OOPs #128: Journal Entry #1
Jul05
The first of many, if Kass wants to keep those sweet company benefits rollin’ in
Out-of-Placers
A story of inconvenient changes
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LOOOOOOOOOOOOORE!
(That’s what she said)
Wish I could show Kass a pic of a Kangaroo standing upright. They use their tail as a third leg forming a tripod. She need not fall over and I bet will think of it on her own, or perhaps she will catch Lopin doing it.
I was thinking more along the lines of meerkats, as getting a higher elevated view would be quite beneficial. Roo tails are a lot more specialized than most other animals, due to how the marsupial walks. If you watch a video of a kangaroo walking, you will see it plant its tail whenever it brings its hind legs forwards. So it is more appropriate to see a kangaroo’s tail as a functional fifth limb, rather than a situational limb that has only one or two uses.
The Meerkat model is not exactly useful as the Meerkat is a quadrupedal animal. A Yinglet’s form of locomotion is more similar to a Bird’s. In fact there is a nice animation of a Yinglet walking on this site. That a Yinglet has a tail and it would be used like both meerkat and Kangaroo as a balancing mechanism is just logical, but the animal the Yinglet is closest to is a Theropod, and unfortunately all we have is footprints and bones to judge how they lived. But from what I’ve seen, Sal gets the Yinglet pretty close to spot on as for what that would be. So Kass falling over I place to her inexperience as a Yinglet and less to a Anatomical impossibility.
If we were to use theropods, then it is unlikely that the tail was ever used as a prop. How the bones in the tail are, the muscles would not have been sufficient in supporting the weight. Its layout suggests its purpose was to counterbalance movement of the head. It can move side-to-side, which aides in turning around, and raises up, which helps in letting the head move down as well as egg-laying.
Do we have a yinglet skeleton as reference, specifically the pelvis? Keep in mind that the kangaroo gives birth to joeys that are incredibly tiny, and have to grow up in the pouch. Yinglets lay giant eggs, so the bones in that area may have to be less bulky.
Ick, now imagining yinglets with eggs being like kiwis. Seriously, the kiwi’s egg displaces organs.
OOP #64 has Kass not only upright, but Her head bent so far back it was behind her hips. That she was high as a kite at the time might be the reason for the memory loss there. Field Guide #9 (not marked on this site as such its after oop #79) covers the reproduction part and that the egg is rather smaller when laid, and I’m guessing fills with air as the Infant Yinglet grows within consuming the yolk and albumen with the egg increasing in volume 4 times during gestation.
As for Yinglet Skeletons, I can’t recall one yet. A Theropod has a bone that the Tail attaches to so the tail’s muscles and tendons can work upon. Birds share that plan to this day. Yinglets however don’t seem to have this as it would be rather pronounced. Kangaroos being Marsupials don’t have to expel large eggs, so their hips can be fairly inconsequential while sharing similar external traits. So, at some point, it has to be illogical like the expanding Egg that seems to violate the laws of known physics. A Yinglet is made of…Yinglet, therefore it is ridiculous. Though Kass may yet get to write on the wonders of Motherhood yet, who knows?
If only Kass would write about Yinglet motherhood, but I imagine it’d be nothing other than incoherent screaming on the topic. Though, the eggs are leathery, so perhaps that’d tie into it. Human evolution is really really weird, because the brain case is growing over generations, yet bipedalism would normally lead to a smaller pelvic opening.
As a result, the skull is still not fully fused in a baby and the brain takes even longer to develop outside the womb. That is why human babies require being with a mother for such a long time comparatively to other species. It is also why the C-section is being required more and more percentage-wise each generation, as the birth canal is no longer wide enough.
Perhaps the eggs are lain early on, which would allow them to be pushed through a smaller birth canal while the contents are still fluidy. So it is like pushing a deflated basketball through a small hole instead of a fully inflated one.
Oviparous creatures such as Birds have a fundamentally different way of reproduction than mammals. When ovulating, the entire Yolk is expelled whole from a Ovary. With the result that a ovulating female will create a egg, fertilized by a male, or not. Kass has been a Yinglet for perhaps a week, so depending on a Yinglet’s Menstrual cycle, which has been said to be somewhat hyperactive, she will lay eggs. Probably a lot of them.
The pelvic opening only has to be large enough for the Yolk to pass, and seeing that it don’t have a shell, it could be rather small. The majority of the Egg’s mass could be added after the pelvic opening with the result of there not being a obstacle to birth. The deflated football comparison is appropriate.
