[ The funhouse is not having the same effect on Toph. Firstly because she can't see anything happening in the mirrors, so much like with television she's left to audio only, and it's really not that impactful on someone who's used to getting the full surround sound earthbending sense of what's going on. Secondly, Toph faces every mistake she's ever made head on and is determined to learn from it, so there's not a whole lot it can throw at her.
Boo-hoo, that time she lost Appa because she couldn't see on sand. That time she got affected by the miasma and got a little too violent with a snake and failed to save that lady. She's working on all of that.
As a result, she's more or less idly wandering through it, puzzled about what this is supposed to accomplish when she gets her answer hearing someone shatter a mirror. Toph trots over immediately, rounding a few corners and making her way to Riku with unerring accuracy. This whole place is spooky or whatever, but it's still on the ground. She skids to a stop on her bare dirty feet. ]
[ as soon as toph's voice carries, both the projection in the mirrors and riku himself round on her, with very different intents. an audience! the golden-eyed reflection crows with a sweeping gesture, unaware or uncaring that said audience could not see it. more strangers you can throw away like everyone else, right?
riku, having channeled his frustration into breaking the mirror, is more concerned with the shards of glass littering the ground and this tiny girl's feet dangerously close to them. his manic distorted reflection was flitting about, occasionally being cut off mid-sentence by the appearance of another, quieter one. he ignored them both, stepping forward and dismissing braveheart with a metallic vwingg. ]
[ Toph is instantly diverted from her reflexive annoyance at someone being protective of her. The keyblade disappearing felt so incredibly weird to her senses, given it's a huge metal object. She can also sense that the glass is there, but it's fuzzy to her, which is frustrating. Toph has never thought much about whether she could bend glass before, just assumed she couldn't, but she's feeling something from it...
Something to look into later. In the meantime, Toph makes some quick snappy motions with her arms, and the smooth concrete floor sort of bubbles upward and swallows all the glass shards. It ends up making a pretty reflective terrazzo effect in the floor. ]
That better? [ she asks pointedly. She's taking a cue from Riku and absolutely ignoring the mirror-ghosts. ]
[ it's instinct to step back as the ground beneath them shifts, and if the reflection in the mirror cackles at that - riku grits his teeth and ignores the prickling urge to shove braveheart into another wall. whatever this girl can do is much more interesting than his reflecting calling him a coward, ready to run away again? ]
Much better. That's a useful ability.
[ he leans down, runs a hand over it. thankfully the shards in the floor just reflect him normally. the memory in the mirror makes a tch, displeased at being ignored. ]
Disappear... oh. [ he summons braveheart again. dismissing it was so second nature that he hadn't really registered he'd done it. ] This? Is that a problem?
You don't know the half of it, [ she boasts, smirking and satisfied at the acknowledgment. True to her words, there's some flickering images in the mirrors of Toph fighting a huge swarm of snakes with some pretty epic earthbending. ] It's not a problem, it's just kind of creepy.
[ Well, she's honest. To Toph, who has an extremely distinct sense of what is present and real and what isn't, things appearing and disappearing is a bit ghost-like. But it's not the weirdest thing she's run into here, not by far -- it'd just surprised her. So she moves on. ]
You want to get out of here? I was getting pretty bored of the guilt trips, anyway.
[ Toph says this like she knows the way out, which she more or less does. She can figure it out in a few seconds, anyway. ]
[ oh so this girl gets epic fight highlights while he has to listen to his clone's even worse clone yell about how much of a fuckup he is. this place seems biased. then again, that's some cool as hell fighting, so maybe it's fair. ]
Ah. Sorry. Last time for now.
[ braveheart vanishes again despite the reflection now brandishing the soul eater at them in some kind of bid for attention. it can't do anything else, though, with them both clearly tuning out its attempts at rekindling riku's frustrations. ]
That sounds like a great idea. You know where to go?
