[ She suddenly really misses Miller. If this were happening in Aldrip, he'd be right here with her, giving her advice on how to make this place defensible. He'd be ranting and raving along with her and doing what he could to help.
She lost so many people again, didn't she? Toph reminds herself forcibly, not for the first time today, that she can't be homesick for two different places. Making new friends is fine, and Accelerator has been annoyingly great so far in the same kind of way Katara and then Ethlyn were, but she's sick of losing. Losing people, losing her abilities, losing her whole world.
But crying here would really cement her as a stupid little girl, so she makes sure to fiercely dash away the water collecting in her eyes while she's facing away from Accelerator, and before she turns back. ]
Yeah. I might as well just hole up here since I can't do anything. [ She hesitates, because another angle of this occurred to her, too-- ] Honestly... if we're all going to be paranoid and freaking out, maybe it's for the best I lose my bending.
I told you, I don't usually lose control. At all.
[ After that incident with the giant snake, she's scared of what she could do. ]
[He frowns faintly, eyes travelling to the ground again. It looks like a total mess, though he's pretty sure if he used ability to poke around a bit deeper he'd find a lot of that chaos was deliberate. Planned destruction. It's very similar to how he uses his own ability, when you think about it.]
Nah, it's a load of bullshit. [Accelerator shakes his head slowly.] Even if you kept your earthbending and lost control, that's still better than you losing something that's a part of yourself.
[Since that's what it is for her. Earthbending isn't some trick she can pull off, it's an extension of herself, how she interacts with the world. Echo is an asshole for taking that away and making Toph think she's going to be so useless that all she can do is hide somewhere for weeks.
Irritated, he kicks at a stray rock, sending it bouncing along the ground.]
There's a week before the damn mission starts, so you might have options. People back home use canes to get around, or seeing eye animals. I know someone here with a dog that might be able to do that.
[As much as he'd love to go hunt down Echo and punch them out, that isn't productive. Problem-solving when there's time to come up with a potential solution, however, is.]
[ He's right when he calls it part of herself, an extension of who she is and not something she thinks of as a power. Toph gets annoyed at people calling bending magic not because it's inaccurate but because it reveals a fundamental lack of respect for bending as part of the natural world. It's the wind and the mountains, the ocean and the sun.
That's not magic, and Aang taking away Ozai's bending permanently had shattered their entire cultural concept of what is possible. Some people still think that was crueler than just killing him. Toph is aware of those debates. For her part, she thinks her friend was in a difficult place and chose to stay true to what he'd been taught as an Air Nomad, and even if she thinks that's personally a little silly, Aang is still her friend. She'll support his decisions, and she's not caught up in bending superiority.
But damn if she doesn't think other people don't get it, and she's sick of being the only bender around. So her breath catches for a long, hard moment before she moves past it, and she trots over to Accelerator, a glimmer of hope bursting through and manifesting as cautious eagerness. ]
No dogs, [ she says, because she doesn't think she can take constant reminders of Kakashi and his kennels, another thing she's lost. ] Do you think it's possible to get a badger-mole? They're blind, too -- that's how I learned how to 'see'. I learned from them.
The stupid nebula or whatever wouldn't take that away from one of them, right?
[The mission is going to be rough, and while there isn't anything any of them can do anything about being depowered this is something Accelerator feels like he can do to help. If a support animal doesn't work, then he'll build her a damn cane, and if that doesn't work, he'll figure out something else. One upside to coming from Academy City, he's positive the place has supportive technology other places won't that could help Toph.
He straightens up when she turns, a determined expression on his face. There's no way he's giving up on her.]
I have no idea, but I've never heard of Echo committing animal cruelty before. [In fact, during certain missions Aurora would take over caring for people's pets, so it doesn't seem all that likely.] I don't know what a badge-mole is, but I'm gonna go ask her.
