#1st recom

[niku30]

LAST OF THEIR KIND __________

Been thinking a LOT about how they’re most likely the only two left of their kind and I genuinely hope we get to see scenes like this. Must be so tough to know that ultimately you only have each other to truly rely on. God - I can’t wait to see what’s in store for Lyle and Quaritch. I’m a bit scared - bur mainly EXCITED AS HELL.

[xenomorphee3]

THE Kevin Dorman himself endorses Devin as Mansk's first name!

As like a deep pull Avatar reference I gave Mansk the first name Devin in my fanfic 😁 Just Tweeted the thought as a vibe.

Happy to see that Kevin, who interacts so amazingly with his fans, likes the concept haha

Here's a link to the crew film if you haven't seen it yet!

[xenomorphee3]

Prompt: Firsts! For @recom-week

The recoms, reluctantly, have their first taste of foraged Pandoran food with Spider's help. One of the many flashbacks of the time 1st Recom and Spider spent together from my longfic (info below :).

[Flashback to the recoms and Spider sometime after the Kestrel dropped them off in the forest]

Eat Na’vi. Ride Na’vi. Think Na’vi. These were the guiding rules by which the recoms would live until they found Jake Sully. Get into the minds of their enemies until they learn where he escaped to, and then use their new skills to complete their mission—hunting him down and killing him.

Jake Sully and his family had gone to ground and they had no inkling of where he could be. But with enough time and patience, they were confident they would find him. That he would slip up and reveal himself. It was smart to deduce that he wouldn’t have gone entirely AWOL and leave all of his existing connections behind. He had traitor science puke friends from Hell's Gate and family within the Omaticaya people. Wherever he was they would find him and be more prepared than ever to end him.

Eat Na’vi was the first important thing they needed to learn while doing reconnaissance. The Marines didn’t bring any major supplies aside from weapons, ammo, the clothes on their back, and some sleeping gear. They would have to live off the land. Knowing that obtaining banshee mounts was the next major thing to do after getting accustomed to being Na'vi for a few days, the Marines and Spider set out in the direction of the Hallelujah Mountains through the forest. They assumed they would be able to find food along the way.

Spider was quiet, angry. His “ride along” agreement was the lesser of two evils, but he was not happy to be here with the people who held his friends hostage and who were trying to kill the closest thing he had to a family. These violent, murderous skxawngs barely even knew how to speak Na’vi and made him, a sixteen-year-old, their interpreter. Spider was walking in the middle of the seven surviving recoms, Miles leading the troop, Wainfleet, Z-Dog, and Mansk ahead of Spider, Prager, Lopez, and Ja at the back.

Spider was mostly looking down, despondent at his situation, but occasionally glanced upward to look at this bizarre "father" adjacent figure that had suddenly, abruptly entered into his life. Spider grew up hearing stories of the monster that was Colonel Miles Quaritch, the man responsible for the destruction of the Omaticaya’s Hometree and a great battle in the Hallelujah Mountains that resulted in the loss of many Na’vi and human lives, Spider’s mother included.

He deeply resented him for that. Quaritch making such an arrogant decision that cost the life of the mother of his child and left Spider an orphan on an alien world. And that’s the thing, wasn’t it? Quaritch was arrogant. So arrogant that he had zero thought in his mind that he would lose that battle. And all of this is of course why no one wanted to call Spider, 'Miles.' 

Regardless, Spider knew that this recombinant version of Miles Quaritch didn’t remember how the loss occurred. Miles explained to him on their Kestrel ride out to their drop zone exactly where his memories stopped. Spider just looked at the back of this man, his “father” with a scowl. As he walked, Miles could feel the daggered eyes of his past life’s son behind his back. He paid it no mind. He knew what it was like to be hated, and he knew that Spider had no reason to have any affinity for him. And for Miles, this kid was mostly going to be a tool, an asset by which they could more successfully carry out their mission to find Sully. He and Spider were nothing to each other after all.

