neptunesglaive
; he - they
; wattpad fanfic writer
; avatar enthusiast
other blog – wattpad – toyhou.se
— na'vigation
did we get the joke? i'm very funny.
[#planet yapping] — non-fic posting
[#ass art alert] — art post
[#i tease things] — snippet of next chapter [WATTPAD TIMELINE ONLY]
— current works
-> the wattpad version will always be updated first, and is further along than anything listed here.
weekly-ish updates.
LEPWOPX
so'lek x gn! na'vi! reader
in which two na'vi find love in warfare - or - in which taking that dreamwalker's hand was both the best and worst decision you have ever made
status: in progress
first chapter: link
tag: #neptune's lepwopx
nothing burger special to someone named mr shithead? is that you mr shithead? heres ur nothing burger special!!!
Curiously, how much has lepwopx changed compared to when you started it? Like,, in the sense when you made JUST the first chapter and mayhaps a layout for how the story was - and compare it to you presently. Has much changed in the process and timeline?
fun question thank you mx nothing burger
i feel like not too much has changed... okay, that's a lie.
i started lepwopx before most of the dlc had dropped. as in, only skybreaker had released.
obviously, this means that i had to alter some details on the fly when secrets of the spires, and more recently into the ashes, had released.
one such example of this is the sarentu player character - tamtey.
tamtey didn't have a canon name when i started lepwopx. which, yknow, meant i had to give them one. so, i settled on okni - partly because it's actually the name of a sarentu kid we never see.
so, why not that one? still canon. in a way. if you take off your glasses and squint really hard.
i actually still get a lot of comments on the wattpad version about okni not being called tamtey. like, people somehow don't realise that i started lepwopx two years ago and the name was revealed like, a couple of months ago.
it's kinda wild.
anyway, it gives me a good excuse to do a certain plotline now. which i can't even really talk about because tumblr isn't caught up.
oh, the woes of starting here later.
some things have always been planned. like the reader's backstory, certain smaller events, the way they react to other characters. even exactly when so'lek and reader get together has been set from the start.
which is good! obviously. it means i've been able to set things up consistently
tldr; the main plot has remained the same. smaller details have had to be changed or recontextualised in order to stay better inline with the game's canon.
the first avatar is just various characters going "jake. you are soo sexy and soooooooo stupid. can you do this thing for me? thanks" and jake goes "okayyyyyyyyyy <3" every time. what if the least qualified guy at your job accidentally became important at work 3 times over
so'lek x gn! na'vi! reader
i swearr the wattpad version is gonna be updated soon i just. am struggling to write this one bit
click for previous chapter
Some time had passed since you had joined the Resistance. Several kintrr, or several 'weeks' according to your Ìnglìsì teacher Hajinder.
Alma had insisted you learn the Sky People's language, and you eventually caved after growing tired of having to make her play translator; and after becoming too annoyed when the Sky People would speak your own words in what you felt was a purposely incorrect pronunciation.
The lessons so far had been nothing short of frustrating on a good day, and insufferable on a bad one. Why must they have set ways to form a sentence - where were the endings to show the subject and object? Why must there be separate words for 'he' and 'she'? Why was there only one 'see'?
In conclusion, you haven't made much progress. It was too confusing.
What wasn't confusing was your new role in the Resistance, which had finally been settled. You would accompany So'lek on his patrols around base, and on a majority of his hunts for the Demons- no, the RDA.
You were at least glad that it was with him. While you'd hardly shared a word since that first meeting (which could have been easily mistaken for an interrogation), you automatically felt more at ease around him. Though, it was only because he was the only non-Sky Person or dreamwalker, not for any sense of security.
The Kinglor Forest was calm this morning; only a drizzle of rain and a gentle hazing of fog that made homesick knots churn in your stomach, though you as usual pushed them to the deepest grooves of your mind.
"These Sky People," your voice broke the quiet that had settled over the past few moments. "Why do they wear the metal skin?"
"AMP suits." So'lek corrected as he moved some vines out of your path, politely waiting for you to go past before letting them fall back into place. "They control them to be stronger, so they may cause more harm without hearing for their fragile bodies."
He seemed almost irritated by the question, though that could just be a misinterpretation of his normal tone and expression. You fell silent anyway, trying to dedicate that term - AMP suit - to memory.
