Lean into the funny idiot archetype so that when you’re unexpectedly hypercompetent at something they give you The Look where you can see them reexamine their entire perception of you in confusion, respect and no small amount of fear, and when you keep playing funny idiot they will be forever wary of you. Let them find out, incidentally, that the jester keeps a knife under his hat, and never figure out how to deal with that because they won’t abandon their boxes.

i keep mine in my fanny pack :)

Atoner-type character who, through a series of increasingly unlikely coincidences, keeps surviving their grandiose self-sacrificial schemes. Everybody thinks they're a tactical genius, but no, they really didn't plan on living through that, and at this point it's kind of freaking them out.

Had a dream that I drew this dragon and felt disappointed when I woke up that it wasn't real so I drew it all over again.

determine this however you like! while i’m generally going for total number, if you feel like your time with your 3 dogs was more significant than your time with your 10 fish, then feel free to put dogs as your answer. the world is your oyster!

i’m now realizing that the results of this poll may be skewed by the fact that my blog is cat themed 😅

With some pluck and a little known-how, we can skew it further.

The most dangerous moment for a writer is when you're looking for a fic with specific content but there is not enough of it on Ao3 or not quite the right thing and, as you are digging deeper and deeper into the archive, you can hear the devil whispering into your ear "Oh, if only someone interested in this specific thing could write it... Oh wait, is that a keyboard I see under your fingers?"

Reblog for greater sample size.

We have 24 hours to make this the most voted on poll in Tumblr history

Flip the Table

Casually eavesdropping on what should be highly secure frequencies, Jason sipped his beer in a sleezy saloon style sports bar somewhere on the Vegas strip, nominally watching college(?) football; he's a hockey fan because baseball's boring as shit to watch and he's never got the appeal about American football. Football to the rest of the world was at least worth watching for the drama. Something had the Justice League in a tizzy and Zatanna -the one who normally covered Vegas when it came to the costumed crazies- was off world; Jason didn't have the details exactly but it sounded like Zatanna was dealing with some magical planar stuff and was not expected back for at least six more days. Assuming all went well.

So like any reasonable person who's going away for a time, she turned on her home security, had the alerts wired over to a friend -in this case Justice League Dark- gave a list of what was needed to be done and when -the pick up my mail and mow my lawn equivalants- went on her trip, trusting that the JLD were watching over her city and it wouldn't be on fire when she got back.

Such glorious hope.

And thus something happened so when Jason pulled into Vegas proper to investigate a desperate -read last hope- lead on a missing person's case, Jason happened to spy one of the lesser members of the JLD losing their shit in the sky. And so in a moment of civic duty, Jason started spying on them.

Magic was not something anyone trained by the Bat really ever got comfortable about, but chances were magic bullshit was going to intervene in his case. Justice League shit spilled over everything, all the time. Ghost cultists tripping Zatanna's necromancy alarms or whatever they were, was not Jason's business. Not unless the presumed cultists -those that had survived- had the person he was looking for.

No, he was looking at a missing person's case and his lead was 1. cold and 2. a longshot and 3. in a city full of tourists and catering staff, where "seen anything unusual lately" could be "there was this trio of tourists arguing how sex with your best friend doesn't count as cheating," or "someone having a meltdown over the delayed shipping of organic blueberries to the hotel," or "Sarah Maria got murdered a couple weeks ago on the job, but I haven't seen any notice about her funeral stuff on her social media, why yes, I do know she's dead, oh, she's dead and I'm an idiot for expecting someone dead to post on their socials their funeral deets."

Point was, he could look and ask all he wanted, beat feet for days, but the chances of this lead panning out were basically so minuscule that Jason could treat this more as a hobby case while on vacation. He still did his due diligence, asked the staff a few questions, called the guests on the same floor during the time period of their stay about how they found their stay, ran into the dead end of shitty business practices -they recorded over their own records every two weeks- and so unless Jason got the ability to do magic and do a "point me!" spell, the case would turn cold. It sucked when it happened but sometimes the evidence wasn't there. Or wasn't noticed or was destroyed before it could be collected. Sometimes people just didn't remember shit until three weeks later, which with some follow up digging gave him the lead to the hotel. Which got him nothing after that.

