Atwow Spider - Tumblr Posts

Yes! It's definitely not an "act" or his way of "pretending to be Na'vi." Hissing and growling is completely natural for him because he was raised around a species that hisses and growls. We humans are social animals and a big part of the way young human minds grow is by mimicking the behavior of those around them, especially their peers, and in Spider's case, his ONLY peers were other Na'vi kids.

There's a real life example of this too. In the 1930s a pair of psychologists, the Kelloggs, adopted a baby chimpanzee and raised it alongside their human baby to see if they could teach the chimpanzee to be more humanlike. They stopped the experiment after like a year or so. There were many reasons they stopped, but one of the reasons is that their human child started to demonstrate chimpanzee-like behaviors. Here's an article about it:

Smithsonian Magazine

This Guy Simultaneously Raised a Chimp and a Baby in Exactly the Same Way to See What Would Happen

When treated as a human, the baby chimp acted like one—until her physiology and development held her back

So yeah, I always roll my eyes when spider-haters use his na'vi-behavior as another excuse to hate on him, when it is completely logical for his character. If anything, it would be weird if he DIDN'T show any Na'vi behavior!

Let Spider be feral

Let him hiss and claw and fight for his siblings like a wild animal

Let his humanity be something held together by scraps - he doesn't care to be one, na'vi are kinder and stronger and better

Let him act like an angry Neytiri when he's upset

Let him crouch and hunt like his body is 8' taller

Let him bite like he has fangs to tear with

Let him be the stray na'vi trying to hard to feel like his body is home

I saw on reddit that one of the scenes will be of spider teasing the recoms!! I can't wait to see it! And another scene will be of Neytiri learning to ride an ilu and saying goodbye to mo'at before leaving the forest, and an extended cut of the whaling scene!! AAAAHH I'm so excited 💙💙💙

GUESS WHAT AVATAR NATION

WE’RE GETTING 12 EXTRA SCENES FROM THE MOVIE!!

@meenawrites @ao3gobi17 @dirtytransmasc @imintoomanyfandomscuzihaveadhd @cyren-myadd

good questions!

NOPE! Spider going with Quaritch wouldn't have been a happy outcome at all. Even though Quaritch screwed up his mission for Spider's sake, he is still loyal to the RDA at the end of the day and that's where I'm assuming he went too after cupcake picked him up. Spider could never be happy at the RDA, no matter how many strings Quaritch pulls to give him privileges and freedoms. Even though he's got that sword of Damocles hanging over his head in the form of his secret, Spider is still better of with the Sullies because he's with the two people who he knows actually love him without any strings attached, Kiri and Lo'ak, and he's not living with a people who are trying to destroy everything he stands for.

Spider still would have refused. Even though Quaritch is responsible for the whole situation, WAINFLEET is the one who chose to shoot at them, not Quaritch. Spider's reasons for picking the Sullies have more to do with his loyalty to the na'vi and love for his friends than it had to do with Neteyam's death.

I got 2 questions for y'all

1.Do you think Spider should have with Quaritch when he ask why or why not?

2. .If Neteyam didn't die, Do you think that spider would have gone with Quaritch when he asked?

I love all of y'all blogs and stories!❤️

@naavispider @cyren-myadd @dumbass-tumbler-cryptid @enc95 @jeanniebug623 @ao3gobi17 @lloyd-007 @fictionramblings @sandiavolo @hes-a-tough-kid @hyperfixatedfandomer

OUR BABY BOYYYYYY 💙

WHERE IS THIS????

PLEASEPLEASEPLEAAAAASE UPLOAD THE VIDEO IF YOU CAN

GUESS WHAT BESTIES!!????

OUR SON IS BAAAACK!!!!!!🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭

@dirtytransmasc @cyren-myadd @meenawrites

OMG GUYSSSS YOU HAVE TO WATCH THIS! SHE WAS NOT BLUFFING I REPEAT SHE WAS NOT BLUFFING!

Skip to 5:50 for the deleted scene

Holy shiiieeeet no wonder spider saved Quaritch after this scene, why did they not keep this in? It was so intense!! I was on the edge of my seat!

Jake and Kiri's shock as they try to talk her down and then Quaritch hiding his panic and trying to turn neytiri's anger back towards him, and then just the wild grief and anger in her eyes, and then spider staying completely frozen because he doesn't want to set her off... it's so cinematic!!