You glanced to the side, to the water of Dyer's Bowl that should have been clear. It was not.
Unconsciously, your footsteps slowed to a halt as you examined the area with more scrutiny. So'lek took notice, and he took became still, looking back over his shoulder to you.
"What?"
"The land is sick."
Taking a slow step forward, you knelt, so tenderly touching a flower which had browned and rotted before its time.
"That is the RDA's doing." So'lek's words made your ears twitch. You'd said before that the Demons were parasitic, but you had not realised to what extent. It made you want to weep in grief for the damage they had caused.
Seeing your clear distress (that was normal for any na'vi who was first seeing this), a hand came to your shoulder to lightly squeeze. "We destroy the outpost, and the forest will heal."
You continued to stare down at the little flower for a few moments more, before inhaling the murky air and standing with a final nod.
The outpost was not hard to find. In fact, it was hard to miss.
A gross metal tower stabbed into the earth, boxes of sanitary colours strewn around as foul smoke billowed into the once clear skies. It felt like the rain was now not just rain, but tears.
You shifted to dart forward, clutching your shortbow white-knuckled before a firm grasp halted you.
"Patient." So'lek advised in a low murmur, as he gradually dropped into a crouch with you mimicking. "Take out those on the outskirts. Quietly."
You understood why you'd be delegated this task of crowd control, but that made it no less annoying. You pushed away the irk brought by a lack of trust in your skills, sending him another nod instead.
His hand slipped from your arm after a slow, understanding blink, and you parted ways.
The Sky People were easy targets. A single arrow or hard hit to the head made them crumble like badly burned bread.
Whatever So'lek has gone off to do had caused an explosion which - obviously - caught the attention of the remaining RDA. Which, by now, were just down to three in those metal suits.
You were in the open when it had happened, and were caught in their sight near instantaneously. One shouted something (Their? There? They're? So confusing.) and all three faced you with ugly arms raising.
Their limbs whirred and creaked, and with bright flashes and noisy bangs, they shot some kind of projectile at a speed you could barely register.
Unsure of how dangerous they were, you quickly ducked down behind one of the large metal boxes, though not before feeling a sharp, shredding pain in your calf which has you gritting your teeth to silence a groan.
Instead, you forced out a threatening hiss of warning, notching two arrows into your shortbow.
One of the suits collapsed out of your sight, you could hear the breaking of that clear material (glass, you were sure Priyachen once called it) and the clang of metal on metal. So'lek's doing, you deduced.
Breathing in deep to ignore the throbbing of your leg, you peered around the corner just enough to take aim and fire at the nearest Sky Person.
Both arrows hit true, one embedding into its skull as the other found place in its throat. The suit staggered before falling flat on its misshapen back.
One left.
Before you could grasp another arrow, the mech had one not of your own speared through the glass. You could tell just from the thicker shaft that it was likely for a heavy bow.
So'lek - you could see him now, stood nearby - gave you a glance before his gaze swept the area. Upon confirming that there were no others to eliminate, his stance relaxed and he languidly slung his bow over his shoulder.
He wordlessly made a signal, which you interpreted to be wait.
So, you did. He ran off, tampering with something or other as several small explosions bloomed across the outpost. And once the smog settled, all was clear.
What a wondrous sight you bore witness to next - the Great Mother at work as the flora around you steadily became more vibrant and full of life, blades of glass unfurling in wonky patches amongst the trodden ground.
Your daze was cut short when a hand settled once more on your shoulder. Blue and three-fingered, with stripes that were in a pattern that was starting to become familiar.
"Your leg." So'lek pointed out. His voice seemed to have an eternal stoicism to it, but today (and you may be mistaken) it seemed to hold a pinch of concern. "You were shot?"
"Shot?" Your mind immediately went to arrows. "No."
He stared down at your limb for a few more seconds, making a vague hum of acceptance towards your answer. "There should be dapophet on the return walk."
Your tail flicked once, trailing behind with a limp as So'lek led the way.
The interactions between you both were always so short. While you wouldn't mind that if he were a Demon or dreamwalker, he was one of the people. Of course you were drawn to him - he was the only normal one.
So, when you reached the lake shore and began to pick pods of the dapophet (two, all you felt you needed), you spoke. "I have noticed you have not flown. Are you bonded?"
