I don't know where I'm going with this, but I wanted to try my hand at sci-fi/horror and came up with the idea of Eywa having enough and blessing Spider with the ability to turn humans into living plants or trees so that their bodies will restore what was destroyed by their bombs and fire. Spider keeps his power secret so that he'll have an easier time fulfilling Eywa's will without disruption or judgment. So far, he's doing a damn good job and with each successful death, grows stronger.
Here's just a teeny piece of what I have so far.
The first body wasn’t the worst.
Jake had seen enough death to be numb to it. But the more they found, the more that numbness cracked, replaced by something he'd forgotten.
Fear.
One soldier was still standing, his posture too rigid, too unnatural. His skin had gone pale, his veins blackened with something that pulsed beneath the surface like twisting roots. Thin green tendrils had erupted from his fingertips, curling toward the sunlight as if reaching for something unseen. His mouth was open in a frozen scream, but no sound would ever escape. His eyes, once human, had been overtaken by blooming petals as if the forest itself had bloomed through him.
Another body lay sprawled nearby, its flesh cracked open. Vines coiled through its ribcage, wrapping around the exposed bone, flowers sprouting where there should have been blood. A grotesque, living sculpture.
A warning.
Neytiri covered her mouth, her ears pinned back in horror. “This is not the work of Eywa,” she whispered, voice shaking.
Haven’t been in the mood to draw :/
But I’ve been coming up with a design for tallulah :)
Might change some stuff though
Alien: What is the best way to get back at someone you despise?
Human: Why are you asking me?
Alien: Because humans are renowned for their ability to plan elaborate revenge schemes against those who have slighted them.
Human: On behalf of the human race I am offended by that.
Alien: I have witnessed you slowly drive your co-worker insane by moving everything in their office one inch to the left every day for 3 months.
Human: To be fair I only kept doing that because they refused to pay me back my $1.50 I loaned them for lunch.
Alien: *Stares at human with mocking eyebrows
Human: Fine, I see your point.
Human: Alright, here is what you do….
Alien: Wait, do you not wish to know why I want revenge?
Human: No.
Alien: Really?
Human: Yes.
Alien: Oh….okay.
Alien: So what should I do?
Human: Ignore them.
Alien: What?
Human: Ignore them, diminish them; make them feel beneath your notice.
Alien: That seems rather childish for an elaborate revenge plot.
Human: That is because I haven’t expanded it.
Human: If they come to you to gloat about something they did, anything, ask them who they are.
Human: When they explain who they are and how you should know them, still act like you have no idea who they are.
Human: If they continue to persist about how you should know them simply, and this is important, shrug and say “If you say so”, and then leave.
Alien: How is this revenge?
Human: Because in their eyes now they will think that they need to prove themselves somehow for you to notice them.
Human: Like a kid trying to win his drunken father’s affection.
Alien: That’s rather dark.
Human: So is revenge; keep up.
Human: Now they will continue to come back to you day after day trying to win your notice and you will continue to dismiss them or give them the bare minimum attention.
Human: If you want to get further under their skin start talking up someone else in their presence; someone who you would consider more of a rival then they are.
Alien: How would that work?
Human: Like this. *In mocking alien voice “Yes, yes, I’m sure you’ve done rather well for yourself; but not as much as Thomson on the 3rd floor. That bastard has been upselling me all week and I’m convinced he’s the one stealing my parking space.”
Alien: What good will that does to bring in someone else?
Human: By actually acknowledging someone who your target thinks is beneath them, they will further become enraged as you’ve just reinforced how little they appear on your radar.
Alien: And that works?
Human: Indeed.
Human: You need to treat your displeasure towards someone as gift to them, for you have deemed their existence worthy of acknowledgement.
Alien: Alright, I guess I could give it a shot. ------------------------------
*Two Months later
Human: So how’s the revenge going?
Alien: I’m not sure.
Human: What do you mean you’re not sure?
Alien: I mean they came up to me today and offered to have sex with me.
Human: Oh….in that case they must be very desperate for you to notice them.
Alien: What should I do?
Human: If you want to keep up with the revenge have sex with them, then afterwards don’t speak with them.
Human: If they come up to you and demand an explanation say that the sex was so bad you wanted to forget that moment by never speaking with them again.
Alien: ……………….
Alien: Who broke you to make you so devious?
Human: *Grins as they sip their drink
Human: I’m human; we were made broken.
My ancestors, watching me dump an entire stick of cinnamon, two cloves, an allspice berry, and a generous grating of nutmeg into my tea, sweetened with white sugar and loaded with cream, while I sit in my clean warm house surrounded by books, 25+ outfits for different occasions, and 6 pairs of shoes, in a building heated so well I have the windows open in mid-autumn:
Our daughter prospers. We are proud of her. She has never labored in a field but knows riches we could not have imagined.
Costume. Chitons.
everyone make sure to set out cheese & crackers for neil tonight <3
That was the low battery notification
For some reason I never considered that looms could be small and projects could be accessible ?? How did you get started weaving and what resources did you use?? I saw some of the work you’ve made and I want to get started learning so badly!! Help!
Yess! Weaving is great because of how accessible it can be!! Something I also only recently realized!
I've been enamored with weaving ever since 6 year old me saw an enormous floor loom in action at a textile museum. Despite my fascination with textiles, it still took 20ish years before I picked up weaving as a hobby. Looms were pricy, big, and complicated. It wasn't until I came across bandweaving that it really felt like something I could casually pick up without committing to spending a ton of time and money. I started with tablet weaving, but have since switched to weaving with a heddle. I've been learning by referencing books, looking up weaving process videos, and a lot of trial, error, and experimentation.
Here's a list of resources for two very accessible types of weaving that don't need a loom:
Tablets can be bought, but are also easy to make at home from a deck of cards, cereal boxes, recycled plastic, etc. You can find a tutorial for creating your own here.
Tablets at Work by Claudia Wollny An incredibly comprehensive book featuring 22 tablet weaving techniques. The book is written in German and English. Highly recommend for the very enthusiastic.
Card Weaving by Candace Crockett The book that got me started. Easy to follow, informative, and much cheaper and easier to find than Tablets at Work.
Elewys of Finchingefeld A great youtube channel for historic tablet weaving.
Rigid heddles can be bought or laser cut, and string heddles are created at home out of yarn/string. They are similar, but offer different advantages. Rigid heddles can be simpler to work with, especially if you're working with multiple sheds. String heddles require a few more steps to open the down shed, but don't distort the width of your warp threads. This allows you to weave further down your warp, and makes it easier to keep an even band width.
Here is tutorial for creating your own string heddles.
Norwegian Pick-Up Bandweaving by Heather Torgenrud The book that I learned from! Focuses on pick-up weaving, but is a good introduction to bandweaving in general.
Durham Weaver has a blog and youtube channel. They tend to focus on Scandinavian style weaving, and feature content on weaving with a double slotted heddle, as well as how to set up your warp.
Backstrap Weaving by Laverne Waddington is a blog packed with information about weaving with string heddles. They tend to focus on Latin American style weaving.
A Spinner Weaver is a blog about inkle weaving, though the techniques can be done off of a loom as well. Inkle looms are among the cheaper looms and are designed for bandweaving.
thinking about that one au I made back in sept 2024 where mo’at adopts spider (part 1 here)
NOW I’m thinking of the sully kids’ roles here… been being torn between caring and play-insulting his friend or.. respecting his uncle????????? And TRUST Kiri is definitely abusing the uncle privileges now.
Jake: where the hell were you? You were gone for the entire day— kiri: I was out— Jake: since dawn?! Kiri: well, I was with uncle spider, you said to bring a trustworthy elder with you! Jake: I meant people like Norm! Or Max! Kiri: *blows raspberries whilst walking away*
SPIDER is using his “respect your elders/ uncle” card EVERYTIME on lo’ak whenever possible. He wouldn’t do that to tuk, though. Also finds it funny with neteyam confused on either calling him uncle spider or spider???
now that I think of it more.. more family gatherings of Mo’at, Spider, and Neytiri. Someone (I don’t remember and I can’t find their repost) said that it would be hard for neytiri to get used to it since now she’s the elder sister, and not the youngest baby.. and I think YES.
it’d be hard for neytiri to get used to it— maybe it even strains their already fragile relationship MORE but sometimes big sister instincts set in. At some point she starts… big sistering spider.
I’m imagining a family dinner with the sullies + Mo’at and spider where they all are eating together, and neytiri notices spiders smaller bowl.
Mo’at, having gotten used to the smaller portions the boy always took always accepted it since Sky people have notoriously smaller stomachs than them. Neytiri, who most of her time catering to her family and not spending as much as she used to with her mother and spider is … odded out.
spider had always eaten with them, not always ofcourse, just the average once in awhile. And it was only for a short time as he never overstayed his welcome and she never really cared to see how much he was really eating. But now? After months of family bonding days brought on by mo’at (which was always painfully awkward between spider and neytiri)? Yeah, that isn’t gonna slide. That’s too little.
she rips off a bit of the meat from her bowl and throws it into spiders.
Jake freezes, wondering if he accidentally sniffed some pandoran weed in the air or is actually seeing what he’s seeing. Spider also freezes but quickly goes back to eating after glancing up to an unbothered Neytiri too busy digging into her own food. Mo’at simply smiles from where she sits. The rest of the sully children just view it as an average dinner.