open audience

[ironwood]

Characters: The Ironwood Emperor and anyone who came to speak with her!
Date: July 29th.
Location: The Palace of Landed Sky
Situation: The expected holding of an audience for any that care to speak with the Ironwood Emperor.
Warnings/Rating: N/A; to be updated if necessary

The hall is still and white, strung with softly glowing lanterns that are strung up high beyond reach. Outside, the sun is at its zenith, and it filters down through the cloudy glass roof to create a brilliant, nearly blinding ambiance.

The floor is marble, inlaid with mother-of-pearl and ruby quartz. It catches the light, and casts strange patterns on the walls.

The room itself is generally still and silent, but that is not the case today. Today, there are tribbles in virtually every nook and cranny, across the floor like a furry carpet gone horribly, horribly wrong. The Emperor is seated on her throne as is normal, her sword sheathed and leaning against the side of it, and every once in a while she clears a tribble away from her skirts. Oddly, today, her mood seems rather more congenial than usual. The calming effects of the tribles, perhaps?

[Actionspam or prose are both acceptable!

Characters will only be admitted into the hall one by one, so there won't be anyone present for anyone else's conversations, and there won't be any 'mingling' in the chamber itself.

By popular demand, we will continue to allow mingling for those waiting for an audience in an antechamber. There is a thread header below to allow for that!]

Comments

[ironwood]

[She sighs. It's long-suffering, because boy is she ever. She hates these sorts of questions, but not quite enough to simply put an end to the conversation and turn the child away.]

I am of this world. The kedan are not.

[dustonmyfeet]

[Okay, that was an answer that Toph hadn't been expecting, and it shows. Her eyes widen to epic proportions.]

What? Where did they come from?

[ironwood]

A dying world. One destroyed by Malicant.

[Hoo boy is the hatred she feels for that creature evident in the way she says its name.]

[dustonmyfeet]

[Likely Toph can even feel it if there is an increase of heartbeat. But she's busy processing all this, too.]

So you brought them here to save them?

[This revelation is really explaining a lot.]

[ironwood]

Mm. Why do you think there's only a city's worth?

[They populated a planet once.]

[dustonmyfeet]

[That "mm" is debatable as confirmation, potentially, and Toph recognizes that, but given the rest of the statement, she's going to have to take that as a yes.]

[The way it's put also prompts another question, though, as Toph frowns slightly.]

Did this city exist before you brought the kedan here? . . . And if so, what happened to the people who were here before?

[It seems logical that there were people like the Emperor here once.]

[ironwood]

No. Only the palace existed then. The city was built.

[To the second half, she merely shrugs.]

They died. There is more that has gone on in the world than you can comprehend, girl.

[dustonmyfeet]

Probably why I'm trying to comprehend it. [There's a faint wryness to her tone. Toph doesn't really care to be underestimated, and how fair is it, really, to have been tossed into this world and not to have learned all this in the first place? (And then to be looked down on for trying, no less?)]

Two last questions: Were you there then -- when they died? And how did they die?

[ironwood]

[Dryly,]

Give it a few centuries.

[The questions are beginning to grate on her. She has little desire to assuage the curiosities of some girl.]

War. They died in war. Now, I believe you know where the door is.

[dustonmyfeet]

[Ah, there's that famed grouchiness. But Toph doesn't move quite yet, taking in the last bit of information with a slightly tilted head. For a long moment, she looks pensive.]

For what it's worth, I'm sorry.

[For the war? For asking too many questions? She doesn't say. She turns, wading her way back through the tribbles.]