#m's asks

hell yeah it's always armand time. my most beautiful deranged wet bag of a guy <33

I've almost made my way through my inbox full of asks (I know, I'm very slow). So if you want to ask me anything, now is a really good time to do that!

I'm open to all questions, whether they're related to writing at all! If you just want to ask about my WIP or get to know me better, feel free! (Most of the questions I get are typically writing advice related so don't feel like you have to get personal either.)

Can't believe I didn't see this until now!!!

Thank you SO MUCH for asking!

I think I've talked about this a little bit before, but I'll reiterate a few things.

I think Ronal's experience with the Sully's and then the RDA have deeply changed her and would have a great effect on how she would view/interact with Spider.

I think she would be incredibly wary of him at first, ready to jump at any reason to drive him away. But I think that instinct would be cut short or at least dampened by seeing how Kiri interacts with him. Kiri loves him fiercely and I think that would be very transparent in how she interacts with Spider. We got a brief view in ATWOW of Ronal recognizing and acknowledging Kiri's connection with Eywa, so I'm sure she would take Kiri's appraisal of Spider into great consideration.

I think she would be more open to him because of that.

Additionally, let's remember that Spider is a kid, probably not much older than her own children, he's small as well compared to them, and he speaks fluent Na'vi. Most everything about the way he acts and speaks is very Na'vi, and that definitely wouldn't escape her sharp senses.

Basically I'm saying all this because this is how I rationalize her coming to accept Spider and maybe eventually adopt him, especially after being informed of or noticing his lack of parents in any way, shape, or form, and how oddly independent he is.

So headcanons for Ronal and Spider:

I think she would definitely do a lot of self-care with Spider. Like she would take care of his hair for him, actually teach him what hairstyles worked with his hair type and what oils to use to make it shine or protect it from the seawater.

After noticing how burnt and dry his skin is getting from constant sun exposure, I'd imagine she'd freak out a little bit because that doesn't really happen to Na'vi. She'd probably be fussing over him and demanding someone summon Norm quite angrily because she's upset about lacking so much knowledge about her new human son. Then, after hearing about the problem and maybe insisting that Norm or some other scientist give her a whole picture of human anatomies and limitations on Pandora, she would use her experience and knowledge as Tsahik to concoct creams or oils that will protect Spider's skin from the sun and keep it moisturized and hydrated and take care of his burns.

Ronal seems like the type of person who would really enjoy silent quality time with her kids. I feel like she and Spider would sit and do crafts together in silence, like weaving nets or shawls, carving songcord beads, preparing meals, etc. I imagine she'd be quite impressed with what Spider's small fingers can do and how precise he can be. She'd probably wear something he made and kind of wait to receive compliments about the fine craftsmanship and just grin internally.

I think Ronal's love language isn't as much overt physical affection. I feel like she'd just be the type to be very observant and just appear with what you need. Like your stomach growled? Instantly has a plate of fruit for you. You look a little cold? A shawl is wordlessly draped over your shoulder. She'd be the type to nag that you're dressed too lightly or tsk at your hairstyle and immediately bring it upon herself to fix it herself. So I think she fusses over Spider a lot and he feels incredibly loved for it.

Not to say that she would never display physical affection. I think she'd briefly squeeze Spider's shoulder when passing by him or ghosting a hand across his head or pushing his hair away from his face, etc. Grounding touches as well if he seems lost in his own mind or when she can tell he's beating himself up over something he shouldn't be.

Ronal would definitely give him a new name or additional name. I think Spider would keep Spider just because of how long he's been called that? And I think he likes it as well. I imagine if he didn't he would have picked out a brand new name for himself long ago. But maybe a middle name or bequeath him with her family name.

She's be SUPER protective of him, especially around Neytiri and Jake. Like she hears he's remotely in their vicinity and she is already on her way there with a snarl on her face.

Okay this is super interesting! I don't actually know enough about respiratory impairments to probably make accurate calls about this, but knowing that Spider is shown to be very athletic and strong, if I had to give him any respiratory impairment in the modern AU, I think it would be asthma.

