[open] Day 215 - outside the Forge

[tophgirl]

Who: Toph & you!
Open: Open
When: 215, afternoon
Where: Outside the Forge
What: With her bending limited, Toph is looking for another way to fight.
Format: Will match!
Warnings: Excessive levels of awesome from Toph...err...I mean... none.


It's taken Toph a few days to come to terms with the fact that there are ridiculous limitations on her bending. She's tested and retested them, trying to see where she can push it, but everything leads to the same inevitable conclusion. Her bending is limited.

So what's she going to do about it? No way is she going to accept just sitting around and helping out with little odds and ends in this place. She wants to be out on that Skyway, kicking ass and maybe finding Aang, Katara, and Sokka. She needs to find some way of fighting that plays to her strengths without relying on her bending...which probably means learning to fight with a weapon. If Sokka could do it, it can't be that hard.

The question then is — what kind of weapon should she get? Which is how she ends up outside the Forge that afternoon, examining weapons and trying to determine what would work best for her.

Comments

[daughterofursa]

That doesn't mean Zuko is completely lacking in oomph, okay.

"With your grip," she answers. She takes one of the training swords and hands it to Toph. It's roughly the same weight and balance as the real one--roughly--but the edges are completely blunt. "You want it firm enough that your opponent can't knock the sword out of your hand, but if you hold on too tightly, you stiffen up. You should think of it as an extension of your arm."

[tophgirl]

Of course not. Do you think Toph would waste her time on someone completely without umph?

She takes the practice sword and tries to grip it like Zuko says. "You know, it'd be easier to think of it as an extension of my arm if it wasn't wood. I know metal's sharp and all, but do you have any made of rock?"

[daughterofursa]

No, probably not.

"They don't exactly make stone practice swords. Anyway it's not like the rest of us are metalbenders."

[tophgirl]

"Yeah, I guess not everybody can be that awesome." Toph sighs with false sympathy. "Okay, so hold the sword like it's an extension of my arm. Then what?"

[daughterofursa]

Zuko can't even argue with that; inventing an entirely new form of bending does qualify as a level of awesome she can't reach.

"Next is your stance." Zuko steps closer to the other girl and, if it's all right with her, guides her into the proper form, bringing her arms up and nudging her body sideways. "Your sword is not only a weapon, it's how you defend yourself. You want to make yourself a smaller target, to make it easier to keep your blade between you and whatever your opponent throws at you."

[tophgirl]

Zuko can do what she wants; Toph is here to learn, and right now that means listening. "Be small. All right. Nooooo problem." As much as she would love to be eight feet tall and able to crush people under her heel like ants, physical smallness seems to be her lot in life. But that's okay too. It means people underestimate her.

[daughterofursa]

"You're not as tiny as you used to be," Zuko points out, a little amused. It's something she's still not used to, especially like now, when she's in close proximity to the other girl. Toph barely came up to her shoulder before, and now she's just about eye-level (plus hair).

[tophgirl]

"Maybe I'll just keep growing," Toph says thoughtfully. "Maybe when I'm 50 years old I'll be as tall as a house!"

Sure, she knows it's impossible, but that doesn't mean she can't think about it.

[daughterofursa]

Zuko steps away from Toph to pick up a practice sword for herself.

"And by the time you're 100, you'll have a city in your hair," she says, so smoothly it barely sounds like she's joking.

[tophgirl]

"My armpits too," Toph says confidently...and then stops. "Wait, did you just make a joke?"

[daughterofursa]

"Maybe. I have heard of jokes." She may be a serious and generally humorless person, but at least she's aware of it.

[tophgirl]

"After all this time." Toph feigns wiping tears from her eyes. "Sokka would be so proud."

[daughterofursa]

"Are you trying to tell me you never heard me make one joke in three years?"

[tophgirl]

"Not a single one." She's lying through the skin of her teeth — Zuko has, from time to time, made weak attempts at humor — but it's much more fun to pretend that she hasn't.

[daughterofursa]

It's seems probable enough that Zuko believes her.

"...sounds pretty bleak." Maybe being Fire Lord is just that stressful. She knew it wouldn't be easy.

[tophgirl]

That's what makes Zuko such a wonderful mark. She is — for someone who is a world leader and not entirely terrible at the job — such a sucker!

"It was," Toph says. "Everybody who spent time with you ended up bursting into tears, it was so sad. Seamstresses made a killing on handkerchief sales. You could say the Fire Nation economy is now run on tears."

[daughterofursa]

All right, she isn't that gullible.

"Now you're exaggerating. I don't make people cry." A pause as she considers the veracity of that statement, and then she adds, "Not often."

[tophgirl]

"But you will," Toph says. "Luckily, you were able to hire Sokka as the official court jester. He kept the meetings very lively."

[daughterofursa]

"I will not. In what universe would I hire Sokka?" Sure, he jokes a lot but his jokes are kind of awful. And what kind of position is 'court jester' anyway? As if Zuko would invent such a thing.

[tophgirl]

"The one where your subjects are drowning in their own tears," Toph says.

[daughterofursa]

"Right. If anything, I'm going to make people angry, not sad."

[tophgirl]

"Who says you can't do both?"

[daughterofursa]

"What, am I on my way to being named Worst Fire Lord Ever?"