The sudden spring of conversation seemed to almost startle him, as So'lek's movements paused for some seconds before he returned to easing a pod off the damp stem. "I was, once. She has long passed."
You paused, head dipping. "I am sorry."
"Don't be." He rejected the sympathy. "She died painlessly."
Your lips pursed, nodding simply. You really couldn't have picked a worse topic, could you?
Unsure if you should keep speaking, you took a seat on the grass. Injured leg stretching straight, you sank your teeth into one of the dapophet.
It was watery and flavourful, some juice dripping from your lips which you swiftly wiped away. It was sweet, though there was a sour aftertaste - likely a lingering effect from the outpost's pollution.
You could already feel it working, a refreshing feeling spreading through you. Your skin tingled pleasantly as it worked its magic, your injuries beginning to close up at an increased rate.
But your leg still felt... off. You couldn't explain it, it was like something was stuck in your flesh.
So'lek noticed your blatant staring at your limb, so walked over as he took a mouthful of the that dapophet he too had picked.
His tail moved idly as he took a knee, fingertips grazing around the injured area. You winced.
"You were shot." He stated it as fact. Your brow dipped in confusion.
"No, I wasn't." Now he was the confused one - that was, until you spoke more. "There were no stray arrows."
So'lel sighed deeply, shaking his head. "Shot by a bullet, not an arrow."
Alma Cortez: the epitome of colonization and assimilation culture
Alma was never a misled teacher. She wasn’t manipulated by Mercer, she wasn’t his victim, she never had good intentions. She was the co-founder of TAP. Including TAP-Con1.
This is an analysis arisen from a sense of exhaustion and anger in seeing how often people in this fandom judge Alma in a very biased way and ignore important traits of her character just because they’re uncomfortable. It is, of course, perfectly fine and understandable to consider Alma’s character interesting and entertaining; but I’ve seen too many people defend her actions, or try to tone down or change objective things in the game that are even explicitly spelled out for the audience. Outside of circles of people who dislike her (and sometimes even among them), some topics are rarely discussed or even acknowledged, although they are fundamental in understanding both her character and the role she plays in the story. So, here I am.
An aware colonizer and a deliberate manipulator, not a misled teacher
Alma always knew exactly what she was doing. She knew what she wanted and what she was willing to do to achieve it. She wanted her school, no matter the cost (as she says quite literally in the game). It’s true, she didn’t know that Mercer was going to massacre the Sarentu. But she was still willing to take students for her school without theirs or their parents’ consent.
This is perfectly, directly demonstrated in the conversation between her and Mercer, in the flashback scene in which they are going to the Sarentu moot:
Alma: We’re just talking to them, do we need this many soldiers?
Mercer: This is our last chance. They’re too primitive to understand what we can do for their children.
Alma: It’s for the children.
Mercer: Exactly. Just think what we can achieve. Finally.
Alma (nodding): We’re helping them. They’ll see it... in time.
THIS exactly is what sums up the person that she is. She may not have predicted Mercer’s massacre, but she still went to the moot with the purpose of taking those children no matter what. Notice how she doesn’t contradict Mercer when he calls the Na’vi “too primitive to understand what we can do to their children”, but on the contrary she agrees with his statement? Because the core of what she believes is this: humans are superior and therefore need to impose their better ways of life on the lesser and uncivilized Na’vi; these people are too stupid to understand anyway, so it’s acceptable for humans to steal their children and forcefully assimilate them in their own culture because they’re superior anyway. One day, years after they have kidnapped their kids, the Na’vi’s primitive minds will come to understand that and recognize humans as superior, and thanks to their now successfully-brainwashed children, humans will get to subjugate them as well.
A project like TAP isn’t the basis for cultural exchange, it’s the basis for cultural erasure and the assimilation of Indigenous children. TAP was LITERALLY a residential school. If you think there could ever be a “good intention” behind this, then you are a despicable person. Alma knows this. She simply hides it behind a self-righteous facade of generosity and allyship. The fact that she genuinely believes that this is a way to help the Na’vi is irrelevant: it doesn’t change the “human-superiority” complex of her beliefs, it doesn’t change the fact that she made a literal residential school. It is explicitly called “residential” in-game, and it can’t be interpreted differently. This is what “residential school” means. Alma was raised on Earth, where Indigenous people still exist, where residential schools existed. Where do you think they—both the creators of AFOP and Alma and Mercer—got their inspiration from? It was always intentional.
