RttS Reader Questions 41

Sorry this is so late, I hurt my elbow (it's better now) so I had to pause reader question work and grinding out pages for the next chapter. I am well on track to be finished with chapter 9 before the haitus ends, though, so that's good.

From a Terran perspective, all housing in Jovia is high density housing. It's not uncommon for smaller apartments to only have a toilet, living room, and bedrooms; with a shared kitchen space and washrooms (mist showers, laundry, more toilets). Absolute lowest end of the property tax and highest end of the density spectrum are dormitories, which have shared bedrooms with lockers. The apartment Gillie and Idrisah currently live in is HUGE and fancy by their standards; the only thing making it not a "house" in Jovian terminology is the entrance opening to a shared hallway. Gillie's dads are fairly wealthy and have a smaller end "lot house," with "lot" referring to the private outdoor balcony space. The bigger the lot, the higher the property taxes (functionally a kind of rent, paid to the Social Housing Board). Arguably Talita's currently living in a lot house, but that feels like too nice of a thing to call a converted storage shed... the toilet's a separate building, so does that technically make it a dormitory?... but it's a private washroom... she just calls it an apartment.

If you stalk the lore closely, yes, I renamed the cylinder that Idrisah and Gillie grew up in.

Transcript

Angoryt asked: Idrisah and Gillie, if you two are going to move back to Nexus Jovia, have you already managed to get an apartment? Or will you be living with your relatives until you can get a place?

Idrisah: We submitted our SHB app as soon as we knew we were gonna quit. But our current placement is in an apartment block in the Solidarity cylinder… opposite to the Opportunity cylinder our parents and most of our friends live in…

Gillie: Average waitlists for most of the housing in Opportunity is two years, haha.

Idrisah: It’s not actually that long of a trip on the Spokes, but I would prefer to be closer.

Nexus Jovia

  • Opportunity District
  • Solidarity District
  • The Spokes (microgravity train system)

Gillie: Better than staying with my dads. They've got a big house but they like, never leave it. I can’t deal with their neurotic hovering these days.

Idrisah: My parents are alright, but we have way too much stuff to fit it all in their tiny apartment. So we’d have to rent storage space or recycle a lot of nice things.

Image: Apartment layout with two bedrooms, and living room, and a toilet. Shared kitchen and washrooms are down the hall.

Gillie: Storage space is sooo expensive. I've heard of people using their allotted housing as storage while living somewhere else… but if the Social Housing Board catches you doing that, they will penalize you BIG TIME.

Winter Hiatus

Tl;dr: the public webcomic is taking a 2 month holiday break, with Reader Question updates every Tuesday, returning with Chapter 9 on Tuesday, February 17th. 

A darwinopterus wearing warm clothing and a holly boutonniere ice skates on a nighttime frozen lake, wings outstretched.

So, most of you probably know I draw pages much slower than they upload here. The reason I’ve kept a steady 3 day a week schedule is because I started uploading with about half the book already completed. I did some calculations before launching the public webcomic and determined that with my rate up to that point, I could upload here continuously without catching up to my backlog until the very last pages.

Unfortunately, last year, I did not maintain that page completion rate. Instead I traveled out of the country 3 times, tabled at 4 conventions, had delays on collaborative parts of the project, helped a partner move in, got dumped by that partner, moved out of that apartment into a house, and more. So, the site has been catching up to my page backlog much faster than I planned for. This is the first time I’ve ever made a 300 page graphic novel, so I’m learning how long it actually takes to complete one the hard way.

I considered my options and decided I would prefer to have a hiatus than slow down the update schedule for narrative pages, because I feel that 3 updates a week with breaks at the end of chapters makes for a more enjoyable reading experience. This will also allow me do editing how I prefer to, which is reviewing an entire chapter once it is complete. There are two more chapters remaining in this RttS book (the first of a planned four) and they are some of the longest and juiciest chapters in the book, so I need more time to finish them. There will be another hiatus after Chapter 9 finishes posting here. I’m slowing down the rate at which Reader Questions post, because honestly, they eat up time that really ought to be going into finishing the actual book. So, I’ll be back with Chapter 9 on February 17th, 2026, updating three times a week, but Reader Questions will be posting every Tuesday until then.

