expiationlogs | you've seen nothing once

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you've seen nothing once

Who: Toph Beifong & OTA
Where: Various places around Aldrip and at various times in the first half of the month.
What: Toph's intro post! Keeping all her TDM threads canon unless otherwise requested. She can be found in the first couple weeks of January fighting monsters, earthbending some glowy rocks, fixing buildings, and also complaining about it being so cold out because she is perpetually barefoot. Also perfectly happy to do brackets if preferred for anyone.
Warnings: None so far!

1. Keeping Busy

Toph's number one way of keeping busy is fighting, and right now the area around Aldrip is providing. She's already gotten her explanations in, she's met and harassed a few people, and she's built a thorough mental map of the town and surrounding region. It's not huge, so it hadn't taken more than a few days of walking, her bare feet freezing. She consistently has to stop to try to warm them up with her hands as the rotting snow begins to fall.

Whether it's mid-fight, saving someone who needs it, or appearing to need saving herself as a tiny girl sitting in the middle of the road massaging her feet while monsters creep up, feel free to run across her.

2. So you have caves

It takes Toph a while to find out about it, but not too long. Of course, she has no idea the rocks are glowing -- she's blind -- but she hears about something called the Lorentia Caves, and she's not going to go check it out immediately? Please.

The caves themselves give her creepy memories of that bloodbending old lady, and she's secretly relieved not to find a bunch of trapped prisoners as she explores, though she eventually feels strongly compelled to leave in a way she finds equally creepy. She can often be found pondering the glowing rocks deep in the labyrinthine tunnels in otherwise absolute darkness like the weird earth creature she is.

Days later, once she realizes how valuable they are in fighting the monsters, she can also be found earthbending tunnels directly to and from the best sources of the crystals.

And, finally, once that's done, Toph sets about testing her earthbending with them directly, frowning at a handful outside the entrance to the cave system. She looks like she's staring intently at rocks until she picks up her hands and makes a few short, deliberate movements, like she's precision striking a target. Toph is far more careful than normal given the strange vibrations they give off.

The pile of glowing rocks creaks gradually into one, much larger rock.

Toph smirks. "Gotcha."

3. Rebuilding

Throughout essentially the whole month, in between fighting and messing around with the glowy rocks, Toph fits in some building repair. She'd been bored at home, and she's certainly not bored now. This place has that going for it.

Although at first Toph had indulged her sense of showmanship about it, it doesn't take long to realize the situation is getting increasingly dire, and she's now perfunctory, almost business-like. The locals start to recognize her and direct her toward the most needed efforts where the rot is weakening critical building foundations.

Toph ends up segmenting out the places subjected to the rot and replacing them with fresh earth and stone, creating an ominous pile of blackened building materials besides the building she's shoring up in a dramatic feat of earthbending. Said earth and stone go flying in coordinated waves with her stomping on the ground, replacing what she's taking out simultaneously, smoothly enough that the building doesn't topple. She's holding it up, too.

The best earthbending is always the parts that sighted people can't tell she's doing.

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[ Straightening up, Toph rubs her hands together. ]

Sweet. Let's go. You can tell me if any of it means anything to you. Somebody told me a monster attacked last month? [ she questions. ]

Yeah. We went to Rumpitur, and the locals there kidnapped some people to an island off the coast. That's where the monster attacked.

[her jaw tenses.]

Apparently they'd been feeding Aldrip locals to it before last month. Shit's messed up.

[ There's a beat of silence and then Toph says emphatically, ] What?

[ And somebody wanted to capture this creature instead of just killing it? Hello. Hello. ]

From what I heard, it wasn't defeated yet. Right?

Magic implies something unnatural, something beyond the understood world around them. Toph doesn't think it's necessarily completely fictional; Aang and his energy bending removing Fire Lord Ozai's capability to bend at all seems to fit into that definition. She doesn't question that as reality, just identifies it as beyond conventional understanding.

There's nothing mystical about bending. Spiritual, maybe, but nothing unknown. Most people are just too caught up in themselves to really listen.

"I'm listening," she says simply. Something of the true extent of her earthbending mastery comes out in the lack of pretense in her explanation. "I'm not just getting the rock to move, I'm moving it where it's most natural to move it. Anyone can push something around. What I'm doing is making the earth something that's part of me."

