Avatar Tails!

Avatar Tails => Avatar: Passages => Topic started by: Kiyevanie on February 16, 2019, 09:46:41 AM

Title: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on February 16, 2019, 09:46:41 AM: Pain.

Hammering, tearing, unbearable pain.

Her head felt as if someone drilled a red heated wire through it and the rest of her body wasn’t in much better shape. For a moment she toyed with the thought of opening her eyes, but before she could do it a new wave of pain rolled over her and pulled her back into the darkness.

*****

At her second awakening the pain in her skull had lessened to a fierce throb. About the way she knew from the morning after one of the longer nights in the mess hall – showing all those wannabe macho guys that she wasn’t a weak little girl, just because she was two heads shorter. Usually that involved the intake of strong alcoholic beverages – mostly homemade brandy out of the few fruits of Pandora that didn’t harm the human metabolism. Bad hooch.

But this here didn’t feel like her bunk in Hell’s Gate, the ground was too hard and her position too cramped. Furthermore, she felt pain all over her body and that was unusual for a simple hangover. What the heck – where was she? And how did she come here?

Thoughts moved slowly through her head and when she tried concentrating on the past there was only a dark hole. Painkillers – a kingdom for a painkiller! She raised her hand to press it at her temple and stopped, stunned, as she hit something hard. A breathing mask, she was wearing an exopack.

That was for sure not her bunk.

Slowly she realized that she had to be somewhere outside. Nobody wore an exopack inside. Not good. Not good at all. She decided to open her eyes. That ended out more strenuous than the expected. Her lashes were clotted and at the first moment everything seemed hazy. She blinked hard for several times, but the picture only slowly cleared up to the strange, unreal colours and structures of Pandora’s vegetation. Everything was blue and violet, fluorescing sparks in the darkness: it was night and that made her situation even worse. If there was one thing that was on top of every “How To Survive On Pandora”-list then it was this one: not being outside at night.

At least plants and glowing points stayed where they were, nothing growled out of the darkness at her and she didn’t lose her consciousness again. Encouraging signs. Getting bolder she tried to get up and felt for the first time that something tied her to whatever she was lying on. She felt around with her hands over her body and felt the familiar straps of her pilot chair. Without thinking she found the button that opened the straps, then she started another try to get into another position.

That immediately turned out to be one of her less good ideas. Dizziness rolled over her and she needed all of her willpower to keep her revolting stomach under control. As long as she didn’t know where she was and how far from help – and that she needed help was a sure fact – she couldn’t vomit. She closed her eyes again and sank back into unconsciousness.

The third awakening was insofar more pleasant as it had become day in the meantime – and she was still alive. She tried to get up again and this time her body rewarded her with only a slight dizziness. She looked down and saw she was wearing combat gear – and it showed traces of heavy usage. The bottom half had inflated during her crash – the upper half as well, but she hadn’t worn it, something she really regretted now. The straps of her safety belt had left deep marks in her bare shoulders. She felt as if she had several burns on her bare arms and her neck hurt every time she turned it. Looking up she could see what was left of her parasail, tangled up in the branches of one Pandora’s lower trees. Geez – whatever gods had been holding their protecting hands over her, they must have had their work cut out for them. Flashes of memories came back. The battle... how her chopper had been shot, the ejection seat, her frantic tries to somehow steer it to a place that was neither rock nor deep forest – and then nothing anymore.

She moaned and buried her head in her hands when her situation sunk in. She was stuck somewhere in the Hallelujah mountains, injured, miles away from civilization, without any equipment and what was worst, she hadn’t the faintest idea how the battle had ended. She looked at the small multifunctional gadget on her wrist and started swearing. If that thing still worked properly her crash had been two complete days ago. In this time almost everything could have happened, from a retreat of the humans up to the complete obliteration of the Na’vi. Also it explained the burning thirst in her body.

With great effort she got up and leaned against her chair, until it toppled over. Her hands went hectic over the downside, until she found the familiar form of the first aid kit. One could say a lot about the RDA, but their technical equipment was the best men could provide. At first she pulled out the water container and pushed it into the fitting place of her exopack. Automatically a straw appeared before her parched lips. The water was stale and tasted of the disinfecting tablets but at this moment it was tastier than a freshly tapped beer. She forced herself to drink slowly and controlled and to stop after some few swallows. Who knew how long she would have to last with this? Then she started to care for her several scratches and burn, to bandage up the long cut at her upper arm and finally injecting a broadband antibiotic. Her situation was bad enough without an infection.

Looking at it she had exactly two opportunities. She could stay at this place and slowly die of thirst or she could start to move on, hoping to find any intelligent being that wouldn’t kill her at first sight. And if it did, at least she would die fast. She wasn’t the type to give in easily, so she decided for the second option. With the straps she improvised a kind of harness to fix the emergency package to her back.

Stumbling and staggering she started walking, muttering quietly to herself. „Trudy Chacon – you got yourself into shit again!“
Title: Re: Avatar Passage: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on February 20, 2019, 09:34:30 AM: After a short while of walking Trudy stopped midstride. Yeah, she was walking – but where to? Crap, she must have hit her head harder than she had thought if she just stormed on like that. She looked over to a bolder, checked for any unwanted guests there and sat down, holding her head with both hands while she tried to make a decision.

Basically, there were two options of how the war had ended – either humans had won or Na’vi. If humans had won, she was screwed. Too many people knew she had switched sides, her file probably was labelled “traitor” and “deserter”. If she was lucky and ran into a victorious human mercenary she would be shot on sight. If she wasn’t, they’d take her in as a prisoner of war and she’d have to deal with what asshole Quaritch would call “martial court”.

If the Na’vi had won – well, then “shoot on sight” would be the less lucky option. If whoever she ran into just took her as a prisoner of war she might actually have a chance to convince them that she was one of the good guys and maybe – if they were still alive – get in contact with her friends. Trudy would have to talk pretty fast though, ‘cause she was deeply convinced that humans as a species weren’t very popular on Pandora currently. And that was not even related to the outcome of the war.

Usually a person of quick decisions she realized now that she had just too little information to go for a certain course of action. What she needed now was a place to gather intel, rest a bit, maybe get rid of her mask and literally take a breath. After a while of staring at the ground without actually seeing anything her head suddenly went up and she just could keep herself from smacking her forehead the last moment. The shack! The HabMod they had brought from Site 26! It wasn’t too far from the Well of Souls and even more important – she knew more or less the direction it should be from where the main part of the battle had happened. So, as long as she could find this direction...

Trudy knew there was a compass in the emergency kit she was dragging along, but she also knew that instruments weren’t really precise in this area. Still, it was better than nothing and the only chance she had now.

A few minutes later she was walking again, compass in hand, trying to find the direction to her destination with the twisting and turning pointer. Not that it was an easy walking – she had seen how the Na’vi moved through her forest home. Lithe, graceful, without any sound. Trudy, on the other hand, wasn’t much of a scout person. Yeah, she had picked up a few things and wasn’t a total newbie, but she just had spent much more time in her chopper’s cockpit than out in the wild. And she was injured. Maybe a concussion, several strained tendons, bruises, burns, sore places all over her body – if she had a best shape, she now was lightyears away from it. Her combat boots made way too much sound for her peace of mind, and even though she had pulled up the top half of her coverall by now she still felt how the twigs stuck to her arms and legs. And everything was just so damn huge! “Suck it up, Trudy”, she chided herself. “Na’vi kids can do it, you can too!”

And she stumbled on, trying her best to make as little sound as possible.
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on February 20, 2019, 02:32:11 PM: ***

Some distance away, but drawing closer, was a song. A light song, but with a steady rhythm; a walking-song, in the tradition of the Bushmen or the Na'vi, a sometimes-wordless accompaniment to a foraging mission or a long hike.

Just behind the song was the singer: a young girl, dressed in somewhat undersized Avatar fatigues and a backpack, but her neck draped in the lei of the Tawkami Clan. She looked to be somewhere between ten and thirteen (it was so hard to tell, since Na'vi girls didn't tend to get chesty), with a roundish, pleasant face and a mouth meant for whistling and smiling at the same time. Her eyes were wide like a child's, bright with intelligence and curiosity. But there were depths in them too; if she was a child, she was one who had seen much.

She picked up a scent; all at once she froze, ears turning, and her chanting stopped. Gas, grease, fire... Not good! But medicine too, or at least disinfectant; clothes like hers, no flowers, and stress-sweat. Someone was hurt. Someone who had been in the War.

She paused, leaning on her digging-stick, and listened to the sound of shrubs and bark brushing against trousers and sleeves. The unsteady tramping of boots, stumbling sometimes and crushing the grass. Should she help? --Stupid question; she had a child's compassion, and she could never live with herself if she didn't at least look in on the poor creature. So the real thing she asked herself was whether helping would be dangerous.

She knit her eyebrows, since she had them. She didn't smell anything like a gun on this one, and humans didn't tend to carry bows. As for knives, she trusted her own reflexes; she could disappear up a tree in less time than it would take to say so. But even if the lost human had a Bowie knife, it couldn't be worse than a Palulukan's fangs...and she'd dealt with those before, coming out a little less popular with her father but none the worse for wear.

She smiled at the memory - that had been some escapade! - then started walking again towards the stranger.
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on February 20, 2019, 02:53:02 PM: After walking for what was maybe an hour or so Trudy realized she was even worse off than she had thought. She still felt dizzy, despite her medication and her head still throbbed. Once or twice she had even found herself almost nodding off while walking - that was not good. She had to keep alert here on Pandora. Even though the fighting initially might have scared off most of the wildlife - two days had gone by and Pandora, being a healthy ecosystem where all life was in an eternal circle of being born, living, dying and being nurture for others of Eywa's children, had its share of scavengers. Trudy hadn't met them yet and had no intention of doing so now. For the umpteenth time she wondered where her sidegun had disappeared to - probably being lost during her fall. Not that it mattered against anything more dangerous than a lost merc, but she'd feel better with it. Her bowie knife was more a tool than anything else.

She stopped, wiping her brow best she could, then stretched, groaning slightly when the straps of her improvised backpack rubbed on her sore shoulders, then listened, trying to spot anything unusual. She didn't have Na'vi or Avatar senses, but she knew enough to know the yipping of a pack of viperwolves. But there was... wait... had she heard singing, of all things? She froze, listening more intensely now. But there was nothing.

~Awesome~ she thought to herself. ~I really need to find that damn shack - I'm starting to get hallucinations~
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on February 20, 2019, 03:13:23 PM: The girl heard the Nantang too. Not to be cheated of her discovery, she waited until they drew near and...

