In order to build up their forces, Jake begins reaching out and visiting some of the other clans. As they grow older, the kids end up acting as diplomats
Spider ends up on an extended stay with the Ash clans when he's about 17, a stay that influences him a lot in helping him to understand himself and grow in his comfort within his body
The Ash clans are a people of oddballs, some rejected from their first clans, others raised in the clan of outcasts, and all of them creating a clan focused on bettering oneself ]
He befriends a Na'vi named Rutu.
Rutu is an older, Ash-raised Na'vi with a strong personality
He's stubborn, straight-forward, but a goofball and relentlessly loyal
He basically corners Spider into a friendship, arguing that a good diplomat will stick around and make friends and that, as a warrior of the clan, Rutu is necessary to focus on
Truth be told, he's full of bullshit but loves to see how people tick. Spider, being human and 'damn near feral', he latches onto him until a tight friendship forms
He's mated to a traveler woman, Neipx, who is a nomad Ash woman. Being as she's gone so often, he spends a lot of time helping Spider and ultimately travels with him to some of the other Ash clans.
He is also the one who convinces Spider to mate officially with Rotxo and helps him to come to terms with his weaker body and shorter lifespan - he's missing a hand and has come to have no fear left of death
He convinces Spider that Ewya will take her children when she's ready - there's no point in fearing what cannot be changed, nor in living in fear when peace waits behind death
So when he gets a message that Rutu was killed in a skirmish with a stray human camp at the base of their mountains, he rushes there
Rotxo stays behind with Anea and the clans, wanting to travel with them but unable to safely with a 6 year old human
No one expects him to return with a 3 year old and an infant in his arms
Wiaklik is the older and Vipeì the younger; their mother was killed in the air raids and, with Rutu being lost so unexpectedly, they're alone
Spider didn't expect it but Rutu left a letter detailing his will for them should it come to it and wanted them to grow up to see the world as an adventure to explore as he did
So he sends them to Spider, to Rotxo, and hopes they can offer what he no longer can
He tucks them into their marui and sits on the beach for hours with Rotxo, sobbing and explaining who they were to one another. How, in another life, maybe they would have been one and the same. Finally, he admits that Rutu left the boys to them
Rotxo is scared at the premise but doesn't hesitate. He's worse about taking in strays so to speak and knew they would be theirs from the moment Spider carried them across the sand
They give the boys their family name, a wish Rutu gave so that they wouldn't feel as alone as Spider and himself did growing up
It's an...adjustment to say the least, but they make do
Wialik wants his Daddy, or his Mama, and doesn't understand why his Uncle Spy is here and they aren't
He becomes their trouble child
Even as he grows up, he doesn't always feel quite like he belongs, but he does love his family
He rebels, argues, fights, but he always comes home
He gets into more fights than Lo'ak over his Uncle and sisters humanity
Rotxo is Uncle Ro, Spider is Uncle Spy, and Rutu is Dad
Rocorro are his dads but he struggles with the name, seeing as Na'vi have better memory, and only really calls Rutu his Dad unless he's really upset
Surprisingly, he gets along well with Neteyam
Neteyam calms him easily and soothes his temper, he also helps Wialik to cover his rebellions up if he thinks he actually regrets the behavior
Wialik becomes a warrior to help him get a grip on his temper and his energy, when he can't do that, he hunts
He's one of the best in the clan when it comes to a spear
Rotxo is the one that helps him with controlling his emotions and Spider the one who helps him work through it
Despite his temper, he really does love his family and is fiercely protective
Especially of his baby brother and later sister
He tries to big brother Anea but she shuts that down real quick - smaller or not, she's the oldest
They aren't the closest, but they share their responsibility well
Vipeì is who he is closest to, even when their personalities are so different
Like his Dad hoped, he becomes an avid explorer when given the chance. Though he stays with the Metkayina, he spends a lot of his childhood exploring the woods when he can
It helps him feel more balanced
When he first comes home, he's fussy and when he leaves home, he's still fussy
Spider likes to point that out but he's secretly very proud of his sons backbone
He has a very bantering relationship with Spider
They both bicker constantly but it's their way of being close without having to get mushy (cause Wialik is 100% that teenager who can't say I love you)
Rotxo has a more laid back relationship with him and he's who he goes to for advice
He stayed up with him a lot when he was little and confused about his parents
Rotxo would sneak him away to visit the ancestors and hold him afterwards
Despite having not lost a parent, he has a good relationship with his moms and understands the love a bit better than Spider can
He's pivotal in helping Wialik come to peace with where his life is heading
Raising Wialik is the team effort for the ages
Vipeì is the opposite