[ It's an epic fight until there's an enormous horse-sized snake swallowing a living woman whole, and then Toph is carving it to pieces with a floating jagged piece of metal...
Suffice to say, the woman does not survive.
Fortunately, Toph has no clue what's playing behind her; it can make whatever sound effects it wants and it's the equivalent to a TV playing, which she does not see the appeal of. Literally. Instead she simply sets off with a determined stride, assuming Riku will follow if he really wants to leave. ]
Yeah, big obvious structure like this? I got it. I'm Toph, by the way.
[ oh. very wait and see moment. riku swallows awkwardly, looks away. his own reflection says something cruel about him being so predictably selfish. shut up, he wills it again.
he does, in fact, follow her easily. the mirrors swim with their warped colours, but he gets the sense that she's telling the absolute truth about having the way out secured no problem. ]
I'm Riku. I'd say it's nice to meet you, but that might have to wait until we're outside.
[ Toph is still somewhat ashamed of her actions that day. Even if they weren't fully under her control, affected by the miasma as she'd been, she still feels responsible. A woman had died because she hadn't accounted for the miasma. And she hadn't until then understood how scary she could be, how metalbending could be used for more than cages and sliding down steel buildings if she lost her moral judgment.
She's been working on her mental resilience to status effects since then, so she continues to resolutely ignore any of the sounds from the mirrors as they walk, either hers or Riku's. ]
Yeah, your mirror guy is a huge jerk, [ she says bluntly. ] I don't blame you for smacking him.
[ riku's not the type to pry, but it's difficult to not have a scene like that attach to your impression of a person. given the effects of this space, though, it's kept away from this initial meeting, as he sighs and shakes his head. ]
Yeah, he's always like that. [ even if it isn't always the exact same being, reflecting his mistakes, the statement still stands. ] It's just been a while. Got frustrated.
[ smacking them did seem to be the preferred solution. he glances briefly at the mirrors in this corridor, but the images are too blurry to make out anything distinct for now. ]
Your reflection's a lot quieter. Guess it's different for everyone.
It's probably showing me carving up this giant snake in the most creepy way imaginable, right?
[ Toph huffs and walks a little faster, bare feet smacking the concrete floor decisively as she turns a corner. She realizes belatedly she's going to have to explain her uncertainty over what the mirrors are showing. ]
I'm blind, by the way. I sense things through the earth. [ Riku's getting the short version today -- Toph has given this explanation a lot and she's not in the mood right now to get into it in detail. ] This whole guilt trip is a little lost on me considering I'm just getting the sound effects.
[ riku trails, taking slow strides to maintain pace with toph's shorter legs. her explanation gives him pause - he had sort of worked that out, partly from his own experiences operating primarily with his other senses for nearly a year.
so he hums in acknowledgement, instead of reacting strongly. she's clearly capable, and her power considerable. ]
Sorry mine's so obnoxiously loud. They're not worth paying attention to, anyway.
[ Toph definitely likes the complete non-reaction Riku has to the news that she's blind, which takes some of the irritation out of her swift strides. Fortunately, the maze isn't that huge, and when you know exactly where you're going it doesn't take too long to get to the exit.
They round a corner and there's a door straight ahead of them. ]
Yeah, anybody who needs their mistakes shoved in their face that blatantly to learn them from is a lost cause, anyway.
[ guy who is only coping this well ("coping") ("this well") because this is like the fourth time this has happened.
her swift navigation impresses him, even with the size of the place and the skills she'd explained. it's a heavy door, and while he's got no reservations about her ability to open it, he's still much taller. so he reaches over her head to push it open. ]
Is that why my keyblade disappearing felt creepy? Sensory thing?
[ Toph is from the school of face every problem head on and smash it, and if that strategy doesn't work then she isn't interested. Not to say she doesn't ever do something more subtly -- particularly when it involves tricking people -- but her own personal weaknesses she's unrelenting about addressing.