[It doesn't seem like she's teasing him by making up a 'badger-mole,' so this is something he'll look into it as a non-dog alternative. He turns away intending to walk back over to the hospital.]
[ Toph talks a big game, but the thing is, she's a little girl. One who grew up with loving parents and then found loving friends. She wants to be tough, she wants people to respect her, but she's not actually ashamed of having feelings and caring about people -- she just wants to make sure the audience is receptive.
It's hard to think Accelerator isn't receptive after that offer, so she lunges forward and grabs him in a quick hug even as he's turning away. Seconds later she's letting go and backing away a few sensible steps with a blush on her cheeks.
Geez. She's really missing people.
But she still doesn't say something ridiculous like, I'll owe you one, or Don't mention it. She knows what friendship looks like by now. ]
... Thanks. [ Toph reaches up and adjusts her headband like she's totally casual about it all. ] You're not bad for a mom friend.
[ Toph loves her mom friends. She will also bury them alive if they make her admit that. ]
[Maybe Etraya is one of those places where a situation like this is inevitable, and he's going to have to just accept it. Accelerator is not a touchy-feely kind of person and from his few interactions with Toph he's gotten the impression she isn't either, and so for him that hug is coming out of nowhere. Reflexively he tenses up, though he doesn't shove he away. It's short enough that he doesn't have time to react at all, and when she steps back he's silent.]
[An intensely powerful ache rolls through him as he realizes how much this reminds him of all the times Last Order hugged him, and he takes another second, swallowing and clearing his throat. He isn't even going to complain about being called a 'mom friend.']
... Right.
[And then he's very quick to leave. Maybe it's a form of running away but fuck it, he does have something important to do, and he'd rather do that than stew in his own uncomfortable feelings.
He heads back to the hospital and has an extensive chat with Aurora. It's a couple of hours before he makes his way slowly back to the farm, specifically over to the entrance to the tunnel where he had found Toph. And oh boy, is he glad the farm isn't too far away from the hospital, because being held in his free arm like a sack of potatoes is one very squirmy baby badger-mole. He's been cursing in both Japanese and English the entire way (he is not an animal person), and when they finally get there he's letting go of the damn thing, letting it half-jump half-flop onto the ground.]
[ If Toph can survive months of Aang and Katara having a nonstop friendship lovefest, Accelerator can deal with the fallout. She's a little embarrassed about hugging him, but not enough to regret it. She can sense how tense it makes him, and she's enough of a bro not to comment on it, just lets him leave.
When he comes back, she's tidied up the tunnel entrance considerably, and it now looks like a well-fortified and orderly defensive structure. Toph is actually waiting for him, facing the direction he's coming from and bouncing on the balls of her feet. She'd felt him approach from a long ways off and was wondering where the badger-mole was until he came close enough that she could feel it in more detail.
She blurts: ] You got a baby?!
[ That's not at all what she was expecting. She's only been around adults before.
Toph immediately flops down herself to sit on the ground and makes an invisible vibration in the ground with the heel of her hand that she knows communicates greeting. The distressed baby badger-mole immediately pauses in its panic, turns to face her and sniffs hesitantly. Toph is entranced. ]
It's okay, little guy, I know the world sucks. You can live underground with me, I promise.
[When he comes back he notices the changes in the entrance. It seems like an improvement, and he has to hope that it's a reflection of her mind regaining her composure. Or feeling better. or whatever. He isn't sure, he's just hopeful.
Accelerator is happy to drop the badger-mole. It's even squirmier than a dog, and he's damn lucky those claws didn't shred his shirt. He gives a little sigh as he remains where he is, watching Toph carefully in case he needs to step in.]
I'm not an animal person. I didn't know what to ask for.
[ Toph really isn't all bluster -- when she says she doesn't lose control, she pretty much means it. She can have episodes of frustration that she takes out on the ground or yells about, but she always recovers before long and gets back to dealing. ]
Full grown they're the size of houses, [ Toph answers helpfully, rapping on the ground again with her hand. ] They communicate through the earth -- they're the original earthbenders.