Kass was upright in #64, but not walking, and visibly either toppling over backwards or throwing out one leg for balance. Trying to walk upright may be what makes the difference: https://www.deviantart.com/valsalia/art/Yinglet-walk-slow-475520925
Yinglet eggs according to the field guide don’t contain yolk but a more mammalian-style placenta (although it appears to function much as a yolk), so it’s entirely possible that yinglets don’t lay unfertilised eggs.
Walking in a upright pose would be difficult I’d imagine, especially as the tail is likely used as part of the gait, swinging slightly side to side to distribute the energy of standing on one foot at a time while walking, running, or just standing on one foot. but for standing upright, if the tail was touching the ground, any force upon the tail would effectively place the center of gravity forward. Wouldn’t take much force (a Yinglet weighs as much as a Domestic Cat) thinking as little as 5-10% of overall downward force would be enough to keep a yinglet from falling over.
As for the Yinglet or the Egg question, another field guide, “Yinglets Revealed!” (again not properly marked, just after oop#27) says Yinglet female’s Fertility cycle lasts 2 weeks, after which she will pass a clutch of 4-8 eggs. It doesn’t mention fertilization being either necessary or not. Seeing Kass has been a Yinglet for maybe a week now, we might get a definitive answer in the year 2025! (posted in 2020 for reference)
Every time I make a digitigrade sculpture I use the tail as a third leg. If the center of gravity is very close to the legs the tail can be fragile an still sustain the body without problems.
The alternative used by Umbrascythe, the creator of Learn To live (if you haven’t read it on DeviantArt you should do so) is for the Yinglet to curl their tail down, between their legs to place the center of gravity closer to the torso for standing upright. But it’d be more energy intensive than just letting the tail rest on the ground close to one’s legs or extending the tail further back for enhanced balance for windy conditions or possibly steadying oneself for using a spear or sling.
I’m sure just one of those sections could be expanded into a whole essay on its influence on the scav inferiority complex.
Boy could it! Didn’t wanna overwhelm the reader on the first entry though.
Kass draws — and writes — remarkably well. More talent and skill than Kass usually recognizes. I hope someone points that out to her; she can use a boost.
Is there an OOPs-related discord? or perhaps a discord for the artist?
There is! I don’t know where exactly the link is posted but you can find the server here: https://discord.gg/oops
Wow, that’s a whole lot of neat info! Actually, I kinda wish we’d gotten it earlier… Kass, Kass. Well, can’t really blame himer, though.
Bits of this hit a little close to home, they’ll probably hit that way for a lot of people though tbh
… I like it
I’m confused as to which parts specifically would strike home for a lot of people. I can see potential allegory, but Kass’ experiences aren’t really directly relatable to any human experience. Except ‘The Impulses’, that part I grok.
Being seen as one thing but being something else on the inside was all I was getting at tbh
Well if you hit the ball close to someone’s home then they don’t have to walk very far to pick it up, y’see
Since she mentioned the latrine, I thought she might have mentioned the new experience of not only having to pee as a new species, but also as a new sex. IS she dreading anything?
Its questionable if she actually pees. Pretty Much all egg laying species are monotremes, and as such lack a separate Anus for solid waste. Even the 2 Egg Laying species of Mammals do it this way. Yeah its a comic, and its possible for anything to be realistic, but its also quite possible that Yinglets don’t pee.
Well, even that would be a horrible change for a human male. Her mental state is basically what I want to know more of.
Having a Cloaca would be one of Kass’s least worries. If I was to try to explain her mindset currently, there is the immediate threat of Elim’s stabbing and the parties involved. Also pleasing the Guildmaster so Kass isn’t thrown out, and left to the boring life of a Yinglet Female whose value is based on how many eggs she lays. Kass is disgusted by Yinglet culture, but knows she is only truly welcome there. The Matriarch Kass has met has shaken her views of Yinglets somewhat, but she is a long way from moving into a Yinglet Enclave. Kass is nervous about Human contact, and has avoided the Drinnish barracks where her friends and colleagues are minus Elim. Kass currently has nothing in the way of a love life, partly blocked by her affection for Elim, which in itself is still confusing her, seeing Elim as both the friend of the past, and a strong comforting male of the present. Kass was a soldier in her former life as a human and as of yet has nobody to teach her how to fight as a Yinglet, which weighs on her mind as Elim’s wounds mend seeing how she detests being helpless.
Oh nooooo…
Do not cuts off ze brow-whisker zhingies… or yous lose connection wizh ze mozher-ying and ze collectives.
One ofs Ying! One ofs Ying!