A Comic (?) About My Love Of Weird Little Bats For This Halloween

Ah, nice! Thanks for the art / visual realization of this particular chiroptera!

>"I hope this is close to what you wanted"

It absolutely is! Thanks!

Hiyo! I apologize for any inconvenience/impertinence, but might I request/commission an illustration of a bat?

Underland!Euderma maculatum. Name: Pythia. Not her actual name. Just what she goes by, due to a rumor; some think she is able to hear into the future - or possible futures. Role/task within Regalia: grief counselor for fliers/humans/etc. who have lost their bonds/family members. or family members of their bonds. Or fliers who have been injured to the point of permanent mobility impairment (cannot fly anymore), individuals that might have dubious thoughts regarding their continued biological existence.

refs: https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Euderma_maculatum/ image refs: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?taxon_id=40631

I have three ideas in mind for the illustration I wish to request, but I don't know which of the three to pick. One would be somber, her assisting another... The second would be humorous; possibly depicting Boots and Hazard (or other young-ins) climbing all over the polka-dotted flier, hanging off her ears, etc. Or the third... Pythia's fate. In the hallway leading to Regalia's nursery, with (at least) Dulcet and Cartesian behind her... the Euderma momentarily holding the line, giving what little time before the gnawers overwhelm her position.

I don't know which one to choose. So, leaving that up to you.

I am so sorry it took so long to get finished. I was so excited by someone asking me to draw their OC that I wanted to do more than just a quick sketch and really put my full effort into it. So here's Pythia giving some comfort to a grieving Regalian.

I tried my best to keep her faithful to the bat reference, but a certain degree of creative liberties had to be taken to make her clearly emote. The very iconic spots are only really visible on the back so I had to cheat a little bit around the sides. I hope this is close to what you wanted :')

And FWI yes, the text says "Bat or Owl" that does include Underland OCs... hopefully I won't take three months to get it done next time 😅

Bonuses after the cut:

Alternate color versions that I was iterating. Just getting the right background figured out took so much time and fiddling and I'm still not sure I got it quite right

And here's just a PNG of the characters if you want to put them in a better fitting background

You know what fuck you

*spell of bnuuy vortex*

Okay alright sorry for all the sudden German politics influx but lemme explain what happened so far and why Germans are losing it a bit:

The tldr? Our government is getting a divorce and it's turning messy with elections being called early and now being called even earlier.

The longer version?

Okay so, groundwork first:

in Germany there is a coalition currently in power called the Ampel(traffic lights) bc the colours of the party are red, yellow and green (or not anymore or for much longer??). They're centrist slightly more left leaning than right leaning. (You could argue about that I am aware). There has been infighting for as long as this coalition has been going on. It is also the first three party coalition since y know, the Last Time.

So. Enough groundwork. The yellow party (FDP) has a finance minister (Christiane Lindner) it's this guy

You will see him in memes I am sure. We don't like him. He's an asshole and has blocked every meaningful change that the coalition had been trying to accomplish. He also got his finance plan blocked by our highest court because parts were against our Constitution.

(.... I am oversimplifying hard here it's actually more complicated than that and not fully his fault, but it's also not the focus)

What WAS the fault though of him and the FDP was that they had a strong position of "saving money at all costs" which made bigger and bigger rifts with the two other coalition partners who were more leaftleaning. The war in Ukraine, Infrastructure, climate change - there were many places that needed more money and Lidner was like naaahhhhh for no fucking reason other than "oh we need to save money!!"

Long story short there have been arguing all the fucking time and therefore have started to lose approval. Drastically lose approval. As on for the first time since the Last Time there is a far right party in charge for part of the country that is also being investigated for being Nazis. (Oversimplifying again).

Which is. Worrying. You know. Especially with Trump now being elected. It has us all a little skittish.

The finance minister has also now been fired.

You see. We were all still trying to stomach Trump winning the US election, when Scholz, in the same fucking evening, fired Lindner.

And not in a polite way. Nah. Olaf fucking Scholz our Chancellor, notorious for saying literally nothing, and with a running joke that he regularly stops existing bc that man Does Not Take Stances, a spine of wet cardboard, delivered this yesterday evening:

(English subtitles by me you already got this far watch it I spent too much time on this lol)

And it is insane alright. For his standards and German politic standards thats the equivalent of calling Lindner a egomaniacal bitch that has only his self interest at heart and can not be trusted.

Lindner and his party have been pulverised in all recent elections. Which means that after he was fired, the FDP completely withdrew from the coalition and all minister from the FDP resigned.

