Runaway to the Stars: Page 244
Posted on February 26, 2026 by Jay Eaton

Huh?

Transcript

Talita: I’ll stop distracting you.

Idrisah: Seeya later…

Talita waves goodbye to Idrisah and exits the recycling plant, looking absentmindedly at her tablet while walking through the personal exit into the Shikaviil Port dome. An odd echo to her footsteps makes her look up in confusion. She glances around, trying to parse the sound.

Runaway to the Stars: Page 244
Posted on February 26, 2026 by Jay Eaton

Huh?

Transcript

Talita: I’ll stop distracting you.

Idrisah: Seeya later…

Talita waves goodbye to Idrisah and exits the recycling plant, looking absentmindedly at her tablet while walking through the personal exit into the Shikaviil Port dome. An odd echo to her footsteps makes her look up in confusion. She glances around, trying to parse the sound.

133 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 244”

  1. PersonMcPerson

    Next page: It’s just a visiting clan on official business who’ll be staying for a day at max 🙂

    1. Jordan Aster

      Hey. Don’t spoil future pages.

  2. Dahsun

    In defence of Mel, perhaps he has picked or been told has been picked, a centaur clan that will be tolerant of Talita. At least tolerant by Centaur standards. Can they behave professionally around non members of their clan? Does this give Talita the chance to meet and date someone she can have babies with? At what point if at all will Mel realise it has all gone horribly wrong and he has to help Talita escape from the situation?

    Are they expecting this, and if so what do they know of Talita? Does she speak the centaur language they will communicate with among themselves? Will they know something of her clan/parental origins by her scent and or appearance?

    1. Dahsun

      Love the way she is standing by a danger sign when she picks up the hoof sign, and she is completely dressed human style; worlds are about to collide.

    2. JoB

      > Does she speak the centaur language

      No, see pages 158 and 159.

    3. Undercooked Mothman

      Mel uses they/them pronouns

  3. Half Phased

    I know everyone is focused on how poorly Talita is going to handle the new centaurs, but has anyone considered how poorly the new centaurs are going to react to Talita? Just from reading the lore articles on centaurs, you can the get the idea this isn’t going to go well.

    Mel probably hasn’t done any research into how centaur social structures, so probably doesn’t realise that in effect they have introduced a centaur clan to a lone centaur, which they will view as “odd” at best. Then, since Talita will be their boss, that will mean Talita will have to give instructions to the Matriarch and other clan members, which won’t go over well. And that’s ignoring the fact that since Mel is technically a parental figure for Talita and as the overall boss of the plant(?), the clan could see this as an attempt at arranging a worker marriage.

    This really does seem like Mel has made the worst possible decision after doing absolutely 0 research into what their current employee needs and the cultural background and social structures of the incoming employees. I’d say it’s “actively malicious negligence”.

    1. Teod

      Yeah, this clan will not be happy. There’s a good chance they were promised exusting centaur population and were expecting to meet at least one other clan. They might also be expecting centaur housing that’s not just human housing scaled up (I think different family structure would result in a vastly different default room arrangements) and a meat farm with more than just one type of bug.

  4. Ruby

    There’s a disturbance in the horse…

    1. JoB

      [readership trying hard to sound like they’d number in the millions]

  5. Kasekine

    Oh, now Centaurs come marching in
    Oh, now Centaurs come marching in
    Oh Stars she’ll reject those numbers
    When Centaurs come marching in.

  6. jaxpsylla

    you got me fucked up jay

  7. Bug

    I am the Sickos meme rn

  8. Eux

    HHHHHHOHOHOHOO BOY. what a friendly and totally not ominous page this is. good work as always jay!

  9. FuzzySpiderPawz

    Hrheehehgeh on the edge of my seat waiting for the next page

  10. BlueJay

    What is the current upload schedule?

    1. Jay Eaton

      Tues/Thurs/Sat

      1. BlueJay

        Thank you!

  11. Entguarde

    God the thing I’m the most concerned about is how much of her body language and expressions are humanized and can be interpreted as aggression towards other centaurs. Talita babygirl stay strong you’ll be out in two chapters

  12. creetur

    Talita…. Talita it’s time to run away….

    1. 1d4-nadg

      But… where?

      1. foca

        perhaps… to the stars…?!

        1. JoB

          I’m still wondering where else one could possibly run to when they’re blessed with Dirtball for a starting point …

  13. Gar G

    Oh no…

    Looks she’s about to have an awkward encounter of the third kind

  14. Raydfil

    OH MY GOD. this has been paced so so so well. i can still remember when people started speculating in the comments that Mel was hiring more centaurs holy shit. poor Talita. I cannot wait to see how this goes down.