In the meantime: if you are impatient for more RttS, consider throwing 5USD at the Patreon to receive pages the second they are completed on their real chaotic non-schedule. You can even contribute 5 bucks and then immediately cancel the subscription for one month of access, I won’t be mad. (I actually wish Patreon made unsubscribing easier. But that’s a different old man rant).

If you have better things to do with your money, consider dropping in on one of my Twitch streams! Or watching the vods, since unfortunately I have a vampire sleep schedule and live on the west coast of North America. I’m streaming Mon/Weds/Fri (with two exceptions) this December because I want to blast through Chapter 9 as fast as possible and having the panopticon (Twitch chat) staring at me while I draw helps keep me focused.

That’s all for now! Have a happy new year, everyone, and if you’re in the southern hemisphere, please GIVE BACK THE SUN!! I MISS GARDENING!!

Conventions? NEAR YOU??

Against all odds, this has become an extremely convention-heavy year for me. I got off the waitlist for Anthrocon?? This has never happened to me before, waitlists are functionally rejections in my experience.

I am now confirmed for tabling at these conventions:

  • BwPcon, June 7th in Portland, Oregon (this upcoming weekend!!!!)
  • Anthrocon, July 3rd-6th in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
  • DinoCon, August 16th-17th in Exeter, England

I am applying to but not confirmed for these conventions:

And as always, you can buy my junk on the internet too!

Gigantic and Huge Store Update

Have you been done your civic duty as a Jovian this Spring Cleaning Week, and fulfilled your compulsory service hours in maintaining the biosystems of your space station megacity? Of course you have. Pick up the broom bundle to celebrate a hard-earned Feaster! It comes with a 3D award pin, festive chabbit sticker sheet, and a handcrafted floral broom ornament.

Order here!

Limited quantities of these, because the brooms were hand assembled. Hopefully some of you are as delighted as me about the idea of holiday decorations from an alternate universe.

Also in this shop update:

That’s all for now. If you have any issues with the store website or ordering, email me about it at jayeatonstore@gmail.com.

BwPcon and Other Conventions

My application to BwPcon was accepted! It’s a one day outdoor convention in Portland, Oregon this upcoming June 7th. If you’re in the area come check out my table, I’ll have some new RttS merch! You can find more information on their website:

Big news for UK fans: I’ve also gotten into Dinocon by the skin of my teeth, and I’ll be sharing a half table with Thylacine’s Toyshop. I’ve never tabled internationally and I haven’t been to England since I was like 10, so this should be exciting. The convention is from August 16th-17th in Exeter University. Fans coming over to buy my junk will be extra appreciated because the plane flight alone is gonna cost like half what I make on a good day at a con. More information on the website:

https://www.dinocon.co.uk

I’ve also applied to Big Little Fur Fest, a furry convention that I forgot to add to my list in the last blog post. BLFC takes place in Reno, Nevada from October 13th-6th, 2025. Will I get in? Who knows. I haven’t had great luck with furry conventions this year, Anthrocon and Furcon both waitlisted me. Most of what I draw these days is more adjacent to the fandom than in it, and I don’t run a mid-range online retail store, so maybe I’m not a hot pick.

New Year, New News

So sadly I missed the holidays but I’m pleased to announce that there’s two new merch items in my online store, baby Talita keychains and Bip pins! Two very different flavors of troublemaker, now both wearable.

