Undoing Fate

I feel like the group came together slowly through coincidences.

Like I can see Philip, Penelope, and Michel meeting in college. Philip and Penelope bonded over running away from their families and Michael took them under his wing (or rather Penelope and Philip often brought his drunk as home).

Simon and Gareth knew each other through Lady Danbury and Simon took Gareth under his wing as they bonded over shitty fathers.

Kate and Sophie meet in high school where Kate notices how bad things are for her underclassman friend and Kate's family takes her in.

The small groups come together to form the large group gradually. Kate and Sophie would meet Michael, Philip, and Penelope when they take Edwina to move her stuff into her dorm room, where Michael is the RA and Philip and Penelope are there with him. Kate gets their numbers and keeps in contact with them to make sure her baby sister is okay, but gradually their chat shifts to more casual conversation and soon they are meeting for drinks along with Sophie.

Simon and Kate actually meet when Lady Danbury sets the two up on a blind date (or rather tricked them into). The two end up realizing neither is interested in dating but like the other as a friend. So they keep in contact as well and Simon joins Kate and the others on their pub nights.

Gareth meets everyone when Simon asks Michael, Philip, and Penelope to look out for him at school. Lucy is the last to join and only because Gareth spotted her moving in by herself and his "shitty family life" sense tingle. He messages the group that night.

Gareth: I have found the eighth member for our group!

Sophie: Please stop making us sound like a cult.

Michael: Sophie's right. Our group only drinks the finest whiskey, not koolaid!

Penelope: Sometimes I think we should have left him on the doorstep of that church.

Philip: He'd have seduced the nuns.

Simon: Better than when we had to bail him out of jail that one time.

Yeah, that's how I picture it, they start with small groups then those groups mix and expand.

Penelope met Phillip and Michael when the university she went to decided since she graduated a year early to make their room a coed one in hopes she'll feel more comfortable rooming with an RA. Michael was ecstatic to gain a new little freshman and immediately adopted her into their friend group. Penelope and Phillip sometimes wonder how they are more responsible than their RA who they dragged back to the dorms more than once while he was drunk off his ass. Phillip and Penelope really bonded when they researched poisonous plants together for one of Penelope's stories.

Kate and Sophie met in high school where they became pretty good friends. Sophie stayed at the Sharma's a lot to get away from her stepmother and when Araminta kicks Sophie out Mary immediately demands for Kate to bring her home to the Sharmas.

When Edwina started college Kate met up with her sister's RA to ask if he could once in a while update her on her baby sister. She was surprised when she was handed three phone numbers.

"Those are Phillip and Penelope's numbers on their as well," Michael said. "Trust me you want their numbers too."

Kate soon found out why. Phillip and Penelope were much more reliable on answering her texts. But she did like all three of them and it wasn't long before their conversations became more casual and friendly. (Edwina was so thankful for this. The trio really did her a solid when they kept their updates very basic, and they were quiet about her new relationship until she was ready to tell Kate. They really knew how to manage overprotective family members.)

It's not long until Phillip and Penelope lose a bet and now has to get a tattoo. Michael texts Kate. Your friend Sophie is a tattoo artist right?

Sophie, who was saving up to open up her own shop after she finished her apprenticeship, agreed to take them. Kate went with to the appointment because she was curious which tattoos Michael would choose for Phillip and Penelope.

Phillip ended up with a row of flower on his lower back. Sophie didn't say anything when she noticed some scars that would be covered by the design. Meanwhile Penelope got a quill pen dripping ink on her back left shoulder.

"A pen for Pen." Michael grinned.

"And a tramp stamp for Phillip," Penelope giggled as Phillip flipped Michael off.

"Oh well, Phillip will just have to get a whole garden on his back now," Michael said, not at all sorry.

"We're leaving you on the church steps next time," Phillip threatened.

After that the two groups started hanging out on a regular basis.

Simon and Gareth have known each other practically since Gareth was born mainly due to the fact they are the only relatives that Lady Danbury likes. They form a brotherly bond and Simon takes Gareth under his wing.

