Avatar Academy Series: A Comprehensive Chronology
Starting Point: April 22, 2025 (Earth Day — a fitting irony)
This timeline synthesizes events across all four novelettes, tracking characters and noting which story each event appears in. Stories are abbreviated as:
- AS = Awesome Sauce
- BSTW = Baltimore Saves the World
- VDPS = Venus Dreams Plastic Schemes
- HMF = His Mom Friday
PREHISTORY (Before April 2025)
The First Avatar Mission — Date Unknown
Source: AS, HMF, BSTW (referenced)
- Factor Sonnof becomes the first Avatar Operator to teleport from Venus to Earth
- His target host is Yuval Prime, associated with Victory Construction in Baltimore
- Factor’s Avatar Pod Controller malfunctions during the mission
- Factor becomes trapped in Yuval Prime’s body on Earth; his Venusian body remains in stasis
- His official status is listed as “Unknown” on his Hall of Heroes plaque
- Nona Sonnof is left to raise their son Bevers alone while serving as Mayor of Venus City
Characters introduced: Factor Sonnof, Yuval Prime, Nona Sonnof, Bevers Sonnof
PHASE ONE: THE CRISIS BEGINS
April 22, 2025 — Earth Day / Venus Doomsday
Source: AS (Chapter 1: Venus’s Voltage Vacancies)
VENUS — The Observatory
- The AI Governor (holographic dodecahedron) convenes an emergency meeting - Solar panel failures have reached critical levels; power cycling events are constant
- Mayor Nona Sonnof and Sergeant Tobar Sidel attend
- Key revelation: Earth has massive quantities of unrecycled plastic that could fuel PolymerPower reactors
- The Venusians watch footage of an Earthling (later identified as Lenny Kremer) praying in a parking lot — they mistake this for “praying to the plastic God”
- Decision: Deploy Avatar Operators to Earth to acquire plastic - Ethical concerns raised about hosts achieving “Attained Negative Life Status” (ANLS) upon operator return
- Solution: Target hosts in high-crime areas where deaths won’t raise suspicion
- Baltimore selected as primary target zone due to underfunded police and criminal activity
Characters introduced: AI Governor, Sergeant Tobar Sidel, Lenny Kremer (observed)
April 23–24, 2025 — Mobilization
Source: VDPS (Chapters 1–2), BSTW
VENUS — Government Chambers
- Emergency protocols enacted; plastic conservation measures ordered - All plastic items (posters, benches, art installations) to be replaced with Cardbordium
- VEATT 2.0 (Venus-Earth Avatar Teleportation Technology) development accelerated - Governor orders Avatar Academy expansion and new cadet recruitment
- Bevers Sonnof’s application transferred from defunct VEATT 1.0 program to Avatar Academy 2.0
- Nona objects but is overruled by the Governor
EARTH — Baltimore
- At Gilbrain Recycling, Abel and Linda Gilbrain dream of buying the bankrupt Putt-Putt Planet mini-golf course
- Etern Fletcher delivers “No Plastic Left Behind” merchandise - Ramon Ortiz files paperwork in the cluttered office
- Abel’s parents, Ursel and Urielle Gilbrain, prepare for a vacation to the Poconos
Characters introduced: Abel Gilbrain, Linda Gilbrain, Etern Fletcher, Ramon Ortiz, Ursel Gilbrain, Urielle Gilbrain
April 25, 2025 — Lenny’s Bad Night
Source: BSTW (Chapter: Praying to the “plastic God”)
EARTH — Baltimore Ramada Hotel - Lenny Kremer attends Tuesday Night Speed Dating - Disastrous dates with Euphemia (flees to bathroom), Bromhilda (texts her mom about him), and Martha (dismisses alien theories) - Lenny remains hopeful despite zero romantic success - He works as a polymer monitoring engineer at the Baltimore Plastic Recycle Processing Facility - His two passions: waste management data and UFO research
Characters introduced: Euphemia, Bromhilda, Martha (speed dates)
April 26–27, 2025 — Poster Crisis / Coffee Shop
Source: AS (Chapter 3: Nona’s Plastic Poster)
VENUS — Perfect Protocol Percolation Coffee Shop - Nona and Jetta Sidel (Tobar’s mother) have coffee - City maintenance worker Wally removes Nona’s campaign poster for fuel - Nona accepts this as “the needs of the many” but is clearly troubled - New posters read: “Conserve Plastic! (Or We’ll All Die!)”
