The animal ag team is very annoyed that some mystery person keeps leaving food gifts in their eggs fridge.
Transcript
Talita meets Rasheed outside the building next to a group of refrigerators labelled "eggs." The fridge doors are officially labelled with "human ag use only," but are also plastered with handwritten signs saying "DO NOT LEAVE PREMADE FOOD HERE" and "THIS IS NOT A SHARE FRIDGE."
Talita: Rasheed, is the ag team expanding my invertebrate farm wing? I hadn’t heard anything about it.
Rasheed pulls a baggie of "Garlic Crickets for Rasheed - I" out of the fridge.
Rasheed: Beats me. I grow plants, not bugs.
Talita: Weird… I’ll shoot Yomi an email.
Rasheed walks away munching. Talita pulls out her phone to contact Yomi but gets distracted by a new text from Gillie.
Gillie: (text) Are you free today? Need all hands on deck for project related news.
Talita: (text) I’m free. I’ll be over in a moment.
64 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 171”
cinna
i see you putting personal snacks in the “don’t leave premade food here” fridge and i simply look away respectfully
1616
I suspect a certain criminally inclined A.I. may be setting up food reserves for the Shanghaiing of a local centaur.
Smooti
How does Talita text on her phone? It seems small for how big her fingers are.
Paroxysmall
She uses her trunk (you can see on pages 32, 74, 75, and 79 so far), since it’s squishy and her fingertips are hard/can only really use the buttons
The Opossum Witch
I love Talita’s expression in the second to last panel, so cute!
rockgirl(as in stone)
I’m kinda nervous about Gillie and Talita meeting after the last time we saw them interact, it was… yeesh…
Greebus
It’s been two months since they found Bip! :0
Martin
I love Talita’s antlers progressively growing in.
Teod
I love to see the confirmation that there’s more rulebreakers out there than just our gang.
MissZena
the expansion on the bug farm has me thinking the people saying Mel is hiring a bunch of centaurs are onto something and I can only see that going incredibly awkwardly at best
especially since Mel hasn’t told Talita anything and seems to be trying to keep it a surprise so she won’t be able to like mentally prepare herself for it
kulupu
clown spotted!!!
🎉🎉🎉
one of our headmates really likes clowns lol
Light_In_The_Fog
nimi sina li kulupu a! sina toki ala toki e toki pona?
Enai
Wie bitte? Ich verstehe kein Wort und DeepL hat noch nichteinmal die Sprache erkannt.
JoB
G**gle Translatte meint ‘was von Samoanisch, arg sinnhaftig ist das Ergebnis aber auch nicht. Anscheinend ist der OP-Nick Samoanisch für “Gruppe” – ob das jetzt Zufall ist oder nicht …
just passing through
Light_In_The_Fog mentions Toki Pona so i’m pretty sure that’s what they’re speaking. Toki Pona is a constructed language with a small vocabulary, created in 2001, with a small but pretty dedicated community of speakers. I don’t speak Toki Pona and it seems like it’s hard to translate to/from, and there are no good automatic translators. From context and the few words that seem to be translating right, i think they’ve recognized ‘kulupu’ as a word used in Toki Pona and are asking kulupu (the user) if they also speak Toki Pona.
(as for the original comment: yea Rasheed’s clown pin is cute :] clowns are pretty interesting, such bold designs & aesthetics to ‘em)
cinna
mi mute li lukin e nimi tan toki pona a! mi luka e luka sina
Enai
Clowns are cool. Your headmate has good taste.
the Inmara
The look of her current outfit here, along with her body language, makes us want to ask (maybe we’ll send it in on the next AMA) – Would Talita appreciate a garment that was effectively a giant baggie hoodie for her?
Like, maybe it’d just be a giant baggie hoodie. Or maybe it would be a full jumpsuit with that appearance.
But, while that might not be a good piece of work clothing, would it be a style she’d appreciate sometimes on her off time?
blythe
she did have a baggy clothes phase during puberty bc of body dysmorphia
Light_In_The_Fog
she did? I don’t remember seeing anything about that?
Paroxysmall
https://www.reddit.com/r/worldbuilding/comments/rvdk6c/centaur_aliens_start_small_and_dont_stay_that_way/
on the third slide, at ≈15yo
furubatsu
There is a LOT of worldbuilding/character stuff up in the Characters/World/Tumblr pages. (I think Jay has said before in previous chapters one of the challenges of making this series is writing for new readers who don’t know this all and not people who’ve been following the Lore(tm) they’ve been building for years, but from what I’ve seen these tidbits are either not really plot relevant (though cool to know about the character) or Will Be Adressed Later in the story proper.
S-clerk
Okay, my bet is that the complex being built and the expansion of the farm wing is bc they’re making room for other centaurs.
I could see Mel thinking this would be a wonderful surprise for our friend.
Enai
This is full of “Oh, you have $UnusualCharacteristic? Meet my acquaintance, who also has that same characteristic! Surely you’ll get along, since you both have red hair / glasses / a parent from faraway country!” vibes. That didn’t work when I was a kid, and Mel has more than enough life experience they should know better. Sheesh.
HAL9000
so has everyone else working on the new additions actively been told “don’t tell talita about the new temps” or is everyone operating on the principle of “she already knows” without actually… checking that information?
Lilac
I like that even in the future they maintain the art of hastily scribbled messages taped to objects
Lilac
Like you got all these fancy pre-made signs for stuff and then just like Simeone jad to write something in sharpie with printer paper real quick fjfjfhds. Truly incredible
Lilac
*SOMEONE i can’t type….
Paul
So… bug farm expansion. I hope they aren’t recruiting a bunch more centaurs and keeping it as a ‘surprise’ for Talita. Given past comments about how well Talita gets on (or not) with other centaurs it probably wouldn’t go well.
