InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Get your own butterfly."

Toph Bei Fong (rocksolid) wrote in mirage_rpg,
@ 2008-10-25 23:34:00

Entry tags:

complete, day 20, katara, toph bei fong

Who: toph . katara
When: afternoon
What: she needs some healin'
Where: outside katara's room
Rating: pg.13
Status: complete

"Katara!" She called again impatiently, knocking on the water bender's door, and hoping that she was there. It was almost afternoon now though, whose to say Katara wasn't off somewhere else? She was screwed if that was the case. No way she was crawling around the resort again like this looking for the girl, especially not with Zuko out there and even more pissed at her then he had been to start with. No, she would just sit here and wait.

"Come on Katara!" Toph pounded on the door a moment later, already sick of that plan, but then patients was never her strong suit. Especially when she was angry, confused, and hurt. She was certainly a strange sight for anyone that happened to pass by as well. The earth bender sat on the floor just outside her friend's room in an awful state. Dirtier then usual for one. No little smatterings of dust, after crawling out of the woods to the dorms, no she had all kinds of dirt and ash on her. Her hair fell loose and had bits of leaf in it and singed ends. Her knees and palms a bit scratched up. It was her feet that were the real problem though. The rest she could handle, scratches and little burns here and there not that big a deal, but her feet were all burnt. She couldn't see, couldn't walk, and the dirt in the wound likely wasn't helping.

The teen rubbed at her eyes -- eyes that were most certainly not tearing, thank you very much -- and let her head fall back against the wall with a groan.

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k_waterbender
2008-10-26 08:40 pm UTC (link)

Katara had avoided everyone for the last few days. Why shouldn’t she? After Giselle and the waterbender had parted ways the night she and Legolas saved King Aragorn and the ginger haired girl, she had gone straight to Vincent’s room. She’d knocked and called through the door to no avail. When she tried to enlist a golem’s help, they would do nothing for her. What was she supposed to do? Vincent was a creature of the past. She had no doubt he was stealthy enough to avoid her forever, and she had the feeling that that is what he intended to do. What could she do?

The Water Tribe femme had moped for an entire day before she realized she couldn’t bring herself to mope any more. She never would have allowed her friends to do such a thing. She would ask them to talk to her, and she would listen and try to help them feel better. Since when had she become such a hypocrite?

She still avoided people a little. Katara was productive, though. She began her search for an escape anew. Between searching and reading about that, she sifted through her scrolls of waterbending and of healing. Sure, she’d used a great deal of waterbending a few nights ago, but she didn’t want to become rusty in an art that was entirely her own on this Planet. The waterbender studied things she already knew, refreshing her brain so she could never forget. It could come in handy after all.

One day, she went to the library to find some books to read about the Planet itself. She intended to take them to her room so she wouldn’t have to go back and forth between her scrolls and these books. There was less risk of meeting people who would distract her or meeting people who would remind her of Vincent.

Katara carried an armful of thick and thin, short and tall books alike from the main building of the resort back to her own building. The day was a good one, but she couldn’t be bothered enough to enjoy it. She was becoming obsessed with escape again. Obviously roaming over the place wasn’t working, so there had to be something in these books she would comb through.

However, as she entered the building, and her eyes adjusted to the lighting, all thoughts of escape left her mind. Toph Bei Fong was filthy, but she was not only that. She was burned and singed, and her demeanor spoke of pain, humiliation, and fury. The books clattered to the floor, the covers of some flying back so pages flapped loudly as they turned.

Katara ran to her friend, unstoppering one of two waterskins she always carried on her person since the day a King and an acquaintance were kidnapped. “Toph? What happened to you? It almost looks like you’ve gotten in a fight with a firebender.” If the waterbender had only known, she might not have said such a thing. It wasn’t so much that it almost appeared that she’d fought a firebender. It looked exactly as if she’d fought a firebender.

Her careful healer’s eye noted the burns on the bottoms of the girl’s feet, the redness of her skin where it had been only lightly burned. Katara had been lucky enough never to see fresh burns on Toph worse than the time Zuko had burned the girl’s feet when they were all much younger. The water wrapped around the earthbender’s feet under the direction of the Water Tribe femme. A blue glow lit the hallway as she channeled her qi through the younger woman’s, opening pathways, reconnecting some, fixing them so the body would heal at a much faster rate than naturally possible.

