#bronze mannikin

[alonglistofbirds]

[1685/10977] Bronze mannikin - Spermestes cucullata

Order: Passeriformes Suborder: Passeri Superfamily: Passeroidea Family: Estrildidae (estrildid finches)

Photo credit: Santiago Caballero Carrera via Macaulay Library

[birdstudies]

January 13, 2023 - Bronze Mannikin (Spermestes cucullata) Found in grassy open woodland or scrub in much of central and southeastern Africa, these estrildid finches have also been introduced to Puerto Rico and the Hawaiian Islands. They eat grass seeds, insects, algae, and nectar, foraging mostly on the ground in flocks, often with other species. Females build ball-shaped nests with side entrances in trees, shrubs, thatch, or sometimes in cavities in the nests of raptors, while males gather materials. They also often reuse the nests of other finches.

[witchstone]

ladies...gentlemen...i dragged myself off to the conservancy around the corner this afternoon with just the thought of getting out the house and perhaps seeing the buzzard again. does my sweet little patch of paradise, small and humble as she may be, not turn up one hell of a lifer in the form of three magpie mannikins

[actualpokemon]

[I.D: 

Image 1: A watercolour painting of a small fluffy finch-like bird perched on a small branch. The bird is brown, with a grey beak, pale breast, and flashes of teal on the shoulder of its wing where the sun hits it.

Image 2: A watercolour painting of an Australian White Ibis standing on some loosely painted green grass. Its is a large white bird with black legs, tail feathers, head and long curved bill. The Ibis is bending over picking up a small red berry.

/End I.D]

some paintings from a couple years back!!

[icarus-suraki]

15: Have any pets? 27: Have you ever broken someone’s heart? 62: What makes you happy?

15. Have any pets? Sadly, I do not :C At the moment I don't anyway.

Growing up, I had a massive black and white tuxedo cat (seriously, this boy weight 25 lbs, 11oz at his heaviest and he was a big kitty). He lived a good 14 or 16 years and I loved him regardless of how crotchety he was. He was an indoor-outdoor cat and I regret that knowing what I know now--to say nothing of how he got into fights with other indoor-outdoor cats in the neighborhood. But I loved him and I cried when he died.

Then in graduate school, my roommate had a super skinny little black and white long-haired tuxedo cat named Kanda (after the character in D.Gray-man though the character is male and the cat was female). I swear there's a skinny tux long-hair moggy phenotype because I've met more than a couple cats like this and they're all inclined to the zoomies and very vocal. This cat was no exception: she was nuts but she was cute. And she loved anything milky or creamy. If you laid down for a nap, she'd walk up like "That looks like a good idea. Scoot over" and take a nap next to you. She sat on my lap while I wrote my master's thesis and I wish I had given her a credit on that. Alas. Kanda actually has a long story as to how she came (back) to my roommate.

Meanwhile, towards the end of graduate school and thereafter, I kept finches. I started with four: a society finch, a spice finch, an orange-cheeked waxbill, and a bronze-winged mannikin. My roommate (the same one with Kanda) insisted that they have fancy, Victorian names. So they were Giacomo, Guilford, Vincent, and Jasper. Giacomo didn't live very long, unfortunately. Guilford, Vincent, and Jasper lived quite a while. Jasper, according to a vet, was older than we thought (as in, he had cataracts?), but he lived for something like 10 years in my care. Vincent, the orange-cheeked waxbill, lived the longest at something like 12 years. He had such a nice song. The spice finch sounded like a digital camera or a CD player--so oddly mechanical. Looking back, I'd do things different to take care of them. I wish I could've had a huge, huge enclosure for them, but that wasn't possible. If I ever keep finches (or any kind of birds) again, I will spoil them rotten with the biggest enclosure possible. (Channeling my inner Nie Huaisang here suddenly…)

But for right now, no, I don't have any pets. But! I had a dream about a little black and white tuxedo cat--mostly black but with white toes on his front paws and a little white on his chest--who was living in a bookstore that would make the dark academia fans rip their Moleskines in half. He was walking around in the bay window in the front of the store and there was a sign there that read "HONK IS NOT FOR SALE." This cat's name was Honk and I am taking that dream as a sign that someday Honk will come into my life. I'm trying to use Honk to motivate me in my therapy and job-hunting. It's all for Honk.

27: Have you ever broken someone’s heart? Not that I know of…?

I mean, I went on about two dates with this guy and I think he thought it was more serious than I did? So we had to have a "breakup" conversation after two dates? Maybe that broke his heart? I doubt it, though. (Sorry I'm introverted and kinda schizoid. Damn.)

If I've broken your heart, I'm really sorry. I had no idea I did that.

62: What makes you happy? I suck at answering things like this because my brain immediately goes "NOTHING. FUCK OFF." So lemme see what I can do here…

Okay. Sleeping. I know sleeping a lot is a symptom of depression and all but I do like it--likely because I really enjoy dreaming. I've never really mastered lucid dreaming, but I generally don't care. I just like seeing what my brain comes up with.

Um, tea with milk and sugar. Lousy carryout grocery store sushi (especially salmon nigiri). Hot fresh sticky rice (with or without Ingredient). Pickles. Cherries. Blueberries (my beloved). Cheese (you may indeed fascinate me by giving me a piece of cheese). Dark chocolate--or anything dark and/or bitter, really. Also salty things, like miso and soy sauce.

I like talking to my parents when we're not being too serious. Like, when we're showing each other memes or talking about what we've read lately. Or I'll sit on my news feed and find weird articles about iguanas falling out of trees in Florida because it's cold or about whatever George Santos has lied about most recently. I like it when we can just hang out and laugh at dumb stuff and make inside jokes. Like, if you've ever seen the movie After Life, that's the memory where I'd like to live.

