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Post by nyrax on Jan 24, 2010 23:18:51 GMT -5
Aang stood at attention as he was suddenly addressed by Toph as her student. He got ready for whatever she said suddenly, right up until she pulled the belt from around his waist, making him raise an eyebrow of surprise. “Okay than”, he remarked slowly as he found himself blindfolded with his own piece of clothing. “Whatever you say Toph”, he added as they made their way over to their next destination. He was mentally preparing himself for what Toph was going to throw at him…..literally.
Aang took a deep breath as Toph let go of his hand and allowed him to stand there without her for a bit. HE could hear her bending something from the earth, although he wasn’t sure what. He figured it was something far more dangerous than just a pillar for her to sit on. Aang slipped his shoes off as his instructor told him to and braced himself. “Okay, ready whenever you are I guess”
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Post by Fateful on Jan 24, 2010 23:25:33 GMT -5
Toph jumped off the pillar, wanting him to feel her land on the ground. Shifting her weight, she got ready for him to move. Kicking the ground,a giant rock hoped from the ground and she kicked it towards him. If this went well, he'd break it or something to that effect. If it didn't... well... the rock was about the same size as his body... he'd survive.
She was ready to see where this was going to go. He needed a lot of work, and having him blindfolded, having to sense the vibrations of the boulder, or anything else she threw at him, he'd have to focus his skills in another way. He'd learned it once, she was sure he could figure it out. Just because Earth was his opposite didn't mean that he couldn't use it.
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Post by nyrax on Jan 24, 2010 23:48:56 GMT -5
A dull echo was heard in Aang’s ears as Toph suddenly seemed to land on the ground, or something like that. He heard the general area from where she was and felt like he sensed something, although he wasn’t sure. This exercise could be rather deadly if Aang wasn’t careful. It had been ages since he relied on his other senses and not his eyes. Toph was going to start hard and strong, just to get him back into the groove. Aang needed to work on dodging these things before trying to earthbend them back. It would be suicide to hope he was right on the first time. Thankfully Toph causing a boulder to rise up also indicated where she was, which is where he had guessed earlier. Aang leapt to the side, dodging the boulder as it came towards him. He gave a soft exhale of breath, knowing that it had still been a little too close.
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Post by Fateful on Jan 24, 2010 23:57:44 GMT -5
He dodged it, but only just barely. Gabbing her fist forward, the ground started to shake slightly under him and she started to jerk pillars up from the ground in random motions to try to get him to feel the vibrations from the ground. He'd gotten pretty good at it in training a few years back. Hitting him would give him more of an incentive to focus. She felt one of the rocks that came up from the ground make contact with his leg.
"Focus twinkle toes!" She yelled. "Feel the vibrations in the earth. Stop moving around like an idiot. Hearing it is all well and good, but that's only after they come out of the ground!" There was a grin on her lips, content with the fact that she was winning this... well it wasn't a battle, but it was close enough. "Earth bend twinkle toes!" She yelled.
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Post by nyrax on Jan 25, 2010 0:11:12 GMT -5
Aang looked around, pointlessly, as he felt the area around him starting to shake rapidly. That wasn’t good at all, it could only mean one thing after all. Aang took a single step and barely avoided a pillar that rose up right in front of him. The next few moments was a comedic display of Aang flailing around like an idiot as his luck allowed him to escape several potential deadly earth pillars that came his way. One finally hit his leg and caused him to clench his teeth in pain, that was going to leave a nasty bruise after all. “I’m trying! It’s been too long!”, he shouted as he continued to try to do what Toph asked. They were coming up too quickly though! He barely had any time to react to anything. Earthbend, that was the answer! He suddenly lifted up his arms and caused himself to rise up on a pillar a bit higher than Toph’s pillars were landing. Now that he was up here he tried to feel if Toph would manipulate the earth he was standing on. Perhaps if he had less earth to focus on, he could get used to the feeling again.
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Post by Fateful on Jan 25, 2010 0:20:07 GMT -5
Toph rolled her eyes. Yeah... he was trying.. Whatever. Sighing, she made them come up faster and in more areas. Then suddenly, she felt the Earth change and smiled. He did it. Finally.. Well, not much but he at least did something. It was enough to dodge the small jumping pillars. Running over to him, she punched the pillar, making it shake, but not shatter. Kicking the ground with her heel, she raised another pillar next to his, and the two of them combined. She was standing a few feet behind him. She'd made sure not to make much noise. Lunging forward, she went to punch him in the face.
If he could see her, then he'd be able to stop her. If not. Well... He'd have a bruise on his face too.