  15. Rose

    oh god oh fuck oh Talita i’m so sorry

    1. Rose

      Jay you are a MASTER at depicting anxiety & dread. i can FEEL this page squeezing my chest and making it hard to breathe. god. great work, keep it up

  16. izimb

    this needs the ゴゴゴゴ from Jojo… stars, Talita this is cruelty.

  17. godspeed

    *sets the Talita Plinko to Hellfire*

  18. JoB

    To abuse the German idiom … nightingale, I hear ya clumpin’. 😉

  19. arf

    They’re he-ere…..

  20. shield

    i’ve never had a comic page make me nauseous with anxiety before. Nice job!

  21. Gheesfellow

    World’s #1 Boss moment incoming

  22. MyUniverseinaBox

    Oh shit wait a minute. I thought ppl theorizing more centaurs coming in as temps or something like that were sure to be wrong. Oh my godddd. OH MY GODDD MEL UGHHHH

    1. Teod

      It waa foreshadowed so much though. Who did you think was the new housing made for?

      1. MyUniverseinaBox

        For Talita. Obviously lol

        1. Teod

          An entire five story building? Also there was a big expansion of her meat bug farm that she couldn’t possibly cover.

        2. JoB

          > Also there was a big expansion of her meat
          > bug farm that she couldn’t possibly cover.

          You’ll have to admit that one way to make Mels extra centaur workers plan even worse would involve having Talita “eat for seven” …….

          (Yes, yes, point taken, that’d imply they’re for seriously unskilled, if not child, labor and it’d likely end Mels managerial career on the spot, even in a backwater-y place like Dirtball.)

  23. TotallySomebody

    I KNEW THIS WAS COMING UP IN THE NEXT FEW PAGES I KNEW IT!!!

  24. FuzzySpiderPawz

    Oh this is not going to go well I’m not ready to see Talita cry (I haven’t read ahead I just know in my heart she’s gonna crash out and probably have a breakdown)

  25. Rad Internet Stranger

    Oop.. here we go!!

  26. Daredevild

    I’m legitimately a bit scared rn

  27. fenner

    literally grabbed my cat and shook her im so excited holy fridgeeeeeeeeeeeeee

    1. wingedhorror

      Hahaha, does your cat now share your enthusiasm?

      1. JoB

        Chances are that she’s still shaking … B-}

  28. AmbroseTV

    honestly i thought all the comments about more centaurs was an elaborate bit i wasn’t in on, not the actual plot. thanks for keeping the comment section spoiler free everyone (mildly annoyed sarcasm)

    1. Proxy

      I believe that was primarily people speculating on it/theorizing based on foreshadowing, not people who know the plot sharing it!

      1. AmbroseTV

        that’s comforting at least, sorry for being negative

    2. hessian

      me too…i thought people were just grasping at air for it. boo boo the fool i am

      1. aves

        “Grasping at air”?? It’s been HEAVILY foreshadowed throughout the story so far – the first inkling was as far back as page 14, but there has been a ton of foreshadowing of this.

        1. hessian

          sob. yeah i realise that. my doubts were based on jay eaton’s statements about it “you guys are really into this theory huh” and i was like hm are throwing people off or are people missing the mark. again pointing at the boo boo the fool sign above my head u_u;

    3. Undercooked Mothman

      As a person who has been commenting on some pages about possible centaur temps (and also spamming all my friends with messages when some select pages came out), i can confirm that it was based on my own speculation and the many clues scattered through the comics, not spoilers from reading ahead on patreon or watching art streams or whatnot.

    4. Feather

      I haven’t read ahead so at least on my part it was genuine speculation! It was pretty heavily foreshadowed though, particularly with the AMAs/bonuses on Jay’s tumblr giving more context to Talita’s relationship with other centaurs than you get just from the comic. (I had no idea that we’d get to see her interacting with other centaurs so soon though, even when I picked up on the foreshadowing – I thought she was going to hear about the plans and run away!)

    5. HAL9000

      Jay deletes actual spoilers iirc, the centuar theory was just that- a theory

  29. TeethBurglar

    Talita is about to crash out and it will be 100% justified

  30. Solanuma

    i think the intro of this would perfectly accompany this page https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Skl0wGNWcVM&pp=ygUSbGlvbiBraW5nIHN0YW1wZWRl

    1. Athelind Llewellyn Long

      I just reread the strip with this playing in another tab, and it upped the already-high anxiety level through the roof.
      Damn you (affectionate)

  31. MissZena

    OH GOD HERE IT COMES

  32. MoonyBeasty

    I’m always excited to read more of this comic, but now I am downright impatient! I wanna see what happens next!!

