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Post by blindgirl on Dec 9, 2007 15:58:25 GMT -5
Toph sighed feeling this was going to take a while, now she really felt dirty, she should have noticed the smell before. Making stepping directly in it wasn't the best thing she could have done. Her mouth drawing a thin line she tried to not think about it too much least she realize the trouble she'd be in when her parents found her.
Being at such a close proximity to them made her nervous. Without a doubt they wouldn't just sit around and do nothing. They were over protective and over bearing. Sometimes she wished she could just fly away and do what she wanted. That way they wouldn't make her play little princess doll for them. She could be dirty as she wanted and wouldn't have to wear stupid silly hard to move in dresses.
Her hands tugged at the fabric of the dress her blind eyed widening a bit when she felt the tear. Her already pale face blanched a bit. Oh she was so dead. She cut herself off before she shouted some rather unlady like things. Glaring blankly at the floor her arms crossed defiantly trying to stay involved in the search for some crazy old guy.
It was too perfect, looking for a crazy guy with some waterbenders and the long dead avatar, that about summed the day up. At least she managed to hurt the mouthy one. She grinned a bit at that, Sokka was rather fun to mess with, he was one of the first boys she'd gotten to hang around with that was her age, same went with Aang but...
No time for that now..." If ya know where the guy is you might wanna speak up before this guy starts talking again. I hope stupidity isn't contagious" She half grinned and shoved a thumb in Sokka's direction, if she wasn't too careful picking on him might become a habit. Not that she'd ever get tired of it. She could almost feel the hott glare from the girl coming at her, apearantly she should try to be more subtle when dealing with scared citizens of a dictatorship run city. Subtly was never her thing....
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Post by airnomad on Dec 15, 2007 12:23:10 GMT -5
The Omashu man sighed heavily as he considered the children. He really didn't think they were spies, but they were certainly asking for sensitive information. "All right," he finally coneded, "I really don't know much, but I can tell you this. On the day of the invasion, the army of Omashu didn't put up a fight. King Bumi surrendered, and the Fire Nation took over without losing a single man."
"What?!" Aanf suddenly exclaimed. He couldn't have heard that right. Bumi was a genious and Omashu was one of the most powerful cities in the world. "How could he just give up? You could have fought. You could have won!"
"That's what many of us thought too," the man said. "I was one of the reserve soldiers. All of us were shocked with the King's decision, and a lot of the other soldierswent underground to form the Resistance. No one knows why he did what he did. The worst rumors vary between him being senile, or a traitor to the Earth Kingdom."
"Bumi is not a traitor.." Aang said, in no uncertain tone. His blood was coursing quickly, and it took a soothing hand on his shoulder from Katara to keep him from exploding in anger. He glanced beside him at the Water Tribe girl who merely gave him a look of understanding, and his rage seemed to suddenly melt away. He returned to his senses and blew out a steadying breath.
"I don't think so either," the man went on. "For whatever reason, I think King Bumi figured that surrendering without a fight was in the best interest of our people. But no one has seen him since the Fire Nation secured the palace. No one really even knows if he's alive."
Aang bit his lip slightly at that thought, and for the moment he couldn't form something to say.
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Post by meatandsarcasm on Dec 15, 2007 19:17:28 GMT -5
Sokka glared flatly at Toph. Did he have a sign that said “Kick Me” on his back or something? Wait…damn it. He’d actually forgotten that she was blind for a moment. She didn’t act terribly different from any other person. This was going to be a struggle. No time to focus on that, now, though. The man in front of them seemed to indeed be connected to the Resistance, which meant that he could help them. It would still be wise to leave out Aang’s identity. Katara, meanwhile, had noticed Aang’s expression and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. Sokka held back a sigh. That was his sister, ever filled with motherly concern. Still, he couldn’t help but feel a little for Aang. Bumi was the only person he knew from his childhood that was still alive. He would be crushed if it turned out he was gone.
“I’m sure Bumi’s fine,” Katara said to everyone, though it was mostly for Aang’s benefit.
“She’s right. He’s a valuable prisoner. They won’t get rid of him,” Sokka agreed, though he was lying a little, and turned back to the residents of the house. “But we still need to find him as soon as possible. Can you help us?”
The man raised an eyebrow, “You kids are going to free King Bumi by yourselves?”
“We’ve been through worse,” Sokka said, waving his hand as though the man had asked a silly question. “Trust me.”
