#the risk i took was calculated but I am bad at math

[tampire]

Boy Math? Girl Math? I'm NonBinary and out of the equation.

[chungledown-bimothy]

"i can have a baja blast, as a treat. it'll be fine"

*resting heart rate of 110 has entered the chat*

[sanctus-ingenium]

gatecrasher

[oneatlatime]

The Chase part 2

Apologies for the technical problems. Battery power must be conserved for necessities, which unfortunately does not include Avatar. But the power's back on now, so!

Picking up from Toph treating a senior citizen like a snooker ball...

I do like how Mai's not shy about participating in Ty Lee's nonsense.

The way Zuko Jr. says "I'll follow this trail" is very menacing.

We're continuing last week's cowboy theme.

This village has the same menacing single windchime as the village in the Spirit World Part One did.

This was may more satisfying than I was expecting! It was completely unfair how easily the Fire Nation ladies defeated Sokka & Katara so getting Appa'd was a nice payoff.

No disability unmocked this episode. Also nice stance from the lizard.

This whole scene with Toph and Iroh has the most beautiful backgrounds. I sense phone wallpapers in my future.

Forget about the visuals, every line of this exchange was golden. Two towering pillars of wisdom and emotional maturity meet for tea and not a soul goes untouched. Also a nice moment of calm in an otherwise frantic episode.

Can this PLEASE be the rock bottom for Zuko. I can only take so much more second hand embarrassment.

Fully-provisioned princess of the fire nation v. sleep-deprived half trained avatar v. starving outlaw who seems to have forgotten to bring his swords, the only weapon he's good at. Place your bets, folks!

Zuko in a nutshell.

Ok so we're getting the whole gang back together.

The whole whole gang.

The whole whole whole gang.

How the hell did they mess up six on one?!?!

A princess can't surrender with honour when she doesn't have any!

That was kind of Katara to offer to help. I didn't expect that.

Final Thoughts

This episode doesn't let up once. Even the break with Toph and Iroh having tea doesn't do much to dispell the rising tension from the chase. The musical stinger that plays over the title card was a surprise bit of foreshadowing in that way.

That tank thing was neat. Shame about what it contained, but that's a really cool design.

Poor Appa was once again the MVP this episode. It was uncomfortable watching him get so exhausted.

It seems like the thin veneer of level-headedness cultivated by Katara over the last season or so is indeed quite thin. It was interesting to see how the different characters reacted to being tired. Sokka was alternatively amped up and completely chilled out, Aang got quiet (until he felt Appa was being insulted), Katara reverted to her early season one characterisation. It's hard to say with Toph, because we've only known her one episode (it feels like more) but I think she just got more Toph-like.

Please let this be the end in Zuko's experiment with independence. He's not good at it. He needs uncle. Points for trying, but he failed, so please bring uncle back.

Sokka low key wins this episode. He's the one with sense, the only one who stays clear-headed when it counts, and it turns out that clear head of his can defeat the pokey thing Ty Lee does.

I don't know how much time is supposed to have passed between picking up Toph and the start of this episode, but I can't help but feel that Toph really got the short end of the stick here. She did give up everything, even if much of what she gave up was not that great for her personally. And in return she got to travel in a way that completely blinds her and get yelled at. Meeting Iroh was a nice consolation prize.

Now I kind of want a story where Toph doesn't come back to the Gaang and instead goes around unleashing bending hell on the earth kingdom.

Was there no b plot or c plot this episode? Everything kind of collided in the final couple of scenes, which I did not see coming.

Frantic is the word I keep coming back to for this episode. Everything fit together nicely. I'll definitely rewatch it when I have the chance to do so in one sitting, without unforseen technical problems.

[xerith-42]

Writing Advice of the day: Let your characters be cringe! Sometimes they have a genius idea, an actually coherent thought, but they completely botch the execution due to an oversight. Maybe the idea was dumb in the first place, and they thought it was the newest innovation of mankind. Sometimes they're trying to sound cool and don't realize they don't or get interrupted and lose their patience. Let them be confidently wrong! Someone asks them for a piece of information, and they say something that is factually incorrect, but they believe it and you must have a foolproof argument with supporting evidence to convince them otherwise. This isn't about characters being flawed, that's an entirely different thing, but that even in the most serious and dramatic and dark story TM, there needs to be moments where characters are just human and kind of bad at it because every human is kind of bad at being human.

[karasong]

when your reputation of falling for your friend’s ocs turns into “swiper no swiping” instead of “here is the marriage certificate”

[midydoof]

I have severely underestimated how long it takes to pack down anything that's not a dorm room.

