tushanshu | [handset; audio] 002

[Xion finds it easier to go with voice for this; it affords her a certain sense of anonymity, but doesn't give her the same opportunity to censor and second-guess herself that text has proven to allow, when she's tried to use it thus far. It's still not easy to talk about. Maybe that's why she does this when she does. Part of it is because these thoughts are keeping her up of course, whirling around her head until sleep seems impossible. On the other, it means maybe people are less likely to see this. Maybe.]

Is... there anybody you really, really miss?

[There's a moment, and then she laughs a little to herself, though there's no humor in it.]

I guess... that's almost a silly question, huh?

[Deep breath, in and out. Anybody can probably hear the sigh whuffling across the feed.]

Back home, I had my friends. But then I... left. A lot of stuff had happened, and I just needed to think for a while. But... I hadn't meant to stay away, not forever. I was going to go back... but now I don't know if I'll ever see them again. That's what everybody keeps saying, right? That there's no way to go home.

How do we know if they're okay? People we've... left behind? And... Even if they are okay, even if... if they don't notice we're gone...

[She trails off, not quite sure how to articulate her thoughts on the matter. Whatever else though, it's something uncomfortable she doesn't really care to contemplate. And yet it's hard not to.]

I guess I'm just... [worried] Never mind.

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[Admittedly, it's not normally a question Toph would answer. She's never been someone who dwells a lot on such things -- or never was. Right now, returned to the Turtle as she is, the past is lingering like an ever-present ghost.]

You have to believe it, I guess -- that whenever we go home, we go back to whenever we left.

Not like we get much of a choice.

[It's either believe it or fall apart . . . and the second isn't an option.]

It feels like a lot to believe.

[To just... hope ant trust that everything was going to work out.]

But... it's what people who've been here a lot longer have been saying...

[She doesn't know what to think, really. She wants to believe, but there's the lingering doubts in the back of her mind.]

[A snort from her -- because frankly, it is a lot to believe.]

Yeah, well.

Again: Not like we get much of a choice.

You can sit there and worry about it, or you can move on. Time's not going to sit around and wait for you around here either way.

[Toph at her pragmatic best. In truth, she's probably talking just as much to herself, though, as Xion.]

[handset; audio] 002 - late at night

Video

Ugh I'm sorry this took so long

It's okay!