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Post by nyrax on Jan 25, 2010 0:29:30 GMT -5
Aang was feeling confident, at least more so than when he had started. “alright let’s keep it go-“, but Aang stopped himself as suddenly he felt the entire pillar that he was standing on shake. He had thankfully been able to catch his balance, airbending had taught him how to be able to do that after all. He had thankfully been able to keep his balance through that, and when the second pillar collided he had been able to do that. He grinned, not sensing that Toph was right in front of him. “Gah!”, he shouted as she punched him right in the face, causing him to walk backwards and nearly fall off the pillar. He stomped his foot down and tried to send a crack into Toph’s pillar and cause it to fall over, now realizing that’s how she had gotten up to him.
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Post by Fateful on Jan 25, 2010 1:01:22 GMT -5
Toph jumped from the pillar that he shattered onto another one. She was irritated that he didn't sense the punch, but at least he could earth bend. She'd take that over him being completely useless. "Don't airbend." She warned. If he felt cornered he probably would and the last thing she needed was to fall off her own throne. Eyes narrowing at him, she ran and jumped onto the pilar he was on, dropping down to her knees when he swung towards her and tripped him so he fell beside her.
Then she went to punch him. He darted out of the way, causing the pillar to shatter to small rocks. Toph didn't manage to make it to the second she'd created, but she landed on her feet. "Try harder Twinkle toes... it's like you want to be punished..." she added dully, looking in his direction. She could tell he was trying, but she wasn't going to let him know that. "You're pathetic!" She kicked a boulder at him.
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Post by nyrax on Jan 25, 2010 1:17:40 GMT -5
Don’t airbend, Aang had really been hoping that she wasn’t going to give him that to work without. Airbending was how he usually got out of any problems, because he was the only person who could use it. That was how he had defeated Zuko all those times, he had never really fought an airbender and it wasn’t a style that he was used to. Aang’s ears twitched as he heard Toph coming through the air towards him. He lifted his leg and tried to kick at her, but she dropped too low, and ended up causing him to fall. Instinctively he rolled out of the way, and was lucky enough to dodge the pucnch, causing the entire pillar to shatter and send them both to the ground. Aang landed on his feet and was breathing heavily. He heard Toph though! He knew where she was. Right as she called him pathetic he turned towards her, heard the boulder coming towards him, and punched straight into it, causing it to shatter just like the pillar did. Aang was still breathing heavy though.
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Post by Fateful on Jan 25, 2010 1:27:41 GMT -5
Toph gritted her teeth. He was so pathetic! Why was he this much of a pansy!? "Damn..." She muttered mostly because he was so tired after all that. He really was slipping. Walking over to him, she pulled the blond fold off and punched him in the stomach. "What was that?" She asked, wanting to strangle him. Turning her foot to the side to se what was around them, she noticed a lake not far from them that she wanted to drown him in. "I bet you can still water bend!" She pushed him so he fell onto his butt in front of her. "You didn't even practice!" Her voice was loud, making Appa call out with a roar.
Kicking the ground, the entire area shook, causing the giant beast to go and lay behind a small shrub. "Twinkle toes, you haven't done any work at all. I mean... you're panting and all you've done is fall!" She was resisting the urge to punch his bald head. Sitting down, she closed her eyes, laying down on her back sighing. "It's a good thing you already defeated Ozai." She said in a more even tone, having calmed down some. "Guess we're gonna have to start with making you carry giant boulders again..." She rolled over on her side, resting her arm on the curve in her hip, her fingers moving across the surface of the ground.
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Post by nyrax on Jan 25, 2010 1:52:22 GMT -5
It was only a moment later that Aang heard Toph heading his way, but she wasn’t trying to hide it, so it must have been because she wanted to talk to him. BAM. That wasn’t exactly what he had wanted to get after his first attempt at earthbending, which could have gone much better in his opinion. Aang nearly fell over from that punch in the gut alone. He was trying to breathe as it was! She started yelling at him, getting angry that he hadn’t practiced at all since she was gone. He had really slipped in earth bending, probably one of Aang’s worst elements. Air was his natural and he had taken to water pretty quickly as well, earth and fire had been Aang’s only real challenges.
The shaking that Toph suddenly caused than made Aang fall to the ground on his knees. She was definitely upset with him, he should have practiced earth more. He watched as she just laid down and commented on how they were lucky that they had already defeated Ozai. He hung his head, feeling bad that he had let her down. He hadn’t done well at all, he knew this wasn’t just her training coming out. He had truly done terrible. “Guess we really do need to start from step one”
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Post by Fateful on Jan 25, 2010 17:24:29 GMT -5
His baby reaction to her punching him only frustrated to her more. He had always been one to avoid confrontation, and he relied on his air bending to get rid of attacks. It irritated her a lot. He was so weak at times that she just wanted to punch him into the ground. He couldn't avoid it together and he needed to master all the elements, not just air and water. Even though she'd never tell him, she knew that he only did so well with water bending was because he liked Katara so much. She didn't care if Earth was his opposite, she put up with air all the time. Being blind, useless, helpless when they were flying, and she barely ever complained about it.
