expiationlogs | one way or another

[ ooc: Toph threads, general structure is as follows:

1. First encounter with doppelganger; gets her ass kicked and taunted about being a lawless gremlin who her parents disowned
2. Regrouping and recovering with moral support
3. Rematch where she prevails by accepting who she is

Established CR is welcome to tag in to any of the below ♥ ]

[ Toph is really taken off guard to run into herself. She feels tiny to her own senses, but that rooted stance is unmistakable, and she doesn't have a whole lot of time to process it before an entire street light is being twisted out of the ground and comes flying at her. She reacts swiftly, stepping out of the way and rerouting the huge iron beam safely to skid down the middle of the vacant road, sparks flying against the pavement. ]

What the heck--

[ Doppel-Toph doesn't let up, is as unrelenting as Toph herself. The ground starts to shake as slabs of asphalt rise up and contort into jagged projectiles. Toph has to fend them off quickly, but she's hampered by trying to make sure she isn't causing collateral damage as she deflects them. ]

A little help, maybe! [ she yelps to whoever's nearby. She's not too proud to ask for help when she needs it.

A small figure enclosed in sheets of metal wrapped around like armor ominously strides toward her down the street. ]

That's all you got? You ran away for this -- you still think it's worth it?!

[ It's not rare to hear the sound of chaos out in the streets with everything that's going on. Ange is pretty sure she's heard multiple people fighting the monsters in the streets - both from when she's inside, but also when she's stalking the streets on her own to try and find clues, trying to stay hidden from the monsters.

The latter is what was going on as she hears the sound of said chaos. Ange's initial instinct is to stay away from it, knowing she'd get scolded by at least someone if she were to get herself into too much trouble, but then Ange realizes she recognizes some sounds in that chaos.

She recognizes a voice, and it's--

Shit.

Ange immediately sprints in the direction she can hear it coming from - and indeed, it seems she was right about who is involved in the fight. That definitely is Toph, and the other person is--

Another Toph? The sheets of metal throw her off for a moment, but Ange is pretty sure that's what she's seeing here. And even with how unsure the redhead is about the situation in front of her, she waves a hand. It starts to glow with a golden light, and as Ange focuses, demonic circles start appearing on nearby buildings. Weird stake-like objects slide into existence out of them, and with another wave of the girl's hand, they drill themselves into the ground right in front of the metal-wearing Toph's feet.

Not into her feet. Not yet. Ange isn't sure of what's going on here, and there's a part of her that feels really queasy at the thought of hurting Toph by accident. ]

What's going on?! [ She calls out, trying to quickly analyze the situation in order to figure out how to best deal with it. ]

I have no idea! [ Toph yells back, a bit panicked but immensely relieved to have Ange there as backup. After their experience in the caves, she's more comfortable fighting alongside her, and she has a lot of respect for Ange on a baseline level. For Toph this translates into respect as a combatant.

Metal-Toph is distracted assessing the spikes and seeing if she can bend them as the simplest method of dealing with it. If not, she's about to launch herself over them with a ground-powered leap.

Toph herself uses the momentary distraction to run over frantically to Ange. ]

I think that's me. I don't know, she just showed up and started attacking!

Maybe it's some sort of mimic. [ There's a part of Ange that does sound cool and collected about this - more so than most people would be in a situation like this, anyway - but there's also some worry in her tone.

Because even if this is just some monster that's capable of mimicking people's form and powers, it sucks that it had to copy Toph of all people. Ange is well aware Toph could kick her ass. Maybe even her own ass, if she tried hard enough.

The one upside is that the metal Toph won't find herself being able to bend the stakes. Despite them seeming like metal, something about them feels strangely organic. Though the way she's leaping over them is not great, especially when Ange would love to maintain distance here.

Which she tries to do, quickly taking steps in the direction away from the other Toph. ]

Do you want to try and fight it? [ She calls out to the Toph she knows. ] Could you?

[ She greatly appreciates Ange taking this calmly, because Toph is low key freaking out. Ange's sensible questions help draw her back into a fighting mindset, and Toph is never the sort to duck away from a fight. Even with herself, as it turns out. ]

Uh, not sure I have a choice here--

[ There's no way they could get away and hide if someone with Toph's abilities really wanted to follow them. Running is probably going to result in a lot of collateral damage. Double-Toph marches unerringly at her, disinterested in Ange completely, at least for the moment.

Toph orients herself to her opponent and feels her resolve snap into place like steel suddenly laces her spine. ]

Come on, you really think someone could copy me? [ she taunts, and then they're on each other, exchanging blows.

Someone else might hesitate before straight-up punching someone covered with metal armor, but Toph's hands sink right in and start peeling away panels whenever she gets the chance. As the pieces come off, it starts to reveal what is indeed another Toph, this one dressed in flowy luxurious pyjamas covered in metal shavings and rock dust.

Toph hasn't had a real bender-to-bender fight since she'd gotten here, and while part of her has sorely missed it, this would not be the one she'd pick if given a choice. They're both earthbending masters fighting at a high level, fully aware of each other's capabilities, and Double-Toph is not holding back, meaning Toph herself is starting to take some real hits amid the ducking, rock-flinging, and metal-tearing. ]

[ As she watches the fight, Ange isn't sure she should intervene. Sure, it's not like she wants to abandon a friend to this danger, especially when she realizes that Toph isn't getting out of this unscathed either way, but Ange also isn't sure what she can do. Toph is really powerful in her own way, and Ange's magic is-- Well, she's been practicing lately, but it's still nowhere near as powerful as she'd like it to be. Maybe she would only get in Toph's way, even if she would try to help.

But the longer she watches, the worse it feels to just stand by.

