[avatar] tenacity
My habit of introspective drabbling about words seems to have carried over.
Toph one-shot. Same post-series timeline as previous drabble shhhh, let me live in my ficverse. Maybe I should make a series out of these?
-----
She hears the whispers. Delicate, one hisses into the ear of his companion. Tragic, says one of the more fluttery-looking court ladies. Pitiful, dismisses another, and she cannot restrain the involuntary spasm that clenches her fist. Lovely but strange... a daring one muses, trailing off; and while she gives a mental eyeroll at this pronouncement, she also gives this man grudging credit at not attempting to sum her up in one word like the rest of the company seems to so enjoy doing as a pastime.
The fluttery one suddenly gives a start, and the entire herd of chattering cattle is alerted to her presence. She sighs. The pastime has ended for the evening, then. How disappointing.
"Lady Bei Fong, it is an honor--"
The heavy fan in her hand flicks open, sounding in the sudden silence of conversation, and she does not hide her face behind it. Rather, her long fingers ensure that the fan remains splayed upon her palm. Lowered eyelashes raise innocently, blank green eyes entreating-- and having the pleasant side effect of being unnerving. She feels the shudders of those less able to conceal them, and quashes the hurt of rejection; "Do continue your conversations," says the gracious hostess. She has long since learned to play the games of the upper class.
The clustered nobility is, for a blessed moment, at a loss for words.
"Though..." With a speed that belies her disability, she moves to the center of the circle of vultures. "May I suggest that if you aim to be succinct, the word 'multifaceted' is more accurate?"
Eyes narrow almost imperceptibly; at safer distances, muttering begins anew with all the subtlety of a pack of mice, and she purses her lips. This will not do.
Her foot extends from the hem of her robes daintly, and with the turn of an ankle, the ground rumbles.
The point gets across.
---
Well after the guests disperse, Toph finds herself seated on a stone bench close to the gardens. Her evening finery is wrinkled and likely shows the scuff marks that come from traversing the grounds of the estate. She can hear her mother's voice in her head berating her for her carelessness, but even if she could see them, she wouldn't have cared. Her servants are capable enough to make sure that she's presentable for as long as she needs to be. And when it comes to the intrigue of such occasions, being blind is useful; she can't be fooled by appearances, and fancies herself a better judge of character because of it. Keeping up appearances doesn't matter after no one's left to see them.
However, she is left to think.
Multifaceted, indeed. She has come a long way from the girl who dominated Earth Rumble; now shackled by responsibility, her facets are left to glimmer dully in a jewelry box. Like the facets of an antique diamond--
No, not a diamond. Diamonds are hard but brittle; though formed from much pressure and strife, a bit of stress applied at the right angle will make them shatter.
She reaches up. The gold pins holding her hair tightly together fall to the ground with a gentle ting. She sighs, wincing as her scalp relaxes; her other hand is already undoing the fastening on her top robe, and the robe falls to the ground when she stands up. She gives a mental apology to the servant who manages her wardrobe, knowing the screeching that will ensue when she sees the hard-to-clean garment upon the bench the next morning; at least Toph folds them these days.
She self-consciously smoothes one hand over her customary traveling outfit, and waits.
A welcome gust of wind ruffles her hair, erasing any remnants of her constricting formal hairstyle, and she smiles at the bison-shaped silhouette she knows is hovering on the other side of the garden wall. This is a facet that she has missed sorely.
"Ready to go?" calls a familiar voice, and Toph finally grins.
"As ready as I'll ever be," she says, and taps the ground with a foot.
As she rises into the air on a pillar of earth, she berates herself for ever having thought of diamonds. She doesn't need faces and sides cut into her; and besides, while it is softer, jade is easily stronger than diamond.
-----
As Avatar consumes my brain thoroughly, I have another drabble, a story idea, and a drabble-story in the works, requiring me to be innovative and try something new (such as, oh, actually completing them), the latter two being inspired by my trip last June. In all honesty, if there's any one factor that made me take the final leap back into writing stories, it would be that trip, and the multitudes of pictures I took.