She doesn't actually mind Riku opening the door for them even if he reaches above her head to do it. He's been chill and respectful of her abilities so far, which means she doesn't need to prove anything. She walks right out into the waning daylight without a thank you. ]
Yeah, basically. I think seeing people are used to their eyes tricking them, but if I'm sensing something, it's there. Rock solid.
Makes sense. It comes and goes when I call to it, so much that it's not really conscious.
[ the grungy twilight isn't the comforting orange he's used to from this time of day, and he squints in distaste as his eyes adjust. there's one last echo of running away again? from his reflection before the door swings closed with a thud. ]
Shut up.
[ uuugh. he pinches the bridge of his nose, quelling the irritation, before looking back to toph. she looks... a lot younger than expected, now they're outside. ]
[ She's about to comment on his relentless pest of a mirror self, but then he asks why she'd helped him and Toph pivots on her bare heel to give him a look of disbelief. ]
Why wouldn't I? You might have needed help. Actually, you did need help.
[ Toph smirks at him. If anything, this hint of pushback makes her like him more. She likes people who both stand up to her and respect her at the same time. ]
Uh-huh. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone you needed a little girl to rescue you from the big scary maze.
Yeah yeah, you wouldn't be the first person. I'm like the local totally overkill building cleanup crew.
[ Toph has done a lot of cleaning up and fixing buildings around Aldrip in the past ten months. She doesn't mind it, but she really is overkill. Enjoying being out in the fresh air, she laces her fingers together and stretches her arms out over her head, considering what to do next. ]
You want a burger? That's what I usually do with new people. You seem new.
You're what, twelve? Who gave you a license for working in construction?
[ this is quickly turning into a very silly conversation. ]
A burger sounds great, actually. [ he doesn't remember the last time he'd eaten something like that. coffee and whatever pity food aerith or leon had brought him had practically been his entire diet for weeks before ending up here. ] I am. New, that is.
I'm fourteen, thanks, and nobody gives me a license.
[ She just does what she wants, obviously. Like now, as she takes that as enough of a confirmation and sets off walking toward her favorite burger place, once again figuring Riku will follow. ]
All right, hit me. What are your newbie questions?
[ follow he does, barely masking a laugh with a shake of his head. this kid was something else, and shockingly... really easy to talk to. he missed easy banter like that. ]
A bunch got answered already. The basic idea of the place is annoying and senseless, but the concept of a trap is one I'm pretty familiar with.
[ and might have had a regretful hand in enforcing one of those himself. he presses that memory down again quickly. ]
I am curious about how long everyone's been here. What about you, Toph?
[ Toph is who she is and she isn't waiting for permission or asking for forgiveness. Sometimes that's abrasive, but a lot of the time it's refreshingly straightforward. She's not looking to prove anything and she doesn't mind going out of her way to help people. ]
I think almost a year by now? [ She's not exactly keeping track, but it is her birthday around this time of year so Toph has recently been forced to consider it must be getting close to a year. She'd shown up only a couple months after turning thirteen. ] Don't take the premise too seriously. It's not like they're literally putting us in prison or whatever. Things can suck, but we still have, like, houses and friends and jobs.
[ Toph isn't going to sugar-coat life in Aldrip, but she also comes from a world that recently wrapped up a century-long war, and she's been to Lake Laogai, among other places. She has a real sense of perspective for her age on what constitutes a prison. ]
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expiationlogs2024-10-14 08:59 am
II-a
Boo-hoo, that time she lost Appa because she couldn't see on sand. That time she got affected by the miasma and got a little too violent with a snake and failed to save that lady. She's working on all of that.