S-clerk
Ooop, yup, same thought!
Phasma Felis
Knowing Talita’s boss and their tendency to “help,” I bet that’s exactly what they’re doing. They probably think it will be a nice surprise.
iisaw
Breaking the rules all around. I like these people!
Synthaphone
Also I love the character detail of Talita having a picture for Gillie in her phone, but no picture uploaded for herself
Vinemaple
Shout out to Gillie’s avatar being her face from nose up!
John
Mel you better STOP this sneakery
Lamprey
god garlic crickets sound amazing right about now… could probably make do with mealworms, but i doubt they would be as good…
HAL9000
garlic mealworms are just as good!! they’re a more popcorn-y flavour but grill them or panfry with a dash of oil and shake them up with salt and theyre fire
Vinemaple
As to why Idrisah is sneaking garlic crickets to Rasheed via a dead-drop system, my boring theory is this: we know Idrisah goes hard as a cook, and knows a lot of traditional Middle Eastern recipes. She just likes making garlic crickets, and she knows Rasheed enjoys them, perhaps Gillie doesn’t, and so she leaves them for Rasheed. Maybe there’s some mothering going on, who knows. As to why Idrisah is carelessly breaking rules by using the egg fridge for this, well, maybe Gillie is doing the deliveries, and Idrisah doesn’t know the details.
My spicy theory is this: all the above, but the garlic crickets are also a bribe. Rasheed is working on diverting food to supply the Runaway for its initial voyage, and is being compensated in fresh, homemade garlic crickets. They’re using the egg fridge to keep it on the DL. They didn’t expect the animal ag team to get so annoyed about it.
Teod
Pretty sure they’re not currently planning for any organics to be onboard, so there’s no point to store food.
Ruby
The garlic cricket conspiracy
Sink
I like the little detail that Rasheed is pulling pre-made food out of the fridge that explicitly says no pre-made food.
apersoninoursociety
Can’t wait for the identity reveal of the mysterious garlic cricket bandit who’s leaving premade food in the “DO NOT LEAVE PREMADE FOOD HERE” fridge. Considering there are no characters whose names start with “I”, this is clearly a riddle for the ages that could stump even the greatest of detectives. (JOKE)
Enai
The I stands for incorrigibile!
whirly
huge love for rasheed’s clown sticker
Jay Eaton
He got a sticker for getting his vaccinations done 👍
Light_In_The_Fog
would love to see a zoomed-in version of that
forest @ swifty's hq!
if only we were all so lucky to get stickers for our vaccinations… people love stickers….
Marcie
He’s finally been forced to get his squash allergy taken care of
A Box Of Fox
Is this for his squash allergy, or just Generic Space Flu or somethin’ of that nature?
Arcstone
I guess eating bugs has been normalized in this age after the third world war and probably subsequent age of critical food scarcity.
The Hollymonster
I think it’s more because they’re more convenient, diet and space wise, to farm off-planet than most vertebrates.
Phasma Felis
People eat shrimp, crab, and lobster all the time.
I admit whole crickets would bother me, because they’re no part of the food culture I grew up in, but there’s plenty of cultures on Earth right now that eat insects (and would find some of my favorite food abhorrent, probably). There’s no reason to think it would take an age of desperate starvation to normalize it.
Phasma Felis
In fact, I just checked and you can buy jalapeno garlic crickets by the pound off Amazon right now. So it’s even less weird than I’d originally thought.
JoB
The thing that that actually surprises me is how absent flies are from both current-day activities in as well as projections of the future of insect-based foods.
·
I mean, look at the tales of the Schlaraffenland and tell me people aren’t dreaming of food that voluntarily comes to explore their mouths …
Phasma Felis
Flies are hard to contain. Also, they tend to be carrion eaters, which probably makes it harder to make them safe for human consumption.
Peter Jensen
It’s still mainly a spacer culture thing, because it’s an efficient source of animal proteins and has synergy with other agriculture (turns indigestible plant bits to edible biomass and their waste is good fertilizer too).
https://jayeaton.site/RunawayToTheStars/Sophonts/Humans/Culture#Livestock
Synthaphone
Rasheed’s bored expression combined with his clown sticker is such a funny combo. King
Tentament
> Saturday, July 8 11:14
I weep for the programmers in this setting that have to deal with times and dates.
Teod
Time on clocks probably passes at the same rate and has the same intervals for the sake of simplicity. It’s just rolls over at a time different from 23:59.
Calendar dates might be difficult though, because they actually need to be at least mostly synchronized. Although it’s probably just rounds to closest day (occasional double days on fast rotation planets, skip days on slow) or to clisest month (first always matches, but months have different length).
furexfurex
god Mel is DEFINITELY getting more centaurs aren’t they? Good intentions and all that but keeping it a secret/surprise is an awful idea
K
I have to agree with you here, adding the extra supports for housing could have meant she was trying to move Talita I with the typs. But with added food stock given that what already exist is enough for one person, I think she’s thinking about bringing more centaurs on board.
My guess is that maybe she’s going to try to move Talita in with them, but she’s going to feel even more alienated than she already does with the typs.
HAL9000
garlic crickets still about in… whatever year rtts is set in! lets goooo! add some chilli to that and you’re really cookin
Vinemaple
I’m speculating that “I” is Idrisah, who seems to love cooking, and who might know to make a traditional Middle Eastern recipe that Rasheed likes.
Apparently the zucchini bombing has been forgiven. Rasheed, after all, did explain how it wasn’t his fault.
forest @ swifty's hq
i hadnt heard of such a thing until now and honestly sounds really good NGL