Seriously, THEY SHOULD'VE KEPT THIS IN!!! It would've fit Neytiri's grief/rage and Spider's desire to save Quaritch SO MUCH BETTER!!

@hyperfixatedfandomer @naavispider @ao3gobi17 @raving-raven-writing @mist--walker @dumbass--tumbler--cryptid @goodbyetothenight @lilt78

ATWOW extended cut: When one’s heart is opened in the face of death (my thoughts)

.

Ok I held back long enough, I think we have to talk about the Socorro Quaritch moments the extended cut provided us, because I’m obsessed with them. The dynamic that the fandom made up turned out to be true, with Spider being enabled to do as he wants during his time with RDA and Quaritch not once scolding him for his behaviour or "putting him in his place". Captivity was undoubtedly a very stressing time for him, a very emotionally taxing one but it’s interesting to see how the chemistry between these two characters bloomed. The scene where Socorro and the recom squad moved through the forest has shown just how fond Miles is growing of the kid, to the point where he lets go of his toxic behaviours and creates and environment in which the boy feels safe enough to go as far as leading recoms into traps. Also, it’s insanely funny.

The second scene is the extended edition of the Tau’nui village raid, with more violence and more tension. I feel horrible for these poor Na’vi, and for Spider, who got a little more screen time and with that, the movie makes it abundantly clear that Quaritch only makes the decision to burn the village because Spider was begging him not to take a Na’vi life. Not that it wasn’t clear before but I saw some ppl argue that Miles just has a “kind heart” (he does not.)

And then the cherry on top, the stand-off. A scene that should logically have never been cut out because it provides large amounts of character depth to everyone involved, but we’ll finally talk in depth about Quaritch and how he changed Spider’s opinion on him in just one minute of runtime.

Miles lets go of his charade of “I don’t care about this random kid” and frees Kiri, but Neytiri does not let go of Spider, instead pulling a knife to his throat. The Sullies panic, trying to bring Neytiri out of her grief-ridden trance.

And Quaritch tries so too.

His breathing is laboured, his ears pinned back, he was panicking. He asked her, in disbelief, “You really gonna kill the kid Mrs.Sully?”, and then told her, “You’re a warrior. Your fight’s with me, not with the boy.”

And Spider heard all of it loud and clear. He saw that horrible man whom he spent months with let go of his last ticket to victory, and then try and reason with a woman who holds him at knifepoint. I’m gonna quote @/soccorism a little on this, but Miles basically asked Neytiri to re-direct her rage from Spider to him.

Miles asked her to hurt him instead.

And after all that, how could Spider possibly have left him dying?

Every horrific thing he did is not cancelled out by his fatherly behaviour, but Spider had no time to ponder on everything and put his feelings to the side on the bottom of the ocean. The woman he knew all his life almost killed him, and the man whom he spent months travelling Pandora with pleaded with her to let him go. It was a decision made in a fit of emption, in a fit of sentimentality for a monster who got so strongly attached to him, he threw his mission out the window to ensure that he gets to live.

This cut of the movie provides so much more tenderness to the tragic relationship of these two characters, and ties the arc of their growing bond into a nice bow. No longer do we have to rely on glimpses of raw emotion and facial expressions. We have definitive proof that Miles and Spider had a bond, and a very strong one, which made both of the characters go against their respective groups for the sake of each other, and in the end?

It’s just the two of them.

Lo'ak, Kiri, and Spider visit their new friend, Kanalaak, in the Arctic tribe... and they get a little culture shock!

Spider sadcorro

What you're doing here is wrong

People are so afraid of the possibility of neytiri not always being completely pure in her actions and that she is willing to do something drastic in a moment of grief. Honestly I find that idea way more interesting than "oh no, she actually cares for spider. See how she pushed him behind her in the last second!"

And then the deleted scene comes out proving me right. She was 100% on board with possibly killing spider because in that moment she wasn't thinking straight.

Like God forbid we have the "good" (I use that term with a grain of salt) characters doing questionable things because they've been pushed off the deep end.

What's the term? Morally gray?

Here's a sneak peak at my next art project!

Creating the cover art for @jeanniebug623's fic, Silent as Shadows, made me realize I need more practice drawing backgrounds! So my new goal is to practice drawing things like the trees and forest and rock formations!