As Jason Todd didn't gain an innate ability to do magic that he was aware of that actually counted as magic bullshit magic instead of a couple cantrips, all he could do was get a beer and some food in a Vegas style Texas saloon bar. Which not his first choice, but it was full enough no one really paid attention to anyone. Technically a sport's bar but also very much was not. It was also busy enough that Jason ended up getting asked if someone could set with him at his table -which real Jason said hell no to, but cover Jason did agree to-

Oh. Meta. Jason realized quickly. Oh no, he's hot.

His hair is on fire!

Flip the Bar

Jason, if he was going for privacy, would turn the phone off and take the battery out. Hard to hack what's not on and all that. Can't transmit a signal if there's nothing to power it. Unfortunately, he wasn't expecting having to spoof and redirect his own number while waiting for a callback so that equipment was in his safehouse in the backstage of Vegas. Him taking advantage of the usual Bat-IP addresses -he knew the VPN- so he could customize the ringtone to the Bat.

Sure Jason wasn't expecting his survey to turn up any further leads -the guests on the same floor and especially the nearby rooms had already talked to him- but he had left a voicemail for those he couldn't get in contact with; might call 'em again tomorrow and hopefully not get mistaken as a scammer. Sure he could spoof his number and call again but he wasn't going to show up on their doorstep to intimidate them into information they didn't have. Call it a lack of follow-through if one must but Vegas was a place people disappeared in for a reason.

The case would go cold and unsolved. It happened sometimes and it always sucked. No matter how meticulous or thorough the detective, it happened.

Still, the Bat-harassment was unnecessary, so Jason did a mental attendance likelihood of responding to whatever Vegas-magic shitshow this was.

Flip the Board

Barbara Gordan wished to punch Murphy's Law in the face; surely there was a manifestation of it available somewhere. If nothing else, surely a Lord of Chaos, would suffice. She wasn't picky.

And that was her summary of her day before noon. Her birds were off in Europe, extracting an informant and whistle-blower on a crime ring she couldn't care much about right now.

Barbara liked Zatanna Zatara; thought her the most useful and most charismatic of Justice League Dark. She was prompt, well-educated, communicated clearly, was reliable and thoughtful in her plans. She could lead, she could follow, was a team-player and powerful enough to truly make a difference where ever she was. It was why she was in high demand.

Barbara did not have the same high opinion of her relatives, especially the one who was house-sitting and ward-sitting in Vegas. Who did eventually get word out to contact the right people to muster for an emergency, but it took far far too long.

Starting late was always irritating.

Flip the Script

Escaping the hotel itself was pretty easy; just walk out. Blended in -which honestly Dan did a lot better at that than Jason expected, because metas usually weren't stealthy unless their abilities could be used for it. Sure they were still two big guys, but a deceptively casual walking pace got them out faster than expected. Thank fuck that computers had upgraded, so his little tablet tucked into his jacket was really all that was needed to hack hotel security.

Except a little miscalculation made itself known in the form of how damn hot it was as Jason headed to where he had parked his vehicle for the trip -riding his bike to Vegas by itself would be a little more stupid than Jason allowed himself to be- so he had a little pick-up truck that his bike was chained down in. A couple blocks away. He wasn't going to park on the Vegas Strip. The expense would be ridiculous.

"You got anything you need to pick up?

"Other than my winnings later?" Dan rolled his eyes.

"Travel light sort of guy. Gotcha." Jason built up his mental profile. Rule of thumb, the more dangerous the meta, the less they had to carry. The more dangerous the normal squishy person, the bigger their arsenal. Not always true, but Superman and Batman were excellent examples of this. Wonder Woman was an excellent example of someone beyond human norms using a couple of tools to augment their capabilities. And then sometimes someone really just needed one tool to do everything, like the Lanterns with their rings.

Initially Jason had planned to rent the same room as his longshot of a lead, so as to scan for clues that might still be there three weeks later. However his earlier work had shown it was currently occupied. A little digging into who had rented it shown it was a honeymoon rental -thank you social media- and his attempt at killing time till the honeymooners left -an itinerary posted to all who cared to look on their socials for fuck's sake, someone please rob them- got busted by Ollie. Might as well consider that lead dead too.

It was Vegas after all, where leads went to die.