So his inhaler would be his lifeline like his exopack is. I also don't know how the logistics of healthcare work for kids in the foster system, but I would posit that it's not that great? (I'll have to do more research into that if I decide to write a full blown post about this, but for now I'll give a short answer).

Spider's asthma irks him a lot. I think he would view it as just one more deterrent to anyone adopting him. People already tend to go for younger kids, but I'd imagine most people don't tend to go for kids with chronic health issues either as that's an additional expense to the great one of having a kid in the first place. So it bothers him a lot. I think he would get into sports and anything athletic even more so to prove that he is okay and not limited by that. Does end up with some pretty severe asthma attacks here and there though and I think only really stops pushing himself quite so hard when Kiri and Neteyam scold him for it after a particularly bad one where they legit had to rush him to the hospital. I don't think Lo'ak would scold him cause he's not the type, and honestly it probably happened while they were doing some dumb shit together, but he's incredibly shaken by it.

I think after that, both Kiri and Neteyam would basically beg their father to somehow get them inhalers they can carry around in case Spider ever needs it and he either doesn't have his in the moment or it runs out. Again, I don't know how the logistics of that would work, but let's just imagine it works out.

Lo'ak for his part does a shit ton of research on what to do in case of such attacks until he feels actually useful and prepared were Spider to have an attack again. He'd probably start being more careful with Spider, just being more attention to his breathing whenever they're out and about and doing something physical.

I'd be intrigued about Neytiri's reaction to Spider's condition is in this AU. I mean I think in this AU Neytiri wouldn't have as much violent trauma that colors her experience towards Spider, but there's probably still something there that makes her hold him at arms' length. But she is definitely a healer in some way even in this AU so I think she'd take care of him if she noticed he was having a hard time. She'd probably be a bit gruff about it, just unceremoniously tugging him behind her without explanation, sitting him down and rubbing some poultice or something she's made across his chest and whatnot. These are probably some of the only soft moments he has with Neytiri, and despite hating feeling weak or being seen as such, I think he would really enjoy these moments.

Hope you're doing well!

Hey, tysm for the ask I hope you are doing well as well!!

I haven't read the book in full but I am familiar with it since it was a scholarship for Julius Caesar's political position. It certainly challenges the classism within traditional classical viewpoints and offers some nuance into the 'Caesar is a tyrant' argument but it focuses too much on the economic/class factors imo.

It's helpful to know key contexts of Roman culture when discussing J.C's assasination. What you need to know is that the Roman Republic was never truly a Republic, especially towards the latter half. To even have a position within the Senate, you had to have a certain amount of wealth (an absurd amount, basically the equivalent of a millionare today on average). So senators basically voted and made policies in the interest of a) their wealth and b) their own political power. The Senate was also split into the optimates and the populares. The optimates were much more conservative and typically won votes through bribery since they were mostly from generational wealth. The populares were more open to change and Julius Caesar, as one of them, did ensure that there was improvement to the poor's life. However, that's not to say that it's out of the goodness of his heart. While the optimates got their votes from bribery, the populares got votes by entertaining the masses a.k.a panem et circenses (bread and circuses). Julius Caesar managed to grow in power because he had great military victories (which brought wealth to Rome and therefore the poor), was popular among the poor, and had the loyalty of his soldiers. To maintain that popularity, he redistributed senatorial land to his soldiers, encouraged class reform, gave money and food to the poor, all of which pissed off the optimates. In fact, previous politicians who had similar policies were killed by lynch mobs or other senators' armies (e.g the Gracchi). So yes, that was a major factor in the assassination.

But what is also important is Roman values itself. The Romans HatedTM monarchy. They hated a one-man rule because a core part of their cultural heritage was having overthrown a king. Having lots and lots of power and being an oligarch was fine in Rome. Lots of other people did it before Caesar. Sulla and Marius had a civil war (which Caesar himself lived through) and Sulla basically seized ultimate power in all but name. What really made the optimates hate Caesar though was that he had control of lots of land outside of Rome due to his conquests in Gaul and therefore had a massive army and power. He was also part of the First Triumvirate alongside Crassus and Pompey, and the three of them had almost total control over Roman politics. Crassus was the rich one for bribes, funding, ect. Pompey was the warlord. Caesar was the more public face of the three. On top of that, the alliance eventually broke down into a civil war between Caesar and Pompey, which threw Rome into even more political instability. Caesar also broke an important rule in the process by bringing his army into Rome by crossing the Rubicon, which added to his image as a powerhungry politician. Needless to say, the Senate was not happy.

