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Post by fuzzydude on Apr 30, 2011 1:40:24 GMT -5
"Phase-lock 70%."
Nia sneezed, thumping her head soundly against the top of the link bed.
"You OK in there?"
"Yus," she called back nasally, wishing she could actually reach up to rub her head. Mentally, she made a note to make sure this bed was sanitized after she came back. The last thing any of them needed was someone else getting whatever she had, too. Even without worrying about the illness, there were so many people crammed in here in a new alien environment that any little bug had a tendency to spread like a wildfire. She felt bad for the doctors.
Actually, never mind the doctors. She just felt bad for herself. Sure, she was so sick she couldn't even do her proper job. That was bad enough. Of course, just because she was sick didn't mean her avatar was - or so they figured. And while she was there, her body was getting rest, right? Of course, they'd ignored her protests. Then again, in truth, she'd prefer just about anything over laying in bed twiddling her thumbs and bored out of her mind. Not that this would stop her from complaining about being made to do this. Stupid sons of-
"Phase-lock 99%."
There was a suddenly flash of chaotic colours and rapidly transitioning random sound, like an orchestra of every sound she'd ever heard all melding together at once. A lurching, disorienting sensation overtook her as she felt herself being ripped from her body and briefly drifted in limbo, spinning between her and there. The feeling worked its way into her stomach, gripping onto it like particularly aggressive vines.
Nia pushed herself up, lurching over the edge of the bed, trying to keep the contents of her stomach inside where they were supposed to be. The sick sensation quickly fading like fragments of a dream, only to be replaced by yet another feeling of dizziness. She hated this.
"C'mon! Let's get moving!"
Groaning, she shifted, trying to get her feet under her before standing. She felt herself teetering back and forth dizzily. At least she wasn't the shortest one around now. Well, if you counted the humans. She was convinced that her avatar was probably the shortest Na'vi to have ever existed.
"I said, let's move!"
"Shove it, Corbin," Nia grumbled. He had a thing for his drill sergeant act. Which was funny because of the group that'd be heading out, she and him were the two non-combatants. Holding her head with a hand, she slowly made her way towards the entrance of Hell's Gate.
____________
Corbin and her softer footsteps mixed with the steady thumping of the two armed walkers behind them. The trees and thick vegetation seemed to soak up the sound eerily. Leaves moved without wind here and there. It was like they were constantly being watched.
Corbin was looking around at the plants, as fascinated as ever. Nia didn't think she'd ever understand that. Having tall trees full of vines and whatever else there was looming over them was just unnatural. The first time she'd come out here, she'd pretty much been clinging to her partner the entire time, certain the jungle would swallow her. The stories of the hostile world didn't help. Even after these years, she still couldn't get used to it. Not that she had much of a chance. She rarely went outside. In fact, this was only her third time out of the settlement. Usually, she could find work closer to home.
This time, though, they were heading towards an ancient mine left by the RDA during their first trip to the planet. Mechs would have been sufficient in most cases, here the mine was particularly wrecked and covered with vegetation. It'd be easier for the avatars to explore the area without having to clear out the place, and they were the two that could assess what would be actually useful for salvaging. Well, at least she was. She had a feeling Corbin would spend most of his time staring at some ugly flower or something. Botanists. Ugh.
Still, they needed every resource they could get and while most of this old stuff was half reclaimed by the planet and mostly worthless, they couldn't afford to let anything actually valuable get mistaken for scrap.
"Here we are," Corbin announced.
Nia could barely see anything except the occasional bit of metal. Over time, the world had reclaimed much of what had been a small group of structures.
"Stay here," Corbin said to the soldiers before running forwards, dodging his way through the vegetation. Nia followed, much slower, slowly weaving her way through the obstacle course of plants and wreckage, trying to mentally figure out which structure might have been what and where to start looking. Corbin was already out of view.
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Post by Jai'byrd on Apr 30, 2011 16:34:35 GMT -5
Sliding through the foliage like a whisper, Ni'awtu was tracking a yerik that she had pegged for dinner. Her elegant curved bow at the ready, an arrow knocked as she held it out before her, tip-toeing through the canopy above and every so often pausing for three long heartbeats as the yerik would occasionally stop, look around, as if it might know... But then it would go back to wandering, grazing and eating... Finally it stopped its random movements as Ni'awtu raised the bow, and pulled the string taught, aiming carefully as to take it down in one shot...
