It’s like a magic trick!
Thanks as usual to Raptie for handling the character coloring and shading on this page!
Out-of-Placers
A story of inconvenient changes
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OOPs now has a Russian translation which updates shortly after the English pages are posted!
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Wasn’t expecting Kass to get decked lmao
I honestly half expect Kass to have done this on purpose, so he could learn how to throw Yinglet Punches.
ohhhh wait isn’t hitting a female, like, mega taboo for yinglets?
don’t let the matriarch hear :3
Verrrrrry taboo. He may end up having the entire enclave out hunting for him after they hear about this.
He’s an exile. They already don’t care one whit for his life, and it’s been remarked before that the enclave is quite fine with letting the cruel, barbarous humans “deal with” the enclave’s exiles if they become a problem.
Their line of thought is likely “Welp, looks like the Trademaster’s torturers are gonna have a new test subject.”
Sure, They already don’t care one whit for his life but now they may have an incentive to actively hunt him down and slowly skin him alive or throw him into a small box and send him to the Trademaster
Once Vizlet hears, and the forces of Ivenmoth hear, yeah actually. This is perhaps a wee step up from being an exile, being a danger to females, on top of having earned the highest disgrace he’s going to incent rage, here and forevermore? Wow, yeah. So unless he strikes a deal here, and Kass is gonna be inclined to make it a steep bargain that’ll probably include “WHAT POISON DIDJA GET MY BRAJ WIZH,” that long, lonely looking unlikely circumstance aside, Brakka will be pasta freakin salad. No way. No way he gets out of this. Not unless he becomes an adventuring, homeless yinglet.
I think Kass might prefer to not invoke that, simply out of pride. (S)he is NOT some damsel in distress to come and beg some “strong males” to avenge him/her. (S)he can deal with that on his/her own.
That’s how I’d go about that, anyway. And I’m not even a man by any definition at all.
Something seems off with Brakka – was he changed like Kass was?
I noticed that too. He doesn’t act, talk or even think like any other Ynglet.
If he was, it was by entirely different means. By how he’s been acting, I’d bet he doesn’t even know what happened to Kass is possible. If he did, I’d say he’s smart enough that he’d be able to fit all the other tidbits he found with that little piece of information and figure out more or less what happened.
Most likely it’s because we haven’t seen a career criminal yinglet before.
He’s got some craftiness but… too direct. Not planning ahead. No, think he’s born yinglet. He’s impulsive, has the earmarks of someone with compitency but in the wrong places, backed by unusually high recklessness.
He’s a gang leader. Not a human. He might be learning from human criminals, by the looks of it.
I thought about that, but it doesn’t track with the way Vizlet was talking about Brakka back in #61. He seems to be well-known to them, personally, to the point that Vizlet and Beizel know about his specific wardrobe choices.
More telling, though, is Brakka’s directly expressed opinions about humans in #71. He’s repulsed by the idea of a yinglet being attracted to humans. If he’s an ex-human, he pretty clearly loathes humanity and has no interest in going back.
Well, and also the last few where he’s going on and on about how humans will use you and throw you away, etc. That doesn’t read like an ex-human who wants to undo it, it’s either a natural-born yinglet, or a transformed human who’s gone completely misanthrope.
I think he’s from a different Yinglet culture, hence the different accent. Maybe the “down south” enclaves.
Lucky for Brakka that Kass doesn’t know she could inspire his own goons to mob him with a well modulated screech.
IIRC shed gave to feel she was in a life or death situation in order to do it.
Why is why “making it hurt” is probably a TERRIBLE idea.
Brakka, buddy…you’re not good at this.
Well! all the trouble Brakka will get in for hitting a female and assaulting an official was for nothing.
good. update.
Kass’ Superpower is to give everyone including herself panic attacks at will.
But it only works on Yinglets.
Elim had his own moment of despair.
And then there was Isher’s, sad she was finally able to take Kass home, but only as a Yinglet…
-‘s… I should stop rearranging sentences in the middle of writing them…
A female yinglet at that. If only she was a Dungeons and Dragons dragon with their, uhh, “expanded range”…
Yup. Okay. Stabbing Best Boy was bad enough, I will now be incredibly happy if Brakka gets torn to shreds by Vizlet’s warriors in the near future.
Amen!
