Runaway to the Stars: Page 214
Posted on October 25, 2025 by Jay Eaton

Welcome back to the past, that is.

Transcript

The view pulls back to show three people seated around the coffee table in a kind of break room, with a sink and cabinets in the background. An e-panel on the wall with a mangled pen cord shows smiling human children and the name "Garriton Teen Village." Mel is younger, with less grey in their hair and no beard. Otília is a middle-aged tabby catgirl, with striped hair in a loose braid over her shoulder. The other person is a bald man with a thick white beard, black metal band shirt, ear piercings, and sparse eyebrows.

Mel: Yes, I’d love to talk more with her.

Otília: I texted her, but she’s still in her room. Even alien teens are moody, apparently.

The man looks over his shoulder out the window and mutters to himself in Portuguese.

The man: Hm. Ela está nos espionando…

Otília: Mel, anything you'd like to ask before your prospective foster arrives?

Mel: Well… Is it true she was anonymously surrendered in a pet carrier?

Otília turns to look at the man on the couch.

Otília: Ask Doug. We only got her at 15.

Doug: Yes. She was six months old, recently pupated. Only this tall.

Doug gestures with his hands, showing a height of about 30 centimeters.

Inset panel: A pet carrier shows two familiarly round eyes peering out of the darkness behind the wire door.

Mel: Wow.

Doug: Could run, though. Like a little cat.

Doug smiles, Mel strokes their chin incredulously.

Inset panel: A little naked creature covered in a coat of wiry spotted feathers runs out of the pet carrier on six long knobby legs ending in tiny four-toed bird-like paws with hooves, with round staring eyes above dark eye-stripes, a tiny tucked trunk, and two tiny spinnerets where a tail might be on an Earth animal. It is familiarly Talita-shaped, but of infantile proportions.

Runaway to the Stars: Page 214
Posted on October 25, 2025 by Jay Eaton

Welcome back to the past, that is.

Transcript

The view pulls back to show three people seated around the coffee table in a kind of break room, with a sink and cabinets in the background. An e-panel on the wall with a mangled pen cord shows smiling human children and the name "Garriton Teen Village." Mel is younger, with less grey in their hair and no beard. Otília is a middle-aged tabby catgirl, with striped hair in a loose braid over her shoulder. The other person is a bald man with a thick white beard, black metal band shirt, ear piercings, and sparse eyebrows.

Mel: Yes, I’d love to talk more with her.

Otília: I texted her, but she’s still in her room. Even alien teens are moody, apparently.

The man looks over his shoulder out the window and mutters to himself in Portuguese.

The man: Hm. Ela está nos espionando…

Otília: Mel, anything you'd like to ask before your prospective foster arrives?

Mel: Well… Is it true she was anonymously surrendered in a pet carrier?

Otília turns to look at the man on the couch.

Otília: Ask Doug. We only got her at 15.

Doug: Yes. She was six months old, recently pupated. Only this tall.

Doug gestures with his hands, showing a height of about 30 centimeters.

Inset panel: A pet carrier shows two familiarly round eyes peering out of the darkness behind the wire door.

Mel: Wow.

Doug: Could run, though. Like a little cat.

Doug smiles, Mel strokes their chin incredulously.

Inset panel: A little naked creature covered in a coat of wiry spotted feathers runs out of the pet carrier on six long knobby legs ending in tiny four-toed bird-like paws with hooves, with round staring eyes above dark eye-stripes, a tiny tucked trunk, and two tiny spinnerets where a tail might be on an Earth animal. It is familiarly Talita-shaped, but of infantile proportions.

95 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 214”

  1. uzhitsa

    baby talita looks like a bittern chick!!!! she’s so adorable i can’t get over it

  2. $ilverware

    fuzzy scrunkly centaur babies are always so adorable

  3. austroraptor

    so this is by no means directed at ANYONE in particular and is more my observations as a whole, but like… I can’t lie and say it hasn’t started to get genuinely annoying to see people consistently assume the literal absolute worst of mel every single time they show up. they have their flaws and I’m not denying that, but the way that literally everything they say or do ends up getting scrutinized so heavily is just… It’s WEIRD to me. this isn’t even the only character that people have done this with either (the initial reaction to Idrisah’s mom in particular was ESPECIALLY egregious and bad-faith) and like… idk. it’s just really stood out to me as I’ve been reading this webcomic (which is awesome btw I love it so much)

    1. eden

      I’ve seen it too, they also called gillie abusive for confronting talita about refusing to learn to sign so that gillie could actually be included in conversations. some people really just want there to be a bad guy.

    2. Jay Eaton

      Mel did something in Patreon updates recently that pissed readers off, so some of those commenters might be trying to find reasons to be mad at them in this scene too.

