This is where they grow the Talita chow. Somewhere in between this page and the Animal Agriculture Log I decided the ag crew is calling these things guineapilars. I might update that Log at some point.
Transcript
Several guinea pig sized invertebrates with soft bodies and feet like caterpillar prolegs mill around inside a long hutch bedded with straw.
Talita opens a large chest freezer full of plastic bags of the same animal, including eggs and the pupated winged male forms. A paper sign taped to the lid of the freezer reads "TALITA ONLY!!!!"
A zoomed out shot of the building interior reveals many rows of long hutches containing different life stages of the invertebrates. Talita is near the entrance, where there is a cluster of fridges and freezers, a workspace, tools, and straw bales. She looks past the rows of hutches curiously, where there appears to be more under construction.
55 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 170”
Harpy
if talita can only eat centaur food, I assume the guineapillars are the same. I wonder where they get the straw for them? Is it imported?
evileeyore
Probably grown on site. If it’s anything like earth grasses it grows like crazy and would be super inexpensive to just do it locally.
Zuorai
TASTY BEAST NAMEDROP
Where are the flying males? Is there a separate setup for them not seen here/at this angle?
Gar G
Omg
That’s quite the setup! But I suppose it has to be enough to sustain her (and possibly more soon?)
& co
is the ag crew the only english-speaking population w a name for these little guys? i can’t imagine many humans have had occasion to name centaur-planet animals. thats crazy to me imagine accidentally coining the common name for an entire animal
Gar G
Omg yes, someone discovers something, comes up with a name that fits just so they have something to call it, and then gets surprised when it ends up sticking and becomes the official name for it
Robin Bobcat
Well, what we’ve seen is that at least English speakers don’t bother with the “real” names, usually due to difficulty actually speaking it. Bugferrets are mostly tactile sign, avians have bitonal shrieks, and I suspect the centaurs have their own linguistic quirks. So they just come up with a good name and that’s what they’re called.
Guest
If Mel brings in more centaurs I feel that would really shatter Talita’s heart. Mel seemss too focused on “saving” Talita to actually help her.
≠
caterpillar is spelled with two Ls. is guineapilar spelled like that intentionally?
Twibbit
Wide eyes reaching into a fridge, its like catching my sibling mid midnight snack.
tyrone
Does “Talita only” imply someone ELSE would eat them? But who ?
Apollo235
Dominic would do it on a dare from Adam
Teod
It’s to prevent accidents. Those are poisonous to anyone but centaurs.
A Box Of Fox
Eat them? Probably nobody. Steal one and put it in somebody’s put-away exosuit or something equally stupid for a prank? Adam.
Synthaphone
I believe Jay said before that its less likely that other Dirtball inhabitants would try to eat Talita’s food, and more likely that someone might put their non-centaur food in her fridge, which would be a poison risk for both parties.
Apollo235
I remember many pages back when we were starting to really catch on Jay said something vague like “you guys are really fond of the ‘Next round of temps are Centaurs’ theory’. I’m beginning to believe that was an intentional misdirect.
evileeyore
Well if Jay didn’t want us to catch on, they shouldn’t be foreshadowing it so hard.
A whole building being refitted to Centaur living space size. Extra guineapilar tanks… I mean, it’s detectiving not rocket science.
eden
has talita ever tried panfrying or roasting a Guineapillar?
@ me
hmm—does talita have access to oils or fats she can digest with which to fry them? roasting would work fine with just heat, though. man is she eating everything unseasoned though. poor girl
Enai
The food printer is probably adequate for fats and oils, so if she wants to she can make herself a stir-fry. Stuff with complex cellular structures like meat or veggies may have the correct composition, but it probably doesn’t have the right texture. Like, I bet the printer can print a nice enough mashed-potatoes-with-butter type goo, but if you want onions with that? Onion jelly is the best you can get.
eden
I guess it depends–a lot of centuar homeworld food is unreliable to get because of labeling and transport, but idrisah and gillie were able to get talita a smoked leg!
evileeyore
And they got it at great expense, and it was smoked. It’s not due to “labeling and transport”, it’s due to Perishability (which yes, is ‘transport’). Also probably extremely minimal demand. Once there are more Centaurs in spaaaaaaaace the demand will increase to the extent that it becomes less risky to transport and store Centaur food.
Frex if enough ‘Taurs are on Dirtball long enough I expect they’d be getting shipments of Centaur food that couldn’t be grown locally, because it would be inexpensive enough to ship and store (because the risk of “no one will buy it” drops to nearly zero).
waterfan2
Okay, what noise do Guineapillars make? The sillier the answer, the better. (Goat noises would be pretty funny.)
the Inmara
Ducks might also be startlingly funny. Or a duck call in the hands of a toddler.
