In an effort to broaden my understanding and come to my own. Conclusions about identity, what does being therian mean to you? In your own words.
My therianism manifests aspirationally, as a set of two ideal selves I draw to represent myself, and that I want to bring into reality through myself in body and soul: I call 'em Creature Avi and Professional Avi. They're not distinct personalities, they're just effective representations of Me under different circumstances.
On the Creature Avi side we have the quirky, impulsive, affable Me, the one who lives fast and lives authentically because yinglets are small and fragile and have simultaneously less and more time in their days than humans do. I crawl up and bound down stairs, I climb on surfaces to talk to average-sized people, I pause in the middle of a sentence to grab a snail off a nearby leaf as a tasty snack for later, and speak my thoughts aloud, tersely and inelegantly, without being paralyzed by fear of being misunderstood, because who has the time to worry about that when I'm gonna have a nap crash in a couple of hours?
For the Professional Avi we have the graceful, dignified, self-actualized Me, dumped into an unfamiliar place -- a hospitable yinglet enclave in Out-of-Placers fanon -- and (putting a lot of wishful thinking here in terms of how I'd actually react in an isekai scenario) finding my own truth in it: recognizing that I am both an artist and a woman, not that I was born into those roles but that they're what my personality best suits me for, and I stand shoulder-to-shoulder with feminine yinglets who are each and all similarly capable, smart, resourceful, and very pretty, and it feels incredibly nice to be counted among them, a feeling I need as a person. I'm not used to many responsibilities IRL, and I use this scenario to believe that I do have it within me to take them on (modest as an enclave artist's may be).
Both ideal 'selves' are yinglets, because even though they might seem diametrically opposed to each other, yinglets as a concept are capable of encompassing all these wonderful things! And on top of that, they do so under the background motif of transformation: having your outer form and internal grey matter permanently altered completely from one type of being into another, keeping only some recognizable superficial traits and the identity and memories leading up to that event. I like to think that for me that'd remove the weight of some expectations I've held and felt beholden to all my life, like the expectation as a weirdbrained person to fit in among 'normal' humans. Avi's got a reasoning mind and can speak her thoughts aloud, but oh, of course she's got yinglety mannerisms and quirks; just look at her, after all. Well yeah, it makes sense she's got niche interests and follows her bliss wherever it takes her; she's also opening clams with her shelltooth and eating them raw, would you tell a wolf not to howl at the moon?
I also really like the idea of most other people being giants compared to me, and all the specific body traits, having a big tail, giant eyes, raptorlike posture, long legs, foothands, expressive ears, and having to pronounce words differently as an everpresent reminder of what I am compared to others; it all just fits. And the notion of it being a physical change brought about by mysterious circumstances is cool as fuck and I love the idea of it happening to me IRL. Even if it never does (because how would it?), that's not gonna stop me from bringing as many facets of these personal ideals into my waking life as possible -- because those ideals exist within myself, and it's because of my therianism I have the tools to express them.
(EDIT: clarified a few things and spiced up the intro a little -v-)
