#zeebats

[viric-dreams]

You get swooped by Zeebats. Sorry, zwooped.

Misread ‘Bidmead Reef’ as ‘Binhead Reef’ and because that’s the most Australian thing I’ve ever heard, I’ve decided we have to make a Fallen Melbourne.

[mythischemiems]

[tribbetherium]

The Middle Temperocene: 150 million years post-establishment

Pigs Might Fly: The Ground Ratbats

The ratbats, HP-02017's first flyers, were once the most diverse and numerous of all of the planet's clades. Their ability to fly had granted them free reign over a wide variety of ecological niches and environments unaccessible to other species. But in the Temperocene, they had come to face serious competition from the pterodents and their rising dominion of the skies. Equipped with more-efficient skeletal and respiratory structures better favoring flight, the pterodents could grow larger and fly more efficiently than the ratbats could. At first, the pterodents were very large flyers, twice the wingspan of the biggest flying ratbats and filled roles of soaring scavengers or seagoing fishers, and mostly partitioned niches with the ratbats due to size. But slowly, they had been pushing with the ratbats for more and more niches, as the pterodents grow ever more diverse.

The ratbats are in no way a dying clade being replaced by a "superior" group: they still exist in over a thousand different species, including nocturnal insectivores, seaside fishers, forest-dwelling seed-eaters and even large aerial predators, the falcyons, in their ranks. Still, the pressures of the pterodents have persuaded many clades to descend from the skies, and seek their fortunes at a humbler level.

The loss of flight was not something new to the ratbat clade, as many times in the past they had forsaken their wings upon flying to suitable islands devoid of competition. Notable cases include the predatory ratbats of Borealia during the Therocene, who preyed upon the first and earliest ungulopes, or the blubbats of Peninsulaustra, which are still abundant today in Austro-Easaterra as a wide array of terrestrial forms. These, however, emerged as a consequence of a lack of predators entirely, which was not the case for the continental mainlands in the Middle Temperocene. As such, a dichotomy of evolutionary pressures would result in some rather unusual evolutionary trajectories.

The ground ratbats are one such widespread group that have become terrestrial, yet have not entirely abandoned their capacity for flight. They are, as a whole, poor flyers, capable of flying away from danger or roosting in trees and cliffsides out of reach of predators. But they have mostly lost their capacity for long-distance flight: at most, their flights last no more than ten to twenty seconds, and they prefer walking, and even running, as their preferred means of locomotion.

Many, such as the common brown stripewing (Terrapteryx vulgaris), are gregarious creatures that forage on the forest floor. They are indiscriminate omnivores, eating seeds, fruit, plants, insects and small animals such as squoads and rattiles if they can catch them. The stripewings find safety in numbers, as well as their limited flight, which allows a flock to retreat into the trees should a predator on the ground, such as zingos or small carnohams, attempt to prey on them.

Others, such as the azure-eyed zeebat (Antilonyctus saltopus) rely on their agility on the ground and in the trees to escape their enemies. Primarily fruit-eaters, they feast on low-lying berries and fallen fruit from trees, which, like in many diurnal frugivores has favored color vision, and thus brilliantly colored displays they use for communication. They, in a way, thus have become analogous to lemunkies in many ways, and in areas where the two overlap, their flight, limited as it may be, still grants them access to more inaccessible food and eases competitive pressure.

The zeebats' colorful displays are far more exaggerated in other ground ratbat species, especially in the ones that form harems, where the males develop brilliant and striking coloration in order to display to mates. The splendid aurickle (Pseudotopteryx magnificens) is one such species to display such marked dimorphism: females are small and well-camouflaged, but males are much larger and gaudily adorned. Their ears, in particular, sport striking winglike extensions of fur, which they flap up and down along with their wings during courtship displays with the males having the biggest ear tufts being the most attractive to mates. But while elegant and flamboyant, male aurickles are also vicious, especially when rival males are concerned. Males sport enlarged claws on their outer wing fingers, which can deliver grevious wounds to an opponent. They also like targeting an enemy's ear tufts, pulling out hair with their teeth or even tearing chunks out of their ear entirely--likely an attempt to sabotage their rival's mating success.

