shatterverse | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

In Metropolis, there is a man in a dark suit. He's of a sort of non-descript middle age, not specifically young but nowhere near old.

As for what he's doing?

He's looking around. Learning. Absorbing local color. Picking up the lingo (which isn't as hard as it should be) and the customs. Occasionally having a meal somewhere and libating to that ever so beneficent monarch of the dead, Hades, just so he can explain the custom to curious onlookers. Carefully working minor miracles wherever it'll do the most good-- and once again, advertizing for the once and future Lord of the Underworld. Looking at maps, trying to figure out where he can start an underworld on this continent.

It's not his world. There's a lot to learn.

Good thing he got the brains in the family.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Toph doesn't need to look around to know that there's no one around who could be particularly hurt by this. She does take a second to decide what to do.

Then she breathes in, raises her hands, shifts a foot...

...and the concrete under their feet thunders up in the formation of a very small seismic platform.

... That was definitely a thrill-- Hades was expecting something in the near distance. A performance. Being a volunteer, now, that was something he hadn't been looking for.

Hey, where he's from, even the gods can't predict everything.

He looks over the edge, checking to see how high they are. "That would get you a long way towards hero status, back where I'm from," he tells her.

Despite the whole 'girl' thing. Who's going to tell her she's not supposed to get all up in the heroics when she can throw rocks like that at you?

Toph smirks proudly.

"Yeah, I'm a hero at home," she says. "Sort of."

"Only sort of?" Hades stops himself just shy of waving a hand and lowering the slab she's raised. Which is to say he makes an aborted gesture with his left hand.

Hey, she felt that. But she doesn't put them down.

"Hey, it's not like I'm the Avatar or anything."

Beat.

"I'm just his best friend."

Well. There's street just hanging out there. Awkward questions could ensue, Hades thinks. He's done pretty well so far with this whole mortal guise thing. Still, that means not moving things in front of the girl who sees through ground.

"The Avatar of who? ... Or possibly what?" Avatars, he's familiar with-- the Egypt nearest his Greece was ruled by one.

This is the point where everyone who knows Avatar canon goes 'Inorite?', on account of the very name not making sense.

Toph, however, says "the great bridge between the physical world and the spirt world. Master of all four elements. He's got all this cosmic spirit power."

It would be awesome, if he hadn't taken so long to learn to move a rock. Nevertheless, Toph knows enough to punctuate 'cosmic spirit power' with appropriate finger-wiggling movements.

Hades-- or perhaps his narration-- resists the urge to paraphrase Inigo Montoya, and instead takes his cue from another phrase. "Cosmic spirit power, huh? Sounds like a big deal."

This time Hades completes that little offhanded gesture-- concrete and dirt and all sink back into their original places, seams fusing as if nothing untoward had ever happened on this little patch of sidewalk at all, all perfectly innocent.

There may be wisps of smoke. It's a style thing.

Earth and fire. It's an interesting combination, really.

But is it hot?

"You're not a 'bender'" Accusingly. It didn't feel like proper bending.

Only where it needs to be, along the seams. Concrete probably shouldn't weld itself back together, really, but one of the things gods are good at is telling the laws of physics to sit down and shut up.

"Nope. Different world. Different rules."

Some Earthbenders can do it, too. If necessary.

"OK," Toph says. "How'd you do it?"

"Hm. Somehow I don't think you'd be impressed with the big mysterious divine powers act." Actually, he suspects she'd just keep pushing until she got bored or he got irritated enough to smite her.

So instead there is the careful but subtle assurance taken that nobody will stumble across them, and Hades asks, "Wanna see?"

"I can't see." Toph pulls her cheeks down to overemphasise her lack-of-seeing.

She assumes he was offering a demonstration and picked the wrong metaphor.

"True, poor word choice, I admit that. Sometimes the jokes fall flat, it happens. But somehow? I think you'll get the idea."

Because there's a lot of smoke and heat pouring from somewhere in 'Aiden's' immediate vicinity, warming the concrete. Building a shape around him and over him that... is made of smoke, yeah, but seems to have a weight and a substance that smoke just doesn't...

The thing about smoke is that there is ash and dust in there, so Toph can get some sort of feel of what's going on. Also, there's the heat.

"OK, that's like firebending."

She's actually fighting not to sound impressed.

The smoke resolves into a shape, a long chiton hemmed in trailing smoke and a considerably taller body and there's no trace of the mortal anymore-- sure, he's got a proper biology, but it only really seems to work if he's using it.

Oh, and his head's on fire. Quietly so. But it's the sort of thing one might find worth noting.

"Slightly more involved," says a voice that is at once the same as it was and more present than it was, "But fire's a specialty, too."

Actually, Toph doesn't notice the head-on-fire thing. It doesn't leave the right impression and istn' touching the earth. But she can pick up the change in body better.

- "OK, that's pretty cool."

She means it's awesome. But she's Toph, and isn't going to meniton it

"I do try," Hades agrees. "Name's Hades. Lord of the Dead, God of the Underworld as soon as I get one together, Ruler of stuff that happens beneath the ground."

Thus you are interesting, awesome earthbending kid.

"If slightly displaced. Still getting attuned with the primal forces of whatever-- it's a process."

"So you're like a spirit."

'Like' not 'is'. Toph's adjusting things to her worldview, and she's not bad at it.

"How's the process?"

He gets the concept, even if he's skewing it towards his worldview. "Like. I'd guess a little bigger. But like, yeah.

"The process is... processing. This is one screwed up world, kiddo. Lots to get working again."

Well, it's the first time Toph's ever met a spirit. Now she feels one up over Sokka, and Katara...

...She feels guilty for feeling superior to Katara now.

"Well, good luck with it."

it's not like she can help, right?

Hey, dead happens.

"Thanks.

"... Hey, I don't suppose I could interest you in worship? Nothing strenuous, promise. And it's not like you wouldn't get anything out of the deal."

...

Give Toph a second while she figures this out.

"What would I get out of it?"

"Generalized blessings-- basically good luck-- and the right to call on a little divine intervention in extremes." Hades clears his throat and stands up a bit straighter. "Course, the formal version is a little more along the lines of 'My blessings and good fortune to you for your praise, O mortal, and call upon the name of Hades, Host of Many, in your times of need and I shall aid.' But I think we can skip the purple prose."

Toph considers this.

"...I'm pretty good. Don't need that much luck."