#Avatar: The High Ground series | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

theblueflower05 · 2 years

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The Sweetest Sylaung

A/N: So I def didn’t mean to write a novel long Neteyam smut story but here we are. Debating on making this a mini series. Also the anon that requested a “curvy” reader insert- here ya go!(she’s also an Augustine- buttttt you can only see that if you squint lol)

Word Count: 6k+

Warnings: This is smut. Pure smut. Please don’t read if it is not your jam. You are in charge of cultivating your own online experience, you’ve been warned!

Pairing: Aged Up! Neteyam x Human!Curvy!Reader

Summary: After an “accidental” romp in the forest, you do your best to avoid Neteyam. It’s for everyone’s good, or so you’ve convinced yourself.

“I’m begging for you to take my hand, wreck my plans. That’s my man”- Willow, Taylor Swift

The kaleidoscope of colors explode under your eyes in endless patterns and shapes as you look over the sample of Pandora flora under the heavy duty microscope. This particular piece of the Moons terra had never been discovered before, only blooming at what you estimated to be every ten or so years, under the right monsoon like conditions

At least that’s what you had discovered so far.

The flower, which sprouted into a berry, and then dissipated into a moss like cluster of microorganisms all within its short life cycle had turned into your passion project. You we’re doing your thesis on it, the last step in getting your Masters.

You’d gone through schooling on a computer screen, guided by the greatest minds on Earth that had relocated to Pandora. Scientists of all fields who you’d grown up around. None of them had been surprised when you’d picked up botany. Xenobotany to be exact.

It was in your blood.

The desk your at shakes violently- disturbing your precision like focus. Breaking you straight out of your zone.

“Ugh” you groan, frustrated, raising your head, eyes narrowing at the culprits.

Spider, Lo’ak and Kiri freeze like deers in the headlights of your fury. Spiders arm raised, a wad of paper balled up in his hand, aimed to shoot. He lowers it slowly as the weight of your your heavy gaze zero’s in.

“Sorry, cu-”

“I told you guys, if you cant behave to get the fuck out” You seethe. Your nerves are paper thin anyway. Too much screen time frying your brain something fierce as you focused in on your studies. “Is that not what I said, verbatim?”

“You need to chill. You’ve been so high strung lately. Come hang out with us” Lo’ak suggests smooth and unhelpful. As usual. “When was the last time you left the lab?”

You roll your eyes and bite your tongue, trying not to say anything to scalding to the surprisingly sensitive Sully brother. “No thanks. I’ve gotta focus”

“Maybe Lo’aks right” Kiri starts, her face screwing up as she speaks “Eywa that sounds wrong. Nevermind, My brother is never right- but you should come hang out with us. Let’s go swimming- the watering hole is over flowing from the storms”

The deep sigh through your nose isn't calming, even though you pretend it is. You know they mean well, in the most annoying way. That you’d been buried in books and paperwork in the lab for the past couple months.

Hiding from the outside world within the thick walls of Hell’s Gate.

“Can’t. This is important, Kir- but why don’t you guys head down there? Its closer to Home Tree and its almost curfew anyway” two birds, one stone. Its a smart suggestion- but Kiri’s face falls, shoulders sagging and ears lowing. That look had always gotten you-

“I cant today, but maybe tomorrow? The samples are too fresh and I don't want to put them on ice…But I think Max made those Yovo cookie things” That’s only half of the truth, but luckily Kiri’s always been understanding.

She grabs your elbow in her long fingers and tugs you along.

The mess hall had seen better days, but the large open space still tends to be the meeting ground for the humans that were allowed to stay and inhabit the moon. With twelve foot tall ceilings and airtight exits and windows that lead out to the Avatar Program training yards. Its a common room of sorts, a place where everyone gathers. For meals, for mismatched Holidays. But mostly for gossip.

I mean, what else is there to do?

Like currently, you’re deeply engrossed in the story that Doctor Martinez’s, Xeno-Zoologist is recounting. All dramatics and dirty intimate details “It’s true, they’re gonna bring it before Mo’at and everything”

He’s talking about Trevino and Eital’i.

Everyone had heard the whispers, seen the not so subtle signs. The main Radio Tower operator had turned during the resistance, had fought beside Jake and had been allowed to stay on Pandora- better stuck on a foreign planet then thrown in a familiar jail cell. Trevino’s a cool guy, really.

A cool guy who had been sleeping with a Na’vi woman, apparently. The two had kept it under wraps, really private. No one could pin down how or when it happened,,,but to go to the clan’s Tsahik seeking a mating blessing? That’s major.

“You’re lying” you accuse in a gasp as the table breaks into whispers, all wide eyes and shaking heads. “They’re going to mate?...How?”

“It’s not like it hasn't happened before” Another scientist chimes in casually. Like it’s a known thing.

Which it kind of is.

Taboo, yes. But not unheard of, more like untalked about.

Humans and the Na’vi of the forest had lived in close quarters since the overthrow of the RDA. Jake, the standing Olo’eyktan, just had a little too much homosapien in him. Yeah, he’d survived the soul transfer and fully inhabited his blue body- but he never quite grew out of his human roots.

It had been hard, lots of politicking and good grace shown on both parts, but somehow, like all biomes in the vast perma green forest, all had learned to live in harmony. Most Omitikaya kept their distance. Very hesitant about the human presence. They had every right to be scared, hostile. Scarred by man and its weapons and its destruction.

Others had been raised in close proximity to Grace’s school. Had become accustomed to the nearly two decade long human presence on Pandora. Curious and accepting.

You’d heard about interspecies hookups.

Locker room talks that left your ears burning and your heart racing. It usually came from members of the Avatar Program- It tends to set a precedent, when the quote on quote “royal family” of the Omiticaya is a Jarhead and a native woman.

Na’vi are gorgeous, tall and lean but humanoid enough to be familiar…you’re not exactly sure what they see in humans but you know damn well what you guys see in them.

“How do you think that works? The…physicality of it all I mean. Trevino doesn't have an Avatar. How do they fuck-”

You’re not the only one zoning out from the conversation and it’s lewd turn.

You watch Kiri watch Spider and your heart aches for her. What they have is secret, delicate and forbidden. As a woman with high standing in the clan, you knew that her feelings for the boy wouldn't go anywhere. Couldn't.

When they we’re kids, it was cute. Now that they 're both technically adults, it was just plain stupid.

You tell her of the fact, often.

Kiri tells you to stop projecting.

———

The Sully Kid’s are always late. It’s like no matter how hard they try, they cant make curfew. You throw on an Exopack, hurrying them to the fence.

“Yeah, yeah okay mom. Take it easy” Lo’ak shrugs huffily as you yank hard on his arm. “I’m going, Y/N!”

“Not fast enough you strumbeast’s ass! You’re gonna get me into trouble, who do you think your dad’s gonna blame when you guys end up back at Home Tree super late again? Norm chewed me out for that shit last time!” You man handle the much taller than you alien.

Kiri and Spider a few leagues in front of you, already at the mouth of the giant fence. They’re awkward, not in their usual synched steps. You wonder how much of that conversation earlier had gone to their heads?

You’re bickering with Lo’ak, an extremely normal occurrence. He can be a real douche. and had been kind of insufferable lately. You think its nerves about his impending Iknamaya.

So engrossed with getting them on their way home that you don't even notice him until it’s too late.

Neteyam is a skilled hunter, through and through. The youngest in the clan to ever make a kill. Swift and quiet. Beloved.

But around you he feels out of his element. Clunky and awkward, no matter how hard he tries to play it off its like you can see right through him. Its scary and thrilling, sets his stomach alive with butterflies everytime. This is no different.

Showing up to Hell’s Gate to retrieve his siblings was something he had done since he was a child.

He’d used to bleed hours away playing with them at the scientists fortress, but as he had gotten older and his responsibilities had grown heavier- he had little time for it. Still, when ever his parents would send him out on a one man search party to bring them home, he’d jump at the chance.

At the hope of seeing you.

You’re arguing with his little brother, trying not to laugh at something he said and Neteyam knows. He knows he shouldn't feel jealous but he just cant help it. Cant help the acidic twist of his insides.

Especially when he chirps out his family's familiar call, letting his presence be known.

And watches that pretty smile fall right off of your face.

“You’re late, as usual” His voice has a stern edge. It’s annoying, the role he has to play. Kiri is a woman grown, Lo’ak just weeks away from being the same. He doesnt blame them for the way their feathers bristle, almost viscerally.

“Ah, big brother you didn't have to come all this way to get us” Kiri reassures, patting Neteyam on the chest good naturedly. “We we’re just about to be on our way”

Neteyam notices the way you try to look anywhere else but him. It stings because he cant stop looking at you, cant pry his eyes away from your form.

“You all should start heading back before dad notices” Neteyam starts. His father had been busy as of late, harvest season abundant and fruitful this year because of the heavy rain season “I’ll catch up, I need to speak with Norm”

“What? Dad cant use the coms now, he has to send his messenger” Lo’ak’s nose scrunches a little, always questioning. On a normal day it wouldn't affect Neteyam so much, just a normal jab from his snot nosed little brother.

Not today. Not when he’s stretched so thin. Not when you refuse to look at him but are staring at the side of Lo’ak fat head. It feels wrong, makes his skin heat up to the point that it feels itchy and tight.

“That's none of your concern. Head back to Home Tree. Now” He doesn't normally throw his weight around. But he feels the need to puff up big in front of you “Those are orders. Get out of here”

Lo’ak’s less offended and more surprised. One of his oh so human eyebrows cocks, a sly remark in his throat before he scoffs. “Aye, Aye Captain Kiss Ass. C’mon Kiri let's go. See you later Spider, Y/N”

He deuces up Spider, gives Y/N a pat on her small shoulder and glares harshly at his brother before he disappears into the thick brush of the jungle.

Kiri wraps her arms around you in a strong hug, muttering about ‘swimming’ and ‘promises’. The small impish smile she shoots Spider gives YOU butterflies so you don't blame the way he swoons, before she’s off behind her younger brother.

“I can go find Norm for you, bro. I think he’s still out in his Avv, but Max can radio him back in” Spider is none the wiser. Doesn't notice the heavy tension that simmers on a low bubble. Oblivious, as usual.

“Yeah, sure” Neteyam replies, barely sparing the human boy a glance. He’d feel bad for it later, when he could form coherent thought. When his brain wasn't on Y/N issued override.

Spider chatters, good natured. He never got to see the Olo’eyktan in training anymore. He missed his homie.

“Well, I should be heading back. You guys have a good rest of your night-” You’re already turning on your heels when you make the announcement, eager to get back inside. Back behind the safe walls of the lab- far away from Neteyam.

“No”

Neteyam who stares at you with all too knowing eyes. He looks straight through you like he can see through your clothes, through your thinly veiled escapism attempts. He reaches out, wraps his long fingers around the top of your arm and tugs you back to him. Gentle, but very firm.

He doesn't have to say it- it’s written all over his face. Not this time. He’s not going to let you run away from him.

“Netey-” You start in a whine, tugging on his hold. He doesnt relent, if anything his fingers tighten as his eyes narrow. Dangerous, desperate.

“Just talk to me” it’s a barely concealed plea, his tail twitches anxiously behind him “I'm just asking for five minutes. Please Y/N”

Spiders oblivious, yes. Stupid? No. He doesnt know exactly what's going on between the two of you but has clued into the fact that it’s heavy and he wants no part of it.

The excuse he makes is shit- he’ll just go find Norm. Yeah… he’s so out of there.

“What is wrong with you?” You hiss as you watch Spiders awkward, quick retreating form. Eyes flickering over the empty for now training yards “So much for keeping it lowkey, huh? Could you be anymore obvious?”

“What’s wrong with me?” Neteyam is almost shaking with disbelief “What the fuck is wrong with you? You havent talked to me in over a month. Everytime I make any kind of attempt you bolt. I dont-” He sighs, pinching the wide bridge of his nose with the hand that isnt holding onto you.

He looks tortured. Tired. Run a little ragged.

Beautiful.

“I don't know what I did? If this is about that day in the forest-”

You sigh at his words, once again pulling on his hold. Shaking your head desperately because you can't.

You can't talk about it. Fuck, you’ve been trying not to even think about it.

And failing as you replay the event over and over again the darkness of your bunk. Hyper fixating on the way that his lips had felt against yours. Oh the way that his big hands had worked your body over

“Don’t” you whisper “Please don’t”

You’d never been one to beg for pity, for mercy but that’s what you do now. Beg him to let you out of his tight clutches. Metaphorically and physically.

“You’re all I can think about” It's a gutted admittance, but Neteyam makes it all the same “That night- I can’t sleep. I can barely eat- I’m falling behind on my duties because I keep coming back here. Standing outside this fence and waiting for you. I know you could hear me over the coms, right?”

And you could, a few weeks or so ago.

When he’d begged you to come out. To come speak to him. His voice so appealing that you’d almost caved. You’d had to turn off your receiver. Had sat with your head in your hands for hours as you fought the urge to crawl to him, knees raw and your bloody heart on a platter only he could divulge in.

He shuffles closer, all lean strong muscle. Firm, unmovable. “You heard me”

“Of course I did”

“And you still left me out here” He scoffs, head shaking slightly as his adams apple bobs, his ears are pinned to the sides of his head in obvious distress “I could never do that shit to you.”

“One of us needs to be the adult in this situation” Your voice is as strong as you can make it. Trying to speak reason on to both of you “We can pretend it never happened and go back to the way that things were before. You’re my friend, Tey”

You reach up, stroking at his wrist. Trying to soften him enough for him to let this go. Let you go.

He’s trying to control his breathing, all that training for all of those years for what? One fragile human girl to make him completely unspool? To lose any and all composure he’d worked so hard to gain.

He was always the adult, in all situations. Had been born with a neck cramping crown on his head. Shrouded in pressurized glory.

“If this is me being childish, so be it. Where has pretending gotten you, huh? Look at you, yawntutsyìp. you look so tired. When was the last time you slept? Kiri says you spend days in the lab without resting”

His hands, both of them, come up to cup your face. Huge and calloused. Yet he holds you like you're something precious. A small animal, a rare gem. His whole entire world since he was just a boy.

Neteyam thumbs at the cool glass of your mask, tenderly. The bags under your eyes are sunken and bruised. “Don’t shut me out”

Your body, in its entirety, clenches at his words. Velvet and sincere. He’s a fucking dream. Your head leans into his hands, neck sagging of its own accord as any and all words of protest leave your weak mind.

He makes you so easy.

“Let me in…I dont want there to be this distance between us anymore” He hisses around the word distance. Hating even having to say it “I want to be inside of you again”

Your plump lower lip gets skewered between your teeth, eyes screwed shut as you remember the last time. Your first ever time being full…you’d dreamt of it every night since it had happened.

If it wasn't for the blasted mask and your need for Earth’s oxygen he’d kiss you. Right here right now. He didn't really give a shit who saw or what they had to say.

Instead pulls you into his chest, lets you wind your arms around his lean middle and bury your chest in his diaphragm. Its as close as he can get you, for now. Makes you cling to him the way that he’d clung to every thought of you for the last weeks.

You wish it was lungfuls of his skin that you were taking as you try to bring yourself down from this abrupt shaky high. You dont get it, how your relationship couldve flipped this hard in such a short time.

He had always just been Neteyam. A shameless flirt yes- but that’s all it was.

“Would you like that?” He questions, hands working through your hair. Fingers light and soothing on your scalp. Massaging the thoughts right out of your head.

“Hmm?”

“If I was inside you again?” He presses on. You can feel the tickle of his long, thin, tail as it wraps around the back of your calf and you groan, digging your nails into his back.

“You’re such an asshole. Stoppppp it” You’re embarrassed and turned on and already feel stupid enough, he doesn't need to rub it in. His chest shakes as he chuckles.

“I’m serious. Tell me you want it-”

“Neteyam! Hey!”

The two of you break apart in an instant. You jump away from him as though struck by lightning. Instantly putting enough distance between you and the Na’vi that maybe, just maybe an onlooker might think that the embrace was friendly.

It’s Norm, having heard that the eldest Sully was looking for him he’d come eagerly.

The smile you plaster on is forced and honestly, Neteyam doesnt fair any better. He’s obviously flustered, just glad that his erection isn't tenting his tweng.

“Spider told me you and your dad are looking for me. I’m not intruding on uh anything, am I?” Norm looks between the two of you.

Your arms are folded tightly over your chest and Neteyam is rubbing at the back of his neck, strong jaw flexing as his teeth grind.

Oh yeah, Norm had definitely interrupted something.

Knows for sure as you scurry away. As Neteyam, always so level headed, has to string together words. Stumbling a little bit as he tries to remember the message that Jake had relayed.

It’s not any of his business, he thinks at the time. He sure didnt want to be the one to shine the light on whatever the hell was going on here. Turning a blind eye to the mysteries of Pandora is the only way to survive the harshest terrain known to man.

———

You dont know that though-

No, you’re spiraling more a little bit as you prepare yourself for bed. Brushing through your thick hair and staring out into space as your mind assaults you with all of the gnarly ‘What If’s’

Norm had seen and he had to know right? Oh god, what if he told Jake?

You balk. Lowering the brush as your eyes bulge out of your head.

What if he told Neytiri?

That's actually a super horrific thought. Like nightmarish. You have a lot of respect for the future Tsahik...

…And a very healthy does of fear. She didnt like humans and made it known. She tolerated them only for her husband's benefit. What if she found out that her eldest son, her golden boy, had fucked one?

You’re freak out is interrupted by static, by the beeping of your com receiver on your night stand.

“Y/N?” its Neteyams muffled voice through the device. You’d ignored it once. You should ignore it again…

“Yeah?” you wonder if he picks up on how shaky you sound through the receiver.

“Tomorrow night meet me at the East Gate. Like when we we’re kids” he’s not really asking. Not demanding either. You could ignore him again, but he has to try.

The line goes silent, quiet for minutes on end.

“Y/N?”

You’re so stupid. “What time?”

You can hear the grin he’s sporting as he replies “0100”

“Got it, over. Good night, Neteyam. Go to sleep”

———

The East Bay is on the other side of the large fortress-like building. It's not that it's forbidden, or anything. but it is deserted. It’s where the military personnel had inhabited, and since most if not all of them had gotten the hard boot off Pandora it was empty as a ghost town in these maze like halls.

When you we’re younger; you’d caught Spider sneaking Kiri and Lo’ak in through the rarely used entrance. You’d demanded the know how, if he didnt want you to rat on him for it. It was a rare occurrence, but the Sully children had all been snuck into Hell’s Gate this way over the years.

You type in the codes, disabling the alarm system in order to usher Neteyam into the pressurized, air lock. You’d toted one of the Avatar Exopacks along for him, they’re heavier then hell but he’d need it.

“Hi” you smile, suddenly shy as the tall Na’vi man stands before you.

That's what he was now. A man, not only in the eyes of his people but as a whole. Broad and muscular, strong. Verile. The next leader of his people. You know that he’s highly desired in his clan. Women fawn over him. Vie for his attention.

It doesnt feel real that he wants to give it to you.

You’re nothing special. Not tall and stunning like the Omaticaya women. Even by Earth’s standards you're short, curvy. Not particularly pretty. Insecurity gnaws at you, as it so often does.

“C’mere” Neteyam urges, boldly yanking you by your waist. Pulling you flush against his body. Grabby and insistent, he wants to feel your bare skin. All plush and soft, hes been dying to taste it since the last time.

Kicking himself over and over for not savoring every bit of your body that you gave to him. He won't make the same mistake again.

He’s not gonna lie, the concrete and metal of the walls inside of Hell’s Gate have always made him a little claustrophobic. But he can't do this outside-

His lips capture yours, demanding and needy from the jump. Big, over powering, he swallows your little chirp of surprise. Devours any and all breath from your lungs. Its messy and so good. You hadn't gotten to kiss him last time.

His mouth tastes amazing, his tongue rough in texture just like you remembered. It grates your lips as you suck on it-

“Hey, slow down a little bit” You giggle as Neteyam paws at your ass, lifting you off the ground until you squirm hard, making him release you “Not here, we can't do this here there’s cameras everywhere”

“I don't care” Neteyam pecks all over your face, trying to recapture your mouth as you avoid him “Let them watch, most of those pervs would like it”

And they would know that you’re his. The thought is beyond heady.

You gasp as his sharp canines ghost over the delicate skin of your neck, nibbling on your pulse point “Please- Neteyam”

You firmly push him away, hand on his chest and maybe if you hadn't cut him off cold turkey he would've given you space. Could've pulled away for a moment to let you say your piece. Instead the idea of letting you pull away even an inch is unbearable to him.

