you a few questions and I need you to be honest with your answers." he commands, taking a seat opposite you. His black shirt puling slightly upwards, revealing his wrists as you give a simple nod.

"Firstly... What is your age?" He asks taking a sip from his mug.

"I am 25 years old.. sir.." You reply confidently however there is a frown on his face at your response. Was he... Upset? Afraid to loose this opportunity you quickly try and talk about your past experiences with kids as he interrupts you.

"No, it's not that I just hope you aren't lying about your age"

"Why... Would I?" You ask with a frown enveloping your face.

"I wouldn't believe you to be 18 with a face like that" He replies his tone rather blunt.

Ouch. His straightforwardness stinging lightly.

"Moving forward... do you party, drink or any of those stuff?"

"No, sir."

"Hmmm ... Fine, I suppose you can start working from today"

You give him a small smile as you mutter a small 'thank you'.

"Got any questions?"

"Actually yes! I was wondering where the kids might be so that I could ensure they're comfortable with me being around!!"

He gives a slight nod before replying his voice surprisingly gentle and low when talking about them "Yeah, they're sleeping right now. My eldest son; he wakes up at 9 and my daughter wakes up at 10:30." He gestures to a picture on the mantle showing a purple haired boy and grey haired girl laughing and playing together as you hear the faint sound of him taking a sip from his mug.

"They are so adorable." You gush smiling at their innocent faces. "And could I get some more information on what their personalities are like?"

"Hm.." he hums as he finishes the drink on his mug and sets it down on the table.

"Well my son is 9 years old, Shinsou that's his name, he doesn't warm up easily to people but he is quiet and usually plays with Eri or alone. Eri is my daughter she is 5 and quite literally the opposite of her brother, ahem.. she is talkative and quite sensitive. None of them are picky about their food, they eat anything that they're given and nor do they have any allergies.. and yeah that's about it.." He says rubbing his hands together and you can hear how rough and dry they are.

It had been two weeks since you started working in his house and only then you realised how often Shouta stayed away from home, any free time he got he would spend it with his children, taking them out for activities, cooking for them, playing with them, seeing how close he was with his son and daughter often left you with a smile on your lips at the close bond of the family. True to Shouta's word you could really see the difference in the way Shinsou would behave around you and around his father or sister and somewhere deep down you were a bit upset but you knew that all of this takes time and as long he was comfortable enough to have you around you were fine. But Eri on the other hand was absolutely adorable, she adored you and you adored her, say if you were watching Shinsou and Eri play it was Eri who would call you over and ask you to play with them. Aizawa on the other hand was always kind and formal with you sometimes even bringing takeaway for you, but whenever he was over you couldn't help but just look at his biceps the way they would bulge out from his shirt when he folded his arms, the way his hands would be disturbed with veins when his grip would tighten even in the slightest, and maybe.... Just maybe, you tried to catch his attention by wearing really short shorts or a tshirt that hug your body just at the right places.

But alas it was only you who kept drooling over him....

or that's what you thought...

You were seemingly unaware the amount of self control Aizawa had to practice just not to fuck you dumb on his cock.

It had been three months since you started working for him and you still found your gaze lingering on him for too long, initially it was at his face, then down to his broad shoulders, and then his chest, then it was further down to his hands and finally it was on his......

"Are you sad cuz papa isn't home today?" You hear the innocent voice of Shinsou behind you having counted your sighs since you woke up, which was according to him, around 32.

"No, no of course not Shinsou.. I am totally fine, just a bit tired" You lied, obviously you would. Why would you admit to finding Shinsou's father hot. Other than the fact that you want him to ruin you till you can't form any thoughts. And you definitely were sad that Aizawa was working till 9 pm that too on a Sunday.

Shinsou mumbles an "Okay..." walking away to colour his book that he had been previously doing before being worried about you. A few minutes after he had approached you, your face suddenly lit up as you realised that Shinsou was worried about you, you rushed up to him from the kitchen counter to the living room abruptly sitting down in front of him

"Are you worried about me Shinsou?" You ask excitedly your smile radiant. Shinsou earlier looking up at you looks away from embarrassment not replying, his ears turni red and you just couldn't help the aww that left your lips.

"Awww you're so cute!!" You squeal and your hand automatically goes to ruffle his hair and he doesn't pull away not this time and you realise that he has gotten comfortable with you, at that moment the door clicks open as Aizawa enters the house and peeks into the living room to see what the commotion was about.

"Papa!!!!" Eri squeals noticing her dad in the hallway as she runs up to him and Aizawa picks her up his voice gentle and soothing "Hey my love" He says kissing her on the cheek as she giggles from his stubble pricking her soft skin.