Suddenly what seemed like a bird call split the air around them, the yerik jerking its head up to look around, but quickly dismissed it as just another normal jungle noise. Ni'awtu lowered her bow as her good right ear twitched, she knew what that was unlike her prey, that was the whistle of a scout - the Sky People were in the jungle! Dinner could wait as she took off down several thick branches of the huge trees that formed the upper world of the jungle, heading toward where she had heard the call come from. Like all true Na'vi it would be very hard to hear her, let alone see her as she moved like the wind, graceful and sure-footed in her naive wilds. Unlike those below, she knew where a scout station was up ahead, near where the old Sky People base had been, which was now being turned into an even bigger mass of gleaming metal - a blemish in the eyes of most of the Omaticaya Clan. Ni'awtu, like many of her generation that came after the Sky People were driven back to the stars, thus these new Sky People were a curiosity, but a dangerous curiosity as their Elders were quick to remind them...
Coming up on the scout station, which was just a good, protected and hidden nitch in a tree overlooking the old mine area, she saw a friend of hers, Wokan.
"Oel ngati kameie, Wokan," she whispered in a quiet breath, "What is happening?"
Wokan, nodded to her and replied with the traditional Na'vi greeting as he gestured to the now visible Dreamwalkers, "A few uniltìrantokx are down there... Where they used to dig. Not sure what they're up to, this is the farthest they've been out from their base to date."
Ni'awtu pursed her lips as she watched them, creatures that looked quite a bit like Na'vi, but weren't - even wore weird clothing that covered more of their bodies.
"I'm going down for a closer look..." she said as she started to ghost off, back into the dense foliage.
"Be careful sister!" he called out after her as she waved to him in farewells.
Ni'awtu had never seen a Dreamwalker up close and she just wanted to check them out, then go back to hunting for supper. Thus she silently slipped down to the forest floor, looking to get just a bit closer to the odd Sky People...
yerik = hexepede
uniltìrantokx = dreamwalker
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Post by fuzzydude on Apr 30, 2011 19:48:18 GMT -5
"Hey, Corbin, wait up," Nia called, trying to force her way through a particularly thick patch of vegetation as vines tugged at her feet. It was like walking through a foot of mud. She was already missing the complex with its flat, level ground where everything wasn't trying to make you face-plant into the dirt. With all her focus on just trying to avoid tripping, she didn't even notice the bird call. Not that she would have taken much note even if she had. One more weird bird in a whole jungle full of weird birds.
"Corbin?" she called again.
No response. She sighed. They were supposed to stick together. They were pretty far out now. Anything could happen. She looked around nervously, wondering if she should go back to the soldiers - just in case something happened. Then again, they wouldn't easily be able to come in this far and she'd sound pretty pathetic going back without any reason besides her nerves acting up. With her luck, she was probably going to run into a pack of viperwolves or something and have no idea what to do without the others.
"Corbin?" She was sounding a little more desperate now. Why'd the fool have to run off? He was probably out there looking at a bush or something. Why couldn't he have just done that here where she was? She didn't seem to have any shortage of plants. Especially ones grasping on her ankles and-
THWACK.
She staggered, holding her forehead after smacking directly into a low-hanging branch. A vine caught her foot, sending her tumbling backwards into a bush. She held her breath, bracing for the impact, but it didn't quite happen. At least not when she expected it. The extra foot she fell confused her enough that the wind was knocked out of her when she actually did hit the ground. Then, the world was tumbling around in dizzying circles as the ground periodically smacked into her. She rolled down the hill with all the grace of a dancer, if the dancer had giant flailing slinkies instead of limbs.
The good part was she eventually stopped at the bottom of the hill. The bad part was the reason she stopped was because she crashed into a tree. Groaning, she found herself staring up at the canopy. A winged lemur was staring at her curiously. She scowled back at it and rubbed her forehead. In the orientation, they'd really pounded in the fact that everything on this horrible planet would try to kill you. It just wasn't fair when the ground got into the act, too, though. She'd be really sore the next day. Or, this body would be. Good thing she had no intention of being in it.