There were also other transgressions of Roman social codes. He took Cleopatra as a lover despite her being a powerful, foreign queen (monarchy association). Caesar stepped on some toes by putting a gold statue of Cleopatra in the temple of Venus Genetrix. Obviously, monarchy association again. But it's also a vulgar display of luxuria (Roman concept of indulgence in wealth which they viewed as barbaric. You can be rich, you just can't show it off and indulge yourself) as well as sacrilege since Venus was one of the founding gods of Rome.

The final straw was when Caesar announced himself dictator perpetuus - dictator in perpetuity. Being a dictator wasn't a bad thing. It was just the term for someone given ultimate power for 6 months when Rome faces national crisis (from invasions to natural disasters, the post exists so decisions can be made quickly without vote). The problem lies with the fact that he would be dictator in perpetuity. Rome can't be in crisis forever. Why would you want ultimate power forever if you weren't trying to fashion yourself as a tyrant king? All of this led to his assassination on the Ides of March.

Of course, assassinating him didn't actually bring back the Republic. That thing had been dead from the moment it was conceived and only existed as a farce of democracy. What Caesar's death led to was a power vacuum and plenty of scrambling political wannabes. This led to three more civil wars (or four if you count the war with Sextus Pompeius) ending with Octavian/Augustus Caesar on top. Augustus then went on to create the Imperial system of rule while pretending it was a Republic (so not much of a difference from the poor's perspective tbh apart from maybe stricter moral laws and new aqueducts).

OMGGG so happy to get an ask again, you have no idea.

So, realistically, I’m not sure he would be greeted by Paz. Like yes she’s his mom and clearly loved him, but she was still fighting with the RDA against the Na’vi and destroying Pandora. So I’m not sure if Eywa would have accepted her soul? Then again, we also don’t know that much about Paz. I’d like to believe she’s a much more complex character than we know, and that she wasn’t just with the RDA because she believed in their capitalist, colonial mission.

I feel like Grace might be the most probable person to show up. Just because she’s probably one of the only humans embraced fully by Eywa thus far but also because he’s so close to Kiri, her daughter.

I would lowkey love Tsutey to come through just because I am loving people’s headcanons of Tsutey becoming Spider’s father figure if he had lived, but that’s very self indulgent and probably not realistic.

YES thank you for asking!

I have actually been thinking about this for the past two days. I'm still not entirely sure sure about how it would go down, BUT! Here are my thoughts so far!

So I think it would actually happen on a day Trudy is like preoccupied with something back at High Camp. She'd had a bit of a bad feeling in her gut that day, but had elected to ignore it. The raid had gone well after all, and things were generally in their favor.

But then the Sully's come back frantic, Kiri is crying, and her blond little son (though not so little anymore) is nowhere to be seen.

Jake wants to leave right then and there to protect the clan, but Trudy forces him to stay to get a proper explanation out of him. He's trying to quickly say what happened but Kiri interrupts him and says they took him, the RDA has him.

And Trudy loses it because clearly Jake was about to leave without Spider.

Now here's where I have a bit of a dilemma. I feel like through actually watching Trudy parent Spider and Neytiri and Trudy being kind of friends, I'm not sure Neytiri would have as much hatred for the boy as she does in canon. Then again it could have been triggered again because of the appearance of the recoms. What I'm saying is maybe Neytiri would oblige Trudy here and go back for him or maybe not. I'm still debating but for the sake of canon let's go with the fact that she doesn't.

Trudy goes on a whole angry rant about what an asshole move it was to just let him be kidnapped and they have no intention of going back for him. Jake's like he's a tough kid and human he'll be fine. And she's like BULLSHIT, do you know why he's a tough kid? Because everyone aside from me made him so! And how could you say that? You don't know what they're gonna do to him. They'll do anything to find out where you are. He's SIXTEEN, Jake! SIXTEEN!

