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Post by nyrax on Jan 21, 2010 3:50:34 GMT -5
Aang could only hold his smile as he remembered the time when they needed money and Toph was their ace in the hole. Katara was against it, but they were just cheating those who took away other people’s money, so it wasn’t that bad right? Plus Toph was just using the natural skills that she had, that wasn’t a bad thing at all, if Aang hadn’t used his gifts than the whole world might have been wiped out. “Yeah we kinda got interrupted by Combustion Man, that dude still scares me when I think about him” Aang said with a small smile. “You sure knew how to hire the right guy to scare the crap out of us”, he said with a grin to Zuko.
Aang thought about it for a moment. “Well I just want Zuko to see your skills at this, not that we might need to use them” Aang added. “I just figured that it would be something to do while we were stuck up here, we can’t leave till the storm calms down partially at least. Appa is still nervous around such big storms, and I don’t really blame him”, Aang explained. Aang didn’t think that they had the materials to show Zuko how exactly the game worked. Perhaps they would just have to do that another time. “Yeah that sounds like something you’d do. Having connections with me always has their perks right?”, Aang asked with a large smile. He turned out towards the storm, wondering when it was finally going to relent and give in. They needed to get back.
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Post by Fateful on Jan 21, 2010 4:02:14 GMT -5
Toph grinned, "It's not like it's a two minute trip back. We're out of food. We can stop somewhere and I can show you my skills, alright sparky?" She asked.
Zuko laughed. "That sounds charming. Something that you would do." He said, shaking his head, but was amused all the same. He was sure Katara would have been against their gambling. "Is that were you got all the money for the invasion on the day of Black sun?"
Toph nodded. "Yep, not that Katara thought we should keep any money. Or the food, suplpies, and everything else we got with it. She shrugged her shoulders. "Oh, and winkle toes? If you want a demonstration, then you need to get me some Earth to see with. I can see what happens on table tops, but in order for be to be able to see, I need to be on the ground. Considering the water wont let that happen any time soon..." She added thickly. "We should find something else to do..."
Zuko climbed up into the branches and gathered some branches he could find. The tree was huge, so he made a fire that would keep them warm. They way the tree was positioned, they were sheltered on three sides, and the wind was blowing away from them. It kept the fire safe and it would keep them warm. Zuko was an expert in surviving things like this. Sighing, he leaned back against a branch closing his eyes. "I think I'm going to sleep for a while. Wake me up in the morning, we'll try to get out of here if the wind and rain are minimal."
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Post by nyrax on Jan 21, 2010 4:42:49 GMT -5
Aang gave a small nod. “Right, my bad guess it just kind of slipped my mind”, the avatar admitted with another laugh. Sometimes he honestly forgot that Toph was blind, she was so powerful, unique, and full of skills to the point that he was just surprised that her parents never saw her for what it was. It must be so frustrating for her, to never be acknowledged by the people that are supposed to love you most. Aang didn’t really know his own family, but those that he was closed to he knew cared for him greatly. The gang from the war was the closest thing to a real family Aang had.
Aang gave a nod towards Zuko who wanted to sleep. “Yeah rest well and we can take off in the morning with best of luck”, he remarked as he turned to look at Toph. “I can’t imagine that you slept very well while you were being held prisoner. Do you want to catch some rest too?”, Aang asked. With how worried he was he’d do anything to help her, even keep her company all night if she couldn’t sleep.
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Post by Fateful on Jan 21, 2010 4:56:47 GMT -5
Toph smiled. It was actually a good relief that they constantly forgot she was blind. A contrast to her parents who only saw her blindness. The gang however treated her like an equal. There was nothing that was out of the question or strange. It was all ok and in good fun. Aang showed that the most. They all forgot she couldn't see, but Aang seemed to do it the most because she taught him to bend. It only showed when there was something important. Like when Toph found a scroll and Sokka asked her to read it. She 'read' her own version of the letter, which was interesting, but not what it said.
"Night Sparky." She said, looking towards him.
"Hopefully.." zuko muttered, laying down and curling up near the fire, drifting off to sleep.
Shifting, Toph seemed uncomfortable. "No... I actually haven't slept in a few days. I dozed off a few times, but I spent most of my time listening to everything they were saying. I was pretending to be asleep. They were either going to kill me, or thought I was an idiot or something. They talked about a lot. They never said names. Only Azula's really. Never each others." Sighing, she moved a little closer. "I don't think I can sleep though..." her confession was low, showing she was uncomfortable talking about it. "I don't feel..." She stopped. "I dunno.. safe I guess..."
