#scarlet skimmer

[lestatth]

C76P0391 Scarlet Skimmer por Eileen Fonferko

Each of us is a singular narrative, which is constructed, continually, unconsciously, by, through, and in us--through our perceptions, our feelings, our thoughts, our actions; and, not least, our discourse, our spoken narrations. Biologically, physiologically, we are not so different from each other; historically, as narratives--we are each of us unique. ~ #OliverSacks

[helluvatimes]

An Act Of Treachery

A Scarlet Skimmer attacking what looked like a female of its own species in the botanic garden. Photo credit: Eleanor Chua.

After first taking off one of its wings, this dragonfly proceeded to devour its prey from head down to abdomen in about 6 minutes.

This was captured from a slightly lower angle. It seemed to help a little in highlighting the powerful and aggressive posture of the dominant dragonfly. This was actually a 25 percent crop of the original image.

[sprout-fics]

WAIT OKAY. HEAR MEOUT, HEAR ME

O U T

dragon price is good, love that shit mmm mm mmm

but listen

Dragon Valeria

I’m literally going feral just thinking about it. Talk about one to spoil you, ravage you, cover you in jewels and silks and the blood of anyone who tries to take you from her. Tattoos that glimmer like scales—fuck I have to stop talking now or I’ll write a novel in your inbox but FUCK I’m normal about her (I am vibrating at a frequency only dogs can perceive)

“I burned a kingdom for you today.” She purrs, the skimmering scales along her shoulders flickering in the hazy orange glow of the lantern light. Her hands plant on either side of you, the lower half of her bare, pressed against yours draped in gauzy, shimmering fabric pilfered from the farthest of lands. The mere weight of her draws a deep, wanting hum inside you, like raising water from a boundless well filled to the brim with your adoration for her.

Her words should scare you, should send you curling into yourself as a terrified, frightened thing. A poor maiden helpless against the dragon that brought you here, snatched you from your pitiful life within a dying kingdom. You had been that maiden once, had cowered and been frightened and had watched her with a wary gaze. Yet the dragoness atop you now had earned your trust slowly, had brought you gifts, trophies, had provided for you in a way that made you offer yourself to her in turn.

The depths of her love used to terrify you, her promises to set the world ablaze for you if you commanded her so, to level kingdoms, to slaughter kings and princes and seat you upon their scarlet stained thrones. Yet now the declaration of her carnage sends an illicit thrill through you, has you drag her up and into you. Her lips taste like brimstone, like smoke and promises of destruction. The addiction of her violence drives a coiling warmth rushing to your core- warmed only by the fire on her breath.

“Bella.” She breathes against your lips, and her clawed hand smoothes along your calf, traces your supple flesh annointed with holy oils offered by priests to her in pleas for mercy. “So pretty, bonita.”

The gauzy, shimmering fabric of your dress is pushed up over the curve of your thigh, bunched around your hip and she huffs a laugh at the scar that’s planted there, her own mark breathed into your skin with fire- an ever present reminder that you belong to her.

Never once did you think it would be so, never thought that your emaciated, withering form dressed in rags would sit upon her throne not as a prize but as her queen. 

You spread your legs for her eagerly when her hand dips under the edge of your gown, and Valeria purrs when she finds you already wet to her touch. 

“Needy, mi vida?” She asks, voice low and sliding like silk against the back of your thoughts. 

“Always.” You tell her breathlessly, and when her thumb presses down with the barest hint of pressure on your clit you buck your hips automatically. Valeria drinks down the little whimper that escapes you, laughs as you press your hips up into her palm. 

“Need something?” She asks teasingly and you groan, feel frustration and desire meld with the unfurling warmth inside you. 

“Stop teasing.” You whine, but Valeria withdraws her hand completely you reach for her, eyes lidded and lips parted with an apology. “No, no sorry, wait, Valeria please-”

“That’s my girl.” She husks, and you gasp in surprise as her hips roll down onto yours, offering you a tantalizing kiss of friction that has you arching up from the gold-threaded cushions under you both. “All you had to do was ask, querida.” You know. You know you can ask for anything and she’ll give it to you. Clothes, jewels, treasures, castles, kingdoms, souls- Valeria will plant her offerings at the altar of you and then rise to take your divine blessing. You bestow it upon her in the form of shuddering gasps and bitten pleas, of libations she gathers on her tongue, of the devoted oaths you echo down to her reminding you’re hers, hers, hers….

