Yukkuri Compendium

I've always had an interest in Yukkuri lore and headcanon, especially seeing how it differs from artist to artist. So, after being inspired by RSPA Fact Sheet 8: Pest Yukkuri on your Property, I typed up a brief primer along those lines, detailing the origins of yukkuri, what makes them tick biologically and other facts taken from preexisting headcanon and some other ideas I thought of along the way.

My own headcanon includes the idea of yukkuris evolving and adapting according to their environments and situations. Nothing that's game-breaking, but interesting nonetheless. Here's a little something I wrote up concerning languages:

Another unique aspect of the yukkuri is its ability to vocalize in nearly the same manner as human beings or, as one researcher remarked, humanity’s ability to understand the yukkuri regardless of the language spoken. Unlike creatures that rely on mimicry to produce human-like vocalizations, the yukkuri are fully capable of producing their own speech. However, the methods of production and delivery of said speech remain up for heated debate among researchers.

Some researchers theorize that the yukkuri itself is not capable of producing human speech, but instead humans are somehow capable of translating its natural language into their native tongue, even with local variations on dialect accounted for. A team of scientists discovered this phenomenon during an audio recording of yukkuri subjects. Instead of hearing human speech during playback, researchers instead heard a series of “yu” vocalizations. This was postulated as being the “true” language of the yukkuri.

Nevertheless, yukkuri are perfectly able to understand a broad range of languages and accents, even obscure and “dead” languages. This capability has piqued interest in yukkuri as “universal translators” of sorts, capable of understanding and translating human languages.

OYP's been a bit slow and the Yukkuri fad isn't what it used to be, so I'm using that as an impetus to finally finish my compendium and put it up on the Google forum. Any thoughts or suggestions?

I prefer to see the language thing as less magically than that: basically, they use their yukkuri powers to actually speak the language understood by the majority of humans in the area they live (with their own little things like the random "yu" or "easy", of course)
Basically, you get something like how yukkuri in Japan speak japanese, but those in Tokio use the Tokio dialect, while yukkuri in Naples speak neapolitan, and so on
There's a story on the fanfic group, of which I forgot the title, that introduced this concept with the main character finding a Rumia that speaks japanese, and says only "So nano ka" instead of "Is that so?" like the american Rumia
I think it's an interesting view, it would open a lot of possibilities of yukkuri-yukkuri and yukkuri-human interactions

I have a different question, though, which happened after reading comments on old images found through the random post functions: how much sensitive are yukkuri to food made for humans, rather than for yukkuri?
In stories, we see yukkuri taking human food, but in pretty much every case, the food is either sweet, or some vegetables
But what if they take some other type of processed food?
Spicy food, obviously, is a no, unless the yukkuri filling is not sweet, but what about salty food? Can yukkuri eat a whole bag of chips/fries/whatsthename? I know pet yukkuri often eat the same food as human, but usually it's only a treat for being good, not really as everyday food
It'd be interesting to see yukkuri dealing with human's food as the only source of food, but as pets (or equivalent), rather than strays rummaging through garbage that eat once every two days

It makes me wonder if computer languages also apply.

EasyV said:

I have a different question, though, which happened after reading comments on old images found through the random post functions: how much sensitive are yukkuri to food made for humans, rather than for yukkuri?
In stories, we see yukkuri taking human food, but in pretty much every case, the food is either sweet, or some vegetables
But what if they take some other type of processed food?
Spicy food, obviously, is a no, unless the yukkuri filling is not sweet, but what about salty food? Can yukkuri eat a whole bag of chips/fries/whatsthename? I know pet yukkuri often eat the same food as human, but usually it's only a treat for being good, not really as everyday food
It'd be interesting to see yukkuri dealing with human's food as the only source of food, but as pets (or equivalent), rather than strays rummaging through garbage that eat once every two days

I would imagine that a lot of yukkuri wouldn't be able to take it easy after consuming some GMOs and some artificial sweeteners, especially aspartame. I may have mentioned such in another topic.

Ruukasu said:

It makes me wonder if computer languages also apply.

That'd be really funny in my opinion.

Ruukasu said:

I would imagine that a lot of yukkuri wouldn't be able to take it easy after consuming some GMOs and some artificial sweeteners, especially aspartame. I may have mentioned such in another topic.

It was in the cost of abuse thread, though there we discussed stray yukkuri
It's a bit different, though it doesn't invalidate your reasoning

There already is a pretty extensive Yukkuri wiki in Japanese somewhere. This is the kind of thing that's fucking impossible to search for on (English) Google so I can't link it off the top of my head, but it has a lot of details about various things like several lifestyle traits, the reason why orange was accepted as the "healing potion" for yukkuris, and even some bios for the popular artists off the top of my head. It might be better to find that wiki and translate that instead of trying to make shit up with our (relatively) limited knowledge of yukkuri culture as compared to Japan.

Edit: found it
https://www29.atwiki.jp/yukkurifutaba

In case you guys were wondering about the whole orange juice thing, it's a reference to Dead Rising where it's a very useful healing item, so even if you're on the brink of death if you drink orange juice you'll feel healthy again.

Adding to GNU/Hurdz post, http://yukkuri-futaba.sakura.ne.jp/dictionary/index.html might be an up to date version of the linked wiki (the link might give errors, in that case go to the homepage http://yukkuri-futaba.sakura.ne.jp/ and navigate to the page from there)
It's structured as a dictionary instead of a wiki, though

Anyway, in my opinion there's nothing wrong in developing a "western yukkuri world", taking from what Japan produces and adding our own ideas to it

boom said:

OYP's been a bit slow and the Yukkuri fad isn't what it used to be, so I'm using that as an impetus to finally finish my compendium and put it up on the Google forum. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Everyone's headcanon differs, but as long as you're not going full retard and promoting yours as "the one true way" I say go for it. We could use the activity.

EasyV said:

There's a story on the fanfic group, of which I forgot the title, that introduced this concept with the main character finding a Rumia that speaks japanese, and says only "So nano ka" instead of "Is that so?" like the american Rumia
I think it's an interesting view, it would open a lot of possibilities of yukkuri-yukkuri and yukkuri-human interactions.

That would be An Easy Side Job by PasteryOne, which happens to be my favourite yukkuri fanfic. =) There's also Speak My Language Easy by Tinweasel, which is pretty hilarious.

EasyV said:

I have a different question, though, which happened after reading comments on old images found through the random post functions: how much sensitive are yukkuri to food made for humans, rather than for yukkuri?
In stories, we see yukkuri taking human food, but in pretty much every case, the food is either sweet, or some vegetables
But what if they take some other type of processed food?
Spicy food, obviously, is a no, unless the yukkuri filling is not sweet, but what about salty food? Can yukkuri eat a whole bag of chips/fries/whatsthename? I know pet yukkuri often eat the same food as human, but usually it's only a treat for being good, not really as everyday food
It'd be interesting to see yukkuri dealing with human's food as the only source of food, but as pets (or equivalent), rather than strays rummaging through garbage that eat once every two days

Most stories I've seen show spicy stuff as poisonous to any yukkuri that isn't already spicy (Meiling) or Sanae, becase lolnocommonsense. Similar for bitter foods, particularly coffee. Salty foods are usually depicted as unpleasant and unhealthy but not lethal, which some folks use for abyuse.

The Sweet Taste of Punishment by MET (aka JusticeItEasy) features an artificial sweetener that instantly spoils a yukkuri's taste buds, rendering them unable to eat anything else, used as an extermination tool, the "Easy Munch Ball". A few other Western authors have used it since.