One of my favorite scenes from Avatar 2! Click for better quality

That chapter didn't end the way I thought it was going to 😭😭😭

Well…it’s Friday somewhere… 💙🐞

Chapter 29: Blood for Blood

omggg I love this so much! Thank you for drawing this, @jeanniebug623 this was the highlight of my day! 💙💙💙

I always thought it was funny how @ao3gobi17 's custody-Spider would carefully come up with clever escape plans, while my BITTW-Spider's escape plans are basically just run and pray lmao.

I love how my Spider is jealous custody-spider still has hair 🤣

I don’t know where, or when, I saw this comment but I can’t stop thinking about Spider from different fanfics crossings paths in the multiverse…🕷️🕸️

When escape plans collide! 😆 All scribbled in good fun while I take my writing break.

Spider from Blood is Thicker Than Water by @cyren-myadd meets Spider from Custody by @ao3gobi17. Both FANTASTIC fics if you haven’t read them yet! 🙂

@nilnether I'm so happy you enjoyed it!!

I'm so glad you saw the Joel comparison cause the oneshot was hella inspired by the final scene of The Last of Us! This was actually originally gonna be a zombie apocalypse AU, but I scrapped it cause I thought it would be more fun to explore this idea using the leaked information.

Quaritch's lies about not caring for spider were paper thin! Ardmore saw through them, Neytiri saw through them... I think the only ones who believed the lies were Quaritch and Spider themselves lol. I hope the two of them get to work out their relationship in A3 cause so many things were left unsaid!

Don't Ask Questions You Already Know The Answer To: an Avatar one-shot

📢SPOILER WARNING FOR AVATAR 3: plot is inspired by script leaks!📢

When the RDA recaptures Spider months after the Battle at Three Brothers Rock, they make a shocking discovery: he now has the ability to breathe Pandoran air without a mask. This is a cause for celebration. Ardmore believes the sci-ops crew can study Spider's body and find a way to replicate his miraculous ability in other humans. All of a sudden, humanity’s future on Pandora isn't limited to metal facilities and exopacks. They now have not just a chance to survive on Pandora, but to thrive.

While the sci-ops crew move forward with their invasive investigation, Spider asks Quaritch a hard question: “If they decide to kill me, will you let them?”

This idea has been itching my brain for awhile and I just had to scratch it! Don't worry, I'm still working on my other fic, I just needed to scratch this itch. I hope you enjoy! And if anyone is interested in me expanding on this one-shot, please let me know cause I'm open to that if there's interest, though BITTW will come first of course!

no wait omg I actually love this! I can picture that scene in ATLA:

Ardmore, staring angrily at a map marked with seemingly random places Quaritch and Spider have been sighted: clearly, the colonel is a master of evasive maneuvers!

*cut to Q and Spider on Cupcake flying over the ocean

Quaritch: you have no idea where we're going, do you?

Spider: um... well I know we're supposed to be near water?

Quaritch: well, we must be getting close then 🙄

Thank you for the suggestion!!

I really enjoyed your new one shot and would love to see it expanded upon!

I'm glad you liked "Don't Ask Questions You Already Know The Answers To" :D

I have a vague idea of Spider and Quaritch getting captured by an unknown clan as they're trying avoid Ardmore's squads, and this clan wants to force Quaritch to teach them about human warfare so they can attack both the RDA and other Na'vi clans and become powerful. Spider would have a moment of "Oh nooo, the people who captured you are forcing you to teach them stuff? Woooow, that's soooo awful, I can't IMAGINE how you feel 🙄🙄🙄"

You know that one episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender where Azula gets caught by the Earth King's evil advisor and he tries to manipulate her into overthrowing the Earth King for him, but instead she's so charismatic that his soldiers decide to follow her instead? Yeah, that's gonna be Quaritch lol.

Not sure how this clan would feel about Spider though. They'd either think he's an abomination against nature or a blessing from eywa herself. Or some secret third thing 🤷‍♀️

And of course i would have to reveal what actually happened between Spider and the Sullies, and have them come back into the narrative at some point!

If I do expand my one-shot, are there other things you guys would want me to explore?