      1. John

        What happened

  4. Fallingfeather

    BABY TALITA APPEARS IN THE COMIC PROPER!
    Also, pre-transition Mel! It feels weird to see them NOT rubbing a beard in that last panel lmao. It’s the perfect gesture for it.

  5. Boxthing

    Oh my goodness look at that scraggly little gremlin! Baby Talita was CUUUUTTEEEE!!!

  6. Colorless Gremlin

    I love your art! It actually helped me figure out how to draw mythical creatures with anatomy that makes senses. Also I want a plush of Talita she is so cute and I wish I could meet her in real life.

  7. edenmachine5457

    .ok but now i am curious about otilia’s tabby color. black (black stripes on brown)? red? blue? cream? silver?? chocolate??? i Have to know

    1. Fallingfeather

      There’s a color pic on the Characters page!

      1. petra

        There is? I just glanced the characters page and it ends at Ranni for me. (using desktop)

        1. Origamigryphon

          Don’t know who Ranni is, but Talita is literally the first character listed.

        2. edenmachine5457

          origamigryphon i said otilia (the catgirl), may want to get your eyesight checked lol

          also otilia is not on the characters page for me either and I’m on mobile, maybe i should check the jay eaton website…

      2. Fallingfeather

        Yes I’m an idiot I forgot that was the cat girl foster worker and thought it was a typo of Talita OTL. I went to delete my comment but couldn’t find it again. Sorry about that.

        1. Fallingfeather

          Ah and it looks like you CAN’T delete comments… alas… Sorry for the confusion!

  8. Darth Biomech

    I will NEVER get over how insanely adorable baby Talita looks.

    1. Pocket Whale

      SAME. The scrungliest, most adorable little creecher baby!

  9. Jason Myers

    Omggggg baby Talita ;A, I didn’t realise til recently that this comic was finally going strong!! I’ve been waiting so long I missed the whole launch lol. BUT IT WAS ALL WORTH IT- FOR THE BABY….

  10. creetur

    Pipe cleaner baby..

    1. Peter Jensen

      Yes! That’s the look and texture she reminds me of, and I couldn’t put my finger on.

  11. SilverSerienty

    What does Doug mean by “recently pupated?” I feel like this has been answered in a little lore form that I completely missed, but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to ask just in-case.

    1. Origamigryphon

      If you go to the Sophonts page here and look at Centaur biology, you’ll get an idea of their baby growth. They come out like little gummy worm larva, latch onto a spinneret until they’re large enough to pupate.

  12. Frankie

    I love the detail of the GARRITON TEEN VILLAGE display on the wall. Immaculate youth organization marketing vibes

  13. halley

    Portuguese Spotted!!! 🫵 oi doug <3

  14. Marcie

    I love that metal bands are still doing absolutely unreadable logos hundreds of years in the future (Doug’s shirt)

    1. DevotedArchon

      Can anybody figure out what is says? Looks like “TRAFFAY” to me

  15. thegriffin88

    Baby Talita always looks like a drowned rat to me 😆

  16. aough

    SCRUNKLY 😭❤️❤️

  17. Maditox

    lotta people thinking its weird that mel asked about how she ended up in foster care but from a like, exposition standpoint i realized this was the first time this was brought up in comic.
    but also i think understanding her history is a normal thing to ask about

  18. Belle

    Baby Talita,,,,I’ll never get tired of seeing her.

    1. SIGSTKFLT

      So skrunkled. Even more than adult Talita

  19. Hunter

    Ah, it’s a FLASHBACK chapter.

  20. Mobi-gg

    TALITA FLASHBACKK

  21. NTLS

    “Even alien teens get moody”
    [squints at her]

    1. NTLS

      like. whadda hell you mean by that.

  22. Gar G

    Flashback!

  23. Gheesfellow

    Goblin unleashed!

    1. JoB

      “Gobble-in at the vespiary!!”

  24. Ruby

    The bebeh! Look at her gooo!

    Glad to finally see the Doug himself in the main story. And look at young Mel. This must be like 15 years ago give or take.

  25. aquilegia

    what a ridiculous creature (affectionate)

  26. Momo

    there she goes there she goes the baby

  27. MyUniverseinaBox

    DOUG !!!!!!!!!!!!!

  28. Lilac

    Extremely Younger Mel…..

  29. Claire

    Did Mel see Dougs beard and decide to just… copy that style?? It looks nearly the same, stylizing and all.

    1. Enai

      That’s a style of beard that’s clearly popular with a lot of bearded humans (and was for a long time), so no? It’s not like everybody goes clean shaven, then Doug the style icon comes along and suddenly everyone wears a full beard.
      .
      I mean, those things happen. Look up the history of women bobbing their hair. But right now you might as well accuse Mel of copying Doug for wearing pants and a T-Shirt on Ixion.

