pslplz | Winter Is Coming

"We should make the harbor bigger," said Ouka, decisive in the way that predicted absolute obedience. She tried to bend up another sheet of ice, to start forming another dock, but it wasn't too long before she lost interest in the steadiness and attention to detail required.

The foreign ship dropping anchor further out in the cold sea was an absolute eyesore, and Ouka was watching carefully for signs of the black snow. There seemed to be less smoke in the air, and with the landing party coming in small groups on rowboats, it made the Fire Nation seem much more controlled than it had been at the Northern Siege.

She squinted at the leading rowboat, and grabbed onto Omi, trying to pull him forward. "I think I see them!"

---

"...There is going to come a point, and that point not far off, where you can't hide behind me."

He said this for Zuko's benefit, because his forehead was resting between Sokka's shoulder blades. Earlier, Sokka was willing to chalk that up to uneasy sleep before having to walk into the village he'd attacked, but he'd had time to wake up.

Zuko promptly removed the flame-shaped crown from his topknot.

"You are still taller than me," and Sokka hated to point that out, "but that isn't what I meant."

"...Right," Zuko admitted, about as reluctantly as if his sister said she had a surprise waiting for him and he should close his eyes. "I guess I don't want you to get hit if they attack me."

"I promise no one is going to attack you. Katara was the highest hurdle to clear. Everyone else is a piece of cake."

"You can seriously predict the reactions of everyone in your village."

"With stunning accuracy. We have no secrets in our village. Trust me, I wish we did. When Suno's husband is supposed to bring back trout-smelt and comes with lobster-crab instead, you really wish you could block out the--"

"I'll stop hiding behind you just so I don't have to hear anymore."

"Suit yourself," said Sokka, although Zuko didn't have anywhere to go inside of a tiny rowboat. He did replace his crown, sit up straight, and get that careful, thoughtful, adult look on his face-- the one that almost looked like Azula when she was plotting, but less murderous.

He turned his attention to the people gathering on the shore, and grinned when he saw faces that weren't as familiar as the home folks, but still welcome. He grinned and waved to Omi and Ouka.

"Sorry I couldn't be there to show you around!" he yelled.

Omi, too, was watching the tiny fleet of rowboats coming from the anchored ship in the distance with no small degree of trepidation. It was difficult to see a Fire Nation ship and not think enemy. Or danger. Especially difficult considering Ouka was here too.

With his attention on the boats, Ouka's latching his arm caught him by surprise.

"Wuahh!" He cried as she tugged him so hard he nearly lost his balance. Omi grimaced following this outburst, then straightened himself out to squint at the approaching boats. As the figures drew into focus, and the one in front waved, he beamed and returned the gesture. It looked like Ouka was right.

"That's okay-- you can show us around now!" He cheekily said, knowing full well that, considering the state of the village now versus how it was when they arrived, it might well be Sokka who would need a bit of direction. They'd made tremendous progress in rebuilding; the village was larger, better fortified, and more organized.

He fashioned a ridged platform of ice in the water and jumped on with Ouka to meet them midway, propelling them forward with waterbending.

The excitement vanished quickly as the people on the boat became clearer. Of course he was still elated to see Sokka again, but the young man behind him-- Omi skidded them to a halt, still several meters away from the boat.

"Um. Sokka...?"

You sort of have a Fire Nation guy sitting behind you.

Not hard to follow Omi's direct line-of-sight.

"Have you met my very good buddy Zuko?" Rhetorical questions are the best kind. We'll get into his proper title so much later, but Sokka grins as hard as he can and throws an arm around the Fire Lord. He's allowed to do that. The Fire Lord blinks in confusion at the suddenness of it, but doesn't bite or spit flames or anything even remotely evil.

He waits a second for Zuko to follow-up on that, then elbows him. He's allowed to do that, too, and Zuko's eyes narrow in annoyance -- Sokka can feel the moisture in the air immediately around him evaporate, too, in the sudden temperature rise -- before he clears his throat and lets the air go back to its usual frigidity.

"It's a pleasure to meet any of Sokka's friends," Zuko said formally. "I, uh, apologize for not, um, sending a message ahead?"

