...He smiles a little. "Okay."

"Okay, so we also have movies, which are sort of like plays, except they're recorded so you can watch them whenever you want. They are mostly not going to make any sense without more cultural context than you have, but if you look at the 'action movies' section you will see things that have a lot of pretty explosions and fight scenes. Or you can call me and we can watch one and I can stop it every five minutes and try to explain what's going on."

Another, wryer smile. "Do you not have anything better to do? Not that I mind. It's good when you explain stuff."

"I'm skipping tourney practice."

He smiles at Asher like he is having trouble believing someone wants to be this nice to him, which is in fact the case.

"--Oh, man, you're from like medieval times, you have no idea what tourney is."

"What's tourney?"

"--here, I'll show you a game, and we can multitask. Sports and television."

Asher turns on a game of tourney and pauses it every so often to explain what's going on. You are supposed to get the ball into the goal with the stick (NOT your hands, you are not supposed to touch it). You use the shield to block the ball. If the fire from the cannons touches you, instead of your shield or your stick, that means you're out. 

He clearly considers it a profoundly stupid game and is also very very good at it.

"This game is bizarre," Tazalkyran observes.

"I like Flynning better," he says.

Flynning appears to be like swordfighting, except that swordfighting almost never includes jumping off walls or somersaulting in midair, and Flynning involves that quite a lot.

"That looks... silly," he says. "But fun."

It manages to be enough unlike actual violence that he can actually imagine doing it, although he's pretty sure that if he tried it for longer than five minutes he'd get frustrated and freeze up.

He stands up, does a cartwheel and three backflips, and bows. He's grinning. He's holding his right hand somewhat weirdly, as if he expects to have a sword in it.

"It is!"

—He smiles, watching. A little wistfully.

"--Man, fuck mind control."

"Yeah. I'd—I would've had a lot of fun with that game, before, and I think I still could but I'd have the same problem I do with Sugar Rush."

"I don't know what the fuck kind of mind control leaves you unable to play Sugar Rush but they should have done a better fucking job."

Wryly, "In fairness I think most people with this curse could still play Sugar Rush. I just—used to get angry a lot, and now instead I get—well, you saw."

Now he gets extremely angry hugs. 

Oh.

Okay.

He doesn't cry, this time, or not very much, but he does lean into Asher and breathe deeply and hug him very tight. Extremely angry hugs turn out to be a really good thing to have.

"It's a stupid game for little kids," he says, "it's dumb that you don't get to be able to play it, it's ridiculous--"

And the curse snaps.

He makes a sound, a sharp hissing gasp, of shock and surprise—

All the rage he couldn't feel, all the frustration, the hatred, the cruelty, the violent and destructive impulses, it all breaks loose at once. He screams, a long wild awful scream of pain and primal fury, in the very first moments of which he throws Asher at a wall with berserker strength and then immediately punches the TV. Whatever crosses his path, he attempts to destroy.

Asher's had a lot of falling practice, instinctively moves so he isn't damaged-- the TV is replaceable-- what the fuck--

He presses the button in his necklace that means emergency and tries to figure out how to contain Tazalkyran.

Containing Tazalkyran proves to be a difficult and dangerous endeavour! He doesn't appear to notice trivialities like the fact that his hand is bleeding from breaking the TV screen, or the fact that Asher is a person he likes who also happens to be well equipped to beat him in a fight. He is single-mindedly intent on the physical destruction of everything in reach—but particularly things that move, such as Asher, or bleed, such as unfortunately also Asher.

That's fine-- Tazalkyran can make him bleed, he's fixable, Asher can make sure Tazalkyran only hits him in ways Fairy Godmother can fix-- all the stuff in this room is a lost cause, but Asher tries to subtly herd him away from the door, where he might traumatize some freshmen--

The curse broke, why the fuck did the curse break--

He bites Asher and beats up the furniture. Further adventures with broken glass leave him bleeding more than Asher is. He's still screaming whenever he has the breath. It's surprising how many seemingly sturdy objects a determined human with no regard for their own safety can break. (Asher might want to take care that he doesn't let Tazalkyran get a solid enough hit or a long enough hold on him to break any bones. Even if he can fix it later, it would probably impair him in his quest to keep Tazalkyran confined to the room.)