#since they were very obvious in old vids

[vidding]

On June 23, 2021, You Tube announced that any Pre-2017 unlisted videos will be made private on July 23, 2021. Why? BTW this is an attempt to raise awareness about an event few fans may even know took place and highlight the importance of supporting archiving projects. It's written by those directly involved - any re-blogs are appreciated. An example of a rescued vid is at the end. Security update: Why? You Tube screwed up when it first developed unlisted videos. There was a loophole. Any unlisted video that was added to a playlist would automatically be made public. Oops! June 23, 2021 was when they made a formal announcement about their efforts to rectify it. You Tube's Solution? - Blanket privatization of ALL pre-2017 unlisted videos & then apply the security update for all new unlisted videos going forward. What if you don't want your pre-2017 unlisted videos to be made private? Filling out a form telling You Tube to do nothing is one option. Great for people who don't mind filling forms to send to You Tube. Make your videos public. 🤨 or download them and reupload them then make them unlisted with the new update. 🙄 You can watch the video below for descriptions of all the options. Most not ideal. Official Video: Released June 23, 2021. You can watch it whenever if you want to, but I must say contrary to what one would expect it is a very clear explanation without too much technical jargon. However, it doesn't really explain the obvious ramifications of this.

What are the freaking Ramifications: You Tube is 18 years old. What?!?!! 😲 Yeah, I know. Any pre-2017 videos would account for more than half of You Tube's history (11 years) and therefore fandom's history on You Tube. How many fans would be aware they had a 30-day notice and could act in time? Were you even aware of this?

More Issues: More importantly, how many users with abandoned accounts with noteworthy, valuable unlisted fanvids are no longer around to fill out a form. How many "Dead Embeds" would be the result of this when the videos go private. Many prefer to Unlist and Embed on other sites. Unlisted is not the same as private. It only means the videos can't be searched and found on You Tube but is available to anyone with a link or Embed. Private basically means no longer accessible and limited to people who were emailed a link directly.

There were only 2 people in Fandom (to my knowledge) who worked on rescuing content like that. We had about 2 weeks before the July 23, 2021 deadline to archive about 11 years of Pre-2017 unlisted fanvids and ask questions later. One of those people was Morgan Dawn and the other was myself. Other archive teams did work on this but their focus was on other types of videos related gaming, political history, anime, etc. Essentially non-fandom. In a nutshell, our collaboration led to the rescue approximately 12K unlisted fan videos. 12K fanvids that would have been made private forever and unable to be seen. The Work About 50% of that total came from accounts that had never uploaded a video since 2018. The work involved required more technical knowledge & resources than we had ever used before on any prior archive projects. There were several brand-new archive techniques we developed specifically out of necessity during that intense time period. One example was renting multiple virtual machines to sift through thousands of playlists just to find a fraction of unlisted videos. There was so much at stake. What happened with the content that was archived?

To my knowledge, there isn't an Open Doors for fanvids. There is just a few dedicated individuals who may be bad at promoting their work. Let's face it, when there is a fire at a library you marshal all resources to save as many books as you can and worry about everything else later. If archiving speaks to you whether that is fanzine, oral history or fanvid related, then there are certain things you can do:

Follow this Tumblr (we will post about relevant projects here)

If you have time, ask us how you can volunteer on projects and see if what we offer works for you. You can always opt out.

Re-blog this so that maybe someone who does have time sees this.

If you don't have time support our Patreon https://patreon.com/vidding

If you don't have time or money like this post acknowledging you appreciate that this work is being done even if you can't assist in those ways.

Choose whichever options work for you if possible.

This kind of work is done by very few people and not necessarily by those you would think would do this type of work. It can fly under the radar and so can support. This is an attempt to raise awareness which sometimes we are too busy to take time to do. If support doesn't go to the right places projects like this may never have happen or may not be as successful as they could be. This Unlisted You Tube Project is a perfect example of something a lot of fans may not be aware even took place. Thank you for whatever method of support you choose. The following experience was brought to you by archiving.

The following vid is one of the 12k saved. It's a Kirk/Spock vid. You will not find this vid anywhere but here. I know. I went to the original vidder's You Tube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@xKelociraptor and they have other vids on there. Last vid uploaded 11 years ago and no contact info. You want to know the kicker? I looked at all the other vids they have available but the best one (in my opinion) is the one that was unlisted & rescued. Unlisted vids are not necessarily unfinished projects or bad takes of a final version that should not see the light of day. They can in some cases be the best vids you will never see.

If you liked this post you might like this:

The last vidder friendly hosting & streaming site?

#fanvid #vidding #archiving #Youtube

[elliespuns]

I was wondering, would you mind introducing yourself a bit? Your age, hobbies (except for blogging of coure), music taste, your favorite movies, etc? I love the content you post and i love you and I don't even know you. I wanna know my favorite blogger.. lol. Only if you're okay with it

First of all, thank you for such a lovely compliment. I love you too and I don't even see your blog, mate!

To answer you; I was answering something similar once. This anon sent me questions and I filled them in, so if you allow me to just copy and paste those so I wouldn't have to type it all again (nothing has changed since then, honestly) then I'll be happy to oblige.

How old are you? I'm 30

Tall or short? Very short, I'm only 5'1 ft, 1,56 m

Sexuality? Eh, I don't like labeling myself but if I HAD TO, it'd say bisexual/demisexual.

Describe yourself briefly I'm an introverted dork that doesn't vibe with most people. I dig music, art, and I love a lot. I either love too much or not at all. I've been vegan for over 10 years now and I love funny people. Other than that, I'm just a very poetic soul that also loves to play video games from time to time and I write. I write a lot.

Something you like about yourself? I'd say it's my knowledge in English. I've been self 'learning' it for 9 years now (never been abroad) and I was able to learn the language to the point where it became a huge part of my life. Like I literally use it more than my mother language. That's a thing I'd say I like about myself.

Favorite hobbies outside your blog? I write; creative writing, poetry. Both fulfil my mind. Then I love reading (ofc). I also draw, play video games, work with graphic programs and I love taking pictures.

Something no one would guess about you I have a very high sex drive, lmao 🫣😂 and people would never say so about me, because I literally look like I have a ribbon buckled to my vagina.

Weird quirks you have Oh, god, I can't stand hand cuts. Like you can literally show me a video of someone having their throat slit and I'll be fine, but then you show me a vid of someone having their palm sliced, or simply just someone cutting their finger and I'll go all asdfghjklsdfghjk.

One talent you wished you had Damn, I wish I could draw from imagination. I can draw but I can't seem to draw anything just by trying to see it in my head. That's so fucking frustrating. And weird. Anyone else having this problem?

A word your friends would use to describe you Idk about one word, but my best friend says I'm the funniest person she has ever met, so does that count? Lol, Idk why she says this. I'm literally a potato.

Craziest thing that's ever happened to you Omg, trauma alert… when my boss (a 70 year old male) caressed the top of my head telling me I'm pretty.

Have you ever been in love? Yes, for over 10 years now (no, it's not a fictional character, lol).

What is your biggest fear? Fuck, it's hurricanes and tornados. I actually have a phobia, it's called 'ancraophobia' and it's a fear of strong wind. (I swear I don't fear normal wind tho, I'm not that weird, actually, ok?).

Why did you start this blog? When I came here one day I realized that there were only a few blogs that were dedicated to the game stuff. So I said why the hell not? I didn't expect to have an actual fanbase here, it's crazy. Love you guys.

Your favorite food? Lentils, that's the shit.

Least favorite food? I'd say meat.

Favorite TV shows? Okay, not gonna mention TLOU cause it's obvious, but the very first show that pops into my mind every time is Breaking Bad. I love this show to bits. Then I also love TWD, OITNB, Better Call Saul, Wentworth, This Is Us, Lost, The Killing.

Favorite movie of all time? My most favorite movie of all time will forever be Ginger Snaps (2000). I've loved this movie ever since I was 11. It's been 19 years ever since and I still love it to pieces. Aaaaah!

Favorite musicians? I love a lot of music, but my most favorite is Damien Rice. I love that guy and what he does. Right behind him are Cigarettes After Sex and Mazzy Star (just pure love). Then it would be Joshua Radin, The Hope Arsenal, Yaeow, The Paper Kites, The Smiths, R.E.M., Blur, BoDeans...

Do you have any pets? My chonky boi guinea pig.

#i guess i'll have to get used to sharing 'myself' with you guys sometimes #get to know your blogger i guess #the last of us #tlou #tlou blogger #the last of us game #elliespuns answers

[maxverstepponme]

I think the difference between carmen & George, and lily & Alex to the other couples like Kelly & max when it comes to social media is that they seem to be on the same page.

George posts Carmen just as much as she posts him, he’s made her clear as his girlfriend in interviews and fan events. They’re a very proper, trynna be that old money aesthetic couple, but it works and they seem very much in love and happy. And while it was shady that Carmen re opened her ig after the promotion to Mercedes, it’s clear she makes her own money and has yet to do anything problematic. I definitely see them marrying.

Alex and lily have been together for nearly 4 years (they starting dating in 2019) so it makes sense why she’s very involved and Alex includes her in that and in the Williams vids they do. It’s obviously his choice, since he’s going helmet promotion with her, talks about her in interviews and posts her loads. However, I do think they know that their relationship brings in good pr and utilise that to their own advantage, that’s fine as long as both agree and understand (which I think they do). And I know people are starting to get annoyed with them (or lily) but I do see them just been happy and in love wanting to share that.

Now this is where Kelly and max differ from the others, max doesn’t include Kelly on his own social media (if that’s his choice or his pr team, idk) but he used to post pics of his ex gf’s and even Kelly. Last year Kelly was on his profile about 4 times, Mother’s Day post, French gp video, a repost of her story in Japan and new years eve (they’re could be more I’ve missed). She’s kinda kept to being posted on the side page of verstappen.com, which has about 500k followers compared to maxs 10 mil. This could be a strategic move from his team cause of how problematic she is.

And while RB have included her in some videos, the Japan pre race one and the one of him winning the championship, but unlike when lily is in the Williams ones she’s kinda there and max doesn’t make a move to include her more. They also follow her but I do think that’s for them to kinda keep an eye on her.

In interviews, when he is asked about her he always keeps his answers short and somehow always makes her and their relationship look worse. Saying how he ‘hopes for the one’ 🤨 maxy baby you’d know if she were the one after 2 years. He also never brings her up spontaneously (unless talking about washing or why he’s not there, which was strange 🤨) he always has to be asked about her and that’s rare, I’m guessing she may be on a list of subjects that his pr team give interviewers to not ask about.

It’s obvious he was uncomfortable with how much she posted, he’s even said so in interviews. But she continued to do so. Also P showing up on his stream, the first couple of times yeah it was cute, but once you could see max get visibly annoyed and get his phone out every time, it raises eyebrows. Especially when she’s showing up during actual races. (Never P’s fault she’s a kid, but whoever’s looking after either Kelly or the nanny). Max said in an interview recently he wishes social media wasn’t created.

But one thing is clear is that max doesn’t want Kelly part of his professional image at all (rightly so), where the others mix that and don’t mind max has a clear line.

This was just a little ramble on the difference in couples and their social media use :)

That’s what I was talking about a few days ago. Yeah, they post her on Verstappencom to give her the “exposure”, but that account doesn’t have followers compared to Max’s real one. I think his PR team was really smart in that sense. Even if they are somehow posting her in something related to Max, she’s still not being posted by Max.

[akane171]

😂🤷🏻‍♀️ That canon (esp. considering pre-Disney"Nothing but us is canon") is really way too much to really grasp anyway🙈

Jup, it DOES make more sense but does Old Council Asses have their stuck too far in the sand to truly understand their own codes😅😫

(A manga/new anime apparently🤷🏻‍♀️)

Oh, heck Yeah, Qui-Gon told them all along, he's got EVERY reason to cackle!!💃🏻💃🏻

Absolutely! I wanna see a villain to mow it all down and be like "I told you so, shithead😈" 😍😍😍

You would know best about that, being one😂

I don't careee😭😭😭 (...Well, at least your Muse seems to have fun?😂)

...That doesn't even surprise me😅🙈 That fandom...I'm not sure if there is anything they HAVEN'T come up with🙈🙈🙊😅

Ohhh, you think Kara might get brainwashed? I thought she might be save because she kinda took the role of Katniss, plus wanting to save Mon would give her a reason to work with the aliens/District 13 (and become Supergirl if she even will in this AU)🤔 But uff, not sure if Kara brainwashed or Mon brainwashed would be worse🙈🙈😭😭 

(Ohhh, Sounds interesting🤔😁 Would they have been together those 3 years then?🤔🤔) 

...You're scared of your own Demon?🤨🤔😅 

Yess, they are awesome😍😍 I can't stop watching YouTube vids about them, they are just too funny (esp. Keith describing how to keep him and Jin apart by the latter being supposedly fatter is too amusing)😂😂😂🤣🤣 But, ohhhhh, shit burning would have been SO AWE AND SOME!😱😱😍😍🤣🤣

Btw, a bit random but the thought sprung into my head again a few days ago, but which Marvel character do you think Mon would have been if he had been a Marvel character instead of DC?🤔 Like, Kara is kinda easy, what, with Marvel's Carol Danvers (Carol Danvers-Kara Danvers...Even the powers...not much of a stretch)😂 But Mon seems kinda less obvious🤔 At first I thought Tony Stark/Iron Man since they both have the Charisma and sarcastic, selfish ass to brave, sacrificial hero thing going for them, but not sure🤔 Doctor Strange would be a possibility in that case, too😅

XXX

Oh my God, don't remind me how many canon stories (boooooooooooks!!!) was un-canoned by the Disney, ugh!

Sand, mood, concrete, lava, who caaaaaaaaares, Qui is dying again from laughter in his afterlife.

I'm not the one, your accusations are emptyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

Start to caaaaaaaaaaaaare (I DON'T have fun ==')

I think I saw all possibel tropes, kinds and shits there. They were very creative xD Also, before i started writing fics, I had a lot naruto fics ideas playing in my head... before the main story went to shit :))))

I mean, it would be a twist no one saw coming xD but she is the main, so I don;t think so. Still, I usually play with some ideas about fics I like so, in my AU it's possible xD

I thought about something like - them meeting while Kara is in college, while Kara being with someone else, wanting to be reporter but deep inside struggling with it. And then meeting him, and not being the fan at first but slowly falling in love and meeting him makes her really question her life choices (maybe she is more into art and paitings? maybe teaching literature or writing books, something like that). But her friends (Lenaaaaaaaaaa) and family being totally against him (aka her parents being high mighty and wealthy and famous and whole the rest of her family and friends be like that) and worried he would simply screw her life. Because Mon-El would be dunno, ex soldier working as a barkeep, so much below her status, blah blah. But because he knows she is the one and she could be happy with him and a different career path, he fights for her and they end up married and beyond happy, but Kara cut the ties with her family and her friends.

But some accident happens, she losts her memory and remembers things before she met him, so it;s quite a shock for her, because yeah, not the life she remembers and all is up side-down, she's super confused etc, so her fam and friends (Lenaaaaaaaaaaaaa!) uses the situation and start to persuade her to come back to her old life.

Mon-El tries to bring her memories back, but it's not working and he sees she is unhappy and struggling and (for some other reasons) he simply can't bear to once again fight for her, so one day he takes her to her parents home, hugs for the last time and wishes her to be happy and then leaves.

THE END

Joking xD

Kara becomes the reporter in CatCo, her dream job, yay! maybe reconnects with some of her past crush, is friends with Lena and others etc. but still feels disconnected with it all. Having some dreams about the past she doesn't remember, some memories coming back, but not making a lot of sense. On some point she gets her divorce papers to sign (evil laugh). And I have some loose ideas how to end it, but never really thought about it. For sure Kara and Lenaaaaaaaa were friends but becasue Lenaaaaa did a lot of shit to her and tried to manipulate Kara ended it and when she rememberes it - boy, poor Lenaaaaaaaaaaa (nope, not poor screw her). For sure, Kara tries to find him on some point, even when her memories are not complete, but it's not so easy *evil laugh*

I also thought about giving them a dog and Mon-el living it with her and one day, she is with it in Winn and Eve's house for a game night and the dog dissapeares and she finds it in the basement, curled near some boxes and Winn explains that's Mon's stuff becasue he asked them to store his things for some time, because he left somewhere (he enlisted again and moves abroad for some war? I know, cheesy, but whatever). Hue hue hue. And i will leave you with it. Hue hue hue

Tbh, I thought about Mon-El being Tony as well xD I think Mon was some kind of engineer in the comics too? I played the idea of Kara being Asgardian too xD But I KNOW, Kara/Carol DANVERS!!! Who is responsible for it?!!!! Or Kara being the Captain Marvel and Mon-El being Asgardian? He fits the role too xD

#ReFail #my fam

[t-lostinworlds]

Truth or Drink (Tom Holland)

[YouTube AU: Video 2]

a/n: this took a while asdfghjkl this was in my drafts since oct. at 7k already (but got distracted with other WIPs as always) and was suggested by this anon back in aug. so i’m sorry this took a so long hun. also, the gif took a fucking while too ‘cause we are extra in this house haha (i mean, i wanted the time in the vid to match the wc so ha). anyway, enough babbling and let’s get into the video! lol, i hope you guys enjoy this one!

summary: You and Tom do a couples Q&A where you spilled steamy secrets with the help from alcohol. pairing: tom holland x fem!reader warnings: dialogue bonanza (lots of laughing and asking), alcohol consumption, secret spilling (from both parties), teasing from everyone (will include dirty jokes from the lads), mentions of smut & risque aka sex-themed questions. word count: 14.2k+ (aha enjoy!)

☰ youtube channel | previous video << ǁ >> next video ☰ masterlist on bio & pinned post

⚠ DISCLAIMER: this is a multi-part (not a series) which is basically one-shots happening in the same universe meaning you don’t need to read the previous one to understand this one since they are not heavily connected plot wise. although each fic does happen chronologically, you don’t need to read them in order much like how you don’t need to watch youtube videos in order.

-:-:-:-:-

You knew something was about to happen the moment you walked into the dining area, the way Tom immediately went to latch onto you like a koala bear—as if he hasn't seen you just minutes before—tells all.

"What are you up to now?" you asked with a playful scrunch of your nose.

You rested your hands on his shoulders, the fabric of his pink hoodie—while you wore his other pink hoodie, outfits not at all planned since you just took the first thing you saw in his closet—soft to the touch as you took a glance at the camera that was set up at the head of the dining table. The greenery of the outside world behind the glass doors served as a backdrop to the shot.

The crease between your brows deepened at the sight, gaze landing back on the boy attached to your hip who was hugging you sideways with a certain glow in his eyes.

"I'm not up to anything," Tom denied, nuzzling his face on the crook of your neck to litter the skin with sweet and soft kisses. Although the gesture made your heart melt, it also made your suspicion grow. You just know there was more to this than meets the eye.

Strong arms staying around your torso, Tom pulled away slightly so he could meet your gaze again, a certain smile growing on his lips, one you know too well. It was the usual smile he wears whenever he wants something from you, a favor perhaps. An all too powerful grin that had you made him get away with things—mostly stupid ones—easily that you aren't exactly proud to admit.

"Tom," you warned with a raise of a brow, enough seriousness and command in your tone that he was quick to give in.

"Okay, okay, we're shooting the next video," he chuckled, tracing your jaw with the tip of his nose before giving it a soft peck. "Which I am hoping you'll do with me still," he murmured, placing another kiss on your cheek before pulling away to look at you fully as he flashed you a not-so-innocent smile.

Bingo.

Tom just doesn't suddenly become so clingy—well, he normally is but more than usual anyway—especially out of nowhere without it having an underlying reason.

You narrowed your eyes at him skeptically. You stayed silent as you weighed your odds, if the enjoyment of making the video was worth it for you to endure the obvious embarrassment that would come with it. You do love this YouTube thing he's got going on, you truly do enjoy being a part of it. But with the things he's spilled in the last video, you just want to make sure that this time won't be too much, though you highly doubt it.

It was hilarious how his bottom lip started to go at your reaction, eyes turning rounder, cuter that would give Puss in Boots a run for his money. And just as you counted in your head, three, two, one—

"Please, darling? Do it with me?" Tom cooed, placing his head on your shoulder as he gave your waist a loving squeeze, fluttering his eyelashes at you in the most adorable of ways with that cute pout to match. It was his signature look whenever he wanted something, the look of handsome and adorable persuasion. "I'll keep the secret-spilling at a minimum, love. And besides, we can always edit it out."

You let out a soft sigh, shaking your head at the fact that you're saying yes either way. You can never say no whenever he puts on that very persuasive face of his, can never resist him even if you tried. And of course, Tom knows this power he has over you, and he's mastered a way on how and when to use it to his advantage.

You aren't exactly proud to say that he has never failed once, his tactic very effective and that's putting it lightly. It's sneaky and annoying sometimes but it's still cute nonetheless.

Though, never did he once abuse this weakness of yours, only using it with the little things—like letting him sneak in some snacks on set when he was instructed not to or when he wants to do certain stuff—because when it's something serious and you say 'no,' then he's quick to listen and settle when you've made your final decision. He knows you only have the best intentions when it comes to his safety and just him in general, so there's really no doubt on Tom's behalf when it comes to following you on that.

"Why me? Why not give the other boys a chance to be in the spotlight?" you proposed, not giving him the satisfaction of winning just yet.

Tom shrugged with a wide smile. "The fans love you," he hummed.

The reception of the last video was mostly positive. Maybe it was the fact that you've been with Tom for a couple years already.

Your relationship was private of course, but it wasn't a secret. It was relatively the both of you showing glimpses of it every now and then online. So, compared to when the news first broke out, this time was a bit calmer. There are still trolls and haters—they're always going to be there unfortunately—but you've learned to shut them out, turning your focus more on the ones who are very positive and supportive. They should be the only ones who should be given attention to, no point wasting your energy on random keyboard warriors.

"You mean they love it when I make fun of you?" you said, laughter escaping your lips soon after when Tom buried his face back on the crook of your neck as he groaned in dismay.

Let's just say his fans quite enjoyed how you handled him in the last video, the teasing, the banter, the whole lot. Tom hasn't been able to escape the countless clips that are circulating the good old internet. No matter which platform he uses, a clip or meme is always there to haunt him. Most of them vary from him screaming and wriggling in pain; laughing like a hyena while also wriggling in pain; the random facial expressions he's made; and even sometimes, a snapshot of you looking at him in great disappointment and/or embarrassment. That's just some among the plethora of other memes.

Tom had seen it coming of course, but it doesn't mean it's any less embarrassing, especially with how clueless he seemed when it came to women.

"Unfortunately, that too," he grumbled.

"Okay then, might as well give them more content," you teased, Tom pulling away again to gawk at you with a look of feign betrayal crossing his features. You could only laugh at that, giving his jutted out lip a kiss to replace it with one of his many sweet smiles. Despite you saying it in a joking manner, he can't really deny that that would happen either way. After all, no matter what he does, he will always be a walking meme.

Tom finally lets you go after one more peck on the cheek, guiding you towards the seat by the other end of the table soon after. He helped you in like the gentleman that he is, a kiss landing on top of your head once you were seated before he made his way towards his place.

"What are we doing this time?" you asked when Tom sat down on the chair across from you.

And as if on cue, Harry walked into the dining area with two bottles of gin on hand, Harrison following suit with a bowl of half-sliced limes along with Tuwaine with a bucket of ice and two Collins glasses.

"Truth or drink," Harry said with a wide grin, lifting the bottles of Aviation gin to further prove his point.

"You guys chose me to do this with him because I'm a lightweight, which means I'm more likely to talk, didn't you?" you said, narrowing your eyes at each of them as they placed their respective items right in front of you in the middle of the table.

All three boys gasped exaggeratedly at your accusation, shaking their heads as they made their way behind the camera, chorusing a bunched of:

"Oh no, of course not."

"That was not the plan."

"We would never."

You could only roll your eyes at them, playfully of course, turning back to Tom who was quick to throw his hands up in surrender once he took in your expression of pure suspicion.

"I swear, I just want to do this with you, plain and simple," he confessed, though his follow up sentence made you think that it wasn't as plain and simple. "But you are very funny when you have alcohol in your system."

"Does that mean I'm not when sober?" You raised your brow at the man across you, sitting straight up as you clasp your hands together, resting it on the table to seem serious.

Tom shook his head frantically. "No! You're still very funny sober!" he rushed. "Love, you know what I meant," he added with a whine, head dropping low once you let out a laugh, only lifting it back up to shoot you another pout. He can be quite gullible sometimes and you honestly love it, love teasing him about.

"Besides, it's a couples Q&A and the only couple here are you two so there aren't really any options. The only difference is that it has alcohol to spice things up a little," Harry said, now in his place behind the camera just like before.

"With equally spicy questions," Harrison added with a wriggle of his brows, coming back up on the head of the table to place a stack of white cards to which you assumed was where the questions were written.

"You guys wrote the questions didn't you? Okay, this is a set up," you joked.

"They're harmless questions I swear!" Harrison defended with a laugh before returning back to his place by the camera. Though knowing them for as long as you have, you've learned to never trust those words fully. It was highly expected that the questions aren't going to be simple, let alone safe for work.