It's been a lot of hard work, but he's perfectly domesticated now.

Omi felt a pit in his stomach. Sokka couldn't be serious-- very good buddy? Not that Omi didn't trust the guy, but on every logical level it shouldn't be possible. In fact every instinct within Omi told him to fall back to the land and get ready for a fight. How could he feel otherwise? Images from the siege on the Northern Tribe were burned into his memory. He remembered flaming boulders streaking the sky. He remembered the quaking beneath his feet from their crashes into the wall, into walkways, into homes. He remembered screaming. He remembered black snow. He remembered the searing roar of flames cutting across the battlefield, the ashen smell, the burning in his throat, the blazing orange heat that was so out of place in their pristine city of blue. He remembered paralyzing hollowness and terror the moment the moon went out.

He remembered the price their princess had paid to bring it back.

"I'm Omi of the Northern Water Tribe," he finally said. "This is my cousin, Ouka. We were there when the Fire Nation tried to wipe us out a few months ago."

Omi trusted that introduction communicated everything Zuko needed to know. All considered, it was far more cordial a greeting than was warranted. That was for Sokka.

Omi turned to him. "It's been a long time... Welcome home."

Well, Zuko didn't get this far by avoiding pain. Or by being indirect.

"My name is Zuko, and I am the new Lord of the Fire Nation," he said. Averting eye contact with a shallow kowtow seemed appropriate, however.

"It's my wish that we of the Fire Nation may have the opportunity to heal even a fraction of the pain we've wrought on this world, to help restore the balance that we so callously threw aside. I am here only to seek those opportunities."

"Keep wishing!" Ouka spat. She'd been holding on to Omi with both arms, but she needed at least one hand on her hip. "When the Fire Nation was done with the North Pole, it was hardly more than the Southerners have now!"

Zuko did look up with a flinch, but didn't really have an answer for that.

That pit in Omi's stomach grew. The words that came to his mind were at odds with the social expectations. Sokka had said Zuko was a good friend, and Omi didn't understand why or how. He'd thought Sokka understood, having been as close to Princess Yue as he was, however brief the time together. And so he could think of no rebuke for Ouka. Her anger was justified, just as his was. The difference in their feelings was purely in temperature.

Never forgive the bad ones.

Zuko had the decency not to argue with her, and Omi took that as a signal that it may be best to put a buffer between them while he and Ouka processed the new Fire Lord's presence among them. He shifted the ice boat to head back for the harbor.

"We'll wait at the village for you." A nod to Sokka, and he pushed them back off to land. Setting aside their own feelings, it would be a good idea to brace everyone else at the village so they didn't end up caught just as off-guard.

From a nearby rowboat, Toph listened in on the entire conversation, only speaking after her ears told her the two Northern Tribe members were gone.

"Well that was awkward..."

"Awkward is great, compared to bleeding," Sokka said, trying to be encouraging. Didn't always come naturally to him.

"...Right," said Zuko. "Good thing my standards were already that low to start off with."

"Your steadfast realism in the face of all the terrible things in your life is really one of your best qualities," said Sokka.

"By the way," he added for Toph's benefit, "He is rolling his eyes so hard right now that I think they're gonna pop out of his head. Get ready to duck."

You could learn a lot about a person just from listening to them. Without sight to distract her, Toph had gotten pretty dang good at hearing more than words. What wasn't said, what tone was used, where and how long were the pauses, when did they reach for filler words... the list of auditory cues was endless.

From that little exchange, Toph picked up on four facts about Sokka's Northern Tribe friends:

1. Omi was the leader between them.
2. Ouka was the honest type. She wouldn't hesitate to say exactly what she thought or felt. Toph liked that.
3. Omi was a social strategist. He favored diplomacy and keeping his cards close to his chest, and he paid attention to the air-- when he should speak, when he shouldn't, and when it was time to end an interaction.
4. Neither one of them was ready to forgive the Fire Nation yet.

