008 | What lurks in the dark.

[stillshinigami]

Duo sat on his couch, thankful for the sliders on the legs of it. It took him some effort, but he finally had a nice piece of his property from back in the hanger, complete and in piece except for a tear in one of the pillows. Oh well.

So he sat there, hand against his chin as he watched the rest of the room, watching for Harth. He wanted to see that little runt just to see exactly who he was dealing with. After about an hour of sitting and waiting, drawing with some chalk on the wall he'd pushed the couch against, he saw him. They met eyes briefly and Duo forced himself to have a straight face, deliberately shrugging at the boy who seemed intent to look at him. Look at him like he was his next meal.

Well, there was gonna be none of that.

But as far as who he was, Harth wasn't showing signs of being one of the undead, so once the man went outside into the hot and humid sun he relaxed, laying against the armrest of his couch.

"We're boned... Goddamn... Someone get me outta here."

Comments

[stillshinigami]

Duo grabbed both her shoulders, looking over her shoulder at Harth who was just grinning ear to ear. Fuck!

Eaagh! "Toph, Dammit. I'm serious here. You hang around him anymore and who knows what he's gonna do to you!" Duo grit his teeth, shaking his head as he reached to her hand to trab her.

"C'mon."

[tophbeifong]

Sorry, Duo, she's not going anywhere. Not if he feet sunk ankle-deep into the dirt have anything to say about it.

"What's your problem?" she demanded, glaring at nothing as she tore her hand from his.

"He's not a monster. I don't know why you're so scared of him. He can't do anything to me that I can't stop."

It was true. Without Harth's sleeping spells, Toph had the upper edge. Sure, he was strong, probably fast, and likely not too bothered by many injuries she could inflict, but she'd eat her own feet if he managed to break out of being completely immobilized by solid rock. None of this occurred to her, though. He was just... just Harth. Just a too-thin, scrawny, quiet and shy kid who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and was being accused of so many senseless things.

And Harth certainly couldn't kill Toph.

[stillshinigami]

Duo had to shut up. He couldn't risk saying everything. Backing way from the stubborn girl, he eyed Harth briefly before looking back at the girl.

"You be careful, Toph. Just promise me you won't go anywhere alone with him." He said, starting to run back to the common room. He didn't want to risk saying it right in front of him but there element of surprise was almost certainly ruined.

His only saving grace was that he had a small army behind him to back him up, Toph excluded. Hopefully she'll come and find him later and they can work this out.

[tophbeifong]

Toph stood there, feeling Duo's footsteps as he retreated, a hand on her hip and her head tilted.

Something wasn't right. Duo was scared. He was trying to tell her something. It was like he truly believed that Harth was bad. He wasn't just lying.

Maybe he was just being overprotective. She appreciated it, really. Especially after what had happened to her. She just... well... she'd talk to him later about it.

For the moment, she had to check up on her friend, talk to him, see how he was after that day in the dome

[herotherhalf]

Harth was frowning slightly, but his sour mood didn't last. He lay back and basked in the hot and humid weather of today. It was cloudy, and it smelled like fresh rain was coming. He knew that smell all the better since he arrived here. Back home there wasn't much weather to actually sense aside from an acid rain now and again.

"Toph?" He asks very timidly. "Why's he so upset?"

[tophbeifong]

Toph didn't respond as she threw herself up on the perch with him.

"I don't know. Something. He's just being protective and paranoid. Not that I mind too much, I guess. Not after what happened."

That in mind, she turned her head to him.

"What did happen? Did you get out okay?"

[herotherhalf]

"I've heard paranoia is usually simply one's own self delusion. Don't know why he's trying to direct anything towards me, or if that was just the impression I was getting." Harth shrugged, leaning back to look up at the sky. It was still humid. Seasons are changing.

"When you fell asleep the shadows appeared. I tried to carry you out but they were too many. They took you and I ran." He stiffens slightly, turning his head down.

"I don't... Toph. I'm sorry."

[tophbeifong]

Well, she couldn't blame a guy like Harth for running. He didn't have powers, didn't have Bending, didn't have strength, and hardly had any weight on him if the rib poking she gave him said anything.

They really needed to put some meat on his bones.

She didn't say anything to his response directly, instead hiding her shaken spirit behind a smile and a tough voice.

"I can't wait to get out of here..."

It was an empty statement. No use to it, just speaking. Internally, she was still running that day through her head. She hadn't been tired until that room. What was it that caused it? All she could think was an allergy to the hay, but... well... who knew.

[herotherhalf]

There's a long pause, but he does notice how broken she looks. He smiles a bit at noting that then shook his head.

"How can you be so sure that we're ever getting out of here?" Harth asked with a heave of a breathless sigh.

[tophbeifong]

That didn't quite sit well with Toph. She caught that smile. She couldn't see it, but try sounding truly sad with a smile. It's hard to hide from someone who interacts with the world through hearing.

She tilted her head slightly. What was so funny?

She let it go for the moment, though.

"Well, we've got a lot of smart people on our side. We'll figure something out."

[herotherhalf]

"Maybe. I'm not smart in any way that would actually help, and I'm not strong. Makes me a dead weight." A big burden, and his tone of voice said it all.

[tophbeifong]

She snorted. He was dead weight, wasn't he? He was like Sokka and Duo and the others- normal. No Bending. Only, unlike the others, he had no fighting skills.

"We'll find something for you," she shrugged.

[herotherhalf]

Oh, but he was worse. At least those others were strong, no? Not like weak little Harth.

"I hope so." He said in lower than a whisper.

[tophbeifong]

"Maybe just have you stay out of it. It wouldn't do us any good if you were in the way and caught in the fight. I-we don't want you getting hurt."

