[ That's actually creepier. Like, way creepier. Toph was preparing to comfort her friend through the shock, but instead she can tell that she's going to have to rein her in from doing anything crazy and reckless. ]
Okay. [ She takes a breath; Toph's not going to challenge that, not at all. ] But can we stop for a second and you tell me what you know? I'll be a lot more help if I know what's going on.
And tell me not in here, [ she requests. ] It's freaking me out thinking that's your dead family right there. [ Blunt as ever, but completely honest. She's gone through some harsh things, but a lot of it was fairly abstract; Toph is still a kid who's been relatively sheltered, and she's not immune to the cold posed figures across the room prodding her senses like a loose tooth she can't ignore. ]
[ Though Ange definitely still seems weird, at least whatever has come over her - so weirdly intense - doesn't seem like it is baring its fangs at Toph. It's almost as if, despite the weird dream state Ange is in, she still recognizes Toph as her friend. That she refuses to let this turn onto the other girl, despite her insistence as she says that she can't leave. ]
You can go, if you want. [ It doesn't seem like there is anything stopping Toph in the dream. The exit is still there, not having disappeared. It'd be very easy to just step out of the chapel. To just leave.
But Ange isn't moving in that direction. She's still standing near all of the bodies, right in front of the table they're all sitting at. ]
But I can't go.
[ There's something weird about Ange beyond her attitude now. It might be harder to sense for Toph, considering she can't see what's happening, but it's as if.. Ange's weight is shifting, somehow. Like she's becoming lighter. It's not a huge change at first, but there's a shift all the same, no matter how slight. ]
Even if I can't solve it, I'll have to stay here with them.
Oh, hell no, [ Toph blurts out. ] I'm not leaving you here.
[ Ange could metaphorically bear her fangs at her all she wants; Toph isn't leaving her. Her loyalty isn't challenged so cheaply.
Toph's grip tightens on her, and she resists the urge to simply plummet them all into the ground and keep Ange safe in a sealed cave until they can talk it out. That's still an option if it seems like Ange won't listen to sense, but she'll try one more time.
Urgently: ] What's going on with you? You're-- are you floating away or something?! I'll help you find who killed them, I'll do whatever you need, but you have to stay with me, not them.
[ At least Ange's emotionless tone seems to shift a little bit now. It's not as flat anymore. There's actual emotion creeping into it - especially when her breath hitches a little, before she even speaks up. ]
How can I just leave them..?
[ Her voice shakes a little bit. As much as she wants to trust Toph, as much as she has already let the other girl in by letting Toph give her that jewelry as a sign of their friendship--
It's scary to trust anyone at all. It's too scary to move on when she can't leave the past behind. ]
I.. was supposed to die with them. I should've gone with them to the island here that day, but I-- I was sick, so I had to stay behind. But that's wrong, right? That shouldn't have happened. I went with them. On that day, I.. I went to the island with my family, and I died.
[ Ange keeps getting lighter and lighter, but there's something else too. There's something falling on the ground around Ange. Bit by bit, and it's wet, and--
It might be difficult to determine, but it's pieces of Ange. Ange is literally falling apart on the spot, just pieces of her flesh being taken off her and falling onto the ground, like some invisible tool is picking away at her, tearing chunks of flesh off her and tossing them away.
It would explain why Ange is starting to sound more and more exhausted and out of breath as she speaks. ]
Everything after that.. It's just been a daydream. It's just been my life flashing before my eyes..
[ This isn't entirely beyond Toph's emotional capacity to deal with, but it is a stretch. It's a level of morose tragedy she rarely tries to comfort anyone over. She's more a tough love type, but that isn't going to cut it here. Ange is talking about thinking she should be dead, and even Toph knows that's not the kind of thing that goes away easily. She thinks of Aang and his whole lost society and how difficult it is for him to let any of that go, how much he clings to airbender traditions. That was his family like this is Ange's family and for a long, frustrating moment Toph is frozen, unsure which way to jump.
There's a strange sound around her, something meaty and organic hitting the ground, and there's still those corpses over there arranged around the table. A lot's happening for Toph's senses to process and make a story out of, and that on top of the complex emotional narrative playing out before her means it takes her a bit to catch on.
She finally reaches out to grab onto Ange more forcefully, planning to drag her away, but her hands encounter... wet, soft tissue. Her fingers don't encounter cloth or skin. It's-- blood, muscle, sinew.