The man looked at them for a moment more, and then shrugged. Beckoning for them to follow him, he walked over to crate sitting in the corner of a storage room and pushed it aside. Once the crate was moved, he took an earth-bending stance and lifted a large square chunk of stone from the floor, revealing a trap door. He opened the door, and Sokka leaned forward to look down. He couldn’t help but gulp a little. There was a ladder leaning down, and a little light, but he couldn’t see the bottom. It was shrouded in blackness.
“The tunnels down there are as old as the city itself,” the man said, grabbing a lantern, lighting it, and handing it to Sokka. “Head down there and go straight north. You’ll run into some resistance soldiers. Give them this, and they’ll be able to help you.”
He pulled out a small pin with the head of a badger-mole on it and handed it to Aang. Sokka nodded in appreciation before looking down the hole again. Taking a deep breath in a futile attempt to slow down the beating of his heart, he tied the lantern to the right side of his belt and began to descend the ladder.
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Post by blindgirl on Dec 16, 2007 9:07:09 GMT -5
They were so odd, carring so much for some old man, sge could feel the small lies traveling back and forth, he'd be okay, nothing to worry about. Each one of them was on edge and it made toph nervous. Encouraging words did little for her went she could hear that they were false.
Still a small pang of sympathy went out to the airben- Aang, he seemed the most shook up. The two of them must have been close before. It was always so hard to loose people you love, she'd never felt like she was going to loose anything aside from her freedom. She probobly had no right to attempt to sympathises.
Toph squinted her eyes noticing something odd in the ground before the tunnel was even mentioned. Disconnecting herself from the conversation she made a quick survey of the room. There were long paths underground. Why didn't she notice it before?
Maybe they had a metal plate in between them under the street. It would have made sense, protect the city from attackers of other nations and even from the same nation. She straightened up a bit pushing her shoulders back and bowed to the people she'd interuptted muttering a quick "sorry for the inconveinance".
Without an ounce of hesitation Toph walked foreward and began to climb down the hole. If something weird was up she'd know it, unless it was more stupid hawks.
Those things would be trouble for her. She assumed after her the water tribe- Katara and Sokka would follow. After all, silly people like them needed a lantern to be able to see in the dark. She smirked a bit to herself and continued down, sometimes it was hard for her to tell who was really blind.
The man nervously looked at the group and down to the small girl going down the hole. He found it hard to accept them trying to save Bumi. After all they were only children. "Be carefull"
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Post by airnomad on Dec 17, 2007 16:39:27 GMT -5
And reached up a hand to accept the token from the Omashu citizen and took a moment to look at the pin. It was an interesting piece of work, and probably something specific to that man. However, as Sokka and Toph made their way down the ladder, Aang pocketed the pin and started towards them as well. Katara was already beginning to climb down and as he waited for her to clear the lip of the trap door, he looked at the man and his family.
"Thanks for your help," Aang said gratefully. The Avatar offered a bow, touching his fist to his open palm. "And sorry for interrupting your dinner." He offered a sheepish grin, and the man seemed to smile slightly.
"Good luck," the man replied.
The airbender then laid his staff beside the entrance to the tunnel, started climbing down the ladder, and then pulled the staff in with him as he went. Once he was clear of the beginning of the trap door, the man aove shut the door and replaced the stone block that covered it. Aside from having Toph blast them a tunnel, they were stuck down there.
The others hadn't gone far by the time Aang reached the stone floor of the passageway. In the dim light provided by Sokka's lamp, it was hard to see very far at all.
"Which way was North again?" Aang asked out loud as he peered into the darkness.
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Post by meatandsarcasm on Dec 21, 2007 1:41:03 GMT -5
The lantern’s feeble light lit up only the remote area around Sokka as he held it aloft, squinting hard into the blackness. Still, from what he could tell, the hallway was narrow and straight. Getting lost wouldn’t be a problem. They would just head north, give the pin to the guards, grab Bumi and be on their way. Sokka looked over his shoulder to make sure everyone was following, and was about to start moving when Aang spoke.
"Which way was North again?"
Sokka gave pause for a moment, scratching his chin and making a “hmm” sound. He looked back up at the ladder, then down at the stone floor. After another moment of thinking, he turned left, took a step, then turned right twice, and made another left before turning a hundred and eighty degrees on his heel. All the while, his free hand made pointing gestures in various directions. Occasionally, it crossed his other arm, and other times it waved around in little loops. Finally, it was pointing in the direction he was facing. In actuality, he was just retracing the path they’d made through the house above in his head, but one would think he was simply confused or a little touched in the head by observation alone.