Even her tail hurt. Weird feeling. Definitely weird. Awkwardly, she struggled to get up, then glanced up the hill she'd tumbled down. Wow. It looked even steeper than it'd felt going down. And that was saying something. And where was her backpack? Grumbling to herself, she felt around her neck for the radio while she poked around hopefully with a foot for her bag.
"This is Nia. I think I just got separated."
Silence.
"Hello? Anyone there?"
Great. Maybe she could fix it. Or just climb the hill. That'd be faster. Maybe. The gravity here was lower and these avatars were absurdly strong. Either way, though, she'd still need her backpack. All her equipment was there. Grumbling to herself, she went back to feeling around her the annoying opaque layer of large, soft leaves. Now, if she were a backpack determined to make her day as miserable as possible, where would she be hiding?
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Post by Jai'byrd on Apr 30, 2011 23:47:04 GMT -5
Well, it certainly wasn't hard to find these uniltìrantokx as they stood out in the forest like a bunch of sore thumbs. Especially the one that was closest to her, what looked like a female, but it was hard to tell with all those clothes and other odd things hanging off all of them. She seemed so unsure of her own body and surroundings, so much so she didn't seem to notice when the others wandered off on her as she was so focused on just staying on her feet. How odd, while Ni'awtu didn't expect them to be as good as a Na'vi in these jungles, but why was she so unsure in her own body?
Now, Ni'awtu had never seen a Human at all and was under the mistaken impression these Dreamwalkers were the Humans - not some surrogate body made in test tube in a lab (not that she knew what a test tube or a lab was either). Thus she was a little confused why the one female was so unstable and crept closer to her, almost hanging up-side-down on a nearby tree trunk, completely obscured by a large growth of loreyu. The Dreamwalker female finally noticed that she was alone and started shouting for her companions, now long gone. Ni'awtu winced as she retreated back up the tree into the canopy, these creatures wailed like babies, she wondered how long it was before this thing brought a palulukan down upon them all.
Then it tripped, and hurled itself down a steep, but small ravine, making 'oofs' and other grunts as it fell. Ni'awtu had to stifle a low chuckle by biting her lip a bit as she slid down a tree onto a series of lower branches to follow where the female Dreamwalker went. Finally it came to a stop thanks to a tree, which elicited another grunt of amusement from the female Na'vi far above. However the sadistic glee died instantly as Ni'awtu saw what the bumbling Dreamwalker had landed near and now was rooting around, getting ever closer too...
A syen'kxeyey plant, a beautiful looking bush with fragrant leaves, underneath which housed deadly stingers that the plant would shoot out if disturbed... Torn for a moment as Ni'awtu wasn't sure if she should let the plant take care of the Dreamwalker or save her... She looked around for a sign or something, but saw no atokirina' floating about, yet in her heart of hearts she couldn't let them die... could she?
Finally she dropped down, landing softly next to the Dreamwalker, adjacent to her and the deadly plant and hissed in Na'vi (as she didn't know any Human tongues), "Be still! Do not move!"
She held up her empty hands in what she hoped was a universal gesture of 'stop' but Ni'awtu could only pray to Eywa for that one...
loreyu = helicoradian plant
palulukan = Thanator
syen'kxeyey = 'last mistake'
atokirina' = Woodsprite
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Post by fuzzydude on May 1, 2011 0:43:07 GMT -5
Stupid plants. All she wanted to do was find her equipment so she could get back to the others. Was that really too much to ask? But nooooo, instead, the stupid planet with its stupid plants had to swallow her stupid bag just to spite her. She didn't want to be here in the first place. Unfortunately, there was a lot of equipment there that couldn't be easily replaced. It wasn't like they could just manufacture whatever they wanted anymore.
After all that had happened today, she was now completely sure that four light years away from here, back on Earth, it had to be a Monday.
