exsiliumlogs | [OPEN] earth rumble yeaaaaa

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Kyouko hadn't caught the announcement, but she wanders around enough to know when something's up.

Something is most certainly up. The ground, to be exact. She watches, impressed despite herself, when a rock just shoots out of the air. She knew about magic, of course, but the Puella Magi were more flashy, all bright colors and explosions of light. This was different, and so it was interesting. The girl in the center of the makeshift arena looks younger than her, but there's something about the ease in which she moves that suggests skill and familiarity. Kyouko knows a fellow soldier when she sees one.

"Oi," she calls out. She's carrying a bag of chips, per usual, and talks as she chews. "What are you doing? What kinda magic is that?"

Toph feels another person approaching, but it's not until she draws closer and speaks that she pays much attention to her. An older girl by the feel of it, more around Katara's age, but maybe not nearly as stuffy as her.

"It's not magic," she says, with the faint frustration of someone who's had to explain this so many times already. "It's earthbending. Pretty cool, huh?"

Edited 2013-03-24 17:08 (UTC)

"How was I s'posed to know? It looks like magic." She sounds a little put-out, but curiosity wins over her mild annoyance, and she takes a few steps closer.

This girl's eyes. There was something wrong with them, but even she isn't rude enough to comment on such a thing, not at the moment, anyway. Instead: "It's not bad." This is the closest to praise she's going to get for now. "How d'you do it?"

Edited 2013-03-26 02:15 (UTC)

"It's kinda hard to explain. You can either do it or you can't, you know? If you know the right stances and forms to use, it helps, though."

As if to illustrate, Toph takes a half-step back, sets her fists in front of her, and stomps the ground. A square block of cement pops out of the floor next to her.

"Like that!"

"Whoa..." This time, Kyouko is openly impressed. There was manipulating one's own magic, and then there was manipulating the environment. The latter seemed to have considerable benefits. "That's somethin' else. So you're born with this power?"

What a relief that must be, she thinks, but does not say. Instead: "What else can you do with it?"

"Yup. I mean, you still gotta practice to refine it." Or at least most people do. Toph had started honing in on it at a very young age due to her blindness. But, she'll still recognize the benefit of training for other earthbenders.

Toph smiles at the question and lowers the block back into the ground, where it merges with the cement perfectly, as if it had never been moved at all.

"Hmm. Plenty of stuff. Let's see..." She considers for a moment. "Oh, I know. Would you maybe... hop up and down a couple of times for me?"

Kyouko was, as a general rule, naturally suspicious. So of course, she doesn't look too keen on the idea of hopping around on command. Particularly because she'd just seen this kid lift concrete out of the ground with her mind, apparently. But she comforts herself with the fact that she would just have to start a fight if the kid pulled anything weird. It was almost something to look forward to. In the end, curiosity wins out over her unease.

"...Yeah, alright." As a warning, she adds, sharply: "Don't do anything fishy, though."

As requested, she hops up and down.

With every hop, information was fed into Toph's head. She stands quietly, as if not reacting to her hops at all, but in reality she's formulating her next action very carefully. Then, grinning, she plants her feet apart and enters an open stance, and with a thrust of her fist and a small shift in her footing, a tiny block of cement rises out of the ground. Toph leans over and picks it up.

"Let's see, here." Holding it in her hands, she squeezes it, and it suddenly mooshes and molds like it's made of playdough. And even then - it seems to shift and change without much movement from her fingers.

After a second, she holds it out to her. It's been formed into a miniature Kyouko figurine. Some of the smaller details, like her specific facial features, aren't well-defined, but otherwise it's quite accurate.

"This is what I see when you hop like that."

[OPEN] earth rumble yeaaaaa

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jesus i am so late you can ignore this if it's too late :(

never too late