Yet. But Zuko wasn't stupid. He knew the world and its people needed time to heal, and that it would take time for the Fire Nation to atone for a century of attacks, including genocide. He also wasn't weak. He would be there to weather every obstacle and setback, and wouldn't back down until the job was done. Omi and Ouka might be angry and distrustful now, but Toph didn't hear in their voices a hatred with the stamina to withstand Zuko's raw determination.

Which, all said, left her comfortably optimistic about Zuko's prospects here.

"Don't worry, Zuko," Toph said with an air of cheeky cheer. "They just need some time to get used to you, like the rest of us did."

"Guess there's a few more field trips in my future," said Zuko, the grim steel in his voice unknowingly confirming Toph's assessment of him, at least.

"Let's hope they spread the word, though, so you're not stuck finding problems to solve for everyone in the aid party," Sokka said. "You thought Katara was hard to please?"

"You still want your own field trip?" Zuko asked Toph. "Maybe the two of you can start some rumors for me."

"I don't know-- you've got some stiff competition now. Can you beat Sokka's airship jumping?" Toph asked with a grin.

"My sister figured out how to do it without the airship," said Zuko, thoughtful in the way only an adrenaline junkie spotting a steep drop could be. "It won't be as spectacular without the comet, and we'll need to find a place no one can see us, because I highly doubt firebending in public is going to do me any favors, but... there's my offer."

"That's not an offer, that's a suicide pact," Sokka told them.

The rowboat was nearing the dock, and Sokka jumped out to tie the boat up, then caught the rope from Toph's to do the same. He offered a hand to Toph as casually as he could.

He waved good-bye as Dad and Bato came to shepherd Zuko somewhere he could be watched, but not targeted. That was something he was happy to leave to them.

"Toph, you want to listen in while I catch up Omi and Ouka?"

The South Pole was cold for Toph in a way that transcended the temperature outside. It was nothingness, a world that she could not interact with in the way that she knew. Even if it wouldn't give her frostbite to go around barefoot, there was no earth to bend or see with. It sucked: she would have liked to understand Sokka's and Katara's hometown this way.

She clung to Sokka's arm once she was off the boat, a familiar habit that was equal parts pragmatism and self-indulgence.

"Well, I can't exactly go exploring here." Which was Toph for yes, thanks.

"You met at the North Pole, right?"

Edited 2020-02-13 18:52 (UTC)

Sokka matched her pace in such a way that Toph would hopefully not have to hurry or slow down. The little girl who once hated having anybody help her-- it was kind of an honor, right, that she didn't mind it from him. Least he could do was make it painless as possible, and considering that Katara absolutely did not need him for this kind of thing, no matter how hard he tried to keep her out of trouble, well. It was kinda cute, and a good way to exercise his dormant big brother feelings.

"Had to do something while Katara and Aang were learning waterbending, right? There's an incline coming in three steps."

Edited 2020-02-14 18:09 (UTC)

Toph had come a long way. When she ran away from home to join Aang and the others, she only knew two extremes for herself: complete independence and strength as The Blind Bandit, and coerced helplessness under her parents' thumbs. Any perceived order was a threat to her newfound freedom. Any attempt to help was a potential signal her companions didn't think her capable.

Iroh was the first one to open her mind to the reality that most people were not like her parents. Most people wanted to do things for others as gestures of kindness, not as assumptions of helplessness. She got to know her friends better, and became comfortable with the idea of being part of a group rather than a collection of individuals. They showed her a happy middle where it was okay to help others and to be helped yourself, and no one would think less of you for it.

It was the only thing that made it bearable to be literally out of her element here. This wasn't a comfortable place for her, but it beat the alternative. Besides, even if she couldn't see Sokka's and Katara's hometown her usual way, she was still curious about it, and there was no better teacher than experience itself.

"So you got to know the locals better," she surmised. "Is it different there? The Earth Kingdom is big, but it's all one continent. The two water tribes are literally a world apart."

"You can say that again," he muttered. "Put it this way: the Fire Nation mainly stuck to this side."

The Northern capital city was the grandest thing he'd ever seen at the time. Ba Sing Se was bigger, sure, but he didn't think it was bias that called the North Pole lovelier.

"It was weird," he added. "Everything familiar was different, and everything different was even more different. Our sister tribe is just bigger, with more buildings. For that matter, they have buildings. Our village was down to a couple tiny igloos, and most people living in tents that could be easily packed up if there was another raid."