Hie? What's a firebender?

[Because that. Is a thing he can probably do. But it also sounds like something specific.]

If you have to ask, you probably aren't one, [ Toph grumbles.

But fine, she can demonstrate. She snaps a few quick hand movements and a chunk of rock lifts out of the earth and goes flying into the distance at high velocity. ]

That's earthbending. That's how I've been fighting the monsters.

"That was my original plan. But if the creature isn't the source of the corruption itself then, if we cleanse it, maybe we can simply release it back into the sea. At least, that's what they suggested."

He starts to raise his hands before realising that physical gestures may be pointless.

"We do still need to weaken it first though so we'll be fighting it either way. If it's too dangerous then we're just going to kill it."

"That's pretty deep."

.. a pause, and then Ange seems to realise something just enough to add, though with the same relatively flat tone as before: "Pun unintended."

She promises. Ange would rather gnaw her own arm off before she'd ever consciously decide to make a pun, alright!

Besides, she does seem rather interested in the information Toph is handing out here. If the other girl was explaining things in a slightly different way, she might find it just esoteric in a way that doesn't appeal to Ange, but Toph sounds like she knows what she's doing. Like she can see the true nature of her power, and that makes the explanation itself infinitely more interesting to Ange.

"But I see, that's a pretty fascinating power. I don't think I've seen anyone with anything quite like it, not even in this place."

Ethlyn looked around at the tunnel again. That explained how Toph was able to get the sides so perfectly smooth.

"So that's how you have such precision. And how you were moving so smoothly over the ground in the pastures outside." Not to mention how she put those pastures back. If she could perceive everything, even the roots of the grass, it would just be a matter of practice. And if Toph had been blind her whole life, she would have had lots of practice.

"What if you were to make a--a platform out of earth? Could you move it alongside you the same way?" Ethlyn asked, an idea taking shape in her head like the shape of the tunnels.

Oh, so it is pacifist nonsense. For the most part.

"Is it a spirit or something?" she asks, doubtful but trying to piece together a rational motive here. "Sometimes if an area gets polluted, the local spirit can have the same thing happen. What kind of creature is it?"

Ange's insistence on clarifying that the pun was unintended makes Toph snort. She's not the pun type, either, but something about making sure she knew it wasn't on purpose is funnier than the pun itself.

Fortunately, talking about earthbending is basically Toph's favorite topic, so she's engaged enough in that not to slide into teasing.

"It's pretty common where I'm from, but I'm the best. For some people it is just throwing rocks around. The fact that I'm blind is what made me great at it -- I had to learn how to listen."

"I have precision because I'm really good," Toph corrects mildly. It's a separate skill from sensing her environment and one she's particularly known for as an earthbender. Anyone can make a boulder move a few feet, but Toph can make it go exactly where she wants.

"Sure, probably. It's a little harder." But not beyond her, of course. "What are you thinking?"

... Yeah. It's a pretty shitty situation.

[she shakes her head.]

I think it got away or something. I don't remember people being all excited because it was dead or anything.

Okay, so what's the likelihood that thing's going to come back again?

[ That's a rhetorical question. Obviously it's coming back -- this isn't Toph's first time being a sidekick.

She sets off walking so they can start following the trail, frowning. ]

Maybe you should tell me whatever you can about fighting it.

"Transporting injured people away from danger is the biggest problem when it comes to emergencies," said Ethlyn. (The medical part, of course. "Stop the thing causing the emergency" was ideal, but not always achievable.) "Horses get you there fast, but they bounce up and down, and it takes effort to stay on them--tying someone to a saddle to get them out can work in a pinch, but it isn't the best. And when it's really bad, you have to sling a stretcher between two horses, and that's not always the best thing to do either." Horses, for all their virtues, still had their shortcomings.

"But if you were able to create a platform and move it around smoothly, and you can tell what places to avoid by the feel of the ground, you could help us save lives in the next emergency." Ethlyn's eyes had lit up almost as much as the glowing stones at the prospect. She hoped Toph would agree--if not, she was ready to lay on either guilt or flattery, or both, whatever would get the job done.

