#I Choose Dare

[stars-and-darkness]

many thanks to @garglyswoof & @morningstargirl666 for tagging me in this game. the rules are to repost an older fic, so i’m gonna share the funniest thing i ever wrote in my life:

I Choose Dare

An ode to how Aang, under the power of a mighty temptress, was forced to grow a beard.

Oh, and the birth of his first child, too, he supposes.

tagging anyone who wants in <3

What international peace summits include for most of people is a lot of arguing, too much pomp, enough politics to make one's head ache, a needless amount of balls and banquets ... the list is both endless and ever-expanding.

What international peace summits include for the six of them is finally reconvening after far too long separated, tearful hugs, and doing activities very few outsiders could imagine the people of their status and influence doing; pranking dignitaries, playing board games, sparring, or, as they were doing now--playing Truth or Dare.

It was Sokka's idea. Well, the alcohol was Toph's, after she reminded them that the reason they haven't played the game in so long was because dares like kiss x person and truths like who do you have a crush on? lost their charm when they all started dating and/or marrying each other. She thought booze might spice things up, so what, sue her!

The kids were all asleep, it was the last day of the summit, all important decisions were made. People being hungover tomorrow morning wouldn't change anything!

Her friends, being her friends, had to ruin it of course.

Fangirl failed her first. She didn't say anything, but as the night progressed, she made it perfectly clear she wasn't getting drunk.

Sweetness only had a small shot glass. She said it was because someone needed to stay sober and responsible. Boooo sobriety and responsibility!

Sparky outright refused to drink. As a reason for this travesty, he named his young twins, which was just a hit below the belt, but Toph saw right through him. He just didn't want to draw attention to the fact that he was a first class lightweight.

Only Sokka and Aang stayed in her corner.

A few rounds of the game passed with relative ease, until the bottle (a fine firewhiskey Sparky gifted her for her twenty-sixth birthday, now empty through the united efforts of Fan Girl, Sweetness, Snoozles, Twinkles and herself) landed on her ... and Aang.

Twinkles's heartbeat spiked. Toph felt great satisfaction at the fact that, in the fourteen years since they'd met, she'd trained her boyfriend well enough to have him anticipate he was about to be wrecked.

"Twinkles, my love," she said, in an unbearably sweet voice, "truth or dare?"

She felt him swallow. "Dare."

The grin that spread her lips truly was terrifying. "So you chose dare."

"I did."

.

"I dare you," her smile widened, "to grow a beard."

"Toph ..."

"A beard," she continued. No one else dared breathe.

Aang gulped again. "When ... when can I shave it?"

She grinned again. "Who said anything about ever?"

"Toph, please," he whispered, weak. "Please."

"All right." She wrecked her brain for an idea. Long ago, when she was a kid, her governess would read fairy tales to her every night before bed.

Inspiration struck.

When she spoke again, it was in a throaty, mystic voice. "You may free yourself of this curse with the birth of your first child," she announced. "Should you attempt to rid yourself of the beard sooner, you will have wrought upon yourself the fury of the Greatest Eartbender in the World."

No pleas would rescind her judgement. No amount of begging, groveling, scraping.

Toph Beifong was unmoved.

.

"Avatar Aang!" said King Chinou, the squinty-eyed monarch of a minor Earth Kingom city-state. "Your appearance is ... unexpected."

Aang wished he could say the king meant his arrival was unexpected; that would let him pretend for just a while longer. But Chinou had invited the Avatar himself, and therefore there was no confusion about what he meant.

It was Aang's physical appearance that was so off-putting. The abomination on his face has been there for months now, and everywhere he went, the reaction was the same. People stared. People laughed, and then pretended they weren't laughing, because who would dare to make fun of the Avatar, right?

Toph-monkey-feathering-Beifong, that's who!

(Spirits above, he loved her.)

He resisted the urge to scratch at his chin. The terrible thing was awful and hot and itchy. No one in their right mind would ever voluntarily have one.

He gave King Chinou a neutral look. "What is the reason you've summoned me, Majesty?"

The king snapped out of his trance soon enough, and the work began.

Three days later, after an oddly tense dispute between two rival merchants of cabbage was settled, Aang all but collapsed into bed.

He and Toph didn't exactly have a permanent address. He was a nomad, after all, and Toph wasn't particularly attached to any single space. They lived everywhere: the Air Temples, her metalbending academy, random inns all over the world, the Fire Palace, Sokka and Suki's house ... wherever they found themselves. This particular lodging was an outpost of the Beifong family.

Yeah, Aang thought, fingering the satin sheets under him, it shows.

"How was the lovely King Chinou?" Toph asked. He could hear the grin in her voice.

Chinou may or may not have banished her from his territory after she called him a spineless fuck-faced beetle-tapeworm.

The context, she'd impassionately tell him every time he tried to pull the story out of her, didn't matter.

Aang let out a long groan. Toph chuckled.

"He had me settle a dispute between two cabbage merchants. And one of then just kept giving me a side-eye, like I'd killed his mother or something!"

"Well, I have some good news for you then," she said, turning onto her side and promting him to face her.

"Oh?"