Not that it would have done much good. The aunties and grandmothers would have been trying to wrangle the younger children, and carrying them instead of the tents. Sokka and Katara would have done their best, but there were only two of them, and they were still half-grown.

"...It's still weird to think, that's all over now," he said. "Stupid war's gone on for a hundred years, and we ended it."

Here again: you could learn a lot just from listening to someone. Toph heard a mix of things. Wonder, wistfulness, maybe even an edge of bitterness to how much more negatively the war had impacted his tribe. It probably felt pretty unfair to have taken the brunt of the Fire Nation's attention.

Toph appreciated all of this context, not just about how the tribes were different, but how Sokka had processed it. Already, Toph had a better understanding of where her Water Tribe friends were coming from. And maybe, in the back of her mind, it was a little more context for where Katara specifically had been coming from when she got so bent out of shape those first couple of nights. They were a small and tight-knit community where working as a cooperative unit wasn't just a preference but a survival tactic.

That didn't mean those kinds of feelings were something to dwell on, though, not for either of them. She grinned.

"Yeah, 'cuz we rock!" And let go of his arm long enough to give it a light punch.

Normally, he'd just rub his arm, but since her senses are probably out of wack, he says "Ow!" as he does do.

"Some of us don't rock. Some of us only boomerang," he reminded her. "Unfortunately, we can't sword anymore."

Until he managed to get a new one together. Hey, Master taught him to forge for a reason, right?

"I don't think there's much rock here at all..." You've probably noticed that, but he's thinking out loud. "Even our blades were mostly bone. I was too young at the time to ask where the metal ones came from... but if I ever want to forge a new sw--"

An affronted yell made him roll his eyes.

"What's taking you so long?" Ouka called, hands on hips yet again. Sokka raised his arm.

"I have aNOTHER new friend for you to meet!" he yelled back. "I was giving you time to get ready!"

Right. The space sword. Those moments of dangling from the airship still give Toph chills, because for a minute there, she'd really thought she was going to die. Her grip on Sokka's hand was slipping. Sokka had a hurt leg and couldn't move. She heard the footfalls of two soldiers coming to either side of them, then a shuffle of noises: the foom of flame bursting into existence, the rustle of fabric where Sokka was, a whir and clangs and a yell, another rustle and whir and clangs and yell, and that pained defeat in Sokka's voice.

"Byeeee... space sword."

It was somewhere on the Earth Kingdom's western coastal region. She could probably find it for him with her earthbending, if they went back to the area. Hm.

Once they got back to shore, Omi eyed that half-baked dock Ouka had started with a grimace. If not for the fact she was standing right there, he'd give it a touch-up so it looked like the others... Maybe later. Besides, they had a more important job right now.

He led the way back to the village and created a makeshift platform underneath himself near the center. There he announced that Sokka and his company were returned, and, after the cheers had died down, continued with just who that company included in the most neutral language he could muster. The idea, after all, was to avoid panic.

Just as he finished up, he heard Ouka calling out from the entry. Sounded like the Fire Nation guy must not be along-- she was being way too cheerful for that. Omi hurried over to join her.

A moat surrounded the thick reinforced wall of ice that now circled the village, crossed by a walk of snow-covered ice. Four equidistant towers were built into the wall, the entry centered between one pair. Small portals dotted the wall as well, each one about the height of a standing adult's head. Walkways spanned between the towers near the top so that in an attack, fighters could counter the invasion and be mostly shielded from offensive strikes.

"We're ready!" Omi called back, an eager grin back on his face.

Sokka grins, because this is going to be the fun part.

"This," he slightly raises the arm Toph was holding, "is the single greatest Earthbender in the world."

Just call him the hype-man.

"Not only was she good enough to teach the Avatar, she has done the literal impossible."

Toph, he will let you elaborate from there.

Ouka looks between them skeptically. "It can't be literally impossible if it's possible, Sokka. You're supposed to be smarter than this...!"

New Thing Learned: Sokka singling her out for praise gives her a weird happy feeling in her stomach. It's strange because all he did was speak the truth.