Flip the Focus

Another refill to go -he went with a strawberry tea boba this time- and they make it to Jason's farmboy style truck, the motorcycle he prefers chained down and under a tarp. This way blends in better than people think in Vegas' side streets. Vegas as a glorious tourist trap was far less glitter and lights once off the "main stage," of it all.

Sad thing about the little pick-up truck was the lack of elbow room; he and Dan were going to be squished in it -how Jason had parked earlier meant Dan didn't have to walk around- more than Jason had expected. Still a decent truck, as it had proven on the way up here. The AC worked pretty well as did the radio. No doubt by now that the local radio was commenting on the Justice League disturbance as emergency news. Color commentary on shit that was way later than what Jason could hear on his ear piece. Which at the moment was basically Nightwing updating Oracle about the LEOS, asking for a preliminary identification -of which Oracle had two, more incoming, facial recognition software required a photo id database to compare to and not everyone had government issued photo id or a mugshot- and the ghost leading Raven, Flash and now Batman outside of city limits. A few more of the Justice League was likely to show, even if Jason doubted they'd be good against a ghost. Raven's usual magic was apparently doing jack-of-shit, so they were going to have to adapt. Even the Zatanna downgrade -some Zachary- was being kind of useless by not chasing the ghost. Something about checking to make sure Zatanna's ward was properly calibrated -which yes it was- and further researching what might have gone through to set off Zatanna's ward. Or if it had just knocked on the barriers between dimensions that hard. So he was going to meet up with Dickface and look at the magic shit there.

Dan had been given Jason's Oracle-infected tablet, allegedly as the navigator. Jason had pulled up the navigation program and shoved the tablet in Dan's direction, as Dan protested. Jason hauled himself into his own truck, drink in hand.

"How attached are you to this thing?" Dan asked. "Fair chance it's going to short out in my hands in less than an hour, unless this is built like a Nokia phone."

"Not super attached." Jason wasn't. He'd just have to redownload a couple apps -his own make- to make it more personalized. Bat-tech yes, but civilian style, sourced from Tim's budget of bogus. Not on the very cutting edge, but certainly beat whatever was out on the civilian market. And so accordingly also somewhat buggy. And not just the Bat-bugs. "You can chat with my friend if you want."

"Not particularly."

"Barbie can be pretty funny."

"Didn't know Barbie went from material girl to the digital world," and there Jason lost it because that was fucking funny.

Excellent meme usage from a ghost! Barbara was certainly not going to expect Dan was anything but a meta now. Absolutely pissed that Jason used 'Barbie' to refer to her, but it was a nickname that was clearly a nickname; no one named their kid 'Barbie' if they had any sense. Even her full name was hilariously old fashioned.

Okay, let's see how long my internet lasts this time.... also, everyone is eavesdropping on everyone. They're all rather aware of it to some degree or another. So it's fun writing that!

Flip the Expectations

Dinah Lance was many things, but she was not an idiot. She had taken risks for friends and family, some worse than others. Maybe she had married one, but she had married a human man. Show her a person who wasn't an idiot sometimes.

She had never met Jason Todd, but she had heard a lot about him. How he was once a cute little Robin who'd seen too much darkness, from Oracle, reminiscing about her time as Batgirl. How he was cuter and quieter than Dick Grayson, unused to the Titans' more bombastic personalities, but still able to support Wonder Girl -Troia- as she struggled to lead the Titans on a diplomatic protection mission turned disaster, from Roy. How he was reckless and increasingly violent, how that got him killed from the later Batgirl-chatter. How he came back from death but was missing his moral compass. How he bombed Mia's school and ran drugs. How he saved Roy, who's mercenary work the Arrows had not agreed with -but he had needed to do for funds at the time- nearly lead to his death. How he'd given Roy a safe space. How he had returned Lian to him, the teleporting power from Chesire now no longer keeping father and daughter separated. How the Gotham Sirens spoke fondly of him.

No matter what was said about a person from other people, she liked to judge them herself. To help them, if she could. If they'd let her.

She'd been a rising rock star, a femme fatale of a superhero and was able to bring down a house and more, if she really pushed her vocal limits. She'd had plenty of ups and downs, ways to relate to others. Still, Dinah considered herself to be a good friend, so when Oracle had asked, she hadn't hesitated to get herself to Vegas and one of the Birds' safehouses with Roy. Lian and Mia were off having a girls' day out, Conner had Star and Dinah could make the time.