Again, don't know if Jake's friendship with Trudy here would compel him to make a rescue attempt or not, which is why my idea for this event with my Trudy Lives AU isn't solid, solid, but let's continue as if it had gone in canon.

Once she sees he's not going to budge, she's gonna be like, "I respect the fact that you're leaving to get a target off your clan's back. But I will never fucking forgive you for leaving MY kid!"

I think Trudy's spiel would have given Kiri the courage to be like hell yeah how could you leave him that's my best friend! I think the others might be too cowed by her parents' decision to actually go for him right then and there.

Right before the Sully family is going to leave, I think Kiri would run to the lab where Trudy is and tell her she wants to stay to help her get Spider back. Trudy is super touched, but she'd not going to make the same mistake Jake did and let a kid get swept up in this war. So she's like, "I appreciate it, kid, but I can't let you." Kiri starts protesting and she's like, "I can't drag you into this. The whole reason I'm pissed with your old man is because he's fine with Spider getting dragged into this, a KID getting dragged into this shitshow. And I'm not gonna do the same with you. I'm gonna get him back. Ya hear me, Kiri? I'm gonna get him back to you, alright?"

Kiri thinks that if anyone can do it, it's gonna be Trudy so she reluctantly leaves with her family.

Trudy's trained military and a practical woman first and foremost so no matter how much her mama bear instincts are raging at her to just go in guns flying to get her kid back, she sits and tries to make a plan. She ropes the other scientists into it because she knows she won't be able to do it lonewolf-style.

I think first off she'd scout out Bridgehead with the help of some (maybe three) Omatikaya warrior friends she's made over the years (if anyone has suggestions for names or personalities for them I'm all ears). But Bridghead looks basically impenetrable and she'd have no shot of getting in. Besides the whole point of Jake leaving was to get them off of the Omaticaya's backs so she can't really mobilize them to attack the base. She doubted they would follow her anyway.

So she waits, clocking guard shifts and watching. Eventually, whenever Quarritch decides to pull Spider out of the torture machine and be his Na'vi guide, Trudy starts tailing the recom group from afar.

She'd heard about the recoms but had never actually laid eyes on them herself, and seeing Wainfleet's and Quarritch's sends shivers down her spine. And those guys have her son.

For plot reasons, I think she wouldn't be able to make a move for Spider until they start raiding Metkayina clans. For drama reasons anyway. And besides, the recoms are all trained military as well but now in bodies suited to the planet. It would be no easy feat.

Now part of me wants her to go for it before then anyway and get captured. Spider says he won't do anything for Quarritch anymore if he so much as lays a hand on her, so now Trudy is also just traipsing with them as another captive.

The other part of me wants her to take her shot when the RDA is preoccupied with hunting tulkuns to send a signal to the Sully's. Amidst the chaos of the hunt, I think she would be able to drop down onto the boat unnoticed (possibly with the help of a Na'vi friend of hers' ikran and her own kestrel is nearby or something). She hides on the ship until she sees Spider come out of the mouth of the tulkun looking absolutely sick to his stomach.

Because of how long he's been with the recoms, I think they'd probably keep less of a watchful eye on him, which would allow Trudy to signal him and make a run for it under their noses. She nabs Spider and they jump off the boat together, getting picked up by her Na'vi friend along the way on the back of her ikran. It would be a good half hour to an hour before Quarritch even noticed the kid was gone since he had been busy plotting with the tulkun hunters. And he can't justify going to get them.

Luckily because Trudy's a smart and skilled adult, she'd have more spare exopacks and once Spider says there's a tracker in his, she gives another one and they ditch his somewhere in the middle of the ocean or something.

From here, Trudy would probably pilot her kestrel towards Awa'atlu. I imagine that she's such a good pilot, she'd long since disabled any tracking signals or anything from her kestrel and flies solo/manually (so the RDA can't track her). She's going there because as pissed as she is with Jake for leaving her son and running, she knows he deserves to know how close Quarritch is and what his plans are.

I'd imagine in this version, since Trudy got him back NETEYAM DOESN'T DIE AND ALL IS WELL.

Need Jake to do some apologizing and shit but well that's out of the scope of this question rn.