But seriously, not knowing Elim’s state is killing me.
killing him more than you though…
…
Does Yannit still need a friend/social-anchor/stress-ball? I could see Brakka being chained to Yannit’s bed after Ran provides some helpful diagrams of what happens to everyone within reach of mountain-crushing clamps when an honoured guest suffers from hive-withdrawal. He could just settle in and talk and talk and talk all night* long, or else.
*Ceiling bug is watching you.
I think this would be a really dangerous thing. Yannit is too naive and Brakka is smart enogh to force Yannit to act in a dangerous way.
My money’s on a surprise visit by Beizel. People may have learned to expect the spanish inquisition by now, but Yinglet 00-agents are probably still quite new.
Oh, the webs we weave.
So finger nails never touch the pad. The arm is still a twig though.
Okay, I was wrong. I thought Brakka hadn’t fought back from inborn/ingrained aversion to hurting a female. Turns out he was just playing nice first in case that worked.
If it comes to a fight, my money is on Kass. Yinglets got no stamina for prolonged combat, their instincts scream at them to break off after only a few moments. Whoever’s better at fighting off that instinct usually wins. Kass went smek-for-smek with Vizlet, and she’s got a formidable mind and will. Brakka’s pissed but Kass is more so, and Kass has probably been resting more and eating better…and not spent the last few days in constant low-key panic.
And Kass knows how yinglets punch, now.
Val said that yinglet arms are best at a sudden forward thrusting motion, like they’d use to grab a fish from shallow water. I think Brakka did a straight hard jab.
Like a thrust from a rapier, it’s swift and forceful, but easy (no real strength required) to parry if you’re quick enough.
Yes, a straight-up jab is the preferred yinglet boxing method, Kass. Now, when you get out of this, I suggest a training montage. Dah dah, dah dah dah, dah dah dah, dah dah dah. Dah dah, dah dah dah, dah dah dah, dah dah dah. Dah, dah dah dah, daaah daaah!
Oh, and don’t curl your hand unto a complete fist, use the second knuckle joint like the first step of the Futae no Kiwami.
Pardon me, not the knuckles, rather, the proximal interphalangeal joints of the fingers. Boy do I wish you could edit your own comments.
Why, you can absolutely use Knuckles to punch someone.
I mean, he can break through stone with his rock-hard fist-nipples – and that ‘someone’ is, surely, softer.
Rather, rather, the intermediate phalanges.
Rather, rather, rather, OKAY, I admit it, I’m no good at skeletal anatomy!
Check, Kass wins another round.
No one is holding him, and it looks like they’re quite distracted. Kass, make a break for it.
Is there a consensus on what pronoun we should use for Kass?
Kass still thinks of himself as male as far as I can tell, so “he” is probably appropriate.
The method I go by is his current mindset. Kass is a “he” unless he thinks in ways more in line with his body such as how “she” had to deal with her maternal instincts influencing her actions at the daycare. Being flustered over male attention would also qualify for pronoun change. I’ll stick to whichever pronoun is more appropriate for each comment, but I find this is the way to avoid the confusion of “He totally needs to become a mother.”, and “Kass and Elim are best bros, and I hope Kass escapes her captors to save him.”
Personally I go off of henetics and anatomy, so her.
Genetics*
If I were to guess. Kassen’s current interest in their own feminine yinglet anatomy, and the possession or utility of such, is somewhere south of “Nope.”, “NOOOOO!!!”, “Kill it with fire!”, “Nuke the site from orbit”, and “Chess is safer”, so would strenuously commend being referred to as a male human. Then again, reality has a nasty habit of ignoring people’s preferences, intentions, hopes, and efforts, so the practicality is likely with you.
Kass still apparently thinks of himself as male, so going with male pronouns. As a trans man myself, I spent the first 23 years of my life cringing every time someone called me “she”. I hated it & never got used to it. I never thought of myself as “she”. Fortunately I haven’t had to deal with that crap for the past 18 years, but it still pisses me off to see someone else treated that way even in fiction.
Yeah, right now Kass is sort of a pre-hormone trans man. Male self image, female body and hormones making a mess of him.
As a transwoman myself, that sadly have had massive problems finding enough support to pass as female … and with an aestetical sense that really don’t allow me to dress up as a woman when i feel i do not look the part enough, i understand and even encourage people to address me as a male, even though it hurts when they do, and i’m delightfully pleased the times when strangers assume that i’m a woman. (I never “correct” them.)