[milfweirdal]

[emblazons]

This album feels like the studio who produced perfect albums like The National’s High Violet & Trouble Will Find Me decided to produce the musings of a 16 year old girl trying to sound more sophisticated than she is her diary and I’m not sorry for saying it.

[whumblr]

Tempting fate

Home is where the hurt is: Part 1. Continuation from Broken night. Still, I feel @painsandconfusion had the easier method...

-

Another night free of Zayne, another night actually not free at all and sitting around in silent misery.

After Jay got home, the collar had been snugly replaced to his throat again, with Zayne just fucking right off, busy doing whatever shady shit he had for the night.

Leaving Jay to steam in his pain alone. And while he was somewhat glad he had no audience to share in his humiliation, he also felt this definitely defeated the point of Zayne’s torture. Like, what was the point in his suffering if there was no Zayne to enjoy it. It was the main reason for his visits. What a point in his life to reach…

He abruptly sat up, fingers crossing over the device.

Oh shit…

Something tickled in his throat. A tickle that quickly evolved to a dry itch. Oh no… He tensed up. If he had a coughing fit now… he’d probably choke to death on electricity.

He pulled at the collar and, to his surprise, found that it gave more than yesterday. But not far enough to separate the prongs from his throat.

But maybe… maybe he could slide something in-between? Creating a little barrier?

As his face turned red trying to keep himself from coughing, he desperately looked around. Scarf, jacket… all cloth which wouldn’t protect him. Books and paper wouldn’t help. Something solid, something that wouldn’t leave him with a coaster plastered to his throat! He looked down -  Leather! – and settled on his own belt, quickly unfastening it with shaking hands and ripping it from its loops.

Then he slid the piece of leather up between the collar and his throat.

His heart leapt. It worked! The prongs settled against the leather and before he could even grab his phone to google a “does leather protect you from an electric shock?????????” he gasped and couldn’t stop a cough.

He squeezed his eyes shut. But… nothing happened.

His eyes snapped open again. Nothing happened!

“Ha!” he tried again in triumph. The little red light winked its activation, but he didn’t feel a thing.

Ohh lord, he did it. He’d found a loophole. His mood instantly brightened. No pain this evening! No abrupt wake-up calls! And if Zayne asked again tomorrow, he could just say he slept ‘like a log’ and it would be true and not a lie and nothing for Zayne to catch him on.

Because, yes, he did in fact wear the collar all night.

He hummed a sassy and defiant “hehe” that taunted fate. He pulled the end of the belt a bit further up to his chin so it wouldn’t slide out, then slung the other end over his shoulder and looped it around his neck. Definitely not something he should be proud of to wear, but he didn’t care. No one was here to laugh at the irony or to yank it tighter.

And he settled back, reached out to his pile of books to read, and snuggled up against the pillows.

-

With last night having been absolutely horrible, he now opted for an early night. A safe early night. He had to be careful not to pull at the belt, but everything was good, and he did in fact sleep like a log.

When he woke, however, he looked straight into the scruffy face of Zayne, who was crouching next to his bed and was staring intently at his face.

“Jesus!” Jay shot back in alarm. And as he realised his mistake, Zayne’s expression lit up with malice.

Oh fuck…

“Ohh, Jay…” The malice on his face matched the tone of his voice. “Mind telling me what this is?” He tugged at the belt. “Because apparently, you can speak. Without consequences.”

“You’re… You’re early,” Jay merely squeaked out, scooting back, drawing his covers up even though the damage had already been done.

“Six a.m. actually, just like yesterday. And like yesterday, I checked up on you, but unlike yesterday, something caught my eye.”

Jay was pretty sure the guy didn’t check up on him because of concern, but still, kindness wasn’t a factor he’d used in his calculations to predict Zayne’s behaviour… He’d fully counted on indifference and was sure he could remove the belt when he’d get dressed after waking up. In hindsight, not the most calculated risk.

He didn’t dare speak. Zayne’s hand fiddled with the belt and he was sure that once a single syllable left his mouth, Zayne would yank the belt away.

But instead, Zayne reached into his pocket and held the little remote in Jay’s face.

“Let’s turn this up to eleven.”

“No, no, no, this is the first transgression! Let’s just… turn it up one level?”

“But how will you learn?” Zayne drawled. “Oh wait…” He lit up and Jay really didn’t like that. “We can either have it on level, what’s it by now? Three… for a week. Or we can turn it up to max just for tonight. Your choice.”

His life choices hadn’t been exactly good these days… But no way was he going to draw this out for another week. Jay sighed. “Max, then. Just for tonight.” At least he’d had a good sleep now. He could do this.