And it was only after she was there, in the little suburban house with a privacy fence that Dinah asked Oracle why she was there.

Stupid of her maybe, but she felt it spoke more to her character.

"Okay, O, why's he got Bat problems?"

LOVE YOUR OCS!!! YOU DID GREAT ON THEM!! EVEN IF THEYRE OVERPOWERED!! EVEN IF THEYRE EDGY!! EVEN IF THEYRE CLICHE!! YOU PUT SO MUCH TIME AND EFFORT INTO THEM AND YOU SHOULD LOVE THEM AND LOVE YOURSELF FOR MAKING THEM!!! 

basically I think that if your protagonist doesn’t want to fuck someone so bad it makes them look stupid, then there probably isn’t enough energy in your story. “Fuck someone” isn’t literal btw—they can want to uncover the secrets of their parent’s death, they can want to prove their worth, they can want a donut from one particular bakery—it can be anything so long as they want it so bad that they’ll make decisions that make any sane person go “are you a moron??”, with little to no forethought, or even tons of forethought and this is still the option they chose. Because they want to fuck that thing so bad.

wait isn’t that just giving your characters a motivation???

🦉

My partner critiques my fics in memes, I felt this on a very personal level.

goomba

some quilts by Jonathan Shannon (1938–2016) photographed at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles

Canciones de Mi Padre, 1989

From My Garden of Earthly Delights, 1992

Amigos Muertos, 1994. Rejected from the American Quilter's Society show due to the inclusion of Shannon's red AIDS ribbon (left skeleton). Shannon had won Best in Show the year before. Shannon organized protest letters as a result and made some impact on the issue of censorship in quilting.

Shadows: Gay Men's Chorus, 1995

the AQS is getting back into censorship this year, pulling two quilts that "could be considered controversial" from a group show

Laura Shaw, “Your Mother. Your Daughter. Your Sister. Your Grandmother. You.” (2022), cotton, vintage, and re-purposed fabric (photo by Hoddick Photography)

Yvonne Iten-Scott, "Origin" (2023), wool, sari silk, beads, sequins, embroidery floss, and copper piping frame

the former is about abortion access, while the latter is ambiguously yonic

weirdest part of being an adult is the fact that you can put off watching a movie for nearly a decade and barely notice

https://archiveofourown.org/works/33779752/chapters/165497029

Chapter Thirteen of Time on My Hands, my Reno TT fic with lots of Turks in it! Vincent and the Turks in Kalm deal with the dead SOLDIERs, Rufus and Lazard talk, and Genesis enters the mix.

also I want to point out that Teratorns probably didn't live vulturine lifestyles and were most likely birds of prey in the usual sense

Just a short video of my card weaving in progress

What kind of sorcery is this?! I can never turn more than 10 cards in sequence because they just refuse to cooperate and you have like, what, 35? 40?! HOW?!?!

40 in the tree strap above! The most I ever tried was 44 for this ramshorn strap below - that was tough, but also ok because the groups turned separately? I think my hands would murder me if I tried to go any higher on my backstrap setup though ;) I think the trick is maintaining appropriate tension!

Yeah, that one looks real nice. What did you use it for?

@diamondot speaking for myself, i just decided to learn it one day a few years ago (i had a viking phase ok) and simply started with it. It's surprisingly easy since all the info is available on the net. Honestly, i don't remember where i started since it has been so long ago and now i just browse pinterest for patterns alone. Google tablet weaving or card weaving (same thing, different names) patterns and some basic explanations and yt vids for how to turn and weave the stuff. Things like

S and Z threading are there for a reason, so mind your card orientation. Start with some easy pattern like simple wave or diamonds above, 6 - 10 cards are good for your first project. Don't lose hope in initial stage. Streching and threading all that yarn can take anything between 20 minutes and 3 hours depending on how big is the pattern and how skilled you are. Since you need some lenghts to secure ends and to turn cards, use about 40 cm more than wished lenght of your final product. Secure lose ends after threading through cards so you won't end with a bundled mess. Streching/knotting them to something is one way. Taping each card threads together or using weights (check pictures below) is another way (good only for shorter stuff though). Cards could be made out of anything as long as they have smooth edges and rounded corners. Cardboard, thicker plastic sheet, literal cards cut into squares with holes punched through them, whatever. These are mine 2 decks, minus cards i am using atm.