I think it is ok to use either in his case, because the resulting confusion is pretty much echoing his own.
Kass has only referred to herself with third person pronouns twice. Both times she used she/her (although one was hesitant). I use what the person in question uses, unles there’s a reason not to.
Well there is a reason not to in this case. Kass refers to himself as ‘she/her’ because he is referring to the physical reality of the situation. Transgender isn’t part of his culture so referring to himself as otherwise probably didn’t enter his mind. Given the choice he’d probably swap to a male yinglet without hesitation, and considers who he is separate from what he is. Who his is is a male human, what he is is a female yinglet.
Given that Kass doesn’t seem at all comfortable in a yinglady’s body, I usually go with male pronouns. Like someone said below, who he is and what he is are kind of two separate things at the moment.
Oop. Above, actually.
She still has an other bomb to drop on him. So he’s in for a mindblow… again.
I dunno, that seems like the one you don’t wanna spread around to random awful people who mean you harm.
“How do you keep doing zat to him?”
“BITCH, I came from a low class merchant family. Making people go thru LITERAL HELL IN EXCHANGE OF STUFF OF LITTLE TO NO VALUE is WHAT-I-DO”
“Wow, so pretty lady. Rude.”
‘da boys’ have likely never seen Brakka flip out this badly over things. Can totally seeing him going ‘well, things are fucked, but I can still salvage ‘something’ if I get zhat zhing. Hence the getting rough…and Kass laying another mind blow. And the confusion of those around Brakka for his flip outs ^^ But zhat’s just my zhoughts on ze matter.
By their looks I think they’re loosing faith in their “glorious leader”.
*losing
Only one teensy problem with this outcome… Kass just burnt the “reason for keeping alive” card. Never do that.
When you’re being interrogated, even by Yinglets, remember that the only irreplaceable person in the room is you. If you didn’t have some information they really wanted and couldn’t get anywhere else, they wouldn’t be questioning you so thoroughly. As soon as they have what they want, you’re no longer irreplaceable… ;3
Kass is now a female scav… and a naked scav without the Ivenmoth uniform and without Elim or someone else protecting her, is just another scav wandering in the city. I think none of the city folk cares if that scav is a female or not. Kass is overnumbered here, and a female still has a great value. So no, I don’t think Kass is easily replaceable for a bunch of male yinglets.
Kass DOES have the uniform, though, and someone would probably report an unattending female even without a uniform. Remember how they got into the mountain thing in the first place?
What I mean is that if Brakka removes Kass’s uniform and kidnaps her, what the city’s folks would see is just a bunch of scavs that drag another scav away by force. No one would understand that an Invemoth officer is being kidnapped. So they could run away undisturbed … who is it that would interfere in a quarrel between scav? Sorry, my english is not so good.
I think he or she answered that already. Long story short the whole reason he got into the whole issue with being an officer is because people saw someone dragging a female scav. Regardless of him being naked it would be an issue due to how coveted the females are.
I was just going to point out that Brakka has no reason to keep her alive now. If it comes down to it, tell him the results of the thing going pop and maybe he’ll keeep her around to take to Narklet. Maybe.
So, I see you have never experienced anything worse than a mild discomfort of eating slightly running icecream in your sheltered life.
Cool.
Indeed, it is so good to be the only one irreplaceable in the room – with toothpicks under your nails, half-flayed ribbons of skin over generously dirtied flesh, cut out eyelids, and meticulously millimeter by millimeter mulched fingerbones.
All you need – is just not tell them what they want to hear. After all, this is where the real fun starts.
But don’t fret, even with advanced fun techniques they won’t kill you – you are the only one irreplaceable in the room, after all!
That conclusion is based upon flawed assumptions: that the information is sufficiently valuable, and that you are the only source for that information. People generally have priorities above their current activities, thus failure is usually an option. A bit more investigation would have revealed that Elim was a close associate of the “zat zing” group and that he was a close associate of the refugee compound. Several of the refugees can corroborate that there was a weird rock and that it was destroyed.