Toph outright shrieks, loud and girlish, heart lurching to high speed with the sudden wash of terror. ] What's happening to you?! Ange--
[ She'll snap back to action in a moment, but there's a lot to process first. ]
It almost sounds more like a gasp - like it's hard for her to even draw in air right now in her current state. Especially when the deterioration of her body doesn't seem to stop, not even after Toph tried to touch her. ]
.. Toph..
[ She manages to force the other girl's name out, but it sounds like it's difficult for Ange to even speak.
And yet she tries. Because even in the middle of it all there is one thing she does remember - the fact that Toph is her friend. And Ange wants her friend to be spared this. ]
You-- You should go.
[ She's very well aware that usually Toph would be far too stubborn to listen to that. But the way the other shrieked-- It breaks Ange's heart. It's so unlike Toph. Maybe the fear will be enough to keep her from having to see this all the way through, at least. ]
I don't.. [ Another shaky breath. ] I don't want you to.. have to deal with this. I.. already died with my family, so-- So it's fine..
[ Toph is afraid, but Toph does not react to fear by running away. Far from it.
The fear slips to outrage so easily, things around her not conforming to the way Toph thinks they should be, the way they make sense. ] You're not dead, [ she says loudly, almost shouting. ] And you don't get to tell me what to do or what I'm fine with!
[ The obstinate insistence on determining her own actions is a ragged edge of comfort amid the chaos. Toph snaps back to herself and into a bending pose. There's a cave network far below them, she can feel it, and the only thing she can think to do is remove Ange from the situation. Being near her dead family is obviously not doing her any good.
The floor beneath them suddenly crumbles to pieces and shoots downward in a wide circle around them, an earth elevator plummeting them down swiftly, the ground closing up after them.
Maybe it's silly or childish, but Toph has a strange instinct to keep all of Ange's fleshy pieces together in one place like she can put her back together. She's breathing heavily not from exertion but from emotion, and she angrily punches her fingertips upward to make airholes all the way up to the church they'd left behind so they don't asphyxiate in the otherwise dark cave they find themselves in. ]
I'm not going anywhere, [ she says bullishly, ] and neither are you until you get it together.
[ The trip downwards certainly doesn't make Ange look any better - though it's not like there's anyone left to see it now, between Toph's lack of sight and Ange not seeing anything either in this darkness.
But she can tell. She feels even weaker. It's not like this is the first time this has happened to her, after all. Ange knows exactly what it feels like to fall apart more and more, to slowly reach an end.
It hurts like hell, mostly. But she's determined to not make a sound about it. Maybe even more so in the face of Toph's attitude right now. She just sucks in shaky breaths and releases them just as shakily - telling herself to just keep breathing to avoid screaming or whimpering from the pain. ]
So that's how it is..?
[ Ange's voice is weak at this point, but still audible enough, especially when there's no other sound down here in the darkness with them. ]
I can't tell you what to do, but you get to boss me around..?
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expiationlogs2025-01-13 12:39 pm
no subject
Okay. [ She takes a breath; Toph's not going to challenge that, not at all. ] But can we stop for a second and you tell me what you know? I'll be a lot more help if I know what's going on.
And tell me not in here, [ she requests. ] It's freaking me out thinking that's your dead family right there. [ Blunt as ever, but completely honest. She's gone through some harsh things, but a lot of it was fairly abstract; Toph is still a kid who's been relatively sheltered, and she's not immune to the cold posed figures across the room prodding her senses like a loose tooth she can't ignore. ]
no subject
[ Though Ange definitely still seems weird, at least whatever has come over her - so weirdly intense - doesn't seem like it is baring its fangs at Toph. It's almost as if, despite the weird dream state Ange is in, she still recognizes Toph as her friend. That she refuses to let this turn onto the other girl, despite her insistence as she says that she can't leave. ]
You can go, if you want. [ It doesn't seem like there is anything stopping Toph in the dream. The exit is still there, not having disappeared. It'd be very easy to just step out of the chapel. To just leave.
But Ange isn't moving in that direction. She's still standing near all of the bodies, right in front of the table they're all sitting at. ]
But I can't go.
[ There's something weird about Ange beyond her attitude now. It might be harder to sense for Toph, considering she can't see what's happening, but it's as if.. Ange's weight is shifting, somehow. Like she's becoming lighter. It's not a huge change at first, but there's a shift all the same, no matter how slight. ]
Even if I can't solve it, I'll have to stay here with them.
no subject
[ Ange could metaphorically bear her fangs at her all she wants; Toph isn't leaving her. Her loyalty isn't challenged so cheaply.