Getting in the way or not-- She has to at least try something. Something to make it easier on the actual Toph here. So Ange sucks in a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment to summon her magic. Her hands glow with a golden light, but rather than summoning more of the stakes, Ange tries to envision something that might stop the other Toph, rather than outright kill her. (There's something a little too macabre about killing her friend, even if it's just a double of her that only seems to want to fight.)

It takes quite some focus, but then magical chains made out of nothing but golden light seem to appear out of nowhere, wrapping themselves around the Toph in the pyjamas, trying to keep her in place to avoid her further hitting the other Toph.

Ange doesn't look too great though - as if using this power is taking a lot out of her. ]

I don't-- I don't think fighting her is any good, she's strong!

[ Toph does not take failure well.

Normally she takes any mistakes as motivation to do better, to work on whatever weakness lead to her defeat, but how is she supposed to do that when the opponent is herself? When it's her overall, her whole repertoire of earthbending, that wasn't enough? That's who she is.

That's-- that's who she'd decided she was going to be, against her parents' wishes.

Toph is laying in the clinic recuperating, twisted on her side in the bed and pressing her face into a pillow to hide her tears. She's silent, but her shoulders shake finely, giving it away. ]

[Toph is good enough to read the movement of the sand and shape it to her will. So it's no good to try and do something like step softly, or make a noise before coming in so that she has time to try and hide her crying. It'll just have to be straightforward, walking into the room and being brisk.

Ethlyn can't help but feel for the girl. Facing yourself isn't easy even when it is not, literally, a duplicated you on the attack.]

Have you managed to get any rest?

[ She's good enough to sense that, but right now she's very distracted, wrapped up in her own feelings. Trying to ignore the world in the classic teenage hallmark Toph would sorely wish would bypass her. Her whole thing is facing things head on -- she has to face this. She knows she does. ]

No, [ she moans into her pillow like a petulant kid, the fabric mumbling her words. ] I just keep thinking about what I need to do next time I face her. How I can do better.

[ Maybe Toph should take it as a compliment that it was so difficult to fight herself, but right now, it feels very far from a compliment. ]

Well, maybe if you're delerious with fatigue, you'll come up with such strange tactics that you'll defeat her with sheer confusion... but I don't recommend that. I've seen sleep-deprived decisions and they don't usually work out.

[She takes a seat next to Toph's bed.]

Why did she attack you? Did you know?

[Ethlyn's double--currently locked in a cupboard with a wine bottle--has been annoying as hell, but she's stopped short of physical assault.]

[ Toph shoots upright and scowls at Ethlyn. This is not the time for teasing! This is incredibly serious! She is distraught! ]

How should I know? [ she complains. ] She just saw me and started throwing rocks around, yelling about whether or not running away was worth it. Good thing I know how to fight serious earthbenders. I think we destroyed a whole building, but nobody got hurt.

[ Toph had her priorities absolutely straight this time. She wasn't having that happen again. Fighting the Dai Li had given her plenty of experience with real earthbending opponents rather than the chumps she faced in Earth Rumble. ]

[At first Ethlyn thinks that sounds unusual, but maybe it isn't. Toph is direct, if nothing else. A hostile copy of her wouldn't see any reason to hesitate in attacking, if that was what she had it in mind to do.

Whether or not running away was worth it. Ethlyn recalls their conversation during the desert journey... the feelings about her parents, closer to the surface than Toph probably wants to acknowledge.]

Don't move around too quickly--it's best to not pull or jar anything that's been just healed if you don't have to. [And with the Willow Clinic's relative safety, there's no need for Toph to go storming around.] So she's got some opinions on your life choices. Do you think it was worth it?

[It's more rhetorical, given what Ethlyn knows about Toph by now, but she wants to help pick this apart in case it helps Toph deal with the copy a second time.]

[ She's certainly going to learn more from a lost fight than from a copy trying to have a heart-to-heart with her, so in that sense, her double was right on the money. Toph is already putting more effort and thought into what happened than just running into her normally would've inspired. That would be easy to dismiss as another crazy effect of this place, to be tolerated until it went away.

Now, although she's coming at it sideways, she's at least starting to think about it... and Ethlyn's prompting is annoyingly pushing her in the right direction.

She huffs at the expression of concern (what if she wants to go storming around) but keeps herself in place as instructed. She wants to recover as fast as possible to go out there and have her rematch, and she's appreciative that Ethlyn can make that happen a lot faster than normal. ]

Yeah. I mean, duh. My parents would take me back in a heartbeat if I agreed to be their good little daughter. As far as they're concerned, they're just waiting for me to come to my senses.

If I'm not living like that, it's because I don't want to be!

[ She's more indignant about this than usual, strung up and high key from her fight. Toph also is alluding to something she hasn't really dealt with: her decision to abandon her parents is a continual decision she's making, something she has to reaffirm and reinforce over and over again. Even here, where she has no way to contact her parents, she knows how they would want her to behave.

Ignoring that, leaving it behind, means continuing to leave them behind. It's a decision she's consciously sticking to. And sometimes it really hurts. ]

[Well... that's interesting. Not everyone's parents, so publicly humiliated by a disobedient child, would be so willing to welcome them back into the family fold. But for Toph, the door is still open.

And that means that every day she doesn't go back through, it's because she chooses not to.]

So they want you back, and you're resisting them. At least, the version of 'you' that they could live with. [Ethlyn puts her chin on her hand.] If they just disowned you officially, it would still hurt, but you could have turned your back on them completely.

( semi-open )

( first encounter )

figured i'd hop in here, since it didn't get any bites!!!

you're the best!! 🦡🦋

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( regroup )

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( rematch )

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