Mercer and Alma started working together for a reason. They shared a dream, and that dream was always going to be built on the blood and the stolen freedom of Indigenous Na’vi and their children. There was never a single half good intention about this project. This is literally a story about children surviving residential school and reclaiming their Indigenous culture. We’re not supposed to sympathize with the colonizers who did this. The point of the story is to empathize with the Indigenous survivors of genocide and colonization.
Believing that you are doing something good—when you are actually doing tremendous harm—only because of your self-righteous superiority complex, and actually doing something good, are not the same thing. And the fact that Alma believes that by doing this she is actually helping the Na’vi makes her a even worse person. There is such a deep arrogance and, most importantly, danger to this mindset. At least a person like Mercer is honest: he’s horrible, hates the Na’vi and he’s proud of it. Alma, however, tries to hide it in a pathetic and disgusting attempt at feeling morally superior to people like him, tricking herself and the others around her into believing she’s actually a decent person, while her only goal is to achieve the recognition she thinks rightfully belongs to her and simultaneously erase her so-called “guilt”.
If she actually cared about the Sarentu children like both she and some people in the fandom claim she did, she would have not left them to rot in cryo for 16 years. She could have gone back to check if they were alive at any point during that time. She chose not to. She robbed them of their entire lives for the sole reason that she was too hypocritical to face her actions and failure, because that’s what this really is about. She never actually believed she did something wrong, her only shame came from the fact that she didn’t get the recognition she always strived for. If you don’t take my word for it:
And even once she was forced to go rescue them, she still continued to lie to them and made them believe they had been abandoned by their clan. She kept the lie up when she could at least have told them that the Sarentu were dead. And we know that this was deeply painful for the Sarentu. Ri’nela, for instance, revealed in an audio log that not knowing what happened to their clan was draining her. But of course, Alma continuously (and without hesitation or remorse) preferred to shatter the Sarentu’s feelings and mental peace in order to protect herself and avoid facing her “guilt”. When the Resistance relocated to the Clouded Forest, she made them believe the Kame’tire were untrustworthy. She could have simply said nothing, but no, she had to reinforce the lies to make herself look better, to pose as the Sarentu’s sole guide once again.
That woman had absolutely no shame for what she did and only admitted the truth once she was forced to do so. Even when she goes back to wake up the Sarentu, we can find out in a note that her priority is still TAP: “TAP is just a tomb for our dead dreams. Or maybe not. Just maybe.” Still, after almost two decades in which she could have self-reflected a bit, she says loud and clear that she doesn’t care in the slightest about the kids (she never even mentions them), like she’s proved over and over again, but only about her little colonialist assimilation project.
After the Sarentu are rescued and brought to the Resistance, she says in her note:
“I think they're all doing fine. Learning. Flourishing. Thanks to us. We made the right choice.”
We made the right choice. She’s the one who kidnapped them, who later abandoned them, who willingly left them to rot for 16 years, yet she’s their savior. That’s how she sees herself. The Sarentu are finally free since they were first stolen, but she was the one who did the good thing; the choice, their lives, they belong to her, never mind the fact that she was the one who stole them in the first place. She takes everything from them, then gives some of it back, ignoring the irreparable damage she has done, and expects to be considered a savior. This is textbook abuse and manipulation.
Later, if it wasn’t for Anufi recognizing her, she never would have told the truth. Again, the only thing she ever does for the Sarentu—that is, simply informing them of the truth they were owed—she does because she is forced to do so by external forces. Even the only actual good thing she does in general, creating the Resistance, she does after TAP is gone, not because she realizes she’s done something bad, that she’s part of something evil and wants to separate herself from it, but because, again, she is forced to. If it wasn’t for the Omatikaya and the other clans rebelling, if it wasn’t that humans lost Pandora, she would have never left TAP. Not much of a resistance on her side then, right? She may have founded it—again, after she was forced by the circumstances, not because she was moved by authentic and sincere motives, and she’s able to do so only by lying about her project and actions—but it was the other members that made it a Resistance, not her.
