#shock of the century: tumblr user neversetyoufree wrote an in-depth meta post about a relationship other than vani and noé's

[neversetyoufree]

On a more serious note about Domi and Noé and blood drinking, I do think there's something really interesting with how seeing memories (and the lack thereof) kinda symbolizes the state of genuine understanding and emotional intimacy between them.

The whole thing between Domi and Noé, after all, is that they're best friends. They've known each other since they were little kids, and due to his isolation, Domi seems to be Noé's only true close friend before Vanitas. He tells her everything, and she knows him better than anyone else.

However, despite their closeness, there is a lot of strange tension and miscommunication between them. They're both still hung up on the death of Louis (and what happened between them in the aftermath), but they're trying as hard as they can to act as though they've moved on from him. And there's also, of course, the issue of Domi's crush.

Then, with that backdrop, we have the blood drinking, and the particular way that Noé is drawn to Dominique. To put it in her words, Noé wants Domi's blood "simply because it isn't the first time he's had it." She appeals to him because he wants to drink blood, and he can drink hers without having to look at her memories. More specifically, he's comfortable drinking her blood because he's already done it before, and thus already had a look inside her head.

When Noé bites somebody and sees their memories, it creates a profound amount of intimacy between them. He's able to target what he looks for, like he did with Amelia, but he also has the potential to see every secret somebody has ever kept—every traumatic moment that's defined their life. It gives him the opportunity to truly understand someone in a way that few others ever could. And I think the way he relates this ability to his closest companions is emblematic of his relationships with them.

Vanitas is somebody that interests Noé. A huge driving force of their relationship is Noé's desire to unravel and understand him, even though Vanitas doesn't think he wants that understanding, and their relationship to Noé biting him reflects that. Noé desperately wants to bite Vanitas, but Vani will not let him.

Conversely, with Dominique, I think Noé has been (subconsciously, at least) running from understanding for a long time, and his relationship with drinking her blood reflects that.

On a fundamental level, Noé does not understand Domi. He's utterly oblivious toward her romantic feelings for him, and in his patented "let the problems slide off as though they don't exist" way, he's spent years not processing how fucked her relationship to him and Louis still is. He's been calling himself her dear friend, completely unaware that the person he knows and loves most is suicidal.

But how does he let this happen? How does he go so long by her side without ever looking deeper and catching a glimpse of her many problems? Because it is very easy to avoid understanding someone when you tell yourself that you already know them well. Vanitas begins as a stranger, so Noé has reason to look deeper at and examine him, but it's easy to tell himself that he doesn't have that same reason for Dominique.

He "doesn't need" to seek to understand her because she's already his best friend. He already "understands" her. He doesn't look at her memories because he's already drunk her blood, and thus already been inside her head.

And once again, I'm reminded of why Noé is drawn to Domi's blood in the first place. He's able to bite her without seeing her memories, and in doing so, he's able to avoid a part of himself that he deeply dislikes. His aversion to biting new people isn't just out of respect for others' boundaries, after all, but also out of a deep-seated discomfort with his own status as Archiviste. He always introduces himself with just his first name, and he seems vaguely uncomfortable whenever someone reveals his heritage, let alone when he's called upon to use his abilities. And more than that, we know from his little post-rejection flashback in chapter 23 that he's been directly made to feel strange and deviant as a kid because of his power.

Being made to acknowledge that he's an Archiviste makes Noé feel bad about himself, and so Domi provides him an opportunity to get something he wants (blood) without being made to confront that badness. And I think the overall nature of their relationship, the way he sort of ghosts along her surface without ever looking deeper, functions in much the same way.

If he were to ever truly examine Dominique and his relationship with her, there's a lot that could cause Noé some major distress. We get a good bit of this when Misha reveals that she wishes she'd died instead of Louis, and even though there are other things contributing to his reaction, it's clear that Noé is horrified by that revelation. He hates that someone he cares about feels that way, and if he looks any deeper into her, there's a lot more anguish to come.

After all, I think Noé is yet to come to terms with his own part in the mess of the Noé/Louis/Domi triangle. Because as much as he loves Domi as her own person, and as much as he's horrified by the suggestion he'd prefer her death, I do think there's a part of him that takes her as a substitute for her brother. His flashing to the memory of drinking Louis's blood right before he asks for hers makes it pretty clear that his relationship with Domi is filling a Louis-shaped hole in his life. And there is no way that untangling the mess of "my friend thinks I want to replace her with her dead brother, and I don't, because that's horrible, but I do sometimes see her as a substitute for him" can come without considerable pain.

So once again, the way that Noé approaches Domi's blood is also the way he approaches his relationship with her as a whole. He likes to drink her blood because he can have the physical intimacy (and good-tasting blood) without being forced to confront a part of himself that makes him uncomfortable. He likes his tenuously balanced friendship with her because he can have the benefits of a wonderful best friend without being forced to confront a part of himself (how unhealthy the foundations of their relationship really are) that would cause him great discomfort.

And a lot of this, even most of it, isn't even conscious on Noé's part. He is anything but callous, and I don't think he'd avoid examining a friend's pain to protect his own heart on purpose, but he is also completely unable to confront his own traumas. Anything but the very worst of what happened with Louis, which is simply too big an anguish to ignore, glances off of him like it doesn't exist. So the same mental walls that keep him from noticing when he should be bothered by others' treatment of him also keep him from noticing what's wrong with Dominique, and he continues on in a state of perpetual ignorance.

Noé's unhealthy coping mechanisms keep him from understanding his dearest friend, but in the same way that he can only drink her blood without seeing because he's been drinking it since they were kids, he can only get away with not looking closely at her because they're already best friends.