The Tawkami Clan was in most respects a typical Na'vi society. But every Clan had a specialty; for the Omaticaya, it was weaving; for the Tompa'tanhi, their healers; and for the Tawkami, their mastery of herbalism. Herbalism could take many forms. Plants and their products were good for everything from seasoning food (of course) to medications (the Tompa'tanhi often sent for the rarer blends) to ceremony - and, lately, for chemical warfare. So now the girl reached into one pocket of her fatigue trousers and took out a small capsule containing the pollen and root-powder of a particularly noxious plant. She knew she was going to regret it when the thing burst open; but so would the Nantang, and the stuff couldn't possibly be worse than disinfectant...could it?

She spotted the antennae of the pack leader and executed a perfect slider pitch. The capsule flew straight, then took a sharp cut downwards...right onto the snout of the pack leader. Much yelping and running ensued, most of it away from the girl and the human for whom she searched. She pinched her nose until the yelping faded, and knew for certain that that pack would not be hunting anywhere near this place tonight.

She was wrong on one count, though: It was worse than disinfectant. "Fpi Eywa!!" she yowped, eyes and nose running; then she muttered something about "tsyit of pul", "tsyit of Pa'li", and "tsyit of toktor", followed by the two most derogatory names of that plant.
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on February 20, 2019, 03:29:28 PM: Now - this was definitely not a hallucination. Although it sounded weird enough to be one. First the almost insulted yelping and yowling of the viperwolves, then the sound of a young, female voice calling out something in Na'vi.
Trudy's thoughts moved through her head with the speed of a fly caught in honey, but even she guessed that the first one was caused by the second.

She hesitated. Should she call out? Obviously there was one of the Na'vi nearby and the voice had sounded annoyed, but not scared or desperate. So maybe they had won after all? This could be her chance for some help, if the owner of the voice wouldn't just do to her what she had done to the viperwolves.

Right that moment another wave of dizziness rolled over Trudy and she knew that she was sitting neckdeep in shit and was sinking deeper. Better grab the straw she could see (or better: hear) and hope it'd hold.

"Hello? Kal-ti?", she called, adding one of the few words she had caught when they had been preparing for the battle. "Anybody here?"
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on February 20, 2019, 03:43:11 PM: The girl heard the tawtute voice and smiled. Inglisi, huh? Well, that was a German-based language at least, so she figured she'd give it a shot: "Kaltxi yourself," she said cheerfully. "Or call coffee, or call chocolate" - here she was playing with the way the Na'vi word sounded like "call tea" - "...but you'll get best results if you call Molly."

And she stepped out to where the human - scorched in places, cut up in more, obviously about to collapse - was swaying on her feet. "Are you lost?" she inquired, cocking her head. "I can see you're hurt..."
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on February 20, 2019, 04:12:29 PM: Trudy stared at the apparition in front of her and the rest of her balance just left her there and then, bringing her down on her butt. She definitely had hallucinations... she had to have.

There, coming out of the bushes was a girl... well, in her early teens, Trudy guessed. But that was not what had the pilot gawping now. It were the Avatar fatigues, the noticeable eyebrows (Trudy was too dizzy to count any fingers) coming with the Na'vi hairstyle and jewelry. And then - that girl spoke decent English, with a slight accent Trudy had heard before, but couldn't place - just that it definitely wasn't Na'vi. So - everything pointed at an Avatar driver here, but heck, Trudy was pretty sure she knew all the drivers on Pandora, she had flown most of them around after all. All high-class scientists - but no young teenage girls.

"Must have banged my head worse than I thought", was her first, rather incoherent thought, "I'm dreaming up young Avatar girls now..."

Then she tried to get herself together. If this was indeed a dream she'd do nothing worse than talk to the empty forest, but if not... the girl spoke English, she had the name to go with it, didn't look as if she had sided with the RDA and Trudy did need help. Desperately. So she gave it a second try.

"Um... hi... eh... Molly", she started again, knowing that she must probably be quite a weird sight herself - a human, all messed up, in the middle of nowhere, with the rest of her warpaint still smeared over her face. "Yeah... guess I'm lost", she admitted. "My chopper got shot down by that damn Dragon." She paused, again looking at the girl her mind still had problems wrapping around. "Say - that you're here - does that mean that we've won?"
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on February 21, 2019, 01:36:47 AM: At first Molly found the pilot's stare unsettling. She'd always gotten a bit of that, ever since she came to be, and it brought back bad feelings - of being a specimen; of being an experiment. Too, she wasn't at all sure which side this human was on. She hadn't thought about that before, and it was way too late to get away now... What if the woman knew her father? Would even her village at Greenhome be far enough away?

But then the human lady spoke, and Molly noticed the warpaint; and between that and the name "Dragon", all of a sudden she knew who she was dealing with - and she was floored. She still had a grip on her digging-stick, but she allowed herself to slip down it so that she, too, ended up on her rump, albeit a little more gracefully and in a controlled descent.

"Gott im Himmel..." she whispered; then her voice leapt with her spirits: "That was you?? You're the one? You must be, you're wearing the Omaticayas' colors, but...but... Aiee, we thought we'd lost you!!" She leaned forward, eyes shining as incredulousness yielded to joy; then, half in laughter, she answered the pilot's question. "Yes, we won - hoo, boy, did we ever!!!"
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on February 21, 2019, 02:53:00 AM: It took a few moments until the words really sank into Trudy’s mind, but then relief flooded her system, almost making her passing out again from the intensity. She closed her eyes as she felt a load slide off her shoulders she hadn’t realized she had been carrying. They had won! That whole insane stunt that had written “suicide mission” all over it, they had pulled it through, somehow. She didn’t even need details, that would be for later, but for now it was enough that they indeed had won that impossible battle. It sure hadn’t looked that way when her Samson had erupted into a fireball...

And that girl, Molly, she knew who Trudy was. She knew the Omaticaya, could place the smeared colours on her face. Meaning the Omaticaya had survived too. And when Molly said “We thought we had lost you”, that meant...

Trudy opened her eyes again, almost as shining as Molly’s now, then grinned, for the first time since she had woken up in her destroyed pilot seat. “Oh hell, it was a dang close cut – I must have had a whole army of guardian angels - and one of 'em has been doing overtime to send you to me. Actually, I still don’t know how exactly I survived, I thought I was done when that rocket hit – thought I’d go down in my own blaze of glory. Say, do you know about my friends?”, she asked now. “Norm, Jake... did they make it too?” Then she shook her head, wincing the next moment. "Geez, look at me, blabbing like a baby and I haven't even told you my name. I'm Trudy and you have no idea how glad I am to meet ya, Molly."
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on February 22, 2019, 01:58:22 AM: Molly put a finger to her lip, thinking. "Jakesully?" she asked, making sure they were talking about the same person. "He did more than make it - he Bonded with Toruk and jumped on that big kunsip that shot you, and he blew it right out of the sky! Shows what happens when the Sky People put their fake Dragons up against our real ones." She looked indignant for a moment - the nerve of those people!!! "What'd they think was gonna happen, right?" She laughed at their insanity, then continued. "So, I guess Eywa decided She'd had enough, because the next thing that happened was all the animals went crazy and trampled all the Sky warriors on the ground, and wild Ikran attacked their ships from the sky, and the Angtsik came and bashed those machines they wear, and...well, I'm glad I wasn't foraging that morning! But from way over here, it sounds like it must have been fun to watch.

"I don't know about Norm," she went on quietly. "I don't know who he is, unless he's that Dreamwalker who rode with the Horse Clans. I only know there was one, not who he was or how he turned out... Does that sound like something your Norm would do? Se'ni says he fought in both bodies... But there's almost nothing left of the Horse Clans.

"Anyway, we're going to hold a big old ceremony under Vitraya Ramunong, the Tree of Souls. Everybody's there, everybody that made it. We're gonna have the biggest prayer circle there ever was. I think it's 'cause we won, or maybe to begin to heal the hurt...the wounds in our spirits. But somebody said it was about Jake. And hey, if they're honoring heroes, you need to be there too."

She looked Trudy over with an eye to her probable physical capabilities. "But...you're gonna have a little trouble getting there, aren't you?" she asked gently. "And if you've been lost for as long as we've been looking for you, you've gotta be hungry. But I have food with me, and I know where to get water; and if all you can handle is water right now, I know what to put in it to make it food. We can camp right here until you're feeling stronger... Sound good?"
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on February 22, 2019, 09:01:31 AM: Trudy made her way through all that information."I know about Jake and that Toruk, just not that he acutally managed to crash down the Dragon." A wide grin appeared on her face. "Woot!", she called out, as images flashed before her inner eye. "Should have known that guy was batshit crazy when I first met him - but the good kind of batshit crazy!" Her eyes widened. "And Eywa called on the wildlife? Hooo boy, I can see a lot of dumb faces there." Her grin turned outright ferocious now - if she had had fangs they probably would have shown right then. "Guess there's a whole heap of useless metal trash around here right now." She knew what power was in a Titanothere - a whole herd of them stampeding? Total annihilation of anything in their way. "Well, they had it coming - pissing off local deities at own risk."

A bit quieter she added: "It was darn close for a while, I'm glad that this cavallery came - we did our best, but it didn't look good for a while. But I guess you already know that." The sudden rush of endorphines faded when she thought about the next part of Molly's information. "So nobody knows about Norm... yeah, he rode with the Horse Clans. Brave as hell, but batshit crazy too. Norm's never been something like a warrior." She winced when she realized what 'fought in both bodies' probably meant. "And if he lost his Avatar... gee..." Sadness crossed her face now. "Seems there was a high price coming with our victory. Dang. I liked that guy!" She swallowed and blinked rapidly at the thought that the lanky xenoanthropologist might be dead now. "But it was never a question that he fought along with everyone else - that's just how he is. Was. Whatever..." She blinked again, trying to clear her suddenly blurry sight. She had lost people in battle before, but it never got any easier. "Who knows, maybe he did make it. And maybe not. Almost nothing left of the Horse Clans? Crap... so much useless deaths of good people, just cause those greedy idiots couldn't get enough."

She looked at Molly now. "Yeah, I'd like to be at that prayer circle tonight. Not cause I'm a hero or something, but to say good bye to those we've lost in this fuc... frickin' war. But you're right. At the moment there's not much more walking in me. About that water... is it safe for me?" Trudy still had no idea if and how Molly could be an Avatar, where she was linked in from, but she just didn't have the energy to care for it. But Molly being an Avatar - no matter how that was possible - meant she'd know about the problems the human body had with Pandora's toxins. "And how far is it to the Tree?" She hoped not too far, considering the fact that Molly had walked here - on the other hand Na'vi and Avatars could walk much longer and faster than humans, and although Molly was by far not grown up she still was a good part taller than Trudy herself - plus, she was used to move through the forest.
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on February 22, 2019, 03:34:20 PM: At the words "lost his Avatar", something flickered across Molly's face - her expression went neutral for a heartbeat, and her eyes in that same instant went dark and almost grey. She was an Avatar; she was a child; the death of one of her own would have had to strike a nerve. But there was something more to it as well, something deeply personal...just for the briefest moment; and then it was gone in the time it takes between a small bird's decision to fly and its actually doing so, and in the meantime she'd framed a response.