It seemed that all he did was complain and make excuses for Earth bending. That it was hard, or a lot of work. Yet he practiced water instead of Earth - something he needed to practice much more. But as she suspected, he didn't care. As much as she fought with Katara about Aang, it seemed that her girly motherly nature did a little more than Toph could. That only made her angrier. Once again, Katara was better.
Her knees were bent, resting her feet on the ground. Kicking the ground angrily, a hateful look crossed her face. "Whatever..." She muttered. "If you're not going to take this seriously, than there's no need for me to waste my time retraining you something you should have been practicing, not slacking off like a jerk off. What have you done in the past four years that trumps practicing your earth bending? You haven't done it since the last time of I was with you. This is your weakness, you need to keep at it, not stuff it at the bottom of your dirty clothes or throw it in a closet like a little kid."
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Post by nyrax on Jan 26, 2010 1:06:04 GMT -5
Aang couldn’t really blame Toph for her reaction, after all she probably felt like she was training the same helpless kid that he was all those years ago. He should have known that she was going to act just like this, and be so angry with him. It made him sigh softly at the very thought. He was letting her down, even after they had rebounded over the past few days. He was that failure and foolish kid that wouldn’t stand up for himself. No wonder she was mad. Aang had been worried about trying to practice earth, especially after he didn’t have Toph to train him. After Toph and Katara’s fight he hadn’t seen her till just a few days ago. Even if he couldn’t have gotten better he should have made sure to stay in touch with what he had. He was the avatar after all, just because he was some gifted being didn’t mean that it came just pure easily for him either. He needed to show Toph that he was willing to do whatever she asked of him, anything that it took.
“I will…..am taking this seriously”, Aang said as he looked over to her. She would know better than anyone that he wasn’t lying, now that she was in touch with the earth after all. She could suspect him of learning to lie, but hopefully she wouldn’t think that lowly of him. “I know that I messed things up and that I’m out of shape from when we last saw each other”, he admitted softly. “But I really can do this if given the chance Toph. You can make me back into what I was and beyond”, he said sincerely. “Please don’t give up on me………I need you right now”
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Post by Fateful on Jan 26, 2010 1:14:17 GMT -5
"You sound like a little girl." She said, irritation thick in her voice. It was clear that an apology and sucking up to her wasn't going to work. Even though she was still irritated, she let out a sigh and rolled over onto her side. Resting her elbow on the ground, it supported her head. Watching him, with earth bending, not her eyes, she knew he wasn't lying, but his pussy baby routine only worked so well. Katara's bleeding heart would have gathered him in her arms and talked him through it, telling him it was OK to cry.
That wasn't, and would never be Toph's style. She didn't care about his feelings. SHe cared that he jerked off and did nothing for four years. He got weak and stupid. The most irritating part though was the fact that he did nothing. She bet he didn't even look at any rocks. "You'll have to make it up to me." Kicking the ground, a rock five times her size and at least twenty times her weight. She picked it up and walked over to him.
"Here." She tossed the the boulder to him. "And don't die. I want you to carry it up that cliff." She pointed to the steepest on in the valley. "And you can't drop the rock, you can only use earthbending."
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Post by nyrax on Jan 26, 2010 1:28:54 GMT -5
Aang kept his head up when she called him a little girl. Ironic, considering that’s what she was. Toph acted a lot older than she was as well, even though she had already mentioned earlier that he was talking like he was forty or something like that. She was about the same age as him, smaller, and yet she acted like the greatest army commander that Aang had ever seen. She could probably intimidate any soldier into fighting for any cause she wanted to if she only had a minute to be alone with them. Aang could only imagine what Toph would be like in her prime. She was amazing yes, but Aang knew that even she would improve on the skills that she currently had. She would be more than a legend one day, she would be THE greatest earth bender in history. If she couldn’t do it, than no one could.
Aang watched her summon the boulder as she said that he would have to make it up to her. That was fair he supposed. She was the one teaching, so this was all going to be her rules. She could just leave if she wanted, she didn’t have to teach him. She was her own person and could just leave again, she had before after all. He gave a nod as she tossed the boulder over to him, remembering the last time that they had done it. He caught it, straining a little before standing up fully. “On it Toph!”, he shouted as he began making his way up the hill, knowing that it wouldn’t be too long before he was going to have to earthbend the boulder to keep going. He wouldn’t let her regret her decision though. He would make sure that she stayed!
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