Additional New Thing Learned: on top of being brutally honest, Ouka doesn't think very deeply before shooting off her opinion. Doesn't mean she's stupid, but it might mean she comes off looking it more than she'd like.

"Ouka," Omi scolds with a note of second-hand embarrassment.

"Hey, it's okay," Toph says with her trademark ready-to-deliver-a-smackdown cheer. "We get it: some people think in baby steps. Let's start over. What elements can people bend?"

Sorry Omi, but this is probably going to get worse for you before it gets better.

Ouka's arms cross, "Don't ask such st--"

"I got this," Sokka interjected, smoother than fresh snow. "I believe the answer is water, the best one; earth, the other best one; air, or at this point I guess it's just rare; aaaaaand, you know, fire."

Sokka didn't have a joke for that one. Sure, Aang had talked about the dragons and their warm colors, and he'd developed a taste for the homey tea Zuko brewed over his own fires.

But comedy, good jokes, worked off information the audience had-- tweaked something hidden in the back of their brains that made so much sense that they doubled over laughing, unable to help it, and Ouka and Omi lacked this most crucial context.

"And, of course, clever benders have master various sub-elements of these essential elements," he adds, seeing Ouka opening her mouth. "Though certainly, there are some things that you benders are just powerless against, like the rest of us. Wood comes to mind, but the classical example, the big one, the one of which all weapons are thusly made is--"

He cedes the spotlight to Toph, with a grin roughly the same size and shape as his boomerang.

Omi wishes he could have caught Ouka before she started them down this path. Her unwitting rudeness was bad enough. Sokka and his friend backtracking for a drawn-out layup was even worse. Ouka wasn't lost and didn't need this any more than he did; she just had a tendency to look too hard for hairs to split. The point was now so belabored as to beg inducing.

Maybe he can still salvage this.

"--Metal," he finishes for them, and plasters a big smile on his face. "That's incredible! You really learned to bend metal? How?"

After a beat of silence, Toph grins.

"That's my secret for now. Maybe after I'm world-famous I'll share. But! I can give a demonstration-- assuming you have something metal on you, of course. Preferably something you don't mind getting destroyed."

"Ah... That's okay. We believe you!" Please don't contradict him, Ouka.

Please?

Ouka was already reaching into her pocket before Omi could say anything.

"Metalbending really is impossible, you're not going to make me believe some random little girl from nowhere," at least, nowhere Ouka has heard of, "really managed to figure out something no one's been able to do for all of history?"

She produced a silver bangle her father had given her. It was a little too big for her wrist, so she'd carry it in her pocket if nobody needed to actually see her wearing it, and her confidence in Toph's ridiculousness meant she had no fear of it being ruined.

Besides, if she asked for another one, he'd give it to her.

Sokka, to whom silver was not a replaceable commodity, tried not to sigh. He couldn't get a hold of Katara when she was on a tear, and he doubted Omi had better luck with a cousin and fiancee rather than an annoying little sister.

He put a hand over the one Toph had on him, and squeezed.

"Let's nobody embarrass ourselves," he suggested lightly, hoping Toph would heed the request not to embarrass Ouka too much.

Though Ouka was presumably new to combat-focused waterbending, and though Sokka thought Toph was an excellent choice for someone to teach her a thing or two about the assumptions sheltered kids could make, it was Omi who'd get stuck with the brunt of the backlash.

Toph understands Sokka loud and clear. There's just one problem: he's being way too subtle for Little Miss Can't-Be-Wrong over there. She just said it herself: there's no way they'd make her believe it was true. If they backed down, she was going to crow. Loudly. And she'd take it as Sokka trying to backpedal from a called bluff instead of trying to save her from her own closed mind.

Toph is not down for being accused of lying about her talents and just letting it slide. No. Way.

Still, Ouka's entitled to a chance at the out, so Toph responds with a shrug, as though it doesn't matter to her one way or the other. "Hey, fine by me. I'm not out to embarrass anyone who isn't asking for it."

"Ouka," Omi coaxes, taking her bangle-bearing hand and trying to nudge it back to her pocket, "Just let it be-- let's show them all we've accomplished while they were off saving the world!"