  30. EnchantressEmily

    Flashback time! Mel sure looks different without the beard they have in the current timeline.

  31. EveryZig314

    Baby Talita. Skill: Scuttling, Presumably

    1. fancybone

      Talita the Scamper Queen

    2. Enai

      Secondary skill: biting, judging by Doug’s hands

      1. IncompleteMachine

        Tertiary & quaternary skills: disliking her glasses and making things vibrate sub-sonically when she’s sad or distressed
        psst: if you haven’t go on the art page and read the prequel comics, they’re fun :3

  32. HAL9000

    off topic but this is the first time we’ve seen an “on-model” catgirl gmh. fluffy tail…

    1. LizardWizard

      might just be her age but I think that cat genes seem to add a little plushness which might be caused by diet/disposition.

      also TALIA SO ABSURDLY CUTE OH MY GOD

    2. IncompleteMachine

      must…resist…joke…

  33. Entguarde

    She’s spying on us!

    1. Vinemaple

      It’s present tense?

      1. cain

        Seems to be present tense, yes.

    2. IncompleteMachine

      I thought he said something like that XD

  34. Calcifer

    Talita’s surrender to the foster home has always been so interesting, because it’s a mystery we’ll never get to find out the answer to. I always wonder what events led to her ending up at that doorstep. It’s entirely unlikely a centaur clan would bother dropping her off there under any circumstance considering their attitudes on culling unwanted young, let alone the lack of logic in turning her over to a bunch of aliens, so what happened? Did a matriarch visiting Jovia have a recently pupated litter and one just… got away? I could imagine a human finding her long after her clan has disappeared, recognizing her as a sophont, and turning her into a foster home because they have no clue what the hell to do with her.
    Oooor maybe it’s just a much darker answer of her being trafficked as though she’s some exotic pet, and someone felt guilty enough to turn her in.
    It’d be cool to have a short story about it, but I’m going to hazard a guess that that’s not happening. I imagine we’ll remain as much in the dark about it as Talita herself.

    1. Vinemaple

      I’ve read that the orphanage suspected sophont trafficking, which raises even more worldbuilding questions…

      1. Vinemaple

        Oh, you DID mention that. It’s right there. Sorry.

    2. IncompleteMachine

      I think it was some shady shit with somebody wanting to maybe acclimatise Centaurs to alien society because they have a number of staggeringly useful abilities as labourers/guards in habitable planetary environments.

    3. DevotedArchon

      You alluded to it but I’ll mention for others crossing by: iirc, Jay once said on tumblr that they don’t intend to ever answer how baby talita got there, as an authorial decision. Paraphrased from that post: “as far as I’m concerned, she spawned in that pet carrier”
      It is ofc fun for us to speculate though

  35. Shin

    Admittedly i don’t work in foster care, but I can’t help but raise an eyebrow at the fact that, when learning about their prospective charge, instead of asking about things like ‘what does she plan on going to college for’ or a logistics question like ‘do you have a list of accommodations we should work on implementing,’ Mel instead went more towards gossip. Perhaps this is an ungenerous interpretation, as Mel does seem to try to be kind, but…

    1. bryn

      I noticed that too actually, it stuck out to me. I do think it’s intentionally characterizing Mel as having… misplaced priorities

      1. Hunter

        I mean, the story’s already characterized Mel as well-meaning but very ignorant of Talita’s wants and needs.

    2. Enai

      I mean, the “what are your general life plans” questions are best asked of the adolescent concerned, aren’t they? Best not to prejudice oneself with the opinions of the current guardians, who may or may not actually know what Talita wants. I would also wait to ask those until she arrived and ask embarassing “so, what was she like as a toddler” type stuff out of her hearing (I realise Doug thinks Talita can hear the group talking, but Mel doesn’t know that).

    3. furubatsu

      At best I can assume Mel is trying to confirm just how Talita wound up in foster care so they know whether or not there is like, a record of birth parents out there who might want/have contact with Talita somewhere. That feels like a reasonable thing for a foster parent to want to know, the problem is its Mel asking this so it just comes out with weird vibes from ’em

      1. Vinemaple

        This, exactly. We know what Mel is like, or at least what Talita and Calcery think of them, so we’re going to see that in everything they do. That college story makes it hard to respect Mel, but I remember Jay very specifically mentioning, in an AMA artist comment, that Mel’s divorce was a very normal people-growing-apart problem, which to me suggests that Mel’s personality flaws may be less extreme than we’ve collectively assumed.

        1. JoB

          … you mean a comment other than this instance, with Mel themself saying so, I take it?

