step one

[bolder]

Who: Toph and YOU!
Broadcast: Everyone ever
Action: That too-- Hospitality Deck!
When: Before the 6/14 shuffle

[ACTION AND VIDEO]

[For whatever reason, it's eerily quiet, and the sound of two bare feet hitting the metal floor of the hospitality deck can be heard. (it's really for dramatic effect, who are we kidding) The owner, a small girl of fourteen, stares into space (ha!) as she takes a few slow, deliberate steps. After a moment, she crouches down and places her hand on the floor, pauses, then speaks. Or yells. Whatever.]

Hey!! Someone tell me what's going on! This isn't another weirdo spirit thing is it? I'd hit my quota for the month already!

[She huffs in annoyance, straightening up. Now she's quieter, talking more to herself.] What's with this weird place?

Comments

[summerschild]

[He watches her curiously, but doesn't ask any questions. She's strange, he's already established this. But she seems alright.]

Yes, it's the farthest continent to the west. Essos is to the east.

[Okay, this is good. Just a couple of noble kids having polite conversation.]

... Why aren't you wearing shoes?

[bolder]

Next is Northeros and Southos, right?

[He can't see her from the current angle, but she mocks a silent sigh. People and their expectation for shoes.]

Because I want to be able to see. Duh.

[summerschild]

... Sothoyros.

[He has to smile a bit. They are silly names, when you think about it.]

What do your feet have to do with seeing?

[bolder]

Ha! [Really, the reaction was inevitable. She turns to face him and... does this.]

I feel vibrations with my feet, so shoes on me is like a blindfold on you.

[summerschild]

[Aaaand he finally notices.]

I'm sorry, I didn't realize that you were...

[He doesn't want to be rude, and he's a bit unsure of how to act in this situation.]

How does it work?

[bolder]

[A scoff is the only response he gets to that as she waves her hand in dismissal.]

Exactly like I said. I'm an earthbender. [Pause.] I can move rocks and earth and things. So I feel the vibrations in the earth with my feet, and it gives me a pretty good picture of what's around me.

[summerschild]

You can move them? [He's trying to picture this.] With magic?

[bolder]

[Another scoff! You're good at earning those, Bran.] No, it's bending. I'd show you, but there's no dirt or rocks here. Guess we're going with metal.

[Toph reaches over and takes hold of the metal corner of the bed, easily twisting it in her hand.] See?

[summerschild]

[Bran scrabbles backwards when she touches the bed, surprised, but gasps in awe rather than fear.]

That's... bending? And it isn't magic?

[bolder]

No, it's not magic. [She gives an exasperated sigh.] Other friends of mine can bend water, air, and fire.

[summerschild]

[It sure sounds like magic to him, but he's got the point.]

Can everyone in your world bend?

[bolder]

Not everyone, but a lot can. It's something you're born being able to do, so you just need a master to teach you.

[summerschild]

[That... sounds oddly familiar?]

We have things like that in Westeros, too. Gifts, passed down from the children of the forest. Before I came here, I was on my way to learn how to use them.

[bolder]

Children of the Forest...? [Hippies? Sokka had told her about those before. Something with a tunnel.] Strange name. What do they do?

[summerschild]

[A secret tunnel??]

They lived in the North before the First Men. They could see through the eyes of the trees, and enter the minds of animals.

[bolder]

[Yes!!]

Trees don't have eyes. [Pause.] No one ever mentioned them to me, anyway.

[summerschild]

The weirwoods do. The children carved faces in them so that they could see.

[bolder]

That's just creepy. [Awkward face.]

[summerschild]

They're sacred.

[bolder]

So you carve eyes on to sacred things?

[summerschild]

We didn't. The children did, and now they're sacred.

[bolder]

So they're sacred because they have eyes?

[summerschild]

No. They're sacred because they've been a part of our religion for centuries.

[bolder]

[Toph gives up.] That's just weird. Talk about something else instead.

[summerschild]

What do you want to talk about?

[They are children.]