He's a newborn when they adopt him and latches on to his Papa and Da
Wialik is his protector his whole life, but he's very close to Anea
He's soft-spoken and shy - more like his birthmother than Rutu
While most expect him to latch onto Rotxo, he's Spiders shadow
He doesn't really remember either of his parents as he was so young when he lost them
Wialik and Spider help keep the memories alive along with regular visits to the spirit tree, but he feels more like he's hearing about an uncle than his dad - the opposite to his big brother
Anea is the only one who knows those feelings
He was a very quiet, very cuddly baby
He wanted to be held near constantly
They have to carry him around in a chest wrap as soon as they're back to working
Spider works more on land and has to carry him more so there are A LOT of pictures of him with a child the size of his entire torso strapped to him
But he loves the water as soon as he's safe to enter it
He spends his childhood in the tide pools and with the ilus, who he grows up to care for a lot of
Similarly, he spends a lot of time making maps of the reefs, coast, and the travel routes Spider and Neteyam take on diplomacy trips (which he jumps onto as fast as he can)
He is very close to Kiri who pushes him to be a bit more proactive in defending himself and speaking up but also encourages how entranced he is in with the world around them and the places he goes
Homie is decent with a knife but looks like a toddler with a gun when you hand him a spear
It looks ridiculous and does even worse with it
His official job is mostly caring for the animals and gardens, but his mapping also takes up some of his adult life
Spider helps him with it a lot in his free time and will help him improve them while Rotxo is the one to help him plan out excursions and how to do them safely
He finds a mated pair he ends up with as a teen and travels with his mates once Spider is convinced he's a decent enough diplomat on his own (aka once he's sure he'll actually do diplomat things and talk to people rather than just explore)
He's a good big brother to their youngest sibling but does end up with a bit of baby brother syndrome
Overall he's a very laid back boy, he's responsible and their easiest child while his brother is their hardest
not sure how much i love this one but 🤪
Spider is a provider type and it shows when his partner is sick or otherwise out of commission
He will spend as much time as he can (mostly when Rotxo is asleep) hunting and gathering so he can feed/provide for him and, later, their kids
He is also the one that will be weaving and trading for new blankets, clothes, baskets, etc - how much it helps is questionable but he is a king of comfort and wants to make sure that Rotxo won't worry for anything since he's a huge stresser
He will take the kids for the day once they reach that part of their lives and huddle them into his pod so Rotxo has some peace, he's a hoverer but gets self conscious about it
Despite Rotxo being a major cuddler and Spider having very little strength against his partners puppy dog eyes, he normally won't stop jumping around trying to 'help' until Rotxo pulls him down and makes him just lay down with him
Spider is a very independent person which follows in how he is when he is sick, Rotxo is not...which also follows into him being sick. Given he's fucking huge, he normally gets his way if he tries to octopus arm him
Spider is an act of service type but is normally put on less physical tasks in the village due to the species difference. Given Rotxo is the same way and gets to fill that role more often. Spider uses sick days to show off a bit lmao.
Rotxo is a big baby when he's sick tho so he loves the attention and thrives on having an excuse to be a baby about whatever he wants
The only downside is he WILL get someone else sick without a doubt
When he is injured, however, he gets angsty and protective - he feels way too reminded of his own vulnerabilities and mortality which only makes his seeing his mate and childrens that much worse
Spider will be the type constantly watching the door and trying to lock down the marui or pod subconsciously - given how little he grew up with, he's very protective of his space and people
Rotxo struggles with this a bit more when he is injured since he doesn't like being confined and it makes him feel weak and disrespected if he isn't allowed to protect them - babying is only fun on the rare occasions the na'vi gets sick
Spider is the type though who wants to hunker down when he's hurt but will try to suppress it. He's prone to pushing himself too far when he's badly hurt since he's bruised up or sore a lot of the time
When he's sick, he's the type to ignore it and work through it, even though it's 10x worse for him to keep pushing when his body isn't made for the environment
He's also an isolator since he has value issues in not wanting to be a hinderance
Rotxo spends a lot of time forcefully babying him when he is sick which is more than they care to admit since homie has no concept of what his limits are (or he just refuses to admit them)
Since TWN S1 dropped, people have argued on here nonstop about Jaskier..., is he tough, is he soft, is he sweet, is he feral, (and on and on)
Firstly, the most obvious answer is that people are many things at once. Obviously. These things are not mutually exclusive.
But also. Guys this is all extremely, wildly relative.
Think about it.
