Sylva

had to draw this text meme from @your-royal-momoness (tho i'm not even a huge zukka person tbh):

i keep wanting to draw ideas beyond my skill level, pray 4 me like seriously drawing poses from scratch and stuff is NOT my strong suit cuz i usually just redraw screencaps and i didn't even know what to look up for references LOL

also not sure if i 100% like adult zuko's hair design... hmm...

one minute, Spider was in his arms, bleeding. writhing. small, aborted sounds of pain working through him.

the bullet had entered his back, and came out of his ribs. his lungs. Neteyam knew that it had hit his lungs. Neteyam was far from stupid. he knew from the path of the bullet. he knew because Spider wasn't breathing, instead he was gurgling, nearly gagging with every attempt of a breath. blood trickled from his lips, down from his nostrils. flecking against his visor.

he looked so scared, and yet... he was hardly trying to show it.

he kept squaring his jaw and pressing his eyes shut a moment, before looking back up at Neteyam, or forcing his head to turn slightly to look at Lo'ak, who's arm was reached behind him to keep a hand bound around Spider's bicep.

Spider had long stopped trying to talk. every time he tried, he'd slip, losing his composure, whimpering into the open air, but even that was painful, and turned to choked grunts of agony. body trembling harder then it did when it was just shock and cold rattling his bones.

Neteyam would hush him, promising the would talk later,

"save your words, Sp– brother, please," he murmured, trying to get Spider to look at him again, words stammering out of him with none of the calm charisma he had tried so hard to develop, "please, it's ok. it's ok, just relax. we're going to find father... my father. and it's going to be alright."

he knew he was lying, deep down, but what else could he say? you are dying, and I can't save you? you're going to bleed out in my arms, and I can't do anything but barely call you my brother?

in reality, he was just copying Lo'ak, who had been murmuring something along those lines over his shoulder this whole time.

Neteyam didn't know how to explain it in any way that made sense. but this seemed... easier... for Lo'ak, then it was for him.

not that Lo'ak wasn't scared or trying desperately to save Spider or already grieving in a way. far from it, Neteyam could see him unraveling by the second. but he seemed... he seemed to know what to say. what to do, enough at least. calling Spider his bro. his brother. telling him that they were going to get him help. his voice was shaking with fear, but he sounded like he could believe it in that moment. like he knew Spider would believe him. like the words came naturally. like they'd been said before, even if calmer in lesser circumstances.

while Neteyam had no clue. he lacked all confidence. he didn't even know if he could call Spider is brother.

but he did.

and he told him to be calm. and Spider did. with this this look of "only for you; don't be scared; it's ok, I'm ok". Neteyam hated it, that Spider was wasting energy on making him feel better. beneath that, something in Neteyam was eternally grateful that his big brother was here.

"Lo'ak, faster," he pleaded, knowing that they were going as fast as this ilu would allow, but it still wasn't fast enough. "please."

Lo'ak's head turns at the sound. Neteyam never begged. but he was begging now. Lo'ak nodded. murmuring more words of comfort to Spider, and in a way, Neteyam too.

he held Spider closer in one arm, tucking him up towards his chest, trying to cradle his head best he could to help him breathe, to keep his eyes locked on his face, while his other hand was still pressed firmly into the wound, crimson coating it. he could feel blood flowing in time with the rabbit's pace of Spider's heart, but couldn't seem to find the clipped artery to stop it. he couldn't bring himself to dig his fingers too deep, partly because of his own nausea, and partly because inflicting that pain on his brother was impossible. he simply couldn't, not even to save his life.

he heard his father's voice.

his eyes hesitated to leave Spider the first time. Spider's face was grey and washed out, paler and cooler then Neteyam had ever seen it. in a matter of minutes, Spider had gone from the energetic human he was used to, back on the ship, to looking gaunt and exhausted. eyes sunken, skin dull. his attempts at breathing were getting harder and harder, more desperate, yet waning. the hunger for air and the... the exhaustion... started to come head to head in their battle for dominance over his brother. Spider'sashes fluttered over confused irises that were clearly struggling to track anything anymore. eyes bobbing between the bright eclipsing sun and Neteyam's face.

he was scared to look away.

but then he heard his name, and his head snapped up.

"Neteyam!" his father called, sounding scared. he hated hearing his father scared. it rattled him like he was still 5 and small and helpless.