Anyone can answer, but I'd really like to hear suggestions from @naavispider @ao3gobi17 @jeanniebug623 @dumbass--tumbler--cryptid @mist--walker @raving-raven-writing if you have any cause I love y'all's writing 💙💙💙

Here's the link to the one-shot for those who haven't seen it:

A list of characters who remind me of Spider Socorro, but it gets progressively worse

A quick note about your first point, there actually was a deleted scene that explained that! Once they figured out Jake had run away, Ardmore wanted to let sleeping dogs lie and leave him be, but Quaritch reminded her of how he rallied the clans with the toruk and that he will always be a risk as long as he's alive. He managed to convince her, and now I imagine she's gonna be extra pissed when she finds out Jake had no intentions of rallying the clans and Quaritch effectively pulled him out of retirement by getting his son killed.

Also, hard agree with you on 4! So much of the audience was completely confused about why Spider chose to save Quaritch and they interpreted it as a betrayal rather than a conflicted decision in the heat of the moment as it was intended! I think part of that could have been fixed by having one teensy little moment where Quaritch and Spider have some kind of genuine moment together outside of spider just light-heartedly teasing him. Seriously, JC, in one scene spider is so scared and angry quaritch he won't even look at or speak to him, and then in the next scene he's joking around with him! And then in the scene after that he's crying and begging quaritch not to hurt people! No wonder people don't understand Spider's character, cause you crammed many months of a complicated relationship into like 5mins of screentime 😭😭😭

Hi I have two questions - What would you have done differently if you’d written AWOW? And if Custody was set in Pandora what would that look like? 🥰

I really loved AWOW and any changes I'd make would be dependant on whether I know what was coming up in Avatar 3 and beyond.

A couple of things that come to mind are:

1. I don't think it's super clear why Ardmore still has the recoms chasing after Jake after Jake gives up the fight and runs away. If they think he's still leader of the Omatikaya and is just recruiting the Metkayina/drumming up support from other clans I would have made that a little more obvious.

2. It seems like Neytiri giving Spider the scar is meant to parallel Jake giving up leadership earlier in the movie, but I'm not clear on what that parallel is.. presumably its the son for a son thought from Jake later since Spider has never been a leader? I would have either changed the earlier scene or made this more obvious.

3. I think they did a good job with so many characters in the climatic sequences, but there was a lil bit 'one gets captured then freed then another captured and freed, people are split into twos and threes then split into different twos and threes', esp with the kids... I mean I loved it, I'm glad it was a long sequence, but I reckon it needed tightened up, with the Metkayina being a little more visible.

4. This is less for plot reasons and more for selfish reasons but I would have liked one more (short even) Q and Spider scene. Especially during the Seadragon period because they'd got super comfortable with eachother, Spider is now 'betrayed' and upset as Q is decimating these villages and it would have been good for him to have had a bit more animosity towards the Seadragon crew and esp after he sees that they hunt the Tulkun for just the Amrita.

5. I would have had Lo'ak and the other kids name check Spider during the Metkayina sequences - when Jake references him to Kiri when she's upset, it feels like a very barren single reference, like they only just remembered him.

6. I would have only had the one recom die when Neytiri and Jake (and Neteyam) ambush Q to save the kids. I understand that it helped establish Neteyam and it would be weird for Jake to not get a successful kill, but I'd have preferred if after Neytiri's first shot there's just a lot of diving for cover etc like the recoms are actually pretty worth opponents? Would help with the shock impact later of Neytiri's rampage.

7. I probably would have given Payakan a voice... like a telepathy type thing... maybe not using a lot of words and maybe only for Lo'ak but I wanted to get a 'human' vibe from him.

8. I would have de-Americanised Spider and Lo'ak a bit and I would have had Q do the haircut and get clothes on Spider.. It would be good for showing time passing and esp if Spider is slowly reverting back to his original form without Q stopping him, while Q himself is getting more Na'vi.

The Custody question is tricky, because I deliberately went modern AU to avoid Pandora! You could have a scenario where Q appears to have killed Paz but I imagine he'd be court marshalled and sent back to earth or else he'd be 'forgiven' to continue work as normal. Q and the RDA are the main authorities on the human side, so it's less likely we'd see the combo of him stitched him up by someone internally and also remain in his post.