Um… Spring right through early summer--like from when the first maple buds come out stright through to mid-July--makes me happy. Winter is really hard for me and fall just makes me remember that winter is on its way. Candlemas (Imbolc, February 2nd) is kind of a bright spot but it's not quite the same as when the early onions come up and the first dandelions. Seeing some sunlight through red maple buds is like a spiritual experience.

Related to that: flowering trees. Any of them. All of them: plums, apple, crabapple, pears, even invasive and smelly Bradford pears. But, being an oldtaku and reformed weeaboo, cherry blossoms are near and dear to my heart.

And related to that: the local anime convention that I've been going to for…20 years--that always makes me happy. Same thing with cosplaying, there or elsewhere: it makes me happy. Sometimes it stresses me out a bit, sure, but it does make me happy in the end. (Need to work on some of the cosplay projects scattered on the floor in here.) Like, seeing a thing I've made that's clever or so amazingly close to how a character looks in their source makes me smile.

Right now I'm still hooked on The Untamed and Heaven Official's Blessing (see: cosplay). So those make me happy--especially all the amazing fanart and the delicious memes. God bless the meme-makers. Like my tag says, I swear I'm into the series for more than the memes, but the memes are really good. Seeing the Jiang sect decal I have on the back window of my car makes me happy too. Jiang gang 4 lyfe!!

There's probably more, but this is what I can think of right now.

Ask me things?

[barry-kent-mackay]

White-headed Munia (or Mannikin)…probably….we know there are several similar species that can’t be distinguished from the back…it’s the bird upper left, wings out; Chestnut-breasted Mannikin (upper middle); Tri-colored Munia (or Mannkin) probably…upper right middle…that’s as closes as I can come to it, a “variant” morph…they buffy area is usually, but not always, white; Red-cheeked Cordon-Bleu (blue bird, right); I can’t remember the name of the brightly coloured bird in the water, nor the other below it…I’ll look when I have more time…I know I’ve seen both; and finally, Bronze-winged Mannikin, or Munia, lower right.

art by major allan brooks

text by barry kent mackay

support barry kent mackay on ko-fi

[stateofshop]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: PRETTY VULGAR Bronzed B Bronzer - 113 Bronze Mannikin - 1111 Prim Vixon.

[that-fema-corps-blog]

Day 161

January 10, 2023

Site inspection at Las Piedras! This is the second time we’ve been here, though the inspection site itself was new. This was also the shortest inspection day by far, with only a single site. We met up with the rest of the inspection team at the main municipality office and headed to the field not long after.

Left Side (North)

This was the culvert inflow. It appears that the soil was eroded from under the asphalt, which then collapsed, breaking some cable TV tubes (small white) and stressing the sewage(?) PVC. Some of the debris had been piled to the right of the stream:

I crawled to the bottom of the ditch to get a closer photo of the two metal culverts. They’re probably about three or four feet in diameter:

Right Side (South)

This used to be two-way crossing before Hurricane Maria arrived. Now it is a single lane. There’s a surprising amount of traffic.

There’s a school nearby, so kids were depending on the sidewalk to get around. “Were” being the key word. They have to walk into the road to get around now. Not the safest. Hopefully this is a new development, but there’s a chance the sidewalk has been like this for the past five years. We were told that the black pipe is potable water and the white pipe is wastewater.

The smaller culvert is for bridge drainage, so it’ll need replacement too. Then the entire area will need to be filled. Wing walls and/or a gabion wall (stones contained in metal mesh intended to reduce erosion) may be added.

This site was good for birding. We stayed outside for about 2 hours, and I identified 14 species. A small flock of about bronze mannikins landed close enough for me to see clearly, so that’s another species to add to the life list. I’ve seen them before, but only in captivity. They aren’t native here and would have arrived as escaped/released pets.

Post-inspection Meeting

There was plenty of time before we needed to return to the Joint Field Office, so we all met back at the municipality office to discuss more information about the site. Or, at least, other people discussed. EHP wasn’t extremely involved, and I missed the majority of what was said because most of the discussion took place in Spanish.

From what I gathered, the engineer produced a report four years ago, after Hurricane Maria. However, the Architect/Engineer proposal for the site damages had not been funded by FEMA, and the project likely cannot proceed without this funding. It’s not clear to me whether Hurricane Maria damage repairs are still being funded by FEMA. The current work order’s reported damages are for Hurricane Fiona, but the previous reported damages for Hurricane Maria will be checked, as damages may not be double-counted due to potential duplication of benefits.

There does not appear to be a specific plan yet, so EHP cannot do much about this project until the scope of work is determined. A few things seem likely, though. Much of the surrounding area will be filled in, which will require repair of some utilities and extension of the culverts. It appears that the metal culverts will be replaced with concrete box culverts, which may require a hydrological study to predict downstream impacts. One of the EHP members told us that the stream was not marked in the USA Wetlands layer of ArcGIS, so there’s a chance it’s just a drainage ditch that will not be subject to the Clean Water Act. That being said, this site is up against a national forest, so a few other EHP laws may be relevant.

It seems like the applicant is also seeking hazard mitigation. I overheard that gabion walls are a categorical exclusion. From what I recall, this means the approval process for the gabions is less in-depth than other construction, which may require an environmental impact statement.

