capeandcowllogs | FINALLY THEY MEET

Entry tags:

FINALLY THEY MEET

who:

name
where: Central Park, the Columbus Circle Fountain which is now a monument to Captain America.
when: Monday, whenever
warnings: Metalbending.
summary: Toph is fixing the monument she made two years ago after it was damaged in the stupid rebellion thingy that'd just ended. Erik is going to cross her path.
format: WORDS WORDS WORDS

Toph scowled to herself, grumbling. Stupid people and their stupid fighting in the park and stupid breaking of her damn statue! She'd worked so hard on it, too! ...Though two years later, she definitely noticed things she could've improved on, seeing as it was her first major sculpture and all. No time like the present to fix it, yeah? Especially since his head had been taken pretty much off, an arm fallen, and the shield broken, among other damage. Grr.

She huffed to herself as she forcefully pulled out a dent in the statue's chest, two quick hand motions doing the job easily before several more smoothed out the surface into a uniform texture. It was best to get all the bits back together before really repairing it, right? Giving the warm metal a pat, she jumped from the stone platform she'd raised from the base of the fountain to get to the right height, landing with a ripple of the cement sidewalk below.

She ignored the small crowd that had gathered to see what she was doing. Time to get that arm back up.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It was not the first time that Erik had visited Central Park, but he certainly had not had a chance to explore the full extent of the park yet. He surveyed the signs of the recent unrest within the City as he made his way through the park. It was obvious that some clean up efforts had been made since then, though the job was far from done and there were still numerous signs of destruction and disarray. It was certainly unfortunate that a lovely park had to suffer such a fate.

Erik had come on his walk in an attempt to relax, though that did not stop him from doing what he could to clean things up a bit as he made he walked-- partially because using his powers could be meditative in its own way. On occasion he would bend a metal signpost back into place, or raise an overturned trashcan upright while smoothing out the dent in it.

Eventually the mutant found himself before a large fountain and statue. It was impressive in its own right, and the monument to Captain America would have drawn his attention at any point in time. What was more fascinating to him at the moment was the girl in the process of repairing it. He made his way to the front of the small crowd to get a better look, and took a moment to simply appreciate her handiwork.

"Impressive," he commented, raising his voice just slightly.

"Thanks," she replied absently, in the middle of attempting to get the severed arm back to where it needed to be. Even with the odd sort of levitation an earth/metalbender could manage, it was difficult. Annoyingly so. Kimg Bumi'd probably have no trouble with it, but she didn't want to break anything else in the process and his methods tended toward collateral damage. She'd already had a hard enough time restoring the intricate carving details on the fountain itself.

Hands fisted on her hips, the girl stepped back for a minute, frowning as she tried to figure out exactly what she'd need to do raise it that high without accidentally destroying the fountain. Her head tipped back, letting her long black hair fall out of her face for a moment while she contemplated.

Erik tilted his head slightly as he continued to watch her work. Her technique was quite interesting to him and he was curious if her powers worked differently than his own. It was fascinating to find out about the powers of others, even if they did not call themselves mutants. He found himself curious if she had a hand in creating this statue in the first place or if she had simply decided to repair the damage to it, and made a mental note to possibly ask about that later.

It was not difficult for Erik to realize that the girl seemed to be having trouble with the fallen piece of the statue. "Do you need some help?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. As he spoke he focused on the metal beam within the arm piece meant to give the structure additional support and easily raised it up beside the statue with a wave of his hand.

"Whoa!" Toph exclaimed as the large piece just...completely vanished from her vision. Going very still, she 'listened' for it, trying to figure out where exactly it had gone by the vibrations it would transmit through any surface it touched.

She didn't find it, but she did, however, notice the guy who'd just said something and raised his hand. Turning toward him, she tilted her head.

"...What did you do?"

Erik was not unused to surprise in reaction to the use of his powers. He was yet to realize that the younger imPort was blind, and was left to assume that the shock was simply at the movement of the piece rather than related to her inability to see it. He studied the statue for a moment, making sure that the arm piece was angled properly before he settled it against the body of the statue and focused on making the metal reattach itself. A crack still ran through the stone of the statue, but the piece would now stay in place long enough for that to be repaired.

"I manipulated the metal within the statue," he replied simply. It was not something he felt a need to hide, particularly not in a city full of imPorts that the public was fully aware of.

Now that it snapped back into her awareness, she grinned in his direction, then 'bent a platform for herself to get back up to the arm so she could fix the crack and keep it in place. At his explanation, she whirled around in surprise and excitement.

"You're a metalbender? I'm the only one I've ever met before! How did you learn! I invented it on my own back home!"

Erik blinked at the sudden display of enthusiasm, and could not help but smile just a bit. He had been called a metalbender before by the girl who could control fire, and idly wondered if this girl was from the same world as her. He filed that question away for later. "I was born with these abilities, though they developed with age." He pushed aside thoughts of some of the particulars of his own training with his powers.

"I think 'benders are born able to do it, too, but you've gotta be trained. At least, that's how most people do it. I learned from the source," She replied, turning back to smooth the crack in the rock over. It melded together under her deft fingers, as if it had never existed, and she brought her platform back down so she could talk to him more closely.

"So you do stuff with metal, huh? How about rocks and dirt?" It was obvious to her that they went hand in hand. Probably not so obvious to him.