[ The baby badger-mole comes closer, and Toph reaches out her hand to let it sniff her. Its whisker tickle a little, and that combined with the spacious overwhelming relief of having something from home after over a year away makes her giggle. It sounds distinctly girlish, and if Accelerator comments on it, he will regret it. ]
[The size of houses? Fuck, he's quietly glad he got a baby and not an adult. An untrained adult badger... mole-thing traipsing around the farm is liable to do a lot of damage. A small critter is (hopefully) a lot more manageable.
He's going to stay hanging back, watching the two of them. He may not be an animal person but he knows that that thing isn't a fan of him and he doesn't want to scare it.]
So when you're tapping the ground you're talking to it?
[That, and he doesn't want to interrupt Toph letting down her guard. It's cute, and even though it hurts it reminds him a little of Last Order.]
[ She'd really wanted a badger-mole to ride around on, but this has its advantages. She can take the little guy around with her and... actually -- ]
Yeah, basically. Hey! I just realized I could train him in earthbending, like they originally taught me!
[ Toph is absolutely delighted by this thought. It feels meaningful and real, a way to give back and acknowledge how much they'd done for her. There's a dim flicker of understanding that this must be like what Aang feels for Appa, but she hasn't seen them in so long, and she doesn't want to think of it now.
She makes another subtle ground vibration and the badger-mole cub practically launches itself at her, assured she's giving off the signals of another, older badger-mole. Toph catches it neatly, although it's already more than half her size so she ends up bowled over and laying on the ground, laughing again as it curiously sniffs her all over. She doesn't smell right, but she sounds right... ]
[Wow, it's almost easy to picture this badger-mole thing as something more like a typical pet. Maybe an overexcited puppy or something. Accelerator knows kids love animals, even Last Order frequently lamented the fact that cats wouldn't go near her because of the EM field she radiated as an electromagnetic esper.
Basically, this is very cute. Accelerator had thought maybe he screwed up with a badger-mole that wasn't fully grown, but it sounds like a baby is going to be way more suitable for Toph. He resists the urge to grin, keeping his expression neutral.]
There isn't much to do in between missions, so you'd have a lot of free time to do it. [Training an animal actually seems like a great use of all their downtime.] What're you going to name the damn thing?
[ Toph does like animals as a general rule, but she's not some bleeding heart adopting all the local stray dogs like Kakashi. And in this case, she'd have to side with Aang -- sky-bison, like badger-moles, aren't pets. They're smart and mystical enough that people are lucky they put up with them at all. ]
Good question. I have no idea, [ Toph says frankly, pushing herself back up into a sitting position and fearlessly navigating the large, furry, squirmy animal to sit in her lap, where she scruffs him all over. ]
No way is it going to be anything cutesy, though. He's gonna be such a bruiser if I have anything to do with it.
[Right. He doesn't know Toph very well, but he isn't surprised to hear she wants to avoid cutesy names. That's what Last Order would go for, and he's sure the Sisters would pick something ridiculous and on-the-nose. He isn't sure what he would do; for his owl he had gone with the name of a famous inventor. Maybe something like that.
(Or a geophysics joke, probably.)]
Ah, yeah, a vicious animal like that should have a scary name.
Uh, yeah. Did you know my name is written with the characters for "opening lotus"? It's awful. It could be "clearing the mountain," but they had to go with that. Yeuch.
[ Another thing Toph will never forgive her parents for; she sounds honestly disgruntled. (Is she comparing herself to a vicious animal? Absolutely.) She pushes the badger-mole off of her and climbs to her feet, leaving her annoyance aside to be focused on her new companion. ]
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She lost so many people again, didn't she? Toph reminds herself forcibly, not for the first time today, that she can't be homesick for two different places. Making new friends is fine, and Accelerator has been annoyingly great so far in the same kind of way Katara and then Ethlyn were, but she's sick of losing. Losing people, losing her abilities, losing her whole world.
