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“You’ve never even tried have you?”
The space pauses, all present turning to stare at the human boy placed near the middle of the spat.
Spider Socorro, the first Pandoran human, being 6ft tall would have made him a giant back on earth but here he's always been dwarfed. His tanned skin is painted with blue stripes, running left to right across his limbs and chest. He dresses as they do, wearing a loin cloth and adorned with armbands, stone weaponry and a songcord. Even his hair was long and braided, the unique blond color trailed down his back and swung when he moved. In every way he could, Spider had emulated the culture he grew up around.
But nothing could be done about his human origins.
And apparently that was all that mattered.
“Spider..” Tuk tugged on his arm, clearly trying to lead him away from the situation. She never quite liked yelling. He smiled down at her but still shrugged off her hands. He flicked his gaze back to his opponent, the one person who, no matter how hard he tried , never fucking liked him.
Neytiri.
She was dragging Kiri away from him, apparently sitting together up against a tree was too much for her. She’d always been like this; ushering her children away from him like he was diseased, like he would corrupt them, speaking about him as if a less intelligent animal. She would never mince her words, she must have known he could hear her! She would comment things like:
“ He looks weak”
“Pale and Ugly”
“Not fit for my children”
“I wish you had sent him away”
“He is a demon ”
He ignored it. What was he supposed to do?
She was his friend's mother, the future tshaik of the Omatikaya, she was leagues above him in rank and social standing. It would be a death sentence to go against her.
No one would side with him versus her. And plus, it’s not like he didn’t understand where she was coming from. The sky people had destroyed her life, encroached on her land and people. They killed her sister, father, future mate and terrorized her home land. If it were him (and it kinda was since he grew up hearing stories of those times) he would hate humans too.
But..
She was able to see past the human-ness of her mate. She loved her children, even those with characteristics from the avatar bodies that spawned them. She could accept Kiri who wasn’t her flesh and blood.
Has a formerly human mate
Has partially human children
Willing to adopt
So if all that’s checked off…. Why is Spider left out?
Why is he a lonely orphan with more than one family that couldn’t give two shits about him?
Why is he the one who goes back to the house alone in the dark with none to guide him?
WHAT IS WRONG WITH HIM?
…..
…..
….
….
He’s human. Physically anyway.
He was born from a human father to a human mother, they died and it changed nothing.
He grew up among the Omatikaya, he lived as they do for his entire life, it changed nothing.
He speaks their language, follows the laws of Eywa, knows the land and
IT CHANGED NOTHING.
“There’s nothing I can do?.....Is there?!” he spits. The Na’vi around him are nervous, he can tell, their tails flick to and fro like they don’t know if they should run or not. Neytiri doesn’t turn back, Kiri is struggling against her hold saying things like “Mom let go!” and “this isn't fair”.
Spider spreads his arms in a gesture of futility,
“Nothing short of me being dead would satisfy you. Right, Neytiri!?”
She stops moving, but still doesn't speak, just tightens her hold on her daughter's arm.
Spider lets out a low chuckle.
“I have done everything to please you. Too make you just see me. That’s all I ever wanted!”
He reaches for his chest and the song cord that sat there, Kiri had helped him make it.
He had a bead for his own birth.
Each of the Sully children’s births were represented.
One for the first time he and Kiri met.
And one for the day he completed his first hunt.
He shook his head, before staring back up at Mrs. Sully.
“I don’t need you to love me! I have even given up on you liking me! But..”
He felt tears welling in his eyes and his throat closing up.
“But! Why can’t you just accept that I’m here?? That I'm not going to hurt your family! That I would rather die than let harm befall your children?”
“Why do you have to hate me?!”
Silence fell once more across the clearing, Spider was trying to silence the cries and hiccups attempting to leave his mouth. He could feel Lo’ak this time, rubbing his back with a hand.
“Why do I…as you say hate you”
He couldn’t look, couldn’t see the fire burning in her gaze.
It would burn him from the inside until nothing was left.
“Because you are the demons spawn .” She hissed. He could hear slow footsteps, the sound of a predator creeping up on its weak prey.
“Only demons can come from demons! One day you will come into your true form, you will attempt to slaughter us, as is natural for sky people.”
She was only 5 feet from him now, the sound of her tail flicking back and forth like a whip.
