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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Huh. She's pretty sure anyone in her world would just call that sort of thing elemental magic - yet Toph is very clearly making a distinction there. Ange wonders if it's because magic is seen as something fictional in her world, or whether it's just because magic does exist over there, but it's something so different that it's why she'd go through all the trouble to keep the two terms separate.

It's not the question Ange asks, though. Maybe it's the way Toph says it, but the words at the end almost seem more interesting to her due to it.

"Then how would you describe what you're doing?"

She seems open to hearing whatever interpretation Toph has. Ange figures that she herself only sees half of it, considering she only sees what's happening above ground. Toph likely can even sense what's going on down there compared to Ange.

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."

"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."

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."

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!

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."

"Wow, that's pretty amazing."

It's the sort of praise that would probably be a little bit better if Ange actually bothered to put emotion into her voice for it.. But, alas, Toph, you will have to make do with Ange saying that with absolutely the flattest possible tone.

She's not even being deadpan about it, it's just her voice's natural lack of emotion.. It does sound pretty amazing. Just an objective fact.

"And yet you're using those powers to try and help out the village. That's pretty selfless. Most powerful people I know tend to not exactly act in that kind of way."

"It is," Toph insists, but not like she needs the validation, more like she needs to make certain that it being a fact was understood.

"You mean they're dipshits?" Thanks for that one, Katsuki. That's Toph's quick kneejerk assessment. "I'm not that selfless. But what's the point in being this awesome if I'm just going to sit around talking about how great I am? If you don't use it, it doesn't mean anything."

Although she means what she says, it's also a little misleading; Toph is a kinder, more generous person than she really likes to admit, and that is enough of a motivation in itself for her. The fact that she gets to flex her muscles while doing it, so to speak, just makes it a no-brainer.

If Ange's pokerface was any weaker than it is, she definitely would have snorted at the usage of dipshits. It's just the perfect timing. The perfect way to word it.

The girl is way too used to suppressing her own amusement though, keeping it on the inside. Sure, she feels it, but it doesn't show up on her face, which is pretty much as relatively emotionless as it has been this entire time so far.

"You could be doing other stuff with it," Ange remarks with a slight shrug. "That's what happens when I come from. People have all sorts of amazing powers, but all they use it for is showing off with completely useless stuff, while there's actual people out there who need help."

Stupid witches. It's been months upon months since she's been in her own world, but no, she still isn't even close to being over it!

Facial expressions don't mean much to Toph anyway, being blind, and she doesn't necessarily need the encouragement to make jokes. She's perfectly happy making jokes that only she finds funny.

"Alright, you got me there. Some people are completely useless."

That doesn't mean Toph's going to stand here and encourage talking about what a good and nice person she is. Compliments on her abilities and her strength are one thing... character compliments are something else.

"Is that why you're interested?" she prompts. "It's different where you're from?"

"Well.. mostly the magical aspect of it, really."

Sure, Toph being nicer with her powers than most other powerful people Ange knows is a little interesting as well, but that's on a different level. Ange is so much more here to investigate the different kinds of magic on display in this place.

It's the only chance she'll have to do so before they can hopefully find a way back to their homes soon enough, after all.

"I also have.. special powers, I guess, if you prefer that kind of wording over 'magic.' That's why I can't help but be interested in seeing how different those sorts of possible powers are across different worlds. If you have any powers like that back where I come from, people call you a witch."

"You can't just say that and then not explain. Come on -- show off a little. I'm interested, too."

Toph is a show-off herself, brash and full of confidence, but she also thinks everyone else should be, too. If you're good at something, why hide it or apologize for it? She's curious, too, in general and particularly about other abilities. It's such a central part of her identity, she isn't about to pass up a chance to learn what else is out there.

Even if calling people witches for it is weird and maybe insulting.

.. the girl lets out a hum.

She's thinking, really. Not even about whether or not to show Toph her magic - showing it off in this place doesn't feel like such a big deal to her, and it does kind of feel like the least she could do in return for asking Toph so much about her own powers.

