(open) i went through my list of friends and found i had no one to tell

[entreats]

Who: Ange Ushiromiya and YOU!
Where: All over Aldrip.
What: Ange is dealing with the aftermath of the Gnosia event-- and worse so than she's pretending to be.
Warnings: A chance of talk of mental illness (mostly depression, mixed in with some complex abandonment trauma) and death (in regards to the recent event).

[ It's not like Ange hasn't dealt with anything in this place, really. She's been here for over a year now, and there have been plenty of things before that really shook her to the core - especially that dumb maze from a long while ago now, and everything that had appeared in it. But the most recent event might have been the wildest thing yet. It was very reminiscent of the games back home, which sure didn't help. Even though her family might not have been on the line this time around, watching her friends be on the line was practically just as bad.

And now.. the town is normal again. And they're expected to go on like the usual.

So Ange tries to do just that - even if something threatens to fester below. ]

( a. come across ange - open to all! )

[ Maybe you're coming across one of the more quiet and empty parts of town, or maybe right outside town, where you may have found someone who set up a little shooting range - even if it's not much more than a single target standing there in an empty field or park.

The sight that might be more surprising - if you recognize the girl - is Ange standing there, holding a bow as she's staring at the target, looking rather focused. It's been a long, long time since she bothered to practice archery before giving up on it, so the sight of her doing it again is certainly new to most people. (And not inspired at all by a specific person being on her mind, what do you mean--) She pulls back the string before releasing the arrow. It flies at the target, and..

.. It only hits one of the outer rings.

The girl mutters something under her breath, her steps more like stomps as she heads over to the target to retrieve the arrow, pulling it out. As she turns around to go back to where she was standing a moment ago to perhaps go for a second attempt, she'll spot you right there. She frowns, speaking up with a: ]

What are you looking at?

[ Is she embarrassed? A little more touchy than the usual, considering she doesn't seem to be wearing her poker face or her usual emotionless tone when she spoke up like that? Who knows. ]

( b. ange comes across you - only for existing cr! )

[ For once, Ange doesn't totally isolate in the face of what happened during the event. It's almost as if she learned something, ssshh.

Which means that at some point during the days right after the town returns back to normal, you may find Ange reaching out to you if she knows you. She'll be at your door if she knows where you live, but if she doesn't, she may have sent you a text to come meet up with her at a cafe in town.

Either way, regardless of whether you're greeting her at your doorstep or in the cafe, the girl scowls and immediately starts with: ]

Everything that happens in this place is such bullshit.

[ Okay, hi, hello to you too, Ange-- ]

( ooc: feel free to hit me up with either brackets or prose, i will match! or if you'd like to wildcard this or ask for a custom starter, feel free to let me know too, i'm very flexible! )

Comments

[fieldtrip]

[ However similar some of the details of their circumstances, Toph and Ange remain very different people. Toph has never passively accepted anything in her life, and she's not about to now. Being patient, having the grace to wait and listen for just the right moment, that's not about acceptance or giving up. It's about being able to hold in her mind the whole time what it is she's waiting for, a sustained isometric contraction, a particular kind of strength unlike the norm.

She can't make things better for Ange, can't change the circumstances of her life, but she can do whatever is in her power. She tugs Ange along insistently at a fast clip, aiming unerringly for where she can feel a collection of delicate twisted metal shapes on display. ]

Yeah -- I want you to pick out whatever metal looks good to you -- don't worry, I'm loaded, it doesn't matter. [ Putting all that casino money to good use! ] Not the actual jewelry but the metal, okay? And pick one little gemstone that you like with it.

[entreats]

[ At least it helps that Ange isn't really worried about the money aspect of it either. She hadn't even considered that fact. The idea that someone would give her anything at all - regardless of monetary value - is the wild part, the part that has her surprised and confused even as she's still being dragged along by the other girl.

She'd usually ask Toph why she's doing this for her.

But that part is pretty clear, right? Everything that Toph has said just now makes it pretty clear, no matter how much it is for Ange to try and come to terms with. Toph.. cares. She wants to be her friend. She wants to give her hope in her own way. ]

.. you're ridiculous, Toph.

[ It doesn't sound like an insult. There's absolutely no bite to it.

Instead it sounds.. a little embarrassed, maybe. Mostly just touched. Ange doesn't sound like she's trying, but her voice does sound a little thick, like she's close to it over this. ]

But I know better than to say no to you. [ Not that Ange wants to. It's just-- It feels easier to put it this way. To hide behind Toph's own determined stubbornness, rather than to admit that she kind of likes the idea of this. Liking things is a vulnerable thing when you're used to everything you care about disappearing. ]

[fieldtrip]

You got that right!

[ That excuse totally works on Toph, who loves being respected, far more than she wants to force her friends to admit they have feelings. Ange can be emotional and not-crying and Toph won't call her out on it. When she has that happen, she doesn't want other people to make a big deal out of it, so she'll approach it that way.

They duck into the first jewelry store they come across, and Toph marches them up to the display counter. She slaps the casino credit card down.

To the staff: ] Take this and get lost. We don't want help.

[ Toph turns back to Ange. ]

Okay. Metal and a gemstone. Got it?

[entreats]

[ God, having to pick something feels like a foreign sensation. Which is likely dumb for a rich girl to think, but considering how much Ange always had things forced on her rather than being allowed to pick for herself, it feels like a big thing to suddenly be standing in this jewelry store - unplanned, mind you! - and being forced to pick out something.