Yeah, probably not--

[And he's about to ask more questions but the earthbending demonstration stops those dead in their tracks. It's definitely new to him, that kind of fighting. It's not even like any of the Shimon flames, and that's the closest to the Earth he can understand.]

I. How...how did you even do that? Like, magic?

The girl raises her eyebrows, even if it clearly goes unseen.

"You're the best?"

It doesn't sound fully sceptical. Maybe a little bit, because.. well, it's a very bold claim to make, but it's not exactly like Ange has any proof to the contrary. For all she knows, maybe Toph really is the best at this where she comes from. The blindness already gives her a certain advantage in being able to approach this power from a very different angle than most people would think to, too.

"How many people can do this sort of thing where you come from?"

Are you the best out of only ten people, Toph? Or are we talking The best out of a million people? There's a difference!

Toph doesn't need the guilting. She gets bored easily and she generally likes helping people. If she can be useful here as the sole earthbender, why not? She's not going to complain that something's beneath her skills, even if transporting someone would be considered grunt work in Ba Sing Se. Having pride doesn't mean she's too good for anything or anyone.

Rich people make her nuts with that shit.

"Yeah, that's no problem," she says simply. "We do that all the time at home. Our public transit runs on earthbenders. We could practice once just so we're on the same page about how it works, but hit me up for that anytime."

No need to make a bigger deal out of it than it is; Toph refocuses on her task and goes ahead smoothly carving out the passageway.

Not exactly, but close enough. I can feel the earth and get it to do what I want. It's pretty common where I'm from.

[ That's the pre-school level explanation, at least, but Toph doesn't tend to go into more detail unless she has a receptive audience. ]

Part of becoming friends with Toph is learning to accept that every casual statement she makes about her abilities is absolutely true without exception. She vacillates between accepting it as the standard fact of reality it is -- she's amazing, thanks -- and boasting, and Ange's prompting questions make her want to boast.

She smirks with full self-confidence in her answers.

"I don't know, thousands? Tens of thousands? We run our whole society on it. Nobody's ever counted. And yeah, I'm the best. I invented metalbending, I'm the Avatar's earthbending teacher, I helped end our century-long world-wide war, I'm the undefeated Earth Rumble champion.

"I can keep going."

Oh... that all makes a lot of sense. Like the entire picture of what just happened becomes so fucking clear that he honestly feels a little bit like a fool for not putting it together. But to be fair to him, he couldn't see her eyes until she turned to face him, and without that he couldn't have known. But there it is, Katsuki doesn't even need her to confirm that that's why she's running around without goddamn shoes in this weather. She feels the movement through the ground itself.

It's pretty fucking cool, actually. An extremely powerful ability that absolutely calls for respect... the explosive teen is making a mental note of that. From what he's heard about this place, knowing someone who can do what she does is valuable as fuck.

Awestruck Katsuki is being promptly tucked away though, it's embarrassing enough that he came out at all. He's not about to own that he's an absolute fucking nerd for this kind of thing, not even for a second. He's switching gears, to Hero Katsuki, even though he suspects that this little broad ain't gonna take kindly to being told what to do. He can relate to that one, and that knowledge is power to him here. Instead of approaching it in a bossy way, he's gonna frame it in a more "concerned" way. Quotations, because he sucks badly at being an empathetic person. His question is just... matter of fact. "So, how fucked up are your feet from being out here all day?"

Even people who are incredibly familiar with earthbending don't totally understand what Toph's doing until she explains it, so she doesn't judge someone for not putting it together. She saves that for how they act after they find out. Too bad Katsuki doesn't nerd at her; she loves nerding about earthbending.

Instead he expresses concern, albeit in a couched way, and Toph promptly scowls at him.

"You better not be suggesting I can't handle it," she demands, "but yeah, I need my feet to see. So I better head in soon -- unless you can make nice warm fires as well as your super-loud explosions."

It's just too bad that he doesn't want to be perceived as a nerd or too into something!! He isn't that guy, ever! Katsuki doesn't even act starry eyed over his idol and inspiration, All Might, in front of other people. There is maybe one person in any world who knows just how deep of a nerd he can be, and that guy knows better than to ever advertise that to the world. That would be risking death.

