It's not worth a fortune, it's priceless beyond measure.
Transcript
Bip: That’s an antler velvet blanket.
Talita holds up the blanket, her arms and the bottom of the artifact appearing to melt away into a series of embroidered depictions of the past crew created with the same stitches as the symbols on the real blanket.
Bip: Every year, the matriarch Ngilick would help the clan carve off their loose velvet.
An embroidered depiction shows two centaurs, one carving off the antler velvet with a knife. The "knife" is a pointed piece of bone with a hole on the wide end. It's punctured through the embroidery surface to go under Ngilick's hand, with the hole sewn down. The antler velvet appears to be an applique.
Bip: The raw skin would be washed in salt water and stretched to dry.
An embroidered depiction shows Ngilick pinning pieces of velvet to dry, depicted as applique triangles held down by knots.
Bip: The stiff dried skins were massaged with animal gland oil until they softened and cured. Ngilick would sew the panels into the blanket and embroider them with the year's events.
An embroidered depiction shows Ngilick sewing pieces of the velvet onto the blanket. They hold the sewing needle with their trunk, portrayed as a real, threaded needle puncturing the embroidery surface.
Bip: Some of those panels are from Ngilick's great-grandclan. They might be over 100 years old.
An embroidered depiction shows a group of centaurs proudly holding up the blanket, a rectangle of tessellating applique triangles.
106 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 209”
Compassion
Ohhhh the way the centaurs look indistinct with the embroidery, only silhouettes, but their tools and remains are solid. OUGH.
Jester
Ahhh the contrast with Talita throwing her velvet sheds in the trash a few pages prior ;w; lovely work as always
Exa
Thinking more, she’s doing it in such a shameful way too. Like she had to slink off to handle it privately and kinda hoped people would pay her no mind while she does it. Something that’s the basis of a tradition that brings others a sense of belonging and kinship is just something she sees as an embarrassing nuisance that her body just does to her from time to time that makes her feel alienated and weird.
Frankie
I want to learn that tidy little knot stitch that Ngilick’s using!
Puncivilian
Looks like a French knot or a variation of it to me!
1d4-nadg
It could be a knot, but my money is more on a bead. It’s less likely to fray over a 100 years of manipulation, and it probably gives a tidier appearance to the back.
This being said if it’s a french knot it’s one with going 4-6 times around the needle instead of just 2 times. Sounds like a nightmare to me XD
FyreNWater
Such beauty, such heartbreak. The records survived, but not those who kept them.
Stray Cat
Other commenters have already voiced some of my own thoughts, so an additional note: the fact that Bip says “great-greatclan” to describe the clan that Ngilick and was descended from. It’s an interesting choice of term; if it maps to human familial terminology, then that’s a long way back. It also implies, at least to me, that Ngilick had that blanket from the beginning of their clan’s time in space.
Marcie
Some of this blanket predates the first contact (80 years ago). It might even be recorded on the bkanket itself!
Thisfox
80 years, with two velvets per centaur per year, and most clans being between half and a full dozen centaur, is likely 1600 velvets or more, just to get to first contact. I mean, the patchwork blanket is big, but is it really that big?
JoB
If the blankets tend to become too big to haul around (remember that the centaurs who became starchasers predominantly were members of nomad clans prior), I’d expect them to pick the most important historic events’ velvets to transfer to a new blanket. And first contact should be considered quite important.
Also, if nothing else, I would expect Ngilick to have recorded how they came to be the Runaway’s crew. And it’s quite unlikely that another clan branched off theirs (and took a part of the velvets with them) since.
2nd velvet to the right of Talitas left wrist looks rather “spaceship and planet” to me …
Vinemaple
That term, “great-greatclan,” sounds like an English localization Bip is making on the spot, but also gives insight into Centaur clans… a clan is a moment in time, in a way… making each generation of the clan feel like a generation of ancestors. I’m incoherent, but do you see what I mean?
evileeyore
I do believe this might just be a test…
JoB
As in, Bip’ll ask to see Talitas sampler next … ?
creetur
What if I sobbed and cried and curled up in a corner, actually
This page is so sad and beautiful, the time and effort it must’ve taken to make such a blanket..
I wonder if Bip feels like they have to get rid of it, if they felt like they didn’t deserve to have it on the ship after the incident
woim
😭👍 ❤️💕
Gheesfellow
I must admit, I wouldn’t be able to stomach any human equivalent of this.
planetixin
Maybe cutting your hair each year in order to make a piece of cloth? I don’t know
thegriffin88
I’ve known some people to knit their own hair into things. Not really my deal. I knit to fidget. It’s just an endless scarf 🧣
theplushfrog
Plenty of human cultures see the first cut of a baby’s hair as precious, so they braid it and save it inside jewelry or alongside baby photos. The victorians used to use hair to make jewelry, especially in mourning. There’s a few tales of a woman giving a lock of hair as a courting gift, or within a letter of longing.