She inched a bit forward. There was some nice-smelling bush ahead - a likely place her bag could have gotten stuck. Of course, the smell, she reminded herself, would likely kill her if she was in her own body or make her head explode or something like that. This planet was kind of like that. She couldn't wait to get back and-
The unexpected voice didn't quite cause her to slip down the rest of the slope, fall of the edge of a nearby cliff, fall screaming through the mist before exploding in an avatar cannonball of meat and bone a thousand feet down, but it got close enough that she saw all of that happen in her head. When she saw who the voice belonged to, she almost wished it'd actually happened.
She backed up, stepping dangerously close to the bush, looking positively terrified. One of the natives! She'd been around enough avatars but somehow, the real thing seemed different. Even more alien. It was unsettling.
There'd been almost no contact with them so far besides brief glimpses every blue moon, but she'd heard plenty from the records from the original group that came here. The guy leading the orientation had made it sound like they were primitive savages that could make you explode with a death glare. It'd seemed curious, but not so important back then. Suddenly, she wished she'd paid a little more attention. She tried to remind herself she was really back in the settlement. It didn't help much.
The Na'vi was hissing something to her. She had no idea what, but it definitely didn't sound friendly. And judging from the body language - assuming it even resembled human body language - whatever she was saying was important to her. This pretty much narrowed it down to anything from, "Get out of here before I arrow you to death," to "Your shirt is a disgrace to fashion." Somehow, the former seemed more likely.
She held up her hands defensively in front of her.
"Uh... sorry... I didn't know this was your... tree. I'm leaving now... Nice blue monkey-kitty... Don't tear the nice human in two... Nice kitty..."
She began taking another step back - directly towards the plant.
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Post by Jai'byrd on May 1, 2011 1:48:07 GMT -5
"Nonononononono..." Ni'awtu moaned as she waved her hands at the stupid, stupid Dreamwalker, "No! STOP!"
She couldn't believe the female uniltìrantokx was actually backing up into the thing as her eyes (or at least her good right eye as the left one couldn't widen thanks to all the scars on the left side of her face) went wide with fear. The bush started to ripple a bit, a tell-tale sign that it was sensing a warm body coming near it and it was getting ready to launch its stingers.
Looking around wildly, Ni'awtu spotted an old dead log with some bark poking up, praying to Eywa it was thick enough she turned and ripped off a huge hunk of it in a display of her Na'vi strength. Then she hurled herself at the Dreamwalker, in an attempt to push her down on the ground beneath Ni'awtu and the make-shift bark shield. Ni'awtu braced for impact as she threw the bark shield in front of them both and...
THUNK-THUNK-THUNK-THUNK-THUNK!
The rapid-fire sound of something hitting the bark resonated through the forest, making a group of fkio nearby take to the skies in a cacophony of screeching.
Slowly Ni'awtu lowered the bark shield as she opened her eyes, a spicy smell wafted over to where she lay letting her know the syen'kxeyey was spent until it could regenerate those deadly spines - which wouldn't be for a few hours yet. She sat up checking herself over to make sure none of those darts had hit her and she looked back to the stupid Dreamwalker to see if she too was unscathed...
fkio - tetrapteron
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Post by fuzzydude on May 1, 2011 2:13:37 GMT -5
Nia yelped as the Na'vi suddenly ripped a large chunk of wood from a nearby log and dove at her. Her desperate attempt to dodge out of the way was about as effective as one would expect. She was pretty much universally acknowledged as the worst avatar driver in the colony, and it showed. She felt the Na'vi crash into her, sending her flying off her feet. She closed her eyes tight as she landed hard on her back.
There was a staccato, hollow thunking mixed with the sound of cracking wood. She exhaled and then took a breath. Then another. Everything was quiet again.
Huh?
She opened her eyes, half expecting to see the round eye in the lid of the link bed. Instead, her gaze went from a wickedly sharp thorn sticking through a piece of wood, less than an inch from her eye, to the Na'vi's own eyes. They were a brilliant gold.
The sound of the piece of wood being let go and softly falling snapped her out of it. She scrambled away from the fragrant bush. One of her arms hit something soft. Her bag, a part of her mind noted. She felt around for the strap and fumbled to get her feet under her. For a moment, it looked like she was going to dart away.