As a result, she's more or less idly wandering through it, puzzled about what this is supposed to accomplish when she gets her answer hearing someone shatter a mirror. Toph trots over immediately, rounding a few corners and making her way to Riku with unerring accuracy. This whole place is spooky or whatever, but it's still on the ground. She skids to a stop on her bare dirty feet. ]
Hey, you okay? What's going on over here?
no subject
riku, having channeled his frustration into breaking the mirror, is more concerned with the shards of glass littering the ground and this tiny girl's feet dangerously close to them. his manic distorted reflection was flitting about, occasionally being cut off mid-sentence by the appearance of another, quieter one. he ignored them both, stepping forward and dismissing braveheart with a metallic vwingg. ]
It's nothing. Careful, don't walk any further.
no subject
[ Toph is instantly diverted from her reflexive annoyance at someone being protective of her. The keyblade disappearing felt so incredibly weird to her senses, given it's a huge metal object. She can also sense that the glass is there, but it's fuzzy to her, which is frustrating. Toph has never thought much about whether she could bend glass before, just assumed she couldn't, but she's feeling something from it...
Something to look into later. In the meantime, Toph makes some quick snappy motions with her arms, and the smooth concrete floor sort of bubbles upward and swallows all the glass shards. It ends up making a pretty reflective terrazzo effect in the floor. ]
That better? [ she asks pointedly. She's taking a cue from Riku and absolutely ignoring the mirror-ghosts. ]
no subject
Much better. That's a useful ability.
[ he leans down, runs a hand over it. thankfully the shards in the floor just reflect him normally. the memory in the mirror makes a tch, displeased at being ignored. ]
Disappear... oh. [ he summons braveheart again. dismissing it was so second nature that he hadn't really registered he'd done it. ] This? Is that a problem?
no subject
[ Well, she's honest. To Toph, who has an extremely distinct sense of what is present and real and what isn't, things appearing and disappearing is a bit ghost-like. But it's not the weirdest thing she's run into here, not by far -- it'd just surprised her. So she moves on. ]
You want to get out of here? I was getting pretty bored of the guilt trips, anyway.
[ Toph says this like she knows the way out, which she more or less does. She can figure it out in a few seconds, anyway. ]
no subject
Ah. Sorry. Last time for now.
[ braveheart vanishes again despite the reflection now brandishing the soul eater at them in some kind of bid for attention. it can't do anything else, though, with them both clearly tuning out its attempts at rekindling riku's frustrations. ]
That sounds like a great idea. You know where to go?
no subject
Suffice to say, the woman does not survive.
Fortunately, Toph has no clue what's playing behind her; it can make whatever sound effects it wants and it's the equivalent to a TV playing, which she does not see the appeal of. Literally. Instead she simply sets off with a determined stride, assuming Riku will follow if he really wants to leave. ]
Yeah, big obvious structure like this? I got it. I'm Toph, by the way.
no subject
he does, in fact, follow her easily. the mirrors swim with their warped colours, but he gets the sense that she's telling the absolute truth about having the way out secured no problem. ]
I'm Riku. I'd say it's nice to meet you, but that might have to wait until we're outside.
no subject
She's been working on her mental resilience to status effects since then, so she continues to resolutely ignore any of the sounds from the mirrors as they walk, either hers or Riku's. ]
Yeah, your mirror guy is a huge jerk, [ she says bluntly. ] I don't blame you for smacking him.
no subject
Yeah, he's always like that. [ even if it isn't always the exact same being, reflecting his mistakes, the statement still stands. ] It's just been a while. Got frustrated.