"But if you're not comfortable doing it, it's totally fine, darling," Tom said, smiling sweetly as he grabbed your hands across the table and gave it a gentle, reassuring squeeze. He knows you have never been an avid drinker. As you've said, you are lightweight. So, if ever you wanted to back out, he's just making sure you know that you have the option to.

"No, I'm fine with it. This will be fun," you said, flashing him a true, reassuring smile of your own, squeezing his hand in return for good measure. "But can I at least have some juice or something? I'm not drinking gin straight," you added.

"Figured you'd say that," Tom said with a wide grin, rushing up from his seat and disappearing into the kitchen. He came back not long after with a bottle of orange juice on one hand all while holding a spoon and paring knife on the other. "Rollin' down the street, smokin' indo, sippin' on gin and juice," he sang the good old Snoop Dogg classic no matter how corny, placing the bottle juice right beside the gin on the head of the table.

You narrowed your eyes at your man. "You seem prepared Tom."

"Nope, I just know you too well," he hummed, giving you a sweet peck on the forehead before he was back on his seat across you.

"Right, let's give the people what they want," you said, rubbing your hands together with a wide smile.

It was Tom's turn to look at you skeptically. "Why do I have a feeling that we'll just take turns in exposing each other?"

You tilted your head at him with a grin, shrugging your shoulders and said,

"How bad can it be?"

***

"And we are rolling."

"What's up guys! Tom Holland here," he introduced with a loud clap. "I'm back with another video joined by none other than the gorgeous Y/N." You waved at the camera with a sweet smile at the mention of your name. "The rest of the gang are behind the camera as per usual," Tom added, the lads cheering at their cue unenthusiastically and totally not in sync, chuckles and giggles following soon after.

"You can feel the excitement in the room," Tom said sarcastically with a roll of his eyes. "Anyhow, since lovely Ryan Reynolds sent me a case of gin just recently, I thought; why not put it to good use?" Tom shot the camera a knowing look. "Hashtag not sponsored but should be!" he yelled, making you jump slightly at the sudden loud sound.

"Do you have to be so loud?" you grumbled, playfully covering your ears in the process.

"Oh, sorry love," Tom chuckled, shooting you a sweet smile before turning back to the camera, finger pointed at it as he said, "But Ryan, my DMs are always open."

"Always looking for someone to replace me," you sighed, shaking your head dejectedly as you turned to the camera with a deep frown.

"Ah, here we go," Tom groaned, shooting you a playful glare because he knows that the teasing would only get more and more prominent from here on out.

"What? You and I both know I've got a lot of competition," you said as a matter of fact, leaning back on your seat with arms crossed over your chest. "Mainly Jake G. and Harrison, with a couple of variations here and there but you get what I mean."

Tom shook his head at you with a teasing roll of his eyes. "Once again, my girlfriend everyone," he said to the lens with a tight lip smile before turning back to you with a deadpan expression. You only shrugged in response, flashing him an innocent smile.

"Anyway, a fan suggested this in the comments of the last video so today, we're going to be doing Truth or Drink," he continued, turning back to face the camera. "Rules are simple, we take turns on reading out the questions that are written on these cards right here"—Tom lifted the stack of white, rectangular cards before placing them back on the table—"and we either answer them truthfully or we take a drink."

"Oh and a little disclaimer," you paused as you looked at the camera. "The lads wrote the questions so we have no idea what's in the cards nor did we have any involvement in the choosing of certain topics which are possibly going to be discussed in this video," you added, feeling like it was a fact that needed to be said.

"Parental guidance is advised," Tom chuckled.

"They're not that bad you divs," Harrison grumbled.

Now you're certain on who wrote most of the questions, he's been keen on taking offense whenever anyone gets suspicious over them. "We'll be the judge of that," you stated, raising a brow at Harrison before turning back to Tom.

"Let's get right into it shall we?" Tom proposed. You gave him a nod in response, jutting out two thumbs up for good measure. "Ladies first," he said, flashing you a charming grin as he gestured towards the pile of cards.

You reached over to the pile, making sure to pick the card in the middle just to make sure that it was completely random. You adore the lads, but knowing how mischievous they can get, you've learned to always keep one eye open with regard to everything that they do. Plus, it was so easy to set it up for you to pick a certain question given that it was only you and Tom taking turns on picking a card.

"We are starting off with something a tad bit dark huh." You gave the lads a swift glance before turning to the card you had on hand. "If I killed someone would you help me cover it up?" you read out loud, placing the card on the discarded pile before your gaze landed on Tom who gave you a small, secretive nod 'yes' which only made you giggle.

Tom leaned forward as he rested his elbow on the marble surface, hand playing with his chin with his eyes on the ceiling to seem that he was deep in thought. He turned back to you and said, "Do we not get any context? Was it an accident or was it on purpose? Was it due to hate or fear? Was it justified?"

"It's a yes or no answer Tom," you laughed.

"Well then, you already know the answer but for legal purposes," Tom paused, reaching for the bucket of ice and putting some in his glass. He poured the gin on top of that and then added a dash of lime, swirling around the glass to mix them all together. "My lips are sealed," he chuckled, lifting the glass up to his lips and taking a drink. "Oh, that's good stuff," he commented, taking another sip before putting the glass back down.

"Hypothetically, if you were going to help, you'll probably be the one who'll get us caught if I'm being honest," you giggled to which Tom threw his head back with a laugh.

"Yeah, you'll tell me what you did, I'll get shocked and as we're getting stuff to you know, hypothetically hide the body, I'll go 'I can't believe you killed someone' in public and then someone will hear and call the police and we're done."

You burst out in a hearty laugh at that, nodding your head in agreement. "That's exactly how it's going to happen."

It was Tom's turn to pick a question, his grin growing wider as his eyes scanned the card in his fingers. "What's the most embarrassing thing you've done in front of me?" he asked, his features brightening in excitement because he already knows the answer. There wasn't really much to begin with other than that one incident that will always haunt you for the rest of your life.

"Do you want me to tell them the story?" you sighed, leaning back on your chair with palms flat on the table. It wasn't one of your finest moments that's for sure and Tom hasn't been letting you hear the end of it. In fact, it was one of his favourite stories involving you both.

"It's up to you, love. You don't have to if you don't want to." Tom shrugged with a smirk, reaching for your glass to get your drink made. "But that moment was so adorable for me though, embarrassing for you but very adorable for me," he added with a wink.

"Adorable or ego boosting?" you pointed out with a raise of your brow.

"Both," Tom laughed, adding some ice in your glass and pouring just the right amount of gin soon after.

You watched with an adoring smile as he poured in the orange juice, the sound of silverware and glass clinking together filling the air as he mixed up the liquids. He then squeezed a bit of lime in your drink, taking the paring knife soon after to slice up another lime in a thin circle, making a small slit in the middle so he can put it on the rim of your glass easily. Tom can be extra at times, of course he felt the need to decorate your drink, even when it wasn't exactly necessary but you wouldn't want it any other way.

"Look at you being a bartender," you teased, Tom looking up from his task to shoot you playful wink with a smug smirk to match.

"You love to see it."

You shrugged, not at all denying his claim because well, you do love seeing it.

"Here you go, mi lady," he hummed, handing you your beautifully decorated drink with a proud grin on his lips.

"Thank you, kind sir."

As much as how refreshing the cocktail looked in its cold glass and bright, orange colored glory, you know you had to be strategic with drinking. Because alcohol boosts your confidence, it makes you brave, it makes you say things you wish you hadn't when sober. And with you being lightweight, it isn't exactly ideal to be happy-go-lucky with it, especially knowing how these questions can go from one thing to another real quick.

You thought it's best to share embarrassing things that you can live with to keep the drinking at a minimum, rather than take too much alcohol too fast and say worse things down the line because you got somewhat tipsy or downright drunk. There's really no way of knowing how hard it hits given that different types of alcohol affect you in different ways.

"Okay, it was when we first met, which obviously doesn't make it any less embarrassing, first impressions and all that," you started, sitting straight up as your fingers drummed around the cool surface of your glass. "Me and a friend of mine were at this park and decided it would be fun to rent out these bikes to get around quicker, so we did. Lo and behold, Tom and Harrison were also at said park—"

"Oh yeah, I remember this," Harrison laughed. "This is going to be good."

You shot the blonde lad a quick glare before continuing. "Luck wasn't on my side that day—well, depends on how you look at things because I did meet Tom and seem to have gotten far," you laughed towards the camera, giving Tom a swift glance who was quick to lock eyes with you as he nodded agreeably with a chuckle. "But add that to me being very clumsy and simply put, I fell off the bike right in front of him," you sighed dejectedly, heat coating your cheeks as the lads chuckled in their seats, purely in amusement and not at all in a demeaning way.

"Go on love, let's hear the full thing," Tom encouraged, sitting back on his chair with his arms crossed over his chest to relax, attention fully on you as if he hasn't heard this story many times before. He genuinely does love hearing it. As you've said, it was one of his favourites.

"I'm getting there," you grumbled, narrowing your eyes at Tom who only flashed you an adorable, bright smile, knowing that if he does that, you can't stay mad at him. With a another sigh, you continued, "As we were riding our bikes, we saw him and Harrison sitting on this random bench from afar doing, I don't know, maybe they were on a date or something—"

"Darling, don't try and steer the topic here," Tom laughed. You stuck out your tongue at him—yes, very mature—his laughter only growing louder at your reaction.

"I'm a big fan of the Marvel movies, so obviously, I knew who he was. I was trying to keep my cool, you know, I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of him and thought I'll just ride pass, don't want to disturb whatever they had going on. But as soon as we got near to where they were sat, he looked towards my direction and we made eye contact—"

"The power I have," Tom crooned with a smug smile, earning a pointed eye-roll from you.

"Oh shut up. You know that wasn't the sole reason why I fell," you scoffed. "The chains on my bike went loose so I had no full control over it. We weren't going slowly as well because this friend of mine thought it was a good idea to one up each other so we kept going faster and faster, racing towards who knows what.

"So, my next option was to just plant my foot on the ground to stop it right? But as I've said, luck wasn't on my side that day. Before I could even do it, a rock went under the front wheel—which I didn't see given that I was distracted, you lot know why—and completely took me off balance and the bike went sideways real quick that I didn't have any time to react at all. And...did I roll a few times?" You turned to your boyfriend.

"Twice," he confirmed, a sympathetic smile on his lips as he tilted his head at you sweetly.

"Now, I don't see why you find this story adorable." You narrowed your eyes at your man.

"Not the actual accident, darling. It's what happened after that I found adorable. You were so cute being all shy and embarrassed," Tom defended with a pout. "And you know for a fact that whenever I see you with the smallest scrape or cut I panic and fuss over you immediately."

"You do. A bit too overdramatically," you giggled. It was a bit much sometimes how he worries but that's just Tom being the caring and overprotective boyfriend that he is. "Anyway, so yes, I rolled on the ground twice but all I remember was that I was already lying on my back, watching the sky while my knees, forearms up to my elbows and palms were burning. Then I saw Tom approaching and I swear I was just wishing that the ground would swallow me up right then and there," you finished.

"I quickly rushed to her aid, because you know, I'm Spider-Man," Tom added with a cocky shrugged, arms open wide as if to showcase himself.

There was a loud, collective groan from the lads which earned a laugh from you and a sound of pure protest from Tom.

"It's true!" he exclaimed. "Anyway, she then went, 'oh, my knight and shining armour, my handsome Prince Charming'," Tom gushed, voice at a higher pitch with the utmost exaggeration as he placed the back of his hand over his forehead. "And I went, 'don't worry princess, I'm here to save you,' and then we kissed and lived happily ever after," he concluded with the cheekiest smile.

"We remember this story very differently." You shook your head at him with a hearty laugh. This boy is always something else. "But fine, I'll give you the Prince Charming part because you did look like it.

"What you said was, 'miss, are you alright?' which was very formal of you, especially with the accent." You turned to the camera with a suggestive wiggle of your brows, making Tom drop his head shyly with a chuckle as his cheeks turned slightly pink. "And no, we didn't kiss. You don't kiss people you just met Thomas, get a hold of yourself. He helped me up and was kind enough to offer to take me to the hospital which wasn't needed since it was just a few cuts and scrapes but still insisted that I get checked. Who knew you'd be overprotective since day one," you laughed.

Tom shrugged with a chuckle. "We got to know each other while in the hospital and after she got cleaned up, I thought, I liked talking to her and I really don't want to say goodbye just yet. So, I invited her to lunch which she surprisingly said yes," he teased, sarcasm laced in his tone at his last sentence as he shot the camera a knowing and smug look. You kicked him lightly under the table, the action catching him off guard making him let out a yelp.

"It was more of me being polite because you helped and that. Didn't want to seem rude by saying no," you said, Tom gasping in full offense at your words. You let out a laugh as you rushed, "I'm kidding! Of course I wanted to go to lunch with you. It was impossible to say no because you've been really sweet and a real gentleman that day. And well, it was fun hanging out with you."

Tom smiled widely at that, nothing but pure love coating his features as he held your gaze, hand sneaking over to yours that was on the table and giving it a quick but loving squeeze.

"Where did Harrison go?" Harry wondered, the blonde boy suddenly turning silent and surely enough when you gave him a swift glance, he was already blushing.

"I had my friend with me, Tom had Harrison, you do the math," you said plainly, laughter laced in your tone.

"Oh, so you got some that day," Tuwaine chuckled, nudging the boy beside him with his elbow.

"Shut up, Tuwaine," Harrison grumbled, swatting away his friend lightly.

"But in conclusion, I am a superhero in real life," Tom stated proudly, swiping away the imaginary dust that was lying on his shoulder. He turned to the camera with a bright and wide smile. "But I do thank that bike every day."

"A bit sadistic but okay," you added, looking at Tom skeptically with a scrunch of your nose.

"No! I meant we wouldn't have gotten to know each other if that didn't happen," Tom rushed, lips turning into a pout when you only did nothing but laugh. "You're mean."

"You're just too adorable not to pick on," you giggled, his pout turning more prominent at your words.

You so badly wanted to get up off your seat and give him a proper kiss, but those things are always reserved privately. You two had never been big with public displays of affection, just the casual holding hands and occasional hugs. There are a few instances where you'll sneak a quick kiss while hanging out with friends but that's different compared to it being on tape for the whole world to see later on.

"Anyhow, what's the most embarrassing thing that you have done in front of me?" You asked back, your turn to grin wide because you know which story it was going to be, the way Tom's cheeks were quick to be dusted red was a clear indication that you were right.

"I'm smooth as hell, would never embarrass myself in front of a lady," he said casually, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned back on his chair, all cool and suave.

"Oh shut up and tell the story," you said with a playful roll of your eyes, Tom letting out a shy chuckle before he leaned on the table.

"Right, it was our second date and I split my trousers open," he said, short and sweet, though his blush was already deepening because Tom knows the sharing won't stop there.

"Wait, how open?" Tuwaine asked.

"Like full on, centre to back, underwear and inner thighs with a bit of butt showing open. It would have been a bit better if I wore black pants—boxers to the American people—and black trousers right? But me being unlucky, I went for light-coloured denim jeans and black pants that day so it's fully obvious that I did ripped my trousers open," he chuckled shyly, hand going to rub at his shoulder, body slightly crouched as he refused to look away from his glass of gin.

"Go on Thomas, let's hear the full thing," you prodded, throwing his previous words right back at him.

He lifted his head up to shoot you a playful glare, though sat straighter anyway, elbows now on the table with his hands clasped together as he got ready to tell his story. "We were well underway our second date, a simpler one which was a walk in a somewhat less crowded park—"

"What's with you two and parks?" Harrison pointed out with a chuckle.

"Disaster just waiting to happen as you can tell," Tom laughed.

"We've steered clear from parks after all these incidents," you joked with a giggle.

"I did a flip and didn't land the right way was basically what happened," Tom continued, turning to the camera with a look of dismay. "We were walking by a couple of street dancers who were practicing a routine and they were doing all sorts of flips and tricks. She stopped walking completely and watched—wait, correction, stared at this certain bloke who was doing backflips—"

"I was not staring," you butted in. "I was just watching him do his thing and said how cool it was. And why are you making it seem like it's my fault?" you gasped, placing a hand over your heart, feign offence crossing your features.

"I'm not!" Tom laughed, hands up in surrender before he crossed his arms over his chest. "All I'm saying was that I was trying to impress you, which is why I offered to show you a flip. And as everyone in this room knows, I do the stupidest things when trying to impress a girl, especially when I like her that much."

"I was already impressed by you as is Tom, you didn't need to do a flip," you said as a matter of fact, small giggles escaping your lips as you looked at him with nothing but pure adoration. Tom felt his heart melt at the sight and more by your words. "And besides, I already knew you could do it. But somehow you felt the need to prove yourself after you saw me complimenting that dancer," you added.

"It's what you call ego, Tom," Harry laughed.

"Shut up, Harry." Tom shot his brother a glare though chuckled right after because it was in fact a bit true.

It was the silliest thing thinking back on it now, how he just said 'you want to see me do a flip?' out of the blue. You furrowed your brows at him in response, though your smile was laced with amusement. He just wanted to impress you as he'd said. And fine, maybe his ego got struck at teeny bit, and maybe he felt a little jealous that your attention got torn off of him because he truly did like you that much.

But at the end of the day, even though he had a little mishap, it all worked out so he wasn't at all complaining. "Anyway, so I did the flip, completely disregarding the fact that my shoes were slippy and my trousers were tight. I did land upright and not on my face this time so that's something," Tom chuckled. "But my right foot slipped so I was full on going on a wide split which I normally can't do since I am not flexible enough and proceeded to fall on my bum.

"The moment I heard the sound I instantly knew and just went, 'oh no' and remained on the ground because I didn't know what to do then. I was already embarrassed because I slipped, do I really want to tell her I tore open my trousers too?" Tom laughed timidly, the blush on his cheeks turning redder as he rubbed the back of his neck in utter embarrassment.

"I kind of knew right away though because I did hear something rip," you giggled. "He then just slowly stood up, hands behind, flat on his bum and said, 'I split my trousers open' in the smallest voice like a kid who's scared to tell their mum they fell or they'll get scolded. Plus his face was beet red, just like now." You pointed towards your boyfriend, who in turn stuck his tongue out at you as his blush turned into an even deeper shade of crimson.

"Thank God I wore a jacket that day and I was able to at least hide it until we got back to the car or else someone would've clocked it, took a picture, posted it on the internet and it would've made things much worse," Tom pointed out with a chuckle, glad that there was no paparazzi or it would've been a nightmare. "And the fact that you tried so hard not to laugh but still failed made me feel so embarrassed that I was quick to think that that was it. I ruined my chances, no more third date," he added as he turned to you with a small pout.

"I couldn't help laughing because it was the most adorable thing how you went from being all confident and cocksure on doing a flip to this shy boy who refused to look me in the eyes without turning even redder," you said, pure amusement laced in your tone. "But no, that incident made me like you more, it was just too endearing. Third date never left the table after that," you concluded with a sweet smile which only made Tom's grin grow wider.

"Even though she laughed, she was so sweet and kind about it. We had to cut our date shor—actually no, we didn't. We went back to your place and decided to do a movie marathon instead," Tom said fondly, face glowing with joy as the memory brought nothing but warmth across his chest.

"Yeah, with you wearing a pair of my sweatpants," you giggled, mirroring his expression as your mind recalled the sweet moment of you and him, simply cuddled up on the couch.

"And that's on getting the girl by splitting your trousers open," Tom said with a smug smile, pointing at the camera as he shot it a knowing look with a wriggle of his brows.

"And getting the boy by falling off a bike," you added, doing exactly what he did as you turned to face the lens.

"Look at us," Tom gushed, looking back at you with a smile, reaching across the table to take your hand in his. "Hey, look at us."

"Look at us. Who would've thought?" you giggled, giving his hand a squeeze in return.

You were always quick to catch on what he was trying to do that Tom couldn't help but smile widely, heart melting ten times over at the thought of you knowing him so well. "Not me," Tom chuckled, letting go of your hand and holding up his palm for a high-five to which you gladly obliged with laughs of your own.

"You two are made for each other," Harry chuckled with a shake of his head, now just getting that you two were recreating the famous Paul Rudd meme.

"My turn right?" Tom asked. You nodded with a hum as you pushed the pile of cards towards him. He let out a loud scoff once he read the question, his reaction making you raise a brow in both curiosity and slight dread. "Be honest," he said as he looked up from the paper, gaze landing on you. "Who do you love more, me," he paused for dramatic effect, narrowing his eyes at you before continuing, "Or Tessa?"

You let out a small groan as you hang your head low, fingers tracing the side of your cold glass. You let out a sigh of defeat before you met Tom's expectant gaze. "I can't possibly answer that question," you grumbled, bringing the glass up to your lips as you took a swift drink before placing it back down.

"That was such a tiny sip," Harrison pointed out.

"Alright, alright, I guess we can tell who the bad influence here is," you said with a teasing roll of your eyes, but still took another drink anyway, taking in more of it this time around. You just want to play the game fair and square. "You actually made that really well. It's really good," you hummed at Tom as you placed your drink back down, the lad grinning widely in response.

"Why thank you, darling," Tom crooned, voice smooth with a pride-filled smile, pushing over the pile of cards back in the middle of the table to get you to ask the next question.

"Okay, who wrote this?" You turned to the boys behind the camera with a raise of your brow. "If the alcohol wasn't going to do it, then this will definitely get the video restricted, unless you're going to bleep some words out?" You turned to Harry.

"I've got that covered," Harry laughed.

Glancing back at the card you had on hand, you asked, "If our sex life was porn, what genre would it be?" You looked up at Tom to see him try his best to hold back a smirk.

"Nope, not answering that," he laughed with a shake of his head as he lifted his glass off the table. "Mainly because there are too many genres that it would fit for me to only pick one," Tom muttered softly against his drink as he looked at you through his lashes. His words were muffled but you still heard it, you were closer to him after all. You felt your cheeks heat up at that, even more so when your man shot you a teasing wink before downing the shot of gin not long after.

Tom set his glass down and reached over to take another card. "What does your family think of me?" he asked with a clear of his throat.

"Well..." You slowly dragged your drink closer to you, Tom's mouth falling agape that you couldn't help but burst into a hearty laugh. "I'm kidding! You already know how much they love you," you said. "I mean, my parents call him 'son' so." You shrugged as you turned to the camera. Tom puffed out his chest all proud with a very smug smile on his lips. You rolled your eyes, sighing as you added, "They probably even love you more than they love me."

Tom chuckled, "My family loves you more than they love me, too—"

"I can vouch for that," Harry intervened.

"Thanks, Harry," Tom said sarcastically, flashing his brother a forced smile. Turning back to you, he finished, "So, I guess we're even."

You could only nod with a soft giggle, reaching over to the stack of cards to keep the pace going. "Lads! What's with these kinds of questio—you know what, I don't even expect any less from you guys," you sighed, pursing your lips as you re-read the question again before sitting straight up and looked into Tom's eyes. "What would you do if you caught me watching porn?" you asked.

"Watch it with you and help get it done, duh?" he answered without hesitation, leaning back on his chair as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Have done a couple times actually," Tom murmured, somewhat to himself, though not really since everyone in the room—and pretty sure the camera—heard it.

"Tom!" you hissed.

You felt your body tingle, legs instinctively closing together as the countless moments it happened replayed itself inside your brain. Although what he said wasn't false, it wasn't the full truth either. He didn't exactly catch you red handed, never did since you don't watch porn often.

All you did was asked him—merely out of curiosity—what type he mostly watches. Your question sparked an idea in his head which led to you sitting in between his legs, bare back against his naked chest as the laptop sat right in front of you both with the video of his choice.

Tom then made his way with you while you watched, making sure you never take your eyes off the couple on screen or else. He was always fully in control over you every time you do it, his fingers sometimes delicate, mostly rough, touch hot and heavy all over your skin, lips warm on your neck, teeth sharp against your bare shoulder as he brings you to the edge over and over and over with nothing but his hands. And once the video ends, Tom will take it upon himself to re-enact the whole of it with you—if you could still take it of course—bringing what was on screen to real life, full recreation from start to finish.

Best believed you're properly blissed out at the stop of every play.

Your boyfriend's eyes widened once he realized the actual volume of his voice, face turning a deep shade of red, sitting straight abruptly as he rushed, "No! Wait—dammit." Tom casted his eyes down shyly when the boys let out exaggerated gasps and sounds of disapproval, a telltale sign that they already heard it. "I'm sorry, darling." He met your gaze again as he shot you a sheepish smile, his head tilted to the side guiltily to which you only responded with a shake of your head.

Typical Thomas.

"Bleurgh, too much info," Harrison gagged, the other boys following suit with their own sounds of repulsion.

"Oh fuck off you divs. You guys wrote the questions so obviously, you wanted to find out," Tom countered, shooting the lads a glare each.

"We didn't expect you to actually answer it!" Harry defended.

"We're cutting that whole part out, no way that's going up online," you grumbled, eyes staring at nothing but your drink as you tried to hide the obvious embarrassment that's coated your features.