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

This is probably going to be a little sacrilegious but something that I'm finding is that when I play IS3, I am actually enjoying myself a lot. Honestly, I'm enjoying myself a lot more than I was playing IS2. This isn't to say that IS3 is perfect or anything, or even than IS2 is bad, but I find that I'm enjoying my time in IS3 just a lot more.

Now keep in mind I'm not really a hard mode grinder by any means. I didn't enjoy the difficulty mechanics in IS1 very much, and their return in IS2 really did not inspire me with much desire to tackle IS2 on a harder difficulty. IS3's difficulty is a bit...infamous for being a bit much, and honestly I'm kind of content with just poking my toes into the water in the future if I feel I want to. If you asked me to do A15 Izumik or die, I think i'd take the gun personally.

The point here is that I'm taking both of these themes from their base standpoint, and that means on the surface level that IS3 is just going to be easier. Two of IS3's unique squads (Mind Over Matter and People-Oriented) not only feel stronger than any squad in IS2, but they're dramatically more interesting to play. You also start off with significantly higher buffs in IS3 over IS2. You have stronger statistical buffs, you have more resources, you have the frankly crazy perfect clear about 8 Max HP buff, and the new node types, all of which are good.

I don't really want to come in from the difficulty angle, although it is maybe unavoidable that more runs in IS3 for me feel like they actually finish compared to IS2. This is partly due to difficulty and partly do to factors that extend into the design of stages themselves.

I will summarize my thoughts here and maybe make a point later on to elaborate them in a different post

-IS3 gives you more opportunities to develop runs, mostly through the use of keys -Keys fuck, and honestly I will probably enjoy IS4 even more given it uses keys in a much cooler way. Having more control over a run feels really nice -Map design in IS3 is a LOT better than in IS2. A lot of IS2's map design is based on IS1, which I'm going to be brave and say is by and large total shit, and IS2 relies a LOT on what are basically pranks -Seriously, fuck the Lost Colossus stage in IS2. -This makes it so its a lot easier to get a sense of flow in IS3. You can look at a stage in IS3, and know how to reasonable tackle it. This isn't consistently true in IS2. Shit in IS2 just fucking, moves. -Also the fact that IS2 kept the absolutely awful Bear and Duck stages where you just contend with increasing numbers of bullshit, and decided to make one version with fucking Sandbeasts makes me really ticked off. These stages are so much better in IS3 -Corrosion is a significantly better mechanic than Sanity. I am not a Sanity defender and I think it says something that I consider Scarlet Singers so dangerous you have to always account for them -Granted Sea Skimmers also suck dick, Low-Altitude Hovering my beloathed -Paranoia Illusion is a much fairer boss than Lucian, Blood Diamond. I feel like if IS2 had an A15 people would legit hate this boss. You're generally priced into trying to kill him on the first pass or develop enough life to deal with leaks from the defender side. It's never worth actually developing that side if he breaks the roadblocks. -I also like Ishar'mla more than Troupe Mouthpiece. Mouthpiece's stage has a really baller design, but it is maybe the ending out of the 8 in the first two IS that requires the most specific set of units. -Also unlocking Ishar'mla is generally a bit easier than Mouthpiece and doesn't require you giving up a boss relic and THEN hitting a random event

But like, IS3 isn't perfect. It has its bad stages and frankly really annoying bullshit (Territorial Tendencies and Ubi bona somnia are quite bad as Emergency Operations). The Light mechanic is annoyingly useless and not even really fun to interact with. Izumik is uh

well frankly I kind of stopping wanting to do it that entire thing is beans

and the Resourceful Squad exists to remind me that I am not Fate's Favorite Child, I will roll nat 1s on my D12s

[lost-lycaon]

Dragonflies of the Western Cape - Two-Striped Skimmer (male), Broad Scarlet (female), Nomad (male).

