The Four Of Them 🤩

Just trying new things

Spider + self-soothing

“Son of Adam… your heart is mine!”

Here she is, it’s a bit in your face but hey I feel like that’s the energy for Varang. Maneater vibes 😇

Watching Quaritch brutalize the ta'unui idk how anyone can like this man

ADDING MORE TO THIS

Norm even gives Spider parents who aren't really his parents. He successfully crafts a plausible origin story for Julian by pinning his lineage on a dead man with the right looks and no one to contradict it.

The two even have the same shade of blonde hair!

There had always been whispers and rumors passed around in the mess halls that one of the scientists had gotten a pretty techie pregnant, a fun little tryst gone wrong. The rumor had never been confirmed. No proof, no details, just the kind of idle gossip people clung to when the days stretched for too long and boredom struck.

That scientist was said to be Phillip Shaw. Norm remembered him. Popular, golden-haired, silver-tongued, a total manwhore who slept around a lot, brilliant in the lab, but reckless on the field, and drove Grace crazy with his inability to take the dangers seriously because he thought he was God's gift to Pandora. He’d gotten mauled by a thanator while collecting spore samples. Phillip's body was never recovered, just his shredded pack splattered with blood and a few scraps of torn equipment.

Perfect.

All evidence of Paz Socorro is scrubbed. In her place: a woman who'd been a low-level techie, a casualty of the war. The perfect dead mother for a story about a little orphaned child. Tragic. Sad. Simple.

Julian Shaw. Son of Phillip Shaw and Amelia Perkins. Both dead. Orphaned. Adopted by his “uncle” Norm out of loyalty to an old colleague and acquaintance.

It was neat. Tragic. Believable. And no one would question it.

Norm leaned back, hands trembling slightly. Not from fear — from the weight of what he’d just done.

He was erasing the truth.

No, no, no...he was protecting a child from it.

“You're not the son of a demon. You're not a mistake,” he whispered, glancing toward the sleeping bundle across the room. “You're Julian Shaw now. That’s who you are.”

And that was who he would be… until the moons fell, or Eywa herself decided otherwise.

My thoughts were inspired by @detective-twinkachu's au where Norm and Max hide Spider's lineage.

I love the idea of an AU where Norm finds baby Spider and immediately realizes this child will never know peace if anyone learns who his real father is. So, like Eddard Stark, he makes a painful decision: He erases every trace of Quaritch’s connection to the boy and keeps it secret. He gives the child a new name (seriously, Miles? Way to make it obvious, Paz), forges documents, and creates a solid cover story in case anyone asks questions. He can’t bring himself to tell anyone, not even his closest friends, the truth. Quaritch has made too many enemies and caused too much destruction for anyone to overlook the boy’s lineage. There's already been enough tragedy. And this child, little Julian, is the first human ever born on Pandora.

Norm even steals the only photo of Paz and hides it away where no one will ever find it. He hates lying. Hates secrets. But Hell’s Gate is built on them, and children should never have to suffer for their parents’ mistakes. So he decides: he’ll raise Julian as his nephew. He’ll raise him to be kind, brave, and good. Maybe, just maybe, when Julian turns nineteen, he’ll sit him down and explain everything. Or maybe he won’t. Maybe Julian should never know. Norm will carry this secret to his grave… unless Eywa herself decides to produce a blowhorn and inform the entire planet. No. He'll hold this secret.

On the desk beside Julian's forged documents was a faded photo of Paz Socorro. Pregnant. Glowing. Laughing. Holding her growing belly as she smiled for the camera. Norm’s throat closed up. Guilt and anger were warring in his chest like a storm. What would Trudy say about all this?

“I’m sorry, Socorro,” he whispered. “You were… a good mother. You didn’t deserve to fall in love with a monster, you didn't deserve to die for his craziness, you didn't deserve any of this. But your baby boy? He deserves better. He deserves everything. I'm sorry...I'm so sorry."

He picked up the photo, stared at it, then opened up his desk drawer and hid it beneath layers of unimportant documents. Hidden in plain sight until he could find a tiny box and bury the picture so deep that maybe Eywa herself will forget about it. This was for the best.

Then, he burned everything else.

Wheeee another one 👀...

Miss Wion :) She needs a rider haha.

It took me 2 weeks to complete this Avatar 3 concept art. I called it "The Chosen One". I hope you like it! 😊

Imagine Spider having the gift to commune with the spirits of the dead, Na'vi, and humans. Spirits are everywhere in the forest (more appeared after the great battle) — watching him practice his archery, guiding him back to Hell's Gate in the dark, and whispering stories to him. Some are peaceful and content, while others are restless, especially those who died violently or don't know they're even dead.

Naturally, Spider keeps this to himself because he's afraid of being further ostracized. Instead, he decides to see this gift as a good thing because at least he has friends to talk to. He doesn't care if Lo'ak thinks he's weird for talking to himself or staring off into space. Spider sees fallen Na’vi warriors from the past, human researchers and soldiers who died on Pandora, and even little children who perished when the Tree of Souls was destroyed. They sometimes speak to him, asking for his company or to listen to their stories.

Maybe it's not healthy to spend hours alone with just the dead for company, maybe it's not normal that he prefers sleeping outside in the company of spirits then with the living back at Hell's Gate, and maybe he made a mistake venturing off alone to live in isolation because he's found more belonging with the dead then with the living.