No. instead he tosses you over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He hauls loads heavier then you every day, your protests mean little to him. With his free hand he scoops up the Avv Exo Tank,

“Where to, yawntutsyìp?”

Where too is an old conference room. Its as good as any, and Neteyam yanks a couple cushions off the old couch to act as a brace for your head as he lowers you to the floor, flat on your back.

You’re so pretty like this, he tells you of the fact.

With your hair a mess behind you, your face free of that damned mask. Grinning up at him as you rub your thighs together. He wishes he had that camera that his dad liked to take pictures on. He wants this moment of you framed, immortalized.

“I hate sky people clothes” He mutters as he tugs on the hem of your t-shirt. It hides you, hides all that skin he craves.

“You want me to take it off?” You offer eagerly, raising up enough to start peeling the piece of clothing off. You’re bare underneath, completely. Your breasts jiggle as they’re freed, nipples peaked in the cool air-conditioned air.

“Don’t ever put it on again” He demands, taking it from your hands and tossing it across the room. He’s dead serious, but by the way you're giggling you obviously think its a joke.

He can’t help it, he dives in face first. Rubbing against your soft breasts, obsessed with the way they feel. Heavy, pillowy. He drags his tongue across all of your bare skin. From your clavicle to your nipple. You always smell so pretty, but its got nothing on the way you taste. It explodes bright and savory on his tastebuds.

You let him explore, until your spit soaked and shaking. Your panties sticky as your hips search for any kind of friction. “I need you”

“You have me, my love. All of me” your eyes water at his words. At the sincerity. At how much you want them to be true.

You grab one of his hands and drag it down your chest. Past your soft, rounded belly and into your shorts. He grunts as you guide him to where you’re wet and pulsing. Rythmetically clenching around nothing.

He circles your clit, feather light. More of a tease then anything and you want to sob. You’d thought of nothing but this, touched yourself imagining him. “Tey-”

He smiles around a mouthful of nipple,tugging on with his teeth. “I missed you so much”

“Then be nice to me” you plead, trying to shove yourself down on his fingers.

“We’re being nice now? Were you nice to me when you ignored me?” he can't help it, hurt bleeds into his voice. It had been so fucking painful, knowing that you hadnt wanted to see him. To be with him.

“I’m sorry” you whine, grabbing his face, pulling it from your bosom. “I’m so sorry. I was so scared- I’m still scared but I need you”

He lets you cup his cheeks, lets you plant kisses all over him. The bridge of his nose, his eyelids, his cheekbones. You dote on him, gentle and caring and he gorges himself on your love.

“You cant ever do that again, okay?” He shivers as you kiss his ear, running your tongue along the hyper sensitive flesh “If you’re scared you come to me, not run from me. Do you understand?”

You nod, eager. “I promise, Neteyam”

It’s all he needs to hear, that you’re his. That you won't deprive him of your presence ever again. He doesn't know what he’ll do. He’s a little scared of the man he becomes when it comes to you, you’re not the only one frightened by the gravity of your feelings.

“You asked if I wanted you inside me again? Yes. So much. I never knew I could be that full” it’s like you know just what to say. You light him up from the inside. His fingers begin circling your sopping clit again, this time with intent.

It’s blurry, the fact that your lightheaded making it hard to think. To track what he’s doing to you because somehow Neteyam seems to be everywhere at once. His big body all encompassing as he takes you.

“No-no marks, baby” You try to remind him and his blazing eyes zero in on you in a glare “you know we cant…not where they can see”

You’re right, and he hates it. He’ll just have to mark you where only you can see. Where you can look at your self and be reminded that you belong to someone. That you belong to him.

He doesn't have the patience, cant stop his hands from shaking- the tear of your shorts and panties echos around the room as he removes any barriers between him and the heat at the apex of your thighs.

You cant help the thrill it sends down your spine. He’d…ripped your panties off. You thought shit like this only existed in bad Earth made Porn that you’d found on one of the labs computers.

“Sorry, sorry” his apology is far from sincere though and you can't help but giggle, patting his braids fondly.

The fingerfucking is rough, your wines and moans spilling from you as he hits spots inside of you that make you want to curl up. It’s too good. Too much-

You screech, back bowing as he bends to kiss you, loud and sloppy, right on your wet clit. His big head burrows between your thigs as he delves on your cunt, his long rough textured tongue lapping at the fat puffy lips. The texture difference has both of you groaning.

It’s heartbreakingly good, the kind of good that you’ll never be able to forget. That you’ll crave and need for the rest of your life. Addictive, as he dedicates himself to making you feel pleasure.

Neteyam eats pussy the same way he does everything else in his life, exceeding any expectations. His instincts sharp as he hones in on how to make you lose your mind.

He keeps telling you how good you taste, breaking away for heaving breaths before he reburries himself. The only sounds in the room are the beyond wet sloshing of his tongue lashing and the pathetic noises your making.

He’s eating you alive, you don’t know how you’re supposed to survive this.

His fingers, two and then three fuck in and out of you. Corkscrewing as he loosens your tightness up for him.

“O-ooh” you whine high and reedy as you feel your tummy tightening, the pressure building in a way that makes you feel like you cant breathe. You cant your hips, shoving them down at that perfect angle “Oh, sh-shhhhit. I’m gonna, I’m-”

He doubles down and you’re a goner.

The orgasm is devastating. Sofuckinggood you think you might see stars for a minute there. You can't even scream, you keep letting out these little cries that are more like wheezes. A desprate attempt to get some kind of air back in your lungs-

Which reminds you.

Even though you’re in a daze you wiggle away from him, he hisses at you about it but you swat the top of his head as you reach for the Exo Pack.

You shove the mask in his face, between your legs.

”Breathe, Neteyam” you demand him to gulp down the Pandoran air. Yeah, he could go longer in your environment than you in his but still. Death by giving head isn’t the way you’d like him to go out.

He takes long breaths and you try not to be embarrassed by how soaked his chin is.

When he pulls away his eyes are a little more focused “Thank you, sweet girl. Always thinking about me, huh?”

You nod, dropping the mask. Closer this time for easier access. His eyes quickly zero back in on your swollen pussy, on how wet he got you. On how pretty it looks. His mouth is watering all over again-

When you try to close your thighs, the burning of your cheeks getting to be too much he hisses again. It’s not a sound he often makes and it’s a revelation, he’s so sexy. Almost feral.

“Who said I’m done?”

You’re never going to be able to get over this man “I already came?...”

“Yes? So?” he rolls his eyes, lowering his head, nuzzling at the damp juncture of your inner thigh “You’re still so tight, here feel”

His fingers slip back in you and you mewl, baring down as he scissors the long digits.

“We have to get you loose enough to take me, I don’t want to hurt you” He explains it like you need convincing. Like he has to convince you to let him eat you out. You just re-spread your thighs, relaxing back onto the cool floor as you let him do as he pleases.

It takes two more orgasms that you scream and shake through until he deems that you’re ready. By the time that he begins to slide his cock into you you’re a blubbering, oversensitive mess. You’re crying rivers of tears as you cling to him.

“Hold my hand? Please ” You request and he smiles, kissing your tear streaked cheek as he interlaces his longer fingers with yours.

Humans and Na’vi can fuck, but we’rnt designed to. His dick is overwhelimgly big and will really injure you if the two of you aren't careful about this.

You both gasp sharply as his tip breaches you.

It hurts, it’s agonizing. It’s the kind of pleasure pain that you didnt even know could exist. Everytime you think you can adjust, he pushes in another inch. But oh, how you missed it. Being so full it feels like you’re going to burst. You’re pussy flutters as it fights to take him and you focus in on his face.

It’s all scrunched up in heavy concentration. His lips speared between his sharp teeth in a way that has them almost bleeding.

You can't have that. You tug him into a kiss, soothing the abused flesh with your tongue.

“I-I dont want to hurt you” He whimpers as his forehead rests against yours.

“It’s okay, you’re okay” You hum to him, grasping at his hand even tighter “I love what you do to me. I love how you feel”

When he bottoms out you think he must be in your ribs. Hes still, letting your body get used to him. Trying to be kind. You want to tell him that there’s no getting used to his size. That he could fuck you every day for the rest of your lives and he would still feel just as massive.

“Please” you wail instead “please”

The first gentle snap of his pelvis has you both reeling. Your thighs lock around his thin hips, urging him. You can take it. It only takes a little urging for him to lose himself. The harsh stretch of it has you shaking as your over sensitive pussy tightens. You’re coming again, less intense the the previous orgasms, thankfully.

Neteyam had been so focused on making you feel good that he’d neglected his hard, weeping cock. His balls are so full that he knows he’s not going to be able to draw this out.

You know you have to look stupid, mouth hanging open as you raggedly gasp for breath, letting out punched out sounds as Neteyam pounds into you. You cant look away from his face though.

It’s mesmerizing, all of it. The sounds he lets out. The way that his braids sway with the rhythm of his pleasure seeking body. His broad shoulders, bulging biceps and forearms- you are so fucked.

You’re so in love.

“Please Y/N” He wheezes as you squeeze around him, letting go of your hand so he can wrap both of his arms around your lower back “I can’t hold it. W-where should I?”

Oh. Oh, he’s the sweetest man. He always has been.

You peck his lips, not minding that he’s too lost in his own pleasure to really kiss you back

“Come inside me. Come inside me. Come inside me” it’s a heated chant, broken and breathy by the erratic rhythm of his hips and he buries his head in your neck, wailing in the skin there.

Just for a moment, lost in the haze of sex, you can tell he forgets his own strength. Thrusts into you so hard that you scream out in pain, the mushroom tip of his long cock batters your cervix relentlessly. Its a sharp, startling sensation that you’ve never known but you ride it out for him. Desperately trying to keep your whimpers of discomfort at bay.

When he comes, his whole body goes still and ram rod straight. He hugs you tightly to him. You wish you could see his face. Next time, hopefully.

He’s Neteyam, the mighty warrior. The dutiful son. The next clan leader but as he shakes and twitches and basks in the afterglow you can't help but want to baby him. But stroke his back softly, rubbing the residual tension out of his tired muscles.

He’s your big ol’ pussy cat, you’d always teased. He purrs like one every time you’re affectionate with him.

You can’t help but run your hands along his sensitive spine. Let the length of his tail run through the loop of your fingers. He grins and flicks it from side to side. He’d always thought your fascination with it was amusing.

“Are you okay?” he mutters, still hidden in your hair as he starts to come back to himself and you hum, moving up to pat his braids.

“Mmhmm” you’re maybe not as capable of making words as you though you were. He chuckles and hugs you. Holds you in his big arms in a way that makes you feel untouchable.

The two of you lie in that room for as long as you can, until he has to start heading back to Home Tree, it’s almost morning and his parents are early risers. They’ll look for him if hes not in his tent…

It's hard. Letting him go. Even though you know he’ll be back. You keep pulling him back in for kisses, holding onto his muscular arms until he laughs and peels you off of him.

“I’ll be back my love. I’ll always return for you”

You frown but agree, pushing him away to get re-dressed- “How am I supposed to go back like this! Neteyam I don't have any pants!”

He’d shredded your shorts and panties. Literal tatters of cloth are all that’s left.

Neteyam cracks up, almost keeling over. Thinking he’s oh so funny. It lightens the situation and makes letting him go- watching him disappear back in the forest a little easier.

You end up having to pull your fortunately oversized t-shirt down as far as it can go as you make a mad dash across the facility, back to your dorm. You fall asleep grinning, thinking about how the panties had been a necessary sacrifice.

———

Norms on late night watch, keeping a bored, admittedly not sharp enough eye on the security camera’s feeds. With the rainy season, came an influx of Slinths’. It made sense to have a lookout, and somehow he’d gotten saddled with an overnight shift.

He’d definitely fallen asleep for a few hours. Not that he’d tell anyone of that fact.

There is nothing that could prepare him for what he see’s on the screen, over in the desolate East Bay. First, he thinks that he’s hallucinating, his sleep bogged eyes playing tricks on him.

He rubs them hard with his knuckles, not believing the image that is large and clear on the security footage.

It’s Neteyam. Inside the facility which almost never happened. And he’s bending down, his lips locked with Y/N’s . Kissing her hard and long before she punch’s in the code, and opens the air locked door to let him back out into the shadowy eclipse.

Norm’s learned a lot living on this strange moon- Pandora was mysterious. Full of things his brilliant mind would never understand. So he does what he does’ most of the time.

Minds his own business.

So I’ve had this idea cooking for months, but didn’t have the bandwidth to get it written down. The ideas wouldn’t translate to page and I still kind of feel like they didn’t butttttt whatever. This is pure self indulgence. I am so much more in love with Neteyam now. He is SUCH a good guy. Ugh.

Also, please remember that my requests are OPEN! Send in all that good shit. Come blue alien brain rot with me!

#neteyam x reader #neteyam smut #avatar neteyam #aged up neteyam #neteyam x you #avatar smut

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randxmthxughts · 1 year

Text

Chosen by Eywa - Crossing the Bridge - Chapter 4

← chapter 3 | chapter 5 →

contains: arranged marriage, mentions of war and grief, angst, one-sided enemies to lovers, slow burn

wc: 4.2k

chosen by eywa masterlist | general avatar masterlist

a/n: i know i haven't updated in two weeks, but it was only due to the circumstances. like i promised, i will have another chapter out during the week, bc i'm so happy that i got my visa and went to my concert, so stay stuned, babies. i hope you still like this series and will keep reading T.T

It was awkward. The way Neteyam stood in front of the tent, hesitating to walk in to avoid drawing the attention of the other healers. Awkward, how he had to shift his weight from one foot to the other every few minutes because everyone, except her, had caught sight of the future Olo'eyktan at some point. And it took Kiri to finally shove her so forcefully to look up from her task, that Y/N almost fell face first onto the ground.

The whole intention of spending time together away from the High Camp was to avoid the attention and the murmurs of the villagers about them. More importantly, to avoid running into Kaye and his new mate. But the moment their ikrans touched down in the forest, far away from the prying eyes, the pressure of performing got replaced with an uncomfortable tension. And neither Y/N nor Neteyam knew how to close that gap between them. How come weaving mats in a healing tent seemed to be easier and less stressful than taking a stroll in the lush forest of Pandora?

“Say something, show her the real Neteyam,” Neteyam muttered to himself, trailing awkwardly behind Y/N.

She, immersed in her own thoughts, walked ahead without a clear direction, fingers fidgeting with the hem of her loincloth. Neteyam desperately tried searching for an opening to deliver, and took a few larger strides not to fall behind too far.

“So… how was your day?” he finally mustered the courage to ask.

Y/N paused in her tracks, glancing back at him with a small frown, as if she couldn’t quite make out the words he said. Neteyam stopped walking too, waiting for a response.

“The usual. Lessons,” her voice lacked any enthusiasm that could have encouraged him to go on.

“Good,” Neteyam nodded, trying to offer something else in return, “I’ve had training today.”

“How was it?”

“The usual,” he repeated Y/N’s words with an ironic snicker, recalling his morning, “It’s either getting beaten up by your fake opponents, or by the actual bad guys. Today was the pretend one.”

He shrugged to complete his explanation, something that he had borrowed from his brother whenever he made a joke, as if to give his words a humorous meaning. And though they were quite ghastly, it coaxed a small chuckle out of Y/N. Neteyam’s ears twitched at the sound with a flicker of delightful surprise. He made her smile.

“Well, you look alright for someone who got beaten up,” Y/N gestured at his woundless body, her canines peeking out.

“I’d have to turn that compliment down, since I didn’t get beaten up today,” Neteyam smirked, “You should have seen the other guy.”

“Oh, is that so? That’s always the case with you?”

“No, I get beaten up too sometimes… though not as often,” he shrugged again, this time releasing the pressure of performing, as he admitted to a vulnerability that most warriors wouldn’t, “And even when I do, I don’t worry about that stuff.”

“Why not?” Y/N’s ears perked up in curiosity.

“Well, let’s see…” Neteyam bit back a smile, pretending to be thinking about his answer, “I have a grandmother for Tsahik, my mother used to be the tsakarem, now my sister is a tsakarem,” he paused, hesitating to add, “And my destined mate is training under the guidance of the Tsahik. So, I think I’m in good hands.”

“Right,” Y/N snorted at the comment, and for a moment Neteyam thought that he might have crossed the line his father kept telling him about, but once she turned away from him to continue walking, he noticed a ghost of a smile on her lips, and that was enough of a confirmation to send his heart into a rapid beat.

Neteyam wasn’t even sure why the reaction made him suddenly giddy but it felt like a small victory he could showcase, if his family expresses any interest in his progress with Y/N. And as he continued to trail behind her, though they mostly remained in silence, the atmosphere seemed to ease.

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

“It’s okay, Y/N, let’s switch,” Kiri’s tight grip on Y/N’s arm brought her back into reality.

Y/N stood awkwardly a few steps away from the two warriors in front of her - one, who looked at her with guilt but still some lingering warmth in his eyes, and the other - who studied her earnestly, looking for any signs of discomfort, as if he could make them vanish. Kiri, who was only a moment ago treating her brother, was quick to read the situation and attempted her best to resolve it. Everything just unraveled so fast, the way the group of warriors stumbled into the tent for the first time in days, seemingly wounded after an encounter with the sky people.

Since they were practically regulars at the tent, each warrior was used to being treated by the same one or two healers, and everyone found their places right away. Kiri too, without a second thought, was immediately grabbing her older brother and getting to work. Which left Y/N standing in front of Kaye, according to the unspoken habit that had developed over the past months. Kaye had a gash across his chest that needed close inspection, but Y/N couldn’t really move, as if her feet were suddenly glued to the ground, weighed down.

Neteyam, of course, watched the scene unravel before him, but he couldn’t do much but just contain himself from making a bigger deal out of it for the whole tent to see. His eyes darted around the room, searching for his grandmother, who perhaps could help Kaye instead, but Mo’at was already busy with placing stitches on another warrior’s thigh, and it would take a while before she would be free.

“It’s alright, I can wait for somebody else to -” Kaye cleared his throat, raising his palms in the air, as if to prevent the switch up, but Kiri simply ignored him, already nudging Y/N to the side.

“That looks bad, you need to take care of it,” Neteyam gestured at Kaye’s chest with much discontent, as if acknowledging the truth made him cringe.

Defeated, Kaye stopped disagreeing, the sting of the wound was only getting more painful when he spoke, and to be quite honest, he couldn’t wait. Y/N’s expression remained stone cold, as she watched Kiri lead Kaye to the other side of the tent. Neteyam pressed his lips into a thin line, watching them two, his irritation finally starting to seep away, the farther they got. He was almost caught off guard, when he felt a pair of cold hands against his skin.

Y/N silently kneeled in front of him, starting to treat the small scraps over his arms and shoulders. Her expression was unwavering, as if nothing had happened, and he wondered what she was really thinking about. Was this the first time she saw Kaye after their fight?

“Stop staring,” Y/N mumbled, without looking up at him, while her hands still worked their healing magic.

Neteyam shook his head to deny her request, and continued to watch her every move intently. Irritated, she hooked a finger under his chin and forcefully turned his head to the side, so that he was met with the tent wall. He chuckled weakly at the gesture but kept the new position.

“You can take a breather, you know? I’m not dying, I can wait,” he suggested.

Y/N paused to stare at the side of his face for a moment, giving him a false sense of actually contemplating his offer. Of course, she was going to turn it down, there was no way she could’ve just walked out of the tent. The scolding she’d get from Mo’at wasn’t worth it.

“I can’t,” Y/N pretended to be unbothered, her hands continuing to work over his forearm, where a few smaller cuts were in need of a soothing balm.

“Why not? I won’t mind,” Neteyam turned his face again to look at her.

“Because I can’t leave my destined mate unattended, can I?” Y/N's voice dripped with irony, and she couldn't resist stealing a quick glance at him, searching for a reaction.

Neteyam's frown deepened, caught off guard by the repetition of his own words. Was that a bad slip? Maybe she took what he said in a way where Neteyam only valued Y/N for her skills, rather than her as a person. Disappointed with himself, he shook his head and then gently covered her hands with his own, halting their movements.

"Y/N, I didn't mean it that way," Neteyam's voice was low, and he waited patiently for her to meet his gaze before continuing, "This... it doesn't matter. I was just kidding. Go on, and take a breather if you need one."

“I know, Neteyam, I was only teasing,” the corners of her mouth twitched in amusement.

For a fleeting moment, Y/N allowed herself to forget that the love of her life was sitting and watching her from across the room. It felt exhilarating to indulge in the playful banter, teasing Neteyam and pretending that they were a blissful couple, free from the weight of their responsibilities.

“You’re teasing,” he breathed out with relief, “Oh… good.”