[aeridanus]

Guess I’ll die / This is fine - dragonfly with meme potential :D

Snapshot from our vacation at the Mecklenburg Lake Plateau. It was a beautiful week, lots and lots of hiking to bird and insect watching spots. We ticked many boxes of the “Lake Pokédex” with ospreys, white-tailed eagles, a bittern, red-backed shrikes, a golden oriole, kingfishers, scarce chasers, a migrant hawker, a brown hawker, common bluetails with alternate colorations (Shinys? :D) and absolute heaps of black-tailed skimmers, ruddy and scarlet darters. I’ll post photos of them in the next days :)

[fierykitten2]

The gang seems to be actively involving Luvdisc a lot more than my Violet team did (though I guess that’s helped by the fact that Char the Armarouge is very friendly and Char the Ceruledge hates everyone, probably excluding Lavender and Spriggie)

To be fair I think my Scarlet team welcomed Skid a lot better than my Violet team welcomed Shimmer (and I’ve just realised how much their names sound like the Wii Play Motion game Skip Skimmer when I list Skid first because he’s from Scarlet)

[mmx-code-crimpphire]

MMX Code: Crimpphire World Building Part 1 - Mega City

I'm finally able to put myself aside and post these world building locations for the surroundings of the characters of Code: Crimpphire!! It'll be quite a lot and there's going to be a lot of parts to this, so buckle up!!

NEW CHAPTER ON AO3

First I definitely want to address the HQ building for the Maverick Hunters!! Yes, there are multiple locations of headquarters in the country of Glockthain (yes that's what I'm calling it), the main HQ being in Abel City. Which I think I'll cover in Part 2. Not to mention it's a new location and that's when the multiple locations actually come into play (this is after Sigma's initial rebellion began and after Abel City's been nuked with missiles).

It also has a separate building holding the Mavericks in captivity, that being the Brimstone Maverick Holding Center (it's named based off the street it's on, most names will be like this in certain locations). It also holds the Landing Pad, which the Hunters collectively named the "Sky Light", cuz it does have a glass dome for a ceiling and you can see the sky from there. Even X and Zero star gaze there in the time they formed their bond within their friendship and eventually romantic relationship.

Of course it houses Chronos Institute, which has Quint working there for the Time Skimmer. Near that and next to MHHQ in the city is the Rose Petal Memorial Gardens. It houses many flowers and venders for reploids and humans alike who can purchase flowers while visiting their loved one's graves. It includes a mausoleum, and it's a pretty big area.

It's also near Heart Park, near the heart of Mega City, and beyond south is the Falcon Isle Grove, the resident forest there. There are other cities that hold and preserve Forest wildlife, and X made that more apparent to keep it that way, since 21XX does harbor new and futuristic ideas and it leaves the world to deprive it of its flora and fauna. Xev won't stand for that, of course.

He does try to convince the government to preserve more of the wildlife still left within their time period, which they definitely agree to, since they feel they have been neglecting their natural wildlife in their wake. It's one of the things they begrudgingly agree with X on. Which I think I'll touch upon sometime soon on its post.

Heart Park is definitely a place where events have been held since 20XX. Mega City has lived longer than Abel City, so it does have a history. If anyone's interested, I might make a post about it~. Point is, though, it's a place Xev loves to go to and the Cherry Blossom festival is one he'd love to go to with Zero one day. Which they eventually do with their close circle of friends, being the Command Mission crew.

Now I get to talk about Chronos Institute. I did nab a few things from the Archie Comics, since they did make the most sense to me, not to mention Blues' characterization is based off that but is a little less mysterious and has a slightly different character for what I wanna go for in this AU. But yeah, Chronos. Definitely a place for research and many projects that take place. Including the Time Skimmer and the Delta Nano Project.

Then we have the infamous Mega City Robot & Technology Research University, where Dr Light, Dr Wily and even Dr Marie Lovelace all studied and developed their tech to move to new heights and eventually work in Chronos or develop their own companies to build for the future. Don't worry, I'll make a post about Marie whenever I can.

Other locations include:

”Mega City Scarlet Bay Penitentiary”, a jail facility specifically for Humans

”Mega City Knowledge Library”, located SouthWest of the main city 

”Cozy Collectables”, a new antique store Xev loves going to and sometimes took Zero whenever he wanted the company. Zero eventually went with him more often after getting together, as you can tell~

”Tell Another Tale”, a bookstore Xev also loves going to, but Zero grows to love since his first trip with Xev. Maybe I can also make a post about which stories and books they like, who knows~

”The Writing Gryphon”, a news press building. It was created for the Hero AU where Zero has the scenario of being Superman and Xev being his Lois Lane, but I decided to add it to the main AU, since it does need at least a news press for the city, right~?