Forceful cultural assimilation, not cultural exchange
I now want to go back for a moment to the first dialogue we saw, when Mercer says “this is our last chance”, referring to the Sarentu moot and finding students for their school. Interesting, right? I wonder why they were unable to find willing students. In Alma’s videolog we find at TAP-Con1, she says:
“We’ve gone as far as we can with the Kame’tire. […] We just have to make them see what benefits it could bring to the Na’vi, to share cultures and outlooks. We have so much to teach each other. So much to give to the Na’vi. […] (about the Sarentu) I’m so excited to meet them and welcome the children to our school.”
We just have to make them see what benefits it could bring to the Na’vi. We have so much to teach each other. So much to give to the Na’vi. And here it is again, the reason why she was always nothing more than absolutely evil. At first she tries to make it look like their intent is actually exchanging cultures between equals, but then immediately states her true ideology: it’s the humans who can help the primitive Na’vi, not the other way around. This idea that “superior”, “sophisticated” societies need to share their so-called wonders and teach their ways to the “lesser”, “primitive” and “uncivilized” (Indigenous) people is beyond revolting. Again, this is NOT cultural exchange. There is absolutely NOTHING the Na’vi would have gained from interacting with their colonizers like that. Like Aha’ri said, “why would the Na’vi want to have alliances with you?”.
We just have to make them, Alma also says. The Na’vi are never taken into consideration as actual intelligent people with their own will, they are never meant to be part of the conversation: they are too stupid, so we just have to force our culture onto them. But it’s okay! We’re the superior and civilized ones, so we’re actually doing them a favor. I’m so excited to meet them and welcome the children to our school. Once again, the Na’vi’s will doesn’t matter. She doesn’t say nor imply anything about actually having a discussion with them. The Kame’tire said no, but they just HAVE to have their school, so they’re gonna “welcome the children” one way or another. From the note I mentioned earlier:
“We all had to make sacrifices. Some... they made the ultimate sacrifice. But the science, the progress. Yeah, we did what we thought was right to make TAP a reality.”
She admits very clearly (and very casually) that she doesn’t care in the least about the lives she and Mercer purposefully destroyed. It was a sacrifice she (and Mercer) decided had the authority to make for “the science and the progress”. Even decades after the massacre, this is what the lives of the Sarentu still are in her eyes: a necessary and justifiable sacrifice. Alma always knew this. Not in the back of her mind, not subconsciously. Stealing the children was something she was always willing to do, because in her mind it’s a good thing, in her mind they have the right to do it. And that makes her abhorrent.
I’m gonna leave a screenshot of one of her notes. I don’t think I need to add anything, she speaks for herself perfectly.
TAP-Con1
As I said at the beginning of this post, Alma was never a misled victim, she was TAP’s co-founder, and that obviously includes TAP-Con1. That means that she not only was aware of everything that was going on in that place, but that she was behind it. She was behind the children being kept in cages, washed with disinfectant, being left to sleep and live like prisoners. They were little children, the oldest being SIX, forced to be analyzed in a laboratory (and gods know what else they did to them).
From an interaction at the lab of TAP-Con1, Tamtey says: “Blood samples. Some of us cried everytime.” And Alma was behind it. Even if, for some reason, we want to believe she wasn’t, she still allowed it. If you seriously think that she, the co-founder, did not have any executive power over the project she literally made, and that she was just subjugated to Mercer’s will, you are fooling yourself. This is true for both TAP-Con1 and TAP.
Nor explained the point so perfectly when he said: “You didn’t do a thing to stop Mercer. The wounds he gave us, you gave as well.” She was behind the fear, the abuse, the torture just as much as Mercer and Harding were. Again, she was never just a teacher—that was a fake role she willingly chose to don to victimize herself, minimize her blame and avoid her responsibility in the colonialist and genocidal crimes she committed—and the game spells it out for us very clearly. Ignoring this is a choice.
Completely irredeemable
What I find one of the worst traits of Alma’s character and the way she is written is that she never actually tried to repent or to earn the Sarentu’s forgiveness. She did absolutely NOTHING to earn back her place into their lives or into the resistance. It’s not just that, in my opinion, there is nothing she could do to truly redeem herself. What I find irritating above all is the fact that she just assumed she was given a free pass for everything. At the end of the main game, she even has the audacity to think that she and the Sarentu can move forward together and “be a family again”. Except they were never one, they were never on the same side. It’s frustrating that she still refuses to see that. The alleged self-reflection she does and the self-awareness she has gained are superficial and performative, and this is proof of this. She doesn’t hold herself accountable like she claims she does, she still does not see the damage she has done, she still does not see how wicked her actions and intentions always were. She still sees herself as a victim. But this is no excuse for the audience to consider her as such.