Edited 2020-02-18 22:35 (UTC)

No, not when they think Ouka is stupid. As if metal can really be bent!

"Only firebenders should be able to bend metal, or forgers, it's always been like that," she said stubbornly. "Only fire is powerful and terrible enough to do it."

She yanks her arm back from Omi and offers it to Toph.

"It's just an old thing Dad gave me a few years ago," she added. "Nobody'll miss it."

Called it.

The corner of Toph's lip turns up in a smirk. She holds out her hand at the verbal cue there's something being offered to her, though she's a little dismayed when she actually feels what she's been handed. It's so tiny! Is that it? Can't she have something like a weapon at least?!

"Well... this is pretty light, but I guess it'll work."

It happens like one, two, three. She twists the bangle from a circle to a figure 8. She mashes the outer ends in towards the center, forming two heart shapes joined at the tip. She bends the two halves 3/4ths together, and hands back to Ouka what now looks more like a pair of butterfly wings.

"Oh you just did that with your hands," Ouka says back, angrier than she thought she'd be. She shoves the twisted metal back in her pocket. "I'll hammer it out myself tonight, and nobody'll ever be able to tell the difference."

Were you not...? Sokka thinks. Who is the blind one here? It's not his girl, his bro, the one and the only. His palm connects with his forehead as he realizes exactly what he's about to do, but as he scrubs it down his face, he just feels... whatever. Aang and Katara brought Zuko down on them by doing what he's already planning to do, but as the cogs turn, he figures, you know what? Zuko ended up being a net positive in the long, long, long run. There's no one to signal if another flare goes off anymore.

Plus, it's symbolic or something. A new skill forged in the crucible of the war, destroying (or at least poetically damaging) the scar on his peoples' psyche that always brought it most brutally home?

Hama's handiwork?

Yeah.

"I got something heavier," said Sokka, so unable to stop himself that he's honestly trying to find reasons this is a good idea still. It'll help Zuko, won't it, to not have it in the back of his mind?

Omi's hand rises to cover his face as Ouka writes off the utter mutilation of her bracelet as not even being proof. Toph, meanwhile, can't even find it in her to be angry-- the reaction is too delightfully absurd. She grins wider.

"If I didn't use bending to change its shape then why do you need a hammer? Just straighten it back out here and now," she challenges.

"Jeez, both of you cool it down, will you?" Omi moans. That's about when Sokka cuts in with the best news Toph's heard all day.

"You do?" She asks with dangerous eagerness. "All right!" Honestly, anything that she could bend to ground her to the world again would be welcome.

Sokka doesn't give Ouka a chance to answer, and thereby prevents Omi from trying to stop her. Them's the breaks.

He keeps a hand light on Toph's upper arm and starts to walk.

"We've got some housecleaning for you to do," he says brightly. "Only it's bigger than a house."

His life has been saved by metalbending before, and he's not about to see it disrespected.

His words come out formed by his vicious resigned grin.

"But in order to do this, we're going to have to break Gran-Gran's number one rule. We're going to have to do something against all the known rules."

Toph stops and folds her arms with a disapproving face, shaking her head.

"Sokka, I'm very disappointed in you... Something against all the known rules?"

"Y-yeah... Sokka, maybe we--" Omi doesn't get the chance to finish. Toph breaks into a grin and cuts him off.

"You should've said so sooner! I've been here ten whole minutes."

Omi, now detecting danger in the form of Toph becoming a very bad influence on a certain cousin, takes Ouka by the shoulders and starts steering her back towards the village gate. Ouka was already unruly when her stubborn side surfaced.

"Ouka, come on, we're going back inside. You said yourself metalbending is impossible, right? There's no point taking this any further. I'll try to fix your bracelet."

"Man, you're really terrible at this lying thing," Toph says, her grin unfazed. "I don't even have my earthbending right now."

Edited 2020-02-22 16:03 (UTC)

Somewhere, somehow, Ouka finds the tact to lower her voice. "You know how over the top Sokka is," she insists, her whisper devolving into a hiss as she goes. "He's probably thinking he has a trick of his own to damage the old ship, and he's going to give it to that little girl because she's blind and he feels sorry for her, but things like that always blow up right in his face!"

