TIme doesn't exist in space like it did on earth, time moves differently up here. In cryo-sleep you don't age no matter how long you sleep and you never dream. Not that you'll realise that, it's only after you wake up that you notice the dreamless state you used to be in. Awa would know, she herself had woken up from the cryo-sleep only hours ago with a loud gasp and erratic breathing. 5 years of sleep affected the body even if it didn't age, there's a lingering feeling of exhaustion and weakness days afterwards. Her first steps on Pandora soil were shaky and she remember her hands shaking despite not being scared or nervous. She was too excited to be nervous, it was like a dream come true.
She thinks back to her time in the Avatar program schooling, the countless hours she spent learning the customs, languages and traditions of the native people. She's always had an easy time learning languages but even this one proved some difficulty, she had the most struggles with the little clicks, similar to some African languages and the sounds similar to some european languages like german. It was easy enough once she learned some of the unfamiliar sounds and the general grammatical rules. She spoke fluent na'vi by the time she graduated. She held the record for most hours spent in a simulator, ever, even beating that of the legendary Grace Augustine. She spent most of her free time there, it got to a point that she skipped some of her other classes just so she could spend more time in her Avatar form. After a certain amount of time, she didn't know when, she started considering the Na'vi form her true form instead of the human body she was born into. Her psychologist insisted that she had to take a break from the simulation but Awa persisted, she didn't like being in her human form. All she could feel was like an itch that she couldn't scratch that only went away when she was in the simulator. She also had a bad record of getting into verbal fights with the RDA employes in and out of their classes. She disliked what they were preaching and showed it often untill she realised it was damaging her reputation and chances to graduate.
She was now sitting in the almost empty cafeteria, shoveling tasteless mush that she suspected was supposed to be mashed potatoes. 'It won't be the animals killing me, it will be this sad excuse for food', she thought to herself with a small happy grin. Not even the bad food could destroy her happy mood. She was on Pandora!
Just as she was putting a new spoonful of the mush a raspy voice spoke behind her. "Hello" It greeted, the voice sounded familiar to Awa but she couldn't put her finger on why. The rasp could only be caused by a smoking habit or age. The latter was not likely based on how the footsteps sounded.
She turned around, cheeks puffing out as she tried to swallow the food. "H-hello" She greeted back, stunned. It was Grace Augustine! Her idol was standing behind her, talking to her! She knew that the woman was on the base but she didn't expect to run into her any time soon. Especially not with a mouth full of gray mush. "It's so nice to meet you!" She sputtered out with wide eyes and a small blush on the apples of her cheeks.
"Oh please don't" Grace huffed out, not at all appreciating the fangirling from the younger woman. She was so over the praise and unconditional love that she received from so many, they didn't know her and therefore shouldn't sing her praises. She needed people with backbone or else they wouldn't survive the harsh planet that was Pandora. She hoped that this student, Awa, would prove to be different. She could see the potential Awa held, she just needed to make sure the girl came out of her shell. "I've heard so many great things about you"
Awa nodded, still stunned by the appearance of her idol. "I hope so, I've worked hard for this"
"I know" Grace responded, remembering the thick file that she had been given on the girl. The content had made her eyes widen, she had never seen a number that high on simulation and it wasn't often the students had as good grades as Awa did. It was truly impressive, but what really caught her eye was the incident reports on the young woman. At first she was sceptical if the girl before her was suitable but then she read on and saw that she had only been in fights with the RDA employes and she remember feeling a bit of pride in her chest. Awa would be a great addition, she thought to herself, and I bet the na'vi would love her. "I've read your files. How's your na'vi?"
" My vocabulary is limited but I can easily hold conversations and I remember all the traditional phrases and formal greetings they taught us." Awa responded with her eyes turned towards the floor, she wasn't used to the kind of attention Grace was giving her and she was unsure of how to handle it. She had spent many grueling hours perfecting her linguistic skills but the program had limited knowledge of the language. Most of it came from Grace and other avatar drivers that had managed to interact with the Na'vi, big parts of the language remained a mystery to them and she suspected it would remain that way unless someone was taught personally by them. " I still have much to learn"
"Your way of speaking is a little stiff and unsure but still very skilled. With proper training you will be speaking like a native in not time" Grace complimented her, she had expected her to be good but she surpassed her expectations. The older woman suspected that Awa had peeked in documents and footage she wasn't supposed to because no student had ever come to her this advanced in the language. The part about speaking like a native wasn't exactly true, even Grace wasn't there yet and she doubted she ever would since she and all the other humans had been cast out of the clan's good graces." From now on we will always speak in na'vi to each other, this way you will advance and no nosy military shits will know what we're talking about" She joked with a small chuckle but her words rang with truth. The military parts of the operation got more and more involved with her departments as time went by but Grace was going to fight them until her body was placed in the ground and her energy returned to Eywa.
" Thank you" Awa bowed her head with a grateful smile. This first meeting was going better than she expected. " Have you met any other drivers from my class?" The young woman was curious about her past classmates and if they had been welcomed as she had. She doubted it, most of them were under average intelligence and was only there because of their parents or some undercover operation by the trigger-happy fanatics.
"Yes, there were surprisingly few this time but most have shown great promise. Some have not and I pray that they won't be eaten by the first creature they meet out there." Grace spit out, her eyes disappointed. She wasn't looking forward the next batch of drivers if they showed the same lack of interest as some did in this one. No matter, Awa would do just fine. She would teach the girl personally and hopefully it would pay off.
"We have had extensive training about the different creatures but I doubt any of us remember all" Awa responded humbly, she remembered it all but she didn't like her fellow drivers to be spoken about like that. Most of them tried their best. Her bowl of mashed bullshit was left forgotten in front of her as she spoke with her soon-to-be mentor and best friend.
