Not at all like home(open to whoever)

[iphigenia]

She was amazingly pleased. She had been in high spirits on entering the city, but to have her own room, especially one as well furnished as this was heavenly. She opened the door into the boudoir and smiled. She had had her purchases delivered to the castle and she was quite pleased with her new wardrobe. Every hour here had improved her views on life. It was a far cry from the dreary life she spent in the temple, and even when she was given an assignment it was hardly this pleasant.

She undressed, tossing her traveling clothes into the fire. She didn't plan on wearing those again. Anything that could remind her of that dreadful place was organized into separate piles. Her bag was something she still loved so she kept that, along with several dozen glass vials of her medicine. That was important until the job was done. The wrappings, leftover food, and general supplies all joined her clothes in the fire. She watched them until there was little left but a pile of ash. She stretched and cracked her back. It was a new time in her life, a time of redemption and freedom. She just had to finish the transfer.

She went over to the closet where her new clothes had been stored. Running through the options, she was displeased. As beautiful as the dresses had looked in the shops, none looked quite right one her. Her frail appearance certainly didn't conjure up any thoughts of beauty, just sickness. She sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed. Maybe she shouldn't have been so hasty in throwing away her traveling clothes. There was no helping it now though. She'd have to choose one of the outfits. The only option that didn't seem terribly revolting was the pants and tunic Toph had convinced her to buy. It wouldn't be very flattering, but it certainly would be better than her other options. She made a mental note to hire a seamstress to help her out. Iphie then got dressed, glad to see the outfit wasn't too loose as many clothes tended to be on her.

[Toph Bei Fong]

Contrary to what people often thought of her, Toph have had a few friends before. And no, not just badgermoles. During the war with the Fire nation, friendships were forged instantly and grew with frightening speed. If you're counting one someone to watch your back, it might be a good idea to make sure they liked you, after all.

War wasn't all peril, not every second. There was downtime, and in someways, that was even worse than the fighting. Soldiers had to make their own fun at times. And few things were more fun than pranking one another.

Which brings us to now.

Toph was, for once, actually dressed as Gaoling Baroness Toph Bei Fong, in a resplendent, heavy, spring-green kimono. It was embroidered with a long, serpentine dragon. She wore geta on her feet, but these geta had been bent out of a pale softstone. Her foot steps were heavy, but at least she could 'see'. In one hand she held a spreading hand fan that she was using to conceal her face from the nose down. Her hair was combed and pulled high atop her head in an elaborate and fierce bun.

It was thusly adorned, that Toph reached Iphie's door. She made a show of trying to enter, pulling on the handle once with no real effort, then knocked on it firmly. In her best, haughty, upper class voice, she quipped. "Open up! Open up this instant in the name of the Baroness of Gaoling!"

[iphigenia]

Iphie jumped at the sudden sound. She certainly wasn't expecting anybody and worse than that she was far from dressed for anything other than walking about town. A baroness, do I know a baroness? She thought to herself quickly after the knocker had announced themselves. The voice rang a bell but she couldn't place it. Her history being what it was, any contact with someone she may have dealt with in the past was far from ideal. She stepped lightly toward the door.

Her mind ran through all the possibilities, dealing with the intruder would be simple enough, the trick would be to hide evidence after the fact. She stood next to the door and took a deep breath. She swung the door open far faster than it was meant to. The hinges creaked and strained as the door was nearly removed from the frame. Iphie looked at the woman and recognition dawned on her.

"Oh, it's just you." She visibly relaxed. "Come on in." She stepped over and too a seat on the bed. "You sounded different, I didn't recognize your voice. I don't remember you saying you were a baroness and a bounty hunter."

[Toph Bei Fong]

Awwww, poo!

Toph snapped the fan closed with a flick of her wrist, and placed it within the wide sleeve of her opposite arm. "Nuts, you figured it out too quick. I had these whole routine all prepared..." she huffed and shrugged her shoulders, and glided into the room, nudging the door shut behind with her foot. Once inside, she immediately slid her shoes off.

"It never came up," Toph replied. " 'Sides I was weakened by that damn poison and I had no idea who you were. A Baroness could fetch a hefty ransom to the right person." Toph smirked. "Course, the joke would be on you then... nobody would pay for me. Still, I didn't much feel like having to live though the attempt."