When Lady Danbury and Mary reconnected as friends she brought Simon along in hopes that maybe she can get a little matchmaking in.

Kate and Sophie like Simon and figure he would get along with the trio too, so they invite him out with them. They're right and the group adds one more person to their group.

Penelope accidentally outs him as the Duke of Hastings though because she remembers his name from her time as a rich kid. (That's ok, he was about to out himself anyway when he ordered one of the most expensive drinks in the bar and didn't even bat an eye at the price.) This is also the night where Kate and Sophie learn that Michael and Phillip also came from old money, but they were allowed more freedoms because they were considered the spares so they're rarely ever home. Penelope admits she grew up in high society, but her family was new money, and she hasn't been back since she left for university.

When Gareth starts university it's the same one that the trio graduated from. Simon asks Phillip and Penelope if they can show his little cousin around. Michael pretends to take offense when Kate says to him that Gareth already has Simon for a bad influence, he doesn't need Michael too.

Speaking of bad influences guess who Simon took to Sophie's shop to get a tattoo for his 18th birthday. Yup, it's Gareth. Sophie took this one out of her normal hours so the rest of the group cold meet him too. They liked him and adopted him into the group.

Lucy was the last to join. The university accidently made another coed room again this time with Gareth and Lucy. Gareth's shitty home life senses started tingling and by the end of the week he was ready to drag her to meet the group.

Gareth: Guess what!

Kate: Sophie and or Michael got arrested again? Did Penelope make another businessman cry after giving him a verbal lashing?

Sophie: THAT WAS ONE TIME!

Penelope: HE DESERVED IT! THE PRINTER BOYS NEEDED A RAISE!

Gareth: No but someone better share those stories later. I have found our eighth member! Now we'll be evened out! Four boys and four girls!

Phillip: Gareth, you have to stop making us sound like a cult.

Michael: I agree! We only drink the finest of drinks.

Simon: On my dime.

Kate: Your fancy people tastes won't let us go somewhere in our price range.

Sophie: And we're not forcing Michael to hang out at his own club on his days off.

Penelope: We should, he might start acting right if he's in his own club. At least we won't have to worry about him seducing nuns.

Michael: Hey I resent that!

Phillip: Too bad.

Gareth: GUYS! Her name is Lucy, she's coming out with us tonight. She's read all of this over my shoulder and I'm adding her to the chat now.

Lucy: Um, hi?

A small sketch of ashen teenagers. I don't think there are only three children of the age of Ttrong, Oare and Txon in the clan. And here's a squad of Pandora's tightly beaten teenagers!

og from: s_cringiest on twitter (elleielle on bluesky)

Is there a fanfic about it?! Can someone make a fanfic about this please!!!

sometimes I go a little crazy and imagine the complex grief Neteyam would have gone through had Spider died in place of him.

the grief that comes with losing your best friend and big brother—

because that's what he was. long ago, when you were little kids, and he still was now, even though you pushed him away, the bond never died, you just abandoned it, and it would be hard, but if you walked up to him he would have taken you back in a heartbeat, arms wide and open and warm, burying his own hurt to keep you close. and you know that. you know he would have, but you never did. you never went back, because it would sting, it would press on old wounds, and it would have upset your parents and your clan and... and you weren't brave enough for that.

—but you couldn't call him that.

he was different than you. a human. a demon. an outcast. quietly removed from you and your home and the forest and your family and your siblings and your clan and even the other humans.

because he was different.

he was unloved by your people. and now a foreign stranger in your new home. they hold no love or memory or any sympathy for him that went past basic compassion and sadness for a child, if even that. he was nothing to them. they did not know he was good. that he was kind. that he was strong. that he would have done anything for his siblings, even you, with all your faults. they did not know.

and you're the perfect eldest child in their eyes, not a boy who would have curled up in the protection of that human boy's arms in an instant if you weren't afraid of being judged. they don't know the conflict that lives in your heart and mind. they don't understand you the way he did, even in his silent watch over you, for all those years you wouldn't call him brother, but he still loved you like one. they don't understand anything about you and what you keep under your facade of a young warrior, eldest son of the Sully's, mature and wise for your age. they don't know that you needed him, you just didn't know how to get him back.