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Post by nyrax on Jan 21, 2010 16:47:58 GMT -5
“Yeah, rest well Zuko”, Aang said before watching the fire lord drift to sleep. It was amazing how opposite their relationship with each other was now. At first he wanted to capture and hand the avatar over to his father, and now they were like brothers almost. Best of friends. Aang smiled as he traced a circle on the ground, not certain if he would go to sleep next or not. He could stay up and try to keep watch in case they had a chance to escape the storm, or he could look and make sure that no more of those fire benders showed up and try to take Toph back for their ridiculous defeat.
Aang turned to Toph who spoke next about her lack of sleep while being held prisoner. Aang frowned, knowing that not having sleep for an extremely long amount of time was never a good thing. He remembered right before the invasion, he was suffering hallucinations from fighting and training too much. It took the combined voice of everyone to finally get him to calm down. When Toph said she didn’t feel safe Aang was shocked. “Not safe……is it because you can’t see?”, he questioned. “We have the avatar, the fire lord, and world’s greatest earth bender here for protection”, he remarked. It must be the sight, maybe she was worried that she would roll off in her sleep or something. “Well, you could always just lean up against me to sleep, that way you know what your holding to will support you”
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Post by Fateful on Jan 21, 2010 17:45:19 GMT -5
Toph was instantly irritated as soon as she said she didn't feel safe. She should have said something else. Anything else... Now she just felt weak and stupid. Shifting onto her back, she put her feet on the tree to try to see, but not much came through. Sighing, she nodded. "Yes..." She said slowly. Her head jerked to the side to look away from him. "I don't feel secure when I can't see. Besides, we're so high up that if I fall I won't know unless I hit the water. I can't... swim..." He already knew that, but it didn't make admitting her weaknesses easier. She hated feeling this way, but she hated talking about it even more.
"And the world's greatest earth bender is only great when there's earth or metal around." Her voice held anger and bitterness with that comment. Not that it could be considered unjustified. When he had a solution, her head turned back to him. A confused look was on her mostly covered face. Her hair was still soaking wet, bangs dripping onto her legs.
Looking up and down his body even though she couldn't actually see him, it was a strange instinct she picked up when around her parents. "You know I don't like mushy gushy contact." She added, unsure of how she should take his offer. Lightning flashed and thunder roared through the area. Toph crawled over to where he was, able to sense at least small vibrations. They weren't as good as earth, but they were better then glass or ice. Her hand touched his leg and her body came beside his. The side of her body rested against his. Closing her eyes, she let out a sigh. "If I fall, the Avatar is going to have a huge accident..."
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Post by nyrax on Jan 22, 2010 1:28:43 GMT -5
Aang didn’t know what to say to make Toph feel any better. She was taken to the one place that her bending wouldn’t be used, and now she felt like she was powerless almost. Ridiculous. This was Toph! THE Toph! She was the first person to ever learn how to bend metal to her use and be able to do it from the first moment she did it. Aang wasn’t there when it happened, but supposedly it had been quite the scene, locking up her two captors in the same metal cage that they had used to capture her in the first place. That was just amazing, no earth bender would have ever thought of trying such a thing, and yet here she was, now a master of practically two elements.
“Toph you know that isn’t true! You’re an amazing person, even when you don’t bend you’ve helped me far more than you know”, Aang insisted. “At first I wasn’t sure what you would bring to the group, but it’s obvious that if it weren’t for you none of us would have made it as far as we did. None of us would have ever trusted Zuko if it wasn’t for you after all”, he pointed out. “Toph, you are great. Don’t make your greatest strength into your only strength”
“I don’t mean it like that, I’m just saying that at least you’ll have something instead of nothing”, he pointed out. She was right after all, with all the wind and rain as there was she would hit water and drown before even realizing that she had left the branch. Aang just wanted her to rest, she deserved it after everything that she had been through. She was only captured because Aang was her good friend anyways. As she actually leaned up against him he was surprised, but didn’t say anything. He smiled and gave a nervous laugh at her last comment. “Well I guess I’ll just have to hope I don’t twitch in my sleep”
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Post by Fateful on Jan 22, 2010 1:50:28 GMT -5
Toph rolled her eyes. "Well, it's hard to believe Katara would ditch you considering how well you suck up." She was teasing him, but after she'd said it was was something that she probably could have gone without saying that. But, she was Toph, and that meant she never apologized! Her eyes looked up at him. Sighing, she shifted, moving over to him. They were close, touching, something she didn't like at all. It might have been just her, but she hated it when people touched her. There was no real reason behind it, she just didn't like it.