This wasn’t something Katara ever really thought through that way. She did all of this through instinct and skill that she’d been quickly developing since she first discovered this natural gift when she was fourteen. It took the span of a few minutes, but the flesh on the soles of the earthbender’s feet healed. Five years ago something like this could have taken hours or days to fix. Her skills had truly progressed.

Next, Katara worked on the other burns, healing them much more quickly, for they were not as bad as the ones on her feet. Even if the burns on her feet hadn’t been as bad as other burns, the waterbender would have worked on them first. Giving Toph her sight back was definitely a priority.

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rocksolid
2008-10-26 10:44 pm UTC (link)

Toph started at the sound of books clattering to the ground. Her hands flew up in a way that might have been defensive if the very motion didn't seem so tired, and had their actually been earth aside from the dirt on her to actually bend. That and she only had a general idea where her target might be. How could she not have thought of that? She'd been so focused on getting here, to Katara that she didn't even consider that while waiting she'd be completely -- could she admit it? The word was awful to even think -- helpless. She reached down, fumbling through her pockets in search of her room key until Katara spoke.

The waterbender's voice had a huge effect. Toph stopped, slumping back against the wall again, and breathing a small sigh of relief. She gave a half-hearted snort at the comment. The same thought crossed her mind. It wasn't almost like anything. "I can't say how it looks, but it feels exactly like it did the last time he burnt my feet to hell." No. That wasn't right. 'Cause at least last time he hadn't meant to, and he'd apologized, a few times in fact. It was almost worse that she'd been off her guard, happy to see a friendly face, and it back fired so bad.

The back of her hand brushed over her eyes again as she offered a small 'thank you.' The feel of the water over her feet, the burns healing quickly... Toph never really appreciated how much better Katara had gotten at healing before, but last time it had taken a few days to totally heal the burns. Sokka had to carry her around, she hated not being able to see for so long.

Pulling her legs up, toes wriggling slightly as she enjoyed being able to see what was going on around her, Toph was more then content to let Katara take care of the rest of her burns. It was sorta comforting. Not that she ever admitted it to the girl, but Toph really did appreciate it.

"I found Zuko in the forest this morning." She grumbled. "Started attacking me before I could explain anything. Had no idea who I was." He honestly didn't know, she could tell that much when he'd asked. It was the only redeeming factor about this whole thing. He didn't know her, so really -- it wasn't her friend that had blinded and burnt the hell outta her. Her head banged slightly against the wall again at that thought, annoyed with herself for defending the jerk.

"He mentioned something about trying to find the Avatar. I didn't catch it, stabbed him in the foot so I could get away. Probably burned down a dozen trees after wards trying to get back at me for that."

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k_waterbender
2008-10-28 04:02 pm UTC (link)

Katara felt bad about startling the earthbender with the books, for she noticed how Toph had jumped at the sound. She should have known better than to do something so thoughtless when it was clear the other teen was having difficulties seeing. Then again, the waterbender had been taken by surprise, too. How should she feel about seeing one of her best friends hurt like this, especially after everything that had happened between Giselle, King Aragorn, Legolas, that strange wild-man, and herself? Her sense of calm and peace had been punctured from those two days of worrying about the singer and the King and the day she and the elf rescued them from uncertain doom.

The daughter of the Southern Water Tribe chief knew exactly of whom Toph spoke when she mentioned it feeling just as it had when Zuko had burned her feet when they were younger. However, it looked so much worse now than it had those many years ago. The then Prince of the Fire Nation hadn’t intentionally hurt the blind earthbender at that point in time, though. Whoever did this to the girl had meant to harm her; that much was clear.

Katara’s brows cinched together as Toph told her about what had occurred earlier in the day. “Are you sure it was Zuko?” It wasn’t that the waterbender didn’t know that the earthbender never forgot a voice or the gait of someone else. She simply hoped Toph had been wrong, despite knowing she probably wasn’t. It just seemed so unlike the Fire Lord to intentionally harm someone. That was more like the old Zuko. That was the Zuko who had hunted the Avatar to regain his honor before he realized the only true way to regain his honor was to help the Avatar bring balance and peace back to the world.

Katara had already established that time passed at the same rate on the Planet as it did in her own world when the only child of the Bei Fongs had arrived. Because of Toph’s arrival, she also realized that the world was the same one from which she had been stolen. There was no reason why Zuko shouldn’t have known Toph. There was no reason for him to have attacked her. They were all really good friends, and they were all incredibly close.