Additionally, while I was busy grinding out chapter 6 for Patreon I sold out of, like, most of the books in my shop? So because I can’t really afford to eat all of those reprinting costs at the same time, I’m doing reprint preorders. Order any of these books right now and they will be shipped to you in February 2025:

Also coming up in the new year, conventions. Unfortunately I can’t guarantee I’ll be at any of these other than Further Confusion because they’ll have to accept my dealership applications first, but I’m currently hoping to be at:

I’m also currently streaming art work on my Twitch channel every Tuesday and Friday in the PST afternoon. My goal for streaming has always been to force myself to focus on the task at hand for several hours and not to gain as many subscribers as possible, so while I have tried and failed to keep a consistent schedule I remain chronically unpunctual. Usually, I start between 2pm to 6pm and stream for around 6 to 8 hours. I enjoy having company while I work. 🙂

I think that’s all for now. Wish me luck in staying on track this year and finishing Runaway to the Stars book 1 by February 2026. I think I can, I think I can…

Minor Store Update and 3D Talita

Some miniprints and assorted stickers are now available in the shop. I am sold out of the Shyam and Talita character sticker, sadly, but lots of new ones are available as one-offs.

I have also gotten down to last handful of my Talita pins, some of which have some enamel fill errors and resin dents that prevent me from selling them at full price. If you’re looking for a discount and don’t mind some superficial defects, check out the B and C-grade pins. They’re charmingly flawed, just like the lady herself.

In other news, as birthday present for myself this year I commissioned a low-poly Talita 3d model from incredibly talented artist Lazer-T (Tumblr, Twitter, Bluesky), who really went above and beyond with rigging her silly over-complicated design. Look at these turnarounds he did, they’re great:

There is also a Barbie doll nude version of her, since I wanted one for generic posing reference (and also, she looks cool with the stripes out).

This model has among other things: 8 total eyelids, adjustable pupil sizes, an antler slider with velvet stages, nostrils that open and close, and mane and face feathers that can puff out. Here’s an example of expressive animation, also done by Lazer-T!

[Silent animation of Talita looking away, then jolting in shock, blushing in embarrassment, and waving bashfully at the viewer.]

I’m not very experienced with manipulating armature in Blender myself (I’ve barely got a handle on hardscape modelling) but I’ve been having fun moving the model around and learning how to pose different parts and use shape keys. Below: me messing around with the file.

Ok, that’s all. I hope the turnaround gifs don’t make my homepage run like ass, if they do I’ll replace them with the still renders.

Shiny New Webcomic Site

Hello everyone. If you got here from social media, you probably know about this comic already. I’ve been posting it to Patreon for quite a while, but it has always been my dream to contribute to the ecosystem of free-to-read webcomics that I spent the majority of my childhood voraciously reading while hunched over the computer past my bedtime. I had initially started working on the Official Book after signing it to publisher, though, and originally was only allowed to post a third of it online. But a couple years into working on it, I got permission to fling it out onto the internet in its entirety. So voila! Runaway to the Stars: Book 1, out in public, updating 3 times a week!

If you hadn’t heard about this comic, welcome! Runaway to the Stars is a worldbuilding project that I’ve been working on for over a decade. It started as an excuse to design some aliens and throw all my science fiction thoughts in the same vat, and eventually a book started to grow out of it like a fungus. If this comic intrigues you, there’s tons of additional artwork, writing, and short comics that can be found on my perpetual work-in-progress Neocities website and my ancient tumblr blog. There is quite a rabbit hole to go down, if you don’t mind some bespoke coding jank.

I’ve decided to not run sponsored banner ads because in recent years, internet advertising has become so aggressive and hostile to adblockers that frankly I’d rather not contribute. The random banner in the sidebar is a selection of projects I like and stuff I want to promote. If you hate looking at it, download uBlock origin and use the element zapper on it. It is your right.

That being said, to be pragmatic, the only reason the comic gets made as fast as it does is because I currently make enough income through my Patreon and store to not need a second job. If you like what you see and you’ve got money burning a hole in your pocket, consider tossing me a buck. Patreon supporters get the perk of reading the pages before they go public. As of posting there is a massive backlog of over one hundred twenty finished pages uploaded there, so if you want some instant gratification it’s a great time for it.

But regardless of anything, thank you so much for reading! I’m excited to share this comic with you, and I hope you’ll stick around for the ride. See you on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays!