What happened to the third clam's description? I checked to make sure I didn't miss it, and it doesn't seem to be there...

I ship them.

I didn't really describe the clam so much, just:
"My tail swished, causing it to thump a little, and I reached for a third while I was still enjoying the warm feeling. I let out a little “Mnh” noise when I pulled the morsel out with my tongue bristles, blushing a bit and laying my ears back. This time, I took a moment to wipe my hands with a napkin and sit back."

And yes, they do make a cute couple. I don't know if Corwyn would appreciate being told that, but he'll get to be the butt of jokes around the office, most likely. Just because he showed kindness and respect to her, people are gonna spread rumors about what they got up to once they left the building. ^.^;;

Ah, thank you, I missed that!

Such a warm episode. I'm glad to see Vayryn enjoying herself.

The deck is stacked against her, but there's still the chance to find good people. ^.^

I made sure to have them both be polite to the waitress, because someone who is good to you but not to the waitress/waiter is not a good person. ^.~ I wanted to show that Corwyn is a genuine good person.

True, that. I'm appalled by some of the 'entitled' behaviour I see from people directed at waiters, etc.

I really can't comprehend the mindset some people have, where they just... don't see people as people, just because they're wearing a uniform or a store shirt or are behind a counter. Where they treat people doing a job as if they don't even exist. I guarantee you they don't appreciate people treating them the same way when they're working, after all. I want to slap people I see acting like that, sometimes I really don't think they'll comprehend what they're doing without physical pain and consequences for their behavior. >.<

Gods I love this story so much

It's literally everything I've ever wanted from a piece of tf media

Thank you so much for sharing it with us, I can't wait to see what Vayryn gets up to next!

I'm glad you like it. It's definitely lighter on the action than Princess or Flopsy, and lighter on antagonists. The villain is the cold, unfeeling world full of xenophobic people who aren't intentionally malicious, they just don't realize how tiring it is to deal with as they individually choose to be part of that wall of Othering. It's the isolation that gets to Vayryn the most, the constant reaction of "What is that thing? Gasp, it speaks! What do I do? Is it a threat?" wears her down day by day. But at least she's gathering friends to help combat that feeling, that loneliness and bitterness that would seep in otherwise and almost did twist her into hate.

The hardest thing in the world is to keep your light burning when the world is trying to drown you. But it's also the most important thing to do. I wonder if Za Bastard trusted her inner strength to see her through the challenges, or if he took a gamble, or if he didn't even really care... ^.~

Gods yes, I feel that. Honestly my favourite kind of villain.

Gosh. This story is wonderful and every time I reread it I'm reminded of that fact

"Zhey’re like… Well, zhey really want to push all zhe negative stereotypes za comic establishes, because zhey zhink it’s funny. Zhey’d only want me around in order to watch me bumble about, eat garbage, giggle any time someone farts, and generally be a stupid and short-lived idiot addicted to clams."

This seems like kind of a strange take to me...as far as I've seen, most of the major fan works (at least, the actual fancomics as opposed to artists like Tersethra who just like to draw silly yinglet stuff a lot) are all-in on downplaying that side of things in favor of recasting the yinglet experience as a vanilla Saga of Noble Struggle Against Institutionalized Prejudice.

And I think that's really missing out, because one of the best things about the original work is that it's both. Valsalia makes it pretty clear both in-story and in author commentary that yinglets are basically a comedic exaggeration of the human condition: struggling to rise from a baseline condition of "ignorant but equipped with the bare minimum of instincts to survive long enough to ensure a genetic legacy" to some greater state, scrambling to cram all the learning and experience needed to accomplish that goal into a span of time that never seems quite adequate for the task, and endlessly distracted or hobbled by ancestral neurochemical quirks and the very instincts that make baseline survival possible in the first place...

...that's us there, just writ large - and that contrast is both the dramatic and comedic engine for the whole comic. The struggles are relatable, but so is the way any pretense of dignity gets deflated when the brain randomly flips out or instincts kick in at the wrong moment - it's the same reason we find cats endlessly amusing. The comedy makes the serious parts hit harder, and the attempts to be serious make the humor that much funnier.

On which note, this clam thing should end well ;)

There's a number of people on Twitter/Tumblr who don't really draw anything, they just "be silly yinglets", and that's what I was drawing on for her followers. The kind that have a yinglet profile picture and comment in Yingspeak and "randomly scream" for laughs. Sure, there's people who root for her to overcome the stereotypes, but there's a large group that want to see a yinglet running around Being A Yinglet so they can point and laugh and probably join in. Za Bastard is very much one of those, he wanted to see his very own real-life Kass struggling and dealing with everything, so he made it happen.

I wanted to try to capture that feeling of "Instincts are pushing, but they aren't in control", and Vayryn is subconsciously or consciously aware of the pressure of being the Only Yinglet On Earth. She knows that if she relaxes and lets instinct control her, even for a moment, that she risks having permanent stains put on the reputation of her entire species. And "deflated dignity" is a thing she's already having to deal with, even with having grown mostly used to the sensations of her new body, her new "normal". But every single encounter with a human carries with it another slap in the face, another twist of the knife, and some days it can just be too much to shoulder.

And sorry to disappoint, no clam antics this chapter. She just got a light buzz that totally won't cause problems as her brain associates "Good Feeling" with Corwyn. ^_~