"The water?" she said. "Water's the same everywhere; it's root vegetables and tubers you've got to watch out for, and any animal that eats them. But if you're worried about the water, just use one of those tablets I'm sure they gave you; if you're out, you can pour the water through a spare filter. If the filters in your mask are the only ones you've got, there's plenty of burnt stuff around here to make charcoal out of, and that'll work too - for the air and the water. And once we get to the Well, there should be spare-everything in that shack on the rim."
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on February 22, 2019, 03:51:47 PM: "The shack on the rim - that was where I was trying to go", Trudy explained. "Before I realized that maybe I took a bite too huge to swallow." She patted the straps of her makeshift backpack. "I've got some of those tablets", she said, "and a replacement filter, so I guess I'll be fine. And - hey.. thank you, Molly. Thank you very much for your help. I thought tough ol' Trudy could make it on her own, but I can't. Without you I'd be royally screwed here."

She was far from her usual self, but even in her current state - and griefing herself - she noticed the short shadow crossing Molly's face when the fate of Norm's Avatar was mentioned. "I know", she said after a moment, her own face sad too. "It's hard to lose one of your own. I wish it'd get better over time... growing up. But it'd be lying and you deserve better than that." Shortly her face looked grim. "And it sucks that a kid your age should be confronted with that kind of crap anyway. Not here on Pandora, anyway."
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on February 24, 2019, 02:28:13 AM: Molly looked down and bit her lip, but still didn't say anything about the matter. Perhaps she didn't want to...or perhaps she couldn't, whether the topic was too sensitive or she just hadn't figured out how to talk about it or what to say.

Instead she refocused on practical matters. "Okay, then I guess I need to get you that water," she said. "Can you walk again yet, for a little ways? I'd like to leave you in a safer place, and I know just the one..." Her eyes came back to life and twinkled as she smiled. "It's where I attacked the Nantang, don'tcha know. They won't bother you there, neither will anything else...and it'd be a good place to test the seal on that mask." Now her look was full of mischief.
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on February 24, 2019, 07:23:10 AM: Trudy realized quickly that Molly couldn't or didn't want to dwell on a subject that was obviously painful for the young girl. Never being someone to peek her nose to deep in other people's business the pilot respected that, letting it go and too focusing on the much more pressing issue at hand: her own state and how to deal with it.

"Lemme see", she muttered. "If I'm able to get up I'll be able to walk a bit too." Safe place sounds good to me." She squinted at Molly. "What did you do to shoo those wolves away anyway? I swear, I've never heard a Viperwolf make that kind of sound." Eyeing Molly and her equipment she added: "Maybe I should get myself something like a hiking straff?"

Sitting on her rear for the discussion had rested Trudy's legs a bit. And the information she got had mobilized a few more energy reserves: she wouldn't have to survive on her own in a hostile environment, she still had friends and somewhere to go to. So she gathered all the strength she had and - not very gracious and far from her usual way of moving, but that didn't matter now - made it to her feet. For a moment she swayed a bit, but then she took a breath, settled her shoulders, readjusted her backpack and nodded towards Molly. "Alright, let's go."
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on February 24, 2019, 12:40:48 PM: By the time Trudy got to her feet, Molly was doing a classic 'indignant mom' pose - hands on hips, leaning forwards a little, and tapping one foot. "Silly you...I was going to help you up, but noooooo..."

She noted Trudy's interest in a hiking staff. "You can use mine," she said. "I never go foraging without it. It's mostly for digging up roots and teylu and stuff; that's why the pointy end. But I can use the round end to pound seeds and nuts for food or for medicine, or to scatter the ashes after I put out a campfire, or to poke things that bite so they'll bite the stick and not me... And, yeah, sometimes I lean on it towards the end of the day when I'm tired, and sometimes I dig a hole in the ground and lay the stick over it and make it a drum. And sometimes I lend it to a friend."

She smiled, then explained about the seed-pod incident. "As for what I told the nantang? I made a really bad smell and now they won't have anything to do with the place, and neither will anything else that's got a nose. You'll be safe; you can even sleep, once I'm back to keep watch. C'mon..."

She led the pilot to a space among the roots of several large but otherwise ordinary trees, with very little undergrowth. "See? --Lots of handholds good for climbing; that's why the nantang like it here. But see how the trees kind of lean in together? --That's how Hometrees grow. These are gonna be a Hometree someday, a long, long time from now. I wonder who's gonna live here? Do you think Eywa's growing it for the Omaticaya? --OK, now sit...that's it... Smell anything? And here's my stick."
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on February 24, 2019, 01:55:10 PM: Trudy gave Molly a slightly sheepish look. "Yeah, should have let you help me up", she agreed. "Blame it on me trying the last years to show all those tall guys with more biceps than brains that I'm not weak just cause I'm a gal one or two head shorter than me. You're neither a guy with little brains nor do I have to prove something here..."

She hobbled along while Molly led her to the safer place, grinning when the girl explained about her little adventure with chemical warfare. "Clever", she stated. "Effective and nobody gets really hurt. I almost feel sorry for them - they'll probably sit somewhere far, far away from here now, trying to get that stench out of their noses - and they got sharp noses, I swear a Viperwolf can smell you from half the moon away." In a way it had been the same thing when she was waiting for one of the scientist teams while sitting in her chopper. No Nantang with even a trace of self-esteem would even come close this awfully stinking machine.

Looking up she estimated the size of the trees that would be her resting place for now. While already impressive they still were far away from the huge giant the Omaticaya Hometree had been. "So these are gonna be a Hometree one day?" Her eyes followed the massive trunks, the place where they were leaning together to one day form the spiral and the inner structure that gave them strength and still had been a weakness for one of their kind. Trudy fervently hoped that these trees would never ever share the fate of the former Omaticaya Hometree. "Maybe for a different clan", she mused. "The Omaticaya sure need a new home before this one is all grown up."

She sat down on one of the side roots and gratefully took the swiss army knife of a staff from Molly, studying the structure and matching it with the explanations. "I've never thought about all those uses for a stick", she admitted. "Thanks for lending it to me."
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on February 24, 2019, 03:03:35 PM: "I'm also not two heads taller than you," Molly pointed out. "One, maybe, but not two!

"But I used to get a lot of that too, back when--" She paused and reconfigured. "Well, almost everywhere I've ever been, I was the smallest or the youngest or the newest, so nobody thought I could do anything either. It's not like that now; see, my Clan is letting me forage by myself in a war zone! Not my smartest idea, but they wouldn't have let me do it if they didn't think it was safe enough..." She looked thoughtful. "Hmm... Maybe I'm still trying to prove something too," she confessed.

She joined Trudy in looking up at the nascent Hometree. "Another Clan... Maybe even mine? We're the Tawkami, which means 'Sky-Seers'; besides plants and what to do with them, we gather teachings of all kinds, even from way 'long time ago. When the Lorekeepers from other Clans visit us, they stay for a long time.. We're kinda Eywa's eyes and ears, too. Who better to protect a Hometree right next to the Well of Souls?

"But...maybe there's gonna be a new Clan, one that didn't exist before. Be kinda cool if they made one for Dreamwalkers, huh? Then we wouldn't have to prove anything at home... And by the time these trees are old enough, maybe more Dreamwalkers will actually be able to climb them." She smirked, then got up to fetch the water.
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on February 25, 2019, 09:53:09 AM: "One head taller", Trudy agreed; she didn't have to look up further to Molly than with most other humans-

But she raised a brow at the last part of Molly's words. "Dreamwalkers and their climbing skills - they might surprise you", she called after the leaving girl. If she had wondered if Molly had ever been at Hell's Gate this was an almost sure pointer that she hadn't. Or she would know more about the drivers there. Alright, Grace had liked to keep both feet on the ground, same as John, but Angelo for example - that guy could shinny up a tree while wearing his massive oversized combat boots in no-time. She also had seen paradise bird Spaz doing some respectable climbing. For Gillian climbing was a living and even newbie Anna by now knew her way around a tree. So whoever those clumsy Dreamwalkers (interesting use of Na'vi terminology) were Molly had met - the current crew in Hell's Gate were off the list. Well, there were a few remote locations out there not even Trudy had ever flown to. And that the RDA liked to keep secrets... that wasn't a surprise either. And it was very obvious that (apart from a few bits and pieces) Molly wasn't too keen on sharing whatever secrets she was hiding either.

So, instead of poking further into Molly's secrets, Trudy stuck to the things the young Avater had told her. For example the part about the clan she was living with. Or about proving something to someone - that clan maybe? That Na'vi wanted drivers to prove themselves was something Trudy had whitnessed first hand when Jake had been trained by Neytiri. Alright, from what Trudy knew no Na'vi would ever try to hold a kid to a grown-up warrior's standards, but she still guessed that these Tawkami wanted to know first that Molly could hold her own before allowing her to roam around if they had taken her in. Sky-seers... the Na'vi did have a knack for poetic names, even prosaic Trudy liked that. Would that clan ever move to this place, in the ages it might take this Hometree to grow to full height? Did clans even move at all if they weren't forced to by something? The Omaticaya had turned out to be deeply rooted in their home, but that was one clan out of many. Other clans might have a different way of living.

She moved into a more comfortable position leanign her head against the trunk, keeping the stick in hand, and closed her eyes. There was so much new information pouring through her head that she felt a bit lost with it. It always had been Norm, who had been after all this information. She swallowed again, thinking how much the guy would have loved to be in her place right now. What had Molly just said? Lorekeepers? Trudy smiled faintly - maybe they should talk more about those ones, something like that might probably raise her friend from the dead.

One thing was pretty sure though. "Ya know - I dunno if it's been your smartest idea or not to go foraging here today, but for my part I can say I'm more than grateful that you did!"
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on February 25, 2019, 12:34:02 PM: Molly smiled a little; then, holding up the tails of her fatigue shirt, she did a little curtsey and smiled bigger before leaving.

But once there were enough trees between her and their campsite, her face took on a troubled look. It really wasn't fair that she had to hide so much of herself from Trudy, or from anybody else she met from Hell's Gate. She had, in fact, taken great pains to avoid even being seen by anyone who had ever been stationed there. A lot of that was on her father's orders, but by now the felt need to hide herself had worked its way into her Being. She could trust the Na'vi. But even other Avatars were potentially dangerous, and a human? Humans, above all, had never stopped gawking at her, trying to "figure her out", wondering how she could possibly exist and whether it was right that she did.