This would just be combining those into a generational thing. Braids of hair woven into precious artful ropes, perhaps or interwoven into blankets?
malmo
I bet it’s so soft though
Skadoosh
The human equivalent, hairwork, uses hair woven and braided into intricate patterns.
It’s fascinating and beautiful.
Oodl
Im wondering who inherits the ancestral blanket? The oldest daughter in each line perhaps? Which means finding one this old by chance is espeially rare!
Oodl
By oldest daughter i mean first to split to head her own clan. But if this blanket is kept until the death of the last matriarch then maybe not! : )
Thisfox
If you split the clan, you could split the blanket too. Sewing is like that, it’s possible to undo some stitches, and give a section to each new matriarch. That would explain why the blanket isn’t as big as it might be if it were 100 years old with no stops…
oodl
ooh i love this. more illustrious years or more esteemed ancestors go to favored decendants…
k-bonx
this page is so moving I felt compelled to leave a comment for the first time omg, the embroidery depictions hit me in SUCH an impactful way, absolutely stunning work! I can’t imagine how Talita is feeling in this moment, that piece has so much history and weight to it
also super curious how Bip feels about it as well, as they do seem like they’re trying their best to close themself off to the emotional weight of their lost crew… I wonder if AI sophonts can just turn off inconvenient emotions, and if that impacts them at all in the long-run
incredible work as always, super excited to continue reading this amazing project!
Gar G
I love the art style depiction
“priceless beyond measure” indeed
arf
This is evocative of the possum skin cloaks used by aboriginal people in South Eastern Australia, which were similarly decorated, and every bit as well made.
… and next page will have Talita pondering what it was she recently tore off into a nearby rubbish bin.
PartyCrasher
This is a gorgeous page!!! I love the stitchwork style used to illustrate Bip’s explanation, it really ties the concept together!!!
Matt
Oh, this might be the most cleverly done page yet, in my opinion! You play so wonderfully with the medium
Payphone Call
The small cultural details created for the setting never ceases to enthrall me, huge part of why this world is so inviting and lifelike
Puncivilian
I’ve admired every inch of that blanket, haha. Beautiful illustrations on this page, as a fibre crafter the stitch work is gorgeous and feels real. I can practically imagine the way that blanket feels
hessian
the imagery being antler velvet embroidery…. i know i’m not the only one to say this but fuuck. if i was an easier crier i’d be crying now. this is cry adjacent. god
Heather
ouggghh.. and like 3 pages after we saw Talita throwing her velvet in the trash………… i’m feeling some kinda way about this
Vinemaple
Yeah, I realized on the drive home last night, that the whole POINT, of the long-anticipated velvet-ripping gag, was THIS.
SheTheTDE
I think I could figure out what this says if I had more information. Like are these hyroglyphic words or are they pictgrams of the events? Am I looking at one per triangle or two or o some have three? Where’s an alien rosetta stone when you need one?
JoB
Why, there’s one (see AMA 3) crawling all over the ship walls, of course. 🙂
thegriffin88
Depends on the language. I think at the beginning Cal said only 3 languages had been documented and they were all settled Centaurs. Sunchaser nomads probably aren’t documented. They existed in a tiny world, coasting through the stars. Bip might know what it means though. They were there.
Fallingfeather
And it’s all come to a crashing, hard stop. :C
Eux
this is such a fun way to illustrate it! <3 I wonder if Talita will want to keep it…
HeadWood
What sort of glands?
Duke 1337-o
Oily kind
Septemberdale
I reckon not dissimilar to the ones ducks have to make oils to keep their feathers waterproofed.
thegriffin88
Oil. I sometimes work with leather and know how to upkeep the leather for some of my cosplay stuff. Today you can get synthetic oil but before that animal fat was the choice. Easy to get. I’m not sure what kinds of alien fauna produce oil, only Jay knows
mossrabbit
they probably used their epic pirate money to import/buy oil at local markets. given centaurs have feathers, its POSSIBLE they could use their own oils in a pinch, but i think getting squeezed for oil is probably uncomfortable for all parties lol
Comito
100 years? This thing pre-dates their first contact!
thegriffin88
It probably has records of first contact. Similar to Bald Rock in Australia which depicts everything from hunting kangaroos with spears to airplanes.
foca
slight spoilers from the centaur culture section on jay’s website // true! while i knew about the existence of skychaser clans i hadnt really considered the fact that some of those wouldve been direct descendants of pre-established clans with a long history like this, rather than just newly established clans of people who all wanted to go to space…
gigithebear
i hope talita keeps it <3
thegriffin88
A whole history! The most priceless thing in the universe 🤩
Sid
Ugh this is such a good paaaage!! And I’m so glad Bip explained immediately. Already knowing what this was as a viewer, knowing Talita didn’t know, was stressful haha.
