*sweeps*

*dusts*

*tidies up*

...It's been a little while, ha'nnit?


   ::: THE STORY THUS FAR :::

(Originally posted on GroupSpaces for the benefit of a new reader.)

Anna (Kiye's character, a zoologist) is a new driver who gets assigned to a remote station, where she meets soldier Angelo and a metalhead paleontologist named Spaz (both drivers, both mine).  She finds out pretty quickly that Angelo has a little bit different perspective on Avatars, which suits her just fine because she's a softy about hers, too.  The things they talk about, especially on their first science outing together, establish a lot of the thoughts and themes that become important in the story.

Meantime, two scouts for the Eastern Sea Clan--Txa'ren (Kiye's) and Waytelem (mine)--are exploring inland a ways into the plains and see Anna's Samson heading back to the 'Gate.  Not that they know either where the thing's coming from or where it's going, but it's not the first one they've seen--and by the next day, they've finally gotten permission to check things out.  That happens to be the same day of Anna's and Angelo's first sortie, which brings them to a rock formation on the plains...the same one where the Na'vi scouting party intends to camp out for the night.  Safe to say both groups discover a little more than either of them thought they would--like, each other!  And it goes well, far better than the drivers expected.  Anna finds out that, incredibly enough, she has a connection to Txa'ren through their fathers having befriended one another, and Angelo manages to get through that first encounter without embarrassing himself...  8-b

He does learn, however, that when he made out with another driver eight years ago in their Avatars, she became his mate as far as the Na'vi are concerned.  Being a decent fellow, he feels the need to find her and do right by her, assuming he survives their hypothetical reunion; she's on the fierce side, you see, and if she's as outraged as he thinks she might be, he might not get the chance to apologise...  So who do you think is the next driver to show up at the station after Angelo's return? --His "mate" Brenda...and their daughter, Enya, a little Avatar-child who's all of seven years old and quite self-propelled, thankyouverymuch.  (Both mine, imported and adapted from "The Day the Planet Went Dark", the NaviBlue game, also ported to this board.)

Txa'ren and Waytelem return to the Clan and report what--and who--they've encountered.  The Clan decides to send a diplomatic party, headed by Tsanten, a Lorekeeper.  Way and Txa' accompany him--as does Txa'ren's father, Yo'ku (played by Kiye), the only other member of the Clan to have ever met a Sky Person.  Also along is Waytelem's "ward" and Tsanten's disciple--a gentle young man named Tayu (mine), who somehow survived falling at his Iknimaya, but whose handicaps don't keep him from Seeing and saying some pretty deep things.

At this writing, the Na'vi have been at/near the station for three days, and almost the whole group--for reasons which become apparent in the story--is about to go on an expedition to the worksite where Yo'ku met Anna's father, in hopes of finding some trace of his spirit there.

Other characters in the game are Rick from DtP, Brenda's military escort; Ni'ka, also from DtP, but healthy and from a northern forest Clan (both played by Kiye); and Camille, an Avatar scientist, who's going to visit the station soon-ish and come in for some big surprises (she's mine).


   ::: Coda :::

(posted to GroupSpaces on 24 Jan 2016, when we suspended the game for reasons which follow)

...And then Little Dog died in June, and then Random went to pieces, and seven months later, here we are...and here the story isn't.  I am still a mess inside; even my metabolism took a hit--it's like that when one organism in a symbiotic relationship loses the other.  Do I have to spell out what that's done to my creativity?  You can see my (lack of) output for yourself...

It's hard to get back into the mindset after being away from this for so long.  Avatar: Explorers is a thinker's story, a character-driven story; the actual events don't propel it nearly as much as the changes those events lead to in the characters' thoughts and spirits.  An author really has to stay "in the zone" for a story like that; it's not the kind of thing that'll come running up to greet you after an extended absence.  And I have been finding it *very* hard to break back into it, to achieve the level of immersion it would take to get the Great Work going again.  I could list the ways I've tried to kick-start myself, but that'd only deepen my depression about the whole thing...and probably the last thing I need to be doing right now is putting the whip to myself about the failure.  Nobody expects a patient who is "serious but stable" to compete in a marathon.  Right now I've got all I can do to shuffle up and down the hospital corridor.  I'm a long way from writing a masterpiece.

And yet...writing is one of my more effective forms of therapy, and Lord knows I need plenty of that.  And if I can't hit the ground running on a story in progress, maybe it'll be easier to start a new one from scratch.  Kiye and I have been kicking ideas around; we jammed on "The Day the Planet Went Dark" for a couple of months, long enough to show myself that I've still got writing *in* me.  And then we sat and stared at Explorers for a few months, long enough to realise--just this week, finally admitting to ourselves--that maybe the continuation of this story isn't gonna happen anytime soon.  I'll take the hit for that, but there it is.  It's Random's turn to post, and all he's come up with in over a year is a different mix of empty air.

We're working sporadically on "Day the Planet" for now, and we came up with an idea for a story set just after the departure of the RDA, focussing on the leftover Avatar drivers and the others who were allowed to remain.  Several of the characters here would appear there in slightly different form.  Everyone in Explorers was originally imported from another game--"Hell's Gate" for Kiye's characters; "AvatarPandora" and "Day the Planet" for mine.  We had plans for them in those games that never happened because their GMs disappeared, and those elements didn't fit well in Explorers.  We're hoping in this new game to be able to play them closer to how they were originally meant.

I'm not sure how much of that it's going to take to get me back in Explorers trim.  I'm not going into it with that intention.  I just want to write *something* for my guys *somewhere*, something fresh, somewhere that doesn't keep reminding me of what I can't do right now.  I hope to come back to Explorers someday; we had some really neat plans for it.  But if it ends up taking me a couple of years, I don't want to keep anybody waiting any longer than they already have.

In friendship and good faith,

 -- Random

State of the Stories:  The Day the Planet Went Dark is on this Board and we still consider it active.  The new story we began after Explorers, Avatar: Passages, is more recently active; I, at least, intend to resume posting for it fairly soon!  (It's my turn in most of its threads anyway.)   ;-)

I seem to have made a most grievous omission when I transferred our stories from GroupSpaces to my own server: I haven't put up the Links!  Most of them were/are Avatar fansites, but a useful subset was of places where you can create artwork for your characters.  These sites go by different names, most usually "character maker" or "dress-up game".  We had/have a metric crap-ton of links to such games.  You'd be surprised how many ways there are to make a Na'vi, an Avatar, or a human character - besides makers that are specifically Avatar-themed, I've gotten Enyas out of everything from Osmosis Jones to Sonic the Hedgehog.  Now where did I put those links...

*scrabbles around*

..AHA!!

 * == ::: [ Character Makers ] ::: == *

 - Doll Divine (Na'vi, Avatars):  https://www.deviantart.com/dolldivine/art/Avatar-Maker-171088500

 - Khalypso (Chibis):  http://khalypso.deviantart.com/art/Create-a-Na-vi-Avatar-150133931

 - Alissa Christopher's Viking Maker (fierce Human women) - http://www.dolldivine.com/viking-maker.php

 - Huldrefolk (Scandinavian fae):  https://www.dolldivine.com/huldrefolk-maker.php

 - HeroMachine (Superhero, Fantasy):  http://www.heromachine.com/heromachine-2-5-character-portrait-creator/

 - Sonic the Hedgehog:  https://www.deviantart.com/chriserony/art/Sonic-Charrie-Maker-108512914

 - Osmosis Jones:  https://www.deviantart.com/r2ninjaturtle/art/Osmosis-Jones-Microorganism-Maker-371910953

 - Anime Elves:  https://www.dolldivine.com/anime-elf-creator.php

 - Pokemon Trainers (Human children):  https://www.deviantart.com/hapuriainen/art/Pokemon-trainer-Creator-v-2-257074027

 - Very cartoonish, but fun - MIT Na'vi Maker: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/StarWarsGirl/905651

Happy generating!

"Ah," said Tangek.  "Well, if you're going to do it that way, you'll experience some fever and chills before the process really gets going.  Just in case, here's a shirt; you can sweat into it when you're hot, and it'll retain your body heat for when you feel cold.  Catch--!"

Vladimir Putin found himself on the receiving end of an olive-green short-sleeved T-shirt.  Just his color, he decided; it went perfectly with the camouflage trousers he liked to wear with the bare-torso look.  He slipped it on, still looking a little dazed, and settled in for the sting...

...But then he noticed what was printed on the shirt.  It was the cross-emblem and trident of the Ukrainian Defense Forces.  The same shirt that that peasant, that bad comedian Volodymyr Zelenskyy preferred for his "presidential" videoconferences.

All of a sudden he didn't need Ni'ka's thorn to make him rage incoherently.

Brenda grinned widely at the healer and his...charge.  "I think he's ready now," she quipped.  "He won't feel a thing!"

Vladimir Putin had been alone most of his life. Growing up in the former Soviet Union and making his way to the top wasn't a life that allowed for letting many people getting close. Yes, there had been companions on the way, but he had been always aware that any of them could slip a knife into his back any time - just the same as he had backstabbed several himself. There had been women too, but he didn't consider women completely his equal, they were for fun in the bedroom and carrying children. Not that he was especially close to his children either.
But this very moment had a very special flavour of being alone. He had to decide not how to get out of this situation, but about which way he'd suffer. Somehow he still couldn't wrap his head around it all, the whole situation being surreal.

Still, it was the situation he was in, so what were his options? He could drink whatever brew the soldier mixed up, suffer through hallucinations and either die or... what? He didn't believe in this crap about 'spirit animals' or whatever else there was supposed to be. Or he could get injected with whatever stuff this alien girl had in her claw and get... what? Changed? He frowned - that was what the 'merican guy was too, right? Didn't look so bad on the outside. Yeah, there was the grayish hue to his skin, but the guy was frickin strong, tall and looked healthy. Being strong... that was something he had always admired, not that spiritual treehugging stuff.

He took a deep breath and glared at Ni'ka. "Alright, alien freak. Bring it!"

As Anna's group made ready to leave, Tangek turned to the Russian leader.  "All right, you know how this goes," he said.  "As a fellowship, my companions and I all have a strong sense of and attachment to the places that are important to us.  That being the case, we're all a little upset that you've been bombing cities like Mariupol into rubble and enslaving their people, and frankly I'm suprised she didn't turn on you with the strength of her half-million former inhabitants or something.  Would have saved us a little trouble and a lot of talk, but she might be too gentle for that.  Gentle, but not meek; imagine what it must have taken for her to come up here in the first place and manifest herself to you.  That must have been as difficult as us coming here from Pandora.

"Do you understand what I'm saying, Mr Putin?  You've been puffing and blowing and snorting contempt, and maybe that's all you're made of.  But a lot of people have gone through a lot of trouble to try to save you from yourself, and the least you could have done was hear them out.

"Very well; since you won't listen to us, I think it'd do you some good to be stuck with yourself for a little bit.  Just you; no aides, no attendants, no ambassadors or fellow world leaders...just you, your thoughts, your deeds, your feelings if you have any, and see if you can stand yourself afterwards.  The Dreamhunt will do that to you.  So will the Change.  By offering these things, we are saying we're not going to kill you outright.  So we're right back to what Brenda said: Choose your poison.  I'll wait..."

"Moscow and Mariupol might have more in common than you think", Anna replied. "This place here might not have bombs and rockets raining destruction, but the people are quite as suprressed. They had just gotten used to have the chance to speak their minds a while ago and now they're silenced in fear again. Remember, there were anti-war demonstrations when this all started."

"Then let's go and find her", Txa'ren decided. "This city and her spirit have been through enough already." One of his browstripes went up, watching Ni'ka getting up and the battered human on the ground. "I don't think one warrior less or more will make a difference in here - whatever you'll do with him in the end, I think we broke him already." There wasn't any regret or sympathy in his voice, just a stating of facts.

And indeed there wasn't much fight in Putin at the moment. Realizing he wouldn't get out of this with his skin intact had definitely erased a lot of his arrogance. Ni'ka picked him up at his neck again and put him on one of the chairs in the way too big room. "He's all yours", she told Tangek.

Brenda considered.  "Or maybe she doesn't know her way around," she said.  "I mean, it's not like cities go visiting each other very often...and I'm not sure how Moscow would 'feel' about her, either.  Kinda worried for that kid, actually..."

Meanwhile, Tangek's eyes were back on the dictator.  "Ni'ka dear, would you mind sitting elsewhere?  Mr Putin and I need to have a talk, and I think he'll give me better answers if he can breathe."  He cracked a half-smile, an uncharacteristic hint of mischief in his eyes.  "What I'd do to know what he and Mariupol said to each other..."

"I never doubted Tali's skills", Txa'ren replied with a smile. "And I know 'Iheyu can be as fierce as anyone else here and also wouldn't get on Enya's wrong side - she's been getting very good with her staff lately." His chin pointed towards Putin. "I just don't think this worm here doesn't have much fight left in him."

"But you're right", Anna chimed in. "Moscow's an old city and has been through a lot during its history. Roads aren't always straight there and there can be surprises at every corner." She lost herself in memories for a moment. "We only spent a few weeks here, mostly for preparing our expedition and afterwards going through the results, but I did get a few ideas about how this place works, what corners to avoid, and so on. Plus, I speak enough of the language to get along." Her eyes seemed to look through the walls of Kremlin. "I'm sure Mariupol knows where she's going though and I even have a few places in mind where she could be."

"And Tali might even have left a few markers behind", Rick added. "He did so when he taught me about scouting and moving in the woods."

"Mariupol," Tangek echoed, savoring the feel of the name in his mouth.  "So they're on speaking terms?  Well, that's something, at least...

"But I'll have to differ with you on the warrior count.  Tali isn't ten years old anymore, he's thirteen.  He's nearly Rick's height, and Rick is a sized-up Tawtute; both of them come up to about here on me."  He held a hand about seven feet off the ground.  "In another year he'll be almost fully-grown; in two he'll be making his own Iknimaya and having his own Dreamhunt.  The boy's very nearly a young man, is what I'm saying; and not only is he our little Clan's finest scout, but he's no slouch with a knife or an arrow either.  Thanks to Enya, he's even gotten skilled with a quarterstaff; only appropriate since she carries the one he made for her way back when.  On Eywa'eveng I would trust him completely with the family's safety."

He paused to consider, then addressed Txa'ren and Anna.  "However, this is enemy territory, and I doubt my son knows his way around Moscow.  Anna, didn't you study in this country?  Surely you've visited this settlement often enough; you even showed us a pretty good coffee-shop on our way in.  Perhaps our family does need a tour guide...  But Txa'ren, your skills are more needed here than anywhere else."

Putin could only guess what any of their talk was about; how could he know it was something as innocuous as a boy's coming-of-age?  But between Rick's unmistakeable throat-cutting gesture and the mention of Mariupol, he was sure the door had just slammed shut on his chances.  His instincts were right, he thought bitterly; he was being played; "good cop/bad cop" was a game as old as interrogation itself.  Plainly they meant to be rid of him no matter what, and now he cursed himself for having ever thought otherwise, even for a moment.

Rick looked up from where he was waiting for the water to cook. "We can finish him off", he suggested, his finger crossing his throat. "It's quick, and dead people don't make good patients to care for."

"Maybe." Ni'ka hesitated. "But didn't we want him to see the errors of his ways before he dies? He's scared now, but I don't think he understands."

"Will he ever?", Anna asked. "Not even Mariupol herself got through to him, or reminding him that his own people are dying; and if those things can't make him think, would pain really make a difference?" She looked at Tangek who hadn't been there when the girl came in. "The Spirit of Mariupol was here", she explained to the healer. "Looking like a little girl, someway surprisingly similar to Enya - if she was human." She turned around towards the door. "That's where 'Iheyu, Enya and Tali are now, trying to catch up with her."

"I wonder if we should look for them", Txa'ren added. "This place is still hostile territory and none of them is a warrior."