She would have liked to answer for herself. After a ten-year-old's lifetime of not participating in the world much at all, she finally had light and speech and interaction and some form of movement besides turning her head or clenching her fists in a hospital bed. She should have had playmates and a whole forest for them to crash through. She should have had people saying how big she'd grown, how strong she was, how smart or cute or pretty. She should have been in school. She should have had the chance to play sports. She should have known the rest of her family and how the rules could be delightfully different at Grandma's house. She knew how human childhood was supposed to go, and that for most of her life such a childhood had been out of her reach.

Her father's experiments had been a desperate bid to provide her with these things. She had to hand him that, at least. The rest of it... Why hadn't he thought of all that while they were still on Earth??

And what about now? Now that her soul was firmly seated in a functional body, was he proud of her? Did he consider his efforts a success? Heck no! For all she knew, he was still trying to fetch her back to her human body and was furious with her for not coming along. And as for playmates and lessons and encouragement and a parent's pride, she hadn't had that until she'd taken up with her friend Nok and the Tawkami. For them, she wasn't a Wrong Thing; just a child, fit to be fussed over and shown off to friends, and they'd long since stopped asking themselves where her tawtute body was.

If she could only be sure Trudy would accept her like that, as-is, what-you-see-is-what-you-get... But no; even Trudy had had that same "What the fuck?" look on her forehead. The kinder version, true, but still...

Yeah, maybe this was the wrong day to be wandering around in Avatar fatigues. If she'd dressed like at home, nobody would have even blinked.

She came to the stream and filled the canteen and her own waterskin slowly, almost meditatively. She looked upstream, where all the water was coming at her like all these new conditions and the decisions she had to make about them; then she looked downstream for a long time, pretending that the course of nature and the flow of life were carrying them all away.

She returned to the campsite with her mind a little clearer. This knot in her soul was standing between herself and probably the first healthy human relationship she had ever had. And she couldn't go to the ceremony thinking more about herself than about whoever it was for. So she'd determined to come as clean as she could without endangering herself...and that meant setting a few parameters.

She plopped herself down and presented the water containers. "Drink up," she said. "We gotta have a talk..."
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on February 25, 2019, 12:54:21 PM: While Molly had been gone Trudy had tried a while longer to make sense out of every twist and turn her life had taken the last weeks and days - and hours - and finally dozed off for a bit. When Molly came back Trudy's eyes lit up, spotting the full canteen. She fit her straw in and thirstily took a sip. And then another one. And one more. She actually had to restrain herself to drink too fast, in case her system wouldn't be up to it, because although the water still tasted of disinfectant and filters it also tasted fresh. She'd drink more, later, and even put a nutrient tablet into it - or try whatever Molly had mentioned a while ago, but for now her body needed water even more urgently than anything else.

"Thanks", she said once her mouth felt properly hydrated, motioning to the water canteen. She looked up to Molly now, noticing a certain unease around the eyes and a determination that hadn't been there before. Whatever Molly wanted to talk about, it was serious. "Okay, Molly. What's wrong?"
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on February 25, 2019, 01:07:02 PM: The young Avatar smirked. "Nonononono," she corrected, waving her hands in a chalkboard-eraser movement. "The question is, 'What's right?' I'm gonna tell you what's right. Accept that, don't ask me anything else about it, and we can be friends, and I haven't dared make friends with a tawtute in three years. I wanna beat that today, and I wanna do that with you. Deal?"
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on February 25, 2019, 01:20:47 PM: Trudy let that sink in for a moment, then quickly nodded. Molly hadn't dared to make friens with humans since three years? Heck, whatever was in her past, everyone needed friends. And with Molly being a driver she needed friends from that part of her heritage too.
Apart from that - Trudy just liked that girl that had come out of nowhere into her life. So she held out her hand for a fistbump. "Deal!", she said.
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on February 25, 2019, 01:37:10 PM: "Hokay," Molly began, gathering her courage. "Number One: This is me. All of me. What you see is what you get. Don't go looking for my Sky Person body. This is me.

"Two: I'm an Avatar; I'm a Dreamwalker. My Clan knows the difference.

"Three: My father did one good thing and a lot of bad ones. All my life he made me think I was one of the bad ones. That I didn't belong; that I shouldn't exist; that I'm a hassle and a bother and I'm not supposed to be here 'cause I'm too hard to explain. That I had to be hidden like some big bloody secret. My Clan's still trying to set me straight about that. I think that's why they let me forage today.

"And Four..." Her voice regained its playfulness, a departure from the fierce, half-strangled tone in which she'd delivered the rest. "Four, if you think the sissies who drive Avatars can get 'em to shinny up an anything, you weren't there when I was." She delivered a sharp, toothy grin.
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on February 25, 2019, 02:27:51 PM: Trudy's eyes widened for a moment, then narrowed. Okay - if that was Molly's secret - or secrets, plural - she suddenly understood why the girl was hesitating to share it with someone else... Trudy was a pilot, she had been flying around Avatars and drivers all her time on Pandora. What she knew about driving was what she had picked up on those tours. She wouldn't be able to read the instruments on a link pod if someone's life depended on it, but what she did know was how extended driving changed people in the long run.

So Molly - the way she was sitting here in front of Trudy, that was all that was of her. Trudy was sure there was a hell of a backstory there, especially the question "how was that possible at all?", but the fact was: Molly was here, all that was of her, a young girl on the borderline between young kid and teenager. And she must have been lonely.

Now the pilot cautiously dropped the stick, reached out and took Molly's hand. "First thing first... whatever else you are and might be: you're not and never can have been a hassle, a bother or a bad thing. Not existing, not supposed to be? What a huge pile of bullshit! You're here, ain't ya? And I can't see a frickin thing being wrong with you - what I see is a really nice young girl knowing her way around this world and with a heart big enough to shoo away a pack of wolves to help a human you've never seen before. Heck - if your father made you think something like that he's a lousy parent! And I'm glad that you found a Clan that cares for you and that they try to straighten that out."

She took a breath. "I won't claim to understand how and why and whatever. But in the end that's not important anyway - it won't change who you are." She raised one corner of her mouth in a half-grin. "But about that shinnying-up anything... I see why you aren't exactly keen on hitting the 'Gate, and to be honest, I have no idea how things are going there currently, what happened to everyone. Thing is, when I left there's been a bunch of great people there, but also a whole bunch of assholes."
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on February 25, 2019, 03:11:02 PM: Molly smiled. "The Clan... Yeah, that's what they keep telling me. Not with words, but by the way they treat me like I'm no big deal... Just another kid. O-kay, maybe a little peculiar one, but that makes them like me better. I do the same things their kids do - practice with my weapons, staff and sling and bolas; race my friends through the trees like a monkey; build fires; forage because I'm too mushy to hunt. But they're not trying to make me into a Na'vi; they're delighted to have a Me, a Dreamwalker, and they're proud of me for being what I am. So they let me play with machines, and climb around in old buildings, and wear these clothes. I don't wear 'em because I'm an Avatar; I wear 'em because they're mine, they're comfortable and they still fit. I have Na'vi ones too. And a Pa'li, and a pet Riti - I rescued it when it was hurt. No other Dreamwalkers, true...but the ones I knew couldn't keep up with me anyways." She grinned.

"So, yeah, a Me isn't a bad thing to be. Mostly I like it, and I love the looks on my buddies' faces whan I'm trying to explain something like a ball-point pen. It's just that...I dunno...my dad gave me such a head-trip, and I don't know why, and I keep telling myself I shouldn't care anymore, but..." She bit her lip. "I gave him what I thought he wanted, and it turned out he didn't want that at all. Acted like I'd turned out wrong or something. And what he did want..." She looked up again, angry. "My dad was a control freak, okay? And that's the reason he did most of the bad things...and he never figured out how to control me...but I'm still afraid that someday he will."
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on February 26, 2019, 07:16:28 AM: Trudy mulled that over, especially the last part, a few more pieces falling into place. She couldn't make any promises here, not with her not having the faintest idea about the state of Hell's Gate. As far as she knew everything could be possible, from the basis having been reduced to a smoking hole in the ground to Molly's dad still sitting there and planning Evils. She had no idea who he could be and she wouldn't break her promise and Molly's trust and ask, but as she had said - the 'Gate was full of awesome people, but also (and to a much larger degree) full of a whole bunch of assholes. The amount of candidates for "worst father of the galaxy" was plentiful.

"He'd need to find you first", she finally said, considering every part of Molly's situation. "That clan of yours, the Tawkami," her tongue stumbling a bit at the Na'vi word, "they sound like good people. They took you in, accept you for just who you are and give you a home, making you one of their own - Na'vi or Dreamwalker, doesn't matter; just one of theirs. From what you told me they'd never let one of their kids get controlled by anyone. He couldn't control you before, I'm pretty sure he can't even less now that you have a home and friends. See, dunno why he did what he did. Why are people doing bad things? Sometimes cause they're greedy - that's why the RDA destroyed the Omaticaya Hometree, home of a whole clan, just to get to that dang mineral they wanted. And in Quaritch's case - that's the guy who commanded the dragon gunship and shot me out of the sky, I think he was on his very own head-trip, and it wasn't a good one. And totally self-inflicted. So sometimes they're doing bad things just cause they're insane or simply cause they're assholes" She snorted. "In some way the RDA were control-freaks too. And you can't control Pandora. It's the same thing as flying in the Hallelujah Mountains - try using the controls on your chopper and you'll run headfirst in one flying rock or another. Go by your instinct and you'll be safe."

"You, honey", and she squeezed Molly's hand once more, "look like someone to me who's pretty in tune with her instincts and this world here. I'd bet what's left of my equipment that he couldn't even try to pull this kind of crap again."
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on February 26, 2019, 02:13:26 PM: Molly had to agree with Trudy's assessment of the relative abundance of Awesome People and Assholes at the 'Gate. She remembered (and missed) some of the Awesome ones; Max, who'd helped her father with the Good Thing, which was bringing her into the Light; Gillian, who was always good for a climb. But not long after she'd come to Be, it had become painfully obvious that the RDA colony was no place for a child. Supposedly this was why her father had taken her to a remote Avatar station, complete with an obstacle course for her to play on. But maybe that had been more so he could do the Bad Things undetected. By humans, anyway, who never really looked... She and Nok of the Tawkami, on the other hand, had figured it out and finally put a stop to them. That was when her father began threatening her. And that was when she vanished into the Light for keeps.

"You're right," she said, smiling. "He would have to find me first. And I don't make it easy..."

