Toph Beifong · 北方拓芙 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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expiationlogs2024-01-01 04:28 pm
fieldtrip) wrote in expiationlogs2024-01-01 04:28 pm
Entry tags:
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!
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.
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."
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.
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.
no subject
Fortunately for Katsuki, Toph is a lot more easy-going than she seems. Even this tacit, teeth-gritted admission that he's genuinely asking is enough for her. She's proud, too, and she likes people who are proud of themselves, and that means she doesn't ask anyone to embarrass themselves for her benefit. (Not unless she's really pissed off.) Toph doesn't want to be catered to in any way, not because she's blind and not because someone else thinks they need to lessen who they are somehow either.
"Like I said, I'm an earthbender. I don't just move the earth, I listen to it. I can sense the vibrations of everything around me through the ground. That's how I know where things are and when they're about to move -- they shift their weight."
It's an incredibly subtle cue Toph's listening to in order to anticipate movements. Her hearing is good, but it's not extra-human good, just sensitive. Her earthbending senses, on the other hand, are so acute it's like a constant three-sixty degree monitoring of an enormous space around her. So she's incredibly at ease with her surroundings at any given moment... provided there isn't something about drop in on her from the sky.
no subject
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?"
no subject
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."
no subject
"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.
no subject
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."
sorry for the tl;dr this time i got feelings lol
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.
tl;dr away any time!!
So she'll accept some things from friends that she wouldn't accept from others unless she really has to in dire straits; but her time with the Gaang has also drastically broadened her sense of who can be a friend or potential friend. Nothing like having a solid support system to make you feel comfortable taking risks with others. They might not be physically here, but the experience of having them at all has fundamentally changed her. She's not so threatened by having others support her anymore, because after the number of times she's saved them and they've saved her, she knows it's mutual.
Toph appreciates the warning as much as she appreciates the help, and quickly covers her ears to shield them from the explosion. It's much lower volume but it's also much closer, and since her ears are so sensitive she doesn't want to take any chances. A moment later she removes her hands and eagerly sticks her bare feet out toward the building fire, wiggling her toes. Her feet are covered in callouses and dirt and visibly low in circulation in a few places.
"Ahhhh, that's the stuff."
Toph leans back on her elbows, keeping her palms down and flat so they can make full contact with the ground while her feet are propped up.
"Thanks. Is that what you were doing out here? Heroing? I'm just keeping busy." Not like she's a bona fide card-carrying world-saving sidekick or anything, obviously. She's just bored.
no subject
Her feet look fucking awful. Dirty calloused mess, bam, right goddamn there just inches from his eyes. If Katsuki was hungry before, he sure as shit ain't now. Having them that close to his face is highly motivating to get the fire from a low crackle to a burning blaze, as quickly as possible. The only reason he doesn't bitch about them being right next to his goddamn face is the visual evidence that Toph really probably did need to get off of them as quickly as possible--enduring the snow and cold for that long is guaranteed to be dangerous and damaging and she's really toeing the fucking line there.
Thankfully, he's got that bitch ablazin' and he can kick back. Away from that mess. Toph keeps the conversation going, and the blond tucks his concern about the girl's feet away for now. It'd be irresponsible of him as a hero to not point out how fucking dangerous it is for her to be out here for long periods bare-footed, but it can at least wait. They're doing what they can about it and that's all that matters for right now.
"Yeah. I'm," 'Gonna be the number one hero' sticks in the back of his throat like molasses. Katsuki takes a couple of beats to force back all of the intrusively painful thoughts that dredges up within him, shoved as deep down as he can and then continues on like nothing happened in the first place. "I'm a hero. Not officially pro yet, since I haven't finished school, but that doesn't matter. Heroes... can be anyone, no matter where they're at in their life. Took me a long time to learn that."
A twig snaps in his hands and gets tossed into the fire. "How old're you?"
no subject
"I'm thirteen."
She isn't reckless; she especially wouldn't be reckless with her feet. Toph knows her limits and, sure, she constantly likes to push them and ride them to the edge, but that's what makes her great. Getting a toe frostbitten off would be not great. She doesn't need the concern and she especially doesn't need anyone treating her like a child.
The fact that she is one makes it really chafe.
As for the gross and dirty part, nothing brings her greater pleasure than laughing in the face of people who want her to act civilized. It feels incredibly cathartic absolutely every time.
"There's such a thing as pro heroes?" Toph laughs a little. "That's hilarious. You're right. If you have to wait for somebody else to tell you what you are, you've got a long way to go." She delivers this line almost off-handedly, but she feels it fiercely and means it deeply. Defying what everyone else has told her about who and what she is is basically her life's mantra.