        2. Vinemaple

          It’s a reply Jay left on a comment on that page, wa-a-a-y down.

  36. un_pogaz

    The comments from others speculating about a conversation on Dirtball made me doubt myself, but I should have trusted my instincts that it was indeed a flashback: Doug’s hand was far too recognizable.
    Also, the fact that the characters are easily recognizable just by their hands, bravo, great design feat.
    Else, I love how Talita can’t fool Doug’s because he know her too well.

  37. raz

    BABY TALITA IS SO CUTE *SOB*
    adoption/fostering is inherently traumatic for humans but the alien layer of it…it’s very good, thematically. yeah of course she’s spying and of course shes gonna feel weird and bad about being compared to an animal even if these humans are well intentioned because she is a PERSON! those are microaggressions! like it’s valid to want to know how she was surrendered but the tone here is pure curiosity instead of concern/empathy imo.

  38. JoB

    I just noticed that I have no idea how much effort centaurs spend in childcare for imagoes; larvae and pupae are rather literally glued to mom, but imagoes could range anywhere from “still the matriarch’s prerogative”, to “let them run, the more bugs they catch on their own, the less we have to feed them”, to “I swear, those tykes keep the entire clan busy!”. Do the depths of the lore hold any info on how large a hoofprint Doug had to fill?

    1. eden

      the entourage also take care of imagoes! I like to imagine a handful if stay t home dads herding cats

      1. Vinemaple

        It may have evened out… a centaur brood of six would have most of the entourage looking after them, but Talita was a singleton, and much easier to secure, until she could outrun humans and be too big to pick up.

        1. JoB

          … then again, when you’re used to the mobility of human babies the same age/size, having to secure nooks and crannies in the entire neighborhood against an inquisitive escape artist talitaling sounds like quite the task … :-3

    2. Joysweeper

      No doubt it depends on culture and clan. I found an ask mentioning young imagoes being allowed to run around gardens supervised so they can eat pests. They have that desire to hunt and eat bugs, and insect-eating might not be looked down on in general, so really that could fit anywhere in the paradigm and might not be seen as hands-off care.

      https://www.tumblr.com/jayrockin/700670600156495872/without-sounding-as-weird-as-possible-im-curious

  39. Cat'O Moss

    Scrunkly baby Talita, beloved

  40. bryn

    seeing talita as a baby makes me so incredibly happy ;w; <333

  41. blythe

    oh so mel was gonna adopt her…

    1. TheOneandOnlyVoid

      Foster not adopt. Talita never got adopted.

    2. furubatsu

      Mel being the one to foster Talita just as she aged out of the foster system is just one of the many reasons her relationship with them is so…(wiggles hands) they became her legal guardian when she went to college and then hired her as her boss/manager.

      And then there’s Mel’s general Melness, I can imagine why Talita feels awkward approaching Mel about their “surprise apartment” they’re making just for her, no other surprises in the works.

      1. Madame Thunderbone

        You can say it. Mel is that ever-irritating balancing-point between being a busybody and a flake, an intersection that results in an individual who, while undeniably well-meaning, rarely consults others on drastic changes and upon ever doing so only truly understands the feedback half the time anyway, and ultimately ends up barreling through delicate social issues with all the grace of a freight train.

  42. edenmachine5457

    .omg the portuguese. my girlfriend knows portuguese so she translated for me- it says “Hm. She’s spying on us…” FASCINATING implications. im guessing talita has access to the cameras here or is just looking through a window

    1. Atuada

      More likely she can hear them

      1. Peter Jensen

        “Talita is a habitual snoop… people don’t generally know the extent of her hearing so she keeps getting away with it :/”

        https://www.runawaytothestars.com/comic/rtts-page-199/#comment-14981

        Of course, Doug knows her very well and is no doubt aware of the extent of her hearing and likely also her tendency to eavesdrop.

        1. edenmachine5457

          .INCREDIBLE foreshadowing-ish on jay eaton’s part that is amazing (both with that page and in the comment!)

  43. Teod

    Okay, who can read the metal band logo?

    TERRA[SFA?][TY?]

    1. JoB

      I’m reading “TERRAFATY”, but I’m not 100% certain that the remaining strokes around the “F” are indeed ornamental (to make the logo look symmetric), rather than a particularly dismembered letter …

  44. Falconette

    Baby centaur, built for grabbin’. I want to chase her like lizard and hold her like cute lizard that probably doesn’t want gentle head scritchies but will get some anyway.

  45. astrobun

    scrunkle toddler SPOTTED

  46. sugar-goat

    DOUG!!!!!! I love Doug so much I’m so happy he’s here ^-^

    1. Vinemaple

      Jay has returned us to the Doug

  47. PedraGata

    seeing the Portuguese in this makes me smile 🙂

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