[ smacking them did seem to be the preferred solution. he glances briefly at the mirrors in this corridor, but the images are too blurry to make out anything distinct for now. ]
Your reflection's a lot quieter. Guess it's different for everyone.
no subject
[ Toph huffs and walks a little faster, bare feet smacking the concrete floor decisively as she turns a corner. She realizes belatedly she's going to have to explain her uncertainty over what the mirrors are showing. ]
I'm blind, by the way. I sense things through the earth. [ Riku's getting the short version today -- Toph has given this explanation a lot and she's not in the mood right now to get into it in detail. ] This whole guilt trip is a little lost on me considering I'm just getting the sound effects.
no subject
[ riku trails, taking slow strides to maintain pace with toph's shorter legs. her explanation gives him pause - he had sort of worked that out, partly from his own experiences operating primarily with his other senses for nearly a year.
so he hums in acknowledgement, instead of reacting strongly. she's clearly capable, and her power considerable. ]
Sorry mine's so obnoxiously loud. They're not worth paying attention to, anyway.
no subject
They round a corner and there's a door straight ahead of them. ]
Yeah, anybody who needs their mistakes shoved in their face that blatantly to learn them from is a lost cause, anyway.
no subject
[ guy who is only coping this well ("coping") ("this well") because this is like the fourth time this has happened.
her swift navigation impresses him, even with the size of the place and the skills she'd explained. it's a heavy door, and while he's got no reservations about her ability to open it, he's still much taller. so he reaches over her head to push it open. ]
Is that why my keyblade disappearing felt creepy? Sensory thing?
no subject
She doesn't actually mind Riku opening the door for them even if he reaches above her head to do it. He's been chill and respectful of her abilities so far, which means she doesn't need to prove anything. She walks right out into the waning daylight without a thank you. ]
Yeah, basically. I think seeing people are used to their eyes tricking them, but if I'm sensing something, it's there. Rock solid.
[ And then... not, when it vanishes. ]
no subject
[ the grungy twilight isn't the comforting orange he's used to from this time of day, and he squints in distaste as his eyes adjust. there's one last echo of running away again? from his reflection before the door swings closed with a thud. ]
Shut up.
[ uuugh. he pinches the bridge of his nose, quelling the irritation, before looking back to toph. she looks... a lot younger than expected, now they're outside. ]
Why did you come and check on me?
no subject
Why wouldn't I? You might have needed help. Actually, you did need help.
So you're welcome.
no subject
I'd have been okay on my own. Happens all the time.
[ totally normal circumstances, it's fine. ]
Don't get me wrong, thanks. It was just unexpected.
no subject
Uh-huh. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone you needed a little girl to rescue you from the big scary maze.
no subject
So that's how it's gonna be? Alright, next time I smash a mirror, you'll be the first person I call to help clean it up.
no subject
[ Toph has done a lot of cleaning up and fixing buildings around Aldrip in the past ten months. She doesn't mind it, but she really is overkill. Enjoying being out in the fresh air, she laces her fingers together and stretches her arms out over her head, considering what to do next. ]
You want a burger? That's what I usually do with new people. You seem new.
no subject
[ this is quickly turning into a very silly conversation. ]
A burger sounds great, actually. [ he doesn't remember the last time he'd eaten something like that. coffee and whatever pity food aerith or leon had brought him had practically been his entire diet for weeks before ending up here. ] I am. New, that is.
no subject
[ She just does what she wants, obviously. Like now, as she takes that as enough of a confirmation and sets off walking toward her favorite burger place, once again figuring Riku will follow. ]
All right, hit me. What are your newbie questions?
no subject
A bunch got answered already. The basic idea of the place is annoying and senseless, but the concept of a trap is one I'm pretty familiar with.
[ and might have had a regretful hand in enforcing one of those himself. he presses that memory down again quickly. ]
I am curious about how long everyone's been here. What about you, Toph?
no subject
I think almost a year by now? [ She's not exactly keeping track, but it is her birthday around this time of year so Toph has recently been forced to consider it must be getting close to a year. She'd shown up only a couple months after turning thirteen. ] Don't take the premise too seriously. It's not like they're literally putting us in prison or whatever. Things can suck, but we still have, like, houses and friends and jobs.
[ Toph isn't going to sugar-coat life in Aldrip, but she also comes from a world that recently wrapped up a century-long war, and she's been to Lake Laogai, among other places. She has a real sense of perspective for her age on what constitutes a prison. ]
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