.. It helps when she thinks about what it's for. Something to symbolize their friendship. Then she doesn't have to suddenly settle on her own preferences, but she can just think of what makes her think of Toph.

That realization makes it way easier to figure out what might be good here. Considering the staff seem fine with just taking Toph's money and avoiding an encounter with a potentially abrasive customer, they're not really paying much attention at all, so Ange just grabs a piece of emerald - it looks like Toph's eyes, she thinks, very light yet still kind of green - before reaching out to put it into the other girl's hand. ]

Here. As for the metal-- um, silver, maybe? [ It's a little more meek than she'd usually be, but if there's anything Toph seems right now, it's very serious about this whole friendship thing.

So maybe it's okay to drop her mask a little in front of the other like this. ]

[fieldtrip]

[ Toph doesn't rush her. She doesn't mind waiting as a general rule, and now she uses the time thinking through what she's going to make and how she'll do it. She already has the concept, but the execution is all about the details...

Once Ange decides, Toph rudely snaps her fingers at the store workers and has them bring her some plain silver chains as well as the ring the emerald was set into. The gem itself she isn't confident in her ability to manipulate, but the ring practically melts through her fingers and reforms into a misshapen bit of refuse that she casts aside. Then comes the fun part. One of the silver chains keeps its shape, but the rest she piles together in her palms and closes her hands over them, visibly concentrating. Toph doesn't close her eyes for obvious reasons, just stares blankly - perhaps unnervingly? - ahead for long moments as she makes subtle motions with her hands.

What emerges is a stylized badger-mole perhaps two inches across, solid sterling silver because Toph has no concept of hollowing things out to save in expense. It has the sweeping artistic lines of Chinese characters to its form, rather than anything too realistic. The emerald is buried into the silver so that only a small edge of it shows, forming the badger-mole's nose where it's kissing a tiny delicate butterfly perched on the end.

She grins in satisfaction and then eagerly slips it on the chain and hands it out to Ange. ]

That's a badger-mole. Did I ever tell you about them? They taught me most of what I know.

[entreats]

[ Ange takes it the moment Toph hands it over to her. She didn't look too amazed by the process of Toph making it - it's really not all that different from the way the other girl was making statues of herself all over town, after all - but she looks a little more surprised once she's holding it.

Like the fact that Toph made this for her is only hitting her in this moment, now she's holding onto the physical evidence of the deed.

Maybe the other girl was right in thinking that giving Ange a physical reminder like this might help. ]

.. no, you haven't told me.

[ Her voice sounds a little bit more out of it than the usual, like she's still dazed at the sight of the jewelry. ]

It looks like.. an animal? Some sort of creature? [ Certainly like none that live where she comes from, though Ange thinks some parts of it do look like animals she knows. ]

[fieldtrip]

They're the original earthbenders. They're blind, like me.

[ Toph has told this story several times by now, but at this moment, in respect to Ange's wobbly tone and overwhelmed emotions, she tells a slightly different version. Her voice softens and she sounds nostalgic, grateful, even a little bittersweet. ]

When I was really little, I thought I was never going to be able to do anything or go anywhere, because that's what my parents told me. I knew I was an earthbender but I figured someone like me couldn't do anything with it.

[ She thinks Ange will identify with at least this part of the story. ]

One day I found the badger-moles. Or they found me? [ She smiles, reflective. ] I don't know if they sensed something in me -- as the original earthbenders, they're close to the spirit world -- but they accepted me. They let me stumble around them as a little kid until I figured out how they were doing it, how they were seeing.

They opened up the whole world for me.

[entreats]

...

[ Ange quietly listens to her friend, staring down at the little badger-mole. It does feel like this sign of friendship has even more meaning to it now, knowing that this creature holds so much importance to Toph. ]

I had no idea. [ She quietly says, managing to tear her eyes away from the metallic shape just for long enough to look over at the other girl.

But Toph is right in another way.

It definitely is recognizable to Ange, in a sense. ]

.. me too. I mean, it wasn't any animal for me, but.. When I felt my most miserable and lonely, the spirit of my dead cousin came to me to teach me about magic. [ It's not exactly the same story.

But there's a similarity in it. A weird kinship. Trying to break away from the corner you've been placed in, in which you're nothing but a useless prize locked up in a golden cage. Ignored, in Toph's case. Abused, in Ange's. ]

[fieldtrip]

Then it works for both of us.

[ That's some proper Avatar nonsense, so at least Toph doesn't have to think about it too hard. She immediately slots Ange's dead magic cousin into the 'who knows, spirit world things' category that she puts all of Aang's stories about lion-turtles into.

Toph grins at her, irrepressible. Then she reaches out and gives her a light shove to break all the sentimentality in the air. ]

All right, I'm going to get goosebumps from all this sweetness. I think I need a good round or two of whack-a-mole. Coming with me?

[ Scott had showed her the one game at the arcade Toph can handle blind, and she loves it. ]

[entreats]

[ Ange does move sideways slightly due to the shove - look, it was light and playful, but Ange kind of looks like a Victorian teenager between the pale skin, the fashion sense and the fact that a strong breeze could blow her away - but she seems otherwise unbothered by it. If anything, she's more busy putting on the jewelry that Toph has given her, wanting to immediately honor the sign of friendship for what it is. ]

Sure.

[ She doesn't even seem to need to think about going to have fun.

Now that's a real sign of friendship when it comes to Ange. ]

Let's go.