[footstepsinthegambia]

Bronze Mannikin

Bronze mannikin are plentiful at Footsteps and are often seen around our freshwater pool, usually in groups! ©Rob Carr – Bronze mannikin at Footsteps ©Rob Carr – Bronze mannikin at Footsteps Bird information. Where can we see a Bronze mannikin? It is found at Footsteps and all over The Gambia and mainland Africa, the two birds pictured above were taken inside the grounds at Footsteps. What…

[maidenxfmight]

i will not bow

Tagging: @ofcosmicwonder, @daisyquakes, @ofalexdanvers & Kara When: The day the siege started Where: Central Park What: Donna tries to buy time for Alex to cure Kara. Donna loses. But so does Kara. Warnings: Violence, injury.

KARA: It wasn't enough, it wasn't enough it wasn't–

Kara's feet hit the pavement with a resounding crack, bricks and dust lifting up around her. She'd always been so concerned with restraint; carelessness led to destruction. Destruction led to fear. At one point in time, that might have meant something to her. There were those who proclaimed her a god, not to which they should pray, but rather contain.

They were the same people who wrote slurs on signs and screamed "roaches go home" from street corners. The very park in which she stood had played host to protests and anti-protests, to those who held up petitions and canvassed for hate. She'd once stood by the fountain with a notebook and asked for their thoughts and now all she wanted was to see it burn.

Dust and steam and melting bronze as the Angel of the Waters collapsed into the pool below. Her eyes lit red and she took one step forward before someone landed in front of her.

(No, not Donna. Just leave, just go, you don't want to–)

"Move, Donna."

DONNA: The tide of the news rose overnight and then the dam broke. Supergirl flying proud above the ruins. Destruction and chaos caused by the same hands that held a brush and painted with gentle strokes the beauty of a long-dead world. Something dark had infected Kara. Something dark like the demon Darkchylde that had controlled Illyana. Alex told her that it was some kind of kryptonite and the older Danvers sister had been working ceaselessly with Lena Luthor to find some way to reverse its effects, but time was running out. Each passing moment led to more violence inflicted under the crest of the House of El, and Donna knew each moment would only push Kara farther from her reach.

Donna had to reach her, or Donna had to stop her.

Shield strapped to her back, silver bracers on forearms, the same black and silver uniform that she'd first donned when fighting Darkchylde. Her lasso sat in pieces on the shrine in her room. The sword still hung on her wall. Whatever was happening, this was still Kara, and she would never raise her sword against Kara. No matter what the cost might be.

Donna landed as Kara's eyes glowed with a fire darker than any she'd seen before in the crystal blues that had always held a kindness and love deeper than any she'd seen in another. Even her voice didn't sound the same.

"No." A breath. "I can't. I won't."

KARA: Donna stood defiant and Kara burned. Her hands shook, her foothold on the Earth tentative at best.

There'd been something burning inside of her for so long. It had lit the moment her mother had but her on her pod and said go, even as the words 'let me stay' danced silently on the end of her tongue. She'd smothered it, stuffed it into every small space she could. She'd tried to shape it into something more suitable, let it out in bits and pieces every time her fist connected with a training mannikin, or the unfortunate villain of the week.

Donna helped temper it, once. She pushed and she gave in just the right amounts. She learned her language, said she loved her. And it always meant something, even if the pronunciation would never be quite right. They were sisters.

(They still were. Kara scrambled for purchase, even as her body took another step forward. She clawed at any logical thought she could find because ukiemodh w rrip eh donna and she always would. It mattered that Donna tried. Her traditions didn't have to be everything, so many of them were wrong. And Donna was right, Donna was– )

No. Because Donna didn't get the pronunciation right, she signed the Accords, she didn't get it. She only ever played at understanding, and Kara was done accepting it as enough. She was done accepting any of it as enough. Anger coiled hot and restless in her chest and there was no reason to hold it back anymore.

"Then I'll go through you." The heat behind her eyes pooled and released, uncaring that Donna was between her and the fountain.

DONNA: Kara took another step, but Donna held firm. An Amazon knew when to give and when to take, and now more than ever, Donna needed to be an Amazon -- with a strength of heart worthy of Athena's calling. It had been so long since Donna prayed, but now she prayed to the gods, to the Titans of Myth, to any deities that would listen... she prayed that they would bring Kara back to her.

The heat of anger rising from Kara was one possessed by Ares and his wars. Donna understood anger and war and lashing out against the ones held closest to your heart. She remembered a fight with Diana turned so physical that it had left their knuckles bloodied and chest heaving from the fire burning in each of them. She remembered other fights too -- ones not of this realm and universe. She remembered a world where her arm lay severed by her sister's sword. She remembered hurling Dick through a wall. She remembered the unseeing eyes of Teen Titans, dead by her own hands. She remembered the collapse of a universe and being alone, alive in its wake. She remembered a moon and a crest and being worshiped by mortals. A name humming in each reality: Troia.

No.

Donna noticed the shift as Kara spoke and her hand reached instinctively for the shield at her back, rolling to the side in order to narrowly miss the beams of heat shooting from Kara's eyes. She lowered the shield in front of her body as she stood firm, even as she felt the intense heat of the water now steaming around them, obscuring her vision to whoever may have been in the background. She had eyes only for Kara. "Kara," she shouted. "This has to stop. You're angry? Okay. Then, we go somewhere and crush cars, and if you need to hit someone, then you hit me. You don't tear down the Brooklyn Bridge!"

KARA: "Okay." Kara laughed, something high and not quite right, before she launched herself at Donna. She imagined her shoulder driving through the shield, their bodies hitting water and steam and cement. She didn't think much at all when she felt herself connect, focused only on driving forward.

The laugh melted into a yell, and if somewhere, somewhere she was crying, the water rising up around them would hide it.