and now no one around you— not even your siblings who will long hold a degree of animosity towards you, no matter how small or subconscious, for all the years they watched you ditch them in favor of duties and push Spider away instead of being their brother, making them a quartet and not a quintet, forcing that awkward tension on them that they'll always have to remember —understands your loss.

not your parents or your new clan, not even your old one will. not your friends or your siblings. not even you.

none of them will understand that he mattered to you. that under the illusion of not needing him or wanting him or considering him family like your siblings did. of seeing him as your mother did, a demon who belonged with his own kind. or passively letting him float in and out of your life because you had bigger, better, more important duties to fulfill, and settling on in or out was too hard. or that when you saw him play and goof off and mess around with your siblings, you wanted to join. or that this entire time in this new home, with things ever so slightly getting better with Lo'ak, you wished he was there too, so maybe things would finally be good.

the friend, the brother, the protector, the shield, the warm smile and golden hair and barking laugh and ever beckoning hand, begging you to join him on an adventure you once knew, is dead. he is dead and gone, and with him died every chance you might have had to fix it. and you will live with your guilt for life, and the fear that comes when you don't have your big brother to look out for you anymore.

and no one understands his grief. he is alone in it. he will feel like a stranger, overstepping a boundary he placed. and he is scared because his big brother is gone. everything he has to face, he has to face scared and alone.

he will be shut out of his siblings grief, just out of how their relationship with one another and Spider was, because their bond is too strained, and he missed out on so much time with them and with Spider and them as a whole. he doesn't fit with their grief.

his parents will want to support him and love him, but Spider mattered very little to them. they were the reason Neteyam pulled away to begin with. Spider wasn't his brother in their minds. they could never support him the way he needed.

the Metkayina, no matter their love or care or sympathy for Neteyam, can't help either.

he is alone. living with his grief. with his regrets. with his pain. it's overwhelming and all consuming. and he will continue to try and act like everything is fine, because he doesn't know what else to do.

they make me fucking insane

Für Lucy

“Can you imagine how romantic it would be to move into a new house as newlyweds during the Christmas season? Not only would my future husband carry me over the threshold, he’d kiss me under the mistletoe while he did it.”

“Is that so?”

“Well, I should hope so.” She bumped his shoulder with hers and snickered. “For your future partner’s sake, I hope you’re not quite as thick-headed with them.”

3.1k words. Look everyone! I finally wrote something new and it’s Peanuts

read on [AO3] or [FFN]

I am so glad to see a nuance take on their relationship where neither of them is demonised.

Especially when we uave someone like Jake who sjould kbow what PTSD is like and how to deal with it but I feel like he's just pushing the problem away abd hoping it would fix itself.

Just some reflections on Tiri idk—

It’s tragic how Neytiri doesn’t actually have any way of expressing her trauma or PTSD. The few times she tries to bring up her thoughts and concerns and inner pain, in her own way, Jake either takes offense to it or tries consoling her, when it’s not what she needs. What she needs is to be heard, to process what happened and to be given validity for what she feels. She doesn’t get any of it, so Spider inadvertently becomes her tool for that; an outlet.

Neytiri needs Spider, because he is the only person she can express her trauma through without being dismissed or sounding crazy (in her own mind at least). He becomes a way for her to, more or less safely, express distrust and anger at humans, not for what they are, but for what they’ve done and the destruction they caused, as well as fear that it might happen again, which is a normal reaction to a deeply traumatic event.

What people miss when they feverishly defend Neytiri tho, is that this isn’t a healthy coping mechanism. Spider is a living, breathing individual and a child. He and Neytiri don’t stand on equal ground, and he doesn’t owe being the vessel for her emotions. The things he says in upset, or in that argument scene in high ground, might sound like Spider isn’t getting the bigger picture yet, but how can he, when both he and Neytiri have been blindsided by people who have the education to explain to them the complexity of their emotions and the scars left behind certain experiences?