"Sup kiddo" Aizawa comes near you and Shinsou with Eri in his arms.

"Hello.." Shinsou greets him quietly as Aizawa bends down to ruffle his hair.

"All good?" Aizawa asks him and Shinsou nods as he goes back to colouring his book, Aizawa finally looks at you making your heart almost leap out as he gave you a small smirk "You seem happy, what's up?" He asks with a small groan as he puts Eri on the floor and she runs off playing "Shinsou let me ruffle his hair and he was worried about me!!" You reply excitedly your wide smile bringing a low chuckle from him.

"Oh yeah? What exactly were you worried about Shin?" Aizawa questions sitting down to look at what his son is colouring.

"(Name)-san was sad that you were working this late" Shinsou replies nonchalantly and you swear your eyes hadnt widened this much in your life, you feel the heat rush to your cheeks and Aizawa's eyebrows raise as he gives you a quick side glance before looking at Shinsou, he is about to say something when you interject denying strongly. "Shinsou!! I told you I was tired!! Thats not the case!!"

"Or, tired they say" He adds briefly, Aizawa doesn't even get the chance to say anything as you immediately get up picking up Eri and Shinsou taking them to their individual rooms ignoring any protests of Shinsou claiming how he was a big boy and he could stay up late, you argue with Shinsou for atleast half an hour before he finally agrees to sleep even though he was angry at you.

You head downstairs sighing and praying that Aizawa didn't pay much heed to whatever Shinsou said before as you head towards the living room to pick up the scattered toys and crayons only to be met with the sight of Aizawa sitting on the couch and while normally he isn't intimidating the way he sat with eyes closed, arms folded his right leg over his left reminded you of your father and his strict nature slightly intimidating you, quietly you pick up the toys glad that he fell asleep; as you picked the last of the toys you heard Aizawa's voice boom through making you freeze in your tracks "Still upset that I had work today?" You dont reply for a long time not trusting yourself to speak but when you do your voice is slightly shaky "No... No not at all.. why would I be.. you know Shinsou he just says whatever he wants..."

"Oh yeah? Does he?"

"........ okay well not ... Not exactly....."

You mumbel turning around to face Aizawa only to find him standing infront of you as looking down at your compared to his smaller form.

"Well then, answer my question."

You look away nervously chewing on your bottom lip, coating them pink with saliva, Aizawa tries to resist the urge to kiss you but fails as he grabs your face roughly pulling it closer to his, smashing his lips with yours. The kiss is sloppy and desperate and you can sense the sexual tension between you melting away.

You both pull free from the kiss, the room filled with pants, yours being much louder than his, taking in huge gulps of air.

You feel Aizawas arms wrap around your waist pulling you closer towards him.

"My room or the couch?" He whispers in your right ear his voice sending shivers along your spine.

It had been an hour since Aizawa had been prepping you after finding out you were a virgin, where once it burned to even have a single finger of his inside you, now you could easily 4 of his fingers at once.

Yet, tears spilled from your eyes when Aizawa pushes his dick (just the tip) inside you as Aizawa kisses away you tears with soft coo's of 'just a bit more' 'you're doing so good baby' 'it's just a few more minutes yeah, we will start to feel good real soon' rubbing soothing circles in your back as you sink your face into his shoulder blades, his intoxicating cologne filling your nostrils; finally after what felt like an eternity your hole sits down on his his dick as he gradually thrusts into you making you whimper and groan.

"So fucking good for me.. shit... Ugh... Fuck so tight, so fucking compliant.... Shit baby .. you feel so good"

You hear him praise you but you're barely able to register even a single word due to your muddled state of mind, your whines get louder, his thrusts getting more faster and rapid now. He hits a particularly sweet spot as you rise your head to scream at the pleasure coursing through your body "That's the spot is it." Aizawa grunts angling his hips to hit that spot, chortling at your desperate and meek attempt to push him away.

"Cum... Sh...shit... Gonna cum... Fuck..."

"Yeah? Gonna come for me? Gonna come from this cock fucking you stupid?"

You nod your head frantically chanting a mantra of 'so good's', orgasm coursing through your body, your body trembling from the aftermath of your orgasm as you lay limp against his chest.

After what feels like a few minutes you feel Aizawa thrust into you making you whine from the overstimulation

"Cant... No... No please... Hurts..."

You try to push him away only for him grab your wrists with his hand behind your back as he increases the pace of his thrusts

"I am yet to come baby, just a few more rounds 'kay?"