Toph stood at the foot of the bed, her foot grazing the floor, getting the lay of the room without having to look around. She finally tuned to face Iphie. "It going to bother me till I know... how did you figure out it was me so fast? The combed hair and fancy kimono usually throws off most people. I even worse shoes and everything!"

[iphigenia]

Iphie crossed her legs and leaned back on the bed. "Well you certainly fooled me with the voice and I suppose without seeing the clothes before I might not have placed it, but what really called attention to yourself was your eyes. Learn to read eyes well enough and you can see what a person is thinking. I can't do that of course but I doubt I could ever forget eyes as nice as yours." She straightened up and returned her gaze to Toph. Plus you were sick. It's very hard to destroy or cure a disease, usually it just moves on to someone else. When it's forced to move early, as it was with you, it wants to return." Her hand flexed a little. It wasn't a lie but even if it didn't apply to Toph it was certainly better a reason then the fact that she was captivated by her eyes.

[Toph Bei Fong]

Her eyes? Nice? Those cloudy, useless orbs?

Toph felt her face growing hot again. Ugh, she seemed to do that a lot around Iphie. She couldn't remember the last time it had happened so frequently, but she was pretty sure it was before the war. Well she thought, at least she cant tell when my face does that.

But seriously , her eyes? No one had ever called them nice before. Expect --

"Eyes do more than see, Toph," said Cera. "Yours, for example, speak."

Toph but her tongue to keep the gasp from leaving her lips. What was with her lately? So many half remembered dreams had been popping up in her waking world... ever since... ever since...

She felt Iphie flex her hand. Was that a nervous twitch? Her heart-rate hadn't changed, buy the bed mattress she was on was dampening her 'sight. "Heeey," Toph said with slyness and dawning realization, as she joined Iphie on the bed, her feet still keeping a slight contact with the floor. "Speaking of illness, I never did ask. How did you get that poison out of my system? Not wanting to look a gift-horse, in the mouth or anything but... I'm curious."

[iphigenia]

"well I suppose it wouldn't hurt to explain." Iphie began as she laid back onto the soft mattress. "To make it overly simplified I just convinced it to move on early." She thought for a moment, trying to figure out how to best explain the process.

"Well to get into more detail, many diseases and sicknesses are alive, far too basic to communicate and they are generally after little more than spreading themselves around. I simply talked to it and convinced it that it would much prefer me to you. I'm not exactly the pinnacle of health if you hadn't noticed so it saw me as an easy target where your body was fighting it. So it moved on and infected me instead. But disease is also rather stupid, or naive as others might say and it doesn't understand trickery. If it was of human intellect, or one gifted with intelligence like the ones I create then it might wonder why someone was offering themselves, or better yet, how I was able to communicate with it at all."

Iphie patted Toph on the shoulder lightly. "Lucky for you it wasn't one of those and it went after me instead. So I subdued it and captured it, leaving you to recover from the cold without that little extra inconvenience." Iphie smiled, pretty sure she hadn't said too much and still had gotten the idea across, though she had. "And now here you are, healthy as whatever is as healthy as you are." She kept her hand resting on Toph's shoulder lightly.

[Toph Bei Fong]

Iphie's hand felt warm on her shoulder, even though the heavy kimono. Toph didn't notice when she leaned toward the contact.

She frowned. "So... you're like an... illness-bender?" she offered, trying to put what she had just heard in a context she understood. She rubbed her big toe on the floor trying to get a better 'look' at her new friend... but the mattress made everything so muddled. She even turned her face to general the direction the voice was coming from with her useless eyes.

Toph remembered how slim she was... but hadn't thought much of it. She suddenly had an illogical yearning to know what Iphie actually looked like, and found herself even more illogically unsure on how to ask.

"So that poison is till in you then, huh?" she asked. "And other stuff besides I'm guessing from what you're saying." Toph shrugged, accidently knocking Iphie's hand from her shoulder. "You feel healthy enough to me. Just thin. I have half a mind to get some Gaia Kingdom cuisine in you. Put some meat on those bones," she added with a smile. She nudged at Iphie's feet with her own where they hung over the edge of the bed.

