[OPEN] earth rumble yeaaaaa

[barefootbender]

Date & Time: Monday, March 18, 2:00 pm
Location: a small open area wedged between buildings just outside the Hold.
Characters: Toph Beifong (barefootbender) and you!
Summary: There was quite a lot of interest in Toph's earthbending, and she isn't going to pass up a chance to show off to everyone! Toph puts out a message to the network telling people where to go if they want to see (or if they wanna challenge her!), and everyone is invited. Snarkiness, blind jokes and amazing earthkaratemagic ensue. (Either prose or brackets are fine.)
Warnings: none anticipated


[Around lunchtime on March 18, the following video message is posted to the network:]

HELLO, fellow Transports! Today's your lucky day! I, Toph Beifong, greatest earthbending master who ever lived, teacher of Avatar Aang, have decided to take out some time to display my talent for the curious. I know some of you that I talked to a coupla weeks ago wanted to see, so here's your chance.

And more specifically... I'm gonna take some challengers! So if you think you can take me on, let's go! I'd like to see you try.

[The camera swings away from her face and down at the floor, where there's an incredibly intricate and detailed model of the streets outside of the hold, that appears to be made out of rock. A little stone figure of Toph is standing in an open area about 5 minutes away from the apartments.]

I found a little bit of space, so come to this spot. I'll be ready at about 2 pm.

A.

Toph told everyone 2 pm because she wanted a little time to get this area ready. It's actually pretty small, so it's really not ideal for the kind of enormous show she'd like to put on for everyone, but it'll do. As far as she can tell through her feet, this city stretches on for miles and miles and miles. It's amazing, really - even bigger than Ba Sing Se, and Ba Sing Se was enormous - and unlike Ba Sing Se, the earth below is almost entirely covered in rock and metal over that entire expanse of city. It's pretty crazy, this future stuff.

If you get there early enough, or maybe if you just happen to come across her, you'll find her lounging on the ground eating instant ramen out of a styrofoam cup, or squashing back down her "map," or clearing out chunks of broken asphalt and cinder block by sending them to the tops of the surrounding buildings with a swipe of her fist. She seems pretty focused on these little tasks.

B.

At 2 pm, whether people are there or not, she's ready. It's time for some exercise after sitting around for two weeks. She stretches, does some push ups and sit ups, and finally plants her feet flat on the ground. Thrusting her arms forward, a sheet of rock suddenly sprouts from the ground, and she turns about 30 degrees and does it again, until there's a ring around her.

Whether you just want her to show you some tricks, or you want to challenge her, it's best to just walk up and announce yourself!

...Otherwise you might get a sidelong, suspicious glance from her as she waits for you to say something, especially if you're a stranger or someone she's never met in person.

Comments

[chore_boy]

Coby pumped one hand backwards and then pumped it forward in one trained and perfect gesture. With that, half of the walls that had been around him burst, sending a sheet of rock and dust all around him so he could step clear of the trap properly.

"I'm not being creepy. This is my job, miss. I'm supposed to aid in maintaining the peace."

[barefootbender]

A jerk and a weirdo AND somebody who was gonna make her follow a bunch of stupid rules?! Toph opened her mouth to get sour with him some more, but stopped mid-breath. Hold on, how is he doing that? Breaking the walls she's putting up?

"......are you an earthbender or something?"

[chore_boy]

Coby reached down, lifting up a number of the bigger chunks of solid rock and cement that he had shattered, lifting them over his head in an effort to pile them into the hole Toph made. Maybe he could clean up after her a little.

"I'm nothing that amazing, no," He furrowed his brows, not even entirely sure what an earthbender was--unless that was her. Then, he was absolutely not one of those. "I'm a rokushiki user, at best."

[barefootbender]

With a sigh, she swipes her hands u and down and the ground suddenly rolls upwards underneath where Coby was standing, like a wave. The earth at the bottom of the hole uncompresses, the walls sink back down, and within a matter of seconds it's flat and smooth again, as if nothing had happened.

She leaves his tossed-in bolder there, though.

"What's rokushiki, then? People can't bust up rocks without touching them like that in my world. Not unless they're earthbenders."

[chore_boy]

"'Six Styles'," Coby replied slowly and watched as Toph sealed the hole, leaving only his addition to it untouched. He returned to kneeling down on the ground, realizing his outfit was much dirtier than he was willing to risk it being. This girl certainly didn't like being treated like a child--and there he was trying to talk to her like an adult. Had it really been so long since he was a child himself, he wondered. "A fighting style which increases a person's physical strength, speed and stamina. There are six primary techniques with trickling down variations of those techniques, often time customized by the user."

Coby reached aside, putting his fingers over the holes in the cement he created when he grabbed onto it earlier. Toph could move stone even easier than he could, but her force was something that didn't come with physical strength from what he could tell. After all, she didn't seem to exert herself immensely when moving those rocks.

"Tekkai is one of them. The ability to harden your body like steel."

[barefootbender]

"How does that let you break rock without touching it?"