"Oh, yeah," she said. "You'll finally be allowed to shave that abomination off your chin."

"Urk?" He didn't recognize the sound he made. "So ... you changed your mind?"

"Well ... not quite yet. In nine months."

Aang frowned. "You'll ... change your mind in nine months?"

Toph rolled her eyes. Sokka taught her to do that a few years ago, and she hasn't stopped since.

"No, Twinkles, I'm fucking pregnant."

Aang sat up. "Are you messing with me, T? Because I honestly can't tell."

Toph rolled her eyes again. Her hair, silky and inky black, was unbound, spilling down the pillow. Her sleep clothes were his own clothes, so loose on her small form it seemed she would slip out of them at any moment.

She reached up and took a hold of his hand, pressing it to her abdomen.

Aang didn't hesitate to call some water to himself from the vase on his nightstand. He never had Katara's talent at healing (or any other part of waterbending, really), but as the water beneath his palm glowed and he could feel a small, impossibly small, heartbeat.

There was a baby in there.

.

His baby, their baby, their own baby, to cherish and love and protect.

His throat was closed up. He couldn't say a word. But then Toph's small hand squeezed his, and he knew no words were necessary.

After several hours and many death threats, most of which had been directed at Aang himself, the tiny little Gyatso Beifong came into the world.

He really was minuscule, with his Dad's steel-grey eyes and a tuft of his Mum's inky-black hair atop his otherwise bald head. He had two eyes, two ears, one nose, ten fingers and ten toes. Aang should know. He'd counted them all, over and over again.

He'd seen babies before--there was Hope, back in the Serpent's pass, a multitude of newborns and toddlers whose parents sought the Avatar's blessing, and, in the recent years, his friends' own children.

But, watching the sleeping bundle in his arms, a bundle that had been screaming relentlessly up until half an hour ago, and Aang took him into his arms and out onto the balcony, he decided he'd never really seen a baby before, because surely this absolutely flawless, perfect, tiny human being was the standard to which all other babies aspired.

Toph was asleep in the bedroom just beyond the balcony doors. All those death threats were exhausting business, after all. Oh, and childbirth too, he supposed.

"Hello, Gyatso," he whispered, tickling his finger over the baby's stomach. The giggle that burst out of his mouth melted Aang's heart. "Who's the cutest boy ever? You are!"

Gyatso didn't answer verbally; he was, after all, just a newborn.

"And I am so, so glad to finally meet you! Yes I am! Yes I am!" Truly, Gyatso's laugh must've been the purest, most perfect sound in the world. "And not only because I can now finally shave this monstrosity off."

[pretty-weird-ideas]

Episode Seven and White Tears

The trial's allegory is not just a lynching, it is a lynching for a Black person entering a relationship with a respected White man, and proceeding to leave him. It's not a murder case, as seen through the show, there's actually very little emphasis on the murder in the episode in regards to Louis. The emphasis is on his "seduction", his "ungiving nature", and "refusing to give his body". It is a public humiliation and lynching for turning a respected white man down. The crime isn't hurting Lestat, it's hurting his feelings.

Lestat doesn't speak to the audience about the pain of his throat being slit. He speaks of loneliness, the audience chants and jeers about how cheating was justified if Louis isn't putting out. Santiago isn't talking about the murder, he's talking about how much of a sexual deviant Louis is the second he is introduced. The show is telling us what's important to the case, and what language hurt and stuck out to Louis the most. The deciding factor in the eyes of the audience, the story that Sam and Santiago are trying to tell, is that the crime is heinous because Louis turned down Lestat.

The audience isn't mad about the murder, they're mad about Lestat's emotions, they're mad about the betrayal, and they are mad that Louis and Claudia didn't put up with things. The case built against the two of them isn't based on violence, it's based on white tears. Louis isn't called a monster for slitting Lestat's throat, the audience member calls him a monster for turning down Lestat's advances.

The show is clear that the trial isn't really about the murder, it is about Louis not "giving enough" for Lestat. It's about Louis asking Lestat to turn Claudia and literally bargaining his happiness where he literally gets on his knees and says "I'll be happy for you, I will never leave you if you do this for me". It's never been about the murder, it's quite literally just shaming Louis for not "loving a good man who might be abusive".

At the end of the day, the trial as framed and written by Sam is building a case off of Lestat's tears, not actual physical harm.

Like my skin is crawling but also the show is so chilling with how it portrayed the "He's a good man so hold your tongue and endure! Lest you read as ungrateful".

Anyways someone take the laptop from me before this becomes my life.

[reunitedinterlude]

summer phantasy: the album

tracks 5-8 (x)

[thoushaltnotlive]

'''Why choose''' but it devolves into a progressively more and more intricate polycule where nobody is quiet sure who is dating who anymore. Except one person who's dating everyone.

(They are all have varying, but strong levels attraction to everyone by the end.)

[slutforpringles]

Huh who could've predicted that the best candidate for the job was the one Red Bull fired in SIngapore ........ 😤😤😤| via

[quyeningellvar]

[nerevar-quote-and-star]

In English, we say, "Toxicity."

In TES, we say, "Do the right thing. Paarthurnax deserves to die."