"Did I not mention she can detect lies?" Sokka asks, hype-man instinct firmly back in place. "Toph's kind of amazing like that. We seriously would not have made it out of the Fire Nation capital alive if it wasn't for her. We probably would not have made it in."

He can see Ouka's excitement heat up as he throws that out. Like a tiger-shark smelling a cloud of blood, she can't think of anything else except getting what she wants.

"Omi, I'm going, with or without you," she declares.

Sometimes, Omi wonders how life manages to go the way it does. How he ended up with a cousin that felt more like an uncontrollable little sister than a fiancée. How said cousin turned out to be so stubborn and easily baited. How nothing could ever be easy when she was involved.

Sometimes, he wonders how much easier life might be if he just didn't care about her so much.

But he does care. She's annoying and bullish and hot-tempered and shortsighted, and he can't imagine not having her around all the time. Deep down, he doesn't want to imagine it, and he doesn't like the idea of her going somewhere dangerous like an abandoned Fire Nation ship without being there himself, if only for peace of mind.

He sighs.

"You're not going without me," he says.

"Then we're going," Sokka said, trying to keep all the feral teeth out of his tone.

For Toph's benefit, he explained on the way. "You remember Hama, right? Well, one of the raids she talked about ended with the waterbenders freezing a Fire Navy ship in ice. It's been just over the horizon for as long as I can remember, and it's all our nightmares wrapped up into one convenient symbolic symbol of..."

Oh, the word fails.

"Everything we've lost," and he's glad Zuko isn't here to look down, or Katara to look fierce, or Aang to look off into the middle distance. Right now, he's the only one who's got this particular baggage, and that much he can shoulder.

"It's been forbidden for anyone of our Tribe to go near it ever since, so you know it was the first thing Aang and Katara did together."

"You're not going without me," Omi says.

Toph thinks of Sokka then. That polluted Fire Nation village on the river with the crazy guy who had two imaginary brothers, and Katara faking Appa's illness to try to help them.

"NO. I will never ever turn my back on people who need me. I'm going down to the village, and I am going to do whatever I can."

"Wait... I'm coming, too."

"I thought you didn't want to help."

"You need me... and I will never turn my back on you."

It feels like something similar playing out here, only instead of a sister who refuses to walk away from people in need, it's a sister-- cousin-- who refuses to walk away from a threat to her ego. And one who apparently thinks little of Sokka himself, a fact that makes Toph angry inside (yes, she heard that lowered voice just fine, thank you).

She keeps quiet for Omi's sake, not least of which because the knowledge these two are engaged has started giving her an uncomfortable feeling she isn't sure she can articulate. Instead, she joins Sokka moving towards this 'housecleaning' project, getting more context as they walk.

Toph tries to process what it had to be like growing up, always having a monument to the Fire Nation's destruction of your people practically in your back yard. And what it might mean now that the war is over, and Sokka and Zuko and Aang and Katara are all trying to rebuild those burned bridges. Probably a memory best buried.

"What, Miss Stickler-For-The-Rules? That's rich!" In a funny way, of course. Katara proved long ago that even if she's more uptight than the rest of them, she's still fun in her own way. It's an irony that Toph doesn't plan to let go without at least a little teasing, though, next time she sees the girl.

"So, housecleaning. I think I can help you here. Might take a few days, of course. A ship is a lot to take apart."

She's only a stickler for her own rules, Sokka doesn't say. "I blame Aang. You know what a bad influence he can be."

The black mass began to take shape on the horizon line, and Sokka grew quieter as it approached. But it was only a ghost. A lot of bad memories given physical form, and how rich it was that this represented one of the vanishingly few, increasingly insubstantial victories their people eked out over the course of that one long century.

He stopped, and stopped Toph, a few yards from the threshold.

"I still am contractually obligated to advise caution going in," he began. "When Katara and Aang went in, they set off a flare that ended with boomerang and Zuko's skull saying how-do-you-do, so not a total loss, but still a bigger hassle than I want to put up with right now."