"You don't get to tell me how to be angry." She thought of Cat, of James and his cars. Of train yards with Peter, and the way she always shoved it away. Hid it in small corners like it didn't exist, swallowed around it as Lena offered up devices disguised as humanitarian efforts, and when Clark flew away again.

She'd been so angry for so long and she hadn't realized how much it hurt until she'd landed in that office with Erik.

"No one does." The words ground out, breaking just around the edges, and she tried to focus on driving forward. On getting her hands on the obstacle (on Donna, it was Donna, Rao just remember who you're–), "Not anymore."

DONNA: No one dared come close to this fight. Humans made movies and talked about what they thought the 'clash of the Titans' might look like, but they had no idea. They could not really understand. An unstoppable force. An immovable object. Two impossible extremes.

The Teumessian Fox and the Laelaps. Dionysus once set the giant fox upon the city of Thebes as punishment for their crimes, a beast to devour their children... one deigned to never be caught. The King of Thebes charged his general Amphitryon with finding the impossible solution of stopping the monster, and he found one: the Laelaps, a dog destined to always catch its prey. One, a fox who could never be caught, and one, a dog who would always find its quarry. A paradox for the gods.

Kara's shoulder slammed into Donna and she let herself be pushed back, water spraying up like a wave around them until she dug in her feet and brought them to a stop, shield pressed tightly against her body. Steam surrounded them like a cloud, cutting them off from the rest of the world. Just the two of them for the first time in weeks. Perhaps Donna had waited a few weeks too many. "Then, tell me!" Donna shouted back, pushing the shield out and gritting her teeth, forcing an imperceptible space between them so she could look Kara in the eyes -- eyes reddened from anger and pain and loss. "Kara, just tell me." Not yelling anymore but firm in her resolve of buying time of doing something, anything to help Kara.

KARA: The steam shrouded around them, and suddenly Donna felt close. It seemed like it had been so long since the two of them had taken a moment for just them. Their apartment was a revolving door of visitors, her cousins, Jean, Scott, Cassie, even Olivia. Lar knew when to give them space, but he was still there.

It almost felt like it did with Alex; there was a careful distance neither of them had meant to create, but had created all the same.

"Oh, now you want to talk?" Kara moved away in a blink, water trailing up in her wake. Her eyes still glowed red in the steam. "Let's talk, then. What about how I sat by your side as you almost bled to death, and we still haven't talked about why."

She moved right, her eyes dimming. "Or how you're sleeping with the woman who almost killed you, even though you've admitted it doesn't make you happy.

"No, we don't really talk. If we did, you wouldn't have to ask me to tell you anything." Kara moved forward again, only far enough to send a wave of water Donna's direction, pulling in a breath and releasing until the water turned to ice. It arced in shards towards–

It's still Donna. It's Donna and Kara ached, but she couldn't bring herself to stop.

DONNA: She knew she deserved it -- every word of what Kara said. The two of them hadn't talked the way they used to in so long, and that was down to the both of them. But if Kara was so desperate for them to talk, then this wasn't going to be how Donna would have it. Now, the only words spewing from Kara's mouth were words intended to hurt.

And they did hurt. But they hurt even more knowing that wherever they were coming from was just the tip of the iceberg of what was truly wrong with Kara right now. Kara. Her best friend. As close to a soulmate as Donna could understand...

A wave roared toward her and crouched down and lifted her shield, holding her breath in expectation of a flood. Instead, she was met with shards of ice slicing through the uniform at her calves like dozens of tiny little razors coming for her. Donna grit her teeth and plucked out the few that had stuck in her legs before standing back up and facing Kara once more. Small cuts would heal, but this wasn't stopping. An immovable object. That's what she had to become. If Kara was the Laelaps that would always catch its prey, then Donna had to become like the Fox, illusive and uncatchable.

She just prayed that Zeus wouldn't see it fit to bring about an end to this infinite loop of paradox before Alex and the Luthor found a cure for whatever plagued Kara's mind.

"If we're going to talk, then let's talk. But not like this Kara. Not like this." Donna could only brace herself for what was inevitably going to be another attack, and maybe the fog in her vision wasn't just from the steam surrounding them now. Maybe the mist also came from her own eyes.

KARA: Not long ago, Kara may have listened. She would have put it off, waited for a more opportune moment. Or bottled it up, shoved it down and down until–

Rao, she was so tired. Tired of fitting herself around what others expected; tired of shoving things down until they were crammed so tight they hurt. It wasn't a feeling she'd felt all the often with Donna. But then there were signatures and colors, dreams and swords and lassos shattered. Suddenly there was so much about Donna Kara didn't know, and yet she stood asking her to bare all.

Bottle it up, let it out in a controlled trickle. But Kara had no interest in light rain, she was a hurricane, gathering force as it approached landfall. Donna thought words could temper her as they had before, but she was wrong.

Kara laughed, just as cold as the shards of ice Donna was picking from her legs. "Then how, Donna? Over text? When I've finally pushed enough? You want to take this over tea in our apartment while we pretend we're the same? I'm not interested, not anymore."

(They are, they are. There was so much they had in common, and their differences were always understood and celebrated. Donna bled the same. Kara loved her, she loved her, she–)

She dropped her shoulder and charged forward. If Donna wanted to try to be an immoveable object, Kara was going to show her how she could plow right through her.

DONNA: Her eyes had lost their reflection. Where blue used to reflect the moonlight, red swallowed everything around them. Red veins and red eyes and what was next? Were horns and hooves going to appear like that had with Illyana? Was Kara that far gone? No. Donna couldn't -- she refused to believe that. Because if that was the truth, then there was a sword and a duty to something she could never bring herself to do. The unstoppable force and the immovable object. The fox and the hound.