“This way,” he said at last, beginning to walk forward. “It’s a good thing we only have to walk straight. It’s so dark that I can hardly see a thing!”
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Post by blindgirl on Dec 21, 2007 13:59:58 GMT -5
Having entered the tunnel first Toph was the first one to reach the floor. It was actually quite nice, kind of cool with a lot of earth beneath her feet. There was never anything wrong with that. It wasn't until the second after her reached the floor that she became annoyed. Light flashing in her eyes as he swung about was possibly more annoying then his constant yapping. It wasn't as if she could see, nothing, bright lights and dark were the extent of it, not that she could tell the difference unless they collided in such away that they could rapidly change. Having to duck once as Sokka flailed his arm about got on her final nerve. If it wasn't for him finally stopping she might have dropped him into the wall.
" Hardly see a thing? Oh no! What a nightmare!" You could practically feel the sarcasm dripping off the blind girls words as her sightless eyes rolled and she grabbed for the the tribe boys hand. How was it that the blind person seemed to be the only one knowing was was going on around here? She began walking sparring no time for the pleasantries of having an argument that would waste time. She could so easily have one where they actually got somewhere in the middle of it.
Shaking her head in frustration she walked ahead of the taller boy pulling him along least his stupidity lead him astray and then turned her head to call back to the 'love birds' behind them. Normal people didn't touch each other that much, the girl was such a sugar queen, she'd probably be flirting with the boy too if he wasn't her brother. People like that just got on her nerves... but it seemed like everyone was doing that today. " I feel something just up ahead, watch out for rocks on the floor"
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Post by airnomad on Dec 21, 2007 23:37:42 GMT -5
Aang had been following closely behind Sokka. It was creepy and dark in the tunnel, and with the walls looking the same the whole way it was difficult to guess how far they'd traveled. For a passing moment, the airbender thought how nice it would be to have mastered the Avatar State right about then. It would be convenient to be able to glow on command and shed some light on their surroundings.
Toph's warning about rocks up ahead came just a second or two before Aang's next step landed his foot on a loose stone. He stumbled, nearly rolling his ankle and barely held back shout of surprise. Instead he settled for a seething grunt.
The group had slowed slightly as more and more bits of rubble became visible in the lamp light. In order to make things easier, Aang eventually stepped ahead of Sokka to avoid blowing out the light and swept his staff out over the tunnel ahead of them. A power gust of air rushed ahead of them, stirring up a bit of dust but essentially clearing the center of the path of debris.
"Much better," he commented, smiling at his handiwork. "Now... How far did that guy say to go before we should find someone?"
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Post by meatandsarcasm on Dec 22, 2007 1:40:01 GMT -5
"Hardly see a thing? Oh no! What a nightmare!"
“Oh…” Sokka mumbled, rather embarrassed. “Sorry.”
Honestly, he had forgotten she was blind, at least for that moment. It was a rather easy thing to do, at least in his opinion. He was going to have to keep reminding himself that she was blind or this kind of thing was going to keep happening. He was quickly snapped out of his musings, however. Before he had realized it, the girl had started to lead him by the hand down the hallway. He could only blink and follow for a moment, surprised, but after she announced that there were rocks ahead, he pulled his hand away and picked up his pace, purposefully walking past her. It was dark, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t handle it. He was, after all, the leader of the group, or that’s how he liked to think of himself. He was the oldest, the smartest, and the manliest, and everyone knows that those are the traits that determine the leader. It was science. So, keeping an eye on the stone floor and stepping over or around any stones that got in his way, he kept ahead of the others and lead the way down the tunnel. At least, until Aang jumped in front of him and cleared out the stones from the area.
“Aw, what’s the matter, Aang?” he taunted. “Afraid of a few…”
Suddenly, two large chunks of the stone floor in front of them rose up into the air. Sokka’s taunting ceased, and his face seemed to droop a little as his eyes widened in surprise.
“Rocks?”
“Identify yourselves!” said a deep voice, though the speaker could not be seen in the darkness.
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Post by blindgirl on Dec 22, 2007 9:44:22 GMT -5
Toph sighed in annoyance, Sokka thought he was all that, honestly she hopped her tripped on a rock, she'd laugh at him. It would be rather funny to have him flop onto the floor like a fish. Were all men like this? honestly she didn't understand, he couldn't see in the dark, he was gonna hurt himself.