To Jaskier's terrifyingly powerful friends (Geralt can kill like ten people at once, Yen burns whole armies) he's just a little wet kitten. He's a precious little package to look after when times get scary.
But compared to other POETS? Other ACADEMICS? Other MINOR NOBLES? he is inSANE.
Imagine him teaching at Oxenfurt. The youths are like HOLY FUCK , this man has walked the entire continent. He has seen five hundred kinds of deadly monsters, and lived to tell. He's survived kidnappings, walked through war zones, he has mementos from like three different historical battles on his walls. His dearest friends (family, really) are people who are sung about in dark cottages like they are demons and world destroyers. HIS BABY NIECE IS LIKE *THE* WORLD DESTROYER TO SOME PEOPLE. He understands war strategy, every single aspect of every faction, and how to survive almost anything.
He would be so intimidating to them.
Then Geralt and Yen come to visit and squish his cheeks like look, it's our soft little baby, we need to check on him because he cannot fend for himself. I hope no one here has hurt his feelings, we have learned that he hates that so we no longer allow it.
And he's like...can I come on this mission?
And they're like idk it's so dangerous for you.
And the students are like ????????
Steven Krueger’s funeral party is my new favorite thing ever
I've seen this before but he did his hair in the dreads to try and mimic Jake; no one ever really taught him how to maintain or care for his hair. After getting taken, his hair is in such bad condition they shave it to his scalp.
It grows back curly and darker than he expected. It takes a while to thicken but Kiri rubs salves and oils into his hair to help. When its finally back in decent shape she and Tsireya go to town braiding an styling it.
He ends up with longer hair eventually that is in Viking braids to the back of his head, then it's a messy bunch of curls down to his shoulders.
Once he is accepted into the family, Neytiri helps him braid in family beads to remind him that he's theirs now. It's small but she needs him to know she's there.
Tuk likes to collect shells and pretty stones to make jewelry and she ends up using some to braid into his hair - her other siblings don't let her but Spider can seriously not say no to her
He and Tsireya get along a lot better than anyone expected
After getting tortured and having to deal with so much so fast, her calming presence does really well for him. Plus, he has all the blackmail she could want on Lo'ak
They also are both secret gossips and will sneak away for "lessons" where they ride her ilu and talk shit
Rotxo takes a special liking to Spider and it freaks Ao'nung and Lo'ak the fuck out
Netyam (cause he's alive here bitch) is hovering constantly trying to make sure he's not getting bullied but they just genuinely vibe together
Rotxo has a crush on Spider and Kiri. They both know about him liking the other but not themselves.
Spider is demi/bi, Kiri is demi/ace, Lo'ak is bi, Neteyam is gay, Tisreya has no damn clue, Ao'nung is bi but closeted, and Rotxo is pan.
About half the younger na'vi love Spider cause funny little monkey boy and y'know, life is already weird and the other half woul lowkey drown him if left alone
That goes for Lo'ak too but that's just cause he's a little shit
You know those like kittens raised with dogs and shit where it's just one tiny fluffball fully convinced they're on the same level as a fucking rottweiler?? Yeah thats Spider
Spoilers for school spirits season 2 finale!!
Okay as a Charley stan first and a human being second: I have so many conflicting feelings about his scar in the finale but I just know nick had the time of his life filming that shit
I saw a post discussing Spiders hair earlier and I can’t get it out of my mind. For anyone who doesn’t know, I study theater design and I can’t get over how good of a design choice it would have been to have Spiders head shaved by the RDA.
Spiders dreads are a combatted topic 24/7, but think of it from a narrative stand point. He has dreads to resemble Jake, his hero and desired father figure, but his dreads are choppy and awkward. Jake’s are maintained and well cared for with a regular length and size in comparison to Spiders which are a multitude of lengths, more matted than styled, and just overall poorly done. However, Spider clings to them thinking it makes him more like the na’vi and pass him better as one of the people. He thinks it claims him to a family.
His hair is something of his identity but also a self-proclaimed attachment to Jake that more accurately shows how separate he is from them - his hair is uncared for and shows he’s a child without anyone to help him with it. It moreso shows him as the “stray” he’s fighting not to be.
With that emotional connection in mind, consider the RDA shaving his head. They’re all forced submission and conformity, thinking he looks too savage and too wild by having dreaded hair or stripes on his skin. They shave it and leave it choppy and uneven. It’s embarrassing and a humiliation tactic where he’s left feeling stripped of part of his identity and forced closer to humanity while also having it poorly done as a reminder that no one cared for him enough to do it well.