“I’m glad you were able to get away, even if you did have to hurt him like that to do it.” Despite what he had done to Toph, she still wanted to go see Zuko. The waterbender wanted to try to heal his foot, too. If Toph had stabbed him bad enough that she could get away, then he definitely was wounded pretty bad. He was just too determined a person to let someone get away so easily when his life was the only one at stake.

Maybe there were parallel universes, though. Maybe the Planet had taken the sixteen-year-old Fire Prince rather than the twenty-one-year-old Fire Lord version of Zuko. “Did he seem… younger to you, like the age he was when he was hunting the Avatar?” Katara inquired. It would make a lot more sense, but it would also be a lot more difficult to

“Let’s go into my room. I’ll trim the burned parts out of your hair.” She said softly as she helped Toph to her newly recovered feet. She unlocked her door and led them inside, searching for a sharp knife that would easily cut through Toph’s hair. It wasn’t a surprise when she easily found one right in her plain sight. It looked Water Tribe made, but it was obvious the Planet had produced it, for she hadn’t had that knife in here previously.

It was razor sharp, and Katara had no difficulties removing the ugly singed parts of the earthbender’s hair so her raven locks looked just as lovely as they should, if not a little dirty. It was almost unreal how simple it was. No matter how good the quality of Water Tribe blades, they had never done so good a job. She hadn’t needed to saw through the hair at all. The parts she cut just seemed to fall away. It was lucky because the Blind Bandit’s head of hair could have looked a lot worse, but Katara had been able to cut only what was necessary, so it was impossible to tell just where the hair had been sliced.

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k_waterbender
2008-10-28 04:03 pm UTC (link)

“I need to find Zuko. I’ll be careful, but I need to know why he’s like this so I can help him. Maybe I can make him remember himself and you and everything else. Maybe I can figure out what happened to him in the three weeks since I’ve been here.” Katara announced. She meant it, too. Ever since Zuko had helped her hunt down the man who had killed her mother in cold blood, the waterbender had forgiven him, and she had a fondness for him. She wanted to help him, but she also wanted him to remember who he was.

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rocksolid
2008-10-31 03:18 am UTC (link)

"I'm sure it was him." There was no question. His voice, his build - They were just like she remembered, and he did respond to the 'Zuzu' comment, even if it had been in a less then friendly way. She wanted to know what was wrong with him just as much as Katara did. Why he didn't remember her, why he'd been so angry. Maybe if she'd given up - listened to whatever he'd been saying before she stabbed him. No. It hadn't even occurred to her. She knew her own short comings. Between the wounded pride, fear, pain, and confusion -- there was no way she would have let herself give in. The teen had always been stubborn to a fault, and would almost always go down fighting before she ever gave up.

"You can heal him later." She commented offhandedly. Toph hadn't wanted to stab the guy, he was a friend, but she still thought he deserved it. "It was pretty bad though, I --" At least she sounded like she felt guilty about it. After all, stabbing him with that bit of space rock had to have hurt more then some simple blade, but it had been all she had at the time. "I'd apologize if he wasn't acting so crazy."

She shook her head at the question, considering it, but Zuko had grown since then. He didn't have the same build he did when they'd first met. "No...Same age, but -- he was so angry, more then just angry. I mean, he's never been like that before, not around me." Toph stood and let herself be led into the other room as she spoke, not really concerned about her hair, but if Katara wanted to fix it she'd let her.

Toph stood as she suggested finding Zuko, and for a second she considered going with her. Even she could tell that it would be a bad idea though. After what just happened, Katara wouldn't stand a chance at getting him to talk once he caught sight of the earth bender. Besides, the other girl was definitely better at the whole 'making peace' kind of stuff. "Yeah alright. Just really, be careful sugar queen. Make sure the jerk is okay," She got up, more then ready to take a bath and relax for a bit, and started to leave figuring Katara was going to go looking for him now.

"If he does remember, you know -- me and everything. Nah, forget it." Toph stopped at the door way and made a face, a frustrated sort of groan as if she couldn't believe she was saying it. "Tell him i'm sorry, would ya? So later on..." She threw her hands up, no good at that sort of thing, and continued off to her own room. Katara would get it. Angry as Toph was at him, even if she was convinced he deserved it, she still felt bad for hurting a friend.

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