Tom reached across the table to give your hand a squeeze, you meeting his gaze to see him mouth a gentle 'I'm sorry.' You flashed him a sweet smile, squeezing his hand in return to tell him that it was alright. It wasn't live so there wasn't any real harm done, aside from future jokes from the boys. That you can deal with than having that confidential information on the internet which will then follow you around for the rest of eternity.

Letting go of your hand, Tom sat straighter and turned to the camera. "If you guys are wondering why there's a jump cut and my face is suddenly so red, it's because I spilled something I shouldn't have that we had to cut it out. And no, it's something you'll never find out," he chuckled shyly, knowing that once the video goes out, fans are going to be so annoyed and will pester him—and everyone in the room—nonstop to try and find out what was cut.

Better that, than embarrassing you in front of millions though, so he'll deal with them no problem. Because as promised, if you weren't comfortable with it staying in the video, then it gets cut out, no questions asked. You and what you're comfortable with always come first in Tom's book.

"Yet again, thank God we didn't do this live," you muttered with a playful roll of your eyes.

Tom shot you one last apologetic smile before he cleared his throat, "Right, moving on." He shifted in his seat and took another card from the pile. "What's the one thing you'd change about me?" he asked.

"Your height," you answered without missing a beat. You chewed on your lip to suppress a grin but still failed miserably, especially when Tom looked at you with his jaw hanging and his eyes wide open.

A chorus of 'ooh's erupted from the boys which only prompted a laugh from you, the joyous sound growing louder when they started to rub it to Tom even more.

"Pfft, apply ice on the burnt area," Harry said as he blew out his cheeks.

"Mate, she's just bodied you with that," Tuwaine tutted at Tom, rising up from his seat soon after to offer you a high-five. You gladly obliged with a laugh, Tom gawking at you with utmost betrayal on his face.

"You're lucky you're very cute, especially when you laugh," Tom grumbled as he shot you a playful glare. The crinkles on the corner of your eyes deepened as you only smiled brightly at him with a tilt of your head, which honestly made you look even more endearing. He could never be mad at you, too whipped to hold a grudge no matter how much you tease him. And besides, that's all there is to it, nothing but teasing jokes and banter.

"If I were you, Tom, I'd start taking those growth pills before she starts to question why she's even with you," Harrison proposed jokingly which earned boisterous laughter from the rest of the gang.

"You lot are so fucking overdramatic. I'm not that short," Tom quipped with a roll of his eyes, gaze landing back on you with his famous pout now in play yet again. "And babe, it's a truth or drink video, not a roast me video," he stated, palms flat on cool marble as he looked at you with puppy-dog eyes.

"I'm joking! I'm joking," you rushed with a giggle. "I wouldn't change a single thing. You know I love you, just the way you are," you sang the last line, though your voice held nothing but sincerity as you reached over to give his hand a loving squeeze. Tom nodded with a sigh, though never did he doubt your words, knowing it deep in his bones that physical traits would never outweigh how much you love him, no matter what.

"Right, let's keep this going," you said as you took another card. "Who is smarter, me or you?" you asked.

"Me," Tom said proudly.

"Well, that's a lie," you objected.

Tom couldn't help but laugh at that, nodding at you as he chuckled, "It's you, obviously. Have you seen the last video?"

"Hmm, I don't know, I think Tom's smarter. I mean, you decided to date him, Y/N, which isn't exactly the brightest decision," Harry inferred, earning a loud gasp from his older brother.

"Excellent point," you agreed, your boyfriend's head whipping towards your direction with nothing but absolute offense written on his face.

"Babe! You're supposed to be on my side!" Tom exclaimed. "Why are we roasting me all of a sudden?" he complained.

"You're just too fun to pick on," you laughed, Tom's bottom lip jutting out at your words. "Especially when you do that, too cute," you pointed out, the apples of Tom's cheek turning pink as a smile grew on his lips at the compliment. "But I am smarter," you concluded, shooting the camera a wink.

"Will not refute," Tom chuckled, keeping the flow of the game as he took another card. "If you weren't with me, who of my brothers would you consider dating?" he said, voice pitching higher at the last few words. A look of downright disgust covered Tom's face immediately as he looked at the boys behind the camera who were snickering like the mischievous little shits that they are. "You lot are grim."

You matched Tom's expression, scrunching your nose as you shook your head quickly. Having been with Tom long enough, you now see the three of the Holland boys as your own brothers, so the mere thought of dating any of them is just—

"I'm not even going to think about it," you grumbled as you took a sip of your cocktail and then picked a card right away. "Who's the celebrity who you were the most disappointed with when you met them?" you continued swiftly, a smile on your lips as you looked at Tom who let out a sigh.

"You know I can't answer that," he stated in a matter-of-fact tone, your smile growing wider as you picked up the bottle of gin and refilled his glass. "Thank you, darling," he chuckled with a shake of his head, taking a drink right after.

"Is there anyone in my friend group, famous or not, that you do not like?" Tom continued with a raise of his brow, gaze steady on you.

You emptied your glass—that was still half full—without a single word and placed it back down with a small burp. "Oh, excuse me," you cleared your throat with a laugh.

Tom's brows furrowed at you in mere curiosity, gesturing for your glass so he can remake you another drink. You slid it over to him with a soft 'thank you' and a sweet smile. He started opening up the bottle of juice though his eyes were still on you, narrowed in pure skepticism.

"Who?"

"Not part of the question, Tom," you said, flashing him an innocent smile

"I know who it is," Harry coughed fakely.

"Me too," Tuwaine added with a fake cough of his own.

"It's Harrison because he's trying to take you away from me," you commented, laughing at how the blonde lad gasped in utter protest.

"That's a lie because I know who it is too," Harrison defended.

"So, everyone knows except me?" Tom mused, rolling his eyes in the process.

"What else is new?" you giggled with a shrugged, Tom only sighing as he shot you yet another pout. This boy never ceases to use it since he knows you always swoon whenever he does. 'I'll tell you later,' you mouthed, making him nod with a proud smile.

You gently leaned back on your seat, closing your eyes when you felt a little woozy. You took in slow, deep breaths, the marble cold against your palms as your body started to grow warmer from head to toe.

Maybe downing that drink wasn't the best idea.

"You okay, darling?" Tom asked sweetly, tilting his head at you in worry as he went to take your hand in his. His brows knitted together when your skin felt unusually warm in his palms.

"Yeah," you giggled, opening your eyes to meet his concern-filled brown ones, flashing him a reassuring smile and a nod to match as you gave his hand a squeeze. "Just the alcohol slowly kicking in."

"Want to take a minute, sweetheart?"

"No, I'm good. Go on and ask the question bubba," you prompted as you beamed at him, Tom's heart melting at the beautiful curve on your features and more by the sound of that sweet nickname. Although, he knew that you'd reached your calm before the storm.

You're always smiley and extra sweet when you start to get a little tipsy. But from here on out, especially if you decide to take even more alcohol, you start switching from calm to giddily energetic. That's when the words would start flowing out your lips before your brain could even register what you've just said.

Tom replaced your hand with a white card once he was sure you were fine. A cheeky grin erupted on his face as he asked, "What's your favourite sex position?"

You pursed your lips, eyes landing on the ceiling, fingers drumming on the marble surface of the table as you pondered on it for a second. Tom watched you intently, a soft chuckle escaping him when you met his gaze again with a sweet yet shy smile.

"I've got three though," you said, mostly to him but in a not-so-hush tone. Your mind and your mouth don't cooperate sometimes when there's alcohol in the mix.

"Different one for a different mood," Tom hummed with a smirk, finishing up your drink with a squeeze of lime, mixing it up before sliding it back towards you. "Just say one or take a drink, darling."

"I need to slow down with drinking or else I'll be saying much worse things. I can already feel my filter shutting down," you breathed out, tilting your head to the side as you gazed at Tom for a bit of help. "But do I really want this out in the world?"

"Oh, go on Y/N, live a little," Harrison prodded with nothing but utter mischief in his eyes.

You don't know why but somehow, Harrison words were the last straw for that burst of confidence to suddenly overflow. Boldness coated your every nerve as you squeezed your eyes shut and straight up blurted,

"Doggy."

Tom's eyes grew wide, both of his brows rising as he looked at you surprised. Yes, doggy was one of your—and his—favourites, he already knew that, what surprised him was you actually saying it out loud. Although he was swift to turn cocky as he leaned back on his seat, arms crossed over his chest while he kept his gaze steady on you.

As you peaked one eye, you saw that certain smirk of his now playing on his pink lips, one you only ever see privately. You felt your face heat up at that, added from the alcohol and embarrassment. The warmth was quick to spread to the rest of your body though, with the way he was looking at you, it was so hard for it not too. And as your eyes fully soaked him in, gaze traveling from his handsome face sporting that teasing smirk to his bulging biceps, the temperature could only rise. Your senses was now somewhat heightened that you were able to notice every single thing that made your man so fucking attractive and downright hot.

Since when did his hoodie grow even tighter? And damn, why is it so hot all of a sudden? It's probably the alcohol, or mainly just Tom, or simply both.

"Favourite type of porn!" you hear someone from the gang call out—probably Harrison since he's been causing trouble from the very start—interrupting your thoughts. With the alcohol in your system, just as expected, your brain genuinely forgot to take control of your tongue before you could even tell yourself: 'don't!'

"Sometimes hardcore," you let out, slapping your hand over your mouth immediately as your eyes grew wide. You quickly met Tom's eyes, his brown orbs glowing with shock, amusement and a sprinkle of lust. He gave you a soft nod with a soft smile in response, confirming that yes, you said it out loud, and yes it was already too late. "Oh no, this was what I meant when I needed to slow down on alcohol," you groaned, rubbing your hand over your warm face before looking back across your man with a pout.

"Aye! Hardcore doggy yeah?" Harrison cheered teasingly, moving towards Tom and giving his best friend a pat on the shoulder. Tom threw his head back with a laugh, face red but the look of utmost pride was also there. Harrison swiftly offered his fist to Tom, to which the brunette gladly indulged, their knuckles colliding as chuckles escaped the two mates.

You let out a choked laugh as your eyes widened in surprise, jaw going slack with your face heating up even more. "Did you guys just fist bump to that?"

"I mean." Tom shrugged, throwing his hands up with the smuggest grin, causing you to shake your head dejectedly with a groan. You shot Harrison a pointed glare when he went back to his seat, still snickering to his heart's content as if his master plan was in the works.

What a little shit.

"I'm definitely not going to let my parents watch this video," you mumbled with a roll of your eyes.

"I've got a question for Tom though," Tuwaine started, though the glimmer in his eyes told you it wasn't a clean one. "Do you grab it or do you smack it?"

Tom wheezed before erupting into a very rowdy laugh, hands slapping on his thigh as his body shook in nothing but pure enjoyment, his face red from a mixture of embarrassment, glee and the alcohol.

"Oh my—right! Next question!" you squeaked, not giving your boyfriend any time to answer as you attempted to swiftly move on.

"Wait, wait," Tom breathed out as he slowly calmed down, getting up from his seat as he went over to your side. "Harry stop recording for a sec," he called out to his younger brother before he gestured for you to turn until your back was facing the camera.

Tom crouched down in front of you, hands on your knees with a sweet, reassuring smile on his lips. "We'll edit out the parts you're not comfortable with to stay in the vid, alright?" he stated softly.

You nodded with a smile of your own, taking his hand in yours as you played with his fingers. "I'm not opposed to keeping the last two questions since everyone has their favourite position and type of porn. It's normal," you hummed, tilting your head at him as you added, "You saying you've helped me with, you know, that was much more private though, 'cause it's our thing."

"I know, I'm sorry, love," Tom apologized, voice soft but coated with sincerity as his hand went up to cup your face lovingly, brown eyes gazing up into yours with just the same emotions. "We're cutting that part out, I promise."

"But you think your fans would take these questions well?" you queried, leaning into his touch in a way that made Tom's heart do flips inside his chest.

He nodded. "Yeah, I think it's fine. The video is going to be age restricted anyway. And besides, we're both adults, so there's nothing wrong with it," he explained. You hummed in agreement, leaning your head on his hand as you closed your eyes with a soft sigh, your skin very warm against his palm. Tom moved closer to give your lips a sweet peck. "Want some water angel?"

"No, I'm good." You smiled, Tom nodding as he mirrored your grin, giving your lips another kiss before he stood back to his full height and then sat back on his seat.

Shooting Harry the go signal to start recording again, Tom chuckled, "Sorry, needed to cool down for a sec after that." He turned towards the camera, tugging at the collar of his hoodie as he blew out his cheeks to get a point across.

You could only roll your eyes at your man, his laugh growing louder at your reaction. Swiftly taking a card from the pile, you continued with the game. "Is this going to be the theme from here on out, lads?" you asked, eyeing the boys behind the camera suspiciously before you turned back to Tom. "Is there something in the bedroom you'd like to try that you haven't told me?"

Tom's cheeks turned even redder at the question, completely shying away now as his hand went to rub at his shoulder. "I can't think of one right now," he muttered as he looked at you sheepishly. "But no, I'm not answering that since we talk about that off camera anyway," Tom settled with a timid chuckle, refilling his glass and taking a drink of the gin soon after.

"Your turn," you giggled, pushing the pile towards him.

"Oh, okay. What a way to shift the topic," Tom breathed out, scanning the card one more time as he sat up straighter. "If I was in a coma how long would you wait for me?" he asked, meeting your gaze with a tender smile.

"I'll keep waiting for you until you wake up, no matter how long," you answered, without even a single inch of doubt, despite the slight shake in your voice as your eyes started to well up. "Never giving up on you."

"Darling," Tom cooed softly with a pout, the screeching sound of his chair echoing around the space as he pushed his seat back. He went back over to your side quickly, remaining on his feet as he leaned down to engulf you in a tight and warm embrace, swaying you side to side in the most comforting way as he whispered sweet nothings against your hair.

You buried your face in his chest with a shaky breath, the material of his hoodie soft against your cheek. You willed your brain not to think much of it, to not dwell on that thought and focus more on the Tom's warmth that's coated you right now. Or else you'll end up a bawling mess, and with the alcohol in your system, it's not a good idea to start crying now.

Your man pulled away gently with a charming smile, cupping your face with both hands as he towered over your seated form. "I'd do the exact same, just so you know," he hummed, brown eyes locked with yours, his thumbs caressing your cheeks fondly before he dipped his head to capture your lips in a loving kiss. You let out a sweet sigh as you melt at the feeling of his soft lips on yours, mind and heart at ease at familiar warmth. The gesture wasn't fully caught on camera though given that you were turned at the opposite direction.

"I love you," you hummed against his lips.

Tom chuckled sweetly, giving you a few more pecks on the lips before pulling away completely, staring right into your eyes as he whispered, "And I love you."

With that he went back to his seat again, flashing you one of his many charming grins before he turned to the group behind the camera.

"You lot are onto something I can tell," Tom said as he raised a brow at the lads who suspiciously grew quiet, looking everywhere in the room but at you two.

Not thinking much of it, you swiftly took another card and read the question. "What would you do if you suddenly get a call that I was gone?" you trailed off at the end of your sentence, brows knitting together as you turned to the group behind the camera. "Guys, this is a cruel question."

"Oh," Tom faltered, smile slowly slipping away from his face as he casted his eyes at his drink.

"Tom, you don't have to answer it," you called out softly, frown deep on your lips as you reached over to take both his hands in yours. But it was already too late when he squeezed your hand tightly, lifting his head back up to meet your gaze and you felt your heart ache. That's when you saw that his mind was already there, brown orbs glossed up as he let out a shaky breath.

"I'd literally shut down," he croaked. "I-I don't know what'd I do if that happens. I just can't imagine my life without you. I—" he stopped, head dropping as his voice broke.

"Oh Tom, come here," you cooed as you immediately got out of your seat and rounded the table, turning him around and away from shot for a bit of privacy. You squatted in between his legs that were spread apart to be much closer to him, gently cupping his face with both your hands so that you were now within eye level. "Hey, look at me," you whispered when you were met by eyes that were screwed shut.

With a deep intake of breath, Tom willed his eyes to open. He looked at you with a small smile playing on his lips, heart steadying at the sight of your beautiful orbs boring into his own. He leaned forward to close the distance between you two, just so he could feel your lips on his. Tom badly needed to. A soft satisfied sigh erupted out your chest as your hand took home on his warm cheek.

"I'm still here bubba. I'm not going anywhere," you hummed against his lips before giving him warm kisses all over his face that made him stifle out a small laugh. You pulled away a little with a loving smile, wiping away the few tears that sat on his skin with your thumb, your touch gentle and warm.

"I love you so much, you know that?" Tom whispered as he looked at you fondly, nudging the tip of his nose with yours in a wholesome manner.

"I love you too, you sweet, soft boy," you giggled, placing a sweet peck on his lips before pulling him in for a hug. You lifted your head up to shoot each of the boys a sharp glare, the three cowering away in their seats as they each said their soft apologies.

Pulling away with a smile, you cupped Tom's face with a hum, "Better?"

"Loads," Tom sighed with a sweet smile, leaning in for one last peck before he lets you go back to your seat. "You purposely put that in there to make me cry didn't you?" Tom spoke, narrowing his eyes at boys who only shrugged in feign innocence. "You lot are evil I tell you."

"Now let's get back on a lighter note!" you exclaimed, pushing the cards towards Tom since it was his turn to ask.

Tom pursed his lips as his brows furrowed at the question. "If you could sleep with any person in the world, who would it be?" he wondered, eyes locking with yours in warning. "Now, careful with your answer, love," he hummed.

"Is that a threat Holland?" you challenged with a raise of your brow.

"I'm just saying, I may already know or will meet this person in the futur—"

"Chris Hemsworth," you blurted, Tom's mouth falling open as he gawked at you in shock. "I'm kidding," you rushed with a hearty laugh.

"Are you though?" Tom doubted, squinting at you suspiciously.

You bit your bottom lip as you held his gaze, Tom letting out a loud gasp when you suddenly took a drink all while maintaining eye contact with him.

"I'm going to have a word with you later missy," he grumbled, voice suddenly an octave deeper, somewhat a soft growl, one that you felt down to your core.

You shifted in your seat with a clear of your throat, shooting him an innocent smile as you said, "To be fair, you did say—publicly may I add—that you'd sleep with Hemsworth too when you did fuck, marry and kill with the three Chrises so, roll the clip!"

Tom shook his head at you with a playful roll of his eyes. "Touché," he sighed, brows furrowed in confusion when you suddenly covered your mouth.

"Oops, I just realized I said the F-word, sorry Harry," you said meekly, a certain smile on your lips which guaranteed that you were now dancing onto drunken territory. Tom knows you like the back of his hand, if the way you were smiling wasn't enough then, the simple look in your eyes would let him know that the alcohol has fully hit you this time.

"It's alright. One bleep word is nothing compared to last week's video. And it's not like this video has been clean anyway," the young twin chuckled.

"So, Fuck Hemsworth, who are you marrying and who are you killing?" Tuwaine asked.

"Marry Evans, Kill Pratt," you answered promptly.

Tom leaned back on his seat as he crossed his arms over his chest, running his tongue over his teeth slowly all while staring you down. "That's a quick answer Y/N," he hummed, shooting you a teasing glare.

"Oh please, yours was quick too, Thomas," you retorted, crossing your arms over your chest as you mirrored him, never backing down from his stare even though it was making you feel certain things.

"Wait, if you're marrying Evans and killing Pratt, and I'm marrying Pratt and killing Evans, does that mean we're set out to kill each other's husband?" Tom started as he leaned forward and towards the table.

"So, if you were successful in killing Evans, and I was successful in killing Pratt, that means we're both widowed," you continued, laying your hands now flat on the marble surface.

"Meaning there's still a chance that we will still end up together. Meant to be if you ask me," Tom concluded, lifting up a hand.

You moved forward to give him a high-five, missing his hand by a lot which made you let out a loud, hearty laugh, Tom following suit with laughs of his own.

"What are you two on?" Harrison said with a crinkle of his nose.

"Alcohol," you and Tom answered at the same time. Both of your mouths turned into the shape of O's as you looked at each other properly delighted.

"Jinx!" both of you exclaimed in unison. "Jinx again!"

"Our mental synchronization; can have but one explanation," you and Tom sang in harmony, never breaking your gaze as you both smiled proudly.

"You—"

"And I—"

"Were—"

"Just—"

"Meant to be!" You two ended with fits of laughter, raising your hands to go for another high five. You missed Tom's hand again which only made you wheeze, tears of joy brimming in yours and his eyes as you tried for the second time, both of you cheering loudly when it finally landed.

"Cringe, really made for each other," Harry gagged teasingly with a grimace to match.

And then Harrison intervened. "How about fuck, marry, kill, Tom Hiddleston, Tom Felton and," he paused, grin turning wider like a Cheshire cat as he wiggled his eyebrows at you. "Tom Holland?"

"That's not part of the game," you protested with a pout.

"Answer the question, darling," Tom encouraged, looking at you expectantly.

"I'm taking a shot," you muttered, going for your drink but before you could even do so, Tom had already taken it far away from your reach. "Hey!" you whined.

Tom chuckled softly as he shook his head no. "You said it's not part of the game so no, you have to answer," he said. "And that's enough alcohol for you, my love," he cooed, tilting his head at you knowingly with a sweet smile. If Tom will let you continue with the drinking then you'll surely be complaining nonstop about the throbbing headache you'll get and the constant nausea after all this.

You sat back on your chair with your bottom lip jutted out, arms crossed over your chest to match, much like a child as you started to think about your answer. Although the process took way longer than you'd expect it to be and the boys were quick to notice.

"Uh oh, she's having a hard time," Harry teased when a few long seconds has gone by and you still haven't given an answer.

"I don't know how I feel about the hesitation here," Tom admitted as he looked at you curiously, brows furrowing with a chuckle when you were still deep in thought after a few seconds more.

"She genuinely is having a hard time," Tuwaine laughed.

"This is so unfair," you grumbled dejectedly as you looked at your man with a sweet, adorable pout, silently asking for help.

"What'd you do with me first to make things easier," Tom offered with a chuckle.

As if there was a hidden message to his words—there wasn't—your face suddenly lit up, slapping your palms on the table excitedly as you sat straighter. "You know what, kill the other two and I'll fuck and marry you," you declared heartily, eyes locked securely with Tom's with the proudest grin playing on your lips.

Tom's heart did somersaults at the mere fact of you wanting to marry him, grin wide and bright as he stared into your orbs, utmost love glowing in yours that was wholesomely mirrored by his brown ones.

It wasn't long until Tom felt his blood rush down though, heat dancing on his skin as his brain got occupied with the thought of you fucking him too. Certain memories flooded his mind, one after the other that it was getting harder for him to stay calm in his seat.

You are honestly giving him a whiplash with how you make him feel one emotion to another in a span of seconds, though Tom wasn't at all complaining.

"That's not how the game works!" Harrison exclaimed.

"I'm pretty happy with that answer," Tom shrugged with a wide, cocky grin, eyes never leaving yours as he raised a brow at you suggestively. You held his gaze with a tilt of your head, bottom lip caught between your teeth to try and stop your smile from growing.

The interaction didn't go unnoticed by Harry though. "Okay, stop eye-fucking each other you horny teenagers," the younger brother complained.

Tom laughed at that, shifting in his seat as he turned towards the camera. "On that note, we're ending the video there. This has been Tom Holland," he paused, giving you a nod as a cue.

"And Mrs. Holland," you blurted at the camera with a smile, eyes widening once you realised the choice of words you've just used. "Oh wait! No! Fuc—I don't mean no as in 'no,' I meant not yet," you fumbled. "We're not even engaged yet! Don't start with the headlines you." You pointed at the camera in warning.

He shook his head with a chuckle, red tinting his cheeks but pure admiration glowed in his eyes. "You own my fucking heart, you know that? You make me melt all the damn time," Tom gushed through gritted teeth, and it was taking a whole lot of his self-control to not jump over the table and just kiss you senseless. You felt your heart grow at his words but you could only bury your face in your hands with a groan of pure embarrassment. "She's drunk, my apologies," Tom added with a laugh as he turned towards the camera.

"Tipsy, there's a difference," you corrected as you shot him a glare.

Tom chuckled, smiling at you widely before turning back to the lens. "Anyway, see you on the next one and peace!" he finished with the sign and then a salute, Harry throwing out an upturned thumb to signal cut.

Once he saw that the camera was off, Tom was out of his seat in record speed, moving over to your now standing form as he swiftly wrapped both his arms around your waist and crashed his lips onto yours with a low groan. His arms tightened around you as he relished the feeling of finally having you so close.

You giggled against the kiss, resting your arms over his shoulders as you leaned back on the table to keep your balance, your bum half-rested on the marble while your foot stayed steady on the floor, legs apart so that Tom can situate himself between them easily.

"So, fuck and marry me huh?" Tom hummed deeply against your mouth, playfully nibbling at your bottom lip before pulling away so he can see your gorgeous face fully.

"Out of all the things I've said, that's what stuck with you?" you giggled with a shake of your head.