Tiri is a victim of horrible events, and more so, of emotional neglect, but she also seems to have placed herself and Spider into a relationship where her anger and trauma is projected and managed directly through him. It seems to alleviate some of her anger, temporarily, but doesn’t actually remove it. She just keeps suffering, hence she’s not in the right for this.

(Image source — @/cappedseries)

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Anyway, might delete later if I’m wrong idk.

Fam you treated that kid like trash his whole little life, why are you treating him decently now

Man literally said that the kid was a snitch that would frame them to the RDA (which is why they had to leave the forest) while Spider was literally DYING to not reveal anything, WHY ARE YOU HUGGING HIM JUDAS, STAY AWAY ❗ ❗ ❗ 

Atwow side of TikTok is VERY different from here. For example, they heavily loathe Spider. You cannot say a single good thing about him or defend him on there or you'll be torn to pieces in the comments by people who enjoy bullying a child, regardless of said child being fictional or not.

To those "fans" in particular: Do you honestly think what he did was bad? Sparing an unforgivable man's life? Plenty of heroes do that in media, and those are usually ADULTS.

You have to remember: Spider is not from Earth. He was born and raised on Pandora. He only knows balance, peace, and serenity. He's never once ever dealt with Reddit and the 10 Best Satisfying Revenge Stories that we have here on Earth. All he knows is Eywa and the balance of life.

From what I understand, Spider saw that Neteyam was dead and as a teenager, probably wanted this terrible night to be over. No more death. He saw Quaritch, still alive, and remembered this man protected him and saved him from literal TORTURE.

And besides that, Eywa is a protector of balance. I theorize that with Neteyam already dead, Quaritch needed to live to regain that balance. Eywa is not done yet with Quaritch, and I'm intrigued to see what she has in store for him. To be clear, I'm not defending Quaritch. I don't like Quaritch. He's unforgivable in my eyes.

But Spider? Fuck yes, I'm defending him because he is still a CHILD.

If I, someone born on Earth, were in Spider's place, I would've done A LOT worse, and it would've been intentional if I had been put through the same amount of pain and trauma he was put through. I would've been the quote below:

“A child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth” - African Proverb

Spider is nothing like that. If he were born on Earth, maybe he would've been, but he was born on Pandora. He loves his friends, the Na'vi, and was very clearly distressed whenever the Na'vi, his friends, and their homes were under threat. He begged and pleaded for the Recoms to spare the Ta'unui Clan and their village once they started to kill their ilu and set fire to their homes.

If he were anything like the proverb, I wouldn't blame him for going after all the adults who wronged him. Clan leaders, Na'vi, humans, Hell, especially his foster family. Every single one of those adults failed him, and here's a link to another post that highlights that. So yeah, if he wanted to go after them, I'd probably cheer him on.

I can't fathom hating Spider and defending Neytiri all in the same breath. You're allowed to defend both because both characters went through traumatic stuff (it's not a competition), and both characters had their reasons when it came to their choices.

Another note: I better not hear that these same "fans" decided to go after Jack Champion for his portrayal of Spider or I will lose my fucking mind. It's ACTING.

I'm sorry, we as a society do not talk about the fact that in order to maintain his playboy billionaire status Bruce Wayne had to sleep with a lot of people,, a lot, of people in order to maintain that.

And I'm not shaming him for that, get your hot girl summer brucie hell yea, but what I will say is can you imagine,,,

How hilarious it would be that when eventually Batman's identity gets revealed- it's not the reaction he was expecting.

‘‘Oh my god. Oh my god, Bruce Wayne Bruce Wayne the the bimbo Sexy billionaire boy. He is the stoic hard-ass Batman. There's no way-”that's not the reaction. The reaction is

“holy fucking shit I've slept with Batman”

Three quarters of that city and beyond is sat in front of their TVs, their radios, their phones,, I don't care. They're sitting there, agape going ‘I have slept with the Dark Knight. I have seen Gotham's Bat naked on his knees-‘

bruce wouldn’t be able to look the justice league nor his kids in the eyes for weeks after the reveal, solely due to the gossip channels or smth

[Avatar AU] Jayce struggles with his Avatar form