And then Kara pushed, shoulder lowered and enough force to send any man through the nearest building across the park. But Donna wasn't human, and she couldn't pretend to be one. Her shield raised to take the brunt of the force, sliding through the water a few feet before Donna planted her feet firmly and felt the ground CRACK and cave until they came to a jarring stop, calf-deep in splintered granite. Donna grit her teeth. This wasn't what she wanted, but it was what she had to do. She had to buy Alex and Lena enough time to finish the cure. Letting out a grunt, Donna pushed back to create enough space to escape the damaged ground and float up before bringing the shield back and slamming down on Kara's face. Donna had to hope... because that's what Kara would do.

KARA: She couldn't stop, she couldn't stop, she couldn't stop.

Donna didn't even reply, she took the hit and followed it with one of her own. The shield landed home on her face and for a moment the world spun wildly around her. If anyone could pack a hit that would actually hit, it was Donna. Invulnerable was an adjective given only by those who didn't actually know Supergirl. The hit landed, the world spun, and Kara knew they were done talking.

They'd never actually talked. All there was left was the burn in her chest and the obstacle in front of her. Someone standing between her and a home, someone asking her to temper herself when all she could feel was rage. Any hesitation left, thoughts spiraling, morphing hurt into anger.

She'd been holding back since the moment she landed. Be less, Kara. Too much and you'll break something: crashing through walls, plates shattered, cutlery bent around her fingers. Too strong to hug Eliza or Alex, to pet a cat. No more. She was done holding back.

One hand wrapped around Donna's shield on the follow-through, trying to use Donna's own momentum to yank it to the side as she brought her other hand around in a swing of her own.

DONNA: Blood sprayed across her face as Kara’s fist collided with her nose. Fuck. Her roommate held none of her strength back and Donna grunted as she held in a cry of pain. Fuck. The world feared them — feared those with powers to be like this. Unfettered and unleashed on a world that hated what it could not understand. Alien, meta, mutant, Amazon. Raw power wrapped in skin and bones and roaring to be set free. The man Hercules had enslaved the Amazons out of fear of what they could do, and the warriors, once free, had made him pray the price for his persecution of them. A bloody price. Donna remembered sitting on Hippolyta’s lap as her adopted mother recounted the tale behind the bracelets they wore. Bracelets of submission: as a reminder of the time when they were enslaved but also to remind them of restraint. Vowing to settle with words first and fists second.

Donna grit her teeth and wiped the blood from her crooked nose as she staggered back from the blow. “I can’t let you do this!” She shouted as her boots sloshed through water, the mist setting an eerie haze around them like a wall keeping the world outside of this moment. How she wished that the world would never see or remember this Kara, knowing that the Supergirl in front of her was the image that Kara fought with pen and paper to tear down — a being to be feared, not a hero. Donna had sworn to care for all those that Kara cared for, but in this moment she hated Lena Luthor for having any kryptonite in the first place because maybe then Magneto wouldn’t be able to use her friend like this. “Magneto is just using you! This isn’t the way, and you know it.” Donna circled Supergirl, tensed for the next attack that was bound to come. Because while Donna played defense, the Fates string pulled Kara along as the ever hunting hound — the Laelaps in relentless pursuit. If Donna could only be as cunning as the fox, maybe she could get in close enough to knock her best friend out until Alex could bring a cure.

KARA: "He's promising me a home!" Her voice broke on the last word, falling into the noise of the water and her hand scraping against Donna's shield. It broke because despite the red snaking through her veins and way her worst thoughts plowed over every good thought she tried to throw in their way, it still came from somewhere deep inside of her.

She wanted the Fire Falls and the Jewel Mountains and for dragons to be more than a marvel but an accepted normal. She wanted Alura's arms around her before bed and her family prayers and Zor-El's laboratory while Kara snuck underneath tables and between his various experiments. Kara wanted normal, she wanted it so bad it felt like it would consume her (it was, it already was). But she was never going to have normal. The best she could as for was a world that didn't fear her simply for being who she was. It was as close to home as she would ever get.

(But Alex, but Eliza and Donna and Lar. But Kon and Jon and Kal. There were so, so many reasons Earth was home, if she could only hold onto them for more than a fleeting moment, thoughts slip-sliding over each other to make room for all the reasons it wasn't.)

"He's promising me a home, Donna." It was so much easier to fall back into her anger. Everything else was too hard to hold onto. She gripped the shield with both hands and drove forward, pressing it with all her strength into Donna's chest, pushing them both down into the water. Her eyes glowed red, close. "And you're in my way."

DONNA: "A home?" Donna's voice broke on the same word as Kara's had. "Then what have we been living in together for months?" The tears threatened to choke her. Donna would go to war if she thought it would give Kara a home, but this wasn't it. Because a home for Kara couldn't be found in the violence. It was in the quiet moments when she could hear Lar and Kara whispering stories to each other in their bedroom while Donna hummed contently while stirring a pot of noodles. It was found when she came home from a long day of volunteering at the community center when her heart was breaking for these kids that didn't have a home to go to and Kara was sitting there waiting with re-runs of House Hunters queued up on the television and a bowl of popcorn just for the two of them. It was found in texts in their native languages because even if they couldn't always spell things the right way or the grammar was just a little imperfect -- the words were still there and they tried.

When had that stopping being enough?

Kara slammed into her with renewed vigor, with a dark fire in her eyes that drowned out all reason, pushing Donna down and into the foundation of the fountain. A snarl formed on her own lips and reared forward, slamming her head into Kara's to stun her long enough to flip their positions -- this time Donna driving Supergirl back with the force of her shield. "If you think this is the way, then you are spitting on Krypton's grave. This isn't you. Whoever did this to you -- I won't let them get away with it."