"I mean, you fucking me will never fail to sound very hot, reminds me of the few times you did." Tom wriggled his brows at you suggestively, hands giving your waist as teasing squeeze. "Though I don't know which one's hotter, that or you marrying me," he said with the proudest smirk.

"Will you two take this somewhere else?" Harry complained, always the last one to be left in the room given that he's mostly in-charge with taking care of the camera. Harrison and Tuwaine were already gone, continuing whatever they had to do that day.

"Don't think that would make a difference though," Tom chuckled smugly, looking back at you with a knowing grin.

"Which reminds me how we need to sound proof the fucking walls you nasty rabbits."

"I was kidding. We're not that loud fuck off," Tom remarked, rolling his eyes at his brother.

And to prove how wrong Tom's point was, Harrison suddenly started moaning so piercingly right in the next room, his voice a bit muffled but you can still hear him, loud and obnoxious.

"Fuck! Love! Fuck yes! Just like that, darling! Shit baby I'm gonna—"

"Fuck off Harrison you fucking twat!" Tom yelled at the top of his lungs, the blonde lad's boisterous and annoying laugh echoing soon after.

Tom turned crimson red as the embarrassment coated him from head to toe, head dropping for him to hide his face on the crook of your neck with a groan. You let out a soft giggle, hand landing on the back of his head as you ran your fingers through his hair comfortingly. Your face was warm as you were embarrassed just the same, although there was more of a sense of pride on your behalf because yes, Tom does get a bit loud sometimes, all courtesy to you.

It wasn't always of course, both of you aren't evil enough to torture the lads that much. Aside from the fact that Tom is rarely even home—meaning you don't do the deed that much in this house—the two of you had made a pact to make sure that you're completely alone before properly going at it. Admittedly, it does get a bit hard to keep the noise down sometimes, so the boys have to endure it every now and then. They do get back at you guys soon after as they are quick to be little shits with the teasing and dirty jokes, much like now.

"Maybe we do need to soundproof our walls," you teased once your man pulled away to look at you with a soft sigh, hands running up and down your waist sweetly.

"Or we could finally look for our own place to move in?" Tom proposed with a charming smile, your heart melting at the sight and skipping a beat at his words.

Granted, you've been with Tom for a fair three and a half years already, but neither of you had gone to take that step of actually living fully on your own where it's just no one but him and you in your own home. You've been living in this house for roughly the same time—maybe a year or two less—and you've got no problem living with the lads, you consider them as your brothers now. But you won't deny that having a place exclusively for you and Tom only would be pure bliss.

Of course you've talked about getting your own place and neither of you were opposed to it. It all just came down to Tom being constantly busy and barely even home. You'd rather live with the boys for the mean time than sulk all alone in a house while slowly being buried in the emotions of missing your boyfriend.

Tom also wanted to be there for the most of it—choosing and buying furniture, decorating a thing or two, moving, the likes—but with his schedule, it was hard to find the perfect time.

But now he's promised you that he'd slow down for a bit.

He genuinely hasn't done anything but work nonstop. It was just projects upon projects with only so little breaks in between, a month if he's lucky. Tom is one hardworking man, that's one of the many things you love about him, but he sometimes doesn't realize when he's pushing himself too far.

That's when you step in.

You'd encouraged him to take a breather, even if it's just for half a year or so but you never did pester him about it constantly as you weren't one to take him away from doing what he loves. Unless it gets way out of hand, then that's when you'll be putting your foot down. You know he'll do it whenever he's ready to slow down and now with most of his projects wrapped, he's finally decided that it was the right time to take that much needed break.

"I love the sound of that," you giggled, treading your fingers through his hair before tracing it down his chiseled jaw. "Not as much as I love the sound of you moaning though," you hummed teasingly.

"Well then, let's find our own place so you can hear me moan all for you and as loud as you want, darling," Tom purred lowly, his bottom lip caught between his teeth as his darkened orbs bored into yours, his hands sliding down to rest on the swell of your bum. He fondled the flesh hotly as he started to lean closer to capture your lips. But before Tom could even do so a loud voice made you both jump away from each other.

"For fuck's sake guys! I'm still fucking here!" Harry yelled, throwing both his hands in the air in downright annoyance and disgust as he screwed his eyes shut. "Go to your fucking room for the love of my sanity!"

You didn't even get a chance to apologise to the young lad as Tom swiftly grabbed your hand and rushed to your shared bedroom.

Nothing happened though apart from a couple minutes of making out, Tom deciding not to take it further given that you were all tipsy and intoxicated. Him deciding since you were persistent on saying you were fine even though you were giggling nonstop, easily tickled no matter how feather-like his kisses were. Not to mention how you could barely even keep your eyes open. So, both of you ended up taking a warm bath and then a nap right after that, instead.

Although the minute you sobered up, Tom made sure you weren't at all quiet this time around. It was due to the pent up tension that's been building since that somewhat steamy Q&A. And maybe, just maybe to get back at the boys a teeny bit for being little shits with both the teasing jokes and the dirty questions.

The two of you went out of your bedroom only at dinner time, stepping foot in the dining area where Harry, Tuwaine and Harrison were all situated. You felt the embarrassment coat every inch of your body when you took sight of the boys, more specifically, their expressions. Tom, on the other hand, had the cockiest smirk playing on his lips as he held his head high, tauntingly chuckling at his mates.

The three lads were sitting around the table with nothing but grimaces and downright disgust on their faces as they all grumbled in unison,

"Rabbits."

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♛ Overall/Everything Taglist: @theunwantedomega​ @badreputatiom​ @fallinfortom​ @disneysamara​ @avengersficwriter​ @musicalkeys​ @apatheticanvas67482​ @camimndess​ @tom-hlover​ @jjandreidsgirl​ @blossomparkers​ @thenoddingbunny-blog​ @sarcasticallywitty15​ @call-me-baby-gir1​ @miraclesoflove​ ♛ Tom H. Taglist: @hollandfanficlove​​ @averyfosterthoughts​​ @2018shawn​​ @darlingspidey​​ @namoreno​​ @spacebitch2 @hollanddolanfangirl​​ @keepingupwiththehollands​​ @in-a-lot-of-fandoms-tbh​​ @unbelievableholland​​ @kittenruby​​ @sunkisseddreamer​​ @worldoftom​​ @quaksonhehe​​ @big-galaxy-chaos​​ @clara-licht​​ @dummiesshort​​ @imanativeofswlondondahling​​ @sonofabitchstyles​​ @perspectiveparker​​ @geminiparkers​​ @parker-hollandx​​ @arivera-30​ @rebekkah4766​ @particularnarry​ @iwannabekilledtwice​ @prettyintopeerpressure​ @fancyxholland​ @givebuckyhisplumsnow​ @asoftie4bucky​ @dandelionxgal​ @peterspideysstuff​ @zspideyy​​

#tom holland #tom holland fanfiction #tom holland imagine #tom holland fluff #tom holland reader insert #tom holland one shot #tom holland fic #tom holland fanfic #tom holland x reader #tom holland x you #tom holland x y/n #tom holland x fem!reader #tom holland x female reader #tom holland x youtube #tom holland stories #tom holland oneshot #tom holland one shots #tom holland oneshots #tom holland imagines #my writing

[aphrodite1288]

I got into kp0p and exo when I was a teen. I was closeted and very depressed. As I learned about shipping and fanservice culture in kp0p (which I didn't like at all considering how it coexists with raging h0moph0bia), I got recommended by utube a kd compilation vid. And I immediately knew smth was up. It was unlike every other shipping comp I had seen, cause this obv wasn't fanservice and there was palpable atmosphere between them, which couldn't be explained as platonic. Then I started searching more, eventually found those old and gold kd blogs that were analyzing kxk (cause that was happening at the time), and everything made perfect sense. I hadn't caught up with kd for some years now, and now that I'm back, nothing has changed.

What I really want to say is this. The majority of str8 people really have difficulty grasping the realities of h0mose*uals and how you have to navigate life because of h0moph0bia. From my own experience as a g@y woman, and others I have witnessed, life can be very harsh. I can't even imagine how it's like for soo and ji. But I know that they helped me survive an unbearable puberty and showed me how you can survive AND thrive, even with the world against you. In the end of the day, obvious marks of romantic involvement between 2 people of the same seggs are still not awknowledged, especially in this industry for various reasons, despite the obv being the obv.

Sorry for the ridiculous censoring and this was a rant inspired by recent events, and you can ignore it, since it really doesn't have a purpose. But I'm back on tmblr after some years, the kd community has changed a bit but I guess kd hasn't, even from the very few moments I have seen of them, and without having any insider knowledge of anything.

Thank you for the active blog and plz don't mind the haters.

I can't say anything but: 🕎Preach🕎 Girl you really touched my heart and I support you and I'm here for you anytime, in case you needed to talk or had some struggle or hard times trust me and the Kadi community will always be by your side, and in case you felt bad, sad, depressed you can always come here in the Dms or in Anonymous ask and we will always listen and if we could we would help. Don't say that what you wrote is meaningless or without a purpose, in the opposite, it was deep and it really touched me and the audience reading it. You're doing an amazing job darling please don't let anything or anyone discourage you or hurt you for who you are and please don't mind the homophobics and the haters as well. Thank you for taking the courage and time to write about your own experience as a gay person and you can always join us in DMs in case you needed to talk.

@Admin_Fallone

[redxblueihateloveyou]

Hiiii!!! 💫💕🌸🥳

Can I bother with a question... I was (re)watching that zhang qiling edit (not today) - 'cause it's so cool, btw- and I wondered if Reboot Xiaoge’s your favourite one...? And if you're up to answering, what do you think about the other adaptations? Especially (our small bean) xiao yuliang's interpretation of xiaoge?

🤗🌺💐🐰💕

Hey, my precious patootie hehe ILY it always makes me very happy knowing that you rewatch my vids <3

lol dang it, I was kinda hoping to avoid this question, just because I feel like I'd find it hella hard to explain some things, but I'll try my best and hopefully it'll make some sense xD

I'll start from afar bc I wanna try to explain my reasonings, since I don't want to go without arguments into such highly debated question lolz. I talked about this a bit in my previous asks somewhere, but not broadly as to why that one guy hit all the right spots.

So throughout the books Wu Xie always does this wonderful thing, where he very tangibly describes the feeling he gets when Xiaoge is near, I mean like the aura around him. And he always somehow does it so colorful, that this mix of safety, assurance, calmness, composure and some things I can't quite put into one noun, that he brings to him, I think everyone who've read the books can recognize as this almost magical "Xiaoge feeling". It's not just the way he acts in some dangerous situations or smth like that. It's just everything. You either have it or you don't. And here goes my first argument... to me none of them, except for Huang Junjie and Yuliang have it.

I mean it's not even the obvious stuff, it's like the way they move during the action scenes, the way they even stand and hold themselves, the way they touch Wu Xie, the tone of their voices (both of which are like soothing as fuck), little things you'd think wouldn't matter, but when you watch it and all the puzzle pieces are together, you're like... fuck yeah, thats him.

Also not really that weighty of a point, but to me there's always a joy to see that the actor who plays the character not only gets what's he's playing, but also loves it, bc it's always seen on screen. Usually when some asked about the character they play and what they have in common for example they answer with obvious things like if some character is introverted they're like "well I also don't talk very much" or smth like that, you know what I mean. When I was watching interviews of Yuliang and Huang Junjie I was just smiling so much, bc they've said such things that made me go "yeah, Qiling is safe in their hands".

In Reboot case working in such close proximity with the author definitely also played a huge role here. Bc it kinda gets complicated in some aspects since the books are written from Wu Xie's point of view and you can't only base your picture on his perspective, just bc it's coming from a person who after being basically told "you're my whole world" goes "I'm just a person he randomly passes by in his long life" in his thoughts. Not only he's utterly clueless and dumb when it comes to all this, that he wouldn't notice the way Qiling looks at him and other things, its also not that kind of book, that would go "I suddenly caught poker face looking at me like I'm his whole existence" (and I honestly don't want it to be that book lmao). So you have to take into the account here stuff like what author says to get the whole picture, bc if you look at that from the point of Qiling's view for example, this shit takes a whole wild turn. So I really loved that in UN and Reboot ways of showing Qiling's feelings were well thought out and fit the timeline.

Bc it also works both ways, when it comes to other adaptations. Like Qiling is very and I mean ETREMELY hard to win over. We all know that it was a very long process of gaining his trust and even longer for him to fall for Wu Xie to the point of him being his everything. So what I want in those interpretations is for them to get at which point of their relationships what Xiaoge's behavior makes sense. I do not need any fanservice if it ruins the character, I'll just hate it. The thing that their feelings didn't come out of nowhere is what I LOVE about this ship, bc I'm not the kind of person who believes in "we love for nothing" thing and love at first sight thing (only "got hots for each other" at first sight), bc thats bull. Wu Xie became his everything after a long LONG process of getting to know each other. At the beginning tho he was the same stranger to him as everyone else. So what Reboot Qiling feels for Wu Xie is not what UN's Qiling feels for Wu Xie yet and what UN's Qiling feels for Wu Xie is not what Lost Tomb's Qiling feels for Wu Xie (which at that point was nothing). And I feel like not everyone gets the fact that you can totally wreck the character if you make him behave not the way he behaved in that particular time. Like for example, if someone would make a MDZS adaptation where at the very beginning of their relationships LZ treats WWX the way he treated him after the reincarnation just because "who cares, it's still LZ", that would be dumb af, see what I mean. So Xiaoge having a weakness for Wu Xie in part one is automatically not a Xiaoge to me, bc a huge part of his character and the thing NPSS speaks a lot about is just how IMPOSSIBLE it is for someone to catch his attention and how long it took Wu Xie to get there. So let's just say to me UN and Reboot Qilings for the first time didn't feel like some mashup or character summary/parody, they were Qilings the way they are supposed to be in that part of the story, bc it was the only times someone actually bothered to coordinate it.

Now as to why I prefer one to another. Xiaoge has this thing... the way he holds himself with other people, that is sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally suppressing.

Like everyone knows that if you're a passerby, Qiling genuinely doesn't fucking care and would in fact be pretty harsh about it in terms of treating people like they do not deserve their attention. He won't be like "please, don't bother me", he simply ignored them like an empty space. He is also like that with acquaintances who in his opinion do not deserve his respect like that girl who went hysterical, bc she was upset that he was the only one who wasn't drooling on her like all other men on the crew, Chen Wenjin, Wu Xie's uncles and etc. He's not openly disrespectful unless they trigger him in some way (usually by trying to act superior or later on for not treating Wu Xie right), but if they do, he will in fact remind them their place in sometimes a very rude way, at times humiliating them in front of ppl bc he looks younger than them and talking starts.

He's always doing things on his own terms and hates being told what to do. Like he legit scared Chen Wenjin just with a look and the tone of his voice when he said "let go", when she tried to command him on the mission and grabbed him trying to lecture him about what he should or shouldn't do. That's why Wu Erbai didn't even try anything like this and let him do whatever he needed to do and equally lead the mission in Reboot. And why the scene where Wu Xie 'commands' "Xiaoge, come back" and he immediately listens holds another special place in my heart. Bc he NEVER and I mean NEVER allows such things to ANYONE.

So here I came to a point of why despite loving them both dearly, my favorite Xiaoge is Huang Junjie.

I have this dissonance with Yuliang's version when to me in many scenes it felt like he and Wu Xie are the same age. Like if he was Xiaoge, but in his 20s. In his interactions with Chen Wenjin the dynamics was turned upside down, with him being okay with her telling him what to do and just in general the way she behaved with him. Same as like I didn't always quite believe him to be on par with older generation or even Pangzi, it just felt like he was truly younger than them. Some scenes that I do find extremely cute just don't fit book Xiaoge at all, I'm talking about some moments like his face when Wu Xie gave him food, or him pouting and many things he's done, when you were going "uwu he's a baby". He just never gives me this feeling in the books ever, not just bc he's 100 years old, but sad fact here.. bc he's simply unable to behave that way. Like in the books you'll desperately want to shower him with love, but he's just... I can't quite explain, it's very sad.

I guess it's just you know these characters, who are like hundreds years old, but look like they're 18? I think you have to be very careful with how you write those, so you could deliver that. And in UN because of some changed dynamics and scenes I straight up forgot about it, until Wu Xie threw some joke like "he's an old man" in front of a restaurant.

In Reboot Xiaoge could make Wu Erbai stutter with one move, put Yuliang's version in the same scene, I just don't think it would've worked. Like I'm trying to imagine him telling UN's Wu Erbai what to do and having troubles already haha. Same as I don't think he's capable to be genuinely mad at Wu Xie, and HJJ nailed it esp in one of my fav when Wu Xie was laughing at Pangzi's joke about him catching cold. The look he gave him and how ZYL just retreated was priceless xD. And boy could Qiling get angry with him in the books!

Otherwise I didn't have any drastic fall outs there, like with Joseph's Wu Xie and Ah Ning's death, because that was just too much of a difference, but there were still moments where it was once again this the same scene completely different emotion thing. He was more tolerable to ppl in general here, more pliable. And 50% of the time he gave me the cute lost kitten type, which I just cannot connect with the feeling he gave me in the books. His personality is a cat type 100%, but like seriously "cute baby" is the last word combination I would ever apply to book Xiaoge, but with Yuliang's version it's easily applied. So small bean he is indeed. With Joseph and in UN it works incredibly perfect to me, but the way he is in UN is at times too gentle. And there are lots of scenes where Joseph himself looked at him in a way "you're too cute, let me pinch your cheeks" kind of way, or the way he like sat down next to him on the coast, he was a bit babying him at times. I can't imagine book pingxie doing that. It's just a whole different vibe, the way he takes care of him, the way he lets him take care of him... it's...uuuuuuuuu another vibe (see, I'm so good at explaining lmao).

It's also kinda funny to me, bc HJJ who's the smallest and who irl truly a kitten never once gave me that feeling on screen for some reason. The one babied and loved by every crew and old ppl, who was cutely hiding behind ZYL's back on set, who won't sue an ex who almost ruined his career bc of how stupid she is, bc he "didn't want to hurt her", who according to staff can't even step on a fly, whom CMH was petting for several minutes after he had to hit him with a prop brick bc he didn't wanna do it lmao. I was just like.. ok, this is hilarious, bc I in fact didn't expect him to be a small bean, so watching all the bts made me go LOOOOL. Probably ZYL acting like a 3 year old helped him transform and the age difference problem got lost lmao

As for other adaptations. You know I can't watch seriously "Lost Tomb", I think some ppl probably have some nostalgic feeling about it, but I'm sorry, to me it's fucking hilarious. Like I've already said it looks like some type of twilight parody thing or smth. Soft damselle Wu Xie esp killed me, bc 1st when he ever was that, 2nd in the first book he's salty af, I don't even know this dude in this interpretation, I was like who's this. YangYang I know him from other things, I really don't think it's his role. I know the script and everything is bad. I know the costume and hair are horrendously funny, but it's just I was watching him in those action scenes and was like no... just I'm sorry but I'm not feeling it. I simply just don't know what to say about the whole thing seriously, bc I don't even know where to start. 10 episodes of some salad finished with one mutilated scene from book 6 for no reason the fact that characters are weird themselves also I can't quite tell, did they really just meet or they imply smth else lmao.. I'm sorry, but I do not get it.

I've given LT2 another try after finishing all the books and I've dropped it half way through, Cheng Yi wasn't even close to how I pictured Xiaoge in any aspect. He in fact didn't do anything OOC or off the book or anything, I just was like "not my Qiling". Happens sometimes.

Explore with the note you already know how I feel about this lol let's just forget.

P.S. To be fair here also maybe we should take into account the fact that some got luckier than other with "at which point" Xiaoge they're playing. Like for example, "Wrath of the Sea" and "Qingling Tree" books which is LT2 is not exactly you can say much about Qiling there, he trolls them there in the beginning (in a brilliant way that was totally lost in the adaptation) and he is there in "Wrath of Sea", but it's not the part that can make his character shine in any way, there's not much things happening there that would make you fall for him or get to know him; Yuliang grabbed the fattest piece bc it's middle several books, when they're always together and his character shines the most in terms of clues about past, opening up to Wu Xie and Pangzi, and there are many many events where you can get the picture of what kind of man he is; Huang Junjie grabbed my fav piece of utter devotion, where he's already fully and wholeheartedly belongs to Wu Xie, that I'm just weak for. So like... there's also that I guess xD.

#answered #jaecomments #zhang qiling #daomu biji #dmbj #lost tomb reboot #i still feel like i couldn't quite explain stuff lol #its a complicated question xD #do not kill me for my i guess weird opinions haha #huang junjie #xiao yuliang #lost tomb #pingxie

[cerberusdailynews]