Consider Quaritch stepping in, all bravado and false fatherly love, sitting him down on their first night out and gently shaving his hair down. Imagine him shaving it into the same crop he wore in his life until it’s even and clean. It’s the first time his hair has been done and cared for properly since his early childhood when Norm still did it for him.
Except this time it’s Quaritch claiming him - bringing out the family resemblance through his hair, marking him as his own in the way Spider always begged someone would, but also marking him distinctly as human. As loved only by those he hates. Imagine the emotional manipulation of his hair being done for the first time by Quaritch after he watched Neytiri and Jake care for their own children’s his whole life.
Imagine him in the reef, blood on his hands and knowing Quaritch is alive, with no braids in his hair, no dreads, and nothing to tie him back to who he was. Kiri trying to thread her fingers into nothing, Spider shivering with nothing on his neck, and then laying there with his hair beginning to grow and again no one to braid it.
The angst it could be. Hair care can be such an intimate thing, especially in native cultures. They missed such a great opportunity to explore a visual cue of everything Spider went through without having to make it gory or too intense. But not only that, it could have shown his arc after with his hair showing where he ends - preferably braided and neat, shells and beads woven in, and him visually showing the change of course his life takes
This is how I view Rotxo in my writing, he needs some focus
So first things first, physically, Rotxo is short for a na'vi
Poor boy is the na'vi equivalent of a human 5'8" - he's not really that short but also, he will be bullied relentlessly
However, he is b u i l t
He's bulky and puts on muscle easily. (Though he has a little bit of a dad bod cause as he should - like as close as fat muscular as a na'vi body can be lmao)
He keeps the sides of his head shaved and the top in a half braided, half curly look that reaches about his mid-shoulder blades
Google says na'vi are 10' so he's like ,,, 9'6"? short king
Partially why he relishes having a human mate cause like ,, he can't talk shit
He wears an obscene amount of beads and jewelry - he is the oldest brother of his 8 siblings (poor boy has three older sisters and three younger, he is one of two boys in the whole house) and they don't mess around in decorating their big brother
Onto personality, he's a big softie
But he's aggressively protective of his family - something he got from growing up with Ronal as his third mom
He grew up prepared to be Ao'nungs right hand, but he didn't always have the drive to be a warrior
He liked the idea but never felt connected to it. It was just a part of the future he was meant to reach
it wasn't until he was pulling desperately at a bomb on Payakans fin and watching Lo'ak sob over his bleeding brother that he realized why he was going to be a warrior
He always mentally attributes his finding reason in his training to Lo'ak and his strength
So he starts training and learning to fight with a newfound passion
Having always been Ao'nungs right hand, its his plan to follow at his side once he's chief and protect their people
Family is the most important thing in their culture and Tonowari has been such a prominent figure in his life that it's his goal to live and die for them
...he needs some help with the self-love and valuing his worth too man
It's part of how he and Spider bond
He's made a majority of his life around Ao'nung and being there for the clan that he forgot to care about himself or really learn about himself as his own person
He finds out he likes cooking while trying to figure out how to not poison Spider after an unfortunate courting accident
He and Lo'ak bond by combining fighting styles and their culture
It's the culture that also helps him bond with Kiri, a surprise to everyone except Spider who knew they'd get on from the start
However, his favorite hobby is fishing - which he gets teased for relentlessly
For all his mischief and jokes, he's an old man at heart
He 100% can and will disappear become he was just vibing out on the water for hours and lost track of time
During which he also attempts to bring home little gifts constantly
He gets it from his little siblings but he's the type to bring you a rock he found and say it was pretty and reminded him of you
So all of his friends have jars of shells, rocks, flowers, etc that he finds for them
However, he also has a habit of collecting strays
He just takes shit home
An octopus was the worst until he showed up two orphaned ash boys that never left
Spider is passionate that its why he fell for him and very smugly holds up that he has a solid argument
But honestly Rotxo just cannot stand someone being alone
He grew up surrounded by so much love and so many people he cared for that the thought of someone being alone when he could fix it makes him feel sick
He is fucking terrified of crabs tho
Tsireya hung one from his loincloth when they were children and ah...things got pinched
Ao'nung used it to torture him growing up and now the one thing he struggle to accept as Ewya's are crabs
Honestly crustaceans in general
He hates them
Learning Spider could eat them was a blessing and a curse
Cause one, easy food to find and two, he gets to see them die (sorry Ewya) but that also means he has to help catch crabs for his family
As teens, it wasn't horrible. But by the time they are grown with 4 kids, it's actually his nightmare
He is a practical joker
He brings it out in Ao'nung too and they can rival Lo'ak and Spider for the amount of mischief they get into
Though theirs is normally innocent and not death or war inducing
The worst thing they ever did was sink a fishing ship - Lo'ak and Spider got kidnapped, they're doing fine
Constantly torn between big brother instinct and little brother instinct
He's the big brother but also,,, 3 big sisters feels like he should have a pass
He isn't as close to them as he'd like
The oldest two are mated to other water clans and the oldest still home is distant, they don't get on super well, but he was close with all three when he was a child
Well, they played a lot.