KARA: No, no no!

Donna's head struck hers and for a moment her vision blurred. Her fingers went slack and her head spun, water settling around her. For a moment, just a moment, her eyes met Donna's. Actually met. Her face was wet and her chest felt like it was caving in on itself, hollow and empty.

That was it, wasn't it? Everything broken down into one simple sentence. Rao, she'd never asked to be the last. She'd never asked to be the only one left to honor her family, her traditions, her culture her world. She'd been pushed into a pod and told to do great things. Her home had turned to dust and she hadn't been given a choice.

At thirteen cycles old, Krypton was her grave to honor, and she'd never once been asked. All clarity left in a moment.

"Don't–" She struggled against the shield pressing into her, movements increasingly jarred. "Don't tell me how to honor my people! Don't–"

The words came out cracked around the edges. There was nothing left but the burn in her chest. She worked to get her hands free, shifting underneath Donna and getting nowhere. The water rose and splashed around them, and she couldn't move, and she didn't want this, she didn't want this (she really didn't want this). "Don't talk about Krypton!"

Her eyes lit red and released with a scream.

DONNA: She held the line, shield locked against her body as she pressed down and back against Kara like she'd been taught to as a youth on Themyscira alongside the fiercest race of warriors. An immovable object. But Kara was like the unstoppable force of the hound and something had to give -- one of them had to snap.

Energy pooled within her body until she no longer felt that her body was her own. Every fiber of being connected together until shield became an extension of muscle and became part of bone. A perfect unity even with the water foaming around them as Kara lashed back in frantic and stuttered movements. The moon reflected back at her and Donna felt its pull, calling out something deep within her. A raw energy in the dark that pulsed through her veins until she could feel pressure rising in her blood, rushing and pushing her. Every beat of her heart saying to consume and shatter and break the alien in front of her. Donna could see herself pulling at the moon to control tides until the fox became the hound. The hunted became the hunter. A white light of the moon shining through her eyes and stars dancing in her hair and the strength of a thousand gods coming forward to --

No. Donna closed her eyes and let out a yell, just as Kara screamed and a red so bright burst forth that Donna could see even through closed eyelids. A pain like a hammer hitting an anvil struck her body and suddenly she was flying and landing with a splash, eyes fluttering open for a moment so that she could see the stars. There. There they were in the night sky. The punishment for creating an ultimate paradox was mutual destruction, and the gods struck Laelaps and the Teumessian turning them both to stone and placing them in the sky. Canis Major and Minor. Donna smiled for a second through the pain before her eyes fluttered shut.

The unstoppable force had won, so maybe the gods would be kind and let the one still live.

KARA didn't feel, not anymore. Nothing but the fire that raked red hot through her veins. Her vision was bathed in orange and the only thing that mattered was getting up. Was wrapping her hands around the force that held her down and wrenching it in half. It didn't matter that it was Donna.

(It was, oh Rao it was Donna.)

Everything pooled into her eyes and then Donna was gone, the pressure released. Her breath left her in a rush, her throat raw, her lungs aching. She stood with water dripping down her temple, off the ends of her hair into the uneasy waters of the fountain. It was dusk when they started, now stars reflected bright off the pool around them. The glow of her eyes faded as she stepped forward, listening to the sound of Donna's heart beat once, twice...three times.

Pause.

For a moment she was left with only the sound of the water as it settled, small waves lapping and broken stone. Somewhere a helicopter beat a steady staccato against the night sky. And nothing. And nothing.

Kara felt like she was collapsing in on herself. A moment of clarity rushing over her as her eyes widened, her breath stalling in her chest. What. What. Her eyes glassed over and she wasn't sure if it was with fear, agony, or anger that she began to reach forward, praying to Rao for the next beat of her best friend's heart.

Thump.

DAISY: She had seen it by chance. A glimpse at a television that still had power in the city. A glimpse was all it had taken — a scrolling line of text at the bottom. Kara was fighting Donna. Daisy hadn’t wasted a second, she had given her companion a nod and an excuse that he understood — people were important. And Donna was important to Kara, which was why Daisy couldn’t wrap her head around what she had seen. She didn’t get a lot of what had happened, Kara destroying the bridges and keeping people trapped in a city that was burning — Kara cared about people. In a selfless — almost self-destructive way, so, what happened? What changed?

There was no time to waste, Daisy propelled herself into the air with her powers, she hadn’t quite perfected this, but there was no time like the present. She landed on a roof and then quickly traveled, jumping from roof to roof with the assistance of her powers, a careful balance of enough power to throw herself forward and not leave the building she had been on in ruins. (The Stark made gloves helped reduce the reverb, but knowing her limits? Daisy wasn’t particularly skilled at that yet.)

Flinging herself into the air again, once she was close enough to see the fight, she hit the ground with some buffering from her powers, a circle of cracked Earth formed around her. And Daisy inhaled as she stood up straight, eyes shooting up to see Donna lying on the ground a short distance from her. Unmoving.

Kara moved forward and Daisy immediately jumped between her and Donne. “Kara,” she said in warning, a hand up, her palm pointed towards Kara’s chest. A threat. Silent, but clear. Kara knew what Daisy could do if she wanted. “I don’t want to do this.” Don’t make me. Daisy kept her gaze locked on Kara, the expression on her face — she looked distraught... then why had it gone this far? What could have possibly happened here to lead to this. “But I will if you don’t stand down.”