  33. hessian

    oh shoot, the centaur temp theory is real?

    1. hessian

      talita plinko.

  34. Vinemaple

    Surprisingly, the website hasn’t burst into flames from the collective shock, outrage, and excited anticipation… And reading the comments I realize… Talita hasn’t *said* anything about more centaurs coming, has she? Has she been unable to CONCEIVE of Mel going this far? How is she going to react to the realization that Mel really was never, ever listening?

    1. cinna

      If she suspects it, she hasn’t voiced it specifically. Even though she figured out they’re building an apartment for her, I think she’s been under too much pressure from everything else building up to really continue processing all the signs she’s seen. And, since that weight has only gotten heavier, and all her questions about what’s going on have been dismissed with “You’ll see!”, she probably decided she’d just have to worry about that when she gets there.

      Nowww I guess it’s time to worry about it.

  35. kaittzie

    They’re hheᵉᵉᵉrᵣᵣᵣreᵉᵉᵉeeₑₑₑ~

  36. BravoLimaPoppa

    Let me guess – Talita’s ground sense?

  37. Auto

    oh no, it’s happening sooner than i expected. I’m sure we will be fine.

  38. Arcstone

    WHO’S THAT POKEMON?

    IIIIIIIIIIIIT’S

    1. Lott

      xD

  39. Zuorai

    WE will be ganging up on Mel for this blunder at exactly bing bong sharp

  40. Plasmatic Shrimp

    you know the image of the guy in front of a dustdevil saying “HERE IT COMES”

    yeah

  41. Appleeatinggoat

    Welp, they’re comin

  42. Bug

    its Talitover. things are going to super hell in maybe one to three pages

  43. meow town

    so ominous… i haven’t been spoiled, but everyone’s reacting like this is going to be the worst thing ever for talita. i would be cautiously optimistic without that context, and im still wondering, can it be that bad? reminds me of when fanny was sent home for the first time in years in mansfield park and i thought “oh, at least she might be able to reconnect with her family?” and was immediately proven wrong. good luck talita, may you have a better time than fanny price…

    1. bug

      you dont need to have read ahead (i havent) to know what this is probably going to do to talita. she has a lot of boundaries around not being surprised like this and centaurs being introduced without any warning or say if she even wanted it is going to be a big issue, i think.

      1. Jason Myers

        Well it ain’t called ‘chill out with the new workers under the stars’

        1. Jason Myers

          This site user interface is such a mess, I literally was trying to reply to the person below you

        2. meow town

          lol, good point

    2. 1d4-nadg

      I hope it won’t be that bad, maybe we are all overreacting? maybe? please?

      1. Paul

        Hello! It’s the beings in the same shape as you from a completely different culture. Bonus points: Said culture was just fine with throwing you out to die as a kid. Don’t worry, they TOTALLY will have societal expectations of you that you are entirely unaware of.

    3. Teod

      There is a wide range of how bad it could be. We all know what the story is called, so it’s obvious she’ll end up on The Runaway. So she has to quit soon. The question is – will she quit due to hostility from the centaurs or not? It would be very easy to just make them bad people. A whole crew of Adams will surely push her over the edge. But a more positive option would be centaurs being okay with Talita and the defining factor being Mel’s betrayal of her trust. But this is more difficult to pull off.

      1. St0rmy

        Talita expresses emotions like a human, centaurs don’t. I imagine there’s going to be a lot of misunderstandings

    4. K

      If you read in some of the lore sections of this page there is a small mention that centaurs are primed to distrust clanless individuals and will probably react in at best a wary of aloof manner towards her to at worst downright hostile or exclusionary

      1. blythe

        if i were talita id pull the funny “my clan died and im the only survivor” if anyone asked me

        1. Thisfox

          Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we
          ….sodding well LIE about being the bereaved survivor of a disaster?

        2. Skadoosh

          It’s not really a lie since she literally doesn’t know anything about her parent clan. They could be dead.

      2. malmo

        There was also some lore calling Talita “worker-coded” and she’s about to be their boss so…

        1. 1d4-nadg

          Oh no I hadn’t even thought of that

      3. Skadoosh

        The best she could probably hope for is to be treated as some kind of eccentric hermit artisan and inventor, someone who would choose isolation to inspire and perfect their craft. She had to design a lot of her own accommodations, even her own space suit and clothes.

    5. malmo

      It’s hard to imagine their first meeting as anything but the sneering partygoers meme https://imgflip.com/memetemplate/118730256/Disgusted-girls-on-party

    6. PhasmaFelis

      Culturally, this is like throwing a modern African-American lesbian in with a bunch of rural Nigerian immigrants who don’t speak English and expecting them to immediately be best friends because they’re all black.