[PEOPLE] Interview with an Ardat-Yakshi

By Cil M’riste, freelance storyteller xposted to Freelance News, Cerberus Daily News, The Watch, and 14 others The Ardat-Yakshi condition is one of our oldest myths. One that is largely presumed to be legend by a large portion of the galaxy’s population. The term “ardat-yakshi” appears in fantasy books, in extranet games, and even in extranet RP forums. But what is the condition, and what is the myth? Most people will never even meet those with the underpinning medical issue. But I happened to get a chance to sit down with someone with the condition, to get her thoughts on a few issues facing people like herself. I myself am not a doctor, nor any legal scholar. So any information provided by this interview can only be taken as a small view into a larger issue. They are the opinions and lived experiences of but one person living with the condition. The rest of the article will be presented in a Q/A format, with a set of final thoughts from myself. Cil (C): "Hi, Nara. It's nice to meet you! Thanks for doing this. How was the trip here?" Nara (N): "Um... nice to meet you too, Cil, my job is to pilot a freighter between here and Palaven, so I make this trip a lot. This time it was a little slower than usual. You'd think traffic jams wouldn't be a thing in three-dimensional space, but with the amount of starship traffic around the Citadel, that's not always true. But I assume you're not here to interview me about my trip. You're here to interview me because I'm an Ardat-Yakshi. Well... Ask away." C:"Oh, no. While that’s true, that it's not what we came here for, I'm not aiming to rush you. But if you'd like to get into it, certainly. Let's see…" N: "Yeah, I'd like to get the tough questions out of the way sooner, I've been stressed out about this interview for like the whole day, and once we get those out of the way it'll be a huge load off my back." C: “Well, for starters. All most of us know about Ar- about those with your condition is that they are... well, extremely controlled, to put it mildly. Most of that knowledge comes from vids and games and all manner of fictional sources, so I don't even know if that's actually part of their thing, but for the sake of asking... Have you ever had an encounter with a Justicar?" N: "I can neither confirm nor deny that, unfortunately. Damn it. Uhhhhh... some of it, but not all of it, will probably be declassified in like fifty years or something. If we're both still around then, I can answer that question. But I think this is the only question that would run into that problem, so feel free to ask anything else you want." C:"So if there's something to declassify that insinuates, at least in my view, at least a tip to the scales in the 'yes' direction. But we'll move on, for sure. Hopefully this one is a little more easily answered. Now, as I understand it, for obvious reasons you've spent your life outside of the Asari Republics entirely. What has life been like for you living away from the traditional asari space?" N: "That... is quite a broad question, you could get a whole interview out of that, if you wanted. But if you want a short answer... On Palaven, especially in the city I grew up in, there weren't very many asari. I spent my whole childhood trying to fit in with my turian neighbors, and I didn't really have other asari to interact with other than my parents. When I became an adult, I enlisted to join the Turian military, where I stayed for most of my life so far, then retired to the reserves several years ago. I ended up having to become a cabalist since I was a biotic, like almost all asari are. There was only one other asari in my cabal though, and we didn't really get along much. First deployment was to Irune, which was pretty peaceful. Also met my wife there, so it made up for having to wear an exosuit all the time. Second deployment was to Solregit, which was... not peaceful. There was a rebellion on the planet's northern hemisphere that wanted to secede from the Hierarchy, which I'm sure you've heard about before. And, of course, I helped defend Palaven during the Reaper War. If there's anything you'd like me to go into more detail about, ask away." C:"Wife? Can you explain how that happened? Were they aware of...everything?" [Nara showed me some pictures here] N:"We met through an online dating service, actually. I stated up-front in my profile that my condition made it impossible for me to meld with anyone, or... be intimate in a way that could risk me accidentally melding with them. But Jin wasn't really interested in either of those things, so we were both happy together in spite of that. I think I have some wedding photos in my omnitool I can show you. That's her. That's Jin. And that's me next to her, but it's hard to tell it's me because the suit obscures my face." C:"Awwww. Those are lovely pictures. Many of us in our maiden stage don't settle down so easily. Do you think living in a mostly turian area growing up influenced your desire to commit to someone that early? And if you don't mind another question to move us along... You seem relatively outspoken about your condition. Is there a reason you feel the need to take what most people would likely consider the risky position of putting yourself and your condition out there without secrecy?" N: "To answer your first question, I would say yes, absolutely. Most of my turian peers, those who did settle down, at least, tended to do so in their thirties. I was thirty-eight years old when I married Jin, which is a little above average for a turian but I found out later that it was like, crazy low for an asari. Your second question is kind of complicated because I have multiple reasons. Firstly, and most importantly, is that somebody needs to speak out. If any of the Ardat-Yakshi in the Republics tried to do an interview like this, they'd be killed or locked up by Justicars or by the government or an angry mob of other asari. I'm still worried sometimes that they'll try and do that to me anyway, even though I've never been to asari space, and if it's a justicar I don't stand any chance of winning a one-on-one fight with one. I have a responsibility to speak up for those who can't speak for themselves, while I still can. Secondly, I'm from the Hierarchy and Turian culture places a very very strong value on honesty. Directly lying about my condition would go against everything I stand for. Thirdly, if what I say informs people about Ardat-Yakshi, it lessens the risk of other Ardat-Yakshi accidentally or, though I'm sad to say it, intentionally injuring or killing innocent people. If even one life is saved, even if I get killed, speaking up will have been worth it. Lastly, though this isn't that important since it only affects my personal life, but I am really, really, annoyed by stereotypes about asari promiscuity and especially asari maiden promiscuity. Letting it be known that I can't sleep with anyone because it could kill them cuts down on unwanted propositioning by, like, ninety percent." C: "Thank you… Those answers definitely shed some light on why you're willing to be rather public about these things. It's a good goal, wanting less people to be hurt. The idea of informing others actually leads quite nicely into my next question. I'm fairly certain I know the answer to this one- But are there any big myths that are simply false, or incomplete information that you think people should know the truth about?" N: "Well, to start things off, basically everything in stuff like Galaxy of Fantasy is wrong. We don't have magic powers, we can't resurrect the dead, et cetera. Most of these should be fairly obviously false, so I'm not going to spend that much time on them because otherwise I'd have to spend all day ranting about stuff like that one human I met who claimed I was somehow a real-life vampire or something. I get so many vampire comparisons. It's annoying. Ardat-yakshi aren't vampires. There's like, no connection at all. Anyway, to get back on track, there's one very important myth I would like to dispel. The ardat-yakshi medical condition is actually a spectrum. The lethal variant of the condition, which I have, is very very rare, but there are other variants that aren't lethal, and are much more common. At the mildest and most common end you have people who just give their meld partners temporary headaches, though most people with this variant don't actually know that what they have is technically a variant of the ardat-yakshi disease, and the Republics don't persecute them like they do with people like me. However, they're still infertile, just like anyone else on the A-Y spectrum. Further along the spectrum, the condition gets bad enough that each meld basically gives the ardat-yakshi's meld partner a concussion, and then even further along the spectrum comes permanent brain damage from each meld, and some ardat-yakshi can even leave their partners comatose in extreme cases. Or dead." C:"Thank you for your answers. I can't imagine it's easy to talk about some of this, given the way the disorder is regarded. Now that we've discussed things that are false, what are some true things you wished other people knew about it?" N: "Well, melding is actually addictive for Ardat-Yakshi, just as the Republics and Justicars say it is. I'm not exactly sure how addictive it is, since at the time of my only meld, which was before I knew I was an Ardat-Yakshi of course, I was already trying to fight off an Aurora addiction. I'm not sure what withdrawal effects were from that and what were from the meld, but it's definitely possible to fight off the addiction. Secondly, Ardat-Yakshi serial killers, though I would like to emphasize that they are very, very rare and are in no way representative of the average A-Y sufferer, do actually exist. They normally don't get very far in the Republics proper, since an autopsy can reveal how the victims died and you can test suspects for the Ardat-Yakshi medical condition. But outside asari space, people don't know how to actually catch the serial killers because the Republics keep trying to suppress information about Ardat-Yakshi, and the serial killers can amass staggering body counts because of that. The Republics would seemingly let hundreds of innocent people die to... um... avoid making themselves look bad or something? I'm actually kind of confused as to why they don't just tell everyone the truth for once." C: "Hm. That makes sense. But what about asari colonies, or even nations with asari majority or pluralities? Surely the condition can occur in them as well? Even if the Republics are, as you say, loath to reveal the truth, surely someone out there has been doing research too? That's just a thought though, I don't actually expect you to know what groups or nations all across the Terminus might be doing." N:"As far as I know, the condition, well, the forms of the condition severe enough to be dangerous, anyway, is rare enough that research isn't prioritized, especially since A-Y is basically a pureblood exclusive disease and asari colonies outside the Republics tend to have fewer purebloods." C:"Well, I have two more questions planned, so we're really scooting along here. Thank you again for sitting down with me. Let's see... Are there any mistakes you've made in your efforts to spread awareness for this condition?" N:"Well, with the fact that so few Ardat-Yakshi are able to speak openly about their conditions, when I talk to people about this, I'm basically the only Ardat-Yakshi that most people ever know about. Since I'm their only reference point, I worry that people will take my flaws and apply them to everyone with the condition. I admit, I'm not the best figurehead. I'm a convicted criminal, albeit for something I don't want to discuss here. I'm a veteran of a, to put it mildly, controversial war on Solregit. And I don't get along with people sometimes, along with other various personality flaws. But there are Ardat-Yakshi who are better people than I am. They simply never got the chance to speak out, like I do. One more question, and then I have to get back to my ship." C:"Of course, I don't want to take up too much of your time. I only had one last one planned anyway." Well we've spoken about many aspects of the situation as-it-is. What, to you, would a more just policy look like in the Republics?" N: "To put it simply, equality under the law. No preemptive targeting of Ardat-Yakshi based on what we might do, with the monasteries as a strictly voluntary institution. Ardat-Yakshi who have knowingly hurt or murdered people should still be arrested, like any other criminal. Ardat-Yakshi who do not harm others should be treated the same as anyone else. All I ask is that you judge each of us by our own actions, not the actions of others." C:"A fine answer. One I think the vast majority of people can empathize with. I understand. You probably have a schedule to keep. But it's been a pleasure getting to know you some, Nara. I look forward to writing this up." With the interview concluded, I walked away with a few different feelings. I entered the conversation a little nervously. I had no more special knowledge of the AY condition than any other asari out there. Since I’m not a doctor I can’t speak to the accuracy of any of the medical specific claims my guest made. But I felt that her desire to make more information known was genuine. During the conversation there were certainly no feelings of threat or manipulation that I picked up on. And I sympathize greatly with the idea of wanting to be treated the same as everyone else. It was a very interesting conversation; and one that opens a window into a phenomena that is very rarely covered in anything but fiction. I hope you enjoyed the small look into the world of Ardat-Yakshi as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you.

#cdn #cerberus daily news #mass effect #mass effect rp #mass effect news #asari #ardat-yakshi #people #thessia #interview #asari republics #discrimination #health

[pigspeetsandhooflikefeets]

Since I'm awake pondering it, what kind of Youtube channels do you think the hosts would run? I have some funny ideas but I'd like to hear yours.

aw that's very sweet. meanwhile, while this ask was being typed up last night, I had a dream you sent me an anon, but you signed it with your url so it was very obviously you. that's not really relevant, but I thought it was funny

Nate: your answer for Nate is absolutely spot-on, Nate has the great ability to say anything with the confidence that will not let on that he either doesn't know what he's doing or is lying to your face. tricking people with a straight face is the best revenge. oh also Nate ASMR. he can combine it with the makeup content like "doing asmr makeup on my friend/partner/you/etc" or just soft-spoken (possibly misleading) tutorials. one time he did makeup on one of the other hosts and they kept fighting it or going off script which in turn lead to Nate slapping him and the two fighting while the camera was still rolling. Nate repurposed it into an April Fool's Day video

Guy: I actually used to follow a Youtube podcast where my friend and his bros would talk about sports predictions. Sadly I think it went under. Anywhoo. Guy would definitely have a level of sports on his channel, whether demonstrating plays, compiling his fav clips, or drunk history about really weird shit in the history of sports (like the 1904 marathon) Monthly segment where people ask him what he thinks of various books (that he's obviously never read) and it's an improv session of Guy pretending he knows anything about the book. Although sometimes someone will be dumb enough to pick a Shakespeare play and he'll know everything. Ironically sponsored by Audible.

Buzz: Gamer. Probably hacks games to see how quickly he can ruin the experience. His highest rated video is "Playing The Video Game I Was In" where he just plays the CD of Vol. 2 (which canonically exist within the game canon I guess) and reacts to his old jokes. 50% of the video is Buzz not knowing the answers and getting insulted by himself ~20 years ago. I mean shit, I'd watch one of the voice actors react to their own old games. Get Tom on the line.

Cookie: Yours is also probably better than I could rationalize. But also very much profits off calling himself a "cat daddy" (which he would call it. verbatim. hell) Probably sells stickers of cartoon versions of Poopsie and Mayo, as well as they are the custom emojis when he streams. Someone suggested he add a emoji of him angry. They were immediately banned (and later unbanned) from the stream. There's also demand for a Schmitty emoji to spam when Schmitty is in frame/joins.

Schmitty: Doesn't have his own channel (old man alert) but is a guest on other people's (mostly Cookie, or Bob for soon obvious reasons) vids. Whenever he's on Cookie's vid all the comments are either "nice of Schmitty to make a video with his boyfriend" or "really kind of Schmitty to help out small Youtube creators like Cookie" and Cookie HATES it but never comments or denies the bf thing, assuming by not saying anything it'll get dropped. It Doesn't.

Bob: Bob is the type to make those 30-70 minute videos on cheap or weird shows/movies/PSAs from the 60s-mid 2000s. The ones that make you CERTAIN you dreamed it up. They're not exceptionally deep or anything they're just LONG. Schmitty, expert on weird TV shows, will sometimes join him via split screen. Which usually leads to them arguing. Almost all the comments are dedicated to people saying which one of the two was more coherent during the video. Edits everything himself. Will continue keeping up with celebs he hated from the 90s and post vids of him rambling about how much they suck whenever one of them does something dumb or actively malicious. Or dies. He's not gonna wait.

#the Youtube content I consume is people mad about video games people mad about shows and then asmr #oh and furries. but sometimes the furries are part of the asmr it's a ordeal #ilwip #jacketybox mumbles

[kaydeefalls]

2021 fic in review meme

@lindstrom2020​ tagged me - thank you! I genuinely love reading everyone’s year-in-review memes, it’s part of my end of year closure. :)

Total Number Of Completed Works:

Twelve fics and one vid. Which means I averaged exactly one fic per month, which feels good and achievable for me. (It didn’t pan out that neatly, of course, but the overall average is comforting.)

Total Word Count:

152,227 words. My highest annual total so far, according to AO3 stats! Although does feel a little like cheating, since my first fic of the year was 43k and written almost entirely in 2020.

Fandoms I’ve Written In:

Only The Old Guard, this year. That IS unusual for me -- when I’m actively writing, I tend to be more multifannish, even if I do generally have one primary fandom in any given year. But skipping out on Yuletide again means I didn’t even have that random one-off. Whatever, I really love this fannish verse and I’m happy to stay here.

(Oh, it occurs to me that technically I crossed over with the 007 fandom for four full fics, so...honorary mention?)

Looking Back, Did You Write More Fic Than You Thought You Would This Year, Less, Or About What You’d Expected?

More than I have in a LONG while, I can tell you that! I did sort of set myself a tentative one-fic-per-month goal, which I’ve managed overall.

What’s Your Own Favorite Story Of The Year?

This answer varies from moment to moment, but The Pride Pact was the purest form of id-fic for me, and it still makes me very happy.

Did You Take Any Writing Risks This Year?

...not particularly? I mean, I've got a decent amount of variety amongst the fics I posted, from Ye Olde Crusades-Era Joe/Nicky Origin Story to modern AUs to fusions to a five things historical fic about Nile, but nothing that I'd consider risky.

Do You Have Any Fanfic Or Profic Goals For The New Year?

Finish my damn Finn/Poe WIP just so that I can properly close the door on that fandom. Continue averaging about one fic per month. Um, finish writing the two exchange fics and one vid that all have January deadlines, yikes.

Most Popular Story Of The Year?

lessons exquisitely crafted, by every possible stat. I’m so glad that one found an audience, I’m really fond of it.

Story Of Mine Most Under-Appreciated By The Universe, In My Opinion:

Shockingly enough, fandom gave very few fucks about Awakenings, the Nile-centric historical fic. Which I genuinely think is one of my better fics overall, but yeah. I’m not at ALL surprised by this, just ruefully resigned to it.

Most Fun Story To Write:

There are a few contenders for this, and no clear winner. Right now I’ll go with you know my name, because it was a fun version of Quynh’s voice to get into my head (and accidentally spawned a whole series).

Most Unintentionally Telling Story:

The Pride Pact, for obvious reasons. Nothing unintentional about that, I'm afraid.

Biggest Disappointment:

Hmm, not sure what to go with here, "disappointed" is not really my default emotion. I'm a little bummed that my female-centric fics got noticeably lower stats than any of the boys did, but not, you know, surprised by it.

Biggest Surprise:

Following directly from the previous answer, I was genuinely expecting what we let fall to land with a thud, since there are very, very few Copley-centric fics in the fandom, but it did okay! It certainly wasn’t a runaway hit, but my expectations were SO low that I was very pleasantly surprised. (And a little rueful to learn how much more popular even Copley is than Nile, apparently, at least the way I write them.)

My Favorite Part Of Fandom This Year:

I feel like I’ve found my own quiet little corner of the community, and that’s nice. There’s a lot of toxicity in TOG fandom (which is certainly not unique to TOG - I’ve been in a wide variety of fandoms for a good long while at this point, and there’s always plenty of ugly to go around), but I’ve managed to avoid the worst of it and find the parts that bring me joy, and hope to continue to do so.

Tagging anyone and everyone who’s in the mood, genuinely! I love reading these when they pop up on my dash.

#fandom #my fic #happy new year

[felassan]

Tevinter Nights & Solas

Here’s everything we learned about Solas, his followers, his plans and the anti-Solas efforts from Tevinter Nights. This post is the motherlooode for everything you’d wanna know and consider/wonder about re: Dread Wolf from this book. Some peoples’ books are apparently arriving or being found in shops early/now (2), so aw heck here we go. There’s loads of other new stuff in this book, from fairly significant lore additions to developments in Thedosian current affairs (spoiler warning for TN for that link), but the subject of this post is Solas. Let me take you through Tevinter Nights on a Dread Wolf-tour from start to finish. I’ve ordered it by importance, and at the end there’s a summary if it’s too much too read. Obvious major spoiler warning for under the cut, for whole book.

Edit: Part of this post is featured in this vid by @jackdawyt​ ! which is cool. check it out :)

The Big Un: The Dread Wolf Take You story

In The Dread Wolf Take You, Charter, in her capacity as an Inquisition agent participating in anti-Fen’Harel efforts, attends a secret meeting in The Teahouse, a discreet riverside establishment near Hunter Fell in Nevarra. (Please note when I say "Inquisition" I mean either what remains of it, or the "officially disbanded but still a group of associates that were in it".) The express purpose of this place is to function as a neutral space where spies, assassins, rogues and other covert-ops / intelligence agency / sneaky types can meet to conduct clandestine business and have shady dealings. Aside from Charter, there are 4 other attendees at this rendezvous: a male Carta Assassin, a male Orlesian Bard, a female Mortalitasi and an Executor (could be male, female, or something else). This unlikely group of individuals have gathered because they possess what they describe as a "shared interest in the Inquisition's Wolf". This is a meeting of the best spies on the continent. The Executors want to eliminate the Wolf. However, the Tevinter Siccari and the Qunari intelligence network, the Ben-Hassrath, declined to answer the Inquisition's request to attend. The Tevinter Siccari are an order of operatives whose existence has been officially denied. Charter is especially frustrated that the Ben-Hassrath declined, as they had more knowledge on Solas' movements than anyone else.

The Assassin mocks Charter and the Inquisition about the fact that they worked with Solas for a year and were none-the-wiser about his true identity, seeking to rub in the fact that they overlooked the god in their midst. Charter asserts that Solas is not a god, merely a very old, very powerful elven mage, as he himself says. The Bard suggests that he could be a young mage, a simple elf who stumbled upon old magicks. The Mortalitasi offers that he could be a demon impersonating an elf. The Executor does not care about what he is, stating that those across the ocean only care about what his goals are and his means of achieving them. Charter responds that according to what he told the Inquisitor, he wishes to restore the empire of the ancient elves, and made clear that doing so will cause massive destruction to "our world". The Mortalitasi opines that this destruction would be especially impactful for Tevinter, since most of it is built over where the ancient elves lived. Charter goes on, saying that beyond this, the Inquisition knows little of what Solas intends. She states that most of his research involved the Veil and that he claimed to have created it. She says that he asked the Inquisition for help activating artifacts that strengthened the Veil and wonders aloud as an information-gathering tactic whether this poses a good place to start. Based on Charter's words, the Inquisition believe that what Solas wants is "to end [...]". She was cut off, but reasonable inferences here are the world, the modern world / world as it currently is, or possibly the Veil and the subsequent separation of the 2 worlds it separates.

The Assassin is there because Viscount Tethras called in a few favors. The Assassin claims he knows Solas' target, not just his goal. He relates an encounter to the group. In Kirkwall, the Carta have been maintaining a watch on the statue of Meredith, to stop anyone from sneaking in and stealing a piece of it. They've been doing this because they no longer endorse dealing in red lyrium as they believe the Blight is bad for business. A Dalish elf (Dalish-looking, at least) came, asking can someone get the idol (yes That idol) out of what's left of the statue. Most people believed the idol gone, that Meredith forged it into her sword and then the sword exploded. The elf is persistent, claiming he learned of this in a dream and that an old legend of his people says that the idol is in Meredith's body and that if he gets it out, he can free his gods. He has with him a potion that will soften the raw lyrium and weaken its magic, so that the idol inside can be retrieved safely. He promises the Carta lots of gold and the potion recipe if they help. They agree and sneak in. The square stinks of magic, they hear music in the wind like an old song they used to know as kids, and some of them keel over mad, whispering and shaking, or run off screaming. The potion melts the area over Meredith's heart and they retrieve the idol. The Assassin describes it thus:

It's not much to look at - a couple hugging, too thin to be dwarves - but it's sitting there, glowing softly like a ruby lit by the grace of the Maker himself . It’s heavier than you’d think - lyrium’s heavier than you’d think, too, but this was heavy even for that. When I hefted it in my hand, it was like it wanted to keep moving, like it was liquid inside

The song stops when they stash it in a special chest. They return to the elf in their safehouse, but templars/ex-templars are waiting for them. The elf tries to fight them and the templars knock him out. A male Tevinter mage connected to House Qintara comes, pays the templars and takes the idol. The templars and Carta wait overnight in an awkward standoff waiting for the elf (who has the recipe) to wake. Some of them fall asleep while others keep watch. Suddenly near morning, all the sleepers start seizing and fitting like they're having a bad dream, even the dwarves, who we know don't dream. Blood pours out all their ears and they die. Arrows suddenly shoot through the window killing everyone except the Assassin, including the potion-elf. The Assassin quickly plays dead. Two other elves burst in, unlike any the Assassin has ever seen. No vallaslin, no downcast / fearful City Elf air. They have fancy armor (making me think of Sentinel armor and Solas' Trespasser duds) and case the place like pros. One says the idol must have been moved, in a normal Ferelden, non-Dalish accent. He's upset to see the dead potioneer. The other leans down to their deceased comrade and says "The Dread Wolf guide your soul to peace, brother". This guy's accent does sound Dalish, only more formal, like he's reading a poem, implying he might be an ancient. Clearly they're agents of Fen'Harel. They leave. The Assassin concludes that the Dread Wolf wants the idol, is willing to get his hands bloody to get it, and pities House Qintara if the Wolf ever finds them, especially if they are deep sleepers. The Assassin has been drinking lots of coffee to stay awake ever since, afraid. Solas can clearly kill people who oppose him while they sleep.

The Mortalitasi comments that it's interesting to see both Dalish and City Elves working with "this... thing". The Executor states Qintara fell with Ventus, speculating that the Qunari now have the idol. Charter says she had agents there at the time and that it was actually sold or traded to the Danarius family. (This is a reference to the events of Dragon Age: Deception). The Mortalitasi says the ability to kill sleepers reinforces her demon theory. The Executor wonders if instead Solas is a poisoneer, as the Crows have poisons which are heavier than air and kill sleepers while leaving standing people unharmed. The Assassin insists it was magic that killed the fitting sleepers. The Mortalitasi knows where the idol went after House Qintara and tells her tale next.

In Nevarra, the Mortalitasi rule since they rule the king. They also perform rituals, commanding the magical forces that underlie the very fabric of the world. They find places where the Veil is thin, behind which the Fade flows like a mighty river. (Recall Solas' Haven comments: ‘without the Veil, the Fade was not a place but a state of nature like the wind. Spirits were part of the natural world like a fast-flowing river’). In these places they can bind spirits and in so doing guide the course of the river more to their liking. She asserts that those Mortalitasi who do so are the truest mages as they bind the Fade and the world to their will. These death mages allowed a Tevinter mage from House Danarius to come with some slaves and perform a ritual - clearly the same mage from the Assassin's story or the next Tevinter mage who got the idol from him. He asked for the death mages’ help to change the world in this way, wanting to help fight the Antaam's invasion by directing every dream, demon and half-interested spirit to urge the Antaam back north. So 12 death mages go with the Vint to one of their ritual chambers in the Grand Necropolis, where the bodies of their greatest mages are preserved, now housing spirits that empower the rituals. The Vint has the idol with him, telling the death mages it's an ancient elven artifact. (Remember prior lore says the idol was dwarven forged). The Mortalitasi describes it thus:

seemed to show two lovers, or a god mourning her sacrifice, depending upon how it caught your fancy. It whispered in our minds, but we hear such murmurs all the time as mages so thought nothing of it.

The death mages drank lyrium and they all begin the ritual, which involves arcane horror possessions bound in ritual circles and the death mages focusing their thus-amplified magic on the idol. The Vint begins killing the tranced-out slaves, catching their blood on the idol. When the Vint gets enough power, he raises the idol and a lyrium spike springs from its base, effectively becoming a ritual-blade. He slashes his hand and a wave of power knocks everyone to the ground and their minds are pulled into the raw chaos of the Fade. Light and color - magic - swirls around the Vint. Suddenly there's a booming roar from high overhead where the Black City is, and something huge trembles around them, a "spirit so great that it shook parts of the Fade I had always considered neutral, devoid of life". Before the Vint could complete his ritual, the Dread Wolf arrived.

He’s a lupine, dragon-sized beast with shaggy spiked hide and six burning eyes like a Pride demon. It flew towards them on wings of fire that resolved themselves into a horde of what the Mortalitasi calls lesser demons. It shouts: “YOU MEDDLE PAST YOUR UNDERSTANDING, FOOLISH MORTAL MAGES, AND IN DOING SO, YOU THREATEN ALL CREATION.” It kills the Vint, he becomes a withered husk, the lyrium blade vanishes, the ritual collapses, and the 'demons' swarm them. “YOU USE MY IDOL CARELESSLY TO VANDALIZE THE SEA OF DREAMS. NOW FEEL THE PAIN OF WHAT YOU HAVE CREATED.” They wake up back in the ritual chamber in the real world. A Fade rift opens and the 'demons' surge out "in righteous fury, shining warriors with blades forged from the raw Fade itself, and behind them, dimly visible through the crackling light, the shadow of the beast itself." It speaks once more with quiet contempt. “FROM THIS MOMENT, SHOULD YOU EVER BIND A SPIRIT, THEN YOUR LIFE IS MINE.” The Mortalitasi wonders at this point why they would attack if they were not bound, saying the Wolf is therefore a hypocrite. It's clear the demons were likely actually spirits of Justice and Valor.

In the chaos of combat one death mage seizes the idol and escapes, supposedly to Tevinter. The rift closes and the 'demons' kill most of the death mages. The narrating Mortalitasi fled, the lone survivor. She concludes that it's not uncommon for powerful spirits to be worshipped as gods, like the Avvar do. The Fade is the Wolf's natural home and the spirits there serve him gladly. They whisper in her dreams now, promising to get their vengeance on her if her wards fail. Weaker mages would have been dead or mad by now. The Wolf was angry that the death mages bound spirits, that the Vint used forbidden death magic, and that they had all disrupted his own work. He intends something for the Fade, and since he wants the idol, whatever this is will be terrible.

Charter wonders if the Wolf has an alliance with a demon, a la Cory and the Fear Demon. She surmises that Solas has begun whatever ritual he intends to use to restore the elven empire, is aware of disruptions, the ritual involves the Fade and requires the idol. The Mortalitasi adds that the idol reacts to other lyrium and that perhaps he needs lyrium for his ritual, either blue or red. The Bard knows where the guy who ran away with the idol went, and continues with his own tale.

The Bard was tasked with retrieving a ring that once belonged to Empress Celene, the one that was a gift from the previous Lady Mantillon. He tracks it to an auction presided over by Xenon the Antiquarian in Llomerryn. In attendance were an Avvar augur, a Rivaini pirate captain, a soberly-clad Starkhaven noble, a Warden-Commander, Divine Victoria and a red-haired elven Ben-Hassrath agent. (Probably Tallis, this bit is clearly a series of fun cameo reference-nods for fans.) In the crowd the Bard learns other Qunari are present, like Qunari-Qunari. Intrigued, he infiltrates the floors below. What are they guarding? There's probably a smuggler's cove further down.