When you start weaving and pattern looks like a total mess, try turning cards in opposite directions. It usualy solves the problem (all that forward/backward can be a bit tricky and mirroring motions/patterns/card orientation can be confusing at first seemingly messing all your work even though you are doing everything right technicaly, just in opposite order/direction). Don't lose your hope. I still manage to mess up like first 5cm of every other work i start. It's not an issue as that start usualy gets cut off anyway (the tension is not right for at least first 4 rows, aka 1 full card rotation, until all threads go up and down at least once no matter what you do. Don't sweat it). You don't need any fancy startup either. Historicaly, people used to weave like this and this and this:

I just strech the thing between 2 chairs myself. Door knobs work as well and so does staircase railing. Wherever you have some space. Long hair clips are your friend, especialy when you are done with weaving for the day and you don't want stuff to tangle

And that's about it. Have fun 😊

Some of my favorite tablet weaving resources are :

This website is where I learned, twenty years ago while u was intending on Sturtevant Wi.

These books are both great, Collingwood is more comprehensive, but harder to just pick up and weave from.

I love when people post things like this, then say, “ah ha ha, it’s not that complicated! 🤗”

It is complicated. You’re just really good at it!

Hi. I may be late to reply but i'm in a weaving mood so here we are.

The thing is that the technique looks complicated due to the fact that there is 100 something and that number alone is scary. But. Actually several buts.

But number 1 - the technique is OLD. Meaning - while being somewhat tedious just like any other textile craft, it has been used and learned for a long long time and there's plenty of resources (check out links above or any youtube video explaining the process) of varying difficulty from complicated af to easy peasy lemon squeezy with closed eyes

But number 2 - there is only one core principle/step you need to understand and that is when some threads go from up to down or from down to up (aka when they cross), you need another thread going in between so they won't simply snap back again. That's it. That's the basic principle behind every weaving ever. What card weaving does compared to standard weave is that instead of a single thread going up and down in the single row, you get 2 or 3 or 4 or 6 or whatever number of threads your pattern calls for in the same row

But number 3 - the number of rows = number of cards. Simple as that. Cards turn around to make a cord like when you are twisting 2 or 4 or whatever numbers of threads to make a rope. If some of those threads have different colours, you get a repeating pattern.

But number 4 - card orientation or S/Z orientation or whatever other fancy name for the twisting direction simply means that if you turn all your card in the same way at the same time, which one of them will make the twisted rope in this / angle and which one will do that in this \ angle. That's it. That's the whole mystery between S/Z threading.

But number 5 - you can start with as little as 4 cards to make a custom set of shoe laces or a key strap or whatever and call yourself a weaver. Because you did that. And it was nice. And it was easy. You just turn and thread and turn and thread and then you keep repeating this while watching a movie or something. There's no need for the math finals level of concentration here.

But number 5 - no one, literally NO ONE starts with a pattern like this

No. Everybody starts with something like this

Keep it simple, keep it easy, make 10cm and be done if you want to. It's perfectly fine.

But number 6 - you don't need any fancy items for starting. No hooks, no needles, no loom, no anything. If you have 2 balls of yarn in different color or some remains of your old cross stitch project or whatever and some card-like stuff you won't be sad for making holes in it, you are all set. Back side of the sketch pad is good. Poker cards cut to squares are good. A sturdy enough sheet of plastic is also good. You remember that old pexeso pairs stack you didn't touch since you were 9? Guess what!

My point is that if this looks like something you may be interested in, then you can absolutely try doing it for literally zero cost other than your time.

This reminds me that I have my Thor’s Hammer tablet weaving project still sitting in the closet untouched for the last few (almost 3?) years...  I need to get back to that eventually.

@cryptid-extremist found it for ya! Go wild!

@hauntedbyyarn you've talked about this for ages!

I need to show you guys my mum's card weaving.... She writes with it. She does incredibly incritate patterns. It's stunning and beautiful and I am in awe

A small selection of my mum's work! She got excited and says she has more to show you guys, and some of her best stuff has already been sold! But stay tuned for more. The blue/pink/black band is my favourite: loads of different knot-like patterns going all the way down!