Peter Jensen
This page is … as beautifully executed as it is emotionally impactful. I just keep looking at all the details while feeling Bip’s loss. Just … excellent work.
thegriffin88
Yeah this is gorgeous. Real work of art on that Jay. ♥️
JoB
So, how many velvets’ real estate does a matriarch have to embroider the year’s events onto? Because I’m under the impression that every single velvet in the blanket holds the equivalent of one or two “keywords” at best, so either they’d need a lot of velvets for proper chronicling, or it’s really just keywords and quite a lot of context would have to be handed down by living memory …
0xabad1dea
I think there were ten centaurs, two velvets each, and it’s mentioned here to be annually, so that’s 20 pieces, and it looks like there’s one ideograph on each. Using Classical Chinese as a point of reference, you can fit a pretty detailed headline-style sentence into 20 ideographs, something like “Year 17 – prosperity, bought new engine, so-and-so-died of old age, beat the legal rap re: 800 quantum phones…”
JoB
That’s an upper limit, though, assuming that there were no velvets damaged during the processing, or too different in size to fit into the blanket, or lost to rot because the sterilization didn’t work fast enough, or insufficient due to illness (or malnutrition in deep space …), etc..
On the flip side, I know that centaurs have issues with their close-up vision, but the blanket on this page gives me the impression that they could have crammed a good deal more glyphs onto the canvas … Just compare the “scripture”‘s density to that on page 105 …
eden
some centuar writing systems are also tactile based, that could also be part of it!
gooeymander
The little 2 x 3 arrays of circular beads on a few pieces reminds me of how centaurs usually have 6 babies at a time. I wonder if it represents how many were born or matured that year. Especially with the 5-bead one arranged in such a way that seems to imply one “missing.”
K
Ooh, good observation and good theory!
DOSRG
one missing you say…..
Counterpoint
Not impossible, that thought 😉👍 – only, with the speed the story is going (not that I mind 🤷♂️ – drawing _is_ hard, and with a story on that level probably even more…), that kinda reveal, if it was real, _may_ not happen before Episode 1000 or so 😁…
gooeymander
Yeah, I was more so thinking of something as simple as a stillbirth (sorry if that’s kinda dark for the silly comic comments section??). I suppose it’s possible that it’s related to our gal, but on a more meta-level I feel like this story is more “Talita ended up in human care for unknowable reasons and has to make the best of it” as opposed to “Talita ended up in human care and now must solve the mystery of her origins” yknow? I personally really enjoy the mystery because like, yeah, sometimes shit just sucks for no good reason.
The Opossum Witch
if i may posit, those “beads” look closer to embroidery knots like a french knot!
DasGanon
I LOVE THIS PAGE!!!!!!
I wonder what the “right thing” would be to do in this case. If it were a human family, it would be to give it to next of kin and barring that giving it to a museum or archives for preservation and storytelling, but the clan structure and history of Centaurs makes me think that nobody else would want it other than as a material object/money. It feels wrong to throw it away, even more so now.
Hg
Bip is a real opportunity for Talita to learn about centaur culture from someone who knows it deeply but doesn’t have expectations that Talita should already know things. She should make the most of it.
enigmew
yknow, just before this page I wondered if centaurs would use their trunks to manipulate objects. my thought specifically was whether or not they might hold a needle in their trunk if their hands were full! It might just be non representative, but the mental image of ngilick gingerly sewing the velvets by trunk feels a lot more intimate. And the clan member with the curled up trunk… these memories are warm and happy. how devastating it might be to hold a treasured piece family history. Talita’s birth culture has never been closer and further away. she missed them. just barely.
halley
talita uses her trunk on touchscreens!
Oodl
And the stitched style also looks like constellations, to me, giving a very “ships passing in the night” sadness. Just missed them.
Lilac
This page is so pretty oohhh… the centaur drawings also having lines to look stitched in like the things on the leather….
Also the juxtaposition between these centaurs carefully saving their velvet and putting it through this whole delicate process to turn it into leather and adding it to this precious treasure old heirloom, and Talita just tearing hers off and throwing it away earlier…
Also is this sort of like if humans made stuff out of like their clipped loose fingernails? Or something?? I can’t think of a good equivalent
Also seriously don’t throw this put what the hell bip…
But seriously so cool and awesome…. I hope that the story has yet more stories about these centaurs told from bip’s perspective…..
God i love this comic so much!!!!!
Lilac
*out not put and *treasured not treasure oh my god i have Typo Curse I am so sorry