He finds and watches a group of Qunari Ben-Hassrath led by a female Qunari (a Viddasala?) break open a door using explosives and enter an ancient elven ritual chamber. The Bard hides and continues to watch. There's an eluvian flanked by halla and dragon statues. In the middle of the room, on a pillow on a protectively rune-marked pedestal, is the idol. Suddenly another group enters: 2 Tevinter mages, a female human archer, and a golem with seemingly Shale-like intelligence - Siccari. The lead Qunari says the idol is no trinket and is being searched for by a dangerous mage who styles himself the Dread Wolf, who threatens both their peoples. "Leave and we will have no quarrel with you." One of the Vint mages replies that Tevinter would know better how to harness the idol, that they know of the elven upstart and that he is a mage named Solas. His ritual has already started to affect the Fade. They can't risk him acquiring it and finishing what he's begun. The 2 groups are about to fight when Solas himself walks out of the eluvian, in gold armor with a pelt across his shoulder. He looks at them all, expressionless. They all begin to scream, his eyes blaze and he petrifies everyone the way he did in Trespasser, even the golem. Solas takes the idol, whispering something as he did so:

 tracing his gloved fingers gently along the crowned figure who comforted the other, but I could not make out the words, for I fear they were elven.

Then he leaves through the mirror which goes dark.

The Bard concludes that this is all he knows of the Wolf and surmises the idol's journey is complete. He says the Wolf will destroy anyone in his way without regret or hesitation, and does not believe they can stop it. The meeting attendees suddenly realize there are many liars at the table and start finger-pointing in flurry. All three tales featured grains of untruths. Ben-Hassrath teams aren't so obvious in their dealings. Siccari are not screaming cowards. The Assassin killed the elf potioneer, not a stray elven arrow. There were no templars, the Assassin sold the idol to the Vint mage. The Mortalitasi knew the Vint would kill his slaves (in her story she claimed this shocked her). As she escaped she knifed one of her colleagues and used blood magic to make spirits possess the slaves' corpses to defend her from the Wolf's 'demons'; this is of note because in her story the Wolf said she was dead if she ever bound spirits again. During all this the Executor is silent and Charter says three times, "I ask for my life". She says she regrets being outplayed and not seeing the Wolf for what he was during the Inquisition year. She will never make the same mistake again.

PSYCH! The Bard is Solas in disguise and has been all along!!! MOTHERFUCKER! Charter has worked it out through various tells, smart as she is. He'd subtly frozen the Executor mid-meeting. Solas ordered tea to drink at the meeting because it was a joke around Skyhold that he didn't like tea. For his costume he tried to do everything the Wolf would not. He sounds tired. He freezes the Assassin and the Mortalitasi who go to attack him. He grants Charter her life ("Ar lasa mala") and frees the little spirit the Mortalitasi had bound to stir her wine. He removes his dragon mask and wig. He cautions Charter against dealing with the Executors, saying those across the sea are dangerous. More dangerous than the elf that threatens the world, Charter asks? She asks him why he came, and personally. He wanted to find out what they all knew; many oppose him and they are not fools. He's there personally because the Inquisition was involved. He asks her in turn why she came. "Because you told the Inquisitor that you were going to destroy this world. Did you not expect us not to try and stop you?" He sighs that this was a moment of weakness. "I told myself that it was because you all deserved to know, to live a few years in peace before my ritual was complete. Before this world ended.” She says maybe he was lying to himself there, like other lies he told others, and that he doesn't have to do this. (It makes sense that the ritual will take a few years because it’s likely an ancient elven ritual and in those times spells could take years to cast)

Solas tells her "I have no choice. What I am doing will save this world, and those like you—the elves who still remain—may even find it better, when it is done." [This is odd wording... Those like you who still remain?] Charter thinks of her lover Tessa and says there are people she cares for who would not. He smiles sadly. "��I know that feeling well. I am not a god, Charter. I am prideful, hotheaded, and foolish, and I am doing what I must. When you report back to the Inquisitor . . .” His voice falters. “Say that I am sorry.” He leaves. The whole story itself concludes thusly:

Then she drank the rest of her tea, her fingers shaking a little. She looked at the dragon mask on the table. Prideful, hotheaded, foolish. Doing what he must. Sympathetic to elves. Said that he was sorry. The red lyrium idol was of a crowned figure comforting another. It was not much, but it was more than she had known before, she thought. Pulling a small notebook from one pocket, she began to write her report. After all, the Dread Wolf wasn’t going to stop himself.

Quick cliff notes for this section since it’s a whole ass thing:

Dragon mask; interesting choice and makes me think of Mythal and how he absorbed her power, and his role as Mythal’s “attendant”

Go here for notes on the choice of the mask’s opal inlay 

Before his true identity is revealed, the Bard is described as a “peacock”, as many Orlesian fops are. Smart word-choice, obvious pride motif/symbolism.

The Bard’s fake Orlesian accent “curled like smoke around his words”. Makes me think of the curling smoke we see after he’s absorbed Flemythal’s power

All the tales contained grains of untruths, and its possible the entirety of Solas’ was a straight up asspull/lie. in that scenario, he hasn’t actually yet managed to obtain the idol and the man who made off with it at the end of the death mage’s tale has it somewhere in Tevinter. but assuming he does have it is more fun, so I’m running with that assumption for the rest of this post.

In this story he comments disdainfully of the Wardens’ actions in DA:I - “they trapped themselves.”

He also objects to the Mortalitasi’s use of magic re: spirits, the Fade and influencing the world. He expresses that this is unsafe and inappropriate. Makes sense, we all know how he feels about binding spirits.

Compare the different descriptions of the red lyrium idol and consider what they might imply.

The Dalish elf who claims to have seen the stuff in his dreams reminds me of the ambient conservation a City Elf in Val Royeaux has about seeing Mythal in his dreams. If the dreams story is true, was it Mythal who told him this? Or, obviously Solas is a dream walker and this guy is an agent of Fen’Harel - maybe Solas commonly contacts his agents with their latest instructions in dreams? That would be one way to be super clandestine.

The Executor gets some intriguing description and speaks in this story but that’s for another post. But what’s the deal between Solas and the Executors? There’s clearly beef.

This version of Solas seems like high approval Solas

The table was booked under the name Gauche. That’s a French word in origin so it will have been Solas’ fake Orlesian Bard identity. Notable since he’s the one who booked the table for the meeting. It’s also clear that he knows of the clandestine Teahouse and the new Darvaarad and probably many other places like them. is nothing safe from him? lol Solas is nothing sacred? Thedosians have their work cut out for them.

The word gauche’s etymology is: “left, awkward, to veer/turn, to trample/walk clumsily”. Its English meaning is lacking in social graces, bumbling, unsophisticated, gawky.

Solas can freeze people by touching them, not just with his eyes-glowing thing. He can also freeze/petrify specifically/with finesse - like someone’s actual body under their clothes but not their clothes. He can even freeze golems to a state of not-living stone like regular people.

Other golems like Shale, with real intelligence, seem to exist in Tevinter and perhaps elsewhere, and are in use in organizations like the Siccari.

About the ring the bard-persona in Solas’ story was tasked to retrieve

It’s the description of the idol in the Bard’s story that is going to be the most telling re: the specifics of its origins, what it is and what it depicts, since that’s Solas’ POV on it. A crowned figure who comforted the other, and he’s reverent to it, and it’s an elven scene featuring elven figures. The crown matches the headpiece in Mythal statues and that Flemythal wears, and Mythal was a female god. The other figure is smooth-headed/bald. Reminds you precisely of Flemythal comforting Solas in the post-credits scene before he kills her. The scene depicted in the idol is something Solas has lived before, both in the post-credits scene and also at some point in the distant past. The couple/lovers stuff brings to mind the theories that these 2 were once lovers but I don’t think it’s literal, just that they were (and is obvious from the post-credits) very close. Interestingly in the DWR teaser the red lyrium corruption on the idol is first seen creeping up Solas’ spine. Symbolic of something? And what’s the sacrifice? Is this it about the terrible thing Mythal had to do in order to strike down the Titans to save the People? Mourning? Prolly to do with Mythal’s death.

He’s using the red lyrium idol to take the Veil down because it’s the next best thing for the job that he knows about after the destroyed foci orb.

The Mortalitasi ritual involved circles with bound dead ringed around them. I’m reminded of the circles in the background of the DWR mural.

We only have a few years left in which to stop him. Let’s say DA4 begins about a year before he reaches ritual completion time (going by the 1 year in-world time passing in DA:O and DA:I as standards), that would put us around oh.. 9:47 or so when the game starts.

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

Solas’ followers, the bomb and suicide-ing

In Half Up Front an elf mage agent of Fen’Harel disguises herself as a human and hires 2 thieves to steal [back] an artifact she wants to acquire, Dumat’s Folly. She makes references to her vast resources and how much info she has at her fingertips. She clearly has lots of funds because she offers to pay them exorbitantly. Dumat’s Folly is supposed to be a piece of the Black City, a reminder of humanity’s hubris. One of the thieves is a human Vint mage. The other is her lover, Irian, a non-mage elf who is an expert hunter and staff-fighter and very skilled. The Qunari tried to recruit Irian a while back. Capers ensue and the pair eventually track it to the storeroom of a Qunari ship moored in Kont-aar. They’re infiltrating it and hear Qunari being like “oh no they must be here for the artifact. And if they are, chances are they’re working for him. We cannot risk them making their way onto the ship.” Obviously “him” is Solas. They’ve just located it in a box, and think something is wrong when it starts to thrum with wild magic (”growing, it was hungry”), when the agent suddenly shows up.

Btw what also stands out to me here is that an agent of Fen’Harel thru these machinations managed to infiltrate the ship, which incidentally is the new Darvaraad. Because the last one’s walls were ineffective (lol), this one is a ship; the Qunari wanted to keep it safe/moving with speed and secrecy instead of fortifications. 

Now, no longer in disguise, the agent is wearing a simple robe, embroidered with an unknown symbol, with her hair brushed back away from her pointed ears. She gloats that she knew they’d succeed. She paralyzes the mage with a strong spell and takes the artifact, looking at the Vint with a mix of pity and contempt. She repeats “Felassan” 3 times, seemingly an activation passcode for the object. It begins to glow red. She disgustedly says the Vint did well, “for a shem”. The Vint asks her who put her up to this. The agent replies that she acts "freely. For the Dread Wolf. To bring back what was once ours—what must be ours again.” The Vint realizes that she’s heard the rumors that dozens of elves have gone off to heed the call of “some god”. The agent reveals the object is a weapon. It pulses rhythmically and gets brighter and the air starts to warm. Energy starts to stream to the device from magical objects nearby that were also in the storeroom - they crumble to dust. It turns out that the object isn’t the real Dumat’s Folly. The agent says “It is an ingenious device. Not a piece of the Black City, like the true Dumat’s Folly, but taken from the same time [probably meaning ancient Elvhenan?]. It draws magic into itself. Stores it, and then when it is full [exploding motion]”. It’s a bomb.

The agent tells the Vint this is the end for her. “Take comfort that in your sacrifice, the glory of the true people will be restored.” She’s about to kill her with a small crystal she has that starts to crackle with energy, when Irian knocks her out. “Those damned Fen’Harel cultists! ‘Ooh, if we blow up enough people, ancient Elvhenan is definitely coming back!’” rants Irian. It turns out Solas’ people tried to recruit her a few years back. The agent wakes up and before they can interrogate her clenches her teeth. Green foam fills her mouth, she spasms and dies, having taken some kind of suicide pill. It starts to get really warm as the weapon keeps powering up. They can’t disable the device because there’s too much energy buildup. They realize that thousands of innocent people, a whole town, are going to die.

In the end they manage to save the day by taking the ship far enough out to sea before the bomb detonates and escaping off it, getting back to land. When it explodes it’s a flash of light like a second sun. It releases all the magic it drained in a single cataclysmic blast. It’s followed by a shockwave and a roaring crashing sound. Gatt appears and they have a discussion. He explains that one of their Ben-Hassrath agents spoke of Dumat’s Folly. This agent suggested it was an artifact of great power and danger, integral to Fen’Harel’s plans. They captured him planning to interrogate him, as this was clearly one of Solas’ spies in the Qun, but he killed himself before they could (our second example of Solas’ followers suicide-ing rather than being captured or betraying the cause). The group establish that the original agent of Fen’Harel hired these 2 thieves so that it would look like a Tevinter altus struck at and blew up a Qunari settlement (Kont-aar) which had not entered hostilities. This would have caused chaos; the Ben-Hassrath wouldn’t have been able to sit out of the Qunari invasion of the south anymore and Rivain and even other countries/groups might have gotten drawn in. Gatt agrees that if that scenario had occurred the Qunari would have settled for nothing less than the total destruction of Tevinter. (Here I’m reminded of the causing chaos in order to take advantage of the confusion and weakened nations modus operandi of Cory).

Gatt says the Ben-Hassrath will remain officially neutral and blunt the strike of the Antaam. This leaves them, more importantly, free to act against the true threat - Solas. “With their allies standing next to them”. The Vint is happy that in the end she didn’t get tricked by “some egomaniacal elf” into starting a war. Gatt says they can’t go home because they are now known to Fen’Harel and he has eyes everywhere, inside Tevinter without a doubt. Irian asks where they should go. Gatt contemplates and says he/the Ben-Hassrath have other allies, “a dwarf in Kirkwall”. Probably Varric. This dwarf will want to hear what the Vint and Irian have to say about the enemy, and he will have work for them. “Something more than survival—a chance to strike back. A chance to matter.” The Vint and Irian agree to this.

Inquisition anti-Fen’Harel information-gathering mission

Excerpt:

[The Inquisition] fell within a mirror, past a mysterious Crossroads, in the shadow of something impossible—the Dread Wolf, a creature so powerful the elves once called him a god. The Chantry didn’t want him to exist—the Maker didn’t allow room for gods that weren’t God—but if he did, whatever he was, they needed information. There were apparently spaces between that Crossroads and the Fade—broken spaces that weren’t all there. Which meant pieces might be somewhere else. And a certain type of mind might follow that backward, and find what had undone this elf, and any others, that walked as gods.

In Genetivi Dies In The End (important to bear in mind: this story is told by an unreliable narrator who put in some of the stuff for shock value), as part of the anti-Fen’Harel efforts, the Inquisition-remains dispatch 3 writers, good ol’ Genetivi, Philliam, a Bard! and formerly-Sister Laudine on an expedition and investigation with a Lord of Fortune to a location in the north of the Silent Plains (btw which for some reason are strangely purple). This is in Tevinter. (Remember that the settlement Solas is near there. Not a coincidence, I am sure! Certainly learns credence to the Inquisiitor’s table map stab) The purpose of the expedition is to find the true history of the elven pantheon, in a piece of elven Library, beneath the Imperium, deeper than the Deep Roads. The Inquisition has clearly done research and found information on this place’s location. Laudine is human but has an affinity for [presumably translating] ancient elven since the language is about rhythm and feeling as much as vocabulary, and she’s secretly an untrained mage and has some kind of quirk or condition which sounds to me like fantastical Thedosian synesthesia combined with intuition. Evidently this gives her a leg up with ancient elven.

In the long journey to the entrance, they work together to start their manuscript - the story travels back from the end of the Inquisition and upends history, revealing that Arlathan wasn’t destroyed by Tevinter but by strange magics that caused the rise of the Veil:

The division of the mortal realm from the Fade was not a natural state that had always existed. It was an event, a moment in time that had literally shattered the elven empire. Pieces of that glory now drifted beyond dream and will, with the Dread Wolf stalking between. But other pieces remained, displaced in the physical world. And in the gap between accepted fact and fantastical guesses, there were clues a group of squabbling writers now chased to hidden secrets.

They find the entrance and go down a supply shaft to the Deep Roads that functioned millennia ago. They pass a Tevinter mine, dwarf areas, darkspawn tunnels and then find the piece of the impossible they were looking for:

Natural caves and the occasional support beam suddenly gave way to delicate elven carvings, the stone floor abruptly changing to mahogany hardwood. There was no doorway, no planning or joinery. It was as if a pocket had suddenly formed in the rock, replaced by the notion that shelves and reading desks should simply be there. They had turned a corner and stepped into an elven library. When Arlathan “fell,” a piece of it had “fallen” here.

Sounds exactly like the bits of the Vir Dirthara we go through in Trespasser. It’s full of old elvhen tomes and “here could be the means to defend the world”. They look at symbols and meanings and start stuffing books that Laudine thinks might be important in bags. Genetivi realizes that a lot of what he believed (Chantry faithful) and the lens through which he interprets things (le glorious Maker) isn’t quite correct i.e. has an emotional crisis of faith. It turns out they were followed and the Antaam arrive, led by Rasaan. The Qunari have been following the same research threads that the Inquisition and its writers have, although they wouldn’t have found the shattered library without following them. Rasaan tells them that Fen’Harel is a name given by enemies. She says the translation, “Dread Wolf”, isn’t true. She goes on to say that the name Solas gave when he lied to the Inquisition and the Qunari (Solas) was chosen by a self-styled martyr and is also not true. Laudine chips in that it means “Pride” and Rasaan says she knows this. Names are important to Qunari, especially Rasaan. The Qunari came to the library seeking information as they think there is no greater advantage than to know an enemy’s true name.

The writers manage to grab the most promising elven tomes and escape. The Qunari pursue but they flee successfully. Later they pore over pages old and new and finish writing their account, which is implied to be partially fictional / embellished. They plan to fake their deaths and take on new names from which to continue to write warnings from under, in order to evade Rasaan who they are sure will chase them. They note that they can’t publish what they found about the ancient elves’ end/Solas in their book, as that info is “for the generals [of the Inquisition-remains]”. But the adventure part of it is fine to publish as it’s for the people. Their findings are sent to Varric and “plans will be made”. This short ends ominously, “Around them, the bar served on, the coast lapped at historic sands. A year later, nations would stand, and tremble. And in distant places blades were sharpened, and wolves walked in dreams.” Part of their manuscript btw reads as follows:

The Fen’Harel question. How many lives had ended seeking an answer? Four more, if our turn chasing a legend fails tonight. But we’ve dragged truth from the darkness beneath Tevinter, found pages that will guide tomorrow’s righteous hands. And if our flight dies at the tip of an Antaam spear, make certain that more than the Silent Plains will know what we have found -

Revisiting Skyhold, the frescos and Regret

In Callback, we learn that Skyhold was shuttered. The rotunda has become known for the fresco. At the time, Solas claimed the fresco was his gift of record. The rotunda is noted as being an odd choice of room/space for a fortress, and it’s unclear what it was originally for. This is interesting to me because ofc it’s where Solas chooses to take up residence during DA:I, and we know that Skyhold was once his fortress and the place where he erected the Veil. (Apparently btw, not just Solas used that desk, but Inky and countless dignitaries too.) Anyway after the Skyhold caretakers fail to report in, Sutherland and Company are dispatched to deal with a demon that has taken up residence there. The last report from the caretaker guy was a meandering description of restoring the fresco, which was not has mandate, and other than that only said “I have made mistakes”. The Veil is very thin at Skyhold, hence the thinking it’s a demon. The Veil reacts to events like water reacts to stones, and the fortress has seen a lot of ripples. The demon originally emerged in the rotunda! It’s Regret, clearly born of all Solas’ regrets and man-pain. Regret is attracted to statements that echo the regrets that brought it here - Solas’ regrets of acting alone, using his friends. Recall that the painting technique was a special grand elven technique, an art with few living practitioners even among the Dalish. With how in the paint application, “it is considered, with long periods of study before the image emerges, whole cloth and with certainty”, with the thin Veil at Skyhold, with all the time he spent in the rotunda and with the extreme depth of his feelings and regrets, it’s not surprising really that this has occurred. Now, Sutherland and Co arrive to find the rotunda with a greenish Fade rift tinge. They find it not-pristine (the rest of Skyhold is maintained pristine, museum-like), old blood splotched on the floor, dripping old body parts stuffed in the hanging rookery cages. They realize the demon’s in the plaster of the fresco. The fresco shifts, gains depth, whispers in the wall, color crawls from each panel of the wall to form a mass of plaster and shadow. The demon thus begins to form itself.

As it forms, there are some bits I’d like to draw attention to, because the way it’s written is really interesting. Refer to screenshots of the panels as you go. In the first panel, a black shadow moves behind the Breach above the Conclave. Obviously the Dread Wolf, black as the villain, was behind everything, all those events, the explosion. He was lurking nearby trying to retrieve his opened orb. In that part of the art you see into the Fade which is his lair, and the repeating eyes/feathers motif which look like the Dread Wolf’s and Pride Demons’ many eyes as well as harking to peacock feathers (symbol of pride). In panel 2, red pigment scrapes itself off the stylized pupil. The hairy eyeball which is the symbol of the Inquisition we know to Thedosians is the eye of Andraste. It’s interesting to me because clearly the Inquisition was Fen’Harel’s vehicle and tool all along, the eye now more reminds me of like the Eye of Sauron and the eyes of the Dread Wolf kinda thing. You know, like it takes on a more sinister tone during this ‘second reading’. The red pigment slides down the blade (blood on a weapon, obvious imagery). Blackness then crawls from the howling wolves that guard the symbol, leaving them pale and dusty. This was hinted at in the panel originally with the two smaller white wolf shadows behind and off to the side of the main ones. Solas is no longer with and helping/guarding the Inquisition, those carefully detailed ally wolves were all for nought. It also speaks of the white wolf - black wolf (romance card vs other card) duality.

Pigment is “stolen” from panel 3, the short triumph before the fall of Haven. The Inquisition’s power and triumph was short-lived. When we get to the image of Cory, he’s described as “formerly an image of such dread”. We all know who the real figure of dread is now. This reminds me of how we thought the “he” in Sandal’s prophecy referred to the Elder One, when it instead probably refers to the Dread Wolf. Cory is “drained” like the wolves. Okay stay with me here. Remember the freezing / petrifying people, the curling smoke reference and glowing eyes as mentioned earlier? Solas absorbed Mythal’s power and his eyes glowed blue and there was smoke. When he petrifies people to stone, his eyes glow blue. Is that just the side-effect of him using his freezing/general powers or is that him also absorbing the strength and power of these other people? Not identities or possessing them or anything but definitely their strength. This is what this kind of language like “stealing” and “draining” from the moving fresco makes me think of. This idea of the freezing also having the effect of powering up using those peoples’ power / adding their power to his own also reminds me of the ancient bomb-device artifact that powered up by absorbing the energy of magical items in its vicinity and turning them to dust. Tinfoily but just sth that occurred to me. In fairness his eyes also glow when he stabilizes the Anchor and takes our arm in Trespasser. Now for the eighth and unfinished final panel.

There was a fair bit of debate at the time what the final panel represented. I theorized that it was a wolf standing over the body of a dragon, slain by the sword: i.e. Solas killing Flemythal in the post-credits scene. We finally get some clarification on this. In-universe people thought it commemorated the final battle against Cory. The mass of color which crawled around the room now fills in the rough shapes and completes it! That is a fallen dragon, and that is an Inquisition sword. We’re told this isn’t the final battle, or the victory, but “after”. It is indeed a representation of Solas killing Flemythal in the post-credits. And even though two dragons fought in the final Cory battle, naturally the beast standing over the dragon is not a dragon. The outline alone might have allowed that assumption, but now it fills in with black and red and is becomes something other:

The creature was reptilian, but also canine. The snout was blunted and toothy, but edges came to a point in houndlike ears. As the mass of plaster filled the shape, it began to rise, revealing scales and tail, and paws with talons. It looked like two figures painted on either side of a pane of glass, then viewed together, their forms confused. A wolf that had absorbed a dragon, and now stood crooked over all. 

Clearly the Dread Wolf. But kind of more draconian than before or previous depictions of it in cards, frescos etc. Scales, talons. Reflecting Solas having absorbed the power of the dragon, Mythal. I’ll note here that this for me puts to rest the “Flemythal possessed him he didn’t absorb her power it was the other way around” theories that float around. We’re clearly told here the wolf has absorbed the dragon. I’ve said this before but I don’t think she’s possessing him, there may be grand-scheme manipulations going on (I don’t think she’s dead, she’s Horcruxed somewhere, and she needs him to succeed to release the gods so she can take her vengeance) but he is responsible for his own actions and is nobody’s agent but his own. Also interesting here is the pane of glass, making me think of eluvians, and the two figures being painted on either side of a pane of glass. Remember the eluvian behind Solas and Flemythal in the post-credits DA:I scene? On one side, a wolf. On the other, a dragon. Also recalls the Trespasser codexes where an elf was wondering why wolf statues of Fen’Harel were appearing in attendance to statues of dragon Mythal.