"Dad!" he called back, already trying to move to slide off the ilu, holding Spider tight, "Dad he's hit! he's– he can't breathe."

he looked down at Spider again— it had only been a few seconds that his eyes were off of him —wanting to make sure he wasn't hurting him as he slid from the ilu.... but Spider was still.

too still.

his mask was no longer clicking with hiccups of air.

his eyes were still.

empty.

dimmed of color and clarity. pupil blown wide and slightly milky with death.

staring up at nothing. past Neteyam. past the smoke. past the sun.

Neteyam went still. cradling his older brother close.

this couldn't be real. they'd been so close. his father was feet away now. he could have... he would... there was a chance. he could have helped Spider. his best friend. his brother. didn't need to die.

they were supposed to get him help.

why did he slip away at the last second before?

he shook him slightly, barely an inch. barely a jostle. but he did.

Spider didn't react. just lolled pliantly, before sinking back into Neteyam's chest heavily. something about death made someone heavier. he was heavier now. in a way that felt like it would suck Neteyam to the bottom of the ocean.

Neteyam felt himself gag. his skin crawling where it touched Spider's. like it could feel the death spreading through him, and it wished to recoil far away, while his heart desperately tried to cling to Spider tighter. like if he held him close, he couldn't get too far away, and maybe they could pull him back.

seconds passed like hours.

Lo'ak hadn't realized yet. he's trying to hurry them, actually sliding off the ilu, like Neteyam had intended, arms outstretched to take Spider from him.

"Bro come on!" he shouted, "Neteyam, we gotta help him," oh his voice was shaking, Neteyam could hear it. it's all he could hear. the only thing he could look to, that wasn't Spider's empty gaze, were the tears in Lo'ak's burning yellow eyes, "please bro, c'mon, give him!"

Neteyam looked at Spider again.

he was gone. Neteyam knew that.

"Neteyam!" Jake shouted again, now running across the rocks and into the water on their side.

he saw it before Lo'ak did. or, they both saw it. but he understood it, like Neteyam did, while Lo'ak could not yet comprehend that Spider was beyond saving. that he had already died behind him, in Neteyam's arms.

"Kid..." Jake murmured, only to get shoved by Lo'ak.

"Help him!" Lo'ak pleaded, not understanding why the two were so still. why they had stopped. "Spider, c'mon bro."

he got better footing on the rocks, finally having the purchase to try and take him from Neteyam... and he finally saw his face.

his best friend was dead.

and he had never seen his older brother so close to breaking.

Neteyam was just... holding him. just like he had before he... before he went still. cradled close with one arm. hand pressed to a wound that no longer weeped in time with Spider's heart. straddling the ilu's back, knee held high enough to keep Spider's wounds and cooling body out of the water.

it had been to protect him from pain and delving deeper into shock and tremors just moments ago, but now... now Neteyam felt like letting Spider slip into the bloody, tainted water was desecration

"no no no–" Lo'ak murmured, hand shooting out last Neteyam's to feel Spider's still chest, "Spider, please bro."

he shook Spider's chest lightly. then looked up at Neteyam. his stare was half as vacant as their brother's.

it made this real. Spider was really dead.

Neteyam had looked away for one moment, and Spider silently slipped away. and now he had one dead brother laid in his arms. and another brother looking to him for an answer, when he could hardly move.

"Neteyam..." Jake started, voice soft, "let's get him up here on the rocks."

he offered to take Spider, but Neteyam wouldn't let him. something in him bristled at the concept of his father laying a hand on Spider after all he'd done. abandoning him. trying to send him away. treating him like a stray.

his father, in a split second, stopped being the potential hero, and only something to keep away from Spider.

he finally slid off the ilu, Lo'ak's hands surged to press against Spider, as if... not like he thought Neteyam would drop him, but... more like him falling was inevitable, unless he held him there. just like Spider slipping away behind his back, in utter silence, no warning, had been inevitable.

Lo'ak is crying, silently, face twisting. Neteyam hates it. he hates seeing his siblings upset.

his own face itches. warm. maybe he's crying too. he is. tears are dripping down on Spider's bloodied visor.

he carries Spider like he's fragile. his second arm slowly unembedding itself from his wound, fingers pulling away from the tacky edges, still coated in crimson. it now tucks under his knees and reaches towards his back, towards the entrance wound. holding the older boy firmly above the water, while Lo'ak keeps Spider's head steady, letting his father pull him up onto the rocks by his free arm, and pulling Neteyam momentarily by his bicep, before returning to Spider.

they both ignore how Spider's limbs hang uselessly. how blood has streaked every inch of his skin. how his skin has changed from a warm tan shade they recognize, to this grey tone. how he's not breathing. how the more declined position has caused a current of blood to escape his lips. a trickle, not a gush, but still a terrible scene.

they carry him like he could still be saved. only to drop to the rocks with him in mourning.