It might have been because of her blindness, or the fact that when she was young, neither one of her parents never really showed her any physical affection. They told her they cared for her, and inferred they loved her. The two had never said they loved her... It hurt, and there were times when all she wanted was for them to hold her, to carry her. Honestly, it had been the real reason she ran away the first time. But, it was how she learned Earth bending. She'd met the badger moles when she ran off. it turns out that her parents cold distance from her is what gave her the power she now held.
"I am pretty amazing, but considering how useless I am, I don't feel all that great..." She said, closing her eyes as she rested her shoulder on his arm. Now, she seemed to realize something. Pulling away, she looked at him. Her hand moved, then stopped. Reassessing something, she took his hand in her own, holding it up, she rested her palm and fingers against his hand, seeing the difference in size. "You've gotten taller." She added, a smile reaching her lips. "You're not my height anymore..."
Even though her hands were used for bending, they were still so small, and surprisingly soft. She seemed okay with what had happened, and she was really glad to see him. Not that she'd ever mention it. "You better not let me fall." She warned, her voice threatening. "I'll bend you into the earth center to burn alive."
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Post by nyrax on Jan 22, 2010 2:03:07 GMT -5
Aang let out a laugh. “I’d like to think of it more as just being an honest and friendly guy”, he insisted. Aang had to admit that he was a goody goody some of the time. In truth he was just the peacekeeper of the group. At one point he might have said that it was Katara, but those days were long gone now. She was the only one that had really changed things. Kuko, Aang, Sokka, and everyone else were still great frinds. Of course Sokka and Suki were a bit more than that now, but that didn’t stop them from spreading their kindness to the rest of the gang.
“Maybe in a fight you’d be useless, although you can really hit a guy hard when you want to”, he remarked as he rubbed the spot that Toph had punched him at earlier. “But that doesn’t make you any less of the person that we came to know and care for”, he said with a grin. “Sometimes it took one of your punches or sarcastic remarks to make me realize why I was still going on ya know? I just needed that sometimes”, he admitted as he watched her. Toph being down on herself was something that was so foreign to him, she never acted like this.
“relax already Toph, I’ll let myself fall before I let you. And if it comes down to it I will save you at risk of my own life”, he promised. Toph being this close would be able to sense that he wasn’t lying due to his heartbeat. “Just relax and rest and let the Avatar do you a favor for once”
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Post by Fateful on Jan 22, 2010 2:10:40 GMT -5
Toph smiled a bit. "O know you won't let me fall. It seems that all this time away from me you've forgotten about my sarcasm." She told him win a playful grin. "The avatar owes me lots of favors. I was kidnapped from my room to be his earth bending teachers..." she teased, but continued in a sarcastic tone. "Fought in a war, was chased my assassins, screamed at my a bratty sugar queen."
She sighed. "It's... just something they said..." She said, unsure of what to do and how to explain what she'd heard. She'd been so tired and falling asleep, unsure of whether or not it was reality or a dream or hallucination due to her exhaustion. Her hand remained against his. It helped her see were he was and feel teh vibrations when his heart and other organs gave repsonces to indicate his mood. It seemed that she hadn't insulted him, but if she wasn't wrong, he seemed, confused perhaps?
"They mentioned something about you coming was part of their plan. About... the palace being empty..." She paused, unsure of how to phrase it. "I might have just imagined it. I was so tired and fading in and out of consciousness. It's why I broke the first cell they had me in. I'd been on some sort of platform. When I broke it I feel into a pool of water. They put me in the cell you found me in and then threw me up in the vines so that I wouldn't try it again. I heard the water and I knew I'd drown. To be honest, I was going to break out and see how long it would have taken me to reach the ground and then earth bended from there..."
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Post by nyrax on Jan 22, 2010 2:21:33 GMT -5
Aang just smiled again. “Sorry, guess I was just a little worried that you had lost that. I don’t want you being worried is all, not when you are surrounded by two people that really wanted to protect you from harm”, he added with a turn of his head towards Zuko. He of course than realized that Toph couldn’t exactly see that motion. “Yeah I mean the fire lord and avatar are still good friends to have, so is the greatest earth and metal bender in history”, he added with a smile. He then listened to what Toph had to say next, not realizing how full of fear his heart was about to become.