“Yes,” she rolled her eyes, “And obviously I can’t just take a break right now. Your grandmother will kill me.”

As Y/N returned to tending his scrapes and cuts, Neteyam bit his cheek, thinking for a moment. A sudden surge of courage coursed through him, and he made a decision, quickly standing up and pulling her gently to her feet. His hand found hers, and the movement surely caught the attention of those around them but Neteyam only shrugged, his eyes on Y/N. She was confused, and she couldn't help but glance nervously at Kaye, who had been watching the whole interaction with unease.

“Let’s go,” Neteyam’s thick-accented voice grabbed her attention once more, and without waiting for an answer, he was already walking out of the tent, leading her by the hand with him.

Y/N had little time to react, on the way out, her eyes caught a sight of Mo’at, who shook her head at the interruption and returned back to her task.

“Neteyam,” Y/N hissed embarrassed, but his grip on her, though gentle, remained unmoving.

“My grandmother won’t kill you, if I’m coming with you,” he explained, without even glancing back at her.

“You’re coming with me? Where?” Y/N’s nose scrunched up in confusion.

“Wherever you want.”

Neteyam was never one to protest the rules. Lo’ak liked to tease him about it and call him a “goody-two-shoes,” but Neteyam was too focused on excelling rather than getting offended by his brother’s weak insults. But he also never had enough motivation to disobey. Breaking the rules only brought trouble, and after careful consideration, Neteyam had never deemed it worthwhile. But here, now, as he led Y/N away from her responsibilities to offer her a moment of peace, he decided that it was for a good reason. That it wouldn’t matter if his grandmother got mad at them and he would take the blame anyway, since he initiated it. But if it meant that she didn’t have to keep working while her past lover gawked at her, then maybe it was worth it.

When they were finally away from the tent, Y/N stood right in front of him, their hands still intertwined. Despite trying to stare down at his much bigger frame with disapproval, there were traces of gratitude in her eyes. Her tail swished with excitement, thinking of how great it felt to abandon her day’s duties and just be left alone.

"Thank you," she whispered, her voice carrying an earnest tone.

"No need to thank me," Neteyam squeezed her hand, "My mother always reminds me that those who care of others also deserve care in return. I tend to forget it at times, but she's right."

He tugged at her hand once more, his gaze already wandering off to somewhere else. Without hesitation, Y/N willingly trailed behind him along the narrow path that meandered through the Hallelujah Mountains. Neteyam's grasp on her hand remained firm all throughout, neither of them sure if it was to guide her safely or simply to reassure her with his presence.

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Walks with Neteyam had shifted from being an obligation to somewhat of an entertainment. They still didn’t speak much, finding peace in the quiet companionship, as they wandered through the forest, away from the eyes of the clan. In those moments, Y/N stopped feeling the pressure of pretending to be happy about her impending union with the future chief, while Neteyam was happy to reconnect with the forest. Since the relocation of the clan to the Hallelujah Mountains, his time in the forest was limited to missions or overseeing his siblings, never to revisiting his past and his roots.

And while to Y/N, this relationship had evolved into a strong foundation for friendship, Neteyam struggled with his growing protectiveness over her. It felt like she might crumble if he wasn't there to watch over, and the mere mention of her past could be her breaking point. These thoughts consumed Neteyam's restless mind, keeping him awake at night. Alongside with them, his frustration towards Kaye and the lack of respect, fueled his anger, as he delivered another forceful hit to his pretend opponent. Was it genuine protectiveness he harbored for Y/N, or was it simply his frustration with Kaye's behavior? Neteyam felt like a hypocrite.

The future chief groaned in frustration, delivering another calculated strike, disarming his opponent, Kaye. But his anger and irritation were blinding, making Neteyam lose his focus, not necessarily in his movements but within the depths of his mind. He couldn’t stop the attacks.

Kaye fell into his parents’ trap and mated with a woman of their choosing. Yet, he seemed content with their decision and he had no trouble leaving Y/N behind. Did he ever even love her, or was he simply leading her on all that time? Either way, Kaye had moved on, and Neteyam had to be the one who watched Y/N try to deal with the fact.

Another powerful shove, and Neteyam swiftly toppled his opponent, sending him sprawling onto his back. His spear was aimed threateningly, directly at the vulnerable spot beneath Kaye's throat. Kaye’s eyes widened in fear, as for a fleeting moment, it seemed like Neteyam might not stop. He immediately lowered his ears in a gesture of submission to the future Olo’eyktan.

“Neteyam, that’s enough,” Jake's voice cut through, jolting Neteyam back to reality.

With an almost aggressive shake of a head, as if trying to force away the nagging thoughts, Neteyam took a step back and lowered his spear. The fight was clearly over and he was the winner, but it barely even felt like a victory.

Neteyam exchanged a look with his father, who was confused with his son’s behavior. To Jake, Neteyam was one of his best warriors, always in control of his emotions and precise with his movements, and it was rare that he got to witness him being overtaken with anger. With a loud sigh, Neteyam still complied with the unspoken rule within the camp and extended his hand to his opponent to pull him to his feet.

Oblivious to the fact that the fight was twice as violent because Neteyam had developed a personal vendetta against him, or perhaps he only chose to be ignorant of it, Kaye offered a small, appreciative smile in response to the extended hand, accepting the help. He dusted off his back and thighs, and before Neteyam could sign a goodbye and leave, Kaye quickly moved to stand in his way.

“I need to talk to Y/N,” he announced, forcing Neteyam to stop in his tracks, “You must see her, right?”

Neteyam clenched his jaw, struggling to contain the anger that still hasn’t died down from the fight. Just when he started to get the things moving for himself and Y/N, just when it seemed like Kaye wouldn’t hurt her anymore, he was suddenly wanting to talk to her? She wouldn’t hide if she wanted to see Kaye, would she?

“I think it’s safe to say that she doesn’t want to talk to you,” Neteyam’s voice trembled slightly, “If I were you, I would have kept my distance. Just like you've grown accustomed to doing over the years.”

“Ouch, I guess I deserved that,” Kaye winced at the comment, “Listen, I am truly sorry for the way things turned out but I never meant to hurt her. I just want to apologize.”

Neteyam simply shook his head, indicating that the explanation fell short of convincing him. If Kaye wanted to speak to Y/N, it would only be on her terms, Neteyam certainly wasn’t going to take part in helping him.

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Y/N sat in front of the healing tent in silence, the small wrinkle in between her eyebrows was turning deeper within each passing minute. She was annoyed with Neteyam, who didn’t show up, but mostly she was annoyed with herself for still being there and waiting for him. Her lesson had ended long ago, their usual routine of going for a walk right after was simply abandoned, and Neteyam was nowhere to be found. She knew that he came home a few hours ago, when she heard the shouts of the warriors, and some even came in for a check-up at the tent. So, if he was safe, it puzzled her why he hadn't come. Did he seize an opportunity and forget to warn her not to wait?

She shouldn’t be annoyed though. Wasn’t this exactly what she wished for? To spend less time with him, to be left alone. But it didn’t feel like a win at all, just a let-down. The times when Kaye would sometimes stand her up floated her mind with insecurity. Though it didn’t happen often, she got hurt deeply every time. No amount of apologies from Kaye could ever help her overcome the fear of him simply not showing up one day and giving up on her completely.

Shaking her head, disappointed with herself for wasting time, she stood up, ready to leave. To her surprise, just as she rose, Neteyam appeared right in front of her.

"You waited," he uttered softly, a mix of confusion and gratitude in his voice.

“You made me wait,” she retorted, her irritation impossible to hide as her eyes bore into his.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to,” Neteyam raised his palms in the air, offering a defeat.

And that’s when Y/N noticed it. Before she could unleash the angry words she had rehearsed in her mind for the past hour, or fully grasp the tinge of pain in his voice, her eyes caught sight of something. A streak of red smeared across Neteyam's forearms, clumsily wiped but not enough to be completely rid of. Almost as if he tried taking care of it himself and failed miserably. Her amber eyes swiftly traced the path of the color, trailing from his ribcage and vanishing around his body, and without a word she circled him, to find his back, covered in awkwardly arranged leaves. She guessed that Neteyam had placed them himself, since some of the wounds were only partially covered, and there was dried off blood all over his skin.

“Neteyam, what the hell happened to you?” Y/N asked, her eyes turning bigger in shock. How long has he been in pain? Why didn’t he come to the healing tent and get it treated? Her mind was flooded with questions.

“It’s nothing,” he mumbled, turning around to face her, though his expression was painted with guilt, “Just a few scratches.”

“These are not just scratches, they look horrible,” Y/N gestured at him once more, “Why didn’t you come to your grandmother? You came home hours ago, no?”

Neteyam flinched at her words. They held the truth, but he didn't want to admit it. There was something embarrassing about getting that many wounds on his back. It meant he hadn't noticed the enemy behind him, which also signified his lack of attentiveness. But how could he pay attention when his whole reality was shifting around him? Neteyam took a step away from her, trying to force a small smile.

“Since you had to wait for so long, let’s go on that walk now, hm? I’ll try to make it up to you,” he tried nonchalantly.

But Y/N was quick to close the distance between him. She grasped his hand and without a word pulled him into the healing tent. Once inside, she gestured for Neteyam to take a seat on one of the rarely used old wooden chairs, thinking that being on her feet would be more convenient when treating his back.

“Seriously, I am okay, we can still go on that walk,” Neteyam tried to reason, but she was already hissing at him in annoyance to stop talking.

His ears lowered in defeat, which he desperately didn’t want to accept, but also secretly had craved. Because even though Neteyam was used to being the one taking care of others, it felt like a sun on his skin, knowing that somebody else was there for him. And he could tell she was mad just by the way she treated him with silence, but the anger was coming from a place of caring.

The wounds he bore were throbbing with pain, located in a difficult-to-reach place. Neteyam hadn't intended to be late; it simply took him longer than expected to dress his injuries. Yet, his heart fluttered with a mixture of relief and gratitude when he spotted Y/N still seated in front of the healing tent, patiently waiting for him. She could have easily left hours ago, so why did she choose to stay?

“You have a whole family of healers, why didn’t you just ask them for help? Why didn’t you ask me?” Y/N sighed.

Neteyam's ears twitched at the touch, a subtle response to the gentleness of her fingers on his back. Soon, the leaf bandages he had grown weary of were being carefully removed, and as she worked, a wave of empathy flowed through her, her tone turning into a softer, more understanding one.

“I know that there is some kind of pride that comes with being the Olo’eyktan’s son, and also this pressure of being perfect and never showing your vulnerabilities. But when you get hurt, Neteyam, none of it should matter.”

“I know, you’re right,” Neteyam admitted guiltily, hanging his head, “I just…”

Y/N tsksed at the incomplete explanation with discontent, taking off the last bandage. Now, fully exposed, Neteyam’s back was covered in multiple gashes arranged at sharp angles around his spine. Fortunately, they hadn't pierced deep enough to cause nerve damage, which meant that Neteyam was quick to react. A damp cloth grazed his skin as Y/N gently wiped away the brown stains of the dried off blood.

“Whether we like it or not, we are a team now,” she continued after a pause, “So you can rely on me.”

He nodded, even though he couldn't see her face. There was a sincerity in her words, something different from before. It didn't feel like mere obligation; it felt like she genuinely meant it, like she truly wanted him to rely on her.

“Thank you, Y/N.”

His earpiece suddenly crackled to life, interrupting the moment, and Neteyam immediately tensed up at the sound of his father’s worried voice. He sat up, and pressed a finger to his wired necklace, speaking into it.

“I am safe, dad, what happened?” Neteyam questioned.

Worried, and unable to hear Jake’s voice on the other end, Y/N quickly came in front of Neteyam, searching his face for clues of what was happening. The future Olo’eyktan seemed to grow more concerned, as he remained quiet to hear his father.

“What is it?” Y/N whispered impatiently, and then she felt it.

Y/N's stomach plummeted as she observed the transformation of Neteyam's expression. What was initially concern now gave way to a haunting mix of guilt and remorse. It was as if he carried the weight of something deeply troubling, something that was unfixable, probably too difficult to say out loud.

“How many of them?” Neteyam spoke again, his eyes still glued to Y/N’s, “And who exactly got shot?”

It felt like the world around her came to a stop, as in these seconds of waiting, Y/N had imagined hundreds of scenarios running through her head. And it could be anything, but the way Neteyam rose to his feet in a hurry, she feared that the worst one was coming to life.

“Is it him?” Y/N’s voice cracked, and Neteyam nodded, pressing his lips into a thin line.

“It is Kaye.”

chapter 5 →

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kurogxrix · 2 years

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All Of My Love ( III. )

(Series Masterlist)

Neteyam x Avatar!reader

IN WHICH Neteyam’s mother and clan disapproves of your relationship, because you’re a dreamwalker. When you both advance in your relationship, the clan cannot help but attempt to ruin things for the both of you.

WC: 5.1K

Warnings: ANGST, Betrayal, misunderstandings, Neytiri being Neytiri, feels and heartbreaks. BADLY EDITED

Upon your arrival back at the High Camp, you were first greeted by the fierceness of Tarsem’s tight grip on your shoulder. You had not even had time to properly dismount your ikran, and his force had nearly caused you to stumble in front of everyone watching. Without much complaints from your side, you let the older man drag you to the centre of the chaos that was about to unfold.

You just couldn’t catch a goddamn rest in this clan.

He stopped abruptly before a large body of people and you were glad that his hand had left your sore shoulder. Your eyes flickered towards Zepii that was standing in the embrace of her mother, tear stained cheeks still evident. She gave you an apologetic look at her father’s actions.

“You demons bring no other than calamity upon this land!” he affirmed with his strong accent and deep voice. Tarsem turned towards the rest of the clan that was encircling the both of you as you stood awkwardly before the many eyes. Neteyam had already arrived shortly after you. He didn’t know what he wanted anymore, whether to comfort you after his outburst or to sulk at his turn. Though when he witnessed the sight of you in the midst of attention, he just couldn’t help but stand back and watch.

Tarsem grabbed your forearm roughly, showing you off to the clan as though they had never seen you before. His grip was tight enough to hurt for a while but nothing that would bruise. You shoulder suffered from the discomfort of the position, but you eased your mind by telling yourself that sooner or later, he would have to let go of you.

“The dreamwalker has endangered my daughter on this day!” he roared and the mass of omatikaya seemed just as enraged as him. They yelled and thrashed in mass at your mere presence and you could help but wish for the ground to sink in and engulf you with it.

“She saved me, father! If not, I would've not been standing here before you.” Zepii cried, trying to prove your innocence as her mother held her back. She had always been the clan’s little treasure, a kind mannered girl that never even dared to speak back before. So when she had raised her voice in your honour, Tarsem had truly been shocked.

Tarsem turned around to face his daughter. For a moment, he had allowed himself to believe that she was solely protecting you for the sake of rebelling, because she had reached that age in her life. Though the genuine concern on her face spoke many words and her father had thought that you might’ve casted some kind of spell on her at that moment. Tarsem had made it clear from the start that she was not allowed to even dare and interact with you, and now it was clear that the both of you were close friends behind her parent’s backs.

While the people were busy bickering amongst themselves, Neteyam had pushed his way to the front of the circle. His family was close behind and the little Tuk was begging Lo’ak to hop on his shoulders so she could see what was happening.

“How could Toruk Makto even approve of you living amongst us, playing pretend like you will ever be one of the people.” After hearing the omatikaya mistreat you with their worlds for so long, Tarsem’s words had not affected you as he had hoped for. He wanted for you to be hurt, so damaged that you would leave and never return. He wanted you to realise that your place would never be among them, but with the humans instead.

Jake had finally managed to push through the packed crowd at his turn, joining his son in his spot. It was suffocating to stand in the middle of the circle, not because of the packed area but because of all of the judgemental eyes. They pierced through your soul with disapproval and blind eyes, unable to see more than an artificial body and a demon. Jake sympathised with you because he had once been in your shoes, and look at where he was now.

As the Olo’eyktan, it was his duty to settle down this argument and reinstall peace in his village. Neytiri however had seemed to have had other plans as she pushed her way past her husband. Her beaded braids rattled rhymically as she now stood before the other warrior. She moved swiftly towards you, heavy footsteps resonating against the floor as she made her way. Jake was quick to be on her tail, trying to prevent his wife from making the matters worse as she arrived before you. He could only wish that his wife’s hatred would not overtake her judgement towards you.

“You will leave this village before you are the cause of any more trouble!” she ordered before the clan, authority drowning in her sharp tone. Hell, even Eywa would shudder at the woman’s tone.

“And stop casting your filthy eyes towards my son, he is to be Olo’eyktan and he needs a real na’vi woman to rule at his side.” she rebuked you and your heart was racing faster than any speed your ikran could ever attain. The vexed look that Neteyam threw at his mother went unnoticed as everyone was too busy observing the dispute.

“I have done more to your son than just ‘casting my filthy eyes on him’” you mocked her insult, digging yourself your own grave as Neytiri’s eyes widened at your intuition. The whole village gasped at your crude comment and that should’ve been an obvious warning for you to shut up, because which foreigner was stupid enough to go against a clan leader? You were tired of being berated by the woman, and you were enjoying playing around with her nerves for the moment, even if it meant that she would literally kill you afterwards.

Your eyes moved towards the distressed Neteyam, and there was something in his eyes that told you to just shut the fuck up before you made matters worst.

Neytiri’s anger only rose at your defiance, she stood right before you, towering over your frame as she stared straight into your soul. She pushed Tarsem’s hand away harshly, having the man nearly doubling over at the woman’s manners. She was quick to be the holder of your shoulder this time, though her grip was not as lenient as Tarsem’s.

You winced slightly as her nails dug thoroughly into your flesh, nearly enough to draw the slightest amount of blood. She did not want to physically harm you, no that was not of her interest as of now. Her loathe towards you was just taking over her emotions and the fact that you refused to submit to her demand had made everything 10x worse.

Jake wasn’t very far behind the both of you when he ripped apart his mate from you, slightly embarrassed at the scene that she was causing. Nevertheless he put his shame to the side to protect you from her wrath, because he knew of her abilities. She was Palulukan Makto, someone not to be messed with. Neytiri didn’t even bother to cast her mate a glare as she continued to look down at you. “He will never be yours because he cannot!”

“My son cannot be with you because he is already promised to another!” Neytiri hissed at you and you felt the time stop at her confession. You just couldn’t believe it, there’s no way Neteyam would’ve hidden this from you. Right?

You turned back to look at him in all of your loud-silence and your heart throbbed at the evident guilt in his doleful eyes. His iris glistened with sorrow and his ears fell, grounded to his skull. His eyes quickly moved from your state of realisation and then to the floor, too ashamed to meet your eyes once more. You felt your heart drop all the way to your toes as you moved to face Zepii, and she too, wore that same guilty look. She stood awkwardly on her feet as you stared her down, and the anxious fiddling of her fingers told you that she felt uneasy.

Neteyam felt so much resentment towards his mother at the moment. Not because she had announced his betrothal, that was all on him to take the blame for. He should’ve told you from the moment he had begun to be infatuated with you. He should’ve told you when you had both shared a kiss for the first time near the bioluminescent river flow. Though he did not, because under his tough guy persona, Neteyam was just a coward.

He was scared of so many things. He had fears that he could not even get to express to you. He feared disappointing his father and mother. He feared his family getting hurt. He feared the moment where you would’ve discovered his secret that he just couldn’t get himself to tell you. Now that everything was happening before his own eyes, he felt his fears turn into phobias - engulfing him in a darkness that he could not even escape.

You felt your eyes fill up with tears, held back by your waterline. Though you refused to shed a tear for the same people that had betrayed you, so you forced yourself to suck them back in. You had cried enough for Neteyam in the past, and you refused to do it anymore. Though only in public, you were sure that you’d empty the contents of your body later on in your solitude.

You refused to turn this into your own pity party, surely not before the omatikaya clan. Everything was as clear as day. Of course it had been, you had just been blinded by the love you held for the both of them. How could you not have seen it coming? The future Olo’eyktan, golden child of the Sully’s paired with the village’s perfect, favourable daughter of Tarsem.

Maybe this was just a cruel joke played on you, perhaps Neteyam and Zepii were like all of the others. You grieved on all of the times that Zepii had made you feel like one of them and you told yourself that perhaps her father had put her up to it. She shared every single one of her secrets with you, and so did you. How could she have hidden this from you, even though she knew that it would wreck you over the line.