Neteyam curled around Spider, crying as freely as he could manage. a skill he lost long ago. Lo'ak held Spider's arm tightly in his hands, kneeling beside him, staring up at the sky.

he didn't understand how the only person he thought could understand him was gone. he didn't understand how to be strong, when Neteyam wasn't. he didn't know how this was real.

he keeps trying to speak, but no words come, until he just gives up.

Neteyam stares and stares and stares, like in a moment Spider might gasp a breath of life. he doesn't. but eventually his father kneels down, hand on his shoulder, asking where the girls are.

he can't think. he can't answer. his father's hand is warm, but almost scalding in a way. the grief, if it could be called that, had already left his face. Neteyam knew they had to get the girls, he wanted to go get them. but it made his gut churn that his father could move on so quickly. not even a tear glistening at his waterline.

and his Mother is landing, running over to his bloodied form with desperate cries of his name, for Eywa'a, leading for a wound that wasn't his, but she believed it might be.

until she sees Spider.

her expression is strange.

not quite saddened, but shocked, and lacking the usual hate she held for Spider.

"what has happened?" she murmured to her husband, standing behind him. not yet kneeling.

"we went back for him," Lo'ak chokes, "we went... he... one of the soldiers started shooting. he..."

"he pushed us toward the jump first" Neteyam finished. voice quiet. "he didn't... we didn't even get him here. before he..." he trails off into tears again, looking away from her, as if it were something to hide. he tucks his face into dirty dreads.

she looks at her son for a moment, face turning slightly with pity, her hand moving to brush back a braid from his eye, but stopping when he goes stone still.

she looks at Spider. the boy was a bloodied mess.

she was surprised when the sight of him so lifeless, so opposite of everything she remembered him to be, bright and warm and beaming with energy, was jarring to her.

she inspects his injuries with a look.

"there was nothing you could have done, ma'itan," she murmurs, voice as soft as she can muster when talking about this boy, even if he is now dead, "it tore his lung. if... if you made him comfortable, you did all you could."

he just shakes his head. it's not fair. Spider hadn't been comfortable. he'd been scared and cold and in pain and unable to speak his dying words. they'd been there to save him, and it was for nothing. he'd just gotten him back, had just called him brother again, and he was already gone.

Lo'ak is standing, their father had pulled him up. grip tight like he blamed him, but voice calm like the slight against them was dismissible. Spider could die, it was a sad inconvenience at best, not something to truly mourn. but Lo'ak couldn't sit in his grief. he had to help them find the girls. had to make up for this mess.

Neteyam knows he has to stand soon. Spider would want him to. would kick him if he didn't go back for their sisters. for not surging to stand by their brother. but it hurts.

letting go hurts. he let go so many times, all times he shouldn't have. all times he is paying for now, because it's been so long since he held on to his brother. and now this is going to be the last, before Spider is a cold husk of what he once was.

but he has to. so he hugs Spider close for one more moment. and then he sets his mind to the task ahead.

before he does, though it takes several deep breaths. he takes off Spider's exopack, and wipes his face the best he can with the moisture still clinging to their skin. before laying him on the rocks, gently shifting him off his lap, never letting him kiss the jagged rocks below too hard. promising to be back soon.

T ước nhân dân khắp nơi đều có thể chia sẻ chung một niềm vinh quang từ những đấu tranh vì hạnh phúc của mình trong một ngày không xa.

I’ve been thinking about something for a while now, and I finally decided to share it because I genuinely believe it could be a lot of fun for a lot of people here.

I wanted to propose a Spider-centric event that anyone can join in on! if you enjoy anything Spider related, this is your chance to create and share whatever inspires you. You can participate however you like..write fanfiction, draw fanart, make edits, create videos, moodboards, or anything else you’re into. There are no limits on format or platform either, so whether you prefer TikTok, Instagram, AO3, Twitter, or something else entirely, it all works!

The only thing I’d ask is that you tag your posts with “Spider-centric week 2026” so everyone can easily find each other’s work. That way, we can all scroll through, support one another, and enjoy everything people come up with.✨✨

This isn’t meant to be competitive or stressful in any way. it’s just a space to have fun, be creative, and maybe connect a bit more as a community. Anyone can join, no matter your skill level or experience. The only guideline I’d like to keep is that everything shared should be made by you (so no AI generated fanfiction or fanart)

Other than that, go wild with it!! I’d really love to see what everyone creates, and I hope this turns into something we can all enjoy together 💫