So I guesss... I'd have him captured by the Na'vi? Spider doesn't visit him because of the whole war criminal thing. Jake and co are keeping him alive for intel. Q is still demanding to see Spider that way. He could be recom!Q or regular!Q - and then his team probably rescue him and grab Spider same time?? Or maybe they rescue him and try to find Spider but grab a Sully kid instead and that plays out like the Leo thing but with the comms. I'm not sure the Paz thing would be much of a murder mystery though, so aside from Q attempting to bond with a reluctant Spider, it would prob diverge a lot from the original plot! <3

@raving-raven-writing suggested Mimi-Siku from Jungle to Jungle as an honorable mention

A list of characters who remind me of Spider Socorro, but it gets progressively worse

get his ass

🕸️🕷️ Weaving the Web 🕷️🕸️

Chapter 9: Filling In the Blanks

Quaritch waited outside the interview room while Nash McCosker gave his statement regarding the incident in the cafeteria.  Miles had not only smashed his face against a metal table which left the man with a broken nose, but he’d landed three more solid punches before the colonel tore the boy off.  According to the medical report, each additional blow left him with a facial fracture to the right cheekbone, orbital fracture, and a dislocated jaw.  To put it bluntly: McCosker was a fucking mess to look at because Miles seriously fucked him up.

Quaritch couldn’t even be proud of how well Spider could fight.  He could have killed the man.  Just what the hell was Miles thinking?!  With the help of some heavy painkillers and a bit of force, McCosker’s jaw was reset but he was a swollen, discolored, bloody mess.

”Thank you for your time, Mr. McCosker.” 

The security officer ending her interview and exiting the room brought the colonel back to the present.  She nodded in acknowledgment that Quaritch could now go in and have his own interview with McCosker.  Taking a long breath from his mask, the recom ducked under the low entryway and mentally reminded himself to let the man tell his side of the story first.  It’s not that Quaritch didn’t trust Spider, or Miles for that matter, but he would get more information if he was sympathetic to the victim.

”Mr. McCosker.” Quaritch said, appraising the man sitting at the table with butterfly stitches holding a gash together under his right black eye and heavy duty sutures holding his upper lip together.  He was holding an ice pack over most of his face but managed to make eye contact with Quaritch and nod.

”Yea, that’s me.” McCosker said gruffly.  Quaritch couldn’t blame him.  If he’d taken hits like that, he’d take a shot of morphine with a shot of whiskey and call it a night.  McCosker stared at Quaritch, narrowing his good eye slightly.  He looked like he was trying to remember why the recombinant looked familiar and finally asked, “Do I know you, sir?  I didn’t realize there were new avatar pilots…”

Avatars?  No.  Recombinants?  Well, that was a need to know and if Nash McCosker had a history of switching sides, the last thing he’d have is the clearance for knowledge of the Sec-Ops first recom unit.

”There aren’t.” Quaritch said, only eliciting more confusion from the man, but quickly changed the subject, “How you holdin’ up?  That was a hell of a beating you took.”

Despite the discoloration of his bruised face, McCosker’s face turned red.  Quaritch couldn’t tell if it was from embarrassment or anger.  Based on the clenched fists and furrowing brow, the colonel went with the latter.

”For what it’s worth, you ain’t the first person that kid’s put in the hospital.” Quaritch remarked.  Spider had gotten in some brawls when he was first captured but it was more justified.  It would have been strange if he didn’t try to fight back given his upbringing.  Maybe this Nash guy could fill in some of the blanks…

”That fucking kid…” McCosker growled, “I didn’t even know he was here.”

”I doubt prisoner records show up in your work.” Quaritch said smoothly, crossing his arms as he continued the small talk.  It was no surprise that the man knew Spider.  All the humans that stayed behind all lived at Hell’s Gate so it was likely they’d crossed paths at some point.  But from that remark, Quaritch figured the man knew more about Spider than just that he was a baby left behind.

”We’d heard about someone getting captured…” McCosker said, “…we figured it was a Na’vi.”

”Would that have been better?  Given how much help you offered the RDA a year ago.  You’re practically a damn hero for humanity.” Quaritch praised, putting up a good act.  Nash McCosker’s loyalty was low on his list to trust, given he’d switched sides twice already.

”I’m no hero.  I was looking out for my family…and Jake was…” he started then let his sentence trail off.  He readjusted the ice pack with a slight hiss of pain.

”You were loyal to Jake Sully.” Quaritch said, his ears pinning back.

”Yea…back when Jake was loyal to us too.” McCosker said with a growl.

”Guess that’s fair…Sully switched sides and doomed a lot of good people.  He’s got a decent following.  Includin’ the kid who tried to turn your face to ground meat.  That must be why…” Quaritch said, baiting the man to keep venting in whatever way would get more information about Spider out of this.