His eyes widened and his heart began to beat rapidly as Toph said that the whole point of this was to get the castle empty. Empty? Or just have the two most powerful people in it out of the way? Aang just looked at her, and by this time she was probably wondering what was wrong with him. “Toph are you absolutely sure? One hundred percent that’s what they said?”, he asked. He needed to know if this was true. If so…..they might already be too late. Mai was a good fighter, but she only had so many weapons to fight off fire benders with. Aang was worried now, what had these men really planned?
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Post by Fateful on Jan 22, 2010 2:27:44 GMT -5
Feeling his heart do what felt like a summer salt accompanied with a plunge into ice water, her body tensed. Biting her lip, she was really worried about what she said or if he did something wrong. Her hand hadn't left his, so she felt the physical reaction. Not to mention that her leg was touching his. As long as she was in contact with someone, she could feel their reactions. Earth was an easier way for her to see, but this worked too.
When he spoke, she let out a small sigh of relief. "No. I'm not sure. That's why I was worried about telling you. I mean... I was tired, and hungry. I hadn't had any water until a few hours later when they realized that I'd die without it. I wasn't sure what they said, and if they were planning something then I doubt they'd have said it with me there. I'd hear it. If they were planning to kill me it made sense but, they didn't kill me. They barely even tried." Shifting her weight slightly, this was one of the few times she wished that she could see. Irritation crept on her face because she wasn't sure what to do. "It might have been a dream..." Her voice was much stronger than she had expected it to be. The realization that she was a distraction to get them away from the fire nation were Azula was being held hit her just now. She was the reason she got out if they got her loose.
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Post by nyrax on Jan 22, 2010 2:36:31 GMT -5
“We were at the fire temple when we got these letters, they must have known that no matter what we would get you out ourselves instead of bringing her with us. It makes sense, we were so worried that this was going to be some amazing thing and battle and yet it wasn’t”, Aang said slowly. “None of us were even hurt by the time we took these fools down, and now they might have what they want”, he remarked as he looked into the sky. “If they really have a plan than there’s nothing we can do now. They would have attacked the moment we left in order to catch everyone off guard”, he said slowly. “I pray that you heard wrong Toph, only because if so than there might still be some hope. If you heard right…..odds are Azula is already making plans”
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Post by Fateful on Jan 22, 2010 2:41:17 GMT -5
Toph's eyes narrowed. "What's that supposed to mean!?" She asked, letting go of his hand, she pulled away. Standing up, she put her foot on his leg to see where he was. "So this is my fault? Is that what you're saying?" Now she was tense and irritated. He never said that she caused it. This was more her way of blaming herself but putting it off on someone else. Turning away, she crossed her arms, but her foot remained on his ankle. If she was on the ground, she'd have stormed off. Sighing, she walked over to where she had been previously and sat down.
"I'll help you catch her." She said determined. "I thought it was strange there was so few of them. They knew that I was blind... they knew that I couldn't swim. That I could metal bend. I mean... the fact that I'm blind is obvious from my eyes, and remember the fire nation play?" She asked. Sighing, she ran her hand through her hair, moving her bangs out of her face for a few moments. They were much longer than before.
"I hope I was wrong too...." There was really nothing else for her to say. Resting her head back on his shoulder, a sigh escaped her again. "Let's just get some sleep so we can start to head back tomorrow."
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Post by nyrax on Jan 22, 2010 2:52:52 GMT -5
“No wait! That’s not what I meant at all! I just……ah”, Aang began but just let it go. There was no talking to her when she was like this. This was THEIR fault, not hers. They came to rescue their friend out of loyalty but were too dumb to make sure to increase the guards with the avatar and fire lord missing. Even Zuko could have just left another piece of the note saying to be cautious, but no they had made the mistake and now they might suffer for it. This wasn’t Toph’s fault at all, she had just been captured and used as bait. Who could have seen this coming. Aang sighed again. They should have, people don’t put all their eggs in one basket after all.
“I know you will, you can take Azula on with your earth and Zuko has defeated her before as well. We can get her if she’s gone I’m sure of it”, he said encouragingly. Toph would sense his worry though, the nervousness of it all. He didn’t want Toph to feel guilty at all, this wasn’t her fault at all. “Yeah, that play definitely wasn’t the best thing for my nerves at the time. The play did kinda end with me dying after all”, he pointed out. “anyways, let’s just try to get some rest. We will figure this out in the morning”, he said as he closed his eyes. Aang worried about Zuko the most though. Everyone would blame him for what happened.
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