”The Flux”, a bar located near the main center hub of the city

And last but not least, The “Lunaris” Sub Urban Area. Located West of the city. There are other locations that can be found within it. Such as:

”Mountain Oak Conservatory”, a small prep school having grades K-12

”Oblivion Low Security Prison”, a rejuvenation center for redeeming Mavericks. It was the first one ever made, and ever since X4, Xev pushed and PUSHED the government for one, and they stood their ground until Dr Cain had to get involved, like in many other instances where the government was stubborn

”Ravenwood Community College”, that's pretty self explanatory, except for the fact it's a VERY small college

”Spectrum Library”, smaller building library dedicated to the area for others to go to, since Knowledge Library is pretty far from where the Sub Urban area is located.

Mega City is pretty big, but it's not as big as Abel City, but it's still big, and definitely the main focus of the main story of Code: Crimpphire. I will cover all the areas as I stated previously before, but I'm excited to give info on those locations as I have here~.

[floridensis]

when i was like 9-10 i had a guide to florida birds that i would just look at constantly. i would take it with me everywhere. i still have it

i have a mental list of a bunch of birds i liked and formed a vaguely parasocial relationship with but hadnt to my knowledge seen in my one decade of life but really wanted to. the mental list has never left me and i get so excited every time i see something on the Mental List that i havent seen before

the birds:

common loon [i found a dead one once does that count]

pied billed grebe ✅

white-tailed tropicbird

northern gannet

american white pelican

magnificent frigatebird ✅

american bittern

least bittern

snowy egret ✅

little blue heron ✅

reddish egret

glossy ibis ✅

roseate spoonbill ✅

wood stork ✅

fulvous whistling duck

wood duck ✅

bufflehead

hooded merganser ✅

ruddy duck ✅

crested caracara

american kestrel ✅

northern bobwhite

purple gallinule ✅

black necked stilt ✅

black skimmer

white-crowned pigeon ✅

common ground dove ✅

downy woodpecker ✅

pileated woodpecker ✅

loggerhead shrike ✅

florida scrub-jay [i apparently saw them as a child but barely remember]

cedar waxwing ✅

blackburnian warbler

black and white warbler ✅

ovenbird ✅

summer tanager

scarlet tanager

rose-breasted grosbeak

indigo bunting

painted bunting

bobolink

red winged blackbird ✅

scarlet ibis

dovekie

.

dovekie

dovekie

[dansnaturepictures]

17/07/2022-Lyndon and Egleton Nature Reserves, Rutland Water: Part 2 of 2-The butterflies, dragonflies, mammals, other wildlife, flowers and landscape

Following on from my previous post it was also another brilliant day of watching butterflies with a host of species seen and so many individuals too, charted well by Big Butterfly Counts I did at both Lyndon and Egleton. At Lyndon seventeen Gatekeeper, eleven Small White, two Small Skipper, thirteen Meadow Brown, one Ringlet, one Comma, one Brimstone that was sat on the mud of the lagoon with a Small White for a little bit an interfering and nice sight a star species seen today, one Peacock, one Red Admiral and a scrumptious and bright scarlet Small Copper were a pleasing set of results. It felt significant that it’s the first Big Butterfly Count I’ve done this year where I’ve counted into double figures for three target species.

It was a wealth of colour at Egleton too the meadows and pathways of Rutland Water were brimming with butterflies today; in my Big Butterfly Count two Commas, fifteen Small White, five Meadow Brown, two Specked Wood, one Six-spot Burnet moth, one Brimstone, one Ringlet, five Gatekeeper, a faded Painted Lady and an eye catching Peacock looking stunning in the sunshine seen from a hide were brilliant to see. I broke new ground at both seeing target species for the count that I’d not yet seen in one this year.