After her avatar dies and she is forced to admit the truth about the Sarentu massacre, there is a side quest called “Penance” in which Alma, Ri’nela and Tamtey gather to bury it. You may think after her confession—which she made seem spontaneous but was actually forced by Anufi and Nor—Alma actually feels remorse like she claims she does; you may think she finally now understands the gravity of what she did to the Sarentu, that finally she will act honestly and be ready to face the consequences to her actions. But no. Once again, her only focus is herself. Instead of humbly coming to the Sarentu, she whines about how she doesn’t feel comfortable in her own body (because she got too attached to her Na’vi cosplay which she chose to use for decades to deceive herself and the Sarentu). When Tamtey points out that the avatar was never the real Alma, she still speaks as that mask was her true self, she still believes that she was actually one of them, one of the people she personally abducted, oppressed and colonized.
And Ri’nela is having none of it. “Did it make your sins easier to bear? Playing make believe?” This is exactly it. Alma posed as one of the Na’vi, one of the Sarentu, actually tricking herself into believing she was one of them, because this way she didn’t have to face the person she really was all along. This way it was easier to pretend she was in the right, that she was manipulated by Mercer, that she was his victim just as much as the Sarentu were. But as I explained earlier, this doesn’t make her misled, this doesn’t make her a person with good intentions; it just makes her a hypocritical and heinous person.
This is why, to me, Alma is completely irredeemable. Not only because there’s no action good enough to repair the atrocities she was responsible for, but because she would actually had to feel genuine remorse to start a redemption arc. As she made abundantly clear through her words and actions, as she continuously proved up until the last dlc, this is not the case. And I’ll even say this: a person like Alma is utterly incapable of feeling true remorse. There will always be a part of her that believes herself to be partly a victim, a person who just wanted the best but was ultimately misled. This is what I consider one of the worst, most loathsome and dangerous traits of her character.
Alma’s (unacceptable) absolution
This is why the Sky Breaker and the From the Ashes dlcs left a sour aftertaste in my mouth. Because everyone failed to truly hold Alma accountable for her actions, and on the contrary, moved on and acted like nothing ever happened. I’m going to discuss the Sky Breaker first.
After the valkyrie attack, when everyone is gathered to discuss what happened, Mokasa (why was he allowed to be there in the first place is a mystery) is bitching about the humans, and Sa'ney rightfully calls him out on his hypocrisy. At this point, Alma (again, why the hell is she here?) intervenes and says:
“Does he not deserve the same as me? I share the same blame. But… I’ve been allowed to move forward.”
Does he not deserve the same as me? Yes, yes he does. That’s the point. I share the same blame. Do you, Alma? Do you really? Don’t get me wrong, I hate Mokasa. Leading the RDA to the Sarentu, blaming Anufi, lying to his own clan for decades… I don’t think I need to explain. However, I find it interesting how people point the finger at Mokasa so naturally, but don’t give Alma the same treatment. Let’s examine them and their actions.
Again, there’s no need for me to explain why everything Mokasa did was horrible and unjustifiable. But let’s take a look at why he did it. He says it in the main game: “it was their children or ours”. As cruel and horrible as that sounds (because it is), it’s also true. It’s clear Mokasa was aware of the humans’ intentions from the beginning: he knew they were gonna steal Na’vi children regardless, and he ensured those children wouldn’t be Kame’tire. Was he right? Of course not. There is NO excuse for what he did. He should have warned Anufi and the Sarentu, he should have not torn apart his clan to hide his secret… but it’s still a completely different motivation. Alma is a human and an oppressor who wanted to steal children for her own personal ambition; Mokasa, an Indigenous man, did evil and inexcusable things because he thought that was the only way to protect his clan and their children from their colonizers. The outcome, the goal even, is the same: the sacrifice of the Sarentu and their children. Yet what drives Mokasa and Alma to allow this atrocity cannot be judged equally.