Ground ratbats as a whole straddle a grey area between flight and proper flightlessness. But leaning toward the latter end is the red spig (Porcipteryx pigosus), with a ruddy coat to blend in during Beta-twilight when they are most active. This large ground ratbat weighs anywhere from 15 to 20 kilograms, and has become a forager specialized to dig for food using its broad snout and search using a heightened sense of smell. They have, thus, converged heavily with the smaller bumbaas, on the small offshore islands of South Ecatoria where these omnivores are absent. Yet they differ in one key way: they have retained a very limited capacity for flight. Even more ungainly than the rest of the ground ratbats, their flights are belabored flaps barely keeping them aloft for more that a few seconds. Yet these short flights, awkward as they are, can mean a manner of life or death, carrying them to safety from danger, such as small insular lycanines or aquatic croctopi, that otherwise would make a meal of them. As such, flight, while no longer needed for long-distance travel, remained a vital feature, not necessarily in quality-- but just well enough to flee to see another day.

----------------

[zenaquaria]

Zaffera Refsheet, 2020 edition~

A beautiful design adopted from @sararini, brought into my style! Zaffera is a zeebat (zebra bat cross) druid of decay, and an absolute sweetheart. Her job is to encourage and protect the natural processes of decomposition and returning to the earth. Zaf takes direct offense to those who would manipulate this process to bring the dead back to a perversion of life. Necromancers and vampires chief among these. She is especially opposed to “that necrodruid Thornbane”; a feeling reciprocated in full by said necrodruid.

I will eventually add a CM and/or accessories!

[zeebat-blog]

Beauté spéciale

Plus troublant que le trouble déjà installé, il s’est immiscé.

Immiscé, précisément. Car l’homme dont je parle n’a pas choisi de troubler mon esprit.

Sa beauté est bien plus subtile que cela.

Il a suffit d’un regard pour que le temps s’arrête. Un instant, si court et pourtant si puissant. Un micro instant, éphémère, durant lequel mon être tout entier a basculé.

Un sourire, formidable et désintéressé. Un esprit cultivé, joueur, parfois abstrait. Un homme. L’homme au rire parfait. L’ingénieux, celui qui sait qu’il sait. Cet homme qui m’excite par sa complexité. Celui-là même qui séduit par ses manières, parfois austères.

Incroyable paradoxe, il est comme une idée qui flotte et qui gangrène mon esprit.

Il a piqué ma curiosité. Plus qu’il ne fallait.

Chaque moment passé en sa compagnie m’a enseveli. Et tour à tour, les sentiments se sont mis à danser une valse effrénée : sympathie, amitié, agressivité, passion et tristesse, colère, jalousie, sex et détresse. Folie.

Je ne prétend pas l’acquérir, loin de là.

J’essaye d’apaiser le brasier qui s’enflamme en moi et qui fait s’agiter ma respiration. Qui me submerge de désir quand mes pensées s’en vont vers lui...

Je tente de comprendre ce mystère qui m’éblouit.

Cette beauté éligible à ma bizarrerie.

[neathnights]

A marksmanship competition for a prize of jade!

You've won enough respect among the hunters of Watchmaker's Hill that you've been invited to come down to Bugsby's Reach with them, get roaringly drunk and shoot bottles off each others' heads. What could possibly go wrong?

→ Stick with shooting bottles off the end of the jetty The more sober and gentlemanly of the hunters place sober, gentlemanly bets on a relatively safe form of competition.

A creditable performance – but not enough They're good shots, your new companions. You suppose if they weren't, they wouldn't last long out here.

Even after a drink or two, you're quite a marksman. You collect your winnings and bask in the congratulations of your new companions.

→ Turn me round! Point me at the target! I'll shoot it right off his head! It's probably all right. Everyone puts a bucket over their head. Buckets are reasonably bullet-proof.

Ooops... It's all right. The bullet only struck him a glancing blow on the shoulder. He'll be fine. But it's rather killed the mood.

Congratulations! No one has been killed! Furthermore, you've won! Your new companions slap you on the back and press more beer into your hand. You manage to hang on to your winnings, and eventually stagger off to wrestle with tomorrow's hangover.

A drunken, but sincere, cheer You know, the more of Master Pesticott's Patented Eyestabber ('an excellent remedy for boils, social unrest, and the irredeemable misery of existence') you drink, the better your shooting gets. It's remarkable! That last one not only took a bottle clean off a hunter's head, but the ricochet dropped a malevolent-looking zeebat from the spar of that ship. Its crew is ecstatic. The bat was a larcenous thing, but their superstitions kept them from killing it. Now all its ill-luck will descend on you, and they are rid of the thing. They console you with a drink and the promise of a favour.

