It definitely has a little bit the feeling of watching a little kid going to town on the sand at a playground, but-- you know, who is Ange to tell Toph what she should or shouldn't do. If the other is processing something by smashing something she just made back into pieces, then she's got every right to do so.
Thankfully Ange is pretty great at explaining serious things with a straight face even while witnessing some ridiculous stuff happening.
"I can summon demons, but I can't summon them all the way here the way I could back home," she therefore answers pretty calmly.
Sure, it's not that it isn't a very, very annoying limit, but Ange has learned to live with it at this point. Every attempt on her end to forcibly break through it has resulted in nothing so far.
"Usually they can take on a human shape and talk to me. I guess they're a little like the spirits from you guys' spirit world in that sense." Weird, otherworldly beings. Ange isn't sure if Toph's world has demons, but this does feel like a pretty close equivalent. "But I can only summon them in a different form here. I thought it meant something must be blocking me from summoning them all the way here from my own world by limiting them to that form."
Toph isn't ever likely to explode or act out in stress. She can be loud when she wants, but it's completely on purpose. With her control overridden recently to disastrous consequences -- a woman died -- she's even less likely to deal with her frustration with some kind of lashing out. On the flip side, she also isn't likely to deal with it through words or by asking for comfort.
So here she is, treating dirty rusted metal like it's putty as she works out her feelings. It's not hurting anyone and it does help her to perpetually reinforce to herself that she's fully in control of her bending again.
As Ange suspects, Toph doesn't exactly have an equivalent concept of demons, but evil spirit is probably close enough. Ange saying she can summon them is a far cry from her cutesy light butterfly Toph had seen before, though; she pauses momentarily to give her a look of incredulity.
"Okay, what? You summon dark spirits? How the heck does that work?"
She can't resist asking even if by now she's realized most people don't tend to have real answers for her when she asks things like this. But Ange has been methodical and thoughtful in all of their interactions so far, so maybe she will have something to say.
If it had been anyone else - or most people, anyway - Ange may have given a more ambiguous answer. There's a kind of fun in just shrugging and saying 'who knows' when someone you don't particularly care for is clearly trying to fish for an answer like this.
But Toph.. She's alright. Even if Ange may not be particularly close to her, she's shown herself interested enough in what's going on here. She's got a good head on her shoulders, and just that is enough for Ange to at least be willing to give her a more serious answer than she'd give other people.
.. granted, her answer still sounds much too nonchalant for it to be about summoning evil spirits, but.. you know. That's just a default Ange thing that has very little to do with her opinion of anyone else and how that makes her act around them.
"They can't manifest in any place unless there's something powering them. So that's what I do. I make a contract with them that I'll provide them with magical energy as long as they listen to me." There's a slight shrug, and then she adds: "It works out, most of the time."
You know, Toph. Real normal! Real casual!
To be fair, this is as natural to Ange at this point as bending is to Toph, so maybe that's why she talks about it in such a similar sort of way.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
expiationmods) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
expiationlogs2024-04-14 10:44 pm
no subject
Thankfully Ange is pretty great at explaining serious things with a straight face even while witnessing some ridiculous stuff happening.
"I can summon demons, but I can't summon them all the way here the way I could back home," she therefore answers pretty calmly.
Sure, it's not that it isn't a very, very annoying limit, but Ange has learned to live with it at this point. Every attempt on her end to forcibly break through it has resulted in nothing so far.
"Usually they can take on a human shape and talk to me. I guess they're a little like the spirits from you guys' spirit world in that sense." Weird, otherworldly beings. Ange isn't sure if Toph's world has demons, but this does feel like a pretty close equivalent. "But I can only summon them in a different form here. I thought it meant something must be blocking me from summoning them all the way here from my own world by limiting them to that form."
no subject
So here she is, treating dirty rusted metal like it's putty as she works out her feelings. It's not hurting anyone and it does help her to perpetually reinforce to herself that she's fully in control of her bending again.
As Ange suspects, Toph doesn't exactly have an equivalent concept of demons, but evil spirit is probably close enough. Ange saying she can summon them is a far cry from her cutesy light butterfly Toph had seen before, though; she pauses momentarily to give her a look of incredulity.
"Okay, what? You summon dark spirits? How the heck does that work?"
She can't resist asking even if by now she's realized most people don't tend to have real answers for her when she asks things like this. But Ange has been methodical and thoughtful in all of their interactions so far, so maybe she will have something to say.
no subject
If it had been anyone else - or most people, anyway - Ange may have given a more ambiguous answer. There's a kind of fun in just shrugging and saying 'who knows' when someone you don't particularly care for is clearly trying to fish for an answer like this.
But Toph.. She's alright. Even if Ange may not be particularly close to her, she's shown herself interested enough in what's going on here. She's got a good head on her shoulders, and just that is enough for Ange to at least be willing to give her a more serious answer than she'd give other people.
.. granted, her answer still sounds much too nonchalant for it to be about summoning evil spirits, but.. you know. That's just a default Ange thing that has very little to do with her opinion of anyone else and how that makes her act around them.
"They can't manifest in any place unless there's something powering them. So that's what I do. I make a contract with them that I'll provide them with magical energy as long as they listen to me." There's a slight shrug, and then she adds: "It works out, most of the time."
You know, Toph. Real normal! Real casual!
To be fair, this is as natural to Ange at this point as bending is to Toph, so maybe that's why she talks about it in such a similar sort of way.