Erik nodded, understanding the need to be trained. As the girl moved closer, he began to notice the way her hair fell in her eyes and that she did not seem to actually focus her gaze in the direction of what she was paying attention to. It was subtle, but it was the sort of thing he had learned to pay attention to. It was interesting, but he did not intend to say anything about it yet.

"No, just metal I'm afraid," he replied. The question had seemed odd for a moment, but he had already witnessed her abilities, and it did not take him long to make the connection between metal and earth.

"Yeah? Well, you just got drafted to help me finish fixing this statue, congrats. Could you do the same thing with that half of the shield?" She asked, pointing toward the battered piece of sculpture on the ground.

Clearly expecting him to help.

She wasn't the sort to accept no for an answer, obviously, and she'd likely retaliate if he just walked away. New favorite person, you've made her job so much easier, and no way you're gonna get out without helping.

Erik chuckled just a bit, raising an eyebrow at the girl's forwardness. It was a simple enough request, which had him giving a slight nod. "Of course," he replied.

He focused his attention on the dislodged piece of sculpture that she had indicated, moving his hand and he lifted it and lined it up with the statue as he had with the other piece. He welded the metal inside of it together, though he still kept his hold on the piece until the stone could be smoothed together once more so that the weight of it did not cause it to break again.

Edited 2011-08-31 11:53 (UTC)

Yessss that made her job so much easier.

"Awesome, thanks," she beamed, raising another platform for herself to stand on with a stomp of one bare foot. One rather dirty bare foot. But then again, being an Earthbender, some amount of dirt was excused, right? That was her thought of it, anyway.

Once the shield was smoothed back into place, Toph worked at the details of it - figuring she might as well fix them while she was up there. It only took a few minutes, and then she was shifting her platform to let her stand on the sidewalk again.

"You must be kinda new in town, huh?" She queried, not having recognized his voice at all. Had to be new. Ish, at least. Last couple months, maybe? Yeah.

Erik patiently watched the younger imPort work, appreciating the craftsmanship that went into the statue. It was not often that he encountered others who could use their powers to create in such a way. His own reputation tended to lean more toward one of destruction, but that did not mean that he had never appreciated using his powers in other ways.

"Yes, relatively. I arrived in late July," he replied. "Have you been here for long?"

Out of all the types of 'bending, Earth was best suited to creation. Sure, you could create ice sculptures with Waterbending - and the Northern Water Tribe's whole capital was made of such ice - but when you got down to it, Earth was the best. Of course, she was totally biased, but hey, them's the breaks.

Toph's face fell slightly, and she sighed at the reminder of just how far removed she was from her homeworld, running a dusty hand through her hair to get it out of her face.

"Two and a half years or so now. Which reminds me, I'm gonna be 15 sometime soon."

Erik was surprised by that information. He had heard that there were people who had been here for years, but this was the first time that someone had directly spoken to him about the matter. Still, he was having trouble bringing himself to be too worried about how long it might be before he was returned home. His stay in the City could not be too bad, so long as Charles and Raven were there as well.

"Do you have any friends or family here?"

"Friends, yeah. I've made a bunch of them," she replied, remembering just how many of those friends she'd lost to the 'Porter's whims. There'd been so many. Kotomi, Ken, Pikachu, Link, Ness, Metabee, Kogenta, Koltira, Liadrin, Mary, Quatre, and so on and so forth.

"What sucks is that you make friends, and the 'Porter keeps taking them away. It..happens a lot. Eventually it's hard to want to make new ones."

Erik gave a nod at that. He had not been around long enough to experience it himself, but he had considered the possibility. He simply hoped that the Porter's choice in bringing he and Charles into the City at practically the same time remains consistent; he is not sure how he would feel to be in a foreign world without his closest companion. "I can... understand that."

She shrugged a shoulder, fidgeting with the black metal band on one arm, twisting it into a new configuration while she talked to him. It had been a rough few years, in her estimation.

"But it's good, too. There's so much stuff I never could've dreamed about back home. And not just food and things, but machines and cities bigger than Ba Sing Se, and stuff like that! And I run my own team, together with Lyra."

Erik seemed curious at that. The way that she manipulated the metal band at her arm did not escape his attention. "Is this world very different from your own?" He was coming to realize that others who had been brought here had experienced a much bigger change from what they were accustomed to than he had himself.

She moved it in her fingers like clay, almost. Then pulled it off, mashing the whole thing into a ball in her hands and rolling it around.

"Yeah, it really is. At least I think so. We didn't even have electricity or anything like that." Shrug. She's gotten so used to this world that it's hard to think of what she'd do when she got sent back. If she even wanted to go back. But that wasn't something she wanted to talk about, not really. Or think about.

"What about you? How different is this from where you're from?"

He raised an eyebrow at that, and wondered just how much of a time difference existed for her, or if it was even a comparable timeline. "It is not so different. I was brought here from 49 years in the past, but the world itself seems largely the same." The version of 1962 that he had read about in this world seemed to be the same as his own, at least, though without the presence of mutants.

Not even comparable, really.

"Well, you had that to base on at least! The continents here aren't even the same as mine. And there are so many countries. We only had four."

With a few finger flicks, she removed most of the accumulated dirt and dust from herself, sending it over to settle in a nearby flowerbed.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

FINALLY THEY MEET

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject