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."
 

Brenda shifted a little uneasily.  It was her idea to radically alter the Russian leader's biochemistry by one method or the other, and now she had to think through the consequences of a worst-case scenario.  Normally she was on top of that sort of thing.  But when it came to trust and self-sufficiency, and even ruthless savagery sometimes, she was more like Putin than she'd care to admit.  There was the side of her she'd been so careful not to show to Enya and family, the side that had the US immigration services unsure of whether to classify her as a refugee or a terrorist.  Her time on Pandora, having Enya in her life and uniting with her Avatar self had gone a long way towards subduing those impulses.  But they were still there, available at need, and she wouldn't hesitate to feed an enemy to the blast-furnace of her focused, disciplined wrath, white-hot as a neutron star.

She felt a little awkward now that her idea of a worst-case scenario was one in which nobody died: ~ What the hell have I become? ~

But Armenia.  And Ukraine.  This rabid dog had to be put down.

She switched to Na'vi.  "Tangek...is there a way we can rid the Earth of this bastard without invoking your protective instincts?"

"Sure," replied the healer, his voice intense.  "Do it in a way that doesn't make him my patient.  I don't think you can count on the Change or the Dreamhunt to end him."

"Great," Brenda sighed.  "Back to the drawing-board..."