Agree with all of this. I’ve been around this lifestyle some, I would say a slave is a sub but a sub is not necessarily a slave.
I also noticed that ML posted early fall that he was disappointed in the changes in JA sexual drive and that he was trying to reignite the sexual relationship I’ve known a few doms and generally, spicing things up for a dom means pushing limits, sometimes (stupidly) even ignoring limits (supported by the guy who ran from the house in Nov). I think this is why JA was feeling unsafe - he knew ML was pushing boundaries of safety in scene play. That may have escalated after the job loss, and JA was pulling away from sex. Pushing harder in scenes was ML’s way of trying to regain control and sustain his obviously huge ego.
That doesn’t necessarily mean JA thought he was in danger if he hung out with ML or if they remained supportive of one another. Assuming JA was his sub, he likely still had a lot of emotional ties to ML, s&m relationships tend to be intensely co-dependent, that’s actually part of the appeal for subs. They put their life, literally, in someone else’s hands. It’s an adrenaline rush.
Many are viewing JA’s behavior as inconsistent or suspicious, but within the context of a bdsm relationship, it doesn’t feel weird to me at all.