Then she grew thoughtful. "My Tsahik says that people do bad things because they're in pain. The ground, the forests, the Omaticaya Hometree... The tawtute destroyed all of that looking for something that they can really only find inside themselves. They don't know what that thing is; it's different for everybody, and most of them don't want to sit there and figure it out, so they think they can get it from something outside instead. And because the rock or the medicine isn't the thing they really need, it doesn't satisfy them; and because they're not satisfied, they keep taking more and more. My father must have been in a lot of pain. It might have even been pain about me. But that doesn't excuse what he did.

"I think he wanted control because he was afraid. Afraid of the world doing something unexpected that would hurt him. If people would just let the world be the world, and themselves be themselves, and enjoy the good things and accept the not-so-good ones, they could be happy without having to change everything or take it away from somebody else, don't you think?"
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on February 26, 2019, 02:57:13 PM: That was some new concept for Trudy. Pain... well... she scratched her head. "Your Tsahik gives more credit to humans than I'd do", she admitted. "Pain - even though it ain't an excuse for those things humans have done - not just here, but back on Earth too, it at least sounds a little bit nicer than greed or hate or just being stupid."

She looked down to her feet, remembering her own past. "But she could be onto something - we all have our dreams when we grow up and some tawtute try filling those dreams with money. This frickin mineral - it's worth a lot of money back on Earth. And money can help with a lot of dreams too. But sometimes, people forget about those dreams, they just notice there's a hole inside and don't know what to put in there - and then they try to fill that hole with more money." She sighed. "Letting the world just be the the world, that's something we're awfully bad at as a species. That has brought some good things, but also a lot of bad ones. Coming up here to this world, exploring, meeting the first species of intelligent aliens - that was a good thing. Or could have been - geez, there's a reason why I'm here after all. A new world, full of wonders - being here as a pilot, flying over this landscape full of forests and rivers and oceans, between floating mountains, that's been my dream come true. But then we messed it all up the way we always do."
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on February 27, 2019, 12:44:12 AM: Molly cocked her head. "Who's this 'we' person? --You didn't mess it up; heck, you almost got your txim shot off trying to keep the others from messing it up worse. You flew scientists around, people who cared about this place and wanted other people to care too. Jake didn't mess it up; pretty sure your Norm didn't mess it up; and I'll bet you the rest of my wolfsbane caps that Gillian didn't mess it up either. Haven't you got enough to think about without blaming yourself for what other people did? That's on those people, not all of your kind."

She got a little fire going in what, someday, would be a Hometree Commons. Would it make a difference that a Dreamwalker had been the first person to light a fire here? Probably not; or if it did, that would just be one more thing to weave into the story of that Tree. "So...enough of regretting stuff, 'k?" she said with a gentle, almost parental smile. "This isn't a place for regrets. It's a place for dreaming."

She invited Trudy to imagine who might live here someday, what their lives would be like, and what they would be better at than anyone else. Then, just in case her guest was too weary to put in that much mental effort, she showed her how to make the shadow of an Ikran with both hands: "...And now, anytime you want to fly again, you just call your Ikran, close your eyes, and make the Bond. They're your hands; they feel everything you feel, and you feel everything they do. That's like the Bond. Go ahead, try it!" And she sat back, beaming.
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on February 27, 2019, 04:30:52 AM: "A place for dreaming... good dreams, not the nightmares we've been in lately." Trudy had used the time Molly had built the fire to drink some more water and slowly started feeling a bit better. Sitting here like that helped bringing some or her energy back - as did the company. This place was peaceful in a very special way, a promise of the future, somehow not touched by the ghosts of the past. And Trudy realized how badly she needed some peace and this promise of future in this moment of her life.

"I like that idea. Guess we all can use a lot of that." The pilot chuckled at the shadow Ikran Molly produced with her fingers and even tried herself, watching the shadow wings move against the light cast by the little campfire, moving with every twist she gave her fingers. At first she was just flapping wildly until she got the hang of it and tried a few more advanced maneuvers - things she couldn't have done with her chopper due to physical limitations until her hands and the shadow dissolved in a chaotic lump of fingers. "And I like that", she stated, shaking her fingers to losen them up again, then trying a second time.

A slightly dreamy expression came into her eyes, something very few people had seen before. "I wonder how it feels", she mused. "Flying with not just your hands, but with an Ikran. Flying a chopper - well, most people keep the thing in the air and safely back to the ground again; but a few of us make that step from using a machine, following the manual, to actually feeling what we're doing. In a few, precious moments that chopper is an extension of your body - as much as a machine can be, it is a heap of metal and glass after all. But flying together with another living being... that's gotta be something else. Jake told a bit about it after he had tamed his own Ikran - jeez, I've never seen that guy excited like that. And he wasn't even a pilot before." She cocked her head at Molly. "You ever wanna try it when you're the right age?"
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on February 27, 2019, 01:53:24 PM: Molly's face lit up. "Heck yeah!!" she enthused. "Gosh, even just standing on a high branch at Hometree, all I want to do is spread my arms and legs and jump like a skydiver and go streaking towards the ground head-first, then level out and up and away, whooping and hollering the whole time... The Ikran are scary up close; I've never dared to pet one even when I was led up to it. But I've been told and told and told that my queue is just as good as anyone else's, and that there's no reason I couldn't Bond with an Ikran if I wanted to. But - yeah, another But - what's a gatherer need an Ikran for? Carry more stuff home than I can pick in a day? You have to need an Ikran, and it has to need you. And I can't think of one who would like such a tame life as I'd have to give it... Ikran are for hunters and warriors and scouts. Maybe I can be a scout? I already go into scary places like HabMods and link rooms and the cabs of burnt-out bulldozers; a case could be made..." She grinned.
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on February 27, 2019, 02:17:28 PM: Trudy's grin was wide now behind her faceplate. "That's exactly what I've been doing as a kid too", she admitted. "Okay, no branches of Hometree, but roofs of high houses in our city. It gave my mom the jitters - she can't stand heights very much and I always wanted to look out, spread my arms and imagine to just take off and fly." She ruefully shook her head in hindsight. "Sorry Mom... I've been a handful as a kid. But that's why I signed in for the army and hit flight school right when I got the right age. Only chance for a gal like me to get some wings... and back then I didn't even dare to dream of Pandora. Still I'm here."

She looked over to Molly now. "So, if you want to - just do it. I got no idea if there's any Clan taboo about a non-warrior or hunter getting an Ikran and of course your Clan might take things differently than the Omaticaya. But I remember Jake saying something about that an Ikran's gotta choose you first or you'll just sit on top of that mountain in all eternity or until you climb back down again. So - if you go up at the right time and one of those birds decides that it likes the way you look I can't see why the two of you shouldn't have fun together. And scouting is fun! I'd keep on with that bola training in your place." She let her shadow Ikran fly again, noticing that the shadow had deepened a bit and frowned. "Talking about your Clan - seems it's getting evening soon. Won't they miss you?"
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on February 27, 2019, 03:36:46 PM: Molly startled, then looked around to see that the light of the Suns was indeed fading. The glowing spots and streaks that characterised the forest at night had yet to make an appearance, but she knew it was only a matter of time... Yikes! She'd promised to stand guard over Trudy; she'd promised her family she'd be back before dark. And there was no way the Tawkami wouldn't notice that their beloved pet Dreamwalker was, as yet, neither present nor accounted for...

"Aaah! You're right!! Oooo, I'm gonna get it... But...if I go home, who's gonna watch you? And if I don't, someone else has to go looking for me in the dark, which isn't really a problem for a Na'vi but why make them risk it? Nnnnn..." She pinched her forehead, thinking; right now she felt as stuck as an Ikran in a HabMod.

Then she sat up straight, apparently having hit upon a solution. "Got it..." She fiddled with her belt-pouch again, extracting some small seeds and plant fibers that she'd intended to use for a wound dressing if she needed one. She took out a bone needle and pierced each seed so it became a bead; then, separating the fibers, she wove and knotted them into a reasonable facsimile of a string and knotted the beads onto it. From her Clan's standpoint it would look like a kindergartener's first clumsy attempts with a pencil...but that was exactly how they'd know it was from her. Well, that and the creature who would deliver it...

She stood up. "You know, where my dad comes from they have this little thing called 'falconry'. You teach a hawk to hunt for you. It's really cool, and you don't need a queue...and I imagine if the hawk was the size of an Ikran, you could ride it without the Bond."

So saying, she stepped out of the "Commons" and held a fist up high in the air. With the other hand, she swung the object she'd made in vigorous circles and whistled; and soon enough, with the *paff!* sound of leaves and twigs being knocked loose, a little Riti came diving out of the trees, chased the string a few laps, and landed on Molly's extended fist.

"This is Squeegee," she said, showing him off to Trudy. "Got tired of reading falconry books and thought I'd try it on someone..."
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on February 27, 2019, 03:53:57 PM: Trudy's eyes actually bugged at the sight. Yeah, she had heard of that thing called 'falconry', actually seen it in a movie about some medieval knights she had watched long time ago. So she knew that certain birds could be tamed. But she didn't know it could be done with those pesky stingbats... well, this one didn't look pesky at all. Actually it looked pretty, with the transparent, purple wings and the way it looked at Molly - as if it knew exactly that right now it was shown off to someone.

Carefully avoiding the poisonous spikes on it's back the pilot admired Squeegee. "Hey there", she greeted the animal - from a safe distance while remembering that Molly had mentioned something about a pet Riti she had found injured. That probably was the one. Alien planets, alien pets. And, yes, indeed a pretty one, seen from that close by. Almost like a miniature dragon... and just about now to spread his wings, slightly shining in the early evening light, looking content, playful and affectionate with his owner.
"Ya want him to send a message?", Trudy guessed, and then a second thought hit her.

Could it be possible? Molly just had said that she didn't actually bond with Squeegee - she just had said something about teaching. Now she thought of the rest of that movie too - it hadn't just been the falcons those knights had used. They had ridden on horses - tall, beautiful creatures, strong - and still doing everything their riders wanted. Nowadays pets back on Earth were rare, only for the wealthy who could afford them and offer at least enough space for a dog or a horse to run, but the concept was still there... Trudy's breath caught for a moment. Could there be a possibility for her, even if every single chopper on Pandora was trash now? She hoped it wasn't, there always were a few in maintenance, but still...
Suddenly she wished she could talk at least once again to Angelo. She had flown the driver and his scientist friend Spaz to a remote location once, and over a break he had told her something about his youth, summers spent on one of the last few ranches on Earth, herding cattle from horseback...
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on March 01, 2019, 01:07:15 PM: Molly's "hawk" preened a bit for Trudy, spreading his forewings, turning his head this way and that, and at one point even hopping up and landing on Molly's fist facing the other way so the guest could admire him from that side too. She fed him a roast teylu for showing up, and another for being his winsome, gorgeous little self (in her eyes). He settled down to the business of nipping them apart with his needle-like teeth - the teeth of a creature that caught insects on the fly.

"Na, he doesn't have to send a message," Molly smiled. "Just deliver one."

She then spent several minutes trying to convey to the little creature just what she wanted him to do. It was simple in Greenhome; you gave him something when you were out, and he flew it back home to Molly's hut. But Molly and her Na'vi parents weren't at home now. They were in the Well of Souls, with the rest of the Clan's fighters and foragers and healers and anyone else Greenhome could spare. Would he understand that he was supposed to return there and look for Sanu and Sempu? Would he try to fly home, or would he drop her "note" off with the first familiar face? She wasn't sure he knew anyone by name.

Finally she slipped the message-string around one of his ankles and sent him off. At worst, someone in Greenhome was going to know that Molly (the string was obviously hers) was outside the Well of Souls (by the plants she'd made it from) and that she wouldn't be back tonight...

That having been seen to, she turned back to Trudy. The pilot had been mostly silent since greeting her pet, but it wasn't hard to see the look of sky-hunger in her eyes. "Kinda makes you wish you could just buzz off like that, doesn't he?" she remarked.
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on March 01, 2019, 01:56:04 PM: Trudy let out a breath, watching the Riti disappear between the foliage. "Jeez... YES! By all that's sacred in this world and on Earth, definitely yes.", she said. "The most natural thing in the world, just spreading your wings and fly away. Ya know, pilots do shop talk now and then, and while there are a lot of them -and some dang good ones - just happy flying their choppers and planes, some of us have always wondered how it would be to have wings on our own." She made a face. "Of course those were the things we just admitted in the wee hours of morning, after a few drinks - and around the right people."

By now nothing could be seen anymore from Squeegee. "And he's doing it cause he's doing it for you, ain't he? It's an act of friendship between him and you, even without you doing that bonding thing. I hope he'll make it to whoever you sent him to safe and sound." Trudy smiled and some of her usual mischief showed up in her eyes now. "He's adorable and he pretty much knows it - and he likes to show off a bit. I like him!"
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on March 01, 2019, 02:37:20 PM: "Ah-ha! Ai fot so!" Molly exclaimed, reverting to baby-talk playfully. "Now, no telling if Squeegee's gonna end up in the right place with the right person. Usually when we do this I'm sending him to my house from somewhere else in Greenhome. Greenhome's a long way from here; I really hope he keys in on Sempu and Sa'nu instead of home... But yes, it's 'cause we're pals. Even if he gets it wrong, he always tries his best.

"But let's think about you for a bit," she continued. "You like to fly...no, really like it; you need it. You Bonded with a cargo ship. You might even be grieving for it. But even if you are, the real thing is that for now you've lost the sky, and that's what fills the hole in your Being, the one other tawtute try to fill with money and stuff. You need the sky. You need to move through the air, nothing between you and the wind except whatever you're riding.

"So we gotta figure out a way to get you some wings. And your face started looking like that when I was talking about falconry.

"If you're gonna tame a flying mount - c'mon, I know that's what you're thinking! - wellll, I think you're a little small for an Ikran. Maybe an Ikranay? Same thing, but a better size for you, and they live in the forest. That's why they're smaller, so they can zip around in cramped spaces like among and between trees. Crazy maneuverable. Easier to feed, and they like to catch things on the wing. They like birds and fish and a good splash the best. And they sound so funny when they bathe!" She imitated the warbling cry of an Ikranay taking a bath in a pond or a stream.

"But you're probably not gonna have much luck catching a grown-up Ikranay. There's no central place to do it, for one; and for another - if it's big enough to carry you, it's way too big to train by yourself! So...your best bet is to raise one from scratch. Find an egg, or have someone find one for you. Hatch it out; it'll think you're its sa'nok and adore you to the skies. Hunt for it when it's little. Play with it lots. Then, when it's strong enough to fly and hunt for itself, you start training it 'cause it's already tame...for you, and just for you.

"It's gonna take a while. You have to wait until they're at least half-grown before you can get serious about it. Maybe you'll even have another chopper by then. But if you want flight without the smell and the noise, it'll be waaaayyy worth it."
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on March 01, 2019, 03:13:51 PM: Trudy's eyes widened with every word Molly was saying. How could the girl have read her so well in such a short time? Because Molly was right - it was the sky that filled a deep need in her, and the thought of being grounded had already tugged at her soul. "You... you think it could be done?", she stuttered. It was rare that Trudy was at a loss for words, but now she was. "Heavens... if it'd work..." Before the pilots inner eye she saw one of those Ikranay - she knew them from her flights, they indeed looked a lot like their bigger cousins, just that they loved to hunt in packs and indeed were smaller - they had outmaneuvered her Samson a few times, just for the fun of it.

"Molly - if that'd work... well..." For the second time that day Trudy's mask was getting foggy inside. "I was thinking something like that, but I don't have much experience with animals. Feeding, playing, making friends, love it... I think I can do that. No matter how long it takes. You're right, ya know that? I am grieving for my poor Samson - it's just been a cargo chopper, but he's been my part of the sky as you called it and we've been through a lot together." She tried to get up from her seat but her knees were a bit wobbly, reminding her that it was just her mood that had improved, not her physical condition. "Molly, I'd give you a hug if I could just get to my feet here."
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on March 02, 2019, 12:08:49 AM: "I have a better idea," the young Avatar replied. "How 'bout I give you one, right where you're at? I'm sure you know how to hug sitting down!" And she gave Trudy a squeeze firm enough to indicate the strength of her friendship, but not so firm as to make any of the pilot's obvious injuries any worse.

Afterwards, she sat back and pondered. "So, you need a starter pet - one that won't mind your first mistakes. Hmm... You like gentle animals or fierce ones the best? A Yerik fawn, a Nantang pup...maybe even a Squeegee? It's little, it hunts, and it flies... Or if you want a bird that can play hawk without actually being one, maybe a fkio? Those are the little purple four-winged ones who fly over the river... Whatever it is, I'll try to find it for you and show you how to take care of it and make friends. That goes for your Ikranay egg too when I think you're ready." She gave a knowing wink.

But of course she wasn't done discussing practicalities. "Next question: How are we gonna feed you? I don't happen to have any people-mush on me, and I've nothing to boil water in or I'd make us some sweetbroth..."

And then she leaned against one of the trees that made this little tent over their heads; her face took on a pleasant, wistful look as she considered what her own dreams might be in this place meant for dreaming.
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on March 02, 2019, 07:54:38 AM: The hug felt almost like a little cure itself, Trudy realized as she returned it cautiously and a bit clumsily. Warm, comforting and almost grounding. As much as Trudy indeed loved flying, right this moment this feeling of getting roots was something she needed even more.

"Didn't you say that Squeegee was hurt when you found him?", Trudy asked during the following pondering. "Maybe that's something I should do too then - just look out for some animal that's hurt and needs help - and then see what happens? I like the thought that we could help each other." She paused. "And maybe something that ain't on an Ikranay's menu. It would suck to always have to keep the pets apart at dinnertime."

Trudy too leaned back to the tree, just slightly turning her head when Molly mentioned eating. "Don't worry about feeding me." She gave her emergency pack a slight nudge. "I'll stick to water with nutrient tablets for now, I'm not sure if my body can deal with much more right now, but for later there are rations in there. They taste like liquid cardboard - and that's an insult to cardboard - but they'll keep me alive until we'll get to the HabMod." She wrinkled her nose. "I'd give something for Andy's cooking now. Or what Angelo can make out of a simple Tapirus side with his bbq marinade... they both can even make RDA stuff edible." And while she too was resting peacefully she wondered if she'd meet the mercenary-turned-cook or the driver with the hugest known Avatar ever again.

After a while of comfortable silence and almost dozing off she opened her eyes again. "So - now that we've talked a lot about my dreams of flying,", she asked. "What are you dreaming of in this place here?"
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on March 02, 2019, 03:06:01 PM: Molly didn't think any of Trudy's supper options sounded all that appealing. "I'd give something for some sweetbroth," she griped.

But when asked what her own brain-fluff might contain, she had to think about it for a good while. "You know, I'm not sure I've ever really asked myself about that?" she mused. "I mean, yeah, I have my little fantasies sometimes; I'll sit on a high branch somewhere just swinging my legs and daydreaming, but...fact is, I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up, and I'm not gonna rush it. I've missed half my childhood as-is."

She scowled, regretting her hard turn back into reality almost as soon as she'd made it. Hadn't she said this was a place for dreaming? She closed her eyes and just listened to the gathering dark, the animals changing shifts, the birds settling into their roosts for the night... Finally she opened her eyes again, and maybe they were starry with dreams, and maybe they were just reflecting the night.

"I think...I'd like to fly, too," she began. "But mostly, I think I'd make a good toktor for animals, don't you think? I keep finding hurt ones or lonesome ones or ones that just need a little guidance, and I help them and they do real well... I've never had trouble talking to them. My biggest thing I did that I feel good about was helping Nok free a bunch of animals who'd been driven mad by all the...I'm gonna say signal-noise or something from Hell's Gate. Nantang, Palulukan, Syaksyuk, Yerik, flying creatures...they're not used to all the beams we've put in the air, and they have such sensitive feelers... Anyway, we calmed them and released them a few at a time, and some of them we had to help get home, and Squeegee up and decided home was on my shoulder, so, whatcha gonna do?" She grinned a little sheepishly.

"Besides that, though...maybe I just wish everyone would find what they're looking for inside, so that they can live in peace with everyone else. I'd like to see my friends at the base again...only, I don't want to go back to the base to do it. I'm still afraid of the soldiers and the lab scientists. So I wish there was a way my pals could come see me, meet me somewhere like my old house if I could be sure my dad wasn't there anymore. Maybe I'll build something - we live in timber villages in Greenhome, with stockades and gates and fields to grow things we can't find in the wild, so I know people who can build things. Maybe we'll make a treehouse! And I'll have a rope-ladder I can throw down so my friends can come up, then roll it up so nobody else can get in, and Squeegee will have somewhere high up to perch that's still near me. I called him Squeegee because of the little squeaky sound he makes when he wants to come in and I don't let him!" She chuckled.

"And we'll laugh and play pretend and do silly human things... Or we can help Gillian with her scrapbooks... Or try to beat Corbin in videogames... Or we can drop nuts on the scout-trainees and see how long it takes them to figure out where they're coming from... Or..." - and she went on to name all kinds of play, things she either missed or had heard of but never had.
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on March 02, 2019, 03:41:09 PM: "Mmmmmmhm." Trudy scratched her head. "You're right, you have all the time in the world to find out what you wanna do with your life. And having some fun on the way sure won't hurt." From what she knew about Molly's past the girl just deserved a few good years just being herself and young and playful before deciding for a lifetime occupation. And now, with the war won, chances seemed good for it. "Healing animals... well, if Squeegee is an example how you get along with them, you might make a great toktor for them. Hey, you could even do both things at once - flying and healing animals. On Earth there's been something like Flying Doctors. Heading out to remote locations to heal patients who lived too far away to get to a healer on their own." She blushed a bit behind her mask. "I've seen it on a TV show - an old one from way before our times, but as a kid I looked for everything that had to do with flying - and those bush pilot doctors were pretty awesome."

