biteoffherhead | [[Action Post]]

[Toph notices the head move her way and she shifts into a bending stance in case the giant wolf spirit decides to attack.] Um. Hello?

[She chuckles.]

How funny. Are you going to fight me?

[Toph frowns. She hates being patronized, and it definitely sounds like the wolf is makng fun of her.]

Not if I don't need to!

[That's true enough. She sure as heck doesn't want to go fighting a big wolf spirit, especially not if she can get sucked into the spirit world. Well, if the wolf can do that here. Wherever 'here' really is.] Are you going to attack me?

...I have no need to eat a child. But if you chose to strike a god, then the repercussions will not be lenient.

A god?

[Well, she's not moving like she wants to attack her, so Toph drops out of stance.] Is that like a forest spirit? We have guardian spirits at home, but I've never met one before.

...Actually most people don't.

[Aang's the Avatar, he doesn't count.] Did they kidnap you too, or do you belong to the forest here?

Pitiful. You humans have become so pitiful and disgusting ever since you abandoned the spirit world.

This forest has very few spirits, very primitive and weak ones. The creatures here are tiny, and barely a bite. What a pitiful state.

[Well, no need to get insulting, she just asked you a question. Geez. And what does she mean 'abandoned the spirit world?' Humans didn't go to the spirit world! (Though that did sound like fun.) She didn't know everything.]

Hey, I'm friends with the Avatar, and he's supposed to be the link between our world and yours! What do you mean 'abandoned the spirit world'?

...is that why the earth here doesn't feel right?

Avatar?

[Hey you stumped her.]

[But...she should know that, shouldn't she? Unless she's from some different world where there isn't any- and that's a bizarre thought.]

You know, he's the spirit of the planet? He's supposed to keep balance and harmony going on between the nations of the world, and he's our link to the spirit world. He actually went there a couple times to talk to the Avatar before him- and once to see this really old, creepy spirit called Koh the face stealer to find out where the moon and ocean spirits were. Turns out they're koi fish in the oasis at the North Pole. Glad I never went there, I'd be blind and freezing.

[Well she wasn't a witness to those stories but you know, as old as she is, she's seen stranger. Like a deer with a human face that turns into a hundred-foot-tall gelatin man with a deer head that wanders around and sucks the life out of things. Yeah that. And her own head will still bite things when it's cut off. Moro's world easily out-weirds what you're describing.]

Sounds a bit like the Spirit of the Forest.

Maybe that's what they call him where you're from.

[Well, she guesses when you're a wolf, the world might as well be the forest, so why not.]

Where I'm from, 'spirits of the forest' are like guardians, and they protect the forests so no one destroys them or does any bad stuff to them. Aang said Hei Bai was a panda- Hei Bai's the spirit for this one forest that got wiped out because of a fire that Fire Nation set. You'd think with all the stuff Fire Nation did, they'd have gotten wiped out by the spirits by now. Do they have Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribes wherever you're from?

Protecting the forest from impudent humans and demons is my job. The Forest Spirit has the charge of granting and taking life, and we lesser gods exist to serve him.

There are no such names for the human tribes any longer. Now that they have weapons, they are perfectly content to either slaughter each other or the gods who punish them for defiling the forest. Even now rests in my chest a poison human bullet, made of the iron pulled from the soil underneath the Forest Spirit's forest.

[Well, the slaughtering each other thing sounds right, since that's what the war was doing for a hundred years. But killing a spirit? Zhao had been the only one who tried doing that, and he was taken out by an angry ocean spirit.] Aang doesn't really take life...Yeah, she remembers there being a big debate about that.] but he did take away someone's bending, which was pretty amazing. And your humans don't have nations any more? I guess they don't bend, either.

...A bullet?

[Now that's something she's never heard of before.] Made out of iron? Does it hurt?

The Forest Spirit gives life, and takes it away. Life and death are his alone to take. And the lawless humans would seek to cut off his head.

[Yeah that growling is extremely loud by now.]

It rattles my bones and aches my body. It's an iron slug that was shot into my body with a human rifle that the humans dared to fire at me, as well as setting me aflame.

[That growling is really scaring Toph, and she does not scare easy. And then there's that bit about cutting off the Forest Spirit/Avatar's head that also makes her unnerved, because that hits close to home, too.] Yeah. They wanted to kill, Aang, to. But he's safe and we won't let them take him, anyway. [Looks totally determined, saying this.]

Well...if it's...okay...? I could take it out. It might hurt a lot coming out, though, if it's in your body. I'm an earthbender, and iron is just another kind of earth. [And she has no idea how to deal with spirits, especially not angry, injured ones. If Aang was here, he could do this so much better. Only without the metalbending, which was necessary. Shoot.]

[Instead, she laughs at you, Toph.]

Stop laughing! I'm serious! You don't want it out, fine!

[Stomps her foot like kids are wont to do, and the earth under it shatters in a mini-earthquake.]

You're a fool to think that I would trust a human for a single moment.

What? What can I possibly do to you?

[Besides, it's not like it's easy for someone Toph's size to get up close and personal with a GIANT PREDATOR, no matter how badass that Toph-sized person may be!]

The spirits have no qualm working to your will. You could do a great deal if you were fast enough.

Of course, you would still die.

Edited 2009-12-10 19:23 (UTC)

Well...

[Okay, she's torn between being somewhat complimented by a giant, badass wolf about being possibly badass enough to take down aforementioned wolf, and being told she would die. She begs to differ. But probably not right now. Getting into fights with a giant wolf spirit = bad idea. Remember Zhao.] I guess that's right, fine.

[Deflates.]

I wouldn't say the spirits are totally qualmless. Ever since I got here, it's been a lot harder to bend. The earth just doesn't feel right.

My head will still bite if cut from my body.

...The spirits are weak here.

Edited 2009-12-10 19:32 (UTC)

Woah, really? Cool! Can you put it back on again?

Spirits are weak? Is it because the humans here are doing what you said and trying to kill them?

[Toph is just really unnerved by that happening. Nothing good happens if you mess around with stuff like that. And why would anyone do that? What was wrong with people? Maybe there's a war over here about that, too. Only no Avatar.] Or are the Malnosso jerks who kidnapped the rest of us here doing it?

No. Unlike the immortal spirits, I breed so my slot is filled rather than being completely immune to such a thing. It makes my fangs that much deadlier to be a solid being.

Within my forest, the humans are destroying the forest so they can get iron from the soil. They kill the gods to continue their selfish, destructive behavior. But they will learn the hard way. Once the head of the Forest Spirit is cut off, all will die.

[Moro pauses at mention of the Malnosso, though ever briefly.]

No. This world is simply weaker.

[Toph is frowning at all of that. It sounds like something went really badly in the wolf spirit's world, but the Avatar there should be keeping the balance. The Forest Spirit sounded like he was in a lot of trouble. And destroying a forest just to get some iron? Wasteful. But since they couldn't bend, maybe they were that much messier with their digging and tunneling. They sounded like the worst of the Fire Nation in the war.

All of this heavy, spirit, death talk is making Toph depressed about her world. Especially since it sounds like what could have happened if Aang hadn't showed up. She shakes her head.] That sounds wrong. Isn't anyone stopping them? The Avatar there should be keeping balance- if you still have one. He's supposed to make sure that the human world and the spirit world stay all balanced! Did they get him, too?

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