No, the problem is an entirely different one. Especially when Ange does remember Toph said she's blind just now..

"I'm trying to figure out how to show off to you. Most of my magic right now is a little more.." Her voice trails off, like she's looking for the right word, and then adds: ".. air-based."

Sure, that'll work.

"I could summon something and have you feel it, but it might seem kind of unimpressive without actually realising it magically appeared."

Oh, air stuff, huh? That's pretty neat, given how rare it is at home. Good thing Toph has more than a little experience with it thanks to Aang.

"If you can make it touch the ground somehow, I can tell," Toph explains helpfully. "You know how I said I'm listening to earth all the time? That's how I 'see'. Kinda like echolocation but with bending."

It's a good idea to get this explanation out of the way if they're going to keep talking, anyway. Toph absolutely hates it when people try to accommodate her blindness in ways she doesn't need. Or, frankly, even in ways she does, unless she directly asked for it.

"Sure, let's try it that way."

It can't hurt, after all. Not to mention that Ange does find herself a little bit curious how someone would view her magic through that sort of method - especially when there's still so much about her power she doesn't know. It might be a chance to find out something new.

So she holds out her hand in front of her, takes in a deep breath, and then lets the magic flow through it. The hand glows with a golden light, and from the light emerges a cloud of butterflies, seemingly made out of nothing but golden light. Ange wills them to fly to the ground, settling down there.

They can definitely be detected through echolocation, even if it might be a bit of a faint signal, given how little weight and size they have to them. They're definitely sized like just regular butterflies, after all, but they feel a little off compared to the real deal. Even more faint, like they're barely there.

"Can you feel that? That's my power."

As expected from air-based abilities, it's faint and subtle and really tests Toph's ability to perceive something. She cocks her head slightly to listen more closely, and when she detects the slight presence of something intangible on the ground, she crouches down onto her heels and stretches a hand out but pauses before touching.

"Yeah -- they're really delicate. Can I touch them?" she asks, genuinely interested. "They're butterflies, right?"

She's gotten good at sensing fine details, so she puts that together, but she's not totally confident.

Ange really isn't too sure how much the other girl is going to feel here. Partially since she isn't sure how her own magic works enough to be able to tell, and she isn't entirely sure how echolocation through the ground works either, so it's anyone's guess what Toph might say. Maybe she won't sense a thing.

.. the other girl does, though. Apparently. Ange looks a little more surprised as she hears the right guess from Toph.

"Yeah, they are," she confirms. "You can touch them. Don't worry too much about what strength you use, they're not made of flesh and blood."

Before Toph might be a little worried about squishing a real bug..

"They're made out of light, so at worst you'll just force one to reform if you touch it a little too hard."

Despite her overall attitude, gruffness, and blunt approach to fixing buildings with giant sheaves of rock, Toph is utterly gentle as she puts her hand out to touch the little butterflies of light. She genuinely likes animals -- she feels a sad pang of missing Momo in particular for a moment -- and even though these aren't real butterflies, it doesn't hurt anything to treat them like they are.

"They're... a little warm?" she questions, carefully holding one or two. "Like a sunbeam, almost. Do they act on their own or are you controlling them?"

Once the initial curiosity and wonder wears off a bit, Toph naturally has her own series of nosy questions.

"A little bit of both." After all the questions Ange asked, she has absolutely no problem with Toph doing the same in return. It's only fair. "They're not fully sentient or anything. But if I don't tell them what to do, they'll just generally fly around aimlessly, or sit around somewhere like right now."

She moves a little closer to the other girl and the magical constructs, squatting down to be on a more even level. With a flick of her wrist, one of the butterflies flies up, landing on top of Toph's hand.

"They're pretty good for whenever I need to keep an eye out. They're at least smart enough to warn me if something approaches, anyway."

A slight pause, and then Ange seems to realise something enough to add: "I guess it's kind of like what you're doing with your power in that way."

Sensing stuff that you might not see yourself.

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