Back with Sutherland and crew in the moment, Regret peels off the wall and fully forms. When it snarls it also sounds between wolf and dragon. It has too many eyes. It seems more feral and less articulate the further it goes from the fresco. It rises to a big height, has 7 legs and reshapes itself with every step. Sutherland demands the demon name itself. “I am the heart of what was here. An echo that has breached the Fade. I am Regret!” Regret briefly traps them in individual mini-nightmares about each of their greatest regrets. They become lost within themselves at moments when a choice was made. It finds your doubts and feeds on them to get stronger. Its arms grow more talons when Sutherland echoes the regrets that drew it to this place. “There is so much of me that’s here,” it says, “So much Regret behind these deeds. You will stay and face your choice. I am all that you have done.” It pauses, looks at the hole it left in the eighth panel, wistful. “I wonder if you know the dread that’s coming?” It says this while looking at the now-empty Panel 8 and seems wistful, like a child anticipating promised candy on Christmas morning. “The actions here have scarred the world.” Clearly in these bits it's referencing the Dread Wolf rising, and taking glee in it (also a reference to the scars the sky above Skyhold now bears post-Breach) Not suggesting Solas takes glee in it though, he obviously doesn’t, this is just a twisted demonic echo. And, these emotive descriptions pain me, they reflect what Solas was feeling and has lived through. Poor Solas :( Regret can “still” the greatest blade or magic, reminding me of Solas’ freezing power. Interestingly it also shrieks “I am the Regret of a god!”

Sutherland and Co try to defeat it. When he lets it come for him, Regret expected resistance. “It had never been accepted. Never owned.” Consider that and how Solas conceives of his actions. (Regret initially can’t touch Sutherland because he has no regrets, btw. It goes for him when he intentionally makes himself feel regret and shouts that he is). Regret tries to rally: “It would reach the rotunda. It would sleep and plan and come back stronger. This was all their fault. They would learn how smart it was. The regret that had drawn it to Skyhold had a very long memory.” Obviously, since Solas is immortal and he regrets things from ancient Elvhenan but also in the present. And the impacts of his Veil-erecting choice, which he now regrets, have spanned centuries and brought the elves low and to suffer in every one of them. But they vanquish it. Everyone looks at it as it perishes.

Its dismembered limbs were now strange piles of dry plaster. Some of the pieces were large enough to see details of the fresco. A careful hand might paste them all back on the wall, restore it, though that didn’t occur to anyone in the moment.

The core of the creature lay on its side, its too many eyes drifting unfocused. It could re-form, given time, but at this point even a few simple wounds would return its mind and will across the Veil. For a moment, the sunlight illuminated something within—a sliver of the spirit that might have been. Not the opposite of regret. A different flavor, or shade. Contemplation. Introspection. It felt the echo of the actions that had summoned it. There might have been a better choice, said a thought it had not been allowed. 

It glimpsed the spirit realm beyond the Veil, and a faraway glimmer. Familiar, and somehow far brighter than what had drawn it here. It knew where it would go. 

Here we have again the spirit duality (more on this in the General section below) - Contemplation / Introspection vs Regret - and mention of Solas’ actions inadvertently summoning this creature. There might have been a better choice, but he’s never really allowed himself to contemplate that. You can see that from his words in the first story about how although he’s conflicted, he clearly feels like he has no choice. Where in the Fade does Regret go in the end, I wonder? Obviously spirits reform in time in the manner Solas tells us about after his personal quest. If Solas was once a spirit, I wonder if he ever thinks about the place where he originally came from. In any event lost ancient Elvhenan for him is a faraway glimmer, brighter than the modern world and he knows what he’s trying to do. Voth bids the spirit to go in peace. Sutherland reflects that Regret will linger if you let it lie there. He makes it taste its own mistake. An epitaph to this story, which seems like a sign that’s put up at Skyhold to commemorate the Inquisition peoples’ efforts, says that change is coming, both to and because of the Inquisition. “And we are blessed with the ability to accept and move on, to leave dread and regret behind.” If only Solas could move on from the past. We have this ability that he does not. Overall the message of this piece is that in order to ‘vanquish’ regret, you should feel it, accept it and like own it? I can’t help but wonder if that’s like a accept the feelings and own your mistakes as opposed to continuing on this current course Solas, kinda message.

The artifacts which ‘strengthen’ the Veil

We all remember Solas’ quests relating to Veil strength and the elven artifact ‘collectibles’. He claims they can hold off demons and strengthen the Veil in their immediate area, so we go around activating them for him. He says they help prevent Veil tears and can measure the strength of the Veil. They supposedly provide him with readings on the Veil’s magical energies. If activated in a coordinated fashion they could even predict ‘uncovered’ Veil tears i.e. where tears are more likely to open. Strengthening the Veil seems at odds with his goals of tearing it down so there are theories that they actually do the opposite and weaken it, and that he was having us going around unknowingly assisting him with that.

In The Wigmaker Job a horrid Vint mage is doing awful experiments/’art’ with slaves using red lyrium. Consequently the Veil is thin in his workshop. Our POV char here infiltrates the workshop and realizes the place is so filled with anguish and suffering that it should be a hotbed for demons. He wonders how the mage is keeping them at bay and thinks “There [are] rumors of elven artifacts that strengthened the Veil and prevented demons from breaking through.” He searches for anything that might provide a barrier against the spirit world. He finds in the center of the chamber, a cage hangs from the ceiling, and inside it is a globe crackling with green energy (sound familiar? like the artifacts in-game after activation). He destroys it and suddenly all the demons it was keeping out are able to burst through.

To me this suggests the artifacts in DA:I really did strengthen the Veil and Solas was being truthful on this matter. Presumably his method of taking down the Veil does not involve them and is different in nature. Maybe even, in order for his method to work it requires the Veil not to be filled with literal tears like those ones. (Also in general minimizing harm and protecting innocents where you can fits his character.) Anyway, we knew already that a repeat of Corypheus’ ways of Breaching the Veil, letting a giant tear expand, isn’t going to be Solas’ methods of Veil-removal.

The possible effects of Solas’ ritual on the Veil

Remember the Vints in the Bard’s story saying that Solas’ ritual has already started to affect the Fade? What could that mean? It sounds bad. It probably isn’t regular ol’ Fade rifts and demons coming through, that’s the plot/catch in DA:I, that’s old hat. So what could this mean? In Luck In The Gardens, Dorian hires a Lord of Fortune to kill a monster plaguing Minrathous. The monster is unlike anything we’ve ever seen in DA-verse before, even considering the body horror already in the setting, even unlike the new fucked up darkspawns in Horror of Hormak. It’s not a demon, it’s not a Venatori abomination. It’s called The Cekorax. It’s a tentacley, wormy thrashing mass bulk that radiates joyful malice. It kills people and takes only their heads. Its voice is many voices speaking together, some parts on its tentacles open to show real human eyes studded in there. It’s the perfect predator, surrounding you, nestled everywhere, not just in the sewers below the city but with coils running behind grass and under tree bases in the gardens. It can open up like a lily and inside is a ring of the severed heads of its victims, eyes gouged out (as they’re now studded in the tentacles) but otherwise healthy, and the heads are the source of the voices; it calls this its “crown of the blind”. It’s positively Lovecraftian. Interestingly it makes reference to “Things are rising” and says its victims are better off “nested safe and warm inside” its body instead, i.e. instead of facing the horrors to come. Dread Wolves rising indeed.

Anyway, why I mention the monster. At the end of this short Dorian and the Lord of Fortune wonder what the Cekorax was. Ancient breed of demon? Fiend brewed up by a magister? Dorian was at a party with a Mortalitasi a while ago. Five cups in, she went on about “things past the Veil of our world, neither demon nor spirit”. Perhaps it wasn’t the tipsy nonsense he assumed it to be. If Solas’ ritual is about the Veil, is affecting the Veil... is an inadvertent side effect of tearing it down or doing this ritual, like letting these horrors from past the Veil in?! Where? This some other dimension shit? Or maybe they’re from the Void?? Seems like they’re gradually starting to ‘bleed’ in to the mortal realm. I’m not suggesting this is at all intentional on Solas’ part, but there are already affects being noted by some people, “Fade rifts and demons coming in” has been done, and we know whatever he’s doing is gonna cause some amount of chaos and destruction. I also enjoy the idea that there are things beyond even Solas’ ken in this universe - beyond even a god-figure’s ken - and that there’s an encroaching bigger bad. In this line of speculation, in the narrative maybe Solas is The Dragon. Whether that’s going to be in DA4 or in relation to a big bad rising in the game after remains to be seen. Previously I’ve wondered if he’d be The Dragon to vengeful Flemythal or angry razing mad unleashed Evanuris. The potential here is !!!

Parallels and things that came to mind

Some Vints are still Venatori cultists. In The Streets of Minrathous we pass a street prophet. He goes on about how Tevinter was glorious and how their ‘god’ would see them lifted. Look at Minrathous now - are they content? The cult’s dead god wanted to bring Tevinter back to what it was, to its “glory”. This is “nonsense, of course, it always was” thinks our POV char. The old empire was even more corrupt and heartless than what it is now. Sound familiar? It’s not a direct comparison, but you can see the ironically similar thematic stuff going on. Probably intentional, like a foil. Ancient Elvhenan was glorious. Are elves content with their lot now? One of their ‘gods’ would see them lifted. He wants to bring back what was, restore it. And ancient Elvhenan had its own problems as we know with corruption, heartlessness, classism, slaves, mage-rulers, etc. And stuff like “Our lives for the glory of Tevinter reborn” reminds me of some the stuff some of Solas’ followers say.

Another thing that sticks out to me is the mirror? of Dorian? That’s not the word I want but I can’t think of the right one. Tevinter is shitty (sorry Dorian). Solas has massive problems with Tevinter e.g. oppression of elves, misuses of magic, binding spirits, keeping slaves. Part of Solas’ whole deal is that the modern world is a crapsack world, especially for elves, and Tevinter is emblematic of that. So Dorian’s crusade to improve and redeem his homeland sticks out to me. Since he came back from the south he no longer has slaves, only paid servants. He’s probably one of the first mages of his station to do so. As we saw with the references to the Lucerni in Trespasser epilogue slides, him and Mae are currently doing everything they can to make Tevinter better and less evil, to the extent that they’re on the outs with most of the rest of the Magisterium. The state of Tevinter makes him feel raggedly depressed but they feel they have a duty to their country. They’re keeping an eye on scoundrels, trying to deal with political rumblings, trying to win allies over, trying to prove Vints aren’t all heartless, there’s now an anti-slavery movement, they’re posting rewards for hunters to rid Minrathous of monsters, etc (they’re so busy crusading they don’t have time to do that themselves). It’s slow progress but they’re doing it. I don’t really have a comment to make here but it’s a link my brain made. It’s potential redeem-ability of the modern world and efforts to fix and improve what they have vs preoccupation with the past and wanting to hit the reset button for a do-over.

This book is careful to give us a lot of examples of modern elves who are strong/capable and/or powerful in their own right, in a variety of different ways. Strife, Bolivar Nero, Cyrros, Irian, Guili Arainai, Teia, adding to existing examples like Charter. The lot of modern elves in modern society is an unacceptable, indefensible crapshoot, but I think the point of these characters perhaps is to show that there still is a bit of potential in the modern world. There are strong elves in positions of power. Just because some ‘beat the system’ and rose doesn’t mean it’s okay, but I think they’re here to 1) show that some modern elves are gonna be opposed to Solas and his plans, elves aren’t a monolith and they aren’t all going to mindlessly go to his side in droves, they have a diversity of opinions 2) not so much ‘some elves have managed to obtain power’ but ‘modern elves are strong, capable people’. This is important because of BW’s habit of crapping on the modern elves/portraying them as stupid, and Solas’ ‘sadly you’re shadows of your former glory’-shtick. Also, while there continue to be examples of awful treatment of elves by humans in the book, like slaughter of a group and horrid racism, they’ve also been careful to give us examples of people being good to/helping them. a mix of humans and elves doing this actually. again it feels like a ‘there is still a bit of potential in the modern world’, thing. we have Teia’s policy not to kill the help on contracts unless they’re guilty (the help is usually elven since servants. as Talon I bet this is a policy she enforces in her whole house). Vadis and Irian not killing and rescuing Qunari elves who were just doing their jobs, and making a point to avoid killing or getting into trouble servants in their heist. Dorian’s freed his slaves and now only has paid servants. Lucanis frees a bunch of elven slaves from a magister. there are pockets of good in the world. 

they’ve also, with Charter & Tessa, and now Irian and Vadis, set up a situation where some elves aren’t going to be okay with the cost of the price of the new world, because they love their non-elf partners who probably wouldn’t survive the change. elves can obviously oppose Solas for their own reasons that don’t center on a non-elf SO of course, but it’s something Charter specifically highlights.

Also Solas has ironically unintentionally become a bit of a cult leader again. Cory parallels/foil reinforced. Solas Disapproves 

Other references in the book (minor/general)

No direct references, but there’s ancient elfy / general elfy / Evanuris-y stuff going on in Three Trees To Midnight, An Old Crow’s Old Tricks and The Horror of Hormak. The Veil is thin in Arlathan Forest and it contains ancient powerful spirits. Stuff for another post. We find under Hormak one of Ghilan’nains 12 fucked up monster factories.

It’s unrelated yet worth mentioning: the demon that possesses a corpse in Down Among The Dead Men is a Pride Demon / Spirit. Interesting choice, the writers are obviously weaving related stuff throughout. The “body and the spirit [Pride] are at odds”. Pride “has the power to cast forth a shadow and make itself known where it is unwanted.” The hulking expanding shape over the mortal form is the mark of a Pride demon. Also in this story is a spirit of Curiosity in a similar (but not exactly the same) situation to the spirit of Compassion that became an imitation of the human boy Cole who died. Is he a dead man or imitation of a dead man? A spirit clinging to the dying curiosity of a man? We learn that the Mortalitasi know of such things. Entities as “complete” as that particular one are rare. Some of the Mortalitasi argue that these “higher dead” hold fast to their mortal souls. Others say this is impossible and that these entities are caught between two spirits. (In this case curiosity and anger. Multiple times throughout this story Curiosity almost loses himself to anger and his Mortalitasi helper has to assist him in not falling to rage). Whatever the case, they are unbalanced and need a remedy. This is of note because of the Wisdom Spirit / Pride Demon dichotomy, the theories that Solas was once a spirit who took form at Mythal’s behest, and the theories that “Solas” and the "Dread Wolf” are not just his 2 identities as a dude and as a rebellion leader, or just symbols / representations of his inner conflict over what he’s doing, but more like two actual entities at war with one another in the same body. In this story also the Mortalitasi helper allows Curiosity to see that Pride is “a cheat”.

Also unrelated, but in Hunger a Hunger demon possessed a dying starving man and spread a werewolf curse. In Murder By Death Mages a noble threatens to throw an assassin he hired to further his claim to the throne to the wolves along with the Mortalitasi. Wolves. There are also a few places throughout where unrelated characters deal with issues and various forms of pride and hubris. How topical lol.

Summary

In or after 9:44 Dragon, what remains of the Inquisition, either officially or unofficially, is undertaking various covert anti-Solas manoeuvres. Some of their agents refer to the leaders as “the generals”. Charter is an agent on the front-lines here and likely reports some things to Divine Victoria. Varric is also helping, on the side of being Viscount. He’s calling in favors, recruiting, listening to reports/info from people about the enemy, and giving out work/tasks relating to combating Solas and striking back. The Inquisitor is still involved in some capacity because Charter is going to report back to them and Solas gives her a message for them. Genetivi, Philliam, Sister Laudine and a Lord of Fortune called Mateo also help. A family of Orlesian nobles, the Varondales, have also been noted as investing in the Inquisition with genuine intentions

Other groups are moving against Solas too, with varying degrees of cooperation with the Inquisition - a bit, none/separately or even somewhat antagonistically to them. Other groups are also interested in keeping tabs on him and the threat he poses. These different groups include the Carta, Nevarran Mortalitasi, Tevinter Siccari, Qunari Ben-Hassrath, the Executors and probably Orlesian bards. Some of these groups realize they have a shared interest in stopping him. Some realize he threatens all of their peoples. Some of these folk are among the best spies on the continent. Some Tevinters think he’s an elven upstart. This goes to show that the Inquisition hasn’t kept or been able / didn’t try to keep the Fen’Harel threat secret; it isn’t known only to them. There are rumors going around and some fairly regular Thedosians seem to have heard about it too. One rumor is that dozens of elves have gone off to heed the call of “some god”. Some Thedosians theorize he is a demon or has a deal with a demon, or is a powerful spirit that is worshiped as a god like the Avvar do.

The Ben-Hassrath seem to have the most info on him. The Qunari believe he is a dangerous mage who styles himself the Dread Wolf. The Ben-Hassrath want to stay neutral on the Antaam Qunari invasion in order to focus on the real threat. They want their allies standing next to them in the anti-Solas effort. They refer to Varric as one such ally. Clearly the Qunari have not listened to Solas’ warning to trouble him no further.

The Executors expressly want to eliminate Solas. They care only about what his goals and means of achieving them are. They wonder if Solas is a poison-master rather than a dream-stalker. Solas cautions the Inquisition against working with the Executors, saying that they’re dangerous.

The Inquisition insist that as he said, he is not a god, but a very old, very powerful mage. They say he wants to restore the empire of the ancient elves, and that he made clear that doing so will cause massive destruction to their world. This destruction will probably be especially bad for Tevinter as it’s built on the bones of Elvhenan. They believe that he wants “to end [something, probably the world]”. Charter references his claim of creating the Veil, his Veil research and the Veil-strengthening artifacts.

Charter attends a secret info-sharing meeting. The Siccari and Ben-Hassrath declined to attend. The attendees compare Solas-notes. It turns out one of them was Solas in disguise. She asks for her life and he spares her. Solas came to the meeting personally as the Inquisition was involved and came to find out what they all knew.

One of Solas’ main targets was the red lyrium idol which still existed in the statue of Meredith. Even though most people believed the idol gone, a Dalish-appearing elf appeared in Kirkwall one day claiming that he learned of it in a dream and that an old legend of his people says that if he gets it out, he can free his gods. He was persistent and had a special potion which could melt the lyrium. In this way the idol is accessed and retrieved. A Tevinter mage came and took it from him before he can pass it to his collaborators, 2 agents of Solas. It’s implied one is Dalish or an ancient but Solas removed his vallaslin.

The idol next showed up in Nevarra where Mortalitasi helped the Tevinter mage do a ritual with it. A spike/blade appears from the bottom of the idol. Solas in the form of the DW interrupts the ritual angrily, kills the Tevinter and roars about how they threaten creation and the sea of dreams. He claims the idol is his and sends spirits to swarm them. He was angry they bound spirits and disrupted his work. He doesn’t like Mortalitasi magic that involves binding spirits or shaping the world to their will via influencing the Fade. He eventually obtains the idol. The ritual-blade part had vanished after the Mortalitasi ritual got interrupted. 

The idol is described as: a couple hugging, too thin to be dwarves; glowing softy like a lit up ruby; heavier than you think, even for lyrium; when hefted it seems like it wants to keep moving, like it’s got liquid inside; seeming to show 2 lovers; or a god mourning her sacrifice; it whispers in the minds of mages and made some dwarves scream/run off/go mad; a crowned figure who comforted the other; people hear music around it. Solas strokes it reverently and says something to it in elven when he finds it. Its effects can be negated by protective runes and double-shielded chests. Tevinters think they are best-placed to harness it.

It’s surmised that Solas intends something “terrible” for the Fade and that the idol is now with him. He has begun whatever ritual he intends to use to restore the elven empire, is aware of disruptions, the ritual involves the Fade and requires the idol. The idol reacts to other lyrium and he may need lyrium for the ritual, either blue or red. If so, he’s going to be having to gather inordinate amounts of it in the coming times. The ritual has already begun to start to affect the Fade, which doesn’t sound good. It will take a few years, hence the “few years of peace”. In disguise Solas says he will destroy anyone in his way without regret or hesitation, and that he does not believe they can stop it. Solas clearly knows about some covert locations where intelligence agencies and spies trade info and do stuff.

Out of disguise he’s tired and sad, and knows that many oppose him and that they are not fools. Telling the Inquisitor what he intended to do in Trespasser was a moment of weakness. He refers to the world ending. He insists he has no choice. He says that what he’s doing will save this world and that the elves who still remain after when it is done, like Charter, may find it even better than it was before (Charter notes he’s sympathetic to elves). This is unacceptable to Charter as she loves a human woman. Would all modern elves remain? If so, is the annihilation of the other 3 races an acceptable price to pay for the elevation of one...? He admits he’s prideful, hot-headed and foolish. He says to tell the Inquisitor that he’s sorry, voice faltering.

Agents of Fen’Harel say stuff like: “The Dread Wolf guide your soul to peace, brother”; “I act freely. For the Dread Wolf. To bring back what was once ours—what must be ours again”; “Take comfort that in your sacrifice, the glory of the true people will be restored.” One modern elf who refused to join them rants “Those damned Fen’Harel cultists! ‘Ooh, if we blow up enough people, ancient Elvhenan is definitely coming back!’”

Solas can kill people while they sleep, even dwarves. He can petrify even Executors and golems. He can petrify with specificity e.g. someone’s body beneath their clothes but leaving the clothes unfrozen. He can petrify groups at once, as seen in Trespasser. It’s implied some spirits are helping him.

Solas’ agents include both Dalish and City Elves. They follow him willingly, some appear devout/devoted/fanatical about the cause. His cause has been recruiting for a few years at least. He doesn’t only employ ancient elves. Some of his agents have fancy armor and some have robes with unknown symbols. They seem to have lots of resources, info and money at their disposal. He has eyes everywhere especially inside Tevinter. He has agents posing as elven Ben-Hassrath. At least one has disguised herself as a human before. Some kill themselves rather than be captured or interrogated. One displays open, naked contempt, hostility and disgust for humans. One tried to blow up an innocent town of thousands of people in order to cause chaos; the aim was to make it look like a Tevinter Altus blew up a neutral Qunari town in Rivain to try and draw the Ben-Hassrath in to the Qunari invasion, prompt Qunari to want to completely destroy Tevinter and try to drag in Rivain and even other countries/groups.

The Inquisition dispatched agents to an underground location in the north Silent Plains near the settlement of Solas in Tevinter. The purpose was to find the true history of the elven pantheon. The Inquisition did research and found the location of a piece of shattered ancient elven library which is embedded in the Deep Roads. They want to find out what undid Solas and the others who walked as gods. They find the fallen piece of Arlathan with lots of old elven books in it, and in there might be the means to defend the world. They leave with some books they think are important. It’s implied they find some kind of answer.

The Qunari have been following similar research threads. The Qunari say the translation “Dread Wolf” of “Fen’Harel” isn’t true. They want to find his ‘true name’ because they believe it will him them combat him.

A demon Regret emerged in the rotunda from the frescos after Skyhold shut, born of the intensity of Solas’ regrets, mistakes and pain. It completes the final panel. This panel depicts the post-credits scene where he kills Flemythal. He absorbed her/her power/essence. Regret’s form has many eyes and was a wolf-dragon. Regret says it’s the heart of what was in the rotunda; there’s so much regret behind the fresco-deeds; and wonders if people know about the “dread” that’s coming. It describes itself as the regret of a god. It was defeated. As it dies it thinks about how “Maybe there is a better choice” is a thought it was never allowed.

The Tevinter mage’s attempted ritual with the idol involved blood magic and sacrifice of slaves. If Solas’ ritual is anything similar (and it may well be, the Magisters Sidereal also had to sacrifice inordinate amounts of slaves to get the blood magic power to make the Veil rip open), I’m afraid.

The future is implied. The Inquisition are making plans based on what the expedition found. “A year later, nations would stand [against Solas], and tremble.”

Extended speculation about the specifics of his ritual here

The biggest questions now to me

What did the Inquisition agents find out in the library about the history of the Evanuris and how to counter Solas?

What does this ritual specifically involve?

Where is the site of his ritual?

I’m still wondering what are Solas’ plans for dealing with the unleashed Evanuris?

What specifically happened between Mythal and Solas in ages past?

#dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #tevinter nights #solas #dragon age #bioware #video games #tevinter nights spoilers #spoilers #spoiler #mj meta #Felassan #Best Elf #cole #spirit boy #strife #mj best of #jackdawyt #dragon age: dreadwolf #da4

[elliespuns]

I've seen ppl answering these and I know you probaby don't do these but I thought I could at least try via ask. Anyway, you don't have to answer these if you don't want to. Love you dude, btw

• How old are you? • Tall or short? • Sexuality? • Describe yourself briefly • Something you like about yourself? • Favorite hobbies outside your blog? • Something no one would guess about you • Weird quirks you have • One talent you wished you had • A word your friends would use to describe you • Craziest thing that's ever happened to you • Have you ever been in love? • What is your biggest fear? • Why did you start this blog? • Your favorite food? • Least favorite food? • Favorite TV shows? • Favorite movie of all time? • Favorite musicians? • Do you have any pets?

I don't usually participate in these, but you being so nice and all... I can make an exception.

How old are you? I'm 30

Tall or short? Very short, I'm only 5'1 ft, 156 cm

Sexuality? Eh, I don't like labeling myself but if I had to, it'd say bisexual.

Describe yourself briefly I'm an introverted dork that doesn't vibe with most people. I dig music, art, and I love a lot. I either love too much or not at all. I've been vegan for over 10 years now and I love funny people. Other than that, I'm just a very poetic soul that also loves to play video games from time to time.