But I’ve been allowed to move forward. Here is where my problem lies. Because has Alma been allowed to move forward? Has she really? By whom? While the members of the Resistance naturally felt betrayed by her too, they shouldn’t be the ones who have a say in this, because they’re not the ones whose lives were destroyed at her hands. The only ones who get to have a say in this are the Sarentu. Didn’t seem to me that they forgave her; they only made clear they wanted and needed to go their own way. They very clearly separated themselves from her. Alma simply assumed she was given a free pass for everything even though she didn’t do a single thing to repent for her actions, and acted like dissociation equaled forgiveness.
I have conflicted feelings about Mokasa’s so-called redemption, and I’m not sure what were the game’s intentions regarding him as opposed to Alma. But what is certain is that Alma deserved to pay the consequences of her actions. Mokasa was rightfully banished from the clan. A similar punishment could’ve—and should’ve—been given to Alma as well (perhaps banishment as jailing/seclusion in an isolated lab), because ignoring her is not enough. She deserved and needed to pay the consequences of what she did. Yes, Nor caused her death, both of her avatar and her real self, but death is not absolution. Killing her avatar was absolutely necessary, but what Nor did by doing so (and he 100% had every right) was revealing the real Alma, it was stripping her from the possibility to keep deceiving everyone, especially the Sarentu; it was not, however, the punishment she needed to face.
This is why I find the conclusion of her arc extremely disappointing and most importantly, abrupt. I am not at all sorry that she died; I do, however, have a problem with how they handled her death, and more specifically, her arc prior to it. My main issue regarding her journey from the revelation of her crimes in the main game to her death in From the Ashes, is that both the narrative and the characters in the story fail to truly hold Alma accountable for her actions. As I said earlier, some sort of punishment—any sort of punishment—was absolutely necessary for Alma. Automatically absolving her of every sin and using her death as absolution, or a means to let her escape from her responsibilities (like they ended up doing) is not acceptable. In my opinion, it’s very possible they didn’t know how to handle her arc, they couldn’t be bothered to find an apt punishment and ending for her, so they resorted to this. I do say this solely because of my personal feelings about Alma, but because I think that dismissing her crimes and failing to treat and condemn her like the villain she is, is extremely detrimental and reductive to her character.
Conclusion
I want to conclude saying this: I do think Alma is, for the most part, a very well-written character, and it was surprising to see how well the game handled such delicate themes (in many ways, at least), how it showed different effects of colonization and assimilation culture on the children without passing either of them as more or less legitimate. Because at the end of the day this is what the story is truly about, and many fans ignore this far too often: it’s a metaphor for residential schools and their survivors. It’s a story about resistance and reconnection. And while the game is certainly worthy of criticism for drawing direct inspiration from such an unspeakable tragedy without involving Indigenous consultants and writers (as far as I know), this parallelism is still, I believe, the most important aspect of this story. We cannot and must not forget about this when we judge characters like Nor, or Teylan, and, of course, Alma.
Can u explain a summary of ur fic but in fortnite terms
trying to get the epic victory royale with your duo situationship but [CENSORED] [CENSORED] [CENSORED] and then the [CENSORED] legendary shotgun [CENSORED] battle bus explodes [CENSORED] [CENSORED] chug jug [CENSORED] [CENSORED].
so'lek x gn! na'vi! reader
for timeline purposes you are a similar age to so'lek.
we're not dealing with the weird "18-year-old tamtey x 40-year-old-so'lek" shit in this
click for previous chapter
As it turns out, So'lek was not the olo'eyktan. Nor was Alma the tsahìk.
The Sky People- no, the Resistance, did not have such roles. Alma was the leader, but not the Tsahìk, a distinction she strongly wanted you to make.
There was, technically, a second leader who never showed nor even seemed to speak with the Resistance - Jake Sully.
Or, Toruk Makto.
There was a subconscious swelling of pride that had come to your chest knowing you were (again, technically) part of the same group as the fabled Toruk Makto.
Moving on, you had learned something else that was much more disturbing.
Alma wasn't real.
... Kind of. The body she was in was not her own. She was really a Sky Person in fake skin. Alma wore a corpse made of artificial flesh, that had never lived to begin with.
It was a jarring thing to be told without warning, but you felt almost grateful that So'lek had made you curious as to what a dreamwalker was – otherwise, you weren't sure she would have told you at all.