She then sighed, lines of fatigue showing around her eyes and mouth. "Can't say anything about your friends at the 'Gate here - I know Gillian and Corbin, good people, but I got no idea how things are at the moment." Not wanting to delve too deep into the somber subjects she went on, "But hey... if they're still there, and we'll still have some working metal bird I could always fly them to wherever you'd like to meet them." She grinned faintly. "I am the designated flyer for Avatars and drivers after all. And if there's ever gonna be a chance for it", Trudy added, "then I'll try your sweetbroth and you'll might get a taste of Angelo's bbq!" This was a place for dreams after all.
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on March 04, 2019, 12:27:11 AM: By the time the pilot finished, Molly was getting a lot more from her look than from her words. "You're right," she said as if talking to Trudy's weary face itself. "You've had a heckuva day, prob'ly a long one, and you're hurt and hungry and maybe a little bit sick. Feed yourself, I'll feed me, and then it's bedtime."

Once supper had been seen to (such as it was), Molly gave Trudy her fatigue shirt for a pillow; if nothing else, Trudy could cover her improvised backpack with it and make it just a bit more comfortable for her head. She left the digging-stick with her guest too, in case Trudy needed to fend something off; but the young Avatar didn't really think she'd need it, as the stench from those capsules was still hanging in the air and Molly herself intended to keep watch way above it. Maybe the stick was just for security; Trudy might sleep better if she had some kind of weapon within reach...

Finally, and having made the rescued human as comfortable as possible, she excused herself and clambered up the tree she had been leaning on. Moments later a boot hit the ground, then another; Molly had found her perch for the night - high enough to see out, low enough to leap down from, and springy enough to propel her to the next tree over. She wedged her waterskin and foraging bag into the angles of nearby branches and crept out to a good vantage-point.

There was a band of Syaksyuk roosting nearby, the gibbon-like creatures who slept lightly when they slept at all, and whose calls echoed raucously all through the forest whenever anything unusual disturbed them. They did not call at Molly. Barefoot and alert, she had become something else entirely - a Na'vi of the Tawkami Clan, crouched, catlike, keeping watch over her Clan-sister; her mindset shedding the veneer of civilisation like an overwarm sweater and reverting to the feral state of her ancestors and adopted kin...and even the Syaksyuk didn't see anything wrong with a Na'vi in a tree.
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on March 24, 2019, 02:03:27 PM: *****
Usually Trudy was a light sleeper, always keeping an eye to her surroundings, especially when she wasn't in her own bunk. But exhaustion and injury had taken their toll, so she had slept like a stone, head resting on Molly's shirt. But eventually the first rays of Alpha Centauri filtering through the leaves of the baby-hometree made their way through and Trudy drifted out of the darkness of sleep.
She took a few minutes this time to recollect everything that had happened the days before. The battle, the explosion, her waking up in the middle of nowhere... and then running into Molly.

She also made inventory of her physical state - the bruises were still there, as were the burns and the sore places. But at least her head felt a bit better this day. Still kind of foggy, still just this side of a headache, but her thoughts seemed a little bit clearer this morning. With a groan she sat up, blinking and looking around, trying to spot Molly somewhere around. "Good morning", she told the branches above.
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on March 24, 2019, 02:17:04 PM: Molly's voice came cheerfully from somewhere behind and above Trudy's backpack. "Ahoy, matey!" she chirped. "I took the liberty of replacing these--" She showed Trudy her used filters. "Your pack went 'Ping' and you slept right through it!"

There were still little dimples on Molly's hands and forehead. "Yeah, Squeegee woke me up; that little horn on his head is as hard as a parrot's beak..." she said sheepishly.
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on March 24, 2019, 02:26:02 PM: "Thanks. They were overdue." Trudy scratched right beneath one of the straps of her mask. "I'm still gonna be glad once i'll get rid of that thing." She cautiously got up, stretching and checking on her own stability and the flexibility of her joints. "I think I might have some travel in me after this night's sleep It's been a great place to rest here." She looked up to the tree, almost some regret in her voice at the thought of leaving this peaceful place, then sat down again, carefully peeled away Molly's shirt, handing it back to the girl, then rummaging through her emergency pack for another ration. "After some breakfast."

She smirked at the dimples in Molly's face. "So the little guy's back? Did he find your people?"
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on March 24, 2019, 02:37:23 PM: "No idea," Molly chuckled. "And he's off hunting for himself now, so I can't really ask him... But the silly string smells like Greenhome, so I think he did take it to our house...then figured out Sa'nok and Sempu weren't there...then brought it back to me, since he didn't know what else to do with it." She shook her head in bemusement. "But as you can see, there aren't any Na'vi hunters standing here waiting for you to make a false move, so they can't have been too worried about me... I don't know whether to feel honored or insulted!" She grinned.
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on March 25, 2019, 10:53:22 AM: Trudy laughed. "Well, at least he tried and did the best he could; must have been quite the journey for him. Hope he finds some good hunting out there - he deserves it." She poked her straw into her 'breakfast chocolate', wrinkling her nose at the chemical taste. "And I'd go for feeling honored. Seems your family knows very well that you can hold your own around here and they trust you. Still... let's see if we can get a little closer to home today as long as I got it in me."
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on March 26, 2019, 12:36:18 AM: "He won't have far to go," Molly said about her Riti. "In fact, he's probably sitting on the nearest pitcher plant, either drinking nectar or snapping up the insects. I don't think we'll be seeing much of him until he's refueled and had a nap."

She regarded the pilot. "As for 'closer to home'," she continued, "I didn't exactly hike halfway 'round the world to get here. I think we can get you the rest of the way to that shack if your legs'll let you. I'd kinda like to see you somewhere you can eat real food and breathe."
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on March 26, 2019, 11:06:46 AM: "Totally agree!" Trudy had finished her breakfast drink by now and stowed the empty package back into her backpack, wincing a bit. "That stuff here fills the belly and got the nutrients I need, but let's not talk about the taste..." She got up again, cautiously checking on her ribcage, where she seemed to have at least a major bruise, if not a few broken ribs. "But of course we'll wait for Squeegee first. Guy has done his share of searching for people, he shouldn't have to do it again."
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on March 26, 2019, 09:03:53 PM: "Ut-tut-tut!!" Molly scolded in a 'Not so fast!' tone, cupping her hands over Trudy's shoulders to make getting back up all but impossible unless you liked pain. "First we need to tend your boo-boos," she said firmly. "I did a little gathering while you were out. And while I'm not a medic, I do know what to do about burns and scrapes and stuff. And since night watch is bo-rinnnngg unless something goes wrong, I spent most of it grinding and pounding and mixing things for you. See my stick?" She flipped a hand at the blunt end, which was now covered in something shiny and sticky and berry-smelling. "If you haven't died from touching that yet, you never will and it'll help you." She emitted a rather ferocious grin.

She only waited a little bit for Trudy to boggle or sputter or whatever else the pilot had in her. After that she was all about playing Toktor, with Granma Camille for a role model, so she wasn't exactly asking her client's consent either. She busied herself with the pastes and powders she'd made, painting Trudy here and dusting her there and sealing some of her deeper gashes with the berry-smelling stuff. "Can't help you with the broken things," she commented; "my pack won't hold enough to bind you with. So you just do what you've been doing - moving carefully. And, come to think of it, I think we should switch backpacks; yours looks stiffer and heavier, so maybe it shouldn't be sitting on that cracked collarbone. --Okay, deep breath..."

She lifted Trudy's respirator enough to get some of the balm she'd made onto the pilot's face-burns, then eased the mask back into place and ran a blue finger along the seal. "Just kidding about the touch-and-die part; I wouldn't do that to you," she smiled.
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on March 28, 2019, 02:38:00 PM: Trudy was far from sputtering or boggling; actually when she had gotten up the first time her body had reminded her sternly of the abuse it had been through. So instead of protesting she sat down again, letting Molly do her work. Everything the pilot had seen so far from the young girl was that she knew her way around - so she trusted. "I think", she commented sometime in between, "you'll make an awesome toktor one day - you got the right attitude, taking no nonsense from your patients."
In the end Trudy was rewarded by the paste having a cooling effect on her burns, at least after the initial sting was over. And when Molly put some of the paste on her face she closed her eyes for a moment, let out the breath she'd been holding - and then took the chance to sniff at what Molly had put on her face.

"It smells... green", she stated, slightly hesitating. "Plants, but no idea of the rest. I think I like it, beats the stale filtered air by lightyears." She gave Molly a crooked grin. "That's actually the closest I've ever been to actually smell this planet, ya know? And it feels good on those burns." She shook her head about the idea of bandaging up her ribs or collarbone. "I think it's gonna have to do without bandaging for now, I'll just have indeed to move very carefully. But I can literally guarantee that I'll do - still hurts like a bitch if I move the wrong way." She eyed her backpack again. "I know, that backpack ain't the most comfy thing in the world - when they built the thing they were going for sturdiness and that it had to fit under the pilot seat. Comfort wasn't on top of the list." She smirked at the staff. "And I didn't think you'd do. Make a touch-and-die experiment I mean."
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 05, 2019, 04:23:10 AM: "Actually, I was thinking about it before you woke up..." Molly mused. "Maybe I don't want to be a healer. Maybe I want to be a pilot! Like you! Fly a Samson around, if there still are any! Or maybe something lighter, more maneuverable, more open...a little plane, maybe? Then - remember we were talking last night about me having a treehouse and bringing my friends there to play? I never did answer about that, but that'd be one way to do it. And I'm pretty good at fixing things, even things that aren't hurt animals..." She continued along that line of thought for a bit, as "into" being a pilot this morning as she'd been "into" being a veterinarian yesterday. She was thirteen and still trying to make up for ages five through ten, her "lost years"; it was all right for her to change her mind on a moment's notice about what she wanted to be when she grew up. "...And anyway, I'm still too scared to go up to an Ikran," she confessed, squirming comically where she sat.

Once Trudy's hurts had been tended to, however, she turned her mind back to being helpful. "So you want planet-smells, do ya? I could dab little samples of things inside your mask like just now; I have berries and balsams, a couple lumps of tree sap, a little clay, some moss, some grasses, some wax... None of it will kill you to breathe. If you like that idea, just let me know when the scent of that paste wears off!"