Miles was relaxingly taking in the forest, his rifle held low, his new form eliciting significantly less fear in this jungle than in his past life. His past life who got mauled by a juvenile thanator his first day on Pandora while he was getting a field tour of the Hell's Gate mining quarry—the source of his past life’s three scars. Now, Pandoran predators like viperwolves, even in a small pack were non-bothersome to him and his recoms. He walked in the forest renewed, able to take in its harsh beauty rather than its extreme danger. Miles was, for lack of a better term, allowing himself to be moderately enchanted with the forest of Pandora. He was even mildly excited at the prospect of flying on a banshee.

Ja and Prager were pulling up the rear of the crew. Ja said to Prager, “Man, I’m kinda hungry. I wonder what we’re gonna eat.”

Prager replied, “Yeah are we gonna have to hunt something?”

Lopez chimed in with, “I wonder what those little deer things taste like?”

“Yerik,” Spider butted in. The first thing he’d spoken in a while.

The Marines slowed their walking and Lopez asked, “What you say, kid?”

Spider looked around at the recoms in front and behind him with exasperation, including Miles, who was looking back at him with his head turned over his shoulder, half paying attention to the path in front of him.

“It’s called a yerik, guys. It’s not a hard word. Much easier than freaking ‘hexapede’ which is apparently what you guys would call them,” Spider said in a condescending tone.

The recoms lightly scoffed at this bratty kid patronizing them.

Lopez then snarkily replied, “Well then, I wonder what 'yerik' tastes like.”

Fully detecting, but unbothered by the recom’s attitude, Spider casually replied, “It’s pretty good. A little gamey though.”

Lopez gave him a glare, Prager stuck his tongue in his cheek and raised his eyebrows, and Ja looked indifferent. Miles was looking ahead, continuing to lead the Marines, but he was smirking slightly from the interaction behind him, though no one could see his face since he was in the front.

After walking for a bit more, Spider said, “Hey, you guys are hungry?” and he suddenly ran ahead of the troop past Miles which made Miles lurch forward to grab him.

Miles caught him by his arm. “Whoa whoa, where do you think you’re going?”

Spider yanked his arm away from a perturbed Miles and said, “I’m showing you how to ‘eat Na’vi',” in a voice mocking Miles'.

Miles clenched his teeth and pulled his lips back in a smirk. This little shit. The Marines stopped and gathered to watch Spider approach a bizarre-looking plant with structures like suspended gourds hanging from it. Spider grabbed one of them and approached the recoms. He then smashed it on a tree. All recoms' ears were completely fixed on Spider, their tails flicking with a lightness from their curiosity. Inside the smashed gourd was a stringy, white, fibrous-looking structure, like spiderwebs meet spaghetti. It did not look appetizing. Spider then held his breath to remove his mask to scoop some of this… fruit? into his mouth.

Spider looked at the Marines who were looking at him with mild disgust and said, “It’s edible and it’s got a lot of protein. It’s bitter, but—” He tossed the weird-looking fruit to Miles without warning, his reflexes catching it with no problem. "—you get used to it," Spider finished.

The Marines looked at the weird fruit in the hands of their commanding officer.

Lopez said, “I ain’t eating that,” and the Marines chuckled.

Miles looked at it for a solid moment, then grabbed some with his fingers and noted the texture was not as dry as it looked. He scooped some into his mouth.

Wainfleet looked at him and asked, “Boss?” curious about what he thought of it.

Miles smacked his lips and said, “You know, it... kind of tastes like coffee.”

The recoms gave expressions that indicated they were mildly impressed, but also, whatever, eating gross-looking plants was their life now, and each went to go grab a fruit off the plant. A small snack that would tide them over until they found a 'yerik' or something to kill. Miles looked at Spider and winked at him, smiling slightly.

Spider looked down and away and grinned softly in a way that Miles couldn’t see.

Read more on Ao3! (link here) Incredible OC art by quaritchsgirl/bluekernal

[lexxicona]

A good quality image of the “Deja Blue” patch used by the Recoms (and also the image on Quaritch’s green hoodie in AFAA) from The World of Avatar: A Visual Exploration.

Upon closer inspection, the human skull depicted on the patch appears to be representative of Quaritch himself, as the skull in question possesses the three Viperwolf slash marks that (as shown in Way of Water) appeared to be bone-deep.

For those of you who want to put it on a sticker/shirt/hoodie or something.