Toph Beifong · 北方拓芙 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fieldtrip) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
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
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."
no subject
"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.
no subject
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."
no subject
"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.
no subject
.. 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."
no subject
"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.
no subject
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.