"Can I sit?" Grace asked with a knowing smile, she knew that Awa was downplaying her own knowledge to avoid her past classmates being degraded. She liked that Awa would not stand for injustice but she would work on her confidence. " My body is aching" And it was, every part of her body was feeling numb but at the same time there was a pulsing ache. It had been a long day for the doctor, full of avoiding new people and steadily filling in a ton of paperwork. They had lost an Avatar last week due to the driver's own stupidity. She suspected there would be a lot more incidents like that with the batch of students that had been dropped on Pandora today.
" Of course" Awa replied while feeling shame bubble up inside of her, how could she not have offered a seat to the older woman. It was the respectful thing to do, the only right thing to do and in all the excitement she had forgotten her own manners. "I would have offered before but I forgot, I'm so sorry"
"Spare me the excuses, I don't need your permission to sit" Grace told the girl with an amused smirk on her face, she was just messing with the poor girl but Awa desperately needed to build her self confidence. " Have you seen your Avatar yet?"
All the color drained for Awa's face, another thing she had forgotten. First thing she did when she got into the base was taking a shower and then going here to eat. She had forgotten to go see both the labs and her avatar because she was hungry. No wonder no one else was here. " I-uh I forgot"
"How would you like to link into it for real? No simulation, only you and your avatar body?" Grace felt an involuntary smirk grow on her thin lips. She knew Awa would jump to the offer within a heartbeat and probably squeal the ears off her.
"Yes! Yes Yes Yes!" Awa predictably screeched, rushing to her feet she threw her arms around the older woman. " Thank you thank you thank you!" She tightened her arms around the other woman as she continued to squeal loudly, she couldn't contain her excitement at finally being able to link to her true body. It had been too long since she was in it, simulation or not.
"First you need to finish your meal, then I will take you to then linking room"
...
The foamy insides of the linking unit welcomed her as she lied down, the gel like mattress forming around her body shape. She was trying to keep her breathing steady as they lowered the small see through thingy that she had forgot the name of. She hadn't paid a lot of attention to how the linking units worked, she focused on the more practical parts of it and left the technicalities to the technicians. They pulled down the outer part of the unit and closed it, initiating the link between her and her avatar body. Oh, she was so excited it was going to be hard to empty her mind.
"How's her brain activity looking?" One of the supervisors asked the man besides her, her body tense as it always was when a newbie used a real linking unit for the first time. They always made sure to give the most stable ones to the more inexperienced.
"She's doing good. More than good actually" The man responded, flicking through different settings as he looked at how her body and mind was reacting to the linking process. It had happened that some linking processes with newbies had failed, that either the human mind rejected the body or the body rejected the mind but there was no sign of that happening here. In fact this linking was possibly one of the smoothest transitions yet.
"Alright I'm going in" Grace announced to the people working in the room, not expecting any answers from her coworkers and they knew not to respond. She had her odd quirks and behaviours but the workers quickly adapted and they would almost call themselves Grace experts. "I'll see you on the other side" She told Awa who could not hear her.
Grace woke up in the large building the RDA had built to house the Avatar bodies when they were not being used. It had wooden walls that were at least double the height of their tallest avatar and lines of large beds that they could sleep on. There wasn't a door into the building, they used an almost slide door bar thingy that the avatar drivers would lock before going to sleep so that no one could harm or take the bodies.
She looked down on her body, appreciating the feeling of finally being able to be in her other body. She had been so busy lately that she hadn't had the chance to be free like this in a while. Her toned blue limbs were flexing as she took her first steps outside of the building. She was wearing basic training clothes that had been made just for her and all of her hair was braided into one single braid along with her tswin or as it was named in english, her queue. She had a few strands that were decorated with pearls hanging loose, framing her face.
Grace jogged over to the exit where she waited for Awa to step out in her new body. It wasn't long until the large door opened and a tall, toned body stepped outside. Grace studied the avatar with attentive eyes, she wanted to see if the avatar was satisfactory or if there was any faults with it.
Awa's face was a pretty blue with just the barest hint of purple in some spots with small bioluminescent dots that were placed along her face like freckles, most prominent just below her eyes and a small collection of them just above her left eye. Her eyes were just a little bit smaller than what the natives, only just. It seemed her DNA blended well with the Na'vi ones and produced an avatar very similar to the actual Na'vi. She had the typical feline shape on her eyes and a bright shade of gold, her pupils were a bit smaller than the typical Na'vi but only the natives would know the difference. Awa had high cheekbones and the protruding snout looking nose. Her ears were flickering back and forth as she tried to get used to her new body. Her hair they had decided to braid differently from how they usually do, probably based on the hairstyle Awa had chosen to wear every time she was in the simulation. It was braided into small braids that were decorated with some pears and golden strings.
Grace laughed slightly when Awa accidentally flicked her with her long tail, or she thought it was accidentally. She continued her observations, so far the face looked good with all the right proportions. The neck was long and graceful, she had strong shoulders and her upper body displayed the hidden strength that the Na'vi had. Her stomach was flat and her hips nicely shaped, no abnormalities there either. Her legs looked strong and well proportioned and carried the same kind of pattern of darker blue and light cyan. Conclusion? Awa had to have the best Avatar that Grace had ever seen.
"So what's the verdict, doc?" Awa laughed, she was much more confident in this body which she had spent hours upon hours in. It was a different feeling though to really be in her body and not just in a simulation. It felt good, it felt amazing even. She never wanted to leave.
"It'll do" Grace snickered, not wanting the girl to know how amazed she was of the avatar body.