You heard Zepii softly call out your name from the sidelines but she was met with the harsh sight of your ignorance. You felt the feeling of sorrow unlatch your heart, before feeling something new wrap around it with ease. You no longer felt as much sadness as you did before, instead you felt loathsome. You didn’t want to feel piqued towards the both of them for being promised, because you knew that it was most likely not their own choices anyways. You felt so conflicted because they had chosen to hide it from you. You wondered why Neteyam had chosen to, because of his forced courtship with the woman, he would’ve soon had to let you go to pursue the other woman.

The other woman, was that what you had been this whole time?

“Y/N, I can explain,” Neteyam pleaded but as he tried to move forward to seek you out, he was quickly prevented by the strong arms of his little brother. He looked back to glare at Lo’ak, trying to pull his arm from his brother’s oddly strong grip.

“What are you doing Skxawng!” Neteyam growled at his younger brother, trying to tower over his frame. Though lo’ak stood up straight, asserting that he feared not his brother. His eyebrows were furrowed and the creases on his forehead were very much visible. Lo’ak had been your friend ever since he had met Spider, and even though he was not as close to you anymore as he once was, he knew what it felt like to be outcasted.

He felt slightly relieved at first when you had joined the clan, because all judgmental eyes were turned towards you, and for once in his life - lo’ak could breathe again. Though after a while he felt slightly guilty for feeling such a way because he out of everyone would know what it feels like to not fit into other’s expectations.

Lo’ak watched as his brother ruined his own relationship in excuse of his issues. He ruined what you both had because he was unable to trust you, whatever you did to prove yourself, it was never enough for his unreal expectations. He was afraid to give his full trust because of his fears. And that Lo’ak knew better than anyone else too. Neteyam trusted him very little, even though he loved his brother very much. Neteyam would always prevent Lo’ak from bringing Tuk out with him, or leaving during eclipse - because he failed to trust his brother completely.

Now, he refused to watch his brother ruin you once more like he had already done. So if watching you walk away was what he had to force his elder brother into, then so he would. Neteyam had stopped resisting long ago, despite him overpowering his brother’s force by much, he refused to escape the grip that lo’ak held on him.

He watched as you walked away from him once more, pushing your way through the heavy crowd. You look towards the dusty floor, too ashamed to look at anyone else right now. Today was pure humiliation for you, everything that had happened. The hunt accident, Tarsem's and Neytiri’s borderline assault and the public revelation that had been casted upon you. You had no idea of where you were headed, but you knew that anywhere out of the High Camp was for the best.

You didn’t know how you had found yourself here, in the middle of the forest, lost in the midst of the night. The eerie sounds and weird feeling of being watched should have scared you, but you were in no mood to care at the moment. Few moments ago you had gone through both humiliation and heartbreak at the same time, you just couldn’t care much anymore.

You were sitting on a log of deadwood, a hand supporting your chin as you rested your hand on it. Your other hand was on your lap as you watched the passing yerik carefully travel the forest. You had no weapon with you at the moment because you have left everything behind without looking back twice. Now you just felt utterly stupid, if some creature was to ambush you right now, you’d surely wake up in cold sweat in your human body - back at the lab. That’s where you should’ve been heading to right now, but a little detour around the forest was what you had chosen.

Lost in your thoughts, you had failed to notice the way a silent na’vi had made her way towards you. Somehow even in your unknown location, she had seemed to have followed you all the way till here, simply on the back of her ikran. You turned your head towards her when you felt her sudden presence, not even jumping when you had noticed the strange third party.

She was silent, and you appreciated that at the moment. The only sounds between you both were those of the belligerent yerik and the relaxing flowing of some fountain that you assumed was nearby. You looked at her up and down, wondering why she had even bothered to follow you. You had never once even spoken to the girl, she was the one that had challenged you into an ikran race earlier.

“What do you want?” you tried not to sound too hostile, though her silence only seemed to rile you up. You liked her previous silence, now she was just seeming too mysterious for you liking.

The girl simply blinked at you as she tilted her head to the side, admiring you as the soft hue of the plants reflected off your dark blue skin. She took in every single freckle that was on your body before looking back into your eyes. You observed carefully as she brought one of her hands between the both of you, pulling her hand into a fist apart from her index finger. She crooked her finger for it to resemble a hook before reaching out a hastily grabbing yours.

You were taken aback at first from her suffen contact, but you were even more confused when she motioned for you to do the same gesture. So when you did, she hooked both of your fingers together. You looked at your entwined fingers before it hit you.

The girl was mute. That’s why she had not once spoken to you ever since you had first met her.

“What does this mean?” you question, even through the communication barrier, you wished to understand her. Eventually you wished to understand why she had followed you here, but you’d take what you’d get for now. You looked back at the girl as she pointed towards her chest, before moving it to yours. Trying to sign to you something.

“Friends? That’s what you’re trying to say, that we’re friends?” You beamed at her and she reciprocated your excitement. You were proud of yourself for understanding her vague explanation.

“It must be hard that no one understands you,” you said and even though you did not mean to make her sad, her face fell slightly at your comment. You raised your eyebrows slightly, scared to have truly offended her. So you tried to comfort her. “I know what you feel like.”

She smiled softly at you before you thought of something once more, you did not know of her name yet. Though the communication barrier between the both of you stood too tall for you to even try and guess her name for now, there were just too many. Na’vi people had no written language, so unless you learnt sign language, you would never get to understand. You knew that you could probably meet her family, and if there was a chance that they too did not suffer from the curse of mutism, then they could tell you.

Though you feared that her parents disliked you like the rest of the clan, so you stick with trying with her first.

“Why did you follow me here?”

“I have something important to tell you. About what happened with the chief's youngest daughter.” she signed to you but to no avail as you failed to understand her way of communicating. You felt as conflicted as the first time you had begun to learn the na’vi language. Though you were just as motivated to learn as when you had learned the native tongue of Pandora. So that night, you had stayed up during all of eclipse to learn her way, suffering through the endless back head slaps each time you would get something wrong.

You had finally parted from Zuko, the mute girl that had become your best friend throughout the last two weeks that you had disappeared from the clan. She had taught you how to sign and she had joined you during dinner time every single day. You have laughed with her, even if no noise was coming from her side, you still enjoyed the fact that she was somewhat laughing.

You had learnt so much about the girl in such little time. You had learnt that she had little friends because of her disability, that little people saw her. Though you saw her, and that was perhaps why she had chosen to help you. She was so shy that if she even had the ability to speak, she probably would avoid it at any time.

Your feet hadn’t taken you much further than you had actually wanted them to, mostly because your path had been interrupted by a sudden predator. Just when you thought your day couldn’t go any shittier, you just had to encounter a hungry viperwolf while you were taking in the beauty of the place that surrounded you.

You watched carefully as the wolf circled you and your tail tensed as you picked up on its soft growl. You knew that if you went back home to the lab tonight, it would probably be a farewell to your avatar body. Though it wouldn’t really matter if you died in your avatar tonight, Norm had told you that the experience wasn’t necessarily pleasant, and you didn’t feel like going through the feeling of death and ‘reincarnation’ of some sorts.

You slowly backed away as the wolf approached you, silent paws marking the ground at its every move. You were scared, even terrified because as much as you didn’t want to kill the animal, you had no weapon to defend yourself anyways. Your eyes widened as you had noticed it, the slight limp from his left back leg.

The creature growled everytime that it applied pressure to the sore spot, and soon it had stopped before you. It whined in pleas of help and your heart did a double take at the poor creature’s suffering. You kneaded down before the blue-ish viperwolf and its whole body shone within the iridescent colours of the body of plants surrounding you.

It lifted its paw before you, using its 6 frontal ones to support its lanky body. You sighed at its problem, just an unlucky piece of wood that had stashed its way between his paw pads. Your hands worked quickly as you removed the splinter, because just about anything could anger a wild creature, even if you had not even caused it’s hurting.

To your surprise, after your little play pretend of ‘vet and patient’ with the wolf, it gratefully rubbed itself against your bended legs. It reached up to your knees and rubbed its snout happily against your tall knee caps. You chuckled at the creature's relief and it soon set off under the soft twinkles of the many shinning stars.

The encounter made you forget about the whole altercation of earlier, instead you were more focused on exploring more of Pandora’s beauty once more. Your legs brought you to a nearby lake as you watched flying fish erupt from the busy current. You had always thought that flying fish were only to be seen in saltwater bodies, but this incredible planet had truly proved you wrong.

You continued to watch the various fish jump out of the water, their luminescent wings glowing of all sorts of colours. Your mouth was wide open as though a child in stages of first discovery but you couldn't care less in the solitude that you now stood in.

The bushes beside you rustled but you were too enamoured by the fish to be bothered by it, you assumed that it must’ve been the viperwolf of earlier and you deemed him a good friend now. Your yellow eyes glistened as you outstretched one of your arms towards the body of water, submerging one completely under the water. It didn’t take much time for the swarm of fish to reach for your hand, their tiny mouths tickling your hand as they tried to nibble at it.

The sensation made you giggle, a little too loud at that but the sound didn’t seem to have disturbed much of the animals around you.

Suddenly, you felt the feeling of a familiar hand upon your shoulder - and the feeling resembled too much of what Tarsem’s harsh held felt like earlier. You quickly turned around, pulling your hand out involuntarily swiftly out of the river and onto your side as you tried to look at what had touched you.

The fish quickly swam away from fear of your sudden movements and your heart quickly fell down to your toes as you were met nose to nose with the boy that had wounded you.

“You have a connection with the All-Mother,” he pointed out, his soft yellow eyes staring deep into yours. Though you were not looking back at him as you forced yourself to look away. You forced yourself not to submit to his soft tone and adoring eyes, because you had done it once and looked at where that brought you. It had been 2 weeks since he had last seen you, and somehow Eywa just had to make your paths cross once more.

You ignored his attempts at talking and failed to notice the hurt look in his eyes as you avoided his words. Though you wouldn’t care, it’s not like he was deserving of your attention after how he had been treating you. You stood up, dusting your loincloth gently as you patted it down for any dust to go. Neteyam was quick to follow after you, already up and standing steady on his strong legs as he followed you around like a lost puppy.

He watched as your hand gently grazed the vegetation with your large palm. You abruptly came to a stop before something you had never seen before and he watched with amused eyes as you wandered around a stray little lizard. A teasing smirk was displayed on his face as he watched you approach the Kenten. Before you could even reach your hand fully out to it, the small reptile jumped off from the leaf - scaring you as it suddenly escaped.

Neteyam chuckled softly from beside you as he watched you observe with amazement at how the lizard unfurled its fan-like structure. Your pupils dilated and your ears furled out completely as you watched the lizard with an opened-mouth expression. Neteyam just couldn’t keep his laughter in anymore as you suddenly stood up, brushing your hand against every single disguised lizard that you could find.

They flew off and spun around like fully circular fans, and your amazed expression had not even faltered yet. Your smile was still glued to your face even when the lizards had retracted their fans back onto their frail bodies, and Neteyam just couldn’t take his eyes off how you looked right now. Your bioluminescent freckles just seemed to be extenuating your already blindsiding beauty.

You picked up the pace again, running barefoot through the unstable forest with the na’vi man right at your trail. Ignoring his presence was hard, you'd admit that much to yourself. It was of your free will that you chose to ignore all of his advances and sort of his whole existence at the moment, but pretending like you did not want to run into his arms at the moment was rather hard.

How could you not? After all Neteyam was perfect, he was the golden son, he was a noble amongst his clan, he had a secure spot as the future olo’eyktan and his family loved him unconditionally. Neteyam was smart, observant and swift with his movements, he was a valuable warrior. More of all, he was kind and he treated you like no other. He was attractive and you were just as sure that many other women thought of the same thing too. He was a man of manners but his own problems just had to ruin the happiness of his own.

It wasn’t that hard to keep up to you, given his trained legs and impressive stamina. He could overtake you at any moment but now was not the moment to show off his physical abilities. You both ran through the forest for a couple of minutes, touching everything that you could on the short run.

The Helicoradians had amazed you like nothing else had on the land, and it had soon become your entertainment for a few solid minutes.

Neteyam watched you carefully as though you were a child, not too fond of the stories he had heard of predators lurking behind those retracting plants. He allowed himself to remove his eyes from your figure as he admired the view. In the corner of his eyes, Neteyam had spotted an odd looking flower.

A Sun Lily. It was strange because amongst the many other sun lilies that were rooted next to that one flower, they were all closed and rounded in shape. A singular flower stood out, its petals wide open and displaying its bloomed form despite the sun having left hours ago. He crouched next to the flower, using his thumb to rub gently against the soft petals of this weird flower. He picked it carefully, breaking the bond between its roots and its stem as he claimed the flower as his now.

Neteyam turned back around to you, and to his surprise had you calmed down from your Helicoradian frenzy. You were sitting in the middle of the flower field, passing your hand through the delicate strands of grass below you. The grass felt spiky as it nipped at your skin, but you found it strangely comforting. He chuckled at your now downturned amusement before making his way towards you.

At the sounds of his footsteps dragging through the mid length grass, you looked up only to be met with the sight of the Sully boy already kneeling before you. You quickly looked down at what was in his hand, and to your surprise he brought his hand up towards your face. He waited before to see if you showed any signs of resistance or displeasure, before bringing the flower’s stem behind your ear and tucking it in safely.

You couldn’t help it. The many emotions that stirred in your stomach at his romantic action. The feeling of his fingers brushing against your skin made your shiver, for it had been so long that you had last felt it. You cursed yourself for the slight indigo colour that raised upon your cheeks, and quickly looked away from the person that had caused it.

You didn’t want to feel this way towards him anymore. You wanted to truly hate him to the point where you were physically unable to look at him anymore. Thought love was an incredible thing, and you cursed yourself once more for your ability to feel. He was still looking at you with that fond look on his face, a soft glimmer of hope in his eyes at your passive form.

You looked at him before remembering the conversation that Zuko and you had had a few weeks ago, and now you felt the urge to tell him. Because if you didn’t do it now for the sake of his little sister, there was no way for you to tell if you would still be communicating with him afterwards.

For the first time in weeks and this night, Neteyam’s heart raced as you spoke to him. He lingered i’m the feeling of your soft lips moving to accentuate your words and he rejoiced in the sound of your voice. Though, what you had to tell him would soon make those feelings falter.

“I have something to tell you, Neteyam.”

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#neteyam x reader #avatar #neteyam sully #atwow #neteyam #neteyam x y/n #neteyam oneshot #neteyam imagine #neteyam angst #sully family #sully family x reader #neteyam sully x reader

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vampandvisiongirl · 17 days

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When you go into the archives and find a list of cute Cangel moments in the Angel books. If you're not familiar, while the series was running, they would release books that were their own episodes.

(C/A Goodness from the Angel books:) Because if she died it would be the most bad he ever felt. (Redemption) Because "Angel thought she...seemed to grow into herself more, becoming more elegant and lovely with each passing week." (Close To The Ground) Because Cordy called him young and good-looking. (Shakedown) Because he's not all angst, Angel can make Cordy laugh too! (Shakedown) Because he literally dreams about her. (Shakedown) Because he said, "I won't let him hurt you, Cordelia." (Avatar) Because "while she couldn't be sure of much in her life, she knew that if push came to shove, Angel would be there to shove back, to risk his life for her. She could count on him." (Avatar) Because she gives him a pep talk when he starts doubting himself. (Soul Trade) Because everyone else can see that Angel's "her guy". (Hollywood Noir, Bruja) Because Cordy knows Angel's the only one whose been there for her since day one. (Bruja) Because he told everyone to be quiet when Cordy appeared on the television screen. (Haunted) Because "that was his Cordy on a national television show, the girl he'd known since she was a spoiled high school princess and had watched grow into a beautiful and confident woman." (Haunted) Because "her week's enforced absence just pointed out to Angel how much he'd missed her." (Haunted) Because "he missed the sound of her laughter, the arch of her voice when she was annoyed, the shriek when she was startled. Soon, he thought. The game can't last forever, and then she'll come back..."(Haunted) Because "his only thoughts were for Cordelia."(Vengeance) Because he "won't let anything happen to her." (Vengeance) Because she scowled when Elain flirted with Angel. (Vengeance) Because when she fell asleep Angel kissed her forehead. (Vengeance) Because it takes a while for comprehension to dawn on Angel when he's looking at her. (The Longest Night) Because Cordy sticks up for him and says he's "Not evil. Just not exactly Mr. Sociable." (TLN) Because Angel looks at her when she says this. Then she brushes his arm with her hand. (TLN) Because Angel likes it when she's happy and if it takes attending a party to do that, then he'd make sure he was there. (TLN) Because he got her Christmas present first before anyone else's. (TLN) Because he happily calls her "the Queen of Shopping and all other shoppers must bow down before her." (TLN) Because she winked at him and called him fine. (TLN) Because she undressed Angel with her eyes. (TLN) Because he likes the idea of Cordelia being intersted in him. (TLN) Because he likes the idea of Cordy hitting on him. (TLN) Because her hands dropped mischievously behind his back and made Angel go, "Ow!" (TLN) Because she cheers him up when he gets a mean Christmas gift from Wolfram & Hart that upsets him. (TLN) Because he tries to be Thoughtful Guy when it comes to Cordy. (TLN) Because he wants her to stay. (TLN) Because he doesn't want her to drive alone late at night. (TLN)

#cangel #cordelia x angel #angel the series #ats #cordelia chase #angel x cordy #angel and cordelia #angel and cordy #angel books #angel the series books

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la-imp · 2 years

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AVATAR - Recom - Prologue

Science Puke!Reader x Recoms series

Summary: Basically a small prologue to the upcoming chapter >:)

Warning(s): Teasing - Invasion of personal space - Negging SFW

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Once you and the reincarnated Marines got acquainted with Pandora's soil, you learned quickly that the warnings and safety briefs were big understatement to the initial experience. Even the biggest warzones back on Earth were pure picnics by comparison. And the high temperatures and unforgiving climates were the least of your worries. Natural disasters, fiercely dangerous wildlife, and flora made it hard to tread on Pandorian ground without some security measure. Ardmore called it an auto-immune response. Which, to her credit, was true. Thankfully, the tall blue humanoids were confident in their abilities, allowing you a relatively safe passage through the forests whenever you traveled with them. Strangely enough, Mansk was always the first to be at your side. The stoic and calculating member who barely shared anything but a few grunts and nods, defended you, tossing his limber body into the heat of battle as he fired his machine guns until all of the clips were empty. You, of course, had your own exo revolver drawn, aiding them wherever you could, sometimes even hitting the designated target between the eyes and sparring your members from a final death blow. Your vantage point was your size, being less noticeable than the rest. Something that had earned you a decent amount of respect, acknowledgment, and even gratitude from some you didn't think would ever regard you on equal terms. Often you would spend your time checking their health stats, or, in more frequent cases, patching up wounds and mending broken bones as fast as you could. Eventually it began to feel like an actual unit, integrating like clockwork. Action-packed, racing pulses and anxiety-inducing situations gave you a quick reality check to what you signed up for. Most of the time, you had watched the cerulean giants coming to life when they fought off dangerous wilderness by subdueing the vicious natives and even taming the mighty banshees to their will. It was truly magnificent. As time progressed, you grew accustomed to your daily routine and learned to ignore most of the headache inducing quips and comments from Wainfleet, Brown or Z-Dog. The first few days were relatively peaceful by comparison. But as soon as you delved deeper and further into the emerald sea, enraptured by the size, variety, and lush growth that Earth lacked, you couldn't help but feel a bit of you crumbling. At first, you had to take an hour to process all of this nature and wonder these lands offered before a tear or two rolled down your damp cheeks. You made sure none of your soldiers, not even Ryan, would notice you in this state of vulnerability. A certain level of professionalism and sense of tact had to be maintained. If one were to survive this job, let alone, this planet. When you had grown accustomed to your new setting, you couldn't help but extend your hand and let the pads of your fingertips lightly graze over the lush plants and foliage, the tingle electrifiyng you with emotions you had not felt before. Sensory overload on a different level would describe it quite perfectly. Nevertheless, you still felt like a bit of an outsider. And although not nearly as raunchy or disrespectful like the first time you met these jarheads, the teasing would continue. In response, you and Ryan had grown closer and mostly kept to yourselves, especially during lunch break or camp. Quaritch made sure to keep you on your toes, often punishing you for the most ridiculous things like, for example, 'not paying enough' attention to his briefings. When he would lead with you shadowing his every step, more often than not would the thick length of his tail slap you against the side of your waist or head, feeling the flexible appendage rub and tickle your sensitive flesh. And there was even a time when you had to stifle a yelp when it boldly ghosted the juncture between your legs in a featherlight press, eliciting your body to almost leap from the inappropriate contact. His ears flickered in your direction until he graced you with his full attention, one brow lifted in mild curiosity. "Is the princess a bit too caviar for the jungle, hm?" He commented with the smuggest smirk you had ever seen. Your face flushed with embarrassment and outrage. "No sir," you answered simply, not wanting to take your chances with him. His grin broadened to a sly expression comparable to that of a fox. The brush of his tail made you wonder whether or not it was just pure coincidence or deliberate. But as you saw the glint flickering in his amber gaze, you dismissed the first notion pretty quickly. "Good, then stay focused and keep up." He knew what he was doing. Bastard. .... If he weren't your superior.... You thought begrudgingly as you clenched your fists, despising how his higher position made him neigh untouchable. The urge of unholstering your weapon and shooting him in the tail had your finger twitch with anticipation, but you reserved those desires as nothing but an afterthought.