She helped Trudy up, wriggled into the pilot's crash kit, then draped her gathering-pouch over the woman's good shoulder. "Ready when you are," she chirped.
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 05, 2019, 12:54:08 PM: Trudy adjusted the gathering bag on her shoulder a bit, checking for her balance and gripped Molly's staff for stability. "Ready too, I guess", she said. "Although I almost regret leaving this place. I like it. Maybe I'll come back one day." She paused, thinking. "Ya know, you still have a lot of time to decide what you wanna do with your life and nobody says your decision is gonna be forever. I still hope we do have a chopper back at the 'Gate and of course I'm biased when it comes to being a pilot... Maybe we'll have to build new ones anyway with whatever's left behind and can make a Na'vi sized cockpit. I wouldn't rule out the Ikran if I was you though. They're fierce beasts, but from what I know they're worth the whole effort."

She pointed her thumb back to where somewhere in the jungle her own Samson now was a heap of smoldering metal. "I loved my bird really - but you won't get close to anything living with a trace of self-esteem on this world in it. Me, I like me the smell of motor oil and grease, of course it stinks, but it feels like home. Pandora's wildlife? Not so much. Did you ever hear about Jake's first trip to the forest and how he ended up with the Omaticaya? Got lost on his very first trip as a driver... ran into a Thanator and when he somehow got to escape that one he later ran into a pack of Viperwolves who would have had him for dinner if Neytiri hadn't shown up and saved his ass. Me?" Trudy shrugged. "Haven't seen even the tip of a tail when out with my Samson and waiting for the scientists to come back - they neither like the scent nor the noise. The only ones brave enough to at least get a good look at my bird were the Ikran up in the Hallelujah mountains - and once or twice a flock of Ikranay in the forest."

"And I'll take you up on your offer", she added with a smile. "Yup, I just said that I like the smell of motor oil, but that's for the sake of what it means - your paste makes a very nice change. I'm curious about what usually escapes me with that thing on my face."
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 05, 2019, 02:15:55 PM: Molly nodded. "Oh, we're definitely coming back here," she said. "I like it too. This can be our secret spot. We can meet here for whatever, or come either alone or together when we just need to be away from people for a while... I've never seen so many Na'vi in my life, and sometimes it feels like they're all counting fingers." She wriggled hers to indicate why that might be a subject of interest to her hosts. "And you... You just might be the first person to set up in that shack since Jake left it. Meaning there'll be eyeballs on you, too, and not friendly ones until I explain! Really help if Jake was there; he knows you... Or Neytiri; or Mo'at...but they're both kinda busy ladies, and their blood is still up and they're doing a bunch of sacred stuff and none of us kids dares go near them. Or - hey! I wonder if the Omaticaya who did your face-paint is there? Do you remember who it was? A man, a woman, a boy or a girl? That one will know you by sight, sound and feel."

Her earnest expression dissipated when she heard Jake's story and doubled up laughing. "He what?? --Geez, even I wasn't that dumb!! Lesson One: Stay with the group. Lesson Two: Don't try to outrun things that are faster than you!!"

Then her thoughts turned to the aftermath of the War. "Look...I know how these things go now. They make a big mess and leave a lot of holes. Maybe there's nothing at all left of anything human 'cept you and a little of me. And Jake, but he's weird... And that shack, which is pretty messed-up, so I hope at least one of us has the energy to mend the windows when we get there or you'll be spending another night in that mask.

"But the 'Gate? --Somebody said that the Avatars rose up in revolt and smashed a few things, so maybe most of the drivers made it too... At least that's what I hope. And maybe once you're set up all comfy I can start asking people things...and, oh yeah, teach Squeegee to 'home' on the Well of Souls."
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 05, 2019, 02:43:37 PM: Trudy grinned widely. "Oh yes, he did!", she said. "You wouldn't think it if you saw the guy in all this glorious outfit now, but at first... well, I think Neytiri had her hands full with her student those first days. But I have to give it to Jake, he might be weird, but he's a fast learner..."

She shook her head. "But I think for now the most important thing really is to get to that shack." She flinched when Molly mentioned the state of their destination. "Pretty messed up? Ugh... well, there should be a repair kit somewhere. These things are supposed to be out in rough terrain and self-sustained more or less. We might be able to seal one or two broken windows or even a gash in the hull. The only thing that should work is the generator cause that's what keeps the life support and the air condition up. And even for that one there are spare parts somewhere and I know my way around those generators - part of the job description. Might take a few days, but I hope I'll get the thing running if it isn't completely ruined." She scratched her head. "And if I don't get run off... that's true. I can imagine that humans ain't the most popular species currently and I don't have a sign on me that says 'I'm one of the good guys'. But I remember who painted my face - one of the younger healers, she sometimes helps out with Mo'at. Name's Ma..., nope, Me.. Mear or something like that."
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 07, 2019, 01:40:55 AM: "M-Meari??" Molly blurted; she hardly knew anyone from outside her Clan, but she'd met Meari - or, more accurately, Meari had come looking for her. "Oh, scheiss - that's right, she said she wanted to show me something!! Said I might know something about it, maybe even know what to do... Probably Sky People stuff; for some reason, people think I can use most of it and explain it all. But yeah. I was supposed to go with her to the Tree last night, and I was here instead, and I've never been to the Tree all by myself, and once I show up with you I don't think anyone else is gonna offer to take me... Crap."
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 07, 2019, 10:31:41 AM: "Meari, that's it!" Trudy nodded when Molly said the name, then made a frace. "Crap indeed... well, let's just hope that whatever she wanted to show you didn't disappear in the meantime." She thought about it some more - the Tree, yes... by now Trudy knew pretty well how important the Sacred Tree was for the Na'vi, for Eywa, for the whole damn moon they were sitting on. And how much it had to mean to Molly to really get close to it. "I'm sorry you missed that", she said. "And I don't want this chance to get away from you - you've saved my life out there, cause I think I wouldn't have made it on my own, was just to stubborn to give up, but that shouldn't ruin your chance of a visit to that Tree."

She frowned. "You think it helps if you drop me off at the shack first and then go and talk to your parents and then Meari or whoever else might know me? Waltzing in with an injured human in tow might indeed rais a few eyestripes."

****Back at the Well of Souls****

Slowly, very slowly things calmed down a bit in the healer's area at the Well of Souls. The critical cases were either on their long way to getting better, had given their spirit to Eywa and some were on their journey to the Tompa'tanhi to see if the healers there could do something for them. Some of the more lucky ones had already left the area and now were in the care of their families. So, while still none of the healers had something even remotely close to boredom, the frantic activity of the last days had slowed down to normal busy activity and some of the healers even realized that they might have the chance to catch up on their missing sleep.

Meari used the chance to check more often the sleeping Dreamwalker in the niche. She didn't know why, but somehow she had made Grace her very own special patient, the one case that touched her spirit even more than patients usually did.
And then she had met Molly, the young Dreamwalker girl. Of course Molly's case was very different from Grace's. Where the Toktor's tawtute spirit had gone to Eywa Molly's spirit somehow had ended up being part of what made the girl now. But there also was the fact that they both were Dreamwalkers who didn't have a tawtute sharing their body, they were on their own. What you saw was all there was to see and See. And maybe, just maybe, Molly knew anything that might help Grace to somehow... Meari didn't know exactly what Molly could even help with, but she was a healer by heart and would take any straw if it might help one of her patients.
And if it just was something that might feel the resting Dreamwalker more comfortable in the dream she now shared with the Tree and Eywa.
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 07, 2019, 11:12:25 AM: "You want to know the truth?" Molly asked as they set off. "I'm kinda scared to go down there. It's, what, the holiest place in the world? Which makes it the Na'vi-est place in the world; for all I know, they could've emerged from the ground there. What's a Dreamwalker doing in a place like that?? I wouldn't have dared if Sempu and Sa'nok hadn't brought me... Yes, Jake spoke to the All-mother there. But maybe that was different, because She'd chosen him? I feel like I don't belong, like I've got no business there, like I'm listening in on the grownups. And there are so many people! Don't think I've ever seen so many in one spot, and I don't know if they like me being there, and I've only got my parents to speak for me... And let's face it - I'm part-Skyfolk. A cat can raise a puppy, but he's still gonna grow up to be a dog."
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 07, 2019, 11:33:56 AM: Trudy let that sink in for a moment, focusing on getting her body to walk; while she was far, far away from being her usual self it was a bit easier than yesterday, the rest and some food as well as Molly's treatment had dulled some of her numerous pains and aches. And not having to carry the heavy and not exactly ergonomically shaped emergency kit helped too.

"Dunno", she finally said. "I've learned more about Na'vi culture in the last three months than in all the years before, and I'm anything else than an expert. In a way I felt something like this when we were preparing for the war. They knew I was on their side, but I still was human, Skyfolk as you say." She gave Molly a half-grin. "Listening in on the adults - that's a good way to put it, even when my knowledge about choppers and how to take 'em out was needed. Still think it's different for you - you're not a puppy raised by a cat. More like a puppy who has a house breed dad and a wolf mom - and your mom's pack raised you. Your paws might look different, but you can run with the best of 'em." She had been too dazed yesterday to take in much, but everything she had seen from Molly so far showed that the girl might be part skyfolk, but her wild, native side was strong.
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 07, 2019, 12:10:04 PM: Remembering certain old stories, Molly Hmph'd. "Ah, the Child Raised by Wolves," she responded. "Maybe a little like that, yes. And there's no returning me to the village, so guess what that makes me? --A wild Avatarrr!!!" And just for good measure and out of lifted spirits, she leapt up into the nearest tree and cruised the branches for a few yards; vaulted to the next tree over as if she weren't wearing a pilot's survival kit; crouched low on her new perch, and bared her fangs at the whole stinkin' world. Trudy had been asleep last time; she'd never actually seen Molly in Primal Mode.

The young Avatar descended, touching down lightly. "Seven out of ten points! ...It goes better when I'm barefoot," she grinned.
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Kiyevanie on April 07, 2019, 12:23:06 PM: "Whoah... looks like your dad was half-wolf too!" Trudy was impressed of Molly's display. That much for her thinking she had seen some of the girl's 'wild side'! "Ya know, what you said sounded like the title of a movie, but I was thinking of something I've read back on Earth somewhere. People tried to breed house pups with wild wolves - and then were surprised that they actually got the wild outta it." She rolled her eyes. "Some people are just stupid..." Then she grinned. "But I'd say - you might have less to fear than you think. As long as you take off your shoes and get a ten out of ten."
Title: Re: Avatar Passages: The way home
Post by: Random the Navigator on April 07, 2019, 12:50:10 PM: "And get out of these clothes!!" Molly griped. "Dumbest thing I did all day, deciding to wear these when I'm already feeling like a weirdo... Only reason I'm not hissing at myself right now is because if I dressed like usual I'd've probably scared you worse! --C'mon..."

*****