Her thoughts felt fragmented, like they were flying around, crashing into one another, inefficiently trying to find their place in a giant puzzle. Nia swallowed, trying to slow her breathing.
"You saved me," she said, sounding confused.
Something in her expression shifted from frightened confusion to the beginnings of curiosity.
"You saved me," she repeated, a hint of wonder, then gratitude in her voice.
Her tail was unconsciously swishing back and forth nervously behind her as she ducked a little, as if to make herself smaller and less intimidating. This was, of course, completely unnecessary considering she was already much shorter. Not to mention her already less than stunning display of competence over the last few minutes. How long had she been watched, anyway? At least she was too nervous to feel embarrassed.
A couple of uncertain seconds passed as she hesitated, still caught between the desire to flee and her own realization of what had just happened. Finally, she timidly reached one arm out, just slightly before gesturing with the other hand along with her next words - probably more exaggerated gesturing than was completely necessary.
"Thank you."
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Post by Jai'byrd on May 1, 2011 9:11:55 GMT -5
That moment when the Dreamwalker and Ni'awtu were eye to eye was an interesting one, their faces were so similar, yet so different. Their eyes were smaller, and they had a thin line of hair above them. Ni'awtu never dreamed when she went to go get a closer look she'd get this close of a look. However it didn't last long as Ni'awtu tossed the spine-riddled bark aside and sat up as the Dreamwalker scrambled away. After checking herself over for spines, her right ear twitched as the Dreamwalker started to talk.
Ni'awtu cocked her head to one side as she listened, not sure how to respond if at all. The Na'vi herself got up and went to retrieve her bow and arrows where she had dropped them as she brushed herself off. The Dreamwalker was still there, saying something, but then she gestured which made Ni'awtu pause again and stare. Again, the Na'vi couldn't be sure what the Dreamwalker was saying, but from her tone and the gesturing one might have mistaken it for a form of gratitude.
Ni'awtu nodded at her in response, and then decided to try and communicated with her. Why not? Although some of the Elders still spoke the Sky People language, they really hadn't taught any of the younger generations as they thought to keep speaking it might summon them back from the stars. Sadly their efforts were wasted and now the younger generations had no way to speak with them currently. Might as well try the female Na'vi thought as she shrugged her shoulders to herself.
So... what to start with? Oh, a name would be good.
With her free hand she tapped herself on her chest, "Ni'awtu... Ni'awtu."
She repeated her name a couple more time, saying it slowly as she kept hitting her chest and gesturing at herself. Then she pointed at the Dreamwalker.
"Ni'awtu....?" she pointed again at the other female. Hopefully she'd get this.
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Post by fuzzydude on May 1, 2011 13:23:38 GMT -5
Nia wasn't sure what to expect, really. The natives had always seemed an elusive, undefined force of the planet. Sentient but invisible, a threat but unacting. Over the years, they and the colony had more or less left each other alone - the humans out of fear or simple desire to struggle to re-establish somewhere they could live without having a repeat of history, and the Na'vi... well, nobody knew what they thought. Clearly, they weren't exactly as everyone seemed to think. Or, at least, this one wasn't. The Na'vi reached for her bow - a massive one with arrows taller than she was outside her avatar. There was a moment of apprehension, but it vanished just as fast. Obviously, if she'd wanted her dead, she'd have just watched and enjoyed the show of her being turned into a pincushion by a fern or whatever that thing was. She half expected the Na'vi to simply disappear again just like she'd appeared from nowhere. Instead, she found her looking back at her with a thoughtful expression. Then, she spoke. "Ni'awtu... Ni'awtu," she said, tapping her chest. Whoa. This was just like in a vid! This was awesome! "Niawtu" she repeated, blurring the syllables together. It was a nice name. "I'm An-" she cut herself off and shook her head briefly. Formalities wasn't worth throwing multisyllabic messes at people when both of you were trying to figure out how to communicate. Best to keep with "Me Tarzan, you Jane." "Nia," she said instead, smiling a little and repeating the same tapping gesture. "Nia." A thought hit her and she fumbled around with her bag before extracting a pad. She knew they had a ton of records from the first expedition to Pandora. Images and menus flew past before she found something like what she was hoping for. Some logs on the language by a Dr. Augustine. Something friendly, maybe establishing that they were peaceful. "Uh... Pes... mukeri. p-pxunya mepuntil?" she tried, looking earnestly back at the Na'vi - Ni'awtu, rather. ________ Nia -> Ni'aw, amusingly, means "only" in Na'vi and is derived from the same root as "ni'awtu."  "Pesmukeri pxunya mepuntil" means "What sister's arm had two elbows." |
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Post by Jai'byrd on May 1, 2011 14:55:29 GMT -5
Okay! Now we were getting somewhere! Ni'awtu smiled as the Dreamwalker rather butchered her name, but hey, beggars can't be choosers here.