[clairedaring]

Last time, the heaven decided your fate. So that's why you're facing all of this again. But today, you can choose it yourself. If you want to suffer and remain in this cycle, just return to the body. But if you wanna get out of this cycle, you can walk out that door.

MY STAND-IN (2024) | 1.09 // 1.11

[velvetvexations]

[sophsun1]

Queer as Folk – 2.11: The Wedding

[slay-the-heroine]

"Do you not know if you're "important enough"? Do you know who you are?"

The Narrator:

She tilts her head and grins at you.

"I'm a hero!"

"But assassination is when an important political figure gets killed or something, right? I don't know if I'm important enough to call my murder "assassination.""

"Uh, anyway."

The Narrator:

To be fair, she is important. In a bad way.

Voice of the Prince:

Would this be an assassination, then?

The Narrator:

I'm going to ask you this, and I want you to answer honestly: Why in the world would that matter?

"Other than that, I... Don't really know. I've been here for a while."

"Nobody deserves this. I'm getting you out, if you'll let me."

The Narrator:

What? No!

"Wait, really? Oh, thank the heavens- you really know how to keep a girl on the edge of her seat..."

The Narrator:

You're making a huge mistake.

Voice of the Prince:

This is the right thing to do.

The Narrator:

You walk up to the chains binding the Heroine to the wall and give them a tug.

The Narrator:

They're large and heavy, far too solid for you to even imagine trying to break them apart.

"Wait, you don't have the key? Sorry I assumed you were my warden."

Voice of the Prince:

I'd hate to have to do to something painful for the sake of freedom.

The Narrator:

This entire concept will be painful if you do anything to aide in her escape. She isn't supposed to leave. There is no key, and no way to free her.

"Did you see a key when you came in? Or anything?"

Voice of the Prince:

There wasn't a key, but we could use the blade as a last resort to get her out.

- - -

The Narrator:

You attempt to make your way out of the basement, but the door at the top of the stairs slams shut. You hear the click of a lock sliding into place.

Voice of the Prince:

What? Someone locked us down here too?

The Narrator:

You pull on the door, and beg whatever is on the other side, but get no response.

The Narrator:

You're here to slay the Heroine, and you won't leave until the task is done.

- - -

The Narrator:

You make your way to the bottom of the stairs. This would have been so much easier if you had just taken the blade like you were supposed to.

Voice of the Prince:

We tried to get it back.

The Narrator:

You should've gotten it in the first place. Now look at the mess you're in.

"I... heard the door slam. Is someone else here?"

The Narrator:

Her eyebrows furrow, and her voice rises with panicked confusion.

"If it weren't for these chains, I'm sure some old door wouldn't be a problem."

The Narrator:

She lifts her shackled hand, and dons a determined look on her face, before she starts to bite at the base of her thumb.

The Narrator:

Her face expresses pain as she only barely breaks the skin. From behind you, a sound startles you. The clang of bouncing metal.

The Narrator:

It's the blade from upstairs. You're not sure how it made its way down here, but if there's a time to strike, it's now.

Voice of the Prince:

She didn't hesitate to hurt herself to be free. It'd be better to use it as that last resort I was talking about.

The Narrator:

You won't like what happens if you do that.

>>>

[vigilskeep]

one thing abt visibly chasind morrigan that’s super interesting is that it makes your ability to ask if flemeth is really her mother actually makes sense when it’s startling how fereldan flemeth looks and dresses when you’re brought there

[stargatebarbie]

Ten characters Ten fandoms Ten tags

List your 10 favourite characters from 10 separate fandoms, then tag 10 people

I was tagged by @stinalotte & @texasdreamer01 & then I left this in my drafts sorry 🤦‍♀️ no particular order as that would stress me to no end lmao

Rodney McKay (Stargate Atlantis)

Castiel (Supernatural)

Vala Mal Doran (Stargate SG-1)

Spock (Star Trek TOS)

Jadzia Dax (Star trek DS9)

B'Elanna Torres (Star Trek Voyager)

Aeryn Sun (Farscape)

Entrapta (She-Ra)

Venom/Eddie Brock (movies & comics)

Phoebe Halliwell (Charmed)

Tagging @kirksbouncingtiddies @denimshortsdean @ooey-gooey-angel @gayingupspace @frostysfrenzy @crooner-deans-walkman @relentlessenthusiasmforthebard @acrowbyanyothername @letterlimerence @enigmatic-mystery-777

[wild-at-mind]

I would honestly call the left's inability to accomodate people with morality-based OCD compulsions an accessibility issue at this point.

[bogkeep]

i'm getting pretty used to taking the same 16ish hour train route with multiple train changes by now, and while the trains are the same, the stations where to make the switches varies a little bit every time for whatever inscrutable reasons. i do not question the railway gods. usually. i want to question them a little bit about why i have to be awake at 5am instead of getting to stay cozy on the sleepytrain all the way to its end station as usual...

[strangeasf]

I really truly don't get this whole bucktommy and buddie rivalry.. I mean I love buddie and I really like bucktommy and don't understand the problem of liking and rooting for both. yeah, at the same time. what happened, everyone forgot about multishipping? why can't two ships coexist in peace??