But crying here would really cement her as a stupid little girl, so she makes sure to fiercely dash away the water collecting in her eyes while she's facing away from Accelerator, and before she turns back. ]
Yeah. I might as well just hole up here since I can't do anything. [ She hesitates, because another angle of this occurred to her, too-- ] Honestly... if we're all going to be paranoid and freaking out, maybe it's for the best I lose my bending.
I told you, I don't usually lose control. At all.
[ After that incident with the giant snake, she's scared of what she could do. ]
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Nah, it's a load of bullshit. [Accelerator shakes his head slowly.] Even if you kept your earthbending and lost control, that's still better than you losing something that's a part of yourself.
[Since that's what it is for her. Earthbending isn't some trick she can pull off, it's an extension of herself, how she interacts with the world. Echo is an asshole for taking that away and making Toph think she's going to be so useless that all she can do is hide somewhere for weeks.
Irritated, he kicks at a stray rock, sending it bouncing along the ground.]
There's a week before the damn mission starts, so you might have options. People back home use canes to get around, or seeing eye animals. I know someone here with a dog that might be able to do that.
[As much as he'd love to go hunt down Echo and punch them out, that isn't productive. Problem-solving when there's time to come up with a potential solution, however, is.]
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That's not magic, and Aang taking away Ozai's bending permanently had shattered their entire cultural concept of what is possible. Some people still think that was crueler than just killing him. Toph is aware of those debates. For her part, she thinks her friend was in a difficult place and chose to stay true to what he'd been taught as an Air Nomad, and even if she thinks that's personally a little silly, Aang is still her friend. She'll support his decisions, and she's not caught up in bending superiority.
But damn if she doesn't think other people don't get it, and she's sick of being the only bender around. So her breath catches for a long, hard moment before she moves past it, and she trots over to Accelerator, a glimmer of hope bursting through and manifesting as cautious eagerness. ]
No dogs, [ she says, because she doesn't think she can take constant reminders of Kakashi and his kennels, another thing she's lost. ] Do you think it's possible to get a badger-mole? They're blind, too -- that's how I learned how to 'see'. I learned from them.
The stupid nebula or whatever wouldn't take that away from one of them, right?
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He straightens up when she turns, a determined expression on his face. There's no way he's giving up on her.]
I have no idea, but I've never heard of Echo committing animal cruelty before. [In fact, during certain missions Aurora would take over caring for people's pets, so it doesn't seem all that likely.] I don't know what a badge-mole is, but I'm gonna go ask her.
[It doesn't seem like she's teasing him by making up a 'badger-mole,' so this is something he'll look into it as a non-dog alternative. He turns away intending to walk back over to the hospital.]
I'll let you know what I find out, okay?
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It's hard to think Accelerator isn't receptive after that offer, so she lunges forward and grabs him in a quick hug even as he's turning away. Seconds later she's letting go and backing away a few sensible steps with a blush on her cheeks.
Geez. She's really missing people.
But she still doesn't say something ridiculous like, I'll owe you one, or Don't mention it. She knows what friendship looks like by now. ]
... Thanks. [ Toph reaches up and adjusts her headband like she's totally casual about it all. ] You're not bad for a mom friend.
[ Toph loves her mom friends. She will also bury them alive if they make her admit that. ]
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.......................................................................
[An intensely powerful ache rolls through him as he realizes how much this reminds him of all the times Last Order hugged him, and he takes another second, swallowing and clearing his throat. He isn't even going to complain about being called a 'mom friend.']
... Right.
[And then he's very quick to leave. Maybe it's a form of running away but fuck it, he does have something important to do, and he'd rather do that than stew in his own uncomfortable feelings.