Still Aang made his way in front of the group blowing a path. Toph's sightless eyes widened, why was he doing that!? Not too far away there were people, surely they'd notice a gush of wind carrying a couple dozen stones and debris. As the young girl expected the group was alerted to their presence but only two made their move. The rest in the clearing less than a mile ahead tensed and prepared themselves for an invasion. It seemed like they were well stocked and knew what they were doing.
Stopping in the tunnel she took the time to anticipate their movements, and before they could get the stationary in the air she was on the move.
" YOU Identify yourselves " Toph surged forward slamming the earth into the walls of the cage before dropping into a low loose stance with her feet a little more shoulders width apart, if people listened to her more often they wouldn't be in for as many surprises. Keeping herself in the stance she mad no move to attack, the men seemed to be a little wary, if there was an earth bender in the group chances were they weren't fire nation at the least. Plus the one sounded like a child...
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Post by airnomad on Dec 25, 2007 17:02:39 GMT -5
At the first hint of rumbling in the earth, Aang was certain they'd reached the Resistance. As the slabs of stone rse up in front of them, he took a cautionary step back but did not make any move to fight. Toph, meanwhile, seemed ready to meet the attackers head-on and shattered their initial bnding structures. The young girl was smaller than he was, but she seemed to be incapable of backing down from anything. It was an admirable quality in some respects, but the young avatar hoped that willingness to fight hadn't made enemies out of allies.
The earthbenders who had confronted them remained silent for a few seconds before stepping forward until they were vaguely visible in the lamp light. They still held their fighting stances, but once they saw that it was a bunch of kids they seemed to lighten up ever so slightly.
"What are you kids doing down here?" the bender on the right asked, sounding very much like a parent talking down to minors.
To Aang, it felt like they were encountering too many delays on this mission. Every moment they were held up, it was another moment the Fire Nation had to prepare itself against its intruders. Things needed to be moved along faster.
"I'm the Avatar," Aang said, stepping to the forefront of the group and pulling the cloth wrapping off his head. Even in the dark, his arrow tattoo was visible enough to show that he was indeed an air nomad. "The man living in the house above the entrance to this tunnel said the Resistance could help us," he said, gesturing over his shoulder at the way they'd come.
However, the two soldiers seemed to still be coping with the claimed identity of the bald-headed boy. "The Avatar?" one of them sputtered. It took another moment or so, after starng at Aang curiously, before he thought to address the second statement made. "What is it you need?"
"We're going to free King Bumi," Aang replied without hesitation. "Can you tell us where he's being held prisoner?" The mention of the king made both benders glance at each other. After a few hushed words, they seemed to agree on their course of action.
Both men stood up straighter and the one on the right gestured for them to follow. "Come with us," he said, and started down the hallway at a swift pace. "You'll need to speak with our commander."
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Post by meatandsarcasm on Jan 1, 2008 23:11:49 GMT -5
Sokka sighed twice. The first time was with relief upon realizing that these were Earth Kingdom soldiers in front of them and not enemies. The second sigh was one of frustration. He didn’t so much mind Aang revealing his identity to these men, as they were clearly on their side. It was the response of the soldiers that irritated him. The problem with being the Avatar, Sokka had realized, was that everyone always wanted you to help them out. Everywhere they went, when it was learned that Aang was the Avatar, it wouldn’t be long before they were begged for help. Not that Sokka was against helping people, but they were on a mission, and it had a deadline. If they stopped to help everyone who asked, Aang wouldn’t stand a chance of mastering every element and taking on the Firelord. So, as the Earth Kingdom soldier started down the hallway, Sokka jogged up in front of him and held out his hand to signal him to stop.
“Sorry, we don’t have time for that,” he said harshly. “We just need to rescue Bumi and get out of here so the Avatar can start to master Earth Bending.”
Naturally, Katara intervened as the advocate of charity, “Sokka, we have time for a meeting…”
“Yeah, a meeting. But not a meeting that turns into us getting wrapped up in a guerilla war,” Sokka said flatly, making a “no good” motion with his arms. “Just being here is taking a big risk. After the North Pole, you can bet that we’re going to have more people than scar-boy chasing us if anyone finds out where we’ve been.”
Katara crossed her arms, “You’re just being paranoid. Again.”
As the siblings argued, the soldiers shot each other quizzical looks. Unsure what to do, the one on the right shrugged, apparently content to let the two slug it out until a decision was reached. The one on the left turned to the Avatar.