KARA: She didn't even see Daisy, not at first. She only saw Donna, how her eyes fluttered closed, how the twitch of her fingers stilled. She waited and waited and Daisy was saying something, but Kara couldn't hear a thing. Not until Donna's heart gave another thump, and another. The pressure in her chest eased, and she could think, she could–

No no no it was all wrong. She was supposed to find a home on the other side of the flames. They just had to let her get through them. They had to.

Somewhere behind her, friendships were piling up, tattered and torn. It should register that this wasn't one of them. Daisy was spilled ink and confessions neither of them truly meant to make, but accepted anyway. She was once-a-week text messages, and stumbling over acceptance she deserved, even if she didn't fully understand it. Kara had chosen to love Daisy.

And Daisy was choosing to be another obstacle.

"Move, before I make you." Red snaked across her face, fire crawled beneath her skin. She didn't even wait for an answer before stepping forward; she was done with words.

DAISY: She had never imagined her friendship with Kara coming undone like this. She never thought that she’d catch Supergirl on TV beating her friend half to death — she never imagined that Kara would fall so far from the person she had been in that cafe, carefully keeping her composure while masking who she was. A broken pen the only show of force that Daisy could claim to have witnessed.

Every other moment had been touched on with kindness, with a softness — a gentleness that Daisy could have never have claimed to have earned. A whisper of family. The talk of value — that they mattered to each other. But Daisy was looking at Kara with this feeling building in her chest. A red glow just under Kara’s skin, a flicker of the color in her eyes. (A different meaning of seeing red. Or maybe the same... just more plain.)

Was this Kara? Or something else? Something like Hive? Crawling in her mind, drawing out the ugliest, meanest part of her soul?

Standing her ground, Daisy could feel Donna’s pulse behind her, the familiar beat of her heart — the quiet vibrations of her body that said that she was alive. (Would she make it? Daisy couldn’t claim to know that.)

“No. You’ve done enough.” The words came out harsher than Daisy had intended, but she didn’t back down. Kara took a step forward and Daisy... she couldn’t risk it. Daisy couldn’t wait for Kara to come ot her senses, couldn’t let her get any closer to Donna without risking Donna’s life. That had always been the line for Daisy. The lives of others. “Stand down,” Daisy commanded before focusing only one hand on Kara, holding back a fraction of her power, not wanting to kill Kara. The air around her hand shifted in a visible way, waves surrounding her hand and cutting through the air until it pushed into Kara. Strong enough to make each step Kara took more labored, but not enough to still her completely. “This is your only warning. Is this what you want, Kara?”

ALEX: It had taken longer than Alex would have liked to find a cure for the Kryptonite that Kara had been affected with. First she'd had to go over the research about the creation of the Kryptonite that Lena had brought her, then she had to find a way to reverse the effects it'd had on her sister. Blue Kryptonite was what she was testing now, it was the molecular opposite of green, which Alex had made by reversing the ionic charge of green Kryptonite, hopefully this would work because honestly she was out of ideas. Donna was trying to distract Kara, buy Alex some time to find a cure but from the updates her agents were giving her it didn't seem to be going her way. She'd just gotten the results back when one of her agents came into give her the latest update, Donna was down, they weren't sure if she was alive, but someone else had shown up to confront Kara now.

Alex knew she was running out of time with this cure, though the test results of the blue Kryptonite seemed to show it would reverse what Lena's Kryptonite had caused. It was liquid instead of a solid form so she would have to use a syringe with a green Kryptonite needle to inject it into Kara. Once the cure was in the syringe and the needle had been replaced by one of green Kryptonite Alex changed into Green Lantern and flew towards Central Park. It wasn't until she was there she saw who the other person was, Daisy, who seemed to be holding Kara's attention for now, she still had to be quick though if she was going to be able to get the cure to her sister. She landed behind Kara, moving to inject the blue Kryptonite into her neck hopefully before Kara realized what was happening.

KARA: "Yes!"

Kara tried to take a step forward, but her feet rooted to the ground. Her very bones rattled, her vision blurred. Why couldn't anyone just leave her be? She just wanted a home, she just wanted to be free. She didn't want to be hated, or revered, or held on a perfect pedestal where feelings didn't matter. She wanted to feel, Erik had allowed her to feel so much.

(Of one thing, of one thing, Kara.)

This was what she wanted, and Daisy was trying to stop her. Like Donna, like Jon and Kon. Her words fell into a scream as she tried desperately to step forward. Her eyes lit red, and–

Something pricked at her neck, and suddenly everything hurt. The fire in her veins pulling out like thousands of needles, like kryptonite. A red mist lifted from her and she had a moment, just a moment. A moment of thank you, and finally, and she could think, she could feel for the first time in days. She was Kara, and there was Daisy, and Donna.

And Donna. Her chest seized and she couldn't breathe and everything went black.

[queenofblending]

💗 TOMORROW new @sugarpill cuties launch! Which shade(s) are you getting??? Swipe to see all 4 lipsticks! 1. @sugarpill Bliss lipstick + @urbandecaycosmetics Liar lip pencil 2. @sugarpill Gravity lipstick + @urbandecaycosmetics Conspiracy lip pencil 3. @sugarpill Nectar lipstick + @urbandecaycosmetics Torch lip pencil 4. @sugarpill Hydro lipstick + @urbandecaycosmetics Cult velvet eyeliner 💄💄💄 5. Also wearing new @natashadenona foundation all over but closest match was a touch too warm for me. Nice coverage to it though, with a matte finish so I didn’t add powder! Used @touchinsolus primer from @boxycharm underneath. Eyeshadow from @urbandecaycosmetics Naked Reloaded on the eyes with Walk of Shame waterline pencil and Perversion 24/7 pencil, Brow Blade pencil in the brows with Midnight Cowboy brow finish. Suuuper gorgeous @natashadenona New Bloom blush and glow palette on the cheeks, contoured a touch with @pretty_vulgar Bronze Mannikin from @boxycharm Last pic I threw on some @litcosmetics Escape + Gold Metal Sexiest wig ever from @wigsandgrace Top lashes from @blanda_beauty and lower lashes are Precious from @houseoflashes . . #sugarpill #urbandecay #houseoflashes #natashadenona #boxycharm (at Los Angeles, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bup1BJAnhdQ/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=ctxwkv3mnxtz