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To be continued -

INTRO -

#avatar the way of water #avatar pandora #avatar james cameron #avatar fanfiction #recoms x reader #characters x reader #sciencepuke #avatar recoms #recombinant #na'vi #sci fi #next chapter #prologue #colonel miles quaritch

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omgkatherine01 · 2 years

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Dream Girl: Chapter 3 - Neytiri

Series Masterlist

Chapter 2, Chapter 4

Pairing: Neytiri x female reader

Please comment, like and share

I was completely alone, you thought as you looked around the forest.

Wet and bruised, crouching under a screen of giant leaves, you hacked manically at the end of a cut sapling with your knife, forming a crude but sharp tip which Tom taught you to do.

You started to walk through the forest like it was a minefield, carrying your new spear white-knuckled. You won't lie, especially not to yourself, but you were freaking out, and hyper-alert. The trees surrounding you were a hundred meters high, blocking out the sky. A few pencil beams of sunlight filtered down into the cyan gloom.

As you passed under a tree limb, you could feel like you were been watched... and you didn't like that feeling at all.

Unknowing to you, you were indeed been watched. It was a na'vi girl, sitting on a tree above you, watching you with only her eyes. She rose soundlessly. In one fluid, sinuous movement she knock an arrow to her bow and draw, aiming right at you.

Utterly silent.

Below her, you were unaware of the arrow aimed at you. As you were looking around, she followed you with the bow, muscles tensing for the shot and something drifted down in front of her which made her freeze.

A single Woodsprite floated down to land on the arrow-head.

Like a dandelion seed, but larger, the Woodsprite waved its silky cilia feather light, as it balanced on the deadly point. It glow faintly in the dark shadows.

The na'vi girl frowned, puzzled, and lowered her bow slowly. The Woodsprite whirled away into the gloom. The na'vi girl looked toward you and frowned again before moving away but not far.

She was going to watch you, for now.

The sun had set, and now you were still stuck at the forest, in the dark night. You couldn't sleep, you would be back in your human body, and you would lose this avatar body to the creatures that would appear in the night.

Your thoughts were correct, when you noticed movements in the shadows and eyes glowing. You started to act quickly, tying your button shirt around the end of your spear and jammed the makeshift torch into the sap you found, soaking the shirt with it. You quickly lighted it as you heard a sound that sounded like a Hyena's psychotic laugh.

You quickly turned and moved the fire to see a couple of viperwolves' eyes staring at me.

The viperwolves can run like a dog and climb like a monkey. They were hunting you from the ground and the trees as you moved back.

You ran by torch-light, on the edge of panic. You reached a steep banked stream and without thinking, you ran across it on a horizontal trunk and stopped dead on the other side. The torch illuminated green eyes cutting ahead of you across the trail.

The viperwolves had you encircled. The psychotic barks became more intense as they signaled each other, getting excited. One of them made a run at you, angling on your legs from behind but you moved, jamming the torch in its face.

It yipped and went past, but another moved in. You jabbed it with the end of the spear and it snarled, retreating, baring its fangs. Now half a dozen were circling you in the open.

You had to make a stand.

You whirled the torch in an arc, keeping them at bay. Feeling a rush of adrenaline, it went through you like a lightning bolt and the fear was gone. "Come on!" you yelled, hissing at them.

With snarls and a blur of motion they attack, you cracked the spear down on one, then spined as another leaped at you, and you planted the spear in it, striking true, but it wrenched it from your hands, and the torch went flying.

Left in semi-darkness, you draw your knife, hissing. A viperwolf lunged and you slashed it with the knife which cut deep into the beast's shoulder. You sprinted trying to escape, but a snarling viperwolf leaped, grabbing you by the ankle with its fore-hand.

You kicked it off of you, and you pushed yourself to your feet. Three of them charged at once, but then one of them got shot by an arrow.

You looked at the body in surprise and confusion, while all the other viperwolf turned to the trees.

You looked to where they were looking and a blue na'vi girl emerged from the trees, screaming at the beasts as she knock another arrow, draw and fired in one fluid motion, and another viperwolf fell.

She leaped right over you , and cracked her bow down on the skull of a circling viperwolf. Another charged toward her and she dropped under its weight, but as you took a step to help her, she rolled, coming up on top of it with a knife in her hand. Her knife flashed down, buried to the hilt in its chest.

Snarling, a wounded viperwolf attacked you, but you kicked it away. It spined and leaped back onto you, and you barely caught its throat in time to keep the snapping jaws away from your face.

You threw it away while the girl swing her bow in a big arc, cracking it across the heads and shoulders of two remaining viperwolves.

The viperwolves slinked and circled, yelping as the bow whistled past them. Finally they broke and ran away, with her chasing and they bound away through the foliage as she shouted.

Panting, you looked at the girl as you got up. Her tail swinging as she scanned the forest, listening to the fading yelps of the viperwolves. Satisfied the attack is over, you let out a breath.

The girl turned to me before quickly looking at the fire, hissing as she spit in na'vi, "Fayvrrtep!" These Demons!

She took the spear and you frowned, "Hey, wait." Your eyes grew wide when she threw it into the water, "Don't!"

"Faysawtute!" she hissed, These Sky People!

You looked at the water and sighed softly, "Great," you muttered softly, but then blinked around in the darkness, realizing you can still see.

In fact, with the blinding torchlight gone, the forest was transformed. The jungle had come alive with Bioluminescence spots and patterns, ghosts and galaxies of blue-green light.

You scrambled to recover your spear while the girl kneeled beside a dying viperwolf. It's cries were pitiful, and it paws the air, trying to raise its head. She pulled her knife from its chest, speaking softly, "Oeru txoa livu. Ma oeyä tsmukan, ma oeyä tsmukan." Forgive me. My brother, my brother.

You watched her cutting its throat, ending the pitiful cries. She touched its head gently, regarding it with sadness. She wiped the knife and returned it to the sheath at her waist. She crossed to another slain viperwolf and kneeled, pulling the arrow from its heart.

"Oeru txoa livu, ma oeyä tsmukan. Hu nawma sa'nok tivul ngeyä tirea. Oeru txoa livu." Forgive me, my brother. May your spirit run with the Great Mother. Forgive me.

"Irayo," you said in na'vi. Thank you.

The girl glanced at you but then walked past you. You frowned but quickly followed her, speaking English, "Hey, wait! Wait up, I just wanted to say thanks for killing them--I did say thank you, right? I'm a bit--"

You wanted to finish by saying you were a bit rusty with the language since you haven't spoken it much, but made a mistake by placing your hand on her shoulder, and she turned around, making me quickly move back. She glared at me and spoke with an English accented.

Halting, angry English.

"Don't thank," she said, "You don't thank for this. This is sad. Very sad only."

You nodded a little, "Okay. I'm sorry. Whatever I did, I am sorry."

"All this is your fault," she said, pointing behind you to the dead viperwolves. "They did not need to die."

You glanced behind you and then back at her quickly, frowning, "My fault? They attacked me. How am I the bad girl?"

She silenced you with the tip of her bow at your throat. "Your fault!"

"Whoa, hey," you said calmly, and took a step back.

"Your fault," she repeated. "You're like a baby. Making noise, don't know what to do."

You nodded a little, "Okay, fine," you said quietly as you stared at the tip of her bow and then looked at her, "If you love your little forest friends, why not let them just kill me? What's the thinking?"

The girl tilted her body a side, not turning her gaze from you, "Why save you?"

You nodded, "Yeah, why save me?"

She seemed to be hesitating for a few seconds until she answered, "You have a strong heart. No fear." She leaned forward, much closer to you before scolding, "But stupid. Ignorant like a child."

You were a bit offended by that and she ignored your frown and turned to leave. You started to follow her, "If I'm ignorant, then teach me."

"Sky People cannot learn," she said as she walked on a root, and I followed, "You do not See."

"Well, then teach me how to See."

"No one can teach you to See."

You looked around you with amazement before quickly following her again, "Look, come on, can't we talk? Where'd you learn to speak English? Grace Augustine's school?"

She stopped and turned to you for a second before taking a step to continue to walk away. You followed her but then you slipped, gasping while you dropped your spear, but the girl quickly turned and grabbed your wrist, saving you from falling.

You were pulled upright, and you watched the spear cartwheel down to splash in the river. You looked at the girl as she scolded me in English and Na'vi, "You're like a baby."

You frowned, offended again before letting it go. "I need your help," you said.

"You should not be here," she said.

"Well okay, take me with you," you said.

"No!" she said.

"I can't go off by myself, I didn't really had a choice but to get away from the jaws' of death earlier," you said.

The girl nodded behind you, hissing, "Go back."

All of a sudden several Woodsprites float down through the trees, as they descend silently toward the two of you.

The girl, sensing a presence, looked up to see the Woodspitres, pulsing with purpose, float right towards you. You looked confused as they danced gently around your shoulders and head.

More Woodsprites gathered around you and on you. You hold still, intrigued by them, not knowing what they were, but as they didn't seem to want to harm you, you just... kept still.

The girl watched with amazement and wonder as you spread your arms. More Woodsprites come, landing all over your body.

"What are they?" you asked.

"Atokirina'," the girl said, "Seeds of the Sacred Tree. Very pure spirits."

"Woodsprites," you breathed out as you looked at one floating on your palm. The girl didn't say anything else and continued to watch the Woodsprites moving closer to you. Your body was now pulsing in white bright light, and she smiled a little. Then the Woodsprites whirled up and away, scattering into the darkness.

Her smile faded away as if she realized now something, and when you watched the Woodsprites disappear, you turned to her, still dazed by what just happened. "What was that all about?" you asked.

She whispered something in Na'vi that you couldn't hear, and then looked at you. "Come," she said quietly.

"You taking me with you then?" you asked.

She nodded, "Come," she repeated and took your hand, pulling you to follow her.

You looked down as the two of you crossed a bed of purple moss which reacted to the pressure of your footsteps. Rings of green light, like ripples on a pond, expanded outward from each footfall. Exploding rings of light where your feet touched down.

Dream-like, surreal beauty.

As you ran over a large root, across a mirror-like pool at the base of a waterfall, you followed the girl, running along a raised root-trunk.

"So, my name is y/n Sully, what's your name?" you asked.

The girl let out a sigh, but when she opened her mouth to speak, either to answer or ignore your question and say something else, you didn't know since it was interrupted when a rope flew at you, spinning and tangled around your legs.

You tripped off the root and crushed into the foliage below. The girl turned and gasped, quickly moving back to you. You untangled yourself, getting up to run just as several Na'vi riders thundered toward you. They were riding six-legged, armor-skinned alien Clydesdales.

You saw that the riders' queues were connected to the horses' long moth-like antennae were a neural-link with which they can command the horse, leaving hands free for weapons, just as Grace told you.

The riders aimed bows and spears at you as they approached. You turned to see more hunters approached out of the shadows, weapons aimed. You dropped your hunting knife on the ground, letting out a breath of annoyance.

The girl dropped to the ground next to you and looked around, "Mawey, Na'viya! Mawey!" Calm, people, calm! She turned to the lead rider, hissing at him, "Ma Tsu'tey! Kempe si nga?" What are you doing, Tsu'tey?

"Fayvrrtep fìtsenge lu kxanì!" he said in Na'vi. These demons are forbidden here!

"Aungia lolu!" the girl snapped, "Tsahikur txele lu!" There has been a sign! This is a matter for the Tsahik!

Tsu'tey clenched his jaw. He turned and angrily remounted his direhorse, barking a command to the hunters, "Pot zamunge!" Bring her!

You looked to the girl and opened your mouth but was grabbed by two hunters. You were pulled forward and the girl followed with the rest.

Taglist:

@ara-a-bird, @imthefunniestpersonalive, @mistyyyy, @lovelyspecs, @octavias-next-meat-bite, @redwitchredspeedster, @fanboyluvr

#avatar 2009 #avatar series #neytiri #neytiri imagine #neytiri x you #neytiri x fem!reader #neytiri x reader #neytiri x avatar reader #jake sully imagine

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galaxythreads · 7 months

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The live action ATLA is amazing. 9.5/10. I didn't love everything about it, but there are so so so so many good parts and I'm so glad that Netflix decided to make this. I've seen a lot of weird criticism from long time fans and maybe I just haven't been in the fandom long enough, but. I absolutely think it's worth giving a watch if you go in with a semi blank slate. The Netlfix series is not trying to be an exact scene by scene remake of the show.

The thing about it that you have to remember when you go in is that they said they were going to change the tone of the show, and they did, and it works! It's not the same. It's not a comedy. It's funny, but it's not a comedy. Character motivations were changed to fit the darker theme. It's using Avatar as source material and intends to be an adaption, not a reconstruction of the series.

Katara is much more traumatized about her mom's death, which made sense! She was murdered in front of her. She's afraid to take on a maternal role because of that. She's quieter and softer because she's afraid and she's healing from her mother's murder. Katara in the series made sense, too, but I feel like someone looked at her and went! Wait. Smol child is maybe...not okay??? I have faith they will build her up as the seasons progress if they continue.

Hakoda is disappointed in Sokka barely passing his trial. Makes sense! They're at war! Sokka has to take care of the village, of course Hakoda has high expectations for him. And the thing is--Hakoda still trusted Sokka with the responsibility of the village anyway, so his disappointment in Sokka's trial didn't stop his faith in his son. And honestly, I think it's fine that Hakoda is not a perfect parent who never makes mistakes. Parents rant about their kids to their friends all the time. It's healthy because they're not doing it in front of, or to, their kid. Hakoda didn't know Sokka was listening. So. Idk. Sokka doesn't go through his misogyny is bad actually arc, and while I missed it, I thought he functioned really well in this story without it. And for the record!!!! Sokka STILL makes stupid jokes the entire season. He didn't lose his sense of humor.

Aang feeling so much guilt about leaving? Yep! I can vibe with that. I missed his innocence and playfulness, but I feel like this wasn't a bad take on the character either. He was still playful, but in the world they live in, it would make sense that he feels terrible for leaving. And everyone they encounter takes it upon them to rub it in his face so why wouldn't he feel bad or out of place?? Especially after Bumi. Everyone says he needs to face this alone, and Aang learning that he doesn't have to?? Powerful!! Is it the same arc as s1 of the show? No! It's not supposed to be!

Zuko's actor was perfectly cast. That boy IS Zuko. The scence at the end of e6 made me cry because it was so powerful with the 41st, and that felt so EARNED after episodes of watching Zuko's crew despise him to suddenly realizing the only reason they're alive is because of him and realizing it's an honor to shelter him. Zuko drawing Aang to pin him on his disaster wall was amazing. Him getting hit by some random woman for attacking Aang? Amazing. Him sitting next to Iroh during Lu Ten's funeral? So soft. The Agni Kai really rubbed people the wrong way, but I think it was interesting that they decided to have Zuko showing compassion be the root of Ozai's anger. He showed compassion to the 41st, he shows compassion to his father, and when Ozai has defeated him, he has him on the ground and could walk away, and he chooses to burn his face. It's not exactly the same as the show, but again, it's not intending to be.

Azula being here was interesting. I don't know if I loved Zhao being incapable of doing anything without her, but it works for what it is. Zhao is intended to be annoying and he was! So. 10/10. She cried when Zuko got his scar! Ozai playing the long hand of terrible abusive tactics made me want to bite him. Because Ozai doesn't care about Zuko. He uh. Made that pretty clear when he banished him and then at the end when he's explicitly told Zuko might have died at Agna Qel'a and he's like ????????? Am I supposed to care??? We've gotten rid of weakness. So??? Like he used Zuko to force Azula to become more ruthless. He used Zuko to shape her. I do hope we get more exploration of Ty Lee and Mai so they aren't Faceless Blorb Friends, but I just don't think there was really time in s1.

The parts they chose to remove and add into the story was interesting. You got to explore the story for the first time again. I definitely think both versions have merit and are deeply enjoyable, I just don't think you should go in expecting it to be exactly the same thing? I was happy to see a new take on the story, but that might be because I knew that it was going to be darker and the characters would adapt to that. I do hope we can get more of the vibe of the show's humor in season 2 if we get season 2, and Katara feels little more like her show-counter part because I missed her, but honestly, I do recommend to a friend.

Or at the very least, if you absolutely refuse to watch it, PLEASE go watch the last 1/2 of episode 6 with Zuko and the 41st because I CANNOT.

+THEY ACTUALLY PRONOUCED EVERYONE'S NAMES CORRECTLY #bareMinimumAward

#avatar the last airbender #avatar live action #Netflix Avatar #netflix avatar spoilers #atla #idk #my two cents #i binged the whole thing and I had fun #i haven't wanted to binge anything in forever #but I hope they get renewed because I'd love to see their take on s2 and 3

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vinciwolf · 2 years

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Loyalty Pt 3

(Recom)Na’vi!Miles Quaritch x (fem)Na’vi!Reader

Warnings: SLOW BURN, THIS IS AN EVENTUAL NSFT SERIES, ENEMIES TO LOVERS, capture, romance, reader is female

Warnings for this chapter: torture, angst, fluff if your squint, a lot of stuff happens to a very tired reader who can’t catch a break

Notes: Na’vi spoken is in italics, but inner thoughts are also in italics.

Tags: @perseny @mechformers @ragingloser @drinking-tea-and-be-obsessed @avatar-lover @dakotali

The environment around your hummed, occasionally shaking from turbulence. Your head was pounding making you groan. Looking around, your bound hands were tied to a metal fixture. You tugged at the restraints but they, of course, didn’t budge. As you came to and your senses slowly returned, you noticed you had a clear mask covering your face giving you a mixture of gases to keep you alive at what you assumed to be a high altitude, airship taking you farther away from refuge… from home. The mud you landed in still covered your hair and clothes while none of the wounds you sustained were cleaned or stitched. You felt gross and sticky.

Your forehead was pulsating from the now scabbed wound lining your brow. Luckily, the split on your lip crusted over too, subduing the pain by some degree for now.

Eyes widened after you realized that you hadn’t seen Spider. You turned your head about and searched for him but you were alone in this solitary area of a giant aircraft. Then you heard a loud thud of boots colliding with the metallic flooring. The sound was approaching where you sat.

The Colonel walked up to you, stopping just a few inched away from where your legs sprawled, the same kind of clear mask like you had covering his mouth and nose. His eyes scanned up and down your form, yellow irises penetrating the low light.

You stared through your brow at him, lips pressed firmly.

“Good. You’re awake.” His gruff voice carried itself through the air with a mild echo.

“You have spirit. I’ll give credit where credit’s due,” Miles nodded, ears pointed.

Your jaw locked as your head spun, lungs mustering just enough strength from your rage to ask weakly a basic question.

“Where’s Spider?”

The Colonel sighed. He understood.

“The kid’s safe, even though it took three of us to restrain him.”

You snort, imagining what that must’ve looked like.

Good boy.

"Why do you care about him so much?"

The question made your ears fold before you glanced up with despondence as you thought about the boy.

"You can't put babies in cryo. Someone had to raise him," you replied plainly.

Miles winced.

“Jake didn’t teach him how to hunt. I did. Neytiri didn’t teach him Na’vi. I did.”

Then he interjected, “Then we have common ground.”

Your eyes narrowed at your captor.

“Look, I might not be the kid’s father, but you and I have the same objective: keeping the kid safe—”

“Just so you can use him later,” you countered.

Miles bit his bottom lip, ears tugging down. “I’m trying to give you a carrot,” he said while turning his heal opposite of you, “I’m trying to keep you and the kid an asset to this mission.”

He was right though, no matter how much you hated to agree. Spider was your priority now, and you wanted to keep him safe, but to do so you had to find a compromise. Maybe you did have common ground.

Over his shoulder, he added grimly, “I can’t guarantee that the lab coats will treat you the same way.”

Your blood ran cold as you sat in seclusion thinking about what would become of you when this ship landed.

Electricity zapped throughout your body and pulsated hard inside your head. Wrists and ankles stirred and jumped to escape the confines that strapped you onto the table you currently occupied, or more like it occupied you. Fingers stretched and curled as you screamed for the rapid pain to stop, eyes leaking heavily down your cheekbones and some landing in your mouth.