Something you like about yourself? I'd say it's my knowledge in English. I've been self 'learning' it for 9 years now (never been abroad) and I was able to learn the language to the point where it became a huge part of my life. Like I literally use it more than my mother language. That's a thing I definitely like about myself.

Favorite hobbies outside your blog? I write; creative writing, poetry. Both fulfil my creative mind. Then I love reading (ofc). I also draw, play video games, work with graphic programs and I love taking pictures.

Something no one would guess about you I have a very high sex drive, lmao 🫣😂 and people would never guess this about me, cause I literally look like I have a ribbon buckled to my vagina.

Weird quirks you have Oh, god, I can't stand hand cuts. Like you can literally show me a vid of someone having their throat slit and I'll be fine, but then you show me a vid of someone having their palm sliced, or simply just someone cutting their finger and I'll go all asdfghjklsdfghjk.

One talent you wished you had Damn, I wish I could draw from imagination. I can draw but I can't ever draw anything just by trying to see it in my head. That's so fucking frustrating. And weird. Anyone else having this problem?

A word your friends would use to describe you Idk about one word, but my best friend says I'm the funniest person she has ever met, so does that count? Lol, Idk why she says this.

Craziest thing that's ever happened to you Omg, trauma alert... when my boss (a male) caressed the top of my head.

Have you ever been in love? I still am.

What is your biggest fear? Fuck, it's hurricanes and tornados. I actually have a phobia, it's called 'ancraophobia' and it's a fear of strong wind. (I swear I don't fear normal wind tho, I'm not that weird, actually, ok?).

Why did you start this blog? When I came here one day I realized that there were only a few blogs that were dedicated to the game stuff. So I said why the hell not? I didn't expect to have an actual fanbase here, it's crazy. Love you guys.

Your favorite food? Lentils, that's the shit.

Least favorite food? I'd say meat.

Favorite TV shows? Okay, not gonna mention TLOU cause it's obvious, but the very first show that pops into my mind every time is Breaking Bad. I love this show to bits. Then I also love TWD, OITNB, Better Call Saul, Wentworth, This Is Us, Lost, The Killing.

Favorite movie of all time? My most favorite movie of all time will forever be Ginger Snaps (2000). I've loved this movie ever since I was 11. It's been 19 years ever since and I still love it to pieces. Aaaaah!

Favorite musicians? I love a lot of music, but my most favorite is Damien Rice. I love that guy and what he does. Right behind him are Cigarettes After Sex and Mazzy Star (just pure love). Then it would be Joshua Radin, The Hope Arsenal, Yaeow, The Paper Kites, The Smiths, R.E.M., Blur, BoDeans

Do you have any pets? My chonky boi guinea pig

#ok not related to tlou but why the hell not #the last of us #tlou #the last of us game #tlou game

[harvestdew]

Do you have any specific seb headcanons? I feel like most everyone has at least one or two about their sdv spouse; but if you're more interested in giving a kiki and seb character dynamic analysis like you did for haley, abigail, and shane I'd be SUPER into that too

I LOVE SEBASTIAN i’m glad you’re interested in hearing about their dynamic! i like when people talk or ask me about this stuff so i get irrationally happy when people are interested in my oc or my opinions of characters in the game. again i’ll put it under a read more since i don’t want to clog people’s dashboards up! also here’s a quick sketch of him i did as a little treat

sebastian headcanons

i always thought and still think he’s asian (like me and kiki) because of his dark hair. i know people say he dyes it but whatever

he’d probably like sanrio even if not openly? i think he might be embarrassed since ppl assume sanrio’s for kids but he’d especially like keroppi because he likes frogs

he’s GOTH (and to some extent punk) not an e-boy people need to stop calling him an e-boy i’m begging you because if you saw e-boy culture on tiktok you know they’re the legit antithesis of him and he would probably hate/make fun of them with sam and abigail

my dude wears glasses but only when he’s alone in his room which is why if you took him out to get food he wouldn’t be able to read the menu at mcdonalds

he’s naturally good with cats in the same way he’s good with frogs. he’s one of those people who doesn’t even know but cats just seem to really like them for no explainable reason

definitely plays minecraft. no ifs ands or buts. he is not ashamed in it and neither should you

i don’t think his hair was intentionally supposed to be longer on one side.  i think he grew his hair out once in high school and then tried to cut it but cut off too much on one side but when he saw how edgy it looked he went idk this kinda looks nice and left it

i don’t know if anyone knows about the games yume nikki and ib but he’d like those types of games a lot. and in the context of him being a programmer, he’d probably code something similar to the premise of that game. very deep but also kinda confusing games

i don’t think he hates maru. she specializes in STEM just like he does and a lot of their interests align imo. i like to think sometimes they help each other out whether it be with maru’s robots or his own coding. at least once he matures out of the phase of feeling secondary to her and realizes she actually really loves her brother

kiki + sebastian relationship

i feel like the couple meme sheet i did embodies their dynamic pretty well but if it wasn’t obvious i like opposites attract and goth/prep dynamics

even if they don’t have the exact same interests, they strive for compromise. as in kiki giving him tulips since she likes tulips even though he hates flowers - he keeps them in a vase anyway. kiki doesn’t like horror, sebastian probably does, and she watches movies with him so he isn’t trapped watching awful romcoms with her. he also probably doesn’t love sweets but i think i established earlier kiki’s pretty good at baking so he tries to eat whatever she bakes anyway. and it’s not like those “the old ball and chain” relationships but more so done out of love so your partner doesn’t feel like they are losing parts of themselves dating you

not that they don’t have anything in common though b/c kiki liked the cave saga comics as a kids and would participate in dnd sessions with sebastian

they were definitely best friends before they went out and i don’t think it was love at first sight. he was probably thinking why the hell does this chick keep showing up in my room for the first few weeks of their friendship until she kinda grew on him once he realized she was there to stay and annoyingly persistent

i don’t really get the vibe sebastian is the type to give you advice when you’re upset but it’s not necessarily a bad thing for kiki. it’s better for her, as opposed to haley (who i DO think gives good advice), to sometimes have someone to listen to. imo he’s more observant so he is able to pick up on her being upset when someone like abigail might not notice

in general the same goes as what i’ve said about shane and haley - a lot of their dynamic is based on helping each other, especially helping each other grow

they definitely bicker but not in an overdramatic way? i feel like the only thing they’d fight about is something as dumb as robin and demetrius fighting over tomatoes being fruit - ultimately harmless (plus robin and demetrius have one of the healthiest relationships in game). maybe something like that one vid of the guys fighting over whether or not water is wet

kiki definitely gets on his ass about his health all the time. like i KNOW it’s annoying the way your mom might nag you but i am so bad at self-care myself that i’m 99% sure he probably forgets to eat sometimes after coding for hours which is why she drops food off for him constantly

sebastian is better at showing affection through his actions because saying stuff verbally is not his strong suit and embarrasses him, so usually he resorts to things

kiki is also so good at giving sebastian super well thought-out gifts (like bidding on a signed copy of the comics he likes) that he gets really nervous around holidays because he doesn’t want to give her something that she doesn’t like and disappoint her. gift giving is a competition at this point

pda is not really sebastian’s thing so kiki doesn’t indulge in it that much so he won’t die of embarrassment. but on occasion she does do some pda in front of everyone though to embarrass him b/c it is kinda funny to her

their dates tend to be really simple too? i don’t think either of them are big gesture types of people or they only do that type of stuff once in a while. i think he’s come to terms that kiki refuses to go back to the city for dates but is okay with date nights in. weirdly enough he plans them more knowing that she’s really busy with farm work

i feel like there’s more but i’m kinda forgetting i might add some more later if i think of some... thank you so much for the ask though!!!

#SORRY FOR SPILLING SO MUCH #mine #answered

[itsclydebitches]

I found your post about character bashing tags intersting. In the modern Harry Potter fandom on Ao3, they are still in use because I think it's become such an integral part of that fandom's culture as a relic of early fandom. But you can see in some more modern fandoms a sort of convergent evolution, for example, in the Sanders Sides fandom, the tags 'Sympathetic' and 'Unsympathetic' get used to warn of character portrayals. I find it interesting how some fandoms have these tags and others don't

It really is fascinating, especially since Sanders Sides isn't exactly a traditional canon, yeah? I mean, just the format of Sanders' vids feels, to me anyway, like it shouldn't produce the need for sympathetic/unsympathetic tagging. They're very archetypal characters that belong to short comedy sketches and aren't following a standard plotline. So my guess (and I'm not in the fandom, so I really am guessing here), is that these more complex portrayals stem from the fandom expanding on the characters past what Sanders actually produced? There just seems to be a fundamental difference between tagging for, say, an unsympathetic Snape when the ethics of his actions are a focal point of the canon vs. taking a character like Patton and going, "But what if we depicted him like an evil stepfather instead?" (With perhaps some comedy-based details for justifying that in the vids. Again, idk the sketches well.) Though there is something intriguing in the idea that, since they're all only one part of a whole personality, each will inevitably cause problems simply by virtue of, you know, not being a "real," balanced person...

Anyway, yeah, I'd love to know how and why each fandom does/does not develop such warnings, though it's notoriously hard to trace that sort of work back to its beginnings. Especially for a fandom as old as Harry Potter, given that so many works have been lost to purged accounts and dead websites, to name just one challenge. My guess (and this is another guess) is that it's a combination of whether the canon is inclined towards needing such warnings and whether the more popular fic writers end up using them. Harry Potter certainly needs them. I can remember the intense conversations surrounding Snape, Ron, Dumbledore, and how much each deserves the readers' sympathy after various types of failures. Again, that was the point in the story, to demonstrate those flaws, but the radically different conclusions fans came to meant that many wanted to warn when their fics were using an "obvious" reading of the characters that others might not agree with. And those fans, likely, had some sort of standing within the community. The golden age of Harry Potter fic (so to speak lol) was also the age of Big Name Fans, so if any of them utilized such warnings, their massive audience was likely to follow suit. And at that point it just perpetuates itself. Yeah, nowadays it's such a staple of the fandom that unless we were to get an influx of new fans who don't bother to read previous fics/emulate them (which is not only really unlikely in general, but feels particularly unlikely as communities like tumblr push for a complete rejection of anything Harry Potter related), then those trends will just keep popping up.

Newer fandoms like RWBY though... they don't have that history. More importantly though, it looks like there's some difference between its community and something like Sanders Sides, which is comparatively new too. I mentioned in the last post a lack of respect and though all fandoms absolutely have their problems and though RWBY absolutely has wonderful pockets (hey, friends!) I stand by my claim that it's one of the more bullheaded fandoms I've come across. Harry Potter has its insane discourse simply by virtue of its popularity, size, and subject matter, but back in the day, debating the actions and worth of characters was fun. Friends online and off got into heated debates specifically because we enjoyed providing evidence, hearing new ideas, and testing our convictions. Arguing (in a respectful manner where everyone implicitly understood that none of us were truly mad) was a Saturday night pastime. Now, it feels like more fans believe in a right and wrong answer, perpetuated by RWBY's black and white canon in recent years. The idea is no longer to acknowledge the complexity inherent in these characters and likewise acknowledge that individual fans will react to them in vastly different ways, but rather to say, "No. They're 100% bad (or good) and that's all there is to it." The tagging acknowledges that this is just one interpretation, whereas many recent fandom pockets believe that one interpretation is all that exists.

#fandom #rwby #mymetas #Harry Potter #HP

[leminione9795]

Just out of curiosity, why would Jimin who is the dongsaeng in his friend group then refer to his older friends as friends if they're not the same age but he wouldn't refer to Jungkook as his friend? I remember him saying all of his friends were older than him except Taehyung so he included Taehyung in there so he lumped Tae in with his outside BTS friend group. How can Jimin as a dongsaeng call his outside BTS older friends friends but can't call another dongsaeng in another group of friends friend? Jimin's reason for mentioning all of that was him making the point that the age thing didn't matter to him. Not sure how to explain this better. Also Jimin and Jungkook were paired up for a photoshoot last year I think for seasons greetings and their concept according to Jungkook was 'Two friends who came from Busan together' but it was actually how he/they interpreted the 'Adaptation' concept that was the name for their photoshoot. Is Jungkook being the dongsaeng mean he's allowed to call them friends?

(Warning: super long explanation post ahead)

Hi!

You must be referring to what I commented on this post. I admit it wasn’t nearly as thorough as it could’ve been, and I completely understand how you might be confused. 

So I think I should make a few things clear.

First, having a friendship with someone and calling them chingu are two different things in Korea. 

Second, the word ‘chingu’ has many layers to it. In the vlive in question, Jimin used the word in at least two different ways. 

Let’s break down the first point. 

In the reblog I deliberately used the words ‘friend’ and ‘chingu’ separately because there can be different connotations to each word. 

The dictionary definition of friend and chingu can be the same. But in colloquial usage, chingu has implications that, as far as I know, friend doesn’t. (And vice versa, of course. I’m not trying to say Korean words have more rich meaning or whatever.) One of those implications is that people who are chingu are of the same age. This is so so so important. You can have friends who are older/younger than you, but Koreans usually don’t refer to them as chingu. We use the adjective ‘친하다 [chinhada]’ which means ‘close’, and call these people ‘chinhan unnie’ ‘chinhan oppa’ ‘chinhan hyung’ ‘chinhan dongsaeng’ ‘chinhan hoobae’ etc. 

Now, it can get rather bothersome to call all these friends of varying statuses differently. Sometimes you don’t really want to specify your friend’s gender or age for whatever reason. Sometimes it just isn’t important. Sometimes simply implying they’re someone you have a friendship with is enough. So you just say chingu. It’s not common, but not rare either. 

For example, let’s say you’re a woman who are good friends with a man who is a couple years older and also went to college with you, and you want to tell a 3rd person who doesn’t know this person a funny story that you heard from him. You can refer to this guy friend in countless different ways - a sunbae I know (아는 선배), an oppa I know (아는 오빠), a close sunbae (친한 선배), a close oppa (친한 오빠), a sunbae from college (대학교 때 선배), etc. Or you can just say, my chingu told me this story. It not *impolite*, since you really are friends with him (as in, you have a close enough friendship with him), and you’re not calling him chingu (as in, someone who’s the same age) to his face. 

Even still, you don’t usually go calling this person your chingu in front of him. You wouldn’t introduce him as your chingu to other people. Does this mean he’s not your friend? No. 

(Similarly, calling someone your chingu doesn’t automatically mean you’re actual buddies. You may hear Koreans say ludicrous things like, oh he’s my chingu but we’re not that close. In this case chingu doesn’t mean friend in the literal sense, it most likely means they were just classmates.)

To sum up, you can have a friendship with people of any age but you can’t call all of them your chingu, especially if the age gap is big (*). However, you can still categorize them and refer to them as chingu in for convenience’s or privacy’s sake. 

(*This really depends on the individual, but I’d personally say plus or minus 2 years your age can be safely considered peers. If the other person is old/young enough to be your parent/child, then you don’t call them chingu, period. You just don’t.)

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Now on to the second point!

I went back to rewatch the vlive where Jimin mentioned having older friends, and to a native Korean it’s pretty obvious he’s using the word chingu extremely liberally. 

I've pulled some examples from the vid and added transcripts in both Korean and English, since the vlive subs can be misleading at times.

(talking about his frequent arguments with V)

저희가 이게 친구라서 그런지 여러분들도 친구가 있다면 이거에 공감하실 거예요 희한하게 되게 자존심을 부리게 되고 알겠어, 혹은 미안해, 고마우면 고마워 이렇게 하면 되는 얘기를 이게 선뜻 입 밖으로 잘 안 나와요

It's probably because we are chingu You guys will agree if you have chingu You become too proud to say things like Okay, or I'm sorry, thank you You should just say these things But they don't come out easily

Here chingu can mean either just friend or friends of the same age. I personally took it as the latter, because in the broader sense Jimin is friends with all BTS members. The fact that he's attributing his conflicts with V specifically to them being chingu, proves that chingu here doesn't mean any other person who you have a friendship with, it explicitly means friend of the same age.

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(talking about V being his only same-age friend)

그러다 보니까 어느새 나랑 동갑내기 내 친구는 사실 이제 어떻게 보면 저는 여기 사회생활 하려고 이렇게 서울에 올라오고 내 동갑내기 첫 친구이자 지금까지 거의 유일한 친구예요 서울에 올라와서 왜냐면 친구들이 생겼을 때도 다 형들이었고 그렇게 생각해 보니, 앞으로는 또 뭐 친구 생기고 할 순 있겠지만 어쨌든 내 동갑내기 친구가 친구랑 이런 스토리와 이런 추억이 있는 친구는 아마 태형이가 앞으로도 거의 유일하겠죠

So as far as same-age chingu go... In a sense, when I came here to Seoul to work [V] was my first same-age chingu and, to this day, is my only chingu since I came to Seoul Because when I made chingu they were all hyungs So from that perspective, I might have more chingu in the future But in any case, as for same-age chingu, a chingu that I share these stories and memories with Taehyung will probably continue to be the only one

So this is the part that caused all this confusion. Here Jimin uses chingu in two different ways. The first one is to specifically mean same-age friend, and the second is to mean just friend in general, as in a person you have a friendship with. I marked the first usage in red and the second usage in blue. If Jimin used the word chingu just in the second meaning, this whole speech would make absolutely no sense. Jimin has become friends with many people outside of BTS, including people that are older than him, but he's saying that V has a special place in his life namely because they're of the same age.

Being of the same age with someone else is special in Korea. It means you can be comfortable with that person from the get go without regards to societal rules imposed by the age hierarchy. Your horizontal interpersonal distance can be either far or close, but there is literally no vertical distance. You are on the same level as them, you're equals. It's expected that, in a group of people of varying ages, you would make friends with the person that's the same age as you are before anyone else, because of that lack of vertical distance and barrier of formalities.

Which is why the next part stood out so much.

-

(talking about age not being an important factor in cultivating friendships)

"동갑내기 친구가 짱이죠" 사실, 사실 뭐 제가 나이를 많이 먹은 것도 아니고 제가 오래 살아 온 것도 아니고 인생 선배들한테 막 이렇게 떠들 얘기는 아니지만 나이는 별로 중요하지 않은 것 같아요 나이는 별로 안 중요해요 이게 요즘에 제가 느끼는 거는 저보다 나이가 많은 사람들도 다 너무 생각하는 것도 되게 영하고 뭐라 해야 되지, 대화가 너무 자연스럽다 해야 되나 그래서 막 제 친구 중에는 열몇살 차이 나는 친구도 있고 그렇거든요 그냥 말 놓고. 예. 저는 그런 친구가 있어요 전화해서 형 빨리 오라고. 아 조용히 하라고. 이런 친구가 저는 있어요. 그래서 저는 나이는 별로 중요한 것 같지 않아요.

"Same-age friends are the best" (*a fan's chat message) Well, I mean I'm not that old, I haven't lived that long So it's not something I can go on about in front of elders (*meaning, elder people might think it's quite forward of him to say this in front of them) But I don't think age is that important Age isn't really important These days, I feel like People who are older than me all think very young And, how should I put this, like the conversation flows so naturally So among my chingu, there's even a chingu who is more than ten years older than me The kind of chingu that I talk informally to He's a chingu that I can call and be like, hey hyung hurry up, or like, be quiet (*) So I don't think age is really all that important.

(*considering the tone Jimin was speaking in, you can take it as an equivalent to: Hyung, get your ass here right now and oh shut up.)

Here, chingu was used to denote friend, as in, you know, just friend.

Note how Jimin said, among his chingu there's one that's 10+ years older than him. He is *categorizing* this person as a friend. Because he's trying to make a point about how age can be irrelevant in building friendships, he doesn't refer to this individual as 'a hyung I know (아는 형)' or 'a close hyung (친한 형)'. He's trying to emphasize the friendship aspect, and not the age difference, in his choice of words. It's extremely likely that in most situations where he has to tell other people about this person in his private life he would refer to him as 'a close hyung' (if those who are listening don't know this person) or 'X [insert name]-hyung' (if they all know him). Not friend/chingu.

-

So, to answer your question:

[...] why would Jimin who is the dongsaeng in his friend group then refer to his older friends as friends if they're not the same age but he wouldn't refer to Jungkook as his friend?

> Jimin doesn't need to call Jungkook his chingu, either to him or to other people. They are already bandmates and close hyung and dongsaeng and everyone knows about it. Close hyung and dongsaeng fall under the umbrella of 'friend'. If no one knew who they were and what kind of relationship they had, and Jimin had to talk about JK without giving any specifics about his gender/age/etc, he might refer to JK as chingu. But it's not a scenario that's likely to happen.

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How can Jimin as a dongsaeng call his outside BTS older friends friends but can't call another dongsaeng in another group of friends friend?

> He can, if he wants/needs to. When I said Jimin wouldn't call Jungkook his friend/chingu even if they were't in a non-platonic relationship or in the same band, it's because between Koreans age always comes first when establishing a relationship. JK will forever be a dongsaeng to Jimin and Jimin will forever be a hyung to JK regardless of how their relationship status changes. I repeat, having a friendship with someone, categorizing a person as a chingu, and naming them chingu are all separate things for Koreans. You can name a person as your chingu even if you don't have a close friendship with them. You can be friends with someone but rarely refer to them as chingu.

-

Finally, a tip for anyone out there who's interested in learning Korean - since chingu is such a loaded word, we often use the term chinhan sayi (친한 사이) or just the adjective chinhada (친하다) to describe a friendly/close relationship with another person. See example below.

I'm friends with that sunbae

-> 그 선배랑 친한 사이예요. [Geu sunbaerang chinhan sayiyeyo]

(Literal translation: I have a close relationship with that sunbae.)

-> 그 선배랑 친해요. [Geu sunbaerang chinhaeyo]

(Literal translation: I'm close to that sunbae.)

-

#Anonymous #answered #jimin language #really hope this helps

[sizzlingpatrolfox]

Hi, timeline anon again. :) I just wanted to clarify a thing or two because I think I didn't express myself well enough. When I talked about Jungkook posting his brother's dogs on January 1st I actually meant in his Instagram story.

twitter(.)com/INSTAFORJK/status/1477216690471682051

This one. The picture he posted on his feed is old for sure. His lip piercing is missing. But the one in the story could be new though. And this couch seems very similar to the one from the pictures his brother posted that were tagged with Busan.

But I also think that Jungkook lives with his brother. Maybe the main reason is Bam because Jungkook definitely needs someone to look after him when he has schedules. And as far as I know only Jungkook's brother lives in Seoul while the rest of their family is still in Busan.

So if the pictures are recent, that would mean Jungkook was in Busan around New Year's. <3

If my timeline is somehow correct, we wouldn't know about Jimin's whereabouts between December 22nd until January 10th. And then again from January 18th until... well. Now. :D

For Jungkook we don't know where he was between December 16th and around New Year's. Then he was most likely in Seoul. Until January 21st. After that we once again don't know where he was until January 28th where he was in Busan.

There's quite a lot of time we know nothing about. It's absolutely possible that Jimin and Jungkook were together during the holidays in Busan. And maybe Jimin stayed in Busan after and Jungkook returned to Seoul because he might have had schedules? Like recording? Jimin probably returned shortly before the Samsung schedule and it's possible that Jimin and Jungkook then spent some time in Seoul together before Jungkook went to Busan. Maybe Jimin went too. Or wanted to go too but didn't because he maybe already felt a little bit sick?

Obviously everything is speculation and saying they didn't see each other at all is as valid as saying that they did. We'll need to wait and see if they say something about their break like last time once they're all back.

Yep, Bam is for me too one of the reasons he's most probably living with his brother. Maybe I wasn't paying attention to that before, or maybe it really wasn't there but I think it's been pretty obvious since last year that JK grew closer to his brother? And he has all this photos with his brother's dogs... they do spend some time together, more than they what they seemed to spend years back.

Between the 22nd December and 10th January, considering Christmas and New Years, and assuming Jimin actually celebrates those, he definitely didn't travel those days. So he was either in Busan or Seoul. After January 18th tho, he most likely could've travelled some more. He got sick on the weekend of Lunar New Year, and as far as my understanding goes, it's a holiday to spend with family for sure, probably even more important than 31st of December, and definitely more important than Christmas. So Jimin could've been with family during those days, whether in Busan or Seoul. As for now... he most definitely stayed at least a couple of days in bed after being released from the hospital. Most likely with his family, too. If his family is what any POC family is, they picked him up from the hospital and drove straight home and tucked him into bed lmao. I kinda believe that those couple of nights he was on weverse, he was still resting. He's probably completely fine by now, tho.

All of the above could apply to Jungkook, too. Except for the being in the hospital part, of course. Boxing vids were posted on the 11th and 26th of January. I think it's safe to say those were taken those same days, or the day before but I don't think they were that old, so he was probably in Seoul during those days.

When you put it like that, we actually know more about Jimin than we know about JK lmao. There's less "gaps" in Jimin's timeline. It felt like we haven't heard of him in ages but it wasn't that much, just a couple of weeks. With JK, there's like a whole month left to fill in. The optical illusions of social media.

Yep, agree that is valid to say they haven't met as well as it is to say they probably met. I wonder if there will be any opportunity to talk about it, since it's been such a long break and because who knows what they'll do once it's over.