Toph's grip tightens on her, and she resists the urge to simply plummet them all into the ground and keep Ange safe in a sealed cave until they can talk it out. That's still an option if it seems like Ange won't listen to sense, but she'll try one more time.
Urgently: ] What's going on with you? You're-- are you floating away or something?! I'll help you find who killed them, I'll do whatever you need, but you have to stay with me, not them.
[ They're dead. ]
cw: the heavy gore kicking in
How can I just leave them..?
[ Her voice shakes a little bit. As much as she wants to trust Toph, as much as she has already let the other girl in by letting Toph give her that jewelry as a sign of their friendship--
It's scary to trust anyone at all. It's too scary to move on when she can't leave the past behind. ]
I.. was supposed to die with them. I should've gone with them to the island here that day, but I-- I was sick, so I had to stay behind. But that's wrong, right? That shouldn't have happened. I went with them. On that day, I.. I went to the island with my family, and I died.
[ Ange keeps getting lighter and lighter, but there's something else too. There's something falling on the ground around Ange. Bit by bit, and it's wet, and--
It might be difficult to determine, but it's pieces of Ange. Ange is literally falling apart on the spot, just pieces of her flesh being taken off her and falling onto the ground, like some invisible tool is picking away at her, tearing chunks of flesh off her and tossing them away.
It would explain why Ange is starting to sound more and more exhausted and out of breath as she speaks. ]
Everything after that.. It's just been a daydream. It's just been my life flashing before my eyes..
no subject
There's a strange sound around her, something meaty and organic hitting the ground, and there's still those corpses over there arranged around the table. A lot's happening for Toph's senses to process and make a story out of, and that on top of the complex emotional narrative playing out before her means it takes her a bit to catch on.
She finally reaches out to grab onto Ange more forcefully, planning to drag her away, but her hands encounter... wet, soft tissue. Her fingers don't encounter cloth or skin. It's-- blood, muscle, sinew.
Toph outright shrieks, loud and girlish, heart lurching to high speed with the sudden wash of terror. ] What's happening to you?! Ange--
[ She'll snap back to action in a moment, but there's a lot to process first. ]
no subject
It almost sounds more like a gasp - like it's hard for her to even draw in air right now in her current state. Especially when the deterioration of her body doesn't seem to stop, not even after Toph tried to touch her. ]
.. Toph..
[ She manages to force the other girl's name out, but it sounds like it's difficult for Ange to even speak.
And yet she tries. Because even in the middle of it all there is one thing she does remember - the fact that Toph is her friend. And Ange wants her friend to be spared this. ]
You-- You should go.
[ She's very well aware that usually Toph would be far too stubborn to listen to that. But the way the other shrieked-- It breaks Ange's heart. It's so unlike Toph. Maybe the fear will be enough to keep her from having to see this all the way through, at least. ]
I don't.. [ Another shaky breath. ] I don't want you to.. have to deal with this. I.. already died with my family, so-- So it's fine..
no subject
The fear slips to outrage so easily, things around her not conforming to the way Toph thinks they should be, the way they make sense. ] You're not dead, [ she says loudly, almost shouting. ] And you don't get to tell me what to do or what I'm fine with!
[ The obstinate insistence on determining her own actions is a ragged edge of comfort amid the chaos. Toph snaps back to herself and into a bending pose. There's a cave network far below them, she can feel it, and the only thing she can think to do is remove Ange from the situation. Being near her dead family is obviously not doing her any good.
The floor beneath them suddenly crumbles to pieces and shoots downward in a wide circle around them, an earth elevator plummeting them down swiftly, the ground closing up after them.
Maybe it's silly or childish, but Toph has a strange instinct to keep all of Ange's fleshy pieces together in one place like she can put her back together. She's breathing heavily not from exertion but from emotion, and she angrily punches her fingertips upward to make airholes all the way up to the church they'd left behind so they don't asphyxiate in the otherwise dark cave they find themselves in. ]
I'm not going anywhere, [ she says bullishly, ] and neither are you until you get it together.
no subject
But she can tell. She feels even weaker. It's not like this is the first time this has happened to her, after all. Ange knows exactly what it feels like to fall apart more and more, to slowly reach an end.
It hurts like hell, mostly. But she's determined to not make a sound about it. Maybe even more so in the face of Toph's attitude right now. She just sucks in shaky breaths and releases them just as shakily - telling herself to just keep breathing to avoid screaming or whimpering from the pain. ]
So that's how it is..?
[ Ange's voice is weak at this point, but still audible enough, especially when there's no other sound down here in the darkness with them. ]
I can't tell you what to do, but you get to boss me around..?