Ocean

You know the scene. Lo'ak, alone on the shore after Payakan's exile and the argument with Jake, rifle in hand. In the film, he stops himself. Kiri and Tsireya reach him in time.

What if he doesn't stop. What if they don't reach him in time.

What if the only thing that saves his life is the gun's own recoil — the shot going wide, tearing through his throat instead of ending everything in an instant. He survives. He is not okay.

This oneshot is Tsireya's, and only Tsireya's — every reaction that isn't hers (Kiri's horror, Jake's hands taking over from hers, Neytiri's scream, Tonowari watching her fall apart) comes to you filtered through what she sees and feels, never from inside their heads.

It's a vigil. It's her hands finding the wound before her training does. It's Kiri screaming his name, and the thing Tsireya wants to say and doesn't — don't bring them near him, they've already broken him enough. It's watching Jake's face fold into a flatness she hates him for, not knowing if she's right to. It's her mother's calm and her father's orders and Aonung being the only one who can get close to her at all.

And underneath it, once the worst of it is over and all that's left is waiting for him to wake — it's anger. At her parents, for Payakan. At Jake, for what he said. At the war, for putting a rifle in her Lo'ak's hands at all. And under the anger, unbearably, love.

She used to love this shore. Now every time she looks at the water, all she can see is his blood in it.

Not a fix-it. 🕯️

☾─────•──•°•𖥸•°•──•─────☽