His mothers are both very doting parents and very loving, but for some reason there was always a disconnect with his directly older sister
The other two are still friendly and loving when they visit, just not as common in his life anymore while she is just ... separate. She hasn't been herself in years
It makes him the acting oldest and he takes that very seriously
He has three little sisters and then the youngest of the family is another boy, all of which are a decent amount younger than him
It wasn't planned that way but he likes having the gap between them, it gives him enough distance to care for them but enough closeness to enjoy them still
They're as much the bane of his existence as they are the joy of it
He will boast about them relentlessly while also trying to drown one because 8 kids was simply 7 too many
Tuk loves the littles though and so he spends a lot of time babysitting with Spider or Neteyam - the two that really get the big brother thing in the two ways he normally expresses it
All in all, he is a big family-loving, lowkey gym buff, softie that needs to learn to love himself
But, until he does, he has a small army prepared to do it for him
I need to keep expanding on this but I needed these thoughts out. Rotxo really hasn't gotten the development he deserves and I can't wait to see how he gets fleshed out
Thinking about a Kiri desperate for answers who begs Ewya to see her, to talk to her, to just give her a chance. About her slipping into the water and connecting to the tree of souls when she knows she can’t. About her crying into warm sand as she racks her brain for memories she can’t quite reach and not knowing if they’re even hers.
About a Kiri meeting an aunt she never met, who brushes the hair from her face and whispers about before all this. About a school yard and a her mother as little as Tuk. She dreams of glimpses of red hair and a teacher, not a mother yet. She can’t imagine a life as peaceful as that could really be real.
A Kiri who opens her eyes and is immediately on the floor, a narrow eyed man pulls her up and holds her shoulder tight as if he didn’t shove her to the dirt the moment before. Tsutey is barely there before he is gone but she feels strong as stone. She wants to ask what he was going to say but the ground under her feet is growing growing growing until the earth reclaims her as it did him.
Her grandfather is found when she tries to bond to a tree with a shimmer in its bark. Is not a soul tree but she thinks there’s something there. He whispers about failures. About passing his burden to his youngest daughter’s oldest son. How he almost ended a cycle. How he didn’t.
She never thought about the people in bridgehead that were like Norm, Max, Trudy, Grace - they couldn’t be people in the stories or else the fires were too hot. But she breathes in the air of one of Norms meal kits and the metal floor beneath her feet is littered with candy wrappers and paper. There’s laughter, clinking of vials, a song humming through a tinny radio, and humanity feels a little too real. Her skin suddenly feels thin, her bones weaker. Her body is too big and too awkward but there’s a haze she hopes they felt all the way til the end. She never forgets how warm the sun through a window felt on such fragile skin.
Spider is so small and so stubborn and she can’t protect him. She’s screaming into the soil, begging for her mother to tell her what to do, and then the smoke fills her lungs. She gasps, breathing in fumes and choking on the poison when his eyes meet hers. Paz Socorro has his eyes, his curls in darker little ringlets. She cries, sobbing just like Kiri. She tried to get home, she tried not to leave him. She didn’t mean to start the pattern. She was only 23, she’d never done this before. Her plane burns and all she can taste are ashes but she feels her strength in her bones, trembling as they are, and she marches home like she doesn’t remember what fire tastes like.
The answers never come plain and sometimes Kiri doesn’t think she’s one person. She thinks she’s a collection. All the souls lost on pandora, gathered and loved with her ancestors or buried beneath the dirt she walks over. She tries though, again and again and again because the heartbeat thunders so loud that she swears it’s thousands of them, begging her to find them. She loves them as much as she hates them. She clings to her mother, the large and the small, and speaks with the only voice that doesn’t shake. Thinking about Kiri who calls it a blessing because a curse is ungrateful and she can’t call them something so cruel. She was never a little girl in the same way there’s always one reaching for her hand in the quiet seconds between minutes. Thinking about how Kiri can never just be Kiri but the way it’s integral to her that she can’t ever just be the one girl she was born as. How she’s not even sure which one that is.
Aster!Multifandom headcanons, drabbles and more! 18+ for NSFW ~ 22, She/her
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