Toph is taken off-guard when that hand blocks her from moving forward.

"Sokka," she says with a shake of her head, the 'tsk' sound almost literally audible in her tone. "You say that like I won't be able to see literally everything in there."

"He was talking to us," Omi clarifies.

"Oh... Well, that makes a lot more sense."

Sokka grinned, anticipating something really impressive.

"Hey, I know what you're capable of," he said.

Ouka, who could recognize that they were taking this impressively far, crossed her arms.

"If you're trying to scare us off--"

"I am really not," Sokka interrupted her. "Just... go wild already, okay?" He raised an arm, then dropped it, like he was starting a race.

"And don't make me regret the 'wild' part..."

"Heh heh," Toph chuckles quietly, in a way that must sound very menacing if you happened to be a piece of metal.

She takes a few more steps and feels her toe bump up against something hard. She pulls off her glove and stretches her out her hand, but all she feels is--

"Hey, Sokka... Where's the entrance to it?"

Because she knows what she's feeling right now is just ice, and from the feel of it, it goes up a ways.

"Give me a minute," Omi says. He scans the exterior, then steps forward and raises both his arms. From the mass of ice supporting the ship, two ridges about three feet apart rise and refreeze, spanning from the ground up to a hole in the ship's side. He then bends a makeshift staircase in the space between. It isn't his prettiest work, but it will do. It's more important that the steps are consistent.

"Try that. The stairs are just to your right-- there's a railing on either side."

Toph fumbles a bit with her hand still out until she finds the railing. It's only a moment longer to find the stairs themselves. She feels her way up the first, then the second. Then she smiles.

"Thanks, this will work nicely. Ouka, follow me please."

She huffs and she puffs, but this has been going on long enough that something had better happen. And she does want the best seats...

Probably an upside of being blind is that you can't see the look on people's faces as you talk to them, and so it's harder to doubt yourself. Ouka has to always just double down, push forward, and damn the consequences. So she follows.

Below, Sokka lowers his voice-- enough to foil Ouka, but not Toph.

"She's not going to do anything permanent to your fiancee," Sokka whispered to his friend.

For Omi, reassurance; for Toph... the most gentle of reminders!

Toph knows Ouka must be following because she can hear the crunch of snow and ice crystals behind her, the scrape of another mitten on the railing that Omi helpfully added.

She also hears Sokka's reassurance, and Omi's response which, from the sound of it, seems like Sokka's words may have had the opposite intended effect.

"That doesn't make me feel better." Well.

"Hey," Toph says loudly enough for the boys to hear. "Relax, will you? We're just going up to have a chat. Girl talk. You boys can join in a minute."

Ship-trashing will happen and in good time, but first things first: Real Talk with the judgy girl, because you don't talk that way about Toph's friends. Especially not Sokka.

Why do the words 'girl talk' will Sokka with existential dread?

Not so Ouka. She does sense something is not right, but can't begin to put the feeling to rights.

"We can talk about whatever you want," she said, her words filtered through a pout. There wasn't even anything worth pouting about, except that she had no idea what was going to happen, now.

"I know we can. That's the nice part about both of us being the completely honest type." Toph feels the texture under her boots change into something less slick and knows they've made it to the ship. Finally!

Placing her bare hand on the side, she pauses there and spends a few seconds in silence.

"It's fine in this room, but we're not going to go wandering any further. There are a few booby traps I need to take care of first. Step on in."

That's just a good guess, right? The obvious conclusion, of course the enemy ship is booby-trapped; she remembers Katara's and Sokka's stories.

"So what do you want me to be honest about?" she asks. This is not the expected turn, and wasn't Toph supposed to be the one proving things...?

Once she's on sweet, solid metal, Toph yanks off her shoes and MAN that floor is cold but she refuses to put her boots back on already. Looking, looking-- aha.

"First off, let's get rid of this draft."

She runs to the weapons mount on the wall and peels the six-foot square off the wall like it's an old poster. A spin and violent shove, and the slab flies across the room to patch the entrance, denting the frame around it with its overlap.

Does she have your attention now?

Winter Is Coming

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let's test out the new journal i guess

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