[iphigenia]

"Well feeling healthy is different then being healthy." She said, her voice taking on a light tinge of frustration. "but I'm healthy enough as it is." She sighed and leaned against Toph, "Your stone moving seems much more interesting then what I do. And it doesn't sound nearly as trying. I mean, if you tell people what you can do, show them, they might fear you but they certainly won't antagonize you. If I try to help everyone is so pleased to have the healing, but if not everyone gets better they blame me. Disease is a tricky thing." She sat in silence for a few seconds.

"I suppose I am rather small." She looked down at herself. "I look like I could blow away." She laughed softly. "Maybe some of your home food could help, certainly would be better than the menu back at the temple."

[Toph Bei Fong]

Toph rolled her eyes and huffed. "Temples. They never have good food. I don't care what faith, cult, sect, or philosophy a temple may house. That is the one constant among all of them."

Again she nudged at Iphie's feet with her own. "I know a place in town that serves Gaia Kingdom cuisine. They almost get it right, too. Since I'm all dressed up for a prank you went and ruined, I think you could make it up to me by going there with me. Then we'll be even." Toph paused. "Aside from that pesky life-debt thing, anyway."

Toph was leaning back against her, and the eqiilberm of their leaning kept both girls upright, even ans her Toph's shoulder slumped.

"About that," she said, her tome growing more serious. "I've come up with a way to pay you back, but you said some things before that confused me. And indeed to make sure frist so... sorry in advance if I start to sound nosy or whatever."

Toph sighed. "Do you want Anactoria's hand or not? If you do, I'll do everything I can, whatever that may be, to try and help you win this little flesh contest the have going on here. If not... I'll just have to figure something else out. So how 'bout it, Lil' Bit??"

[iphigenia]

Iphie paused to think about that for a moment. On one hand, she definitely did not want to marry the princess, but on the other, it was her ticket to freedom. "I'm not really sure Toph. It's not really something I thought too hard about." She had thought hard about it on the walk up, but all that had decided was that she really didn't want to think about it. She sighed. "And taking help would be underhanded of me anyway, so I really shouldn't accept it anyway." Hopefully that would placate her for now she hoped.

"But enough of that, let's go investigate that restaurant. If your food is as good as you seem to believe, I'm sure that even half right cuisine should taste good." She stood up and held out her arm for Toph to take. "You'll have to lead the way of course."

[Toph Bei Fong]

Toph frowned when when her offer to help was turned down. "I only meant..."

But Iphigenia was already sliding from the mattress. Toph sighed and slid forward herself, placing the soles of her feet more firmly on the ground. She took the offered hand and allowed herself to be helped off the bed. It was a simple act, and yet a flicker of confusion passed over her expression.

Since when I do I let people help me with something I can do myself? she wondered.

She let Iphie's hand drop in what she hopped was nonchalant manner before heading over to her soft-stone shoes and slipping them back on. Wit her earth sight, she could already feel the stress fractures forming in them. That was the problem with soft-stone: they didn't last long enough.

"Naturally," she said finally. "I'm a born leader. And I'm modest about it too," she added with a smirk. "Right this way, Lil' Bit," she said, offering Iphie the crook of her arm.

[iphigenia]

"You are extremely modest, I can tell." Iphie replied as she took Toph's arm, again being careful not to use too much pressure and hurt the other woman. "Look, I appreciate the offer and all, don't think I don't. It's just. I don't know. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure what I want and I'd really prefer sometime or at least a chance to decide before I go off accepting a friends offer of help for it." She sighed. "It's all rather tricky."

[Toph Bei Fong]

Toph was listening, and attentively, as they made their way out the room... but she sort of stopped when Iphie said one word in particular.

She turned her head, her eyes looking in Iphie's general direction without actaully focusing on her. "So," she said with a slight smile. "We're friends then? Been a while since I had one. Been longer since I've been one. Hope I remember how."

She flashed a smile. As it retreated from her face, Toph continued, still 'looking at' Iphie even as she led the way. "Tell you what, Lil' Bit: I wont bring it up again, kay? But if you ever want to talk about it, I'll listen. I seem to remember that's what friends are for."

With something of a bounce in her step, Toph led them from the west wing.

((i'll get to work on the restaurant thread))