“I wish you would disappear…that your people had sent you back in cryo” she hissed
Spider felt those words like a bolt down his spine
“ back in cryo”..... Cryo is a death sentence for infants.
He jerked his head up, starting when he realized how close Neytiri was. Her eyes seemed to take up more of her face than normal, blown wide with pinprick pupils; the yellow-orange coloring was all he could focus on. She was wound tight, prepared to pounce on her prey at a moment's notice.
She raises a hand and with a screech brings it swinging around to hit the boy across the face.
Spider flinches hard, stumbling back into Lo’ak, he could imagine the feeling of those nails tearing across his face. Ripping off his mask and leaving him breathless.
But the feeling never came.
Spider managed to calm his sobs and clear his eyes enough to see that someone had caught Neytiri’s wrist, stopping the arc she intended to inflict on the human.
“That's enough Neytiri!” Jake shouts.
His mate whirls on him, ripping her arm from his hand and hissing directly into his face, raising up to her full height to attempt to dominate over him. But Jake never flinched, just let his anger and disappointment bore into her face, eyes narrowed and hard. When she still didn’t back down, Jake growled lightly, moving to stare down his nose at her before flicking his head towards the exit of the clearing.
The meaning was clear, “ Get out of here. We’ll talk later ”.
Neytiri growled lightly, but deferred in front of the Toruk Makto, moving out of the clearing swiftly, not even stopping to force any of her children out with her.
With Mrs.Sully gone, a lot of the crowd started to disperse as well, eventually it was just the Sully children, their father and Spider left alone.
Not that Spider noticed.
He collapsed to his knees, overcome with exhaustion as the adrenaline rushed from his body. He was sobbing into his mask, hands covering the clear glass in order to shelter his face. He shuddered with every breath, he wanted to fall into a coma, wanted to scream and tear the exopack from his body, just to fall into Eywa’s grasp. He could barely feel the hands on him, it was Lo’ak at his back, wrapped about his shoulders in a comforting grasp. Kiri had his wrists, attempting to move them from his face, begging and pleading with him to listen to them. Neteyam was caressing the crown of his head, whispering calming words to his deaf ears. And lastly, Tuk was nearly ripping her dad’s arm from the socket, yelling question after question at him about what had just happened.
Spider’s sobs subsided eventually, but once that happened he was dead tired, exhausted and drained. Jake approached his spot on the ground.
“Listen Spider I’m sorry-”
“ Do you think you’re any better?”
It was Kiri, her voice a low, hissed whisper. She craned her head to stare up at her father, her eyes piercing his skull. She looked terrifying .
Jake stopped, hands falling back to his side, ears drooping against his head.
“What?”
“Do you think you’re any better?” she repeated, slowly as if Jake were stupid, “You’ve known how mom feels for our entire lives… You never thought to talk her down?”
Jake's tail moved nervously, “Well..”
“No dad, she has a point.” it was Neteyam this time, his anger was less clear but it was still bubbling just underneath the surface. “Why would you let mom say that stuff about him? You were human…you never defended him?”
Now Jake held up his hands placatingly in front of him, “No! I told her she shouldn’t hold that kind of thing against Spider but-”
“It wasn’t enough!” Lo’ak screamed now. “If you cared about Spider like we do, you would’ve done more!”
Jake had gears turning in his head.
He did care about the kid; it's why he taught him to hunt, let him stay the night and accepted him.
But did he accept him? Had he been…neglectful?
He always thought that Spider was a strong kid. That he didn’t need to be coddled or treated differently. But as he looked around at his children he slowly realized that they all were keeping their feelings inside, keeping from him . They all thought Jake and Neytiri were being unfair to the human among them , a human they considered family, but were all too afraid to bring it to his attention.
Is this what he’s done?
Made children who can’t bring their issue’s to him because they think he’ll pick their mothers feelings over theirs? Over a child's?
But wouldn’t he have sided with Neytiri if they had?
He reached out towards his children, but they were ignoring him. Neteyam was gathering Spiders limp body into his arms, leading the pack in a march back to the human habitat. The other three walked behind him; Lo’ak on Kiri’s right, an arm holding her close to him and Tuk clutching Kiri’s left hand with her own.
They walked away from him, discussing how they were worried Spider had lost too much fluid and how they needed a helpful adult.
And Jake was left there in the clearing, arm outstretched towards children that no longer trusted him.
And maybe they haven’t in a long time.