....well all but one who apparently stayed in his positions because he's leaving the FDP over this. What sort of shitty backstabbing kindergarten fight is this. (Jokes aside hes the minister of transportation and says he needs to stay in office in important projects. Which. True. Having minister resigning en mass is not good)

Alright cool cool cool cool. Current situation yesterday is the following:

So. Trump is president. Fuck.

Lindner got fired! Yaaay!

Wait my goverment is now also falling apart! Fuck.

Which all lead to new elections being called in Germany.

Mind you, that's not usual ok. I know other countries have systems where they can call an election whenever but that is not a thing that normally happens here. We have a schedule alright. (Insert obligatory "Germans and their plans and structure" joke)

So new elections are called for spring, nearly a year early. Cool cool cool. With a right wing rising in Germany and deeply unpopular current leadership. On the eve of motherfucking trump getting elected.

Habeck, leader of the green party and one of the few policians in germany I think is vaguely liked by ppl (the general attitude in German politics is less "I like this guy" and more "you are the least shitty choice I guess") has appearently also nearly started crying after the news broke. So. Yeah.

Now. Let's make this shitshow complete,alright?

There is this party. CDU. They had been in charge for a very long time in Germany. Centrist, right leaning, with the afd on the rising even more right leaning than before. Their current leader is Friedrich Merz, as unpleasant as human beings can go.

He has now called for the new election to be not in a few months but like. To be called next week.

In the current climate.

So yeah. if you're German mutuals and friends are currently going through their own stages of grief - this is why.

x.x

to be honest, I think the author missed an opportunity here. In the passage after the party recovered from the wild currents; Gregor making a joke potentially might not have been enough to snap Thalia out of her spiral, which heightens the urgency of the party to help the lil'bat.

Cue Hazard hugging Thalia, and then reciting the bonding oath, holding her thumb claw, providing extra stability which she could latch onto. Significant emotional moment... And then, later, she perishes. And Hazard can't help her. None of the party can help her. Maybe she even dwells on that tiny glimmer of hope that she'd wake up again, emerge from the state of intense panic that must have infused her final moments, similar to that the wind chamber experience... Hazard helped her recover from that, he'll be there to guide her through this, right?

Marks of Secret, pretty much

they shoulda just gone on that dang picnic

I love everything about this concept. Although my mind goes in the direction of then informing Mr. Heuristic about some of those absolutely wonky esolangs.

...tmw dude just starts coding exclusively in malbolge and it's just... how?

I feel like nibblers would absolutely LOVE computers if they ever got the chance to try one out

So I drew a nibbler trying to learn how to code on a Macintosh plus. His name is Heuristic

To be denied by the cat distribution system is a terrible thing.

I’ve never heard a cat scream like that😭

I now wonder if this could be a reason why this species was the go-to victims whenever Kenneth Oppel/the writers of the cartoon series needed a bat to get chewed on/munched.

Just, a tangential connection in their minds between adorable cinnamon puffball bats and frosted cinnamon timbits/donuts.

aw, nice, thanks for the bat friend!

Also, to add to the cool bat facts listed above... https://batworld.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/free-tails-smell-like-tacos.pdf

May I humbly request a bat friend?

Happy Bat Week!

Your bat is the Mexican Free-Tailed Bat (Tadarida brasiliensis)!

Oh gosh. This bat, man. One of the most agriculturally important species in the U.S. These guys live in MASSIVE colonies in the southern U.S.; there are 1.5 million living under Congress Ave Bridge in Austin, Texas and another 20 million (YEAH. TWENTY MILLION HOLY CRAP.) living in Bracken Cave, which is considered to be the largest colony of bats of any species living anywhere in the world. BONKERS. Not only do these bats live in huge colonies, but they are also the fastest flying animals, clocking in at just under 100mph (hawks only reach the speeds they do by diving; these bats reach 100mph USING ACTUAL MECHANICAL FLIGHT. DO YOU REALIZE HOW BONKERS THAT IS?????). During birthing season, mothers will leave their massive roosts to go hunt insects. They will fly up to 50km away to hunt. When they return, they are able to find their pups in a crowd of literal millions by the sounds of their voices. Do you know what a huge colony in a cave also means? Guano. Lots of it. And you know what guano means? High levels of ammonia. In a cave. The levels are so high that you physically cannot enter Bracken Cave without a respirator. So how do the bats survive? WELL. They have evolved to be able to change the amounts of CO2 in their blood via respiratory mucous to protect against blood pH changes. AND!!!!!!!!! THEY KNOW HOW TO VENTILATE THEIR CAVES. They fly in a circular motion as they leave and enter the cave to move the air and ventilate out some of the ammonia.