”That little bastard is the reason Jake and his family got away!” McCosker snarled, immediately regretting it when shouting required him to open his mouth more to do it.

Quaritch’s tail flipped angrily and he set his jaw.  He’d heard plenty of people make comments like that about Spider since being captured but it hit him differently to hear how visceral it was coming from Nash McCosker.  The soldiers who’d guarded and escorted him around made comments about him being ‘wild’, ‘out of control’, or ‘savage’.  But those remarks came after a scuffle.  McCosker’s rage was old.

”The RDA lost the Sullys due to a, what…?  Fifteen-year-old at the time?” Quaritch said, remaining calm but wanting to smack the guy himself.  He knew what it looked like to have a deep rooted anger in one’s eyes; he’d seen it every time he saw his reflection after Sully’s betrayal.

”We’d managed to catch a few of Jake’s kids.  He would’ve surrendered and none of the shit that followed would’ve happened.  But Miles busted them out and the Sullys got away because of it.” McCosker said, remembering the night like it was yesterday.

Quaritch frowned but noted that McCosker had called him ‘Miles’.  Of course Spider had done something like that…the colonel had seen how he acted when they were all caught in the forest and how defensive he was of the Sully kids.  Especially the older girl.

“Not surprised he turned out so wild.” McCosker grumbled, “Sure as fuck never listened growing up.”

There it was.  Confirmation that McCosker knew Spider on a more personal level.  It was time to pull that stitch loose.

”You used to look after the boy?” Quaritch asked, the keycard and tooth burning a hole in his pocket.

”Yea…” he answered nonchalantly then continued, “We took him in.  That kid was a terror.  Older he got, the less he listened.  My wife and I tried to raise him to be a good kid but he’d just run off whenever we tried to enforce any rules.”

”And you’d let him?” Quaritch asked, slipping his hand in his pocket and catching the contents in his palm.

”It got tougher when we had kids of our own,” the man admitted, “Someone else should’ve taken him.  It was a mistake.  Miles was a mistake to begin with…”

Quaritch couldn’t stop the growl that escaped his teeth, not going unnoticed by McCosker.  The man suddenly got a nervous look on his face recognizing what an angry Na’vi, or recom in this case, looks like.  Quaritch slipped his hand out of his pocket and put his hand flat on the table, slowly sliding the keycard and broken tooth over to him.

“His parents made a mistake, but SPIDER is not the mistake.” Quaritch growled. “Let me take a good guess on how it all went down.  You took in the little tike because you didn’t have any kids yet.  Just being a Good Samaritan, right?  You sure seem like a family man but that boy was never part of your family, was he?”

”Who the hell do you think you are?” McCosker asked, getting to his feet but still being towered over by the colonel. “We put a roof over his head, food in his stomach, did everything we could to raise him as one of our own.”

“Did you?” Quaritch said, feeling his anger rising, “Your sons are model citizens, aren’t they?  Good students, helpful in the community.  Real poster child quality for the recolonization efforts.  AND they were born on Pandora.  Just like Spider.  Except Spider isn’t like them…it’s almost like you stopped caring as soon as you had your own.”

McCosker froze when Quaritch mentioned his sons.  The room turned silent as the colonel took back his hand and the battered man could see his ID keycard and tooth on the table.

”Spider didn’t attack you because you betrayed Sully…he already got you back for that by freeing those halfbreeds.” Quaritch said, eerily calm, “He bashed your face in for somethin’ else so what’d you do to him?  He said you threw out his teeth.  Did you knock them out when he gave you a hard time?”

”His goddamn baby teeth, I never hit him in the face!” McCosker huffed out but regretted the latter half of his statement at the narrowed gold ears and wrinkles on recom’s nose from the start of a growl.

”But you did hit him…” Quaritch said, his quiet tone not matching his facial cues.

McCosker was flustered but still tried to defend himself and said, ”We didn’t abuse him!  Put him in his room, maybe spanked him once or twice.  Nothing we did worked and it’s clear he’s still a lost cause as he was back then.  Too wild and dangerous!  It’d be best for everyone if you just had him put down-…”

The sound of the metal table crashing into the wall drew the attention of security minding their own business out in the hall.  When they peeked into the interview room, they were too shocked by the sight of Quaritch having pulled the table right off its bolts to get at McCosker.  The man was terrified, back against the wall with the recom’s massive hand across his collarbone.  