Soft beeps sounded when Zayne kept pressing the button – keeping eye contact – and kept going even when the little black digit didn’t go further up than ten. Then he unlooped the belt from Jay’s neck, yoinked it away from under the prongs, and rolled it up, leaving it neatly on Jay’s folded trousers.

He noticed how Jay deflated in relief when he put the belt away. “Yeah, be glad I’m not giving you the belting of a lifetime while you’re wearing that.”

So glad that he just couldn’t voice his gratitude.

“Get some sleep for another hour or,” Zayne’s grin widened, “you know, maybe make a nice full breakfast to see if you can convince me to take it off for 15 minutes for you to take a shower.”

~Bonus~

Just as Jay was getting ready for bed and settled under his duvet, the front door opened and Zayne let himself in.

“Fuck, it’s cold! Scoot over.”

An icy cold indeed accompanied him as he slid under the covers. But Jay refused to shiver or voice complaints, seeing as the collar was fully active again.

“Oh, right,” Zayne grinned as he didn’t get a response. From under the blanket he reached for his jeans and bleeped the remote for a second to turn it off. “So how was your night, love?”

“Just awful,” Jay whispered, not trusting Zayne enough to turn it back on if he said too much. The max setting had hurt intensely and he was sure there’d be red marks under the collar.

“At least you had a nice warm flat to coop up in. I’ve been standing out in the cold all bloody night.”

“I guess your night didn’t involve arson, then.”

A tense silence rose up and Zayne, laying on his back, softly shook his head. Another bleep plinged and the red light at Jay’s throat turned on again.

“I feel these lessons in silence just aren’t it.”

-

Alt / Bad ending here

Tag list: @just-a-whumping-racoon-with-wifi @burtlederp @castielamigos-whump-side-blog @hurtmebeautifully @rougenoirofthepurpleterror @susiequaz12 @whump-me-all-night-long @rippedjeansandfadeddreams @im-just-here-for-the-whump @restrainthenmaime @freefallingup13 @whatwasmyprevioususername @myfriendcallsmeasickwoman19 @firewheeesky @redstainedsocks @hold-back-on-the-comfort @whumpawink @break-so-beautifully @approach-me-and-ill-cry @painsandconfusion @afabulousmrtake @wormwriting @soopytime @whumpedydump @pickleking8 @itsmyworld98

[childotkw]

What does wemond feel though, will he go in for the kill this time?

Ahh, see, you think he would - and even Aemond talks a good game of wanting to kill Lucerys in the beginning. But those two weeks he spent thinking he actually had were some of the worst in his life. He never thought he'd ever really succeed in doing it - and he never thought about the consequences of what killing his nephew would do to him.

The quiet grief and mind-numbing ache he endured during that time will haunt him forever.

Finding out Lucerys is still alive and is definitely gunning for him reignites Aemond's spirit. He was completely lost when he thought Lucerys dead by his actions. Now he chases the rush he feels when he encounters his nephew.

It's branded across his soul. He never wants to lose Lucerys again, but like hell will he leave the boy alone. He needs Lucerys, needs to fight and throw himself against him, again and again and again because it's the only way he feels alive anymore.

[nerdynanny]

I can't fuckin' sleep. I made iced tea this week-- forgor the tea wasn't decaf.

[vendettavalor]

// rewatched S.teven U.niverse for nostalgia/to understand what about this show made the fandom so feral and now im fighting demons not to add new muses from it-

// also I’m binging castlevania so someone stop me from adding muses from that too-

[calimera62]

Ulysse: ok souvenez vous, Achilles n'est pas lié par le serment et est là de son propre chef pour la guerre, alors ne le contrariez surtout pas.

Agamemnon: *le contrarie*

Achilles: allez tous vous faire foutre *va faire grève*

Ulysse, à Menélas: est-ce que ton frère le fait exprès?

Agamemnon : Je vais contrarier l'un des meilleurs guerriers de notre camp. Qu'est-ce qui pourrait foirer ?

Also Agamemnon :

[wildestheart4ever]

The fabric I risked 27 - plus shipping - dollars to get

Seriously, if I wanted to check if it was the actual Joann online store I should have bought smth cheaper lol

Good thing it was, right? 😅

[drugsforaddicts]

We kinda hurt ourselves by resharing bojere moments (hurts so good), I'm glad both Bojan and Jere are private about their friendship. Imagine if they wanted to mess with the fans, we'd be toasted. damaged. Our sanity is solely in their hands..

It's the best kind of pain lmao💛 But yeah, their friendship is so special so thank heavens they keep it private. We've been fed so well, I would probably just explode if we got constant content.