Characters introduced: Jetta Sidel, Wally
PHASE TWO: THE AVATAR ACADEMY
Late April 2025 — Cadet Training Begins
Source: AS (Chapter 3: Keen Clutzy Cadets), VDPS
VENUS — Avatar Control Facility - Five new cadets train under Sergeant Sidel and Technician Xena Xanner - Cadets: Thalia Ridel (extroverted, crush on Bevers), Sharada Nassof (shy brainiac), Spinozar Bentov (philosopher), Moma Tommov and Mathezar Tommov (married couple) - Bevers sneaks into training late, trips over a trash can - A mysterious webcam feed appears showing 10 tons of labeled plastic at coordinates in Baltimore - Xena teleports the plastic directly to the PolymerPower fuel bay — success! - Rules of Avatar Operation taught: “If you don’t know, answer a question with a question” and “Don’t get caught”
Characters introduced: Xena Xanner, Thalia Ridel, Sharada Nassof, Spinozar Bentov, Moma Tommov, Mathezar Tommov
Late April 2025 — The Gilbrain Takeover
Source: VDPS (Chapter 3: House-sitting)
EARTH — Baltimore - Ursel and Urielle Gilbrain leave for vacation to the Poconos - Abel and Linda house-sit, immediately begin scheming about the mini-golf purchase - The Tommovs are assigned to permanently hijack Ursel and Urielle Gilbrain - Moma-as-Urielle and Mathezar-as-Ursel take over during the vacation - The Gilbrain parents return “changed” — more efficient, orderly, obsessed with TV trivia
Early May 2025 — Bevers’s First Real Mission (Dan Uris)
Source: BSTW
VENUS — Avatar Control - Governor takes “direct interest” in Bevers’s career over Nona’s objections - Bevers is assigned to avatar into Dan Uris, an aggressive man who works at the Baltimore Waste Processing Plant - Alternative host (rejected): an elderly robbery victim with a broken leg - Bevers climbs into Pod Controller labeled “Bevers Sonnof/Dan Uris” - Teleportation successful — Bevers experiences Earth gravity for the first time
EARTH — Baltimore Waste Processing Plant - Bevers-as-Dan arrives, disoriented by the heavier gravity - He meets Lenny Kremer and supervisor Cedric “Smitty” at the facility - Bevers-as-Dan’s mission: locate large quantities of plastic for teleportation
Characters introduced: Dan Uris, Smitty (Cedric)
May 2025 — World UFO Day Events
Source: BSTW
EARTH — Baltimore - Lenny notices statistical anomalies in plastic waste data — impossible drops in pollution levels - He suspects alien involvement but can’t prove it - Bevers-as-Dan struggles with coordination; his erratic behavior raises eyebrows - Dan Uris achieves ANLS (dies) when Bevers returns to Venus - Bevers feels genuine guilt about Dan’s death — unusual for Venusians
VENUS — Perfect Protocol Percolation - Bevers meets Nona and Jetta after his mission - His Venusian body is still calibrated for Earth gravity; he stumbles, knocks things over - Nona is pragmatic: “They’re biodegradable. Why not just leave them?” - Bevers is sent for mandatory debriefing
May 2025 — The Second Invader (Smitty)
Source: BSTW
VENUS - Bevers is assigned a new host: Smitty (Lenny’s friend at the plant) - Mission continues: locate larger plastic quantities
EARTH — Baltimore - Bevers-as-Smitty works alongside Lenny - Lenny becomes increasingly suspicious of strange behavior from coworkers - He meets Lucy Mateo, a graduate student researching microplastic extraction - Lenny and Lucy bond over environmental concerns and, eventually, over Lenny’s UFO theories - Bevers-as-Smitty helps identify the Victory Construction criminal operation as a source of concentrated plastic
PHASE THREE: VICTORY CONSTRUCTION
Mid-May 2025 — Criminal Underworld
Source: AS (Chapters 4–5)
EARTH — Victory Construction Warehouse - Victor Ng (“Victor the Vicious”) runs a criminal operation disguised as a construction company - Key employees: El Toro (enforcer), Wilt Chamberlain (receptionist, no relation to basketball legend), Tommy Takony (good-hearted associate) - Tommy pitches Victor on starting a legal cannabis dispensary — rejected - Victor notices plastic disappearing from his scrap piles; suspects theft - El Toro punches Tommy over the missing vinyl (Tommy is innocent — Venusians teleported it)
Characters introduced: Victor Ng, El Toro, Wilt Chamberlain, Tommy Takony
Mid-May 2025 — Ivan the Insane