[witchstone]

okay, birds seen at home in june round up! comes to a total of 62 species, which is oddly high for the middle of winter. the highlight was the green twinspot, which i’d only got my first ever sighting of two weeks earlier. presumably it had only found its way to our garden because of the heavy rains and flash floods (and the tornado what the fuck) a few days prior - they’re forest birds, whereas our area is more broad-leaf woodland.

full list and photos under the cut!

bar-throated apalis, black-collared + crested + white-eared barbet, cape batis, dark-capped bulbul, green-backed camaroptera*, yellow-fronted canary, fork-tailed drongo, crowned eagle*, southern black flycatcher, african dusky flycatcher, african paradise flycatcher (odd for this time of year), egyptian goose, gymnogene, southern hadeda, purple-crested loerie. speckled mousebird, black-headed oriole, rose-ringed parakeet*, black-backed puffback, red-capped robin-chat, cape glossy + black-bellied + red-winged starling, collared + greater double-collared + olive + amethyst + white-bellied sunbird, olive + kurrichane thrush, golden-rumped tinkerbarbet, southern black tit, spectacled + village weaver, cape white-eye, cardinal + golden-tailed woodpecker, red-eyed + tambourine* dove, brown-hooded kingfisher, red-backed + bronze mannikin, klaas’s cuckoo*, lesser honeyguide, grey-headed bushshrike*, familiar chat, southern grey-headed sparrow, woolly-necked stork, sombre greenbul*, green woodhoopoe, cape wagtail, southern boubou, black sparrowhawk, african palm swift, green twinspot, black cuckooshrike?, black-headed heron, little sparrowhawk?, pied crow, african goshawk

* = call heard, no visuals, ? = i’m reasonably sure it was that, but not 100%

dark-capped bulbul, taken at a nature reserve up the hill

eurytela dryope

not sure yet. maybe a mocker swallowtail judging by the body?

olive sunbird my beloved

the green twinspot!! absolutely not a great photo, but i was surprised to get a pic at all tbh. either a female or juvenile

bosduival’s tree nymph

souther hadeda. chicken sized rats and the worst dawn chorus you’ve ever heard

golden-tailed woodpecker

gold-spotted sylph. have never seen one before in my life, but it was hanging around the laundry

southern black tit!

[rhinokennedy]

The Bronze Mannikin is one of the smallest munia species. The adult is a compact bird with a short black tail and stubby black and pale grey mandibles. #birdsofkenya (at Nairobi, Kenya) https://www.instagram.com/p/CfJNfRkqNsS/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[christiansperka]

LIVE FROM THE THANDA SAFARI LODGE WATERHOLE - The sun has now set (5:07pm). Thanks a lot to everyone who was tuning into the various live streams during the day. As promised here is a collage with a few of the birds which visited the waterhole. A Spectacled Weaver, a Dark-caped Bulbul, a Cut-throat Finch (if I have identified this one correctly then it is a really special sighting as Northern KwaZulu-Natal is out of the distribution range for this bird), an Emerald-spotted Wood Dove, a Red-winged Starling and a Bronze Mannikin. And there were many more 🐦 I enjoyed this day at the waterhole. I will be back, and I hope many of you will be, too ... Have a good evening! (at Thanda Safari) https://www.instagram.com/p/CAkzazNAaPF/?igshid=r1zc05r08ivx

[fluff1955]

Apparently I also wear pink on Thursdays! I pulled out this palette intending to do a simple neutral look. As you can see, that didn’t happen, because of course, I went right for the pink! What I used: 💘@acebeaute Grandiose Palette 💘@smaskboxcosmetics Photo Finish Hydrating Undereye Primer 💘@loraccosmetics Behind the Scenes Eye Primer 💘@tonyacrooks The Brow Gal in Light 03 💘@thebalm Mad Lash in Black 💘@makeuprevolution Conceal & Define in C6 💘No idea who made the lashes 💘@touchinsolus No Pore Blem primer 💘@missha.official Missha Magic Cushion Cover in #23 💘@sephora Colorful Cheek Ink Gel Peony 💘@beabombshellcosmetics Smooth Criminal Powder 💘@purcosmetics Contour Diaries 💘@pretty_vulgar Bronzed B in Bronze Mannikin 💘@coverfx Glitter Drops in Nova (this is NOT for me…way TOO glittery) Illuminating. Setting Spray 💘@urbandecaycosmetics 24/7 Glide-on Lip Pencil in Anarchy 💘@anastasiabeverlyhills Matte Lipstick in Stargazer 💘Glasses by @zeelool Cindy Cat Eye Berry #pinkthursday #acebeaute #grandiosepalette #anastasiabeverlyhills #urbandecay #thebalm #touchinsol #sephora #coverfx #Missha #Smashbox #makeuprevolution #beabombshell #LORAC #TonyaCrooksTheBrowGal #zeelool #cateyeglasses #beautylovesquad #kindnessEG5 https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxi9kyepD4d/?igshid=1v039mtvrg7kt

[superbnature]

Bronze mannikin by chrisvanwyk91 http://ift.tt/2mM5qiv