"If anyone implied that shit to me, I'd break their fucking jaw. You seem to operate the same way." Katsuki still sounds irritable, but that's just his resting bitch voice. There's not much in the way of real bite in his tone anymore. "I could start a fire but it's gonna take a little time. Need to get kindling that ain't soaked, and winter ain't kind to my quirk either. Takes longer to warm up. And since you stole the goddamn show, I didn't have time to work up a sweat."

If she can see with the vibrations through the earth, Toph will know that Katsuki is turning without another word, walking towards a spot at the edge of the road... as opposed to staying directly in the middle of it. There's a bunch of branches and shit over there, so if she wants to go with that plan, she can follow his ass.

Katsuki needs to try having some real self-confidence, like Toph. If anyone tried to make fun of her for nerding she'd laugh in their face.

She's not as violent as he's saying he is, but she appreciates the sentiment a lot more than the reverse. She's not against getting help; she just can't stand to be pitied while it happens. It sounds like this guy isn't anywhere close to doing that, so she pads after him on partly-numb feet, secretly grateful and looking forward to propping them up beside something warm.

His comments about water and fire make her miss her friends something awful. But it also makes her think that she'd really gotten spoiled having those guys around to make camp in about three minutes.

"I can wait," she says instead. "And I can clear us a space."

By now she's been out here long enough to be pretty practiced at this, and it takes Toph the work of a moment to earthbend the top layer of soil away in a square patch of ground beside the road, taking all the snow with it. She promptly snaps a basic earth-tent up above it to create a rudimentary shelter.

"By the way, I'm Toph Beifong. I don't need the help... but I appreciate it."

Oh good lord, no, it's probably a good thing that this kid has something small like that to feel insecure about. He is all ego, all the time otherwise. To the point that it's exhausting for the people around him.

A simple glance back tells him that... huh. It worked. She's following him, taking him up on the offer. Wasn't sure if it would, since he isn't really sure if it would work on himself... but it felt like it would be less of a bitter pill to swallow, so that was the motivation in taking a step back and handling himself differently than he normally would. There is nothing worse than being pitied and looked down on in his mind, and while he knows that it's not always like that, it feels that way anyway. Toph seemed so proud earlier, that she didn't need his help and now here she is, taking it anyway. He's both a little triumphant, that his approach worked, and in a weird, uncomfortable state of awe again.

Whatever the fuck she's got in her heart and in her head that makes it seem so easy to do the things that are actually hard inwardly, is something that Katsuki needs to find too. Wants to find it. There's gonna be a lot to unpack when he gets home tonight, that's for sure.

The aspiring hero only pauses briefly to watch Toph use her... earth bending again to clear out a spot and impressively construct them a shelter, but otherwise he just sets to task on gathering different sized branches that aren't too moist, and whatever dry foliage he can find. Once he's satisfied with his haul, he makes his way over to her. It's just as he is about to drop the load into the shelter near her feet that she says what she does, and it makes him stop and just stare at her for a second.

Goddamn. Yeah, whatever she's got going on inside is something that he needs. It feels fucking stupid to be admiring some kid for her emotional capacity, but it's also fucking stupid to let that keep him from taking the goddamn lesson where he sees if. If she can do it, why the fuck can't he?

Luckily, Toph Beifong can't see jack or shit, so it's fine to let himself grin a little crookedly to himself. Because he can do it. He's doing it right fucking now. Being better, with people. While he speaks, he's arranging the various branches together to make a proper campfire base. "Katsuki Bakugou. And I'd be a shitty hero if I didn't try. Besides, I've been out here all day too. We're just two assholes who're playing it smart by taking a break."

All it takes to get the fire started is about a minute of him rubbing his hands together around a thick twig. The friction helps to get the sweat on his palms to crop up and then coat the twig with his sweat. Katsuki sets it down in the center of his masterpiece and places his right hand over it, but then thinks twice, glancing to Toph for a second. "Bombs away."

Figures that it's the opposite of a dick move to give her a verbal warning. The explosion isn't anything like he used earlier, but there is still a decent BOOM! when he releases it. Immediately, he dips his head down to lightly blow on the small fire that catches to the dry foliage, over and over until he's gotten it roaring to life.

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you've seen nothing once

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sorry for the tl;dr this time i got feelings lol