In the world of other wildlife Brown Hawker and Ruddy Darter two year ticks in Norfolk on Friday starred as we saw them so well today some brilliant views. Southern Hawker, Black-tailed Skimmer and Emperor showed well today too. I also enjoyed seeing a Grey Squirrel feeding on the feeder at Lyndon visitor centre, sheep and cattle in this rural landscape, a nice Roesel’s bush cricket which we got a good view of a highlight of the trip, Common Red Soldier beetle, Swollen-thighed Beetle and spiders across the day. A real wealth of flora and fauna which was so good to see.

We saw many flowers well throughout today with one particular patch of meadow at Egleton which just looked so beautiful with it covered in bird vetch and oxeye daisy, yarrow, mallow, scabious, lady’s-bedstraw and carrot all carpeting the area making for stunning scenes with viper’s-bugloss nearby. Meadow crane’s-bill, thistle, teasel, marsh woundwort at Lyndon where I learnt this flower last year, hedge woundwort, buddleia I believe at Egleton which I took the fifth picture in this photoset of, the dotted loosestrife at Lyndon which I saw yesterday evening again, swatches of ragwort and dock adorning the islands in lagoon four alongside oxeye daisy too, possibly sorrel, another white one, pineappleweed, St. John’s-wort, white clover and broad-leaved clover were special to see too. There were nice red berries again to see today which the third picture in this photoset at Egleton shows. I took the ninth picture in this photoset of pretty pink yarrow and carrot and the seventh and eighth of the particularly nice meadow area on the way to lagoon four. 

In the strong sunshine there were nice views of meadow, reedbed, fields, water and more today which was so lovely to take in and be out in today. I took the first two pictures in this photoset of views at Lyndon and fourth, sixth and tenth pictures in this photoset of views at Egleton. Like all the days away we got talking to some brilliant like-minded people with many of them doing as we were visiting here whilst here for the Bird Fair. It was so good to see the famous lagoon four where the sea dragon was discovered last year. And it was nice to take in the pretty villages once more on the way home. 

What an amazing weekend away of birdwatching, butterflies and dragonflies key moments in my year for all, as well as moths and mammals with all of my year lists growing this weekend, as well as flowers, views, walking, social interaction and helping raise money for a good cause by visiting the Bird Fair and relaxation. An unforgettable time. My full wildlife sightings summary for the day is in my previous post. It was beautiful to watch the sun go down and see Buzzard on the way home seeing Lesser Black-backed Gulls and the Greylag Goose that frequent it on my school field as we got back home and a moth in my room once in tonight.

Part 1 of today’s blogs is here: https://dansnaturepictures.tumblr.com/post/690142199183212544/17072022-lyndon-and-egleton-nature-reserves 

[coffeenuts]

Smiling Scarlet Skimmer, Green Cay Nature Preserve. by pedro lastra https://flic.kr/p/2nJjcBE

[lestatth]

C76P0391 Scarlet Skimmer por Eileen Fonferko

Each of us is a singular narrative, which is constructed, continually, unconsciously, by, through, and in us--through our perceptions, our feelings, our thoughts, our actions; and, not least, our discourse, our spoken narrations. Biologically, physiologically, we are not so different from each other; historically, as narratives--we are each of us unique. ~ #OliverSacks

[luckybatbones]

a scarlet skimmer Crocothemis servilia perching on a plant by a body of freshwater.

sarasota, florida

september 2022

[kas-e]

I am looking for confirmation that my below ID is correct?

Male scarlet skimmers (Crocothemis servilia)

These were shot around life size1:1, and focus stacked.  Found in the river growth lining the water of North Florida.

[minister-erik]

SCARLET SKIMMER (ruddy marsh skimmer) - Composition Saturday

© Erik McGregor - erikrivas@hotmail.com - 917-225-8963

[omar-basha-omar]

Scarlet Skimmer Dragonfly . . . . . . . #insects_of_our_world #kings_insects #insects #naturelovers #insectphotography #insectlovers #insectmacro #insectmacrophotography #macro_delight #dark_macro_art #kings_macro #kings_macro_insects #nikond850 #nikond850prophotographers #dragonflyphotography #dragonfly #nikkor200_500 #nikon200500 #queensirikit #bangkokthailand #bangkokphotographer #amazingthailand🇹🇭 #thailandtrip #thailandphotography #thailand_allshots #all_perfect_shots #theschoolofphotography (at Far East) https://www.instagram.com/p/CdtSCrUh4Lf/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=