[ursie]

Read the list so y’all don’t have to :

10. Wonderbat : ok fair enough it’s fine in elseworlds it’s nonsensical in the main continuity tbh

9. ZeeBat : actually this one fucks but only visualizes by me cbr is still wrong somehow

8. DAMIANROSE??? Hello?? Rose is like. A whole adult?? If there fans of that they need to die for real

7. RavenWing . Yeah again fair I’m not like opposed to it I just think Raven should be a Lesbian. I do get it though. Don’t see it. Certainly don’t see it in the current continuity but I respect it. Honestly if this is what we have to do to get adult Raven again. Fair enough

6. DickDonna . No they’re siblings die like they very clearly and explicitly view each other in a familial sense like I’m all for shipping friends. Just not them. Maybe. Maybe in a elseworld but even then 🔪

5. BabsJason . Seriously whoever is writing this list needs to look up their ages Babs has like a decade on him pre52 she knew him when he was a kid whilst she was very much an adult also she was a love interest for both his brother and dad like we can stop passing her around now

4. Chalant . You literally just paired Zee with his Dad in this list. Die. Pick one you don’t get both 😭 anyway yj Zee is a dyke comic Zee is a milf no ❤️ she’s like. His aunt or something

3. DamiJon. Either Damian is a whole teenager whilst Jon is a elementary school child or Jon is a whole adult whilst Damian is a teenager like. There’s no universe where this is happening stop it let it die. Maybe in a au (thin ice) but also maybe stop shipping children like stop being weird about them Jon was 10 😭

2. DickWally . BEST BROS FOR YEARS SHUT UP YJ WAS A MISTAKE HIS BESTIE WAS ROY HIS BEST BRO WAS ROY. THERES A BETTER REDHEAD I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE-

1. TimKon . Fair but also I think it’s funnier if they both get different boyfriends sgdgdgdfgf it’ll probably happen someday tbh

Everyday cbr dares me to hate read it 😭

Literally only 1/3 of these is remotely valid like 😭 also where are the DickDonna fans. Is there any

[misanthropymademe]

“The work offers a interesting contrast in the form of two trans characters: Michael’s fellow lifeguard, an out-of-the-closet trans woman who relentlessly flirts with him, and his still-closeted trans man spouse, who later conspires against him with the villain, a flamboyant (bisexual) Asian man whose name we never learn. The former is able to ignore his know-it-all attitude and even informs him there’s something suspicious about the way his partner behaves, while the latter keeps belittling him for minor mistakes (from getting music trivia wrong to his subpar poetry skills). Confidence in being open about one’s gender identity is associated with goodness and trustworthiness, and while the opposite is associated with duplicity.  While this may seem like a regressive trans panic trope, it is also a way to confront the transmisic hypocrisy of the main character himself.” -Excerpt from Zeebats: A Critical Appraisal 

[mythischemiems]

[mythischemiems]

[zenaquaria]

@silent-kosmos-mod:

Important question here cause I’m dealing with something similar!

In your headcanon, do get zonys, or in this case zeebats a pony like cutie mark, a zebra rune or some weird mix of both?

Putting this into its own post instead of reblogging Zaffera’s ref again!

Since Zaffera is my first zebra hybrid who can get a mark, I imagine that her mark will be a mix of the two types of destiny markings. More complex/less hieroglyphic than a zebra tribal/runic mark, but limited to the colors present in her coat.

[mythischemiems]

[mythischemiems]

[silent-kosmos-mod]

Important question here cause I'm dealing with something similar!

In your headcanon, do get zonys, or in this case zeebats a pony like cutie mark, a zebra rune or some weird mix of both?

Zaffera Refsheet, 2020 edition~

A beautiful design adopted from @sararini, brought into my style! Zaffera is a zeebat (zebra bat cross) druid of decay, and an absolute sweetheart. Her job is to encourage and protect the natural processes of decomposition and returning to the earth. Zaf takes direct offense to those who would manipulate this process to bring the dead back to a perversion of life. Necromancers and vampires chief among these. She is especially opposed to “that necrodruid Thornbane”; a feeling reciprocated in full by said necrodruid.

I will eventually add a CM and/or accessories!