Bear-on-a-tricycle
Guinea pig weet weet noises combined with hissing cockroach noises!
theplushfrog
Guinea pigs already make a pretty odd noise when you’re not used to it, so that would be kind of interesting.
;;;
theremin
Enai
I want this to be true.
The Opossum Witch
i am fond of higher pitched goat noises, tho if their insects probably some sort of groaning would be really terrible
Arcstone
I just sort of auto-filled in half life headcrab noises in my head.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fQqmqib3a4
Rubicon Art
a very soft eee
verm
thats a lot of guineapilars for one centaur… i think
Hydrurgus
I think Talita needs to eat more of them to compensate; she’s much leaner than homeworld centaurs as she’s only been eating bugs and printerfood her whole life
ciel
I wonder if Talita’s name was put on there because some idiot human tried to eat the bugs as typical of coworkers with habit of stealing food and got violently sick as a result
zaratustra
It might be intended to show that humans and avians have a well designed cross-contamination protocol, but Talita’s is an improvised system on top of that
evileeyore
/laughs in has already seen the next few pages….
theplushfrog
It makes me wonder like… with the cross-contamination system being so very improvised for Talita, if any illnesses have wiped out the guineapillars before. I know Jay has said that viruses and whatnot generally don’t jump species due to the different chemical makeups, but Talita herself could carry something from the expensive snacks if anything was able to sneak through that didn’t bother her but would infect the guineapillars… Probably pretty unlikely due to how they would need to package the shipped meats in the first place. It would become slightly more likely with more Centaurs though.
Vinemaple
The TIME SKIPS since this chapter started are driving me NUTS… What’s happening between Talita and the Touati-Sharpes? With the temps? Is Talita hiding from everyone and just focusing on the Runaway??
Also, regarding the speculation, I kind of want to see Mel’s face when an entire centaur clan sees Talita walk in with eyes wide open, trunk tucked away, and waving at someone, and they all take a step backward like “What. The. FUCK.”
And *then* she flees.
» ko «
talita would be so uncanny to look at for a homeworld centaur wouldn’t she… ik jay’s done one before but i always want to see her expressions/mannerisms “translated” to hw centaur perceptions. it’s so funny to me
Ruby
They’re so cuuuute!
Tumorhead
Oh no they’re cute!! I love how you designed the guineapillars to be cute but still definitely a weird alien. *chefkiss*
Vinemaple
“Hello, ladies… Imma eat you now”
§
i love their little feet!!! i wonder if theyre suction cups
Robin Bobcat
Fuzzy edges, so possible Van Der Waals, like geckos? 🦎
Clemmy
So many little details all pointing to a centaur clan moving in… We, the readers, can see this coming from a mile away, and the suspense just keeps growing!!! So curious as to how shit’s gonna hit the fan.
Infanteater
Guineapillars!!!! That is such a cute name!! always love to see the non sophont/sapient alien critters : ))
Tentament
Guineapilars? Chabbits? Quailicorns? This really is an elaborate prequel to Avatar.
Comito
They look a bit like bug ferrets!
Chase Wanderstar
Eh, everything buggy does. They’re called *bug* ferrets for a reason.
Adrienne
Yep. Yep. This is it.
Mel: Look, Talita, I hired a clan of centaurs, now you get to live amongst your own kind isn’t that great!
Talita: *Scooby-Doo running noises accompanied by dustcloud* BIP WAIT I’M COMING WITH YOU
Enai
Hooray, Talita gets to awkwardly stand around and not understand a single word that’s said with sophonts of her own bauplan. I’m sure she’ll be thrilled. The complete absence of cultural similarities between her and the other centaurs just makes it interesting °:-)
.
Honestly, I’d get out, too.
Avardent
Honestly I’m hoping one of the centaurs is understanding with Talita and they become friends, I’m sure Talita can learn to accept her own differences as something good she can share with them
Enai
That would be nice, but it also would be an entirely different story from the one this one’s promising to become. I expect she’s gonna bail, from the title of the comic alone.
.
When she’ll ~Runaway to the stars~ however is anyone’s guess. It’s been almost two years and the ship isn’t spaceworthy yet…
Amanda/OwlBear
that first panel really is very cute
it does look like they’re building a whole bunch more hutches for these adorable little things
iisaw
Some really nice details in this page! The bit of cut box strap in the foreground helps to give a sense of work-in-progress, and the bits of straw (or whatever it is) in the aisles between the cages is exactly what would happen with little critters like those. That sort of thing really helps to make the environment feel real!