If you happen to be certain that they won’t ever give up on the information, that they lack sufficient leverage to force you, and that they have no alternatives, then yes, holding out is the safest tacticm but that confluence is ludicrously rare. It is a very nearly universal rule that outsiders and exiles are the only expendable ones. A job is just a job, comrades are your foundation and future. “Us versus them” and all that jazz…
“How do you keep DOING zat to him!?”
A few seconds later: “Can you do zat AGAIN!?”
That motion on Brakka’s head, all the yings do that right?
Why? Is there a biological reason or what?
You mean the SHOCKED! head-tilt thing? I think it’s just recoiling in horror, a cartoony pose as if the impact of the information was equivalent to an uppercut.
That head-cocked-back pose yinglets make when stunned or thinking? Just figured it out. No way do they use constant muscular tension to keep their forward-thrust necks from just slumping to the ground. There’s an elastic tendon up the back of it, taking most of the load. So if their consious neck and head control completely flatline, the band hauls their neck up and back.
Ever notice how many therapod dino fossils have this weird back-arched, neck-bent pose?
They got one of those.
All that screaming is going to make it pretty easy to find them.
It’s like tracking a squealing balloon.
It’s a medieval-ish city with a large population of Yinglets who scream and make weird noises all the time. As long as it’s not a Baxxid, somebody yelling at the top of their voice isn’t going to rate as unusual.
So, who will get Brakka first?
1) Kass
2) Ivvenmoth
3) Beizel’s yinglets
4) His own “boys”, when they realize how totally he has lost
5) Whoever he was working for with zat zhing
6) All of the above
7) All of the above plus even more people he has angered
This would be Kassen’s big chance to see hat eyeball tastes like.
Kass don’t even need to lern how to punch, can just drive Brakka insane by talking !
I wondered who was iching to throw rhebfirst punch.
I say drunken man stumbles into the ally, trips, falls on Brakka. Problem solved.
Keeping cool in a rough and tumble situation is what Kass has been preparing for all his life.
This is highly amusing to see how efficiently he can criticize and snark here. Though I think hes lost a bit of focus, it’s having a really intense effect on Brakka so perhaps you have to follow the curvy wurvy thoughts of the yinglet to get the best effect of understanding. Hmmmm.
Who’s gonna bet Brakka begs Kass to save him from the world after Kass is done hammering it home how fucked he’s getting? Matriarch Vizlet for hurting her friend. Patriarch Narklet for failing him in his mission. Ivenmoth for endangering the yinglet cooperation ring going on. Yeeeah it’s starting to stack up now against a lonely criminal minded yinglet exile.
ALSO HOPE ELIM IS OK JEEZ THE TENSION!
alright zhat does it I’ve scoured zhe damned web can anyone tell me zhe setting, video game/book/hieroglyphs on a fat dudes back, I legit do not care I’ve gone to zhe 5zh godforsaken page of google and can’t find anyzhing zhe unsated curiosity is driving me crazy
What are you talking about?
Are you trying to find some preexisting world that this comic is set in? There isn’t one. OOPs is creating its own universe, and it is what it is.
in that that case I wonder if Vars would have a problem with me turning this world into a video game I’ve been thinking about learning to code lately and this would be a very nice first project once I’ve got some know how under under my belt
On the current page, I see neither fat dude nor appreciable back. Nor do I see any appreciable iconography upon the background. I see a teased yellow line that I believe to indicate distress(the implication being that it is contrasting against the potential of a straight line in its place), and the Ivenmoth centrepiece to Kassen’s collar.
If it be neither such that draws thine attention, perhaps it be best of thine efforts that most finely state upon where thine gaze dwelt whereupon thine ire were roused?
Yes this is an original setting, like many other webcomics. it doesn’t have a single wiki\repository of lore but the author’s FA’s gallery ( https://www.furaffinity.net/gallery/valsalia/ ) has a lot of supplemental material, though in some casases it’s not entirely clear what is canon and what is just-for-fun.
You may for example look at the map of the neghbouring countries ( https://www.furaffinity.net/view/20599688/ )
imagine if zat zhing was designed to make the perfect Yinglet, with regenerating Telomeres and self checking DNA to prevent degradation along with improved and perfect (or near perfect) liver and kidney functions. Making a potentially immortal Ynglet!!!
Ya how does he it’s so entertaining.
Pretty lady is amazing!
God I love this series.
Wow Brakka way to loose an y sempathy anyone migjht have had for you.
RIP Brakka.