Quaritch had a fraction of a second of sense to push this sad excuse for a human being against the wall by his chest and not his throat.  He was growling low in his throat and wanted to finish the job his boy had started in the cafeteria.  There was much more to Miles attacking McCosker the way he had than an ass whooping or being sent to his room.

”Colonel Quaritch?” one of the guards had the courage to say, “What’s the issue, sir?”

Despite the bruises, all the color in McCosker’s face drained.  The ten-foot-tall blue version of the old head of Sec-Ops suddenly looked VERY familiar.  Quaritch slowly took his hand back and stood back up straight.

”Not at all.” Quaritch answered, “Isn’t that right, Mr. McCosker?”

~~~~~~~~~~

Several excruciatingly long hours later, Quaritch received an alert from the staff in solitary that Spider was awake.  He’d spent the time decompressing in his apartment and absorbing all the information he’d learned from Nash McCosker.  His annoyance that Spider was the reason Sully got away a year ago was easily overlooked now knowing how hard the boy’s childhood had been.  But despite it all, Spider was still a great kid…

He was down in the solitary confinement cell with Spider as fast as possible, borderline jogging through some of the long corridors to get from the living quarters to the prison block.  Quaritch stared at the boy, tucked into one of the corners as small as he could make himself.  When he was sedated, they’d changed him out of his native attire into a hospital gown and boxers.  What really completed the ensemble was the straight jacket.

It made Quaritch sick to see this poor boy snared like a maniac…

”Hey, tiger.” Quaritch said with a sigh.  The boy looked up and the colonel felt even worse seeing the tear tracks on his cheeks and terrified expression.  He sighed again and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Shit really hit the fan…everythin’ will be ok.  But, goddamn it, kid…we gotta do better.  Alright?”

Spider bit his lip and sniffled, nodding his head quickly.

”Good.  Let’s get you something to eat.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

Not wanting to risk triggering Miles again, Quaritch had some breakfast delivered to his apartment instead of going to the cafeteria.  Spider hadn’t said a word since leaving solitary.  He hovered very close to Quaritch as he led him back to the apartment and sat on the oversized couch with his legs hugged tight to his chest in complete silence.

”Eat up, kid.” Quaritch said flatly, putting the plate of scrambled eggs and bacon on the cushion next to him.  He sighed for the umpteenth time since coming back to the apartment as he sat on the other side of the couch, rubbing his eyes against the tension headache relentlessly pounding in his skull.

Spider looked up from where he hid his face in his knees but didn’t move to eat yet.  His eyes looked glassy like he was on the verge of tears again.  After a few minutes of silence, the recom looked at him with a disgruntled look.  It made Spider flinch.

”Eat.” Quaritch said more firmly this time.  The boy nodded and ate quickly.  The colonel watched him finish everything on his plate like his life depended on it.  He cleared his throat to get Spider’s attention and said, “I’m not mad at you, Spider.  I know you’re all mixed up right now and…didn’t mean to hurt anyone.  That McCosker is a prick…”

Spider stared at Quaritch wide-eyed then looked at his bandaged hand.  His eyebrows pinched together and he bit his lip as it trembled.  He sniffled again.

”Kid, I’m not good with whatever this is.” Quaritch said annoyedly and waved his hand to reference Spider’s emotional response.  “You gotta talk to me.  Or if you just…need time to yourself, you can go to your room.”

Tears started to slowly fall but Spider nodded and got off the couch.  He walked over to the two open doors with almost identical bedrooms and paused.  Quaritch watched him, concern brewing over the boy’s strange behavior.  He leaned his arms on his knees and observed him carefully.

Spider was standing in front of the bedroom doors, his fingers fidgeting with the hem of the hospital gown.  He seemed unsure of himself.  Lost.  Scared, even.

”Left door, Spider.” Quaritch said, realizing the boy didn’t seem to know.

Spider looked back at him, gripping the shirt tighter.  Quaritch raised an eyebrow but waited this time for the boy to speak.

”Um…” Spider finally started in a quiet, uncertain voice, “…uh, are we friends?”

”Uh…” Quaritch’s ears went back and eventually he nodded and responded, “Yea, I like to think so.  Why?”

”I-It’s just…only my friends call me Spider.” the boy started with a shrug.  His voice was quiet and meek, completely unlike anything Quaritch had ever heard from him. “Grown ups usually call me Miles.”