      1. T-Bird

        Excellent analogy. And the person who set everything up goes “So I noticed you’ve always felt uncomfortably Othered by your coworkers and are socially isolated – this is my magic cure to solve everything. Say thank you!”😁

  44. Imp!

    Uh oh.

  45. eden

    oh dear god here it comes. talita doesn’t even get to be introduced

  46. EnchantressEmily

    Oh boy. Here they come.

  47. 1d4-nadg

    Talita i’m so sorry Talita, run away girl.

    1. jdeltia

      t. to. to the sta

  48. K

    eeeeeeeeee I’m so excited to see what the centaurs look like and how they will interact with crew.
    Also I know that Talita is going to go through hell 🙁 but I’m still excited to learn more about the centaurs in this context

  49. Tye

    A sudden wave of familiar yet strange footsteps. I am so excited and scared for these next few pages…

  50. edenmachine5457

    .Oh No. They’re here
    (spotify started playing panicky violin music as soon as i finished writing that lol)

  51. Limulid

    [muffled screams of the damned]

    Also, you’re scaring me Talita! Standing under the crush hazard like some sort of chekhov’s gun (it’s not, its not… )

  52. Anonymous

    Uh oh. IT’S HAPPENING

  53. T-Bird

    Thank goodness this is happening before Idrisah and Gillie are still on Dirt all!

    (On a more cheerful note, this means there is a chance for Adam to meet a Centaur-socialized Centaur after.)

    1. Atuada

      I honestly don’t know that this will help his bias any haha

      1. felixscout

        I think they are hoping for the mauling Adam would get if he tried the shit he did to Talita to a much more self assured and clan surrounded centaur.

        1. purrs

          I … don’t think a centaur would physically attack a bigot, let alone maul them, no matter what their self esteem or cultural background is. They may be less timid and anxious than Talita, but they could very well be worse than her if they’ve faced things like this before.

        2. Jay Eaton

          ?? “Adam’s lucky Talita’s such a wimp for her savage kind, he needs to meet some REAL centaurs and learn his lesson when they maim him for irritating them” ?? If that logic’s true then I guess Dominic’s right to be afraid of Talita.

        3. Skadoosh

          There are many fun (for us, not for Adam) interactions that don’t require mauling. Getting ignored, getting picked up and moved to the side like a child, duct taped to the wall, detained by a guard for harassing the matriarch, a report of his xenophobic behavior actually getting taken seriously…

  54. blythe

    depending on whether theyre also ethnic nomads talita may finally have the opportunity to be shorter than someone on ixion lmao

    1. meow town

      wow, true! one bright spot in this incredibly stressful time

    2. glazeliights

      Im presuming this will be a clan of starchasers, which are usually clans that were already nomads (though, maybe theyll have some married-in centaurs of settler ethnicities?). but at the very least theyll be around the same height!

  55. HAL9000

    wait are they wearing shoes similar to talita’s? I wonder if that’s a pre-fabricated centaur design and they’re so limited for printer fashion they just wear the same stuff, or whether Mel’s implemented some kind of workplace uniform based off talita’s regular work outfit… or is it just to represent that she can seemingly hear her own footsteps when she’s standing still

    1. tyrone

      think you are right…Those are someone else’s footsteps…And she has to look up…..
      For the shoes…. Well thats whats mandatory on Dirtball and they had a working design already

    2. Teod

      I think the feet drawn at the top of the page are just hers. Her hearing starts with a “Wait, why do my own footsteps sound echo-y?”, before turning into a realization that there are others.

    3. Jay Eaton

      Only Talita’s feet are drawn on this page, you’re leaping to conclusions based on what you assume is going to happen

  56. Zii

    Oh ho, I can feel the dread dripping off this page but I can’t help but be so excited!

  57. Lilac

    Mel……. what did you do…………..

  58. Anonymous

    Damn it, Talita; you have to keep clear of that doorway. If there were a sudden decompression it would chop you in half and put the people inside at risk.

    1. 1d4-nadg

      I think she is standing clear of it. Looking at the background behind her startled face she is under the SkyDome now.

  59. tyrone

    Oh God…OhGodOhGodOhGod….The worst hidden terror is gaining upon her…..A surprise party

  60. Undercooked Mothman

    oh, they’re here NOW.

  61. un_pogaz

    It is time baby!!
    I’m eagerly awaiting this moment because I can’t wait to see Talita react with righteous anger to all this. But now that I think about it, my joy and anticipation seem a little unhealthy to me: It’s going to be a very hard blow for her. The “