"Ni. Aw-tu." She said trying to show where to put the pauses in her name.
Then the female spoke her name which Ni'awtu smiled in earnest as her name sounded just like hers! This must be a sign from Eywa indeed!
"Ni'aw... Ni'a... Ni'a..." the Na'vi tried her hand at the Dreamwalker's name, putting in the guttural stops that was natural to the Na'vi language, but not the Humans'.
She cocked her head to one side as Nia said her name again, listening with her good right ear to see how she said it. Hrm, she seemed to squish it all together...
"N-i-a," she finally said very slowly, then a little quicker, "Nia."
Then the Dreamwalker started to mess with her large bag-pack thing and Ni'awtu went a bit rigid as she wasn't sure what Nia was going to pull out of there. Despite her saving the Dreamwalker, they could have no honor like the old story-songs said and she could pull some weapon from there. But then was the famous Jak'esulli not a Dreamwalker who was blessed by Eywa? She hoped that this Nia was more like Jak'esulli and thankfully all she produced from that huge bag was something that looked like a big, flat piece of glass.
Frowning in thought, Ni'awtu relaxed a bit and edged a bit closer to see what Nia was seeing on that thing. All sorts of whorls of colors and scribbly things appeared and disappeared upon its surface. Weird, this must be the fabled Sky People's "tek'nolog" from the story-songs.
Then Nia mangled something in Na'vi; "Uh... Pes... mukeri. p-pxunya mepuntil?"
At first Ni'awtu just stood there and stared at the Dreamwalker female. What the heck was that about sisters and elbows? Finally a smile tugged at her scarred features as she burst into laughter. Oh, how cute, the Dreamwalker was trying to speak her language and had no clue what she was saying! Too funny!
"Nia hiyìk!" Ni'awtu exclaimed as the giggles subsided.
Then she thought about it what to try and say next, what did they have in common? Hrm...
"Jak'esulli?" She asked seeing if the fabled Dreamwalker name was just as fabled among their kind...
hiyìk = funny, strange
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Post by fuzzydude on May 1, 2011 17:07:09 GMT -5
Nia smiled, then joined in a confused laugh.
"Yeah... hiyik," she agreed, looking baffled.
OK, so that wasn't the response she'd expected, but laughing was good. Right? She was pretty sure something had been lost in translation. Only a few people knew anything about the native language, although there were plenty of old records, mostly from the RDA. She'd have to look up the rest later, given that Dr. Augustine wasn't being particularly helpful at the moment.
At least things seemed to be going pretty well so far. They knew each other's names, this one seemed friendly, they'd shared a joke... sort of, and she didn't have an arrow through her head yet. At this rate, they'd be BFFs and hang out at the mall every Saturday in no time. At any rate, the guys back home would be really interested in this whole encounter. Maybe they could send someone better suited to all of this afterwards.
For now, though, Ni'awtu seemed to be trying to engage her more. Jak'esulli? What did that mean? She frowned thoughtfully. It sounded familiar and the way she'd said it sounded different from before... A loanword of some sort, maybe? Jakesully... Jake Sully. Someone important during the first trip here. She couldn't recall, exactly. But that was what all the data they had sitting around was for. She punched a few commands in.
Most of the data wasn't immediately available except for a stub saying he was a marine who'd been sent to peacefully negotiate with the Na'vi via avatar so they could get the unobtainium Earth desperately needed. Instead, he'd riled them up and had been one of the instrumental people leading the attack that killed many of the humans and sent the rest fleeing back home, leaving Earth to eventually die from lack of resources. She frowned a little. Didn't sound like a very nice guy. Especially if he was the reason she'd lost her home.
