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[Random the Navigator]

A group of Avatar drivers work at a remote station where the newest, Anna, is pursuing her studies in Pandoran zoology. The station is located in a transition zone between the forest and the plains - which, unbeknownst to them, continue all the way out to a hidden canyon that ends at the Eastern Sea. Tayu, Waytelem and Txa'ren are members of the Clan that lives in the canyon, and they've become more than a little interested in the comings and goings of the Samsons that fly the science station's people and supplies in and out…

This RP will be set quite a ways prior to the events of the film and won't involve the movie characters at all. Its themes are "first contact" and the potential for friendship between the two species, the way things might have happened before the RDA screwed it up.

Based on the James Cameron film Avatar, (c) 20th Century Fox.

[Random the Navigator]

*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.)   ;-)