Source: AS (Chapters 12–13)
EARTH — Baltimore - Ivan Broomfield (“Ivan the Insane”) returns from a trip, greeted by his daughter Isolda - Ivan is a devoted father despite his criminal profession - He participates in Isolda’s tea party; she puts makeup on his face - Bevers neural-hijacks Ivan; Bevers-as-Ivan goes to work for Victor - Chitty the Chipper (owner of a wood chipper, psychotically cheerful) joins Bevers-as-Ivan and Tommy on errands
Characters introduced: Ivan Broomfield, Isolda Broomfield, Chitty the Chipper
Mid-May 2025 — Finding Factor
Source: AS (Chapters 13–15)
VENUS — Avatar Control - Sidel works frantically to repair Factor Sonnof’s damaged Pod Controller - Cadets discover Factor’s host (Yuval Prime) is connected to Victory Construction - Mathezar proposes avataring into Victor to get close to the plastic cache
EARTH — Victory Construction - Factor-as-Yuval is being held captive by Victor - Mathezar-as-Victor neural-hijacks Victor; his eyes flash blue - Factor recognizes the signs of a Venusian avatar; Mathezar identifies himself - Bevers-as-Ivan arrives with Tommy and Chitty - The three Venusians reveal themselves to each other (but not to Chitty or Tommy) - Father-son reunion: Bevers and Factor embrace in their human host bodies
Late May 2025 — The Toy Tinkers Heist
Source: AS (Chapter 15: The Plastic Pile-up)
EARTH — Demolished Toy Tinkers Site - Factor-as-Yuval, Bevers-as-Ivan, and Mathezar-as-Victor drive to a massive pile of vinyl scraps - They climb the mountain of plastic to transmit GPS coordinates to Venus - The beacon is activated; the plastic glows blue and vanishes - Problem: they’re standing on the plastic when it teleports - All three hosts fall to their deaths (splat)
VENUS — Avatar Control - Tension as Sidel and Xena monitor the situation - Power coupling fails again; Sharada and Spinozar rush to fix it - Three Pod Controllers glow blue — successful return! - Bevers, Mathezar, and Factor emerge alive - Factor orders the teleportation of remaining plastic; mission success
Late May 2025 — Family Reunion
Source: AS (Chapters 15–16)
VENUS — The Observatory - Nona is in a meeting discussing funding and solar panel failures - Factor sneaks up behind her, covers her eyes - Emotional reunion; Nona is overjoyed - Governor offers Factor a tenured position as Professor of Earth Protocol at the Avatar Academy - Grand celebration at Venus City Civic Center - Multiple couples form: Spinozar & Sharada, Bevers & Thalia, Moma & Mathezar (already married)
EARTH — Baltimore - Funerals for Ivan the Insane, Victor the Vicious, Yuval Prime, and El Toro - Chitty is the sole mourner at each, bored and fake-crying - Wilt inherits Victory Construction; Tommy opens a cannabis dispensary - Police have no leads; deaths attributed to “climbing accidents”
PHASE FOUR: OPERATIONS CONTINUE
June 2025 — Thalia’s Tribunal
Source: VDPS (Chapter 8)
VENUS — Avatar Control Facility - Thalia Ridel faces a tribunal for “terminating her host” during a mission gone wrong - Sergeant Sidel presents damning pie charts and statistics - Nona defends Thalia passionately: “She’s a weapon. You don’t throw away a weapon just because it misfired once. You recalibrate it.” - The Governor agrees; Thalia is reinstated with conditions: Ethics in Teleportation Seminar (twice) and snack bar ban (one month) - Thalia and Bevers exchange meaningful looks
Summer 2025 — Bevers’s Demotion
Source: HMF (referenced)
VENUS - Bevers provides a load of plastic fuel, but it contains impurities - Processing causes extreme power fluctuations - Governor demotes Bevers from First Class Operator back to Cadet - Nona is frustrated but supportive
Summer 2025 — Movie Night
Source: HMF (Chapter 1: Movie night)
VENUS — Sonnof Family Apartment - Factor, Nona, and Bevers settle in for family movie night - Feature: His Girl Friday (1940), streamed from Earthnet - Nona made “Earthling popcorn” with “aroma of mommy-love” - Power cycling interrupts mid-film; a four-minute delay - Nona calls the Governor to complain; conversation reveals ongoing crisis - Factor is now home, but the family worries about Venus City’s future - Bevers defends the Avatar Academy: “The Avatar Control Facility now has separate power reserves” - Reference to Thalia and Sharada’s thermal power converter invention
