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You've heard of Lucrecia x Jenova. You've heard of Ifalna X Elmyra. Now get ready for the Aeriseph Siblings But All Their Moms Are Alive Super Lesbian Pollycule

Aka Elmyra Gainsborough accidently finds the last Ancient, an alien, and one of Shinra's top geneticist in a gutter behind the train station with two children and her entire life becomes a fucked up version of Full House

Lucrecia and Elmyra act like a comedy duo where practical, down-to-earth Elmyra has to reign in Lucrecia's planetology-science shenanigans ("why is Sephiroth in the rafters?" "Aerith threw her moogle plush ip ik the air and it landed on one of the beams" "What are you going to do if he falls?" "He'll be fine, his skeleton can withstand the impact" "...what?")

and then in the background Iflana is going through psychological horror enemies to lovers. She hates Jenova because Jenova destroyed her people but Jenova is also the last real remnant of the Cetra besides herself and Jenova also hates the Cetra for trapping her in a glacier but she was also more familiar with them then modern humans so they're like emotionally stuck together and then Ifalna teaches Jenova how to be a mom and they kiss

Elmyra has to team up with Jenova to defend the other two whenever Shinra comes by to harass them. She's at the door, trying her best to get the Turks to leave without a fuss, meanwhile just out of sight of the door Jenova is shapeshifted into some kind of fucked up snake, only refraining from eating Tseng because Elmyra keeps desperately mouthing KNOCK IT OFF at her everytime he looks away

Im this verison i imagine Lucrecia pushed a little too hard to try to get to her son and ended up held captive by the company instead of in that cave. She was, naturally, hidden from Sephiroth. He's about 13 at this point and very confused about which 'Jenova' is his mom, so he ends up not interacting much with either of them, focusing instead on bring a good brother to Aerith. Ifalna is able to scheme with Aerith to make him think better of them (she also. Gently tells Lucrecia that devolving into apoligizing whenever she talks to him fod more then five minutes is kind of just making things awkward. She should help him figure out his math homework before they confront the ethical violations) it takes a few months but they get comfortable with each other eventually. Jenova just psychically beams good vibes into his brain until he's willing to go hunting for dumpster rats with her

The trio explains their backstory to Ifalna over the course of several late nights for months after she takes them in. After awhile Elmyra just starts busting out drinks and Jenova ends up being the one who explains it most coherently because Lucrecia and Ifalna are both drunk out of their minds, sprawled out on the floor commiserating about how bitchy Gast could get if the laundry wasn't done to his liking. When Ifalna uses some colorful language to describe Hojo, Aerith shrieks "Language!" fromt the stairs whole Sephiroth desperately tries to shush her because you two were supposed to be asleep three hours ago. The rest of the night is spent trying to comfort Ifalna as she cries about swearing in front of her pure little baby daughter

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[Image Description: a photograph of a rainbow-colored songbird perched on top of a sunflower. End image description.]

Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris), male, family Cardinalidae, order Passeriformes, SC, USA

photograph by Jimmy Epper

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[Image Description: five fuzzy stickers; shaped like four rabbits-two brown ones, a brown and white one eating a carrot, and a black and white one eating a dandelion-plus a patch of daffodils. End image description.]

SANDYLION RABBIT STICKERS

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just finished my bead embroidery project 🪩 🐦

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A Cut Above

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So I've finally decided to head canon Hobbits as the children of Nessa the swift. I never really liked them as children of Yavanna - her children are the Ents, showing that she has much more interest in greenery and a bit of violent defense than humanoids good at hiding - and Nessa makes sense. She doesn't have anything else to do, she likes green meadows, dancing and drinking, and Hobbits are known for being able to swiftly disappear from big folk - according to Tolkien their only magic. I also imagine she was fast and sneaky enough to hide her creations for a bit, and when Eru found out - having just granted Aulë his dwarrow, Yavanna the ents and Manwë his eagles - he just sighed and moved them to the hills of the Anduin vale without comment, where they would wake up with the first sun light or something. Almost their only contact to other sentient people were entwives, who helped them establish a living, making some people later theorise that they belong to Yavanna as well.

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ok so. air dry clay is not polymer clay is not ceramic clay. these are all very different materials.

commercial air dry clay is usually a mix of fiber pulp, water, glue/binding agent, sometimes ground minerals like pumice, maybe plaster, a few other ingredients. polymer clay is plastic, that's why it's called polymer. ceramic/pottery clay is composed of various minerals such as but not limited to kaolinite, feldspar, and crystalline silica (quartz).

(the crystalline silica part is important because out of these three clay types in their unfinished state, ceramic clay is probably the one that should be handled with the most care/knowledge in the sense that years of unfiltered exposure to significant amounts of dry silica dust can give you silicosis aka an incurable lung disease. don't make pottery in your bedroom, kids)

air dry clay does exactly what it says—you leave it out and it hardens in the air, and because the binding agent it contains is water-based, moisture can re-dissolve it and cause damage. polymer clay must be baked at temps achievable in a home oven, usually around 275F/135C, and is waterproof both before and after baking because again, it's plastic. ceramic clay has to be fired in a specialized kiln for 8+ hours at temps that can be 2000+F/1093+C (wide range, it depends) that changes the chemical structure of the clay and minerals within.

the "finishing methods" of these clays are not interchangeable. your air dry clay dries in the air, you don't need to bake it like polymer clay. polymer clay is oil-based, it will remain moldeable until it's baked. ceramic clay cannot be fired in a kitchen oven. you especially cannot have air dry and polymer clays anywhere near a ceramic kiln because those will do fun things like melt, explode, or vaporize into toxic fumes, and I think the kiln tech or owner will personally rip you apart and then loot your corpse to pay for the kiln repairs.

these clays are also not interchangeable if you are attempting to make food-safe items. air dry clay and polymer clay should never be used to create items that will come in direct contact with food, ever, because air dry clay will dissolve in contact with water, and polymer clay is plastic that is not food-safe. decorate the outside of an existing mug with polymer clay if you want, but don't put any clay inside or where your mouth touches, and definitely don't go trying to make an entire mug out of polymer. also you won't be able to microwave that mug anymore unless you want plastic fumes. common protective coatings for air-dry/polymer clays like polyurethane varnishes and UV/epoxy resin are also not food safe!! even those resins that are rated food-safe are only safe with specific uses (only cold food, no cutting/utensil use that can damage the surface, no heat whatsoever). ceramic clay is the only type of clay that can potentially make food-safe items, and I say potentially because whether or not a final ceramic object is food-safe depends on a wide range of things I'm not qualified to talk about like glaze ingredients, proper firing temps, etc.

I'm probably forgetting some important things but I wrote this in a feverish haze after once again seeing too many posts/videos hoping to make dinnerware from craft clays so tldr: - air dry and polymer clays are great for trinkets and decorative items, absolutely not for anything touching food, even with a resin/varnish applied - keep air dry and polymer clay far away from ceramic clay, don't let them mix, don't bring the former two to a ceramic studio and ask if you can get them fired because that kiln tech will Get You - there might be some weird exceptions. like I found a listing for amaco air dry clay that supposedly can be treated just like fiber-based air dry clay but also can be fired to cone 4. does that mean that it contains silica then?? and then there's an air dry "polymer" clay that specifically says something like "don't be fooled by the polymer title, this doesn't need an oven because it's made of polymer resin and cures with air exposure." idk man. read the manufacturer's instructions if you're like damn I don't know what kind of clay this is and how to handle it

ok bye

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[Image Description: a photograph of male Allen’s Hummingbird perched atop a cluster of pale pink flowers. This tiny bird is brown and green, with a metallic copper bib. End image description.]

Allen’s hummingbird (Selasphorus sasin) in California. Photo by john l. crawley.

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...and you know what? Everything would have gone better for pretty much everyone if Ungoliant HAD eaten the silmarils, and then Melkor as dessert. Like, none of this book happens after that. 'But Ungoliant would have then consumed all light' I see that like John Himself you are drunk on the light=goodness doctrine. Thousands of beautiful Avari disagree. 'But she would have become a super powerful--' still way easier to kill than Melkor because she is a big round dummy. MY big round dummy. She would eat up Elf Satan and his three pretty shinies and then take a happy little nap and then 1 Tulkas would solve the whole problem. Then the Valar could make the sun and moon as usual and everything is fine. Besides the silms were already hallowed so eating them might have killed her anyway. Either way, wins all around. The silmarils rightfully belong to Ungoliant because she was promised them and then absolutely 100% textually won them fair and square.

'What about Sauron' you know what, fascinating question. I bet he cries.

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Greater one-horned rhinoceros Rhinoceros unicornis

Observed by skycladtrvlr, CC BY-NC

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African bush elephant Loxodonta africana

Observed by angela_husfeld, CC BY-NC

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Look who randomly showed up today!! (It's BLatte)

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Coopuccino this afternoon, waiting but in the shade and with wings out due to the heat

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I had a wonderful time at the Carnival, with my new friend: Cosmic Brownie!

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Burchell's zebra Equus quagga burchellii

Observed by bdhimes, public domain

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One of my good friends took THE FUNNIEST possible picture of a frequent visitor to his courtyard