You felt entirely exposed yet bolted shut. The neon lights spinning around you made you terribly nauseated in your throat, yet you were simultaneously pumping with adrenaline trying to ward off the probing words of the absolute worst bitch standing in front of you.

"Tell us where Jake Sully is and we'll stop the machine," Ardmore commanded loudly over the obnoxious hum of the mental torture device.

You kept your mind clear of any memories of Jake, but it was getting exhausting. You tried to replay memories from Earth— birthdays, bad hook-ups, grad school exams. Anything. Hell, you even replayed memories of abusing pills, but somehow Jake wormed his way into your brain with every passing second you were struggling to push him away.

Miles from afar, behind a clear observation glass, recoiled at your blood-chilling cries. He remembered how Spider sounded when he went through the same torture, but the Colonel couldn’t give in again to the tempting red button staring at him from below. Ardmore would lose trust in him and he needed leverage.

“Where is the Omatikaya stronghold? In the Hallelujah Mountains somewhere? Just think of a memory, we’ll see it.”

The torture had been going on like this for a few hours, longer than Spider had lasted, but you weren’t easily broken. It took everything for the Colonel not to feel something wrenching in his gut instinctively with every passing moment you were tied to that table. Was it pity?

Then something happened that scared the Colonel, glare turning into wide fear.

Your eyes rolled backwards as your body began convulsing against the table, limbs and head jerking beneath their restraints. The florescent speckles covering your face and body flickered violently. Ardmore even stepped away in shock from your body’s unexpected shift.

With fists balled, “Damnit, shut it down!” Miles yelled from behind the glass.

"She's having a seizure!" one of the scientists screamed as another flung their hand down onto the red shut off switch, cutting all power to the machine.

You went limp and slumped.

Several of the doctors tried getting your out of the contraption but you were too heavy.

Miles, having enough, pounded from around the corner and stepped down near the table, unstrapping your lifeless body and allowing it to fall into his arms before carefully lying your head down on the floor.

"She's not breathing!" a voice came from behind him.

“Shit!” another rustled.

Ardmore cupped her mouth and meandered away from the crowd of scientists and doctors forming around you, the Colonel slapping your cheek.

“(Y/N)!?” he asked frantically.

A thick line of red slowly leaked out your nose and over your mouth.

He brought his ear down towards you mouth and checked your pulse. All your bodily functions were in fact knocked out cold.

No heartbeat. No breathing.

The doctors were moving too damn slow.

Fuck this shit!

Miles intertwined his hands together and started to press hard into your chest.

Breath!

Then he gently took your face, parted your lips, and blew into your lungs.

When your eyes finally peeled open, you were alone, head feeling like it was cracked opened. Slowly using your elbows to push your head up, the room around you was quiet and sterile, the lights above too bright for your sensitive migraine. Inch by inch felt excruciating while you sluggishly bent forward and sat upright, stomach rolling around.

There was a blanket carelessly flung atop of your legs that you dragged over your shoulders. Looking at where you were laid, you noticed that there were dry mud flakes scattered everywhere. Your head craned up and saw a reflective surface at the opposite end of the room. The sight you beheld was ungodly, bruised, and disheveled. You craved a gentle shower from the Hallelujah Mountains. You wanted to go home.

Eyes blurred as you thought of home, a few tears streaming down your messy cheek leaving clear streaks through the caked mud you quickly wiped away before someone could see your weakness.

The door to the cold, hallow room rushed open and Miles stepped in.

Your eyes didn’t greet his, looking at the floor with an impassive stare. You were tired and the Colonel tried to not let remorse show through his tough exterior while he took in the frail sight of you.

His boots clunked heavily as he stepped closer to you, sitting down with a grunt and sigh when he reached your bed.

It wasn’t really a bed though, just a slab of cold metal Ardmore put you on to get you out of the lab and out of her sight. Your eyes wandered over to Miles’ long, veiny hands and puzzled at the cup of steaming liquid tucked in his grip.

"At least you're more docile than the kid, I'll give ya that,” the Colonel began.

You gradually lifted your stare to meet his and the corners of his eyes crinkled, apples of his sharp cheekbones puffing upwards, ears flicking forward to reflect his casual mood. That was enough to bring a sense of ease to your body, shoulders relaxing.

Spider was alive and you knew Miles wasn’t Ardmore.

Fuck that bitch.

Your body froze when Miles took your hand (he was so tender prying open your fingers) and made room for the cup he handed you. Your fingers radiated from the warmth and that calmed your limbs even more.

“It’s coffee,” he said, “I don’t know what you like, but I prefer coffee.”

Your face contorted slightly in amusement, the edges of your lip tugging up before relaxing again.

“What happened?” you asked finally.

“Ardmore is a tough woman. She likes to push hard and that made you pass out. Heart completely stopped. We, well… I… had to bring you back.”

Your brow creased, “You… helped me?”

“I, uh, yeah,” the Colonel stumbled with his words.

I gave you fucking mouth to mouth, woman.

“Look, I know you have your reservations about me. I’m the reincarnation of my predecessor, but…,” he paused, lifting a hand, gesturing at himself, "I'm not that man."

Miles helped you?

Your mind tossed the words from the Colonel over and over. You were bewildered but also grateful.

“Thank you.”

Miles’ ears perked up. He didn’t think he’d be hearing that from a person like you. Captured and tortured, yet still having the decency to give him a ‘thank you’ despite current circumstances.

Deep down, he admired that.

The Colonel parted his lips to say something when the door hissed open and the general stepped into view. Ardmore puckered her lips when she spoke, like she had too much lemon juice stuck to her tongue. Her eyes glared at you briefly, before turning to her attention to Miles.

“You depart from here in three hours,” she started then trailed her eyes over you, scanning your current state like it didn’t bother her in the slightest, “and give this dog a bath.”

And with that, she turned her heal and exited the room without another sound.

Pattering your crusty, bare feet into the bathroom facilities, it was strange seeing showers and mirrors and even toilets again. How foreign human technology had become to you over the years. You examined the shower and found there were clean, folded clothes for you to use. You wanted nothing more than to strip naked and dispose of the stained fabric clinging to your sore body, but there was a small problem having you roll your eyes.

A loud click came from behind you as Miles placed a chair right in front of the shower you occupied.

“I don’t like this more than you do, buttercup, but orders are orders,” the Colonel said before plopping down into his seat, legs spread as he sat with the spine of the chair between his thighs.

Ardmore wanted to further humiliate you by having you watched in the most intimate way.

In her defense, it was to make sure you wouldn’t “escape,” but anyone could’ve stood guard at the entrance door, not in front of a damn shower stall. No, she wanted her most trusted solider to maintain the general’s invisible leash she thought she had on you.

“Could you at least turn around?”.

The Colonel sighed, picked his chair off the ground and flipped it around, him now facing the mirrors and counters. You noticed that he could still see you through the mirrors but it was better than directly facing you.

Feeling stupid about being ashamed of nudity when Na’vi had no problem walking around practically naked, you sucked up your petty feelings and aggressively yanked your shirt off, allowing it to smack the ground in a rush.

After undressing, you undid your braids with much hurt because some of these braids Neytiri did for you. You mourned as the last finally came undone.

Turning a nozzle, water spurted out aggressively making you hop. You were used to the gentle streams that naturally flowed through the Hallelujah Mountains, not this hard water that beat your face, but it was a shower nonetheless and made you glad that you would be able to wash the blood and dirt from your skin.

Your toes wiggled as the water circling the drain became red and brown. You hissed from the way the hard water splashed away the scabs that formed over your wounds, exposing the delicate tissue to the hot, steamy droplets falling down your face.

Miles could curse Ardmore. Why’d she have to put him up to this?

He had seen naked butts before because hell he was a marine and had seen Lyle’s ugly ass plenty of times, so why was it so hard for him to focus on seeing you nude without heating up between his legs. The Colonel bounced his knee and focused his mind on making imaginary shapes with the tile floor, but his eyes still rose to your backside reflection in the mirror.

Your unbraided hair fell between the movement of your shoulder blades as your tail flicked from the relaxation of finally getting the mud, crud, and shit off your skin. You hummed from the warmth, tipping your head back to let the water splash down your neck and chest.

Then, as you turned your body to grab some soap, a hint of your breast peaked into view, causing Miles to swiftly deflect his eyes again to the floor.

He wondered how the soft rolls of your ass cheeks would feel under his fingers. How you could make noises for him instead.

Shit.

“So how do I get one of those Banshee?” he rushed out suddenly.

You droned a silent ‘what?’

“There’s a banana banshee flying over Bridgehead and I wanna know how to control the creature,” he replied, trying to steady himself with this new conversation.

“Bannana banshee?” you uttered to yourself confused before your ears pointed and you realized he was talking about Sylway.

“That’s my Ikran! She must’ve followed us from the woods!”

“So, she’s taken then, huh? But how do I get one and control it?” he pressed.

“It’s not control. It’s called tsehaylu. You will learn.”

Turning the nozzle to stop the water you face yourself towards the mirror, uncaring at this point and grabbed a towel, wrapping it around your body. You looked at Miles from in the mirror and tilted your head.

“You gonna watch me get dressed too, Peeping Tom?”

The Colonel almost tripped over his chair causing a small squeak against the floor as he hurried away from the shower stalls and those damn mirrors.

You dried yourself and got dressed. The fresh clothes felt nice, but you missed your necklaces and braids. Pulling up your hair, you tied it into a simple, half ponytail. Peering into the mirror, you were having a hard time seeing your reflection with a swollen brow that almost completely covered your eye. Almost.

"Miles?" You shouted from within the bathroom, hoping nobody would answer.

"Yeah?" He barked back.

"Could...," you exhaled in defeat, letting go of your reservations, "...could you... help me?"

You heard large footsteps drumming against the tile floor until Miles' tall reflection approached fully into the mirror. Rotating to him, you craned your face and neck to expose the problem you were facing and the Colonel replied with an understanding 'ah' before taking an alcohol wipe that was in your hand. His fingers grazed yours and you felt a buzz through your body at the light touch.

Miles took a step forward, making you cower backwards until your ass pinched the bathroom counter, hands flying to steady yourself as your spine curved away from the Colonel. Looking up, you stabilized your gaze with his. The florescent bulbs made the hue of his golden eyes shine like pools of glowing honey. A radiant heat rushed your cheeks and stomach before you blinked and dodged his eyes as he was inspecting your cuts. You had found somewhere in the background a place to keep your attention.

"Alright, this ain't gonna work if you keep squirming," he said with a grunt as he handled your sides and lifted you onto the counter.

A yelp peeped from your mouth at being manhandled by such a powerful grip. You were now sitting rigidly on top the hard, flat surface while he was standing between your knees that loosely fell over the edge.

“Better,” he nodded. The lighting was now closer to your face and made it easier for Miles to tend to your wounds, but this only caused your heartrate to spike even more from how closer your bodies could get in this position.

He cupped your chin and tilted your face, thumb caressing your skin and just barely parting your lips when the tip of his thumb passed the underside of your mouth. You were so transfixed on keeping your sweaty pits unnoticeable from the Colonel that you hadn’t noticed him bring a sanitary wipe up to your face, dabbing as gently as he could along your swollen lip.

You seethed, face grimacing with a reflexive hand jolting to grip his arm that held the small cloth that stung you, to which you immediately regretted upon realization that Miles' bicep was rock hard and sturdy against your fingers indenting his skin.

"Woah, there, sweetheart~ Don't get too excited~” the Colonel let out lightheartedly.

Embarrassment sunk deep into your core as you slapped your hand down onto the counter and kept it there, inwardly cursing yourself.

"So, I wanna know how to do this native stuff right in order to hunt down Jake Sully. Full tilt all the way. Eat Na'vi, ride Na'vi, speak Na'vi," he stammered sluggishly trying to get the last words out in broken Na'vi making you chuckle.

“Spider and I will show you the way.”

After a few moments, the Colonel was finished and you were put back into the white cell, mud still covering the makeshift ‘bed.’ The edge of your nose pulled up in a small sneer as you realized nobody cared to clean it up this whole time. Nonetheless, you sat down with a mental fuck it. Your legs were tired anyway and protested for relief.

It wasn’t long until the General came into your room, but something felt off from her demeanor.

She seemed… happy?

Narrowing your eyes, ears slanted back, your growled at her. "It takes six pounds of pressure to fracture a human skull and you decided to be in here with me. Alone."

Her expression stayed blank and unamused, but that strange gleeful aura around her never faltered. Her fingers snapped and Lyle and Prager stepped into the room. For a Na’vi, you were pretty tall naturally, but their presence towered over you from where you sat as you knew something was terribly off. Adrenaline buzzed your gut when they rushed you, grabbing your wrists and shoulders and pushing you onto your knees in front of the General.

One of the science men from the interrogation lab padded into the room and gave Ardmore a device. It was a large collar with a few lights on the side indicating that it was on. Then Ardmore held out a remote and pressed a button. The collar burst with electrical tendrils. Then she hit another button and a blunt blade followed by two long, sharp ones popped out.

"This collar has three features. Shock. Paralyze. Kill. Like a dog collar, if you run away, Colonel Quaritch will shock you. If you try to harm or kill any of my men or the Recombinants, this collar will paralyze you in a nanosecond, then these blades here will slice open your jugular. And I’d say from your body weight and height, you'll probably bleed out slowly. Very slowly. You'll be unable to move, dying, and there'll be nothing you can do about it. So don't bullshit me with your outdated nerd science, Dog."

The two ‘Recoms,’ as you just learned they were called, holding you down laughed.

"Now, take this like a good Pet or I'll fill this room with toxic gas and let you die, but the Colonel sees some potential in you so I'd like not having to drag a giant ass stiff outta Bridgehead today."

You surveyed the collar and realized that Ardmore’s invisible leash manifested itself into a real, living nightmare.

There was nothing you could really do at this point but submit as the General stepped forward and placed the device tightly around your neck with a smug grin.

Eywa, are you still there?

#miles quaritch x reader #miles quaritch x you #miles quaritch x fem reader #miles quaritch x y/n #quaritch x reader #quaritch x you #na'vi quaritch x reader #na'vi x reader #na'vi miles quaritch #na'vi quaritch #recom miles quaritch #recom quaritch #recom quaritch x reader #avatar quaritch x reader #miles quaritch smut #miles quaritch x reader smut

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apollos-boyfriend · 1 year

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since i’m already on this rant and unfurling of mcrps i’ve been trying to put together this theory for the medium itself, and that’s that there are two main types of mcrps: those that utilize the gameplay to tell a story, and those that utilize the models.

starting with the easy one: those that utilize the models. these are your yandere high schools and aphmaus, where the minecraft gameplay itself in terms of crafting, combat, etc is rarely used. most of, if not all, of the videos consist of first-person gameplay of the main character walking around and interacting with others, as well as wider camera shots of rooms/scenes. they more rely on builds and avatars to create their story, and are fully pre-scripted, meaning the actors are in-character at all times. these are more what an average person would expect from “minecraft roleplay”, playing out much like tv show episodes. most of the time, the medium could be fully changed to something like roblox and still have the same affect—it just so happens that the creators chose to go with minecraft instead.

the second are those that implement the gameplay. these are your dream smps, your smpearths, your empires. characters start from the ground up, building and mining and crafting the world around them instead of simply existing within it. while they can and often do have cinematic shots, most of it is shown through first-person gameplay, not focusing as much on the interactions between characters in the way a tv camera would capture them, but in the way a player would. players drift between being fully immersed in their character and just bantering like they would normally, whether with a live chat or a theoretical future one.

what’s interesting about this category is that it has subcategories within: live and pre-recorded. as i’ve said earlier tonight, despite being the same at face-value, both of them are VERY different in terms of what works to keep a series alive and what each category is able to easily achieve.

these lines aren’t like. final. because i still have a lot to think about and also some mcrps (like stampy’s lovely world) can be argued to drift between both categories BUT i just wanted to put it out there bc it’s something i think about a lot and is very interesting 2 me :]

#icarus speaks #sorry this is probably incomprehensible it is nearly 3 am #but i think about this sooooo much #like i’m not even exaggerating

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lilghostiequinni · 4 months

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Coming and Going

Main Masterlist Avatar Masterlist

Pairing: Sully Na'vi!female oc x Ao'nung

Warnings: Canon-typical violence, mentions of death, violence

Part Summary: She learns she is supposed to just leave all of the parts of her being and family behind, just for a bit of safety for the people.

Part One of the Forest Girl series; prev. part & next part

Requested: NO / yes

Saija stood in front of her brothers as they waited for their father to appear, to come to tell them what they were to do on the mission. Even if it wouldn't change from the last mission, where they were just to watch out.

When their father walked over, Jake first looked at her brothers before looking at her, giving a small nod to her.

Saija tilted her head just the slightest and nodded back before looking to her brother, one who had a look of approval and no real malice. The other also had no real malice in his expression but an angry look because of what the nod meant.

A nod which meant that she could be on the ground, doing the mission not watching from above like her brothers would be.

She can just barely see her brothers going to the ground, Lo'ak then Neteyam, the older, most likely trying to stop the younger from doing something stupid, which is impossible.

Saija goes toward her brothers. Just as she arrives, all three are blasted away from each other, and she somehow ends up near her elder brother.

She feels her father pick her up and she can feel her brother close to her.

She rides in front of her father, her brother behind as her father skillfully navigates his way back to high camp with his two eldest injured and riding with him.

She's barely able to stand straight when they land, and her father scolds her brothers; she feels herself being handed off, and from the sound of the voice and the apologies, Saija can tell it's her elder brother rather than her younger one.

She follows her little brother through the forest with Spider and Kiri, and Tuk, too, as Lo'ak somehow got her involved.

She was just following, making sure her brother stayed out of trouble.

She held out her hand to Tuk as the little girl had gotten distracted by one of the plants.

They continued through the forest to wherever Lo'ak was leading them, which turned out to be near the old shack.

The group watched as what looked to be Na'vi had been poking around.

"Radio Dad, Lo'ak," Saija said as she tried to quiet Tuk, "Now."

Lo'ak radioed Jake, telling him the situation and telling him who 'we' was as he mentioned it.

But before they could leave as they had been told, the ones who were poking around had gotten to them, and they were being held by the queue to get information.

"Oh, this one's pretty," the bald one says, pulling Saija closer to him by the queue.

Lo'ak goes crazy, drawing attention to him instead of his sister.

It takes Jake all of 5 minutes to decide to move the family away from the Omatikaya after seeing the tears on his daughter's face and then the explanation that was given by Lo'ak.

Just days later, the family was off to protect the people, so Jake could try to protect his kids.

Tags: @etherynn @thiawithvoid @bakugouswaif

If you want to be removed from a tag list, let me know so I don't keep tagging you.

#ao'nung x you #ao'nung #aonung #ao'nung x reader #ao'nung x fem!reader #ao'nung x na'vi!reader #james cameron avatar #avatar twow #avatar the way of water #atwow

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natlacentral · 6 months

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DANIEL DAE KIM: BEACON OF FIRE

Daniel Dae Kim, a paragon of versatility in the entertainment industry, continues to enchant audiences with his rich and compelling character portrayals. Esteemed for his significant roles in landmark television series such as Lost and Hawaii Five-0, Kim has also made waves with his reflective insights on the finale of the Good Doctor, where he served not only as an actor but as an executive producer. As speculation mounts about his character's return in the show's concluding season, Kim's artistic reach extends further with his riveting performance as fire lord Ozai in the much-anticipated live-action adaptation of Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender. In addition to his work on screen, Daniel Dae Kim's return to Broadway in the production of Yellow Face by David Henry Hwang is a venture into the comedic genre, offering a fresh perspective on relevant cultural themes with a timeless appeal.

In the heart of Hollywood's ever-changing landscape, Daniel Dae Kim stands out not just as an actor and producer but as a visionary leader dedicated to reshaping the narrative around Asian American stories and beyond. Founding 3AD, a production company that underscores his commitment to amplifying diverse narratives within the industry, Kim ignited a movement towards inclusivity and representation, drawing inspiration from the overlooked and undervalued voices at the proverbial high school party of life. His mission, grounded in the belief that entertainment should both captivate and challenge, has already borne fruit with successes like the Good Doctor. Yet, Kim emphasizes, 3AD's scope transcends any single community, aiming instead to spotlight a mosaic of untold stories, thereby enriching our collective cultural tapestry.

Kim's commitment to portraying multifaceted characters that challenge stercotypes and his explorations beyond acting into producing reflect a continuous pursuit of artistic growth and contribution to the cultural dialogue. Beyond his on-sereen prowess, Kim's advocacy for greater diversity and inclusion in Hollywood has made him a pivotal figure in the push for a more equitable entertainment landscape.