There are still breathtaking sights that have survived the Westernization of the country.
Toph one-shot. Same post-series timeline as previous drabble shhhh, let me live in my ficverse. Maybe I should make a series out of these?
-----
She hears the whispers. Delicate, one hisses into the ear of his companion. Tragic, says one of the more fluttery-looking court ladies. Pitiful, dismisses another, and she cannot restrain the involuntary spasm that clenches her fist. Lovely but strange... a daring one muses, trailing off; and while she gives a mental eyeroll at this pronouncement, she also gives this man grudging credit at not attempting to sum her up in one word like the rest of the company seems to so enjoy doing as a pastime.
The fluttery one suddenly gives a start, and the entire herd of chattering cattle is alerted to her presence. She sighs. The pastime has ended for the evening, then. How disappointing.
"Lady Bei Fong, it is an honor--"
The heavy fan in her hand flicks open, sounding in the sudden silence of conversation, and she does not hide her face behind it. Rather, her long fingers ensure that the fan remains splayed upon her palm. Lowered eyelashes raise innocently, blank green eyes entreating-- and having the pleasant side effect of being unnerving. She feels the shudders of those less able to conceal them, and quashes the hurt of rejection; "Do continue your conversations," says the gracious hostess. She has long since learned to play the games of the upper class.
The clustered nobility is, for a blessed moment, at a loss for words.
"Though..." With a speed that belies her disability, she moves to the center of the circle of vultures. "May I suggest that if you aim to be succinct, the word 'multifaceted' is more accurate?"
Eyes narrow almost imperceptibly; at safer distances, muttering begins anew with all the subtlety of a pack of mice, and she purses her lips. This will not do.
Her foot extends from the hem of her robes daintly, and with the turn of an ankle, the ground rumbles.
The point gets across.
---
Well after the guests disperse, Toph finds herself seated on a stone bench close to the gardens. Her evening finery is wrinkled and likely shows the scuff marks that come from traversing the grounds of the estate. She can hear her mother's voice in her head berating her for her carelessness, but even if she could see them, she wouldn't have cared. Her servants are capable enough to make sure that she's presentable for as long as she needs to be. And when it comes to the intrigue of such occasions, being blind is useful; she can't be fooled by appearances, and fancies herself a better judge of character because of it. Keeping up appearances doesn't matter after no one's left to see them.
However, she is left to think.
Multifaceted, indeed. She has come a long way from the girl who dominated Earth Rumble; now shackled by responsibility, her facets are left to glimmer dully in a jewelry box. Like the facets of an antique diamond--
No, not a diamond. Diamonds are hard but brittle; though formed from much pressure and strife, a bit of stress applied at the right angle will make them shatter.
She reaches up. The gold pins holding her hair tightly together fall to the ground with a gentle ting. She sighs, wincing as her scalp relaxes; her other hand is already undoing the fastening on her top robe, and the robe falls to the ground when she stands up. She gives a mental apology to the servant who manages her wardrobe, knowing the screeching that will ensue when she sees the hard-to-clean garment upon the bench the next morning; at least Toph folds them these days.
She self-consciously smoothes one hand over her customary traveling outfit, and waits.
A welcome gust of wind ruffles her hair, erasing any remnants of her constricting formal hairstyle, and she smiles at the bison-shaped silhouette she knows is hovering on the other side of the garden wall. This is a facet that she has missed sorely.
"Ready to go?" calls a familiar voice, and Toph finally grins.
"As ready as I'll ever be," she says, and taps the ground with a foot.
As she rises into the air on a pillar of earth, she berates herself for ever having thought of diamonds. She doesn't need faces and sides cut into her; and besides, while it is softer, jade is easily stronger than diamond.
-----
As Avatar consumes my brain thoroughly, I have another drabble, a story idea, and a drabble-story in the works, requiring me to be innovative and try something new (such as, oh, actually completing them), the latter two being inspired by my trip last June. In all honesty, if there's any one factor that made me take the final leap back into writing stories, it would be that trip, and the multitudes of pictures I took.
There are still breathtaking sights that have survived the Westernization of the country.