Obviously, a lot of information was being locked away somewhere - more homework for her later - but why did Ni'awtu bring that up now? Was it some sort of warning? Then again, for all she knew, it could be their word for 'hello' and it just happened to sound like the guy's name.
She pulled up his (mostly uninformative) bio and held up the screen so she could see the image from the other side. On it was a picture of him as a human. "Jake Sully?" she asked, trying to clarify. A moment later, she seemed to realize something and pulled up another record, dragging the image of his avatar next to the first picture.
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Post by Jai'byrd on May 1, 2011 19:07:49 GMT -5
Apparently the joke was lost on Nia, ah well, but then she was just speaking gibberish and probably didn't know it. At least Ni'awtu knew nothing so she couldn't botch Nia's language... then of course she re-thought that last thought, at least knowing some gibberish would be good so they could get some sort of dialog going other than just their names.
Then Nia went back to looking at her piece of glowing glass, her face a study in seriousness as it lit up and whorled with more colors that reflected off the Avatar's cyan skin. Ni'awtu craned her long neck to try and see what was on that thing, but she didn't have to do that much as suddenly Nia turned it around to let Ni'awtu look at it.
At first there was some ugly thing with a pink face and weird hair on it. Ni'awtu winced like she was witnessing some monster as it sure was horrid looking, what the hell was that?
Then Nia's face lit up with and idea as she then made the glass tablet thing show another face right next to it. This time it was a Dreamwalker... one that looked rather disturbingly like the pinkish monster thing...
Then Nia said, "Jake Sully?"
Ni'awtu's jaw dropped open, that's what Jak'esulli looked like two and a half generations ago? The Na'vi only had an oral tradition and tapestries (of which he looked like a blue blob in the shape of a Na'vi on most), but no pictures as Nia knew them of the great Toruk Makto of legend, thus Ni'awtu had no clue what he looked like. Finally she blinked, looked up to Nia and just shrugged.
Ni'awtu however was more interested in the glass tablet of pretty colors as she reached out to poke it some. More things lit up as it make an odd noise. The Na'vi smirked as she almost tried to grab it to get a better look; how interesting!
She pointed at it and asked, "Tek'nolog?"
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Post by fuzzydude on May 1, 2011 20:46:34 GMT -5
Nia didn't quite get an answer, although Ni'awtu looked quite interested in the images for some time. It made the whole mention of Sully more confusing. What had it meant when she'd brought it up? Nia really wished she had a better way to communicate. It would-
"Hey!" she protested as the Na'vi suddenly reached forward, poking the screen at random, initiating a few random searches, flipping to the next page of the bio, and briefly starting up an audio clip of something that got cut off a fraction of a second later.
Ni'awtu was clearly fascinated by the screen. Then again, Nia thought, it didn't seem like they had a whole lot of technology. They were using bows and arrows still, after all. She could have probably impressed her with a lighter. Then again, she reminded herself, they hadn't needed more than bows and arrows to drive off the first group that came here and got them mad. Best not to make that mistake herself.
"Tek'nolog?"
It took a second for her to understand the word. Then, she smiled.
"Technology, yes!" she nodded. It was a bit interesting what parts of English had stayed around a century and a half later. "Technology" seemed like such a random word to remember. "This is-"
"Nia!"
The voice was faint, but clearly audible. It sounded like Corbin. She turned, craning her neck to look up in the direction she'd fallen from.
"Here! Over here!" she called back.
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Post by Jai'byrd on May 1, 2011 22:30:58 GMT -5
Ni'awtu made something of a pouty-face as Nia yanked back her plate-o-colors and noises, but it was so brief the Dreamwalker probably didn't catch it as she was busy turning off what Ni'awtu had inadvertently turned on. However when Nia recognized the word Ni'awtu had used earlier, the Na'vi's smile mirrored Nia's. Finally, they were getting somewhere past names!
