Tin

Oel ngati kameie!!! You're finally on Tumblr. I hope you enjoy all the Sotey/Tam'lek art and stories to be found here!

artist: HiKu

Back on schedule. I’m writing more backstory for her. She is my Sarentu but I have two AU for her. One for the game and one outside the game to interact with other peoples oc.

So like, I don’t have an issue with Na’vi that use metal weapons vs Na’vi that only use their own. I acknowledge that canon Tamtey does use both. I didn’t think Neytiri and the Metkayina’s aversion to RDA gear in F&A was bad, nor do I think Nor’s repulsion of metal in its entirety is either. These are all valid trauma responses that simply is not an issue.

The only issue, in my opinion, is when Nor bleeds his internalized disgust onto others. This has always been one of his flaws. He upchucks his self loathing onto everyone else. Unintentionally instilling doubt into Tamtey during their iknimaya as just one example. But now he’s significantly more forceful with it. No longer slips of the tongue, but intentional weaponization. Yelling at Rasi for being open minded. Scolding Ri’nela for how he thinks she should behave as tsahìk. Going from idolizing So’lek to, apparently, seeing him as a cautionary tale.

As sad as it makes me, I can understand how Nor, completely on his own, has spiraled in this way. He needs to bleed. He has so much hatred for himself that he simply can’t hold all of it. And the toxicity is that he can only release it onto others. It needs to come out, but Nor has only ever allowed himself to remember pain and know pain, and so his only coping mechanisms are letting his insecurities leak out or forming them into weapons himself. I hope I’m making sense.

Nor’s aversion to metal is not the issue. It is, and has always been, the ways he (unintentionally or intentionally) hurts others when trying to cope with his trauma. And his self imposed isolation after stabbing Alma’s avatar has clearly heightened these unhealthy habits to dangerous levels.

And I do think some part of Nor, maybe subconsciously, is aware he’s spiraling out of control. He returns to save the Sarentu, but he refuses to fully join them. Watching them all embrace So’lek after the Wukula fight, watching from a distance everyone bond with the tarsyu. We are Sarentu while Nor chooses to stand on a cliff by himself. The Sarentu are his family, he says this and he does recognize Ri’nela as his tsahìk, and yet he still cannot really go to them.

meanwhile AO3: so everything is free in our house. read whatever you want offline. also no ads. no capitalism. no censorship. be as wild as you want with your fics. also we have tagging systems so you can search or avoid any specific tags, pairings, relationships or characters. whatever you want.