It was especially unnerving to know her true form was hidden out of view, that you only saw this false shell. Your previous thoughts of not judging her ugly hands had long since vanished - they were a reminder she was perhaps one of the worst kinds of Demon.
A day had passed since you'd joined the Resistance. It was an uncomfortable sleep, with you feeling very out of your element as Alma had insisted you stayed the night.
"To get used to it," she had claimed. It only resulted in you feeling worse.
The dreamwalker had also been pestering you about learning the Devil's tongue. An ugly idea. Why would you want to learn their words, to rot your throat with the language of those with no connection to Eywa?
Of course, you rejected the teachings.
Your role within the group was uncertain as of now. You could not hunt or forage for them, as only So'lek and Alma could digest the Great Mother's gifts (and you didn't want the Demons to poke and prod at them), and you had no idea how to work their ugly devices.
You were merely a presence. A flower bulb yet to bloom, clinging to a tree instead of basking in the grass.
You found yourself, now, thoughtlessly drifting towards the end of 'HQ' that harboured those ugly weapons and loud devices.
Nobody was around. Your fingertips skimmed something. Finding, grasping, pulling, taking.
Wordless, you approached the metal jaws and with tense shoulders, exited.
Hissing. The air felt lighter in your lungs, as if finally emerging from the deepest area of a lake.
It wasn't until your feet sank into the dirt did you truly realise how trapped you had felt in there. Everything about it had just felt wrong, in ways too numerous to list.
Inhale, exhale.
You weren't sure where you were walking to, exactly. Just away from there. Well, only as far as needed so they wouldn't hear you.
It took some minutes, but you believed yourself to be of great enough distance. And then, your lips parted and from your throat came a cry.
The beat of wings came after just some moments, your bonded landing before you with a shriek. It turned to a croon though as your hands moved forward onto that smoothly scaled head, the croon becoming churrs as your fingers danced back and forth in slow strokes.
You spoke your bonded's name, knuckles rubbing down the pointed nose, voice a murmur only for them. "We are with a strange group now. Demons, mostly, but also a Na'vi, and a Demon who wears a false skin to look like the People."
Pausing, you took a moment to rest your forehead to theirs, eyes closing. "They don't know our past. Perhaps this will be good."
With that, you gave your bonded one last pet, before hoisting up onto the strongly muscled back. Making the bond, both yours and their pupils dilated, and with a powerful flap of wings, you were above the treeline. The goal? The closest alcove or cave.
You'd decided sometimes during your restless night that it would be good to have your own hideaway. While you would primarily stay within the Resistance, it wouldn't hurt to have a place that felt more like home and wasn't some... death trap.
The small cave you managed to find was perfect. You had checked several times to see if any animals lived within, but there was only a small herd of yerik¹ nearby who were too busy grazing to be interested.
You unloaded any of your remaining personal items you'd been keeping either on your person or on the back of your bonded, which you didn't trust to leave at the 'Resistance', organising the small space to your liking. Your bonded claimed the area by the entrance, acting to warn you if anyone or anything unfamiliar came near.
Meanwhile, you busied yourself with investigating what you had 'borrowed' – some kind of luminous rectangle you'd seen many of the Demons poking at.
Sitting straight-legged on the ground, you mimicked what they had done, prodding the odd-feeling device at random (unknowingly deleting several files, thankfully none of which were important).
You eventually had the rectangle change appearance to a bunch of squiggly lines and triangles, with what you believed to be a written form of the Devil's tongue above each.
Touching one, you nearly leapt as high as a hiupwopx² when it started to make noise – your bonded also raised their head in alarm, before lowering it with a chuff when they realised there was no danger.
You were just being odd again.
It was at first a sound you didn't pay much mind to, mind automatically branding it ugly as it was from a Demon's device: but then you started to listen.
And oh, it was beautiful.
You watched the rectangle, one of the squiggly lines waving and twisting like a disturbed pond, the light illuminating your striped skin as you remained entranced by what you knew was a song.
It was a strange song, of instruments so close to what you knew but different enough to notice, similar yet too far away from music you had heard before. But it wasn't strange like the Demons.
This was not ugly. This could never be ugly.
Without even realising at first, the deepest parts of your throat vibrated as you vocalised with the Sky Person's voice who sang words you didn't understand — a wordless yet telling harmony.
But all too soon, the music ended, leaving you in a deafening silence to mull over new thoughts.