More silence passed and she kicked her feet back and forth as she thought, head turned away from him. Hopefully he didn't catch that slip. She focused on the ants crawling around on the stone behind them and manipulated the hard rock idly, making little hills and valleys for the ants to maneuver.

"Hey!" She said suddenly, turning to him again with a grin on her face. "We can make you some sort of long range weapon. You can shoot arrows at things from the sidelines. You'll ultimately be useful while at the same time not getting caught up in the gist of the fray."

[herotherhalf]

"Probably..." He hesitates as he catches what she says. 'I'? He lets a breath of air out his lips, breathed natural air. "I'm better off not getting involved." Actually, that was truth. The boy he was? Weak, in the way. But clever enough to save his own life, in a matter of speaking.

He watches her play with the dirt and rock for a moment, before looking up at her and fervently shaking his head.

"No... No. I don't think that's a good idea."

[tophbeifong]

"No, no, Harth... it's a great idea. Listen, you'll be out of the way. You'll be on the sidelines. The rest of us can hold their attention. They'll view us as the deadlier threat and focus their attack our way. You'll have full access to their backs for free shots. It's perfect."

She patted his shoulder harshly, giving a smile that she hoped was encouraging. The smile was given to the ground, but it was meant for Harth.

After a moment, she withdrew her hand almost awkwardly. This whole 'positive reinforcement' and 'gentle nudging' that Katara professed didn't seem like it was working too well. She let out another sigh.

"We all have to pull our own share of the weight around here if we expect any of us to make it out alive, okay? You can't just keep being the helpless little kid. You're going to get hurt or you're going to cause someone else to get hurt. I know you're scared, but that's no excuse."

[herotherhalf]

"Regardless of that, Toph, I'm useless in a fight. I'll stay out of the way. I can do something else." Something far away from those monsters.

Had Toph not caught him smiling before he might have shown his droll amusement at how pitiful he was acting for her benefit. Gaining sympathy and earning her friendship.

What he didn't believe however, is how Toph just rejected what Duo had said, though all true, based on her own bias. That he will use at a later time.

[tophbeifong]

"Do something else? Like what? Run away? 'cause that might work well for you but if you're planning on making it out of this place, you have to worry about actually helping people and saving more than your own skin!"

She walked to a pillar that appeared before him, standing on it and towering over him with her feet spread soundly and her hands on her hips. If encouragement didn't work, maybe humiliation and intimidation would.

"We can't conquer this place by ourselves! This isn't a one-man caper, okay? We have to work together. We have to be a team to make it through and if you're not willing to be a contributing part of a team, then you might as well just throw yourself off the castle walls because the longer and longer we spend here, the less and less we can handle dead weight. You're not special, Harth."

She pointed a finger towards the entrance to the castle from the courtyard.

"Sokka, Spacebrain, Loudmouth, Heero, Quatre? They're not special. They're normal, too. But you know what? They have brains and they have other means of fighting. Haku? Some sort of technology but she's a good cook and when she can find the bits to make it work, she makes sure we all eat a good meal. Ratchet's just some cat-dove thing, but he's still a fighter and has ideas for awesome, effective weapons, which in turn give you normal people an edge that you didn't have before!"

Uuuuuh, who else was there that she could remember?

Oh well.

She leaned over him and poked him hard in the chest.

"And you know what they all have, regardless of ability or normalcy? They have fighting spirit! They have the want to get out of here! They have the nerve to say, 'I'm not taking this castle sitting down! Forget dark and scary Shadow Tits, I'm not staying here forever!' But you? You don't have that, Harth."

She pulled back and cocked an exaggeratedly girly posture, though she dropped her voice as low as she could, trying to mock him.

"'Oh, I'm useless! I don't want to be in the battle! I couldn't fight, so I just ran! Woe is me, 'cause I'm too weak to be of any use at all! I just need to be away from it all. Find something else for me to do, like, oh, I know, maybe a door mat!'"

By the end of it, her voice had returned back to her own and she was leaning to get in his face.

"But it's not true! You're not useless, okay? The only thing useless about you is your attitude to not do anything about your situation. About our situation! You can't fight? You can't do anything in battle? Or do you not want to fight or do anything in battle? I think you can, you just won't, because you have these thoughts that you're just dead weight and the reality of the situation is, you are!"

She straightened up and took a moment to breathe and calm down.

"... but you are because you say you are. It's like some self fulfilling rank or something. You think you're nothing, so you actually become nothing. Have some self respect. Some self esteem. Something."

She hopped from the pillar and let it collapse before walking on the stone behind him.

It felt good to yell, but she didn't want to yell at him, of all people. But his attitude just had irked her too much. ... and maybe she was a little biased. If she could blame what happened on anyone besides the shadows, it would have been Harth. She didn't blame him, but if he would have had the umption to say, 'yes, I want to learn how to fight so I'm not a sitting duck in this place,' then maybe she wouldn't have been a shadow... and hurt people.

She also didn't want any of her other friends to get hurt because of something Harth couldn't stop, because he 'couldn't fight.' Above all, ... she... didn't want him hurt, either.

In light of that, she didn't face him on the rock, just stood behind him, her back to him, a light blush on her cheeks as she continued, softer.

"I'm offering to teach you how to fight and take care of yourself so you're not useless and you're not in so much danger. I think you're a lot stronger than you think yourself to be. I can sense a deeper power, but maybe you haven't found it yet. I don't know."

So, Harth, was she seeing what you really were, or was she just saying that as a way to trick you into believing in yourself, you puny human?

"But the point is, you're not really as useless as you're trying to think yourself to be, so drop the self-pity and let's make something out of you."