“Is this…common?” the soldier asked.
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Post by blindgirl on Jan 2, 2008 1:27:24 GMT -5
Honestly Toph found herself siding with the load mouth Sokka somewhat, of course it would be all cheery and bright if they freed the city of firenation rule and yadda yadda. But that didn't seem to be within the time constraints it seemed they had set. Especially if she wanted to get out of here anytime today.
There were things she needed to do, a small part of her shouted that her parents were worried and wanted her safe, another said they deserved to worry, they were smothering. Without a doubt her parents would send someone after her in time, they were just like that. She was weak, defenseless and useless in their eyes.
Her mind and heart were conflicted with what to do and how to rectify the situation. A pout found it's way to her face, quickly shifting into a scowl, stubbornly her brows knitted together under her dark bangs. There wasn't much more of this she could take, did they always argue? It made her want to scream, and who exactly elected the equally mouthy girl to be group leader anyway. Now that they'd found this underground group of earth benders they didn't really need her, did they.
It wasn't as if they needed her or even wanted her around to begin with, the avatar and his friends, going into a firenation occupied city like complete idiots, who did they think they were? Who did she think she was? for a moment it felt as if she belonged, she knew she didn't but still.... "Just tell em where Bumi is so they can get going" Toph couldn't bring herself to say us or we, they probably would be fine without her from here on out.
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Post by airnomad on Jan 3, 2008 23:43:16 GMT -5
“Is this…common?”
Aang looked sideways at the guard and shrugged. "It's on and off," he replied, turning back to look at the Water Tribe siblings. Aang supposed he'd been around those two long enough that he didn't even bat an eyelash at their occasional bouts.
When Toph finally interjected and brought the subject back to Bumi, the soldiers seemed to regain their seriousness. The two shared a brief glance, and after a mumbled exchange one of them informed the group, "All our gathered intelligence tells us that the King is being held somewhere within the royal palace. There are chambers that were formerly used for holding prisoners that we believe have been reinforced with steel and converted to a dungeon."
"Which is a shame," the other one added, almost thinking out loud to himself, "Because they looked beautiful after the recent refurbishing."
"Then that's where we're heading," Aang decided, stating their new goal for the others to hear.
"Our headquarters is a short way down the tunnel," one of the guards said, "If you intend to rescue King Bumi, then perhaps we can help."
"We don't have the time to organize a proper breakout," the young Avatar said, shaking his head, "The Fire Nation knows they've got intruders, and every minute we wait is another minute they have to move Bumi somewhere else. It's now or never."
The soldiers seemed a little perturbed by the boy's rather aggressive strategy in taking on the occupation force's most secure stronghold in the city. But still, the word of the Avatar carried more weight than usual. "Very well," one of the soldiers said, "Follow the tunnel and veer right at the second fork. Follow it straight to the end and it will dump you right next to the palace. We'll inform the rest of the Resistance of your intentions. If things go badly, we'll do our best to provide back-up."
Aang pressed the fist clutching his staff into his opposite palm and bowed thankfully to the guard. Looking back at the others, he asked, "Ready?"
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Post by meatandsarcasm on Jan 4, 2008 0:59:25 GMT -5
Toph’s intervention halted the argument between the two siblings, and they exchanged a glance. Neither failed to notice her choice of words, or so Sokka assumed. Still, he maintained his silence as Aang and the guards conversed. He couldn’t help but shoot his sister a smug look, though. It was good to see that Aang was coming to his senses in these matters, and it was always nice to “beat” Katara at anything. Score one for Team Manliness. On the other hand, though, he had a feeling Aang was rushing not because of his advice, but because he was getting a bit emotional about Bumi. Sokka understood Aang’s feelings, he really did, but it made him a little uneasy. Hopefully Bumi would be all right, or there was no telling what Aang might do.
"Ready?"
Sokka nodded, “You’ve got it.”
The group started to move down the passage, or rather, Aang, Katara and Sokka did. Pausing, Sokka gave thought to Toph’s words. It would be a shame if she didn’t come. Her ability to sense things through the earth were handy, to say the least, and an earthbender in a city made of stone was always useful. However, he also gave thought to an entirely different matter. There would be the chance that Bumi wouldn’t be rescued, this had to be accepted. If that were the case, they’d need a plan. Pausing, Sokka glanced over his shoulder and then motioned forward with his arm.
“Come on, Toph. If this place has a hidden entrance, we’ll need you to get us through.”
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