Summer 2025 — The P.L.A.S.T.I.C. Discovery
Source: HMF (Chapter 2)
VENUS — Avatar Academy Training Room - Thalia and Sharada play Venusian ping-pong at superhuman speeds - Spinozar and Jakov watch; Spinozar philosophizes about whether beauty exists - Thalia reveals her discovery in the P.L.A.S.T.I.C. database (Plastic Logging Automation for Sorting, Transporting, Identifying, and Cataloging) - Container-loads of pure PVC are shipping from Cartagena, Colombia to Baltimore - 20+ glorks (metric tons) per container; thousands of containers per ship - Redacted entries suggest criminal activity or deliberate concealment - Thalia: “Not if we teleport it off that rock first”
Late Summer 2025 — Operation Plastic Fantastic
Source: HMF (Chapters 3–9)
VENUS - Bevers proposes a mission to intercept the PVC shipment - Nona forbids his participation; he’s still a cadet - Target hosts identified: Alan Jackson (corrupt shipping worker) and Wendy (fellow smuggler) - Twist: Nona decides to go with Bevers, avataring into Wendy
EARTH — Baltimore Shipping Yards - Bevers-as-Alan and Nona-as-Wendy infiltrate the criminal plastic smuggling operation - They navigate Baltimore’s underworld while maintaining cover - Police officers Linda and Rodney investigate suspicious activity - Climactic scene: Bevers and Nona locate containers labeled “PB-437” - They operate a crane to reach the containers and transmit coordinates - 27 containers of PVC teleported to Venus — enough fuel for 3+ months - Both hosts fall from the crane and die; Bevers and Nona return to Venus - Linda and Rodney find the bodies and confiscate cell phones as evidence
VENUS — Avatar Control Facility - Bevers and Nona emerge from their pods, triumphant but shaken - Factor rushes to embrace Nona: “You did it!” - Governor announces: 540 glorks of fuel acquired - Bevers is promoted to head the new Earth Resource Acquisition Division - Celebration in Venus City Park with artificial auroras - Factor to Nona: “You’re my girl Friday” - Bevers: “She’s my mom Friday”
PHASE FIVE: EQUILIBRIUM
Six Months Later — November 2025
Source: VDPS (Chapter 9: Final Jeopardy)
EARTH — Gilbrain Residence, Baltimore - The Gilbrain living room is immaculate — aliens value efficiency - Mathezar-as-Ursel and Moma-as-Urielle watch Jeopardy! obsessively - They dominate planetary science questions (“What is Venus?”) - Abel and Linda have been demoted to “Senior Retrieval Specialists” — truck drivers - The recycling business is thriving; plastic “shrinks” mysteriously overnight - Abel whispers to Linda about a new scheme: an alpaca farm - “Their wool is recession-proof, Linda. It’s hypoallergenic.” - Linda squeezes his hand: “I love socks.” - The cycle of Gilbrain chaos continues, now under alien management
One Year Later — April 2026
Source: BSTW (Epilogue: Baltimore, one year later)
EARTH — Baltimore - Environmental miracle: plastic pollution in the Chesapeake watershed down 78% - Scientists accuse each other of fraud, incompetence, and witchcraft - A heron catches fish in clean water; a mother duck has 12 surviving ducklings - Dolphins appear in the Inner Harbor — reporters are shocked - News attributes the cleanup to Lucy Mateo’s microplastic extraction research - (In truth: she reverse-engineered alien technology as a backup system) - Smitty’s UFO podcast reaches the top 1000; he claims dolphins are Venusian scouts in “bio-suits”
EARTH — Baltimore Park - Lenny and Lucy jog together, engaged - Their dog Ramis is trained to pick up litter and deposit it in recycling bins - “You trained him to recycle!” — Lenny’s two loves merged into one
EARTH — The White House - The President learns plastic pollution is down dramatically - Advisor: “Apparently it’s due to some scientist named Lucy Mateo from Baltimore” - President asks what to do with $40 billion freed up from pollution cleanup - Decision: “Build me a bajillion bombs”
VENUS — Surface - Bevers stands in a spacesuit on the scorched Venusian plains - He checks a solar panel, looks up at Earth (a bright pinprick in the yellow sky) - He waves a thankful salute
“Wait — you didn’t think ‘Baltimore saves the world’ meant the Earth, did you?”
