Avatar AU - Spider's Metamorphosis -
CW: blood, anatomical drawing, partial nudity, body horror.
I’m not really a writer, so I’ll just share a short piece of the story and my general ideas.
You’re free to take inspiration from my ideas and use my drawing with proper credit if you’d like to write it. :]
This AU explores what would happen if Spider underwent a metamorphosis during the eight years between Avatar 3 and Avatar 4.
We know the mycelium in Spider’s body keeps him alive. But what if it felt threatened after the experiments he endured under the RDA? Eywa is not pleased. She sees that her son is defenseless against future threats, so she takes his safety into her own hands and begins to change him.
Spider’s 24 y/o when he is fully na’vi.
It started as a tickle beneath his skin… then it turned into the sensation of worms writhing underneath, and then into something worse: like something was pulling at his bones and flesh.
For the first two years, Spider blamed it on growing pains or lingering effects from his time in the RDA. But the pain only worsened. The movements beneath his skin grew more aggressive. The pressure in his head felt unbearable; his eyes and gums ached constantly. His whole body was tense, like he was always on the verge of cramping.
Some of the others began to notice small changes. They said his eyes looked clearer. Greener in the sunlight and in the ocean water. Bigger, somehow.
One afternoon, while he was at the beach with his friends, a splitting headache struck him and he felt a burning in his eyes unlike anything he had ever experienced. Lo’ak’s anguished shout confused him at first.
“Bro! Your eyes are coming out of your head!”
Lo’ak’s yell alerted the others, and they quickly brought Spider to Neytiri, who was the closest thing the village had to a tsahìk.
Neytiri tended to Spider carefully. She was terrified by the appearance of his eyes — swollen, and if you looked closely, it seemed like worms were moving inside them. And yet, she felt no warning from Eywa. No sense that this was wrong. The Great Mother had a plan… though sadly, it would be painful for Spider.
A week later, his teeth fell out.
Spider’s skin becomes even more translucent as it stretches to fit his new size, making the mycelium beneath visible.
All the bones in his body break in order to accommodate his new height.
The first things to fall out are his teeth, and finally his nails.
A mycelium tail pierces through the skin of his back and slowly grows outward.
Spider’s new stripes are stretch marks from the rapid, excessive growth.
When the changes in his eyes begin, Spider’s vision becomes blurry.
At first, the changes leave him weak, so he needs extensive rest. He receives care from his new family — something he never had as an infant.
After eight years, Spider is taller than Jake. He likes to think he would also be taller than Neteyam… after all, he’s the eldest.
Spider waits until his transformation is complete before visiting Neteyam. He bursts out laughing at the look of astonishment on his face.
The Metkayina struggle to adjust to his transformation. Without Ronal’s spiritual guidance, it takes time for them to recognize Eywa’s new miracle.
Spider begins receiving attention from both men and women in the village. He can’t quite believe they find him attractive.
His sanhì resemble roots spreading across his body — the tips of the mycelium emerging through his skin.
Any Na’vi who touches him can feel the subtle ridges of the network beneath his skin.
Spider develops chronic pain from his reconstructed bones.
His PTSD from his time with the RDA remains intact.
For six years, he experiences intermittent disability. After his bones break, they are fragile for months. Sometimes he has to crawl across the sand; other times, his family carries him through the village.
Before his spine fractures, Kiri feels Eywa’s call in the forest near the village and brings Spider there. Eywa wraps him in a cocoon of roots and mycelium, where the most painful part of the transformation is completed.
The most significant stages of the transformation happen while Spider is unconscious, preferably inside a cocoon formed by Eywa.
During his time in the cocoon, Spider feels no pain; he exists in a spiritual limbo.