He heads back to the hospital and has an extensive chat with Aurora. It's a couple of hours before he makes his way slowly back to the farm, specifically over to the entrance to the tunnel where he had found Toph. And oh boy, is he glad the farm isn't too far away from the hospital, because being held in his free arm like a sack of potatoes is one very squirmy baby badger-mole. He's been cursing in both Japanese and English the entire way (he is not an animal person), and when they finally get there he's letting go of the damn thing, letting it half-jump half-flop onto the ground.]
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When he comes back, she's tidied up the tunnel entrance considerably, and it now looks like a well-fortified and orderly defensive structure. Toph is actually waiting for him, facing the direction he's coming from and bouncing on the balls of her feet. She'd felt him approach from a long ways off and was wondering where the badger-mole was until he came close enough that she could feel it in more detail.
She blurts: ] You got a baby?!
[ That's not at all what she was expecting. She's only been around adults before.
Toph immediately flops down herself to sit on the ground and makes an invisible vibration in the ground with the heel of her hand that she knows communicates greeting. The distressed baby badger-mole immediately pauses in its panic, turns to face her and sniffs hesitantly. Toph is entranced. ]
It's okay, little guy, I know the world sucks. You can live underground with me, I promise.
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Accelerator is happy to drop the badger-mole. It's even squirmier than a dog, and he's damn lucky those claws didn't shred his shirt. He gives a little sigh as he remains where he is, watching Toph carefully in case he needs to step in.]
I'm not an animal person. I didn't know what to ask for.
[He tried his best, okay.]
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Full grown they're the size of houses, [ Toph answers helpfully, rapping on the ground again with her hand. ] They communicate through the earth -- they're the original earthbenders.
[ The baby badger-mole comes closer, and Toph reaches out her hand to let it sniff her. Its whisker tickle a little, and that combined with the spacious overwhelming relief of having something from home after over a year away makes her giggle. It sounds distinctly girlish, and if Accelerator comments on it, he will regret it. ]
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He's going to stay hanging back, watching the two of them. He may not be an animal person but he knows that that thing isn't a fan of him and he doesn't want to scare it.]
So when you're tapping the ground you're talking to it?
[That, and he doesn't want to interrupt Toph letting down her guard. It's cute, and even though it hurts it reminds him a little of Last Order.]
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Yeah, basically. Hey! I just realized I could train him in earthbending, like they originally taught me!
[ Toph is absolutely delighted by this thought. It feels meaningful and real, a way to give back and acknowledge how much they'd done for her. There's a dim flicker of understanding that this must be like what Aang feels for Appa, but she hasn't seen them in so long, and she doesn't want to think of it now.
She makes another subtle ground vibration and the badger-mole cub practically launches itself at her, assured she's giving off the signals of another, older badger-mole. Toph catches it neatly, although it's already more than half her size so she ends up bowled over and laying on the ground, laughing again as it curiously sniffs her all over. She doesn't smell right, but she sounds right... ]
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Basically, this is very cute. Accelerator had thought maybe he screwed up with a badger-mole that wasn't fully grown, but it sounds like a baby is going to be way more suitable for Toph. He resists the urge to grin, keeping his expression neutral.]
There isn't much to do in between missions, so you'd have a lot of free time to do it. [Training an animal actually seems like a great use of all their downtime.] What're you going to name the damn thing?
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Good question. I have no idea, [ Toph says frankly, pushing herself back up into a sitting position and fearlessly navigating the large, furry, squirmy animal to sit in her lap, where she scruffs him all over. ]
No way is it going to be anything cutesy, though. He's gonna be such a bruiser if I have anything to do with it.
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(Or a geophysics joke, probably.)]
Ah, yeah, a vicious animal like that should have a scary name.
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[ Another thing Toph will never forgive her parents for; she sounds honestly disgruntled. (Is she comparing herself to a vicious animal? Absolutely.) She pushes the badger-mole off of her and climbs to her feet, leaving her annoyance aside to be focused on her new companion. ]
I gotta show you how to make a proper den!