CHARACTER TRACKER
The Sonnof Family
| Character | Role | Stories |
|---|---|---|
| Factor Sonnof | First Avatar Operator; Professor of Earth Protocol | AS, HMF |
| Nona Sonnof | Mayor of Venus City | AS, BSTW, VDPS, HMF |
| Bevers Sonnof | Avatar Cadet → Division Head | AS, BSTW, VDPS, HMF |
Avatar Academy Cadets
| Character | Role | Stories |
|---|---|---|
| Thalia Ridel | Cadet; Bevers’s love interest | AS, VDPS, HMF |
| Sharada Nassof | Cadet; shy brainiac | AS, VDPS, HMF |
| Spinozar Bentov | Cadet; philosopher | AS, VDPS, HMF |
| Moma Tommov | Cadet → Permanent Operator (Urielle) | AS, VDPS |
| Mathezar Tommov | Cadet → Permanent Operator (Ursel) | AS, VDPS |
Venusian Officials
| Character | Role | Stories |
|---|---|---|
| AI Governor | Holographic dodecahedron; planetary leader | AS, BSTW, VDPS, HMF |
| Sergeant Tobar Sidel | Avatar Academy commander | AS, BSTW, VDPS, HMF |
| Jetta Sidel | Tobar’s mother; socialite | AS, BSTW |
| Xena Xanner | Senior Avatar Control Technician | AS, BSTW |
Earth Characters — Baltimore Waste Facility
| Character | Role | Stories |
|---|---|---|
| Lenny Kremer | Polymer engineer; UFO believer | BSTW |
| Lucy Mateo | Graduate student; Lenny’s fiancée | BSTW |
| Smitty (Cedric) | Lenny’s friend; podcast host | BSTW |
| Dan Uris | Supervisor; Bevers’s first host | BSTW |
Earth Characters — Victory Construction
| Character | Role | Stories |
|---|---|---|
| Victor Ng | Crime boss (“Victor the Vicious”) | AS |
| Yuval Prime | Criminal; Factor’s host | AS, HMF (ref) |
| Ivan Broomfield | Criminal (“Ivan the Insane”); father | AS |
| El Toro | Enforcer | AS |
| Tommy Takony | Associate → dispensary owner | AS |
| Wilt Chamberlain | Receptionist → new boss | AS |
| Chitty the Chipper | Psychotic chipper owner | AS |
Earth Characters — Gilbrain Family
| Character | Role | Stories |
|---|---|---|
| Abel Gilbrain | Son; serial entrepreneur | VDPS |
| Linda Gilbrain | Abel’s wife | VDPS |
| Ursel Gilbrain | Father → Mathezar’s permanent host | VDPS |
| Urielle Gilbrain | Mother → Moma’s permanent host | VDPS |
| Etern Fletcher | Employee; Bevers’s early host | VDPS |
| Ramon Ortiz | Employee | VDPS |
Earth Characters — His Mom Friday Mission
| Character | Role | Stories |
|---|---|---|
| Alan Jackson | Smuggler; Bevers’s host | HMF |
| Wendy | Smuggler; Nona’s host | HMF |
| Linda | Baltimore police officer | HMF |
| Rodney | Baltimore police officer | HMF |
TIMELINE SUMMARY
| Date | Event | Story |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-series | Factor’s first mission; trapped in Yuval Prime | Background |
| April 22, 2025 | Energy crisis summit; Earth invasion planned | AS |
| April 23–24 | Mobilization; Avatar Academy expansion | VDPS, BSTW |
| April 25 | Lenny’s speed dating disaster | BSTW |
| April 26–27 | Poster confiscation; plastic conservation | AS |
| Late April | Cadet training; first plastic teleportation | AS, VDPS |
| Late April | Tommovs take over Gilbrain parents | VDPS |
| Early May | Bevers’s first mission (Dan Uris) | BSTW |
| May | Lenny meets Lucy; UFO research | BSTW |
| Mid-May | Victory Construction infiltration | AS |
| Late May | Factor found; Toy Tinkers heist; reunion | AS |
| June | Thalia’s tribunal | VDPS |
| Summer | Bevers demoted; Movie night | HMF |
| Late Summer | Operation Plastic Fantastic | HMF |
| November 2025 | Gilbrains watch Jeopardy; alpaca dreams | VDPS |
| April 2026 | Baltimore environmental miracle | BSTW |
“The universe, it seemed, had a truly bizarre sense of humor.”
— END OF CHRONOLOGY —
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