Toph noticed that he wasn't being as much of a jerk now. She calmed down a little but still kept her distance, arms crossed.

[chore_boy]

That's because Coby had stopped referring to her as a little girl. Though, at any second, just like a brain aneurysm, his pandering could cease and he'd go right back into the age thing all over again.

"Actually, that was air pressure. This cement isn't as dense as normal rock since it's a mixture and composite. So, it broke before I could even touch it, since I swung quickly enough," Coby reached over to look into the hole, blinking slowly.

"If I punched actual rock, my fist would have to connect to break it. Steel, too."

[barefootbender]

Air pressure? So it's more like airbending? Toph tapped her fingers against her crossed arms, pondering this.

"Those are some pretty fancy tricks for somebody who can't bend," she said. "So the steel thing and the air pressure thing, are those two of the styles? What're the other four?"

[chore_boy]

"Well, let me explain a little more clearly. Just saying things such as 'I can break a rock with a punch' don't entirely clarify it," So, Coby straightened himself even further, beginning to take the posture of a school instructor with the practiced ease of a veteran nerd.

"The style itself is actually very basic in terms of punches, kicks, grapples and throws. The training that goes into it is what constitutes the main branch of the style. Rokushiki users train until they can make their bodies harder than steel and faster than anyone else can move. The reason why I can break cement before touching it because I can throw punches hard enough to displace air. The nature of that extreme strength is Rokushiki's 'Tekkai' and 'Soru'. Tekkai is the gesture to harden your body like steel and 'Soru' is the technique to move at immense speeds. Combining the two techniques effectively makes your direct strikes devastating."

It was going to be a long explanation, without a doubt. Coby felt content to ground himself for it, "Then, there's 'Shigan'. In the same way that you merge Tekkai and Soru, you can make parts of your body strong enough to pierce rocks and metal through direct pressure. Though, we only call it 'Shigan' because it's usually used with your fingers. Next, there's 'Geppou'. Geppou, like Soru, allows you to move at superhuman speeds, though it allows you to do so in mid air, giving the illusion that you're flying. Next, there is 'Rankyaku'. It allows the user to create blades of air by kicking or slicing the air hard enough with your extremities."

Just as Toph was likely dying from sheer boredom, Coby began to close it up, "The last technique is Kamie. It's more about body control--allowing the user to drift between strikes from their enemy by letting the pressure of their attacks push them in opposing directions! Now, there are a number of variations of techniques, customized by users solely to improve upon their usage, but I couldn't name many of them, to be honest."

[barefootbender]

She actually didn't mind listening to it at all. It's good stuff to know if she ever had to fight somebody with this power, including him. As he talks, she holds her chin with one hand, considering it all.

"So, let me get this straight. You can do all of that?"

[chore_boy]

"I can," Coby mulled it over, frowning pretty simply. Though many Marines had their own special variations of those techniques, Coby didn't have many. He only learned it all two years prior, so he was still strengthening the basics. In reality, Coby wanted to be 'well rounded' and his mastery of the basics went well beyond the necessary.

"I've only recently mastered Kamie. Though, for Rokushiki training--I must admit it's a little easier than the other things officers must master."

[barefootbender]

Toph's still curious about all that training and stuff. If it's just another martial arts style, maybe it's possible for her to learn it. Not that she really needs anything other than earthbending, but she's learned that non-benders aren't to be underestimated.

"If you're a marine, that means you sail around the world on boats and stuff like that. Right?"

[chore_boy]

"Something like that," Coby smiled, not wanting to get too into depth about the nature of his job. As kind as he looked and as pleasant as he tried to be around other people, the reality of his situation was that he was stationed in the New World. Coby fought in a place where killing criminals on a daily basis was always a possibility and the use of Rokushiki made it that much more personal and tough to overcome. If she asked, he would certainly sugar-coat it.

"Do you want to know anything about being a sailor?"

[barefootbender]

"Not really." She rubs her nose and sniffles. "I don't like flying or being out on the water. There's no solid ground and I can't see a thing except what I'm standing on."

She's definitely a landlubber. When she can't perceive what's around her, she feels left out of what's going on. Toph would rather not be left out. Still, the idea of traveling sounds pretty cool. As much as she didn't life flying, Appa got them around to a lot of amazing places she wouldn't have got to otherwise.

"What do you sail around for? A war or something?"

[chore_boy]

Coby's smiled turned a bit more faint, wondering more about what Toph really meant by that than actually considering her questions. He was tempted to dive right into his notebook to jot those things down, but realized it was rude to do that during a casual conversation. Unless he figured she would have been alright by that kind of evaluation, Coby decided to distance himself from being a giant bookworm.

"Yes and no," He frowned inwardly, stopping his train of thought so he could actually practice his own self-evaluation. "We chase down criminals and protect civilians. Once in awhile the Marines are sent in to fight in wars, but most times we spend our time doing day-to-day protection. The World Government has us policing the seas, while each country has their own army to fight wars, usually."