A faint noise made Ni'awtu's good ear twitch as she looked up and over Nia before Nia apparently caught the noise herself. It was someone else - and it sounded like another Dreamwalker as no Na'vi would shout out like that, nor tromp through the foliage like they were as they were zeroing in on Ni'awtu's and Nia's location. The female Na'vi went rigid as her tail danced wildly behind her, especially after Nia then called out in reply.
Oh no, more Dreamwalkers and Ni'awtu didn't like that, one was enough as it was. Plus she had no clue how many were out there and coming to find their wayward Nia. Just the thought of more made all the warning bells and whistles go off in the Na'vi's highly trained mind and body. Thus as Nia turned, Ni'awtu silently slid back into the forest and was up a tree before the Dreamwalker would ever turn back to look.
A scent on the wind did indeed confirm that more were coming, as Ni'awtu sighed in relief as she was away and out of sight. She scaled more trees higher into the great canopy as she kept and eye out, seeing the rest of the Dreamwalkers, like little blue ants scurrying along the forest floor converging on Nia's location. The scarred female sat there for a while, observing from on high as she thought to herself.
What to do now? She had initiated conversation with the Dreamwalkers and they didn't seem so bad to her. But her Elders would be furious with her for doing such a thing on top of not just letting the bush kill Nia. Was she so wrong to do this? She wondered if for now she shouldn't tell anyone what had happened just yet... maybe think on it more later in retrospect and figure out what to do then... Yes, let her go meditate on this and maybe even speak with the Ancestors via the Tree of Voices to see what they say in their memories...
Thus the Na'vi just sat and watched until the Dreamwalkers left and so did she, back to hunting her dinner with a ton on her mind...
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Post by fuzzydude on May 2, 2011 10:57:18 GMT -5
"You won't believe this!" Nia had said to Corbin as soon as he found her, only to turn and find herself pointing at a Ni'awtu-shaped empty space in the air. Corbin, being Corbin, had immediately locked onto the thorn plant and assumed she was talking about that, even complimenting her for "disarming" it for him. Nia, meanwhile, had been trying to figure out how the Na'vi had apparently just vanished into thin air. And for a while, she had been tempted to keep the meeting a secret.
It made her feel special, somehow, that of all people, she was the first to come into contact with the mysterious Na'vi of legend, the ones that even the experts actively keeping an eye out for them had only caught rare glimpses of and had only been able to track larger groups of them as orange blobs on a screen somewhere. The idea of secretly becoming friends and keeping them for herself was attractive. It would be like being the main character of one of those vids where she'd delve into some interesting plot or another. Maybe she'd end up doing something cliche like marrying the chief's son or something. Ha!
But the truth was, she was in way over her head and she knew it. She wasn't the main character. She wasn't even an extra. She was an engineer - the person behind the scenes pointing cameras and setting up the lights. She didn't know anything about the Na'vi, or how to make first contact with anyone. Sure it'd gone well - she thought - but that had been dumb luck. She wasn't chosen because she was special. She'd been "chosen" because she was lucky enough to try to kill herself in view of a Na'vi that actually cared enough to bother to do something about it. She didn't know how to begin establishing dialog - or even if the colony wanted dialog between them. They'd been living perfectly fine for five years without bothering each other and maybe that was for the best. She knew how suits thought, and the instant one of them started trying to take advantage of the situation for some flea-bitten reason, it could easily turn into a disaster. But the truth was hiding this could end up being even more dangerous. History had shown what happened when you got on the native's bad side and right now, they were even less prepared than the RDA had been. They were just barely getting by, and they needed to know everything they could about every possible threat.
Not that Ni'awtu had seemed particularly threatening. In fact, Nia had begun to like her. She really didn't expect to find a Na'vi actually interested in technology. And, you know, her risking her real life to save her avatar of all things, that kind of earned you some serious brownie points.
In the end, she reported the whole thing and pretended to wipe her hands of it. She fully intended to keep track of every little political twitch afterwards, keeping her nose out for the first sign of some fool preparing to doom them all, but the last thing she wanted to do was get involved. They could send an expert actually qualified to handle the Na'vi and she could go back to her job, not having to go out into that crazy jungle where even the ferns tried to kill you, and maybe someday she could talk to Ni'awtu again.
As expected, they did put an expert on it. What she didn't expect was what happened after.
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