With a career that spans critical acclaim and a fervent dedication to cultural change, Daniel Dac Kim remains a beacon of inspiration and a force for progress in the ever-evolving world of entertainment. Read on and get inspired by this slice of Daniel Dae Kim's thoughts on his life as a father, an actor, a producer, and more.

How's the Sunrise House Event at Sundance? How did it go?

They were really fantastic. We had some really informative panels with some industry leaders from every sector. We had a great fireside chat with Steve Yeun. And we had another one with Lucy Liu and that seemed good.

The Fireside Chats seemed to go really well. The feedback was really good. We threw some banging parties. And so you know, it was a little bit of substance and a little bit of fun.

And it's really great and inspiring that you guys are doing this, because I'm seeing a lot more mainstream visibility, especially in Sundance as well for AAPI.

Yes.

It's really cool.

What's funny is that AAPI filmmakers have been on it for a while at Sundance, they just have never had a home, you know, somewhere where they can be celebrated and their achievements can be spotlighted. And also, I think there's just a broader movement toward multiculturalism. And that's an emphasis of our house as well. It's not just for the AAPI community, we took specific efforts to do outreach to other communities of color and I think that's really important.

That's amazing. Especially how you guys are extending your arms to the communities, building and growing it.

That's what it's about, that's what it's about. We had a dinner one night where we invited all the other major communities of color, and we broke bread together, we talked and hopefully, that's just the beginning of broader initiatives among our houses.

How did you approach the complex character of Fire Lord Ozai?

As a dad. You know, I have two kids and just thinking about the ways that he's actually in his own way trying to guide his children to their best future is what I kind of keyed into. We may make mistakes as fathers, some intentional, some unintentional, but it doesn't mean... I don't think Ozai doesn't love his children. I think he does, but his love comes out in ways very different from the way I express it.

The intention is there. It's just expressed in its own ways.

Yes. And, they can be damaging. They are damaging- physically, in the case of Zuko, but we damage our children without knowing it. We've been damaged by our parents without them knowing it. It's part of the cycle of life and that's kind of how I found Ozai's humanity.

Now, speaking of Zuko and Iroh, and Ozai's family dynamics. How were you all able to explore this complex family relationship on screen?

One of the ways that we did it was to just get to know one another. I've known Paul Sun-Hyung Lee for a while, and I'm a big fan of his work. And so there was a natural bond between us right from the start, and I really enjoyed seeing Lizzie's work as Azula, and watching Dallas' work as Zuko was fantastic, and just seeing what they brought to the table allowed me to kind of see who my children were. Because we were coming together as actors, and we were seeing what each actor brought to the table. But I was able to use that to inform my relationship with the children. What are they good at? What do they need help with? Where do we want to guide their future? Where do I want to guide their strengths and their weaknesses? So things like that, and a little off-camera bonding was really important.

You played pivotal roles that defied stereotypes. How important is it for you to portray complex characters that go beyond just one archetype?

It's just interesting as an actor, you know. I never want to be doing one thing forever, I've been in situations where I played a character for six years, seven years, but, in the case of Lost, I'm so grateful that there was so much growth in that character. So it never became boring. But if I'm lucky enough to have the opportunity to work a lot, I want to use those opportunities to explore things I'm interested in as an artist. And part of that is just kind of finding a variety of kinds of people to play with.

And you've produced, you've acted, and you've explored all these other avenues in terms of creating art. What other things do you want to explore in the near future, aside from those realms?

Producing has been really interesting, the process of creation of television and film and theater has been something that has intrigued me for a while. Yes, I think, to have a holistic view of how one makes entertainment and how it affects us as a society and vice versa, I think it's a really interesting question. How entertainment reflects the cultures of our time and at the same time, pushes it in one direction or another.

What's the most valuable piece of advice you received from someone either in the industry or out of the industry that you always still carry with you?

That there's no room in show business for you, you have to make room. I keep that in mind because it encourages me to think that nothing is a given, nothing should be taken for granted and anything that I'm looking to do will probably require work because no one is asking me to do it.

What's the one thing people will remember you after the credits roll? What do you want to be remembered as?

First and foremost, a good actor, because that's my life's passion, and I would say, second of all, someone who tried to use his platform to bring us together as a society.

What kind of book will Daniel Dae Kim be?

Well, I will tell you that I'm working on a project right now based on a book by Chang-Rae Lee, his first major novel - Native Speaker that came out in the 80s. And I have a real connection to that novel, because Chang-Rae and I are of the same generation as Korean Americans, and a lot of the issues he wrestles with in that book are issues that I've wrestled with my whole life. It's a beautifully written book. His prose is so eloquent and poetic. And it was the first time I'd ever read a book that kind of felt like he was talking to me.

#natla #atla #netflix avatar #netflix atla #avatar the last airbender #avatar netflix #atla netflix #daniel dae kim #interview #photoshoot #a book of

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yeahyankee · 5 months

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Parting thoughts:

I took my time (3 Days) to get through all of Scargiver, but it wasn’t unpleasant to keep returning to the story— I just had to take more time to get through it. This tells me it would’ve been more successful as a show.

In a lot of ways, this felt less like a an adult-oriented Star Wars and more like a live-action remake of Studio Gonzo’s Samurai 7 anime from 2004. The difference between these films and Samurai 7 however, is that the anime takes its time to establish a dynamic for a party so large. There’s literally seven people we need to get to know. We’re along for the ride to watch the characters interacting on a journey.

Here, however, The Journey is cut for time, and the script seems to focus only on the high-fat, salty bits of a story—slow motion fight scenes, huge set pieces, random trauma-dumping inserted for exposition.

In many ensemble cast shows/movies that work, the characters take time with one another. There are periods of rest and bonding. That’s why it feels comforting to watch them—we feel like we’re part of their ensemble, and growing with them.

Shows like Avatar, The Bear, The Expanse, movies like The Goonies—all also leave room in the script for rest and character time where the stakes are low and they’re learning about each other. In Rebel Moon, that character development feels shoehorned and paint-by-numbers: “Okay, adopted daughter who is betrayed, check. Samurai woman from a cyberpunk planet who fights for revenge, check. Hot French Farmer who’s just here for a good time, check.”

There’s no short cut for making a likable group of characters, unfortunately. We have to spend actual on-screen time with them and decide if we like them. That’s why we end up worrying more about the Farmers in Rebel Moon than we do the actual main cast—because we spend more time with them overall.

I think if Zack Snyder balanced out his Hot Wheels Cool Factor a bit more to spend more time doting on characters, his stories would feel so much more emotionally grounded. Explosions are cool, campy fun is ALWAYS appreciated, and it’s ok if you’re just making a lore heavy movie that’s about super strong pretty people, but even in (great) comic books & anime—it’s not all about the aesthetics—it’s about pushing storytelling in a highly visual medium without losing your audience.

All that being said, the fight scenes all over this movie were stunning, and a joy to watch.

Interested to see where this story will go from here, and how it’s received over time—as I see this series becoming a campy cult hit years from now.

#movie review #the scargiver #rebel moon 2 #rebel moon #zack snyder #samurai 7 #Gonzo

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dorminchu · 8 months

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Earth to Earth, Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

a/n: Illustrations commissioned from the one-and-only @addictivities. You can read the first chapter of the fic here with better formatting (it was written in 2013, so beware the jump in quality) but it's not required to understand this chapter.

Chapter Two: Hidden

Crimson light filtering in through miniscule cracks in the wooden walls could signify dusk or daybreak. Condensation tricked down in random droplets from a ceiling high above. He walked the perimeter of the room, then doubled back the way he'd come. Glancing down at the single poké ball on his belt. Red-and-white paint chipped away around the button, revealing the plastic beneath.

The straps of his bag did not bite into his shoulders. He took it off and rummaged through it. Empty pockets. Nothing in his wallet either, save his old trainer ID. Blocky, illegible text adjacent a familiar photo taking up half of the card's face. The kid in the picture smirked at him, wearing the same ochre sports jacket, the gym-shorts and sneakers with that cap to match.

He flipped the card over. The lower half detailed a series of portraits numbered one through eight, two rows of four. He could barely make out their faces.

An inexplicable sensation of deja-vu gripped his stomach.

His POKéGEAR, discarded a few steps away, gave off its own illumination. He picked it up. Its screen—cracked, warped, flickering—frozen on the MAP setting. A pixelated avatar marched in-place over a black void.

He reattached it to his wrist. There are only five places in the Johto region that I could be. The lighthouse in Olivine. The Battle Tower. The Burned and Tin Towers in Ecruteak. And in Violet City, there's one more. I haven't been here since I got my first badge from Faulkner. Where are all the sages?

Floorboards creaked beneath his shoes as he approached the central pillar. Upon closer inspection, he found a small aperture on the other side, just large enough for one person. There was no visible sign of a bottom, and the only way down was a wooden ladder.

With a sense of resolve, Gold brought out his lone poké ball. Flash of red light limned the room and faded. The cyndaquil began snuffling at the floorboards. Gold looked down at the poké ball in his hand. Above the button was an inscription: no. 155, HURRY.

His cyndaquil had long since evolved into a typhlosion. He'd neglected to give her a nickname—at the time, he wasn't thinking about it very deeply. Wasn't there a guy from Johto who specialized in rating nicknames? He must've visited that place. He'd have plenty of time to ask around, once he was somewhere familiar.

"Hurry?" The pokémon turned at the sound of his voice. Gold crouched down and it stumbled over to him, nosing at his palm.

I'm probably just on one of the upper floors of Sprout Tower. Whatever the case, I'll go check in at the pokécenter in Violet City. Once I have my team back, I can try to figure out how I got here.

Gold walked over to the ladder, took the poké ball and recalled cyndaquil. The ladder creaked once he put his foot in the first rung. The air got colder as he descended, his bare legs prickling. His POKéGEAR buzzed unexpectedly to life, causing Gold to momentarily lose his footing on the next rung and gripped on tightly, catching his breath. The frequency resolved into discordant humming.

He'd tested the effects of the radio with wild unown before. The Ruins of Alph were pretty close to Violet City, as was the sprawling Union Cave. It was unlikely, but not impossible. But it didn't explain the cyndaquil.

Once his feet touched solid ground, he could relax a little. When he looked up there wasn't any sign of the room he'd come from. The air tasted damp and stale.

He released Hurry again. In the brief flash of illumination, he could see he was at the start of a long tunnel but couldn't discern any details.

Gold said, "I don't suppose you know Flash?"

Its back sputtered, then flared up, settling into a gentler glow. Gold had to squint to make out his surroundings. Hurry just squeaked happily. It started walking down the corridor, turning back and chirping at him.

Gold chuckled. "Are you gonna lead the way, too?"

Despite its energetic temperament, the pokémon seemed reluctant to stray too far from Gold's side. As his eyes adjusted he could see that the walls of the tunnel were carved out of hard-packed earth.

They must be somewhere under Violet City. If they kept walking, eventually they would get to Union Cave. Evidently, there was some secret passageway from Sprout Tower to the Ruins of Alph he didn't know about. If they weren't so far underground, he could check his map.

Hurry made better company. The echoing frequencies of the POKéGEAR hadn't stopped. He switched over to the radio screen. The dial was stuck directly on 13.5. When he tried to change the station, then switch to a different application, it didn't register.

He hadn't explored Union Cave or the ruins too excessively, focusing all of his attention on the Indigo League and building up his team. The POKéDEX only required a single unown to register as caught.

The light seemed to grow dimmer as the cyndaquil kept moving. Gold quickened his pace.

He was hyperaware of his own breath, his thumping heart. His head throbbed along with the radio. If it wasn't strapped to his wrist, he'd throw it against the wall just to hear himself think.

He needed it in working condition. Maybe someone would pick up the signal and rescue him. No use working himself up over a stupid radio signal, but that was a hell of a lot easier to say when he had six high-level pokémon on his side. A cold sweat formed under the heavy jacket.

He couldn't see his hand in front of his face.

"Where'd you go?" he called. The cyndaquil was lagging behind. Its light was so dim now that Gold could just make out its silhouette against the encroaching dark. Gold broke into a run, crouching down next to Hurry. It didn't seem to notice. The embers on its back had all-but extinguished. He recalled it immediately, using his POKéGEAR's as a primitive source of light. As long as it stayed in the poké ball, it wouldn't be in immediate danger.

The only benchmark was a wooden sign planted in the middle of the tunnel. Above it, five unown floated serenely, giving off their own light. They had arranged themselves to form a single word:

LEAVE.

Gold looked at the sign. A crudely-carved message took up its entire face: TURN BACK NOW

He scoffed. "Yeah, sure, I'll turn back."

The unown seemed to sway in time with the blips from the radio. Their eyes, glassy and unmoving, could have been hewn from stone.

"What do you want? Do you want me to say no?"

His response swelled, echoing around the chamber. The unown quivered.

His surroundings plunged into darkness. He cried out, ducking down instinctively to shield himself from a strike that never came.

When the light came back, six unown hovered gleefully above him.

TOO BAD.

Overcome by shock, Gold couldn't formulate a response. A strong gust of wind blew from within the depths of the tunnel, pushing him back the way he had come. The unown radio signal meshed with the frantic pounding of his pulse.

He groped along the wall, blind. Part of the tunnel had a give to it like rotting flesh. It caught on his fingers, porous and thin, and tore like wet paper. Gold was falling forward into an unfamiliar chamber.

Six unown hovered before him, giving off their own light. Frequency on the radio degenerated into white noise. As they came closer, he could make out the letters clearly.

HE DIED.

A phantom force bound his arms to his sides.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" he cried out, "I need to heal my cyndaquil, please juh—just let me go. I'll take him to a pokecenter, he's going to be fine."

His feet left the ground.

"Please!" he wailed. "Please, he's going to die!"

The unown flickered.

A sharp twist behind his navel. Violent, rippling pain coursed up the length of each arm. The wet severing of muscle and bone. His vision blacked out briefly and he couldn't scream.

Just as quickly, the pain abated. Vision blooming into an unfamiliar room. The sight of his hands elicited a ragged whimper. He clasped his arms, squeezing hard enough to bruise.

Inhale, exhale. Too fast. Lightheaded.

Inhale, hold.

Exhale. Fighting for composure. Just a nightmare. A trick of the unown.

Inhale, hold.

Exhale, hold.

Opened his eyes again. Four bone-white walls, a ceiling hidden in shadows. If he stretched his arms out, he'd be able to touch the walls around him no matter where he stood.

One of the walls didn't look right. A facade of stone, disintegrating at the edges. He'd barely touched it when it crumbled into powder. Gold, coughing, covered his face with the crook of his elbow. His skin and clothes were coated in ash. In the vast and formless expanse there was no other sound except his pulse, uneven breathing. He was walking down a corridor he'd never seen before. At the end, he could only turn left and continue down another hallway. Each time, it took a little longer to get to the next corner.

His wrist was still lit. He craned his head in desperation, staring into the harsh light of the LCD screen for an answer. The map hadn't changed.

Is it possible I'm so far underground there isn't any signal?

His thoughts interrupted by a dead-end, and a hole. There wasn't any ladder. If he doubled back, he'd just be wasting time. He screwed his eyes shut and focused on breathing. He couldn't risk bringing out the cyndaquil.

He took a cautious step towards the hole and peered down. The dark was more like a void, out of time or space. As soon as he lifted a leg over the apeture, the world shifted on its axis. The hole in the ground moved to meet him, as if he'd simply walked through another threshold. Gold swallowed down his nausea and continued walking. He could see a faint pinpoint of light in the distance. As soon as he got out, he'd take a nice long evening at Violet City's poké center. He'd check in with his mom.

The pinpoint of light was growing faster than his feet could carry him. An invisible pull behind his navel, as if transported by an ally's Teleport. Loss of footing followed by an abrupt solidity. Fresh, nighttime air pulled into his lungs. Initial shock gave way to a wave of nausea and he doubled over, dry-heaving. Thin layer of perspiration clung to his skin. His arms tingled.

"Are you all right?"

He looked up. The girl was around his age. Her hair was dyed an intense shade of blue and pulled into twin ponytails. A pair of bright yellow athletic shorts and sleeveless red shirt, white jacket that was fraying at the cuffs. She had her own POKéGEAR, clipped neatly on her bag. The bayleef standing next to her approached him, nudging him with its head. The smell of the leaves around its neck was spicy, but tasted bitter in the back of his throat if he inhaled deeper. His upset stomach settled gradually into queasiness. He patted the side of its neck.

"Had my pokémon use teleport," he said hoarsely. "For some reason, I wound up here."

The last time he'd teleported anywhere was at the behest of the old guy and his abra, at Indigo Plateau. He'd only said yes to be nice, and thrown up in front of the Pokécenter in Mahogany Town. Given the option, he'd rather take the hike across Johto on foot, or on his own pokémon.

"Wow," the girl said, "you look like you've seen a ghost."

"Teleporting makes me sick." Gold straightened up and tried not to look as shaken as he felt. He noticed her belt—two standard poké balls, plus a moon ball and a lure ball respectively.

The girl extended a hand. "I'm Kris." Gold shook, even though his hands were still clammy. She didn't seem to mind. "C'mon, let's go report back to the lab. You can catch your bearings."

Back when he was working on the POKéDEX, the scientists at the lab would always warn him not to stick around the ruins any longer than he had to. It was important to pace himself. The unown were quick to flee, and poké balls didn't always do the trick.

He glanced at the single poké ball on his belt. The sooner he could get cyndaquil to a pokécenter, the better.

Inside the lab, the girl introduced Gold to Ken, the tech who fixed his POKéGEAR. Kris took a seat on the edge of the desk. "Where are you from, Gold?"

"New Bark."

The girl frowned. "I grew up in New Bark. I've never seen you before."

"I live right next to Prof. Elm's lab. Maybe you just moved in before I left."

"What are you, my extra-dimensional twin?" She glanced at Ken, who didn't laugh. "It's just, I've never seen you before. Are you sure you're from New Bark?"

Gold stood a little straighter despite the nausea. "I'm surprised you've never heard of me."

"Why?"

He smirked and said, "I'm the youngest champion of the Indigo League, to date. Among other achievements."

Kris shot a side-glance at him. "Cool. What's a champ like you doing in the Ruins of Alph?"

"Oh, you know. Sometimes you just want to get out of the public eye." He hesitated. "It gets boring when you're stronger than most of the trainers you meet."

Kris nodded. "I basically live here during the summers and go to the Trainer's School in Violet City for the rest of the year. Ken's doing an internship right now."

"So, you've been all over Johto and Kanto?" Ken remarked. "How many pokémon have you seen?"

Before Gold could answer, Kris motioned towards the 'DEX at his hip, suddenly very businesslike. Gold stood up. She smirked. "What? If you are what you say, this shouldn't be a big deal."

"I didn't say—"

Kris hopped off the desk, offering her hand without waiting for him to finish. With a sigh, Gold handed over the POKéDEX. Kris walked over to the nearby desk. She clicked on a lamp and studied the screen for a few seconds. She whistled. "Wow! Two-hundred and fifty one."

Gold groaned under his breath. "Look, I really need that back."

Kris huffed. "Just wanted to check if you're the real deal." She handed it back, but kept her hand over the 'dex. "Ken and I are working on the Unown Mode feature of the POKéDEX. You've only ever seen three. Lucky for you, I just so happen to have seen twenty six kinds of unown. Maybe I'd even be persuaded to trade data if you help me fill some of my missing entries."

"It doesn't work like that," Gold said. "Does it, Ken?"

"Sorry, Kris. Looks like you'll have to earn that heracross after all." Ken got up. "This could take a while. Kris, make sure he doesn't break anything."

A small, wooden box that would take up the entirety of his bag. The lid was sealed shut. A line of runes engraved onto the sides and top of the box were too small to decipher. "What's this?"

"Professor Shuri thinks these ruins are connected to the Pokémon Communication Center in Goldenrod City," Kris added. "The runes on the walls appeared not long after the Pokécom Center was built."

Gold stared at the box.

"If you want it," Kris said, "you can hold onto it. Nobody here knows how to open it anyway."

Gold froze. "I can't take this."

"Ken is only here because of the internship," Kris muttered, "and I'm not half as interested in the Ruins as Prof. Shuri is. Was." She side-eyed Gold. "You must be a pretty tough trainer to have beaten the League, even if I've never heard of you. Maybe you can figure it out."

Kris feigned a scowl. "Battling's not something I could do forever. I'm more interested in the research." She shot Gold a semi-apologetic grin. Gold smiled back. He was about to suggest that they trade. Once he got to Violet City, maybe.

"There's still a lot we don't understand about these ruins, or unown for that matter. Professor Shuri thinks the unown communicate with each other using electromagnetic waves. They might also have the power to perceive the feelings of other creatures."

"Where is he now?"

Kris frowned. "He's been away. The assistant keeps telling us he's sick."

"I've never heard of him before. He sounds a lot like Professor Hale." Kris and Ken looked at him in confusion. "The guy from Greenfield? He had a wife and kid, and they went missing shortly after he came back from an expedition. It was all over the news."

"Never heard of him, sorry."

Gold shrugged, playing off his feelings. "Maybe I got the name wrong."

Once Ken fixed his POKéGEAR, Gold was free to go back into the ruins with Kris. He told them he was going to make a quick stop by Violet City first—to heal his pokémon and check the PC. His old team was surely in there. He stepped into the crisp air. Nighttime breeze incurring gooseflesh. He was lucky to have his jacket.

The poké ball at his waist began trembling. He'd barely even touched it when it burst open, as though its occupant had been physically restrained.

Houndoom burst free. It caught sight of him and barked.

Gold tore his eyes to the poké ball. The red paint was peeling, and he had to squint to make out the inscription.

FOREVER, no. 215

The houndoom's jet-black eyes caught the sunset. It turned around, disappearing into the main entrance of the ruins. His chest tightened.

"Come back!"

It turned and yipped at him.

He could just make out the shape of houndoom's horns. He tried counting his steps. When he looked back he had no idea where they were. The houndoom yipped at him if he stopped for more than a minute. He shoved his hands into his pockets.

"I hope you know where you're going!" he called.

They walked down the long hall of idols. Where there should have been a dead-end, the wall was missing. The hall continued, narrowing until there was just enough space for the houndoom to pass through. Gold had to turn himself sideways just to fit through. He couldn't take his pack with him. He could just come back out and retrieve it.

The walls were widening. The stone was pale white, enscribed with runes he couldn't decipher. None of this was familiar.

Gold pursued deeper. The houndoom was sitting on its haunches. A plinth and pedastal, on which rested a single poké ball. It wasn't one Gold had ever seen before. His best approximation was a Safari Ball but the make was wood, rather than plastic. Faultless, like something Kurt would obsess over.

A pack of unown peeled themselves from the dark to hover in front of him, flashing scarlet: RELIVE.

"What do you want?" he shouted up at them. The unown merely blinked and disappeared.

The houndoom yelped, twisting its body towards something Gold could not see. Houndoom began to sink through the floor itself, wailing. Gold quickly recalled it to him, but he was sinking too. The shadows coalesced around him, like an ariados's web. Clutching the poké ball tightly, he held his breath as the ground closed up above him

subsumed, thrashing, gasping, all he could taste was the bitter cloying ash and burning wood

on solid ground.

Looking out over a mountain peak. A small flight of steps led to a narrow path, blanketed by a thick layer of snow. The sky was bright blue, unbroken by clouds. When he took in air, there wasn't any burning sting in his lungs from the elements.

The boy standing next to him gave no indication Gold was there. His skin was almost translucent. Gold didn't turn to look at his face. Nurses from the pokécenter never made it this far up the mountain.

"It's over," he said hoarsely. The wind howled low around them. "Isn't it?"

The other boy raised his hand and adjusted his worn cap. His attention shifted to Gold, and he gesticulated towards his belt. Gold glanced down at his own waist, experiencing a fleeting moment of déjà vu. Houndoom already stood patiently at his side.

He clicked it open. Nothing happened.

Something heavy caught hold of his shirt, pulling him down.

A typhlosion, fur flecked in snow. The bottom half of its body was torn away. A trail of blood and entrails led from the gap in the rock's face. The pokémon shuddered, maw agape, fire sputtering weakly across the span of its neck and shoulders.

Gold didn't have any medicine. It wouldn't make a difference now, any more than returning typhlosion to her ball. As she clung to these last moments in stasis, he'd only be delaying the inevitable. What kind of trainer would allow their pokémon to suffer like this?

Hooking an arm under the typhlosion's, they began to move haphazardly towards the mouth of the cave. They had only taken a few steps when typhlosion fell, and Gold was dragged with it, falling to one knee. Anticpating the sharp shock of falling through snow, instead ash. As he struggled to free his arm from its grasp, the pokémon's grip on him was too strong.

The ash beneath them clung to her fur and his skin.

"It's okay," he whispered. "It's not going to hurt anymore." His throat tightened. The pokémon wheezed, and the arm that held its prize pushed against his chest. He looked down at the egg, tan, flecked with earthen spots and sticky with crimson, then back to the typhlosion.

Gold placed his hands upon the egg's shell as if to retrieve it. The typhlosion slumped forward. Its grip on him slackened.

He couldn't bury his friend in the mountain face. He looked back towards the trail of blood.

A pack of unown burst from the shadowy mouth, stopping above him to spell the word: DENY.

Gold moved past them. Clutching the blood-slick egg in his arms, into the cave.

The egg began to shudder in his arms. A jagged crack marred the egg's thick shell.

Gold crouched down upon the cold stone, cross-legged and hastened to remove his jacket. Houndoom came closer, shielding the egg from the elements. The cyndaquil poked out, chirped at him. There was no trace of injury.

Gold's eyes welled up.

"It's you," he whispered, losing composure. "I knew you'd be okay."

He didn't have enough poké balls. He'd buy a new one and register it properly. Just another reason to keep going through this.

The cyndaquil did not protest when he put his jacket back on and scooped up into his arms. When it had made itself comfortable, Gold resumed his trek through the eerily silent cave. The water around them was still, the air stale.

A gap in the cave's face. Light shone through. The cyndaquil began to squirm. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Cyndaquil exhumed a thick puff of smoke. Setting the pokémon down at his feet, it chirped.

Gold shook his head.

"There could be something dangerous up ahead. What kind of trainer would I be if I put you in harm's way?"

Last time they'd battled, the same place at Indigo Plateau, Silver had mentioned the Battle Tower. The trainers who fought there told him about breeding and a pokémon's genetics. As they stood by the gate, a light fog curling over the grass, typhlosion and feraligatr were wrestling each other for a bit of Gold's RageCandyBar.

Silver rifled through the pockets of his old sports coat for a cigarette and lighter.

"A male pokémon can pass its moves down to its offspring. The pokémon that hatches will always be the same species as the female. So, if you were to breed your typhlosion with my houndoom, you'd get a cyndaquil that knows the move Reversal from the start."

Gold shrugged. "I'd trade you an egg for the houndoom."

Silver took a drag, exhaling. "Houndoom?" he reiterated, like he hadn't heard correctly.

"You don't want to?"

Silver scowled. "It's getting too old to battle."

"You've had that feraligatr a lot longer."

Silver's jaw twitched. "He's not for sale." He pushed himself off the wall, one hand going to his poké ball. He stifled a cough, and barked, "That's enough, Feraligatr!"

The feraligatr released its faux death-grip on typhlosion's throat and raised its head. With a huff, Silver recalled his pokémon. "I want to be sure Houndoom will be looked after. Not just sitting in the day-care or in a box."

"It's just for my 'dex," Gold muttered. "You can have her back."

Silver scowled. "I'm not interested in raising a pokémon that can't fight." He discarded the butt. Crushed it under his boot.

Gold bred a couple cyndaquil, offering each to Silver for appraisal. Silver only ever called if he wanted a match. Next time they talked, the same spot at the Indigo Plateau, Silver brusquely mentioned that he and cyndaquil were getting stronger, and that he was going to take a break to focus on training. Next time they crossed paths, it would be for a rematch.

Life as Champion didn't lend itself to small-talk, just a constant barrage of calls from his POKéGEAR. Televised interviews replaced by speculation on his whereabouts. There was no mountaintop on which to seek seclusion. The wild pokémon on Route 28 offered more of a challenge. Silver was the only trainer whose power was tantamount to his own.

The poké center was more like a hotel. Besides a state-of-the-art healing machine, the nurse stocked max repels and full heals. As he walked into the pokécenter, the nurse looked up with a small nod. "Going up the mountain?"

"Yes, ma'am."

He didn't ask if there were any rooms. There were always vacancies. "You know, you and Lance are the only trainers I see on a regular basis," the nurse said. "Apart from that boy." She forced a chuckle. "He used to come here and train, like you do. He'd tell me about how he lost the title of champion to his friend, so he was working for his grandfather. Of course, I'd tell him, there are other paths in life. This one just didn't work out for you." She shrugged. "Last I heard, he's a Gym Leader in Viridian now. His friend is still up on Mount Silver."

"Did you ever talk to him?" Gold asked, without thinking about it. The nurse didn't answer, turning instead to dust off the stock of full restores behind the counter. "I didn't mean to pry," Gold said. "I was just wondering what Red was like."

The nurse moved on to the hyper potions. "He didn't talk much. I just remember that he was young. Couldn't have been much older than you are now." She sighed, shook her head. "If he's still alive, the least he could do is leave a note for his mother."

Gold added, "I'll talk to him. If I see him up there."

In the tiny room, he checked his bag. Heavy winter clothes, a bivouac, lots of spare batteries and dry food. Once he stepped foot into the mountain, there wasn't any outside help. The wild pokémon were particularly vicious, having to adapt to the freezing climate. Lance told him once, in confidence, that sooner or later you'd trip over a trainer's forgotten poké ball or items. The pokémon inside couldn't live or die, trapped in a state of hibernation. Some of them had been there longer than Red.

Gold repacked for the next morning. He couldn't relax. Might as well practice his moves with typhlosion.

His POKéGEAR rang. The caller ID read Silver. Gold picked up.

"What's up?"

"Quilava and I are getting stronger."

"That's great. How's the training with Lance?"

"He's busy. Clair has her responsibilities in Blackthorn. Anyway, you shouldn't get complacent just because you're working for Oak."

Gold scoffed. "Are you my rival or my coach?" Silver wasn't saying anything. Gold tried a different angle, "The pokécenter on Route 28 has got spare rooms."

"They won't let me through the gate without sixteen badges."

"So tell them you're with me. The guys on duty don't really care. Nothing interesting ever happens out here."

A beat. Maybe Silver would lose patience and hang up, and he could toss around instead of sleeping.

"Tomorrow morning. I want to battle for old time's sake."

Gold said, "Can't do that. I'm about to go up the mountain."

A short scoff. "You need a chaperone?"

"I'll make time for you," Gold insisted. "Unless you want to come."

"I'm coming over now."

Gold scoffed. "What? This is serious, man, you can't just go up the mountain. You need to have the right gear."

"Not up the mountain. Just to battle." Another pause. "For old time's sake."

Gold exhaled. "Yeah, uh. That's fine."

He didn't bother clicking any buttons. Silver always hung up first. Gold put his shoes back on. Before he left, he made a quick stop by the PC to swap out houndoom for typhlosion.

The sunlight was somehow fainter than it should have been. The grass came up to his waist. Colors seemed washed out, subfusc. No wild pokémon rushed to greet him.

The poké center was close. He'd explain his situation to the nurse and figure something out.

Silver turned to the feraligatr at his side, nodded. The pokémon struck an imposing figure in the dead light.

Feraligatr were massive, fast moving and deadly even on land. It could do serious harm to him or any of his pokémon without much effort. Gold had a Houndoom that ignored orders. This could only end in failure. And then what? Did pokémon centers exist in this timeless void? Would he die alone and afraid?

"This won't fix anything," Gold said.

Silver's mouth thinned, shoulders set. Gold clicked open his only poké ball.

Houndoom eyed the feraligatr. Its head inclined forward, like it was sizing up its opponent. It snarled, fangs dripping with saliva. The feraligatr cowered, arms raised.

Feraligatr was a fast, vicious breed. Silver didn't give the order to attack but watched Gold intently.

Houndoom dug its fangs into the tough scales. Feraligatr groaned, barely moving at all. A plume of bluish fire erupted from Houndoom's muzzle. The feraligatr began to convulse.

Silver flinched.

"Stop!" Gold shouted. "That's enough!" He thrust his arm out, activating the poké ball. "Return!"

The light engulfed Houndoom. It wailed and the recoil shot up Gold's arm, freezing him in place. His skin tingled.

A shot pierced the heavy air. Houndoom yelped.

Two more shots. The feraligatr's jaws slackened. It slumped to the ground and didn't get up.

Silver lowered his arm, breathing shallowly. Acrid smell of gunpowder permeated the air. Colorless grass stained a deep red.

"It hates to take orders from me. Maybe it would be better off with you."

Silver lowered the gun. He didn't say another word, but his lower lip quivered. He swallowed, and turned to walk down the riverbank before disappearing into the space a poké center should've been.

Houndoom barked at the empty mouth of the cave.

"There's nothing there!" Gold exploded. He took a shaky breath that did not help his temper. "You've always been a fucking pain in the ass, it's no wonder Silver would give you away. You know why I boxed you? Because you wouldn't listen to me. You still don't listen to me! Every day, I wake up and try to convince myself that nothing would change. But now I think I was right. Typhlosion would be alive right now if you'd taken her place." His voice strained, faltering under the weight of something he couldn't take back. "Damn it, I didn't mean it. I just want to go home," he whispered. "I want to see my friends again."

The houndoom didn't respond. It was staring at him over its shoulder, awaiting further instructions.

Gold put his hands to his face. "I don't know what to do anymore." He took a shaky, gradual breath. "I'm sorry. I don't know what you want me to do."

Movement in his peripherals. Perched above the mouth of the cave. It opened its beak and crowed once, mournfully. Houndoom wailed. Gold's legs wouldn't move. It spread its ashen wings and swooped down, extending its talons. Gold couldn't even make a sound. He raised his arms in front of his face.

The bird swooped over them, circling back over the empty horizon to alight on the grass. It lowered one wing, and Gold recalled his pokémon. He clambered onto its back, holding onto his cap as they took off. Soaring above Johto. Its plumage, slippery, reeked of ash and smoke.

Touching down in Goldenrod City, he felt an emptiness in his chest.

The streets were unnaturally silent, aside from the gentle de-tuned whine coming from his POKéGEAR. The longer he walked he felt the prickle of eyes on him, but no sign of activity. Only the windows in the poké center were lit. Breaking into a choppy sprint, he crossed through the doors, walked up to the nurse.

"Good evening," she said, giving him a second glance. "Would you like to heal your pokémon?" Gold nodded, wordlessly unclipping the poké ball from his belt. "Wait here."

She walked over the machine. Gold made an effort to get his bearings. The same posters on the walls. Trainers he'd never seen before. None of them were from New Bark.

"Here's your pokémon back."

Gold tore his eyes away. "Thank you very much." He clipped the ball onto his belt, and hesitated. "On the radio, have you heard of any trainers who came from New Bark Town?"

The nurse paused. "I don't think so. Are you looking for someone?"

Gold pulled out his trainer card from his pocket. "You checked me in, at the center on Route 28. Your sister works in Olivine. We talked about the previous champion of the Indigo League. I promised that I'd talk to him. He's off the mountain. If you see his mother," he took a breath, "tell him her son is alive."

The nurse glanced slowly from the card to him. She had gone pale. "I'm sorry. I honestly don't know what you're talking about."

Gold glanced at the posters. He put the card back in his wallet. No matter how desperately he insisted, there was no convincing her without causing a scene. "You looked like someone I know." He swallowed dryly. "Sorry to bother you at this hour."

He stepped outside, calling on houndoom. "I shouldn't have treated you the way I did," he said. He looked at the darkened windows for a sign of movement. "All I've done is blame you for my own shortcomings. You deserve a better trainer." A light chill caused him to shudder. "I'll let you lead the way."

Through the checkpoint towards Route 35, there wasn't anyone stationed behind the counter. Gold went ahead and stopped, mid-stride. "This isn't right." The forest path wasn't Route 35. A thick blanket of leaves decaying at his feet. The smell of decomposing flora hung in the air. The sun's rays limned through the gaps in the leaves in hues of crimson.

Houndoom came to a stop, attention drawn towards something Gold couldn't see.

"What's wrong?"

Crunching of leaves underfoot. A boy's white and gold cap through the grey foliage and disappeared.

Gold called out, "Hey!" He gave chase. He didn't see the boy anywhere.

The old entryway to Tin Tower. Gold stepped through. A shadow passed over the room. He spun around. Where a door should have been, there was old, damp redwood. Grain kissed his palms. He threw himself against it to no avail.

"Welcome back."

Gold whirled around with a cry. Silver leant against the pillar. One hand in his pocket. "Why are you here? Did the unown take you?"

Silver averted his eyes. The houndoom growled, teeth dripping with saliva. Silver didn't flinch.

"There's a way out of this," he said at length. "You just haven't found it yet."

His eyes returned to Gold's face. His usual stoicism seemed to falter. That wasn't like Silver at all. "I don't have time for this," Gold snapped. "Just give me a straight answer, or get out of my way."

Silver tensed. In the low light, the shadows seemed to coalesce around the ceiling. Giving way to an impossible volume of unown, their eyes blinking, glancing around. The darkness itself seemed to swell of its own volition.

Silver's expression faltered into naked guilt.

"I'm sorry," he croaked.

Gold had never heard him talk like that before.

"Silver?"

The unown covered the walls, coursing down the pillar. Silver opened his mouth to speak but was subsumed. Gold's cry was swallowed up by the darkness. The unown had no true solidity to them, but he couldn't move his limbs no matter how desperately he struggled.

Wait.

A resonant voice, clear as a bell, broke through the cacophony. The unown scattered, melting into the walls and pillar. Houndoom was gone.

A shape fluttered down towards him from the empty void above. Gold's breath caught in his throat. The celebi hovered a foot above him, its pink skin translucent like the petals of a flower. One green eye luminous and sorrowful. Half of its tiny body was burnt beyond recognition. The muscle and bones blackened. He could almost taste the rot.

It made a revolution around the pillar, then chirped at him. Gold swallowed. He walked over and reached out with trembling fingers.

The moment he made contact, the tower's wooden interior melted away. Blades of grass sprouting under his feet. The quiet burble of the river, the whisper of the breeze through leaves. The sky obscured through thick foliage.

His stomach twisted, on reflex. He swallowed down the urge to retch. His legs wouldn't hold him, and he collapsed. Grass scratched at his bare skin. Eye-to-eye with a small wooden shrine. Under its eaves, the twin doors were ajar. A single poké ball, white and gold, offered up to the forest's protector. There was no ID, just an etching above the button. Two letters.

"Wh-what is that? I've never seen one before. It looks a lot like a poké ball, but it appears to be something else. Let me check it for you."

He felt for the poké ball on his belt. Clicked it open, and in a flash of red light stood his old friend. A plume of smoke emitted from her shoulders.

Gold couldn't stop trembling. Suddenly, he choked out a sob. Each breath, he took in real air, the stench of grass and mud and fur, not some paradox of his memories.

"I'm home," he whispered, "I'm finally home. We're alive."

As he gathered his composure, scratching the side of Typhlosion's head, the first thing he was going to do was call his mother. A dead-end. He circled back towards the maze. There was no other path. As he returned to the shrine, Celebi was sitting on the roof. Its eyes—whole and blue—were impassive.

"This is over," he said. "I did whatever I was supposed to do. I'm back now, and I'm going to—"

Inexorable stabbing sensation behind his temples. Series of images flickering behind his eyelids in smooth succession. The tarnished celebi and the red pillar. Ilex Forest, ablaze. Sensation of fire licking at his skin, the curling flesh blackened. The pain abated as quickly as it had come. Gold, on hands and knees in the grass, retched a little but couldn't make himself throw up.

Typhlosion snarled. The embers on its back flared.

"It's all right," Gold panted. "Celebi isn't an enemy." He forced himself to his feet, tense. He wiped his sweaty face with the butt of his palm. "So, you know future sight," he said. "What else can you do?"

It chirped again, brusquely.

His mood soured. "I know," he grumbled. "I know where I'm supposed to go." He shouldered his bag, still heavy with an unhatched egg. "We should get moving. We're already late. I want to drop this off at the poké center in Goldenrod before we go."

END ACT II

a/n: It has been ten years since I updated this bad boy. (Technically a little longer since I posted the first rough chapter/prologue on Deviantart back in 2012.) Given the abstract nature of the original creepypasta, this fic's plot has deviated for the sake of maintaining a narrative. It also takes a few cues from the Lost Silver: Hidden hack by Reidd Maxwell. In the Japanese version of Pokémon Crystal, a researcher in the Ruins of Alph states "According to my research... Those mysterious patterns appeared when the Pokécom Center was built. It must mean that radio waves have some sort of a link...", indicating that the Unown's appearance in said ruins are influenced by Goldenrod City's Pokémon Communication Center.

#lost silver #fanfic #fanfiction #ao3

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