Ink City Application

[blindearthgirl]

Mun Name: Malia
Journal: earthykitty
Contact Info: E-mail: earthykitty@gmail.com AIM: cantfytmoonlyt
Other Characters: N/A

Name: Toph Bei Fong (A.k.a. Melon Lord, a.k.a. The Blind Bandit)

From: Avatar: The Last Airbender | Episode 18 of Book 3 (Sozin’s Comet Part 1)

Appearance:

Age: 12 years

Gender: Female

Personality: Toph is a very straight-forward person. Like the earth she bends, she’s tough, stable, and can stand her ground no matter what’s thrown at her. Toph has no problem telling people off or letting them know what she’s feeling, and she doesn’t let anything people say get to her. She’s also extremely confident and snarky. At least, that’s what she shows on the outside. On the inside, Toph has insecurities just like everyone else. In one episode, she expresses her concern about what she really looks like to Katara. Since she’s blind, she’s never been able to look at herself. While this can be considered a strength on her part, since looks have never been important in how she judges others, it does bother her that she cannot judge whether or not she looks ok herself. Her other concerns involve her parents, and while she doesn’t hate them for keeping her a secret from the world and treating her like she was helpless, she has become frustrated with them, and the fact that they refuse to acknowledge that their child can take care of herself is a source of some pain.

While Toph has grown up in a very refined atmosphere, while she’s with Aang, Katara, and Sokka, she refuses to act with manners. Throughout the series, Toph is seen picking her nose, spitting, picking at her toes, and burping. In my opinion, it’s a kind of pre-teen rebellion against her parents along with a yearning to just be herself, though I suppose this can be argued. In any case, while Toph may be a girl, she’s definitely not a lady, even though she knows the ins and outs of acting like a refined person.

While Toph may appear rough and uncouth, she’s not without her merits. Toph is very loyal to her friends, and while she does use her bending for her own benefit at times, she can be very kind an altruistic. While she may not usually be the one to go out and help others on her own, she does go along with the others without any complaint.

Backstory: Toph is the only child of Loa and Poppy Bei Fong. The Bei Fongs are one of the richest families in the Earth Kingdom. Due to Toph being born blind, her parents are very overprotective of her, despite the fact that Toph can still get around and “see” with her earthbending. (She can feel vibrations of things that touch the ground, though her ability to see like this is also dependent on what kind of surface she’s standing on.) Her parents were so worried about her and her handicap that they completely closed Toph off from the world. At least, that’s what they tried to do.

At the age of six, Toph ran aaway from home, frustrated with the way her parents treated her. It was during this time that Toph learned earthbending from the badgermoles she encountered. According to Toph, she had an understanding with the creatures since they were both blind. Toph’s father did hire an earthbending instructor to teach Toph, though she was kept at a beginner’s level and wasn’t actually allowed to learn bending. Toph managed to keep her skills a secret, however, and her parents had no idea how powerful their daughter really was.

Toph became so powerful in fact that she entered herself into earthbending tounaments as the Blind Bandit, where she cleared out the competition and was declared champion more than once. When she was 12, she met Aang, Katara, and Sokka, who had come to watch the Earth Rumble tournament in hopes of finding an earthbending teacher for Aang. After some convincing, Toph agreed to run away from home to travel with the gang and teach Aang earthbending. From that point on, she was part of the gang. (Or as Sokka puts it, the Aang Gaang!)

While with the Avatar, Toph continues to work and improve her own earthbending. By the point I’m taking her, Toph has taught herself sandbending and even became the first to bend metal.

Moral Standing: Neutral Good

Dreams: Toph wants to be acknowledged. She has grown up under the over-protective eyes of her parents who would never acknowledge her ability to see with her earthbending, let alone her amazing skill in earthbending. She uses her skill not only t show off and generally be awesome, but she uses it to gain acknowledgement to those she meets.

Fears: Uhm, not the dark…
Toph’s fears aren’t explored much in the series, but for Toph, she would truly hate losing her freedom that she gained by running away with Aang. Toph would also be very much effected should she lose her friends. Aang, Katara, and Sokka were Toph’s first friends, and since she didn’t have any growing up, they really are a precious thing to her, even if she might not show it.

Extra: TOPH IS THE MELON LORD!!!!

Toph’s earthbending is based off of Chu Gar Southern Praying Mantis Kung Fu (for those who actually care). She has proclaimed herself as the strongest earthbender in the world, and while that may not be completely true, (King Bumi is also pretty damn strong himself) she’s definitely a capable earthbender, being able to fight off the Dai Li (you can think of them as an earthbending secret service/secret police kind of group) while protecting her friends at the same time. Due to her blindness however, Toph is at a huge disadvantage to air-borne attacks. Since she can’t feel anything that doesn’t come in contact to the ground, she’s particularly vulnerable to flying foes. Toph also has a disadvantage in water, as she cannot swim, and in the episode titled “The Serpent’s Pass” it’s shown that while ice is a solid, Toph cannot feel vibrations while standing on it like she can while standing on rock.

Toph also has enhanced hearing, which she also learned from the badgermoles. She has an amazing ability to recognize people’s voices like she can recognize how people walk from her earthbending. Toph’s earthbeding allows her to feels people’s heartbeats, and for most people, she can even tell when they lie, as their heartbeat will change. (Natural born liars like Azula are able to get around this.)

Character Location: The stadium that houses the Earth Rumble.


Samples: Fight Scene
Funny stuff

Writing Sample: Toph woke with a start. She had been sleeping after the simulation Sokka had planned to prepare Aang to fight the Fire Lord (and herself as Melon Lord. Definitely one of Sokka’s best ideas), but now she felt…weird. It was like she wasn’t in her own body, but was instead some sort of glob of something. She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t feel, she couldn’t speak. Slowly, her globular form transformed into Toph, though she was stuck in a well of some sticky stuff. If it had been any other blind person, they could have assumed someone had thrown them in the well, but this was Toph. She would have been able to feel something like that.

“Hey!! What’s goin’ on?! UGH!!!” She pulled herself out of the well, dripping wet in some watery yet sticky substance. She couldn’t feel Aang or the others anywhere. All she knew was that she was stuck in some sort of city with some very strange-feeling structures. “Hey, Twinkle-toes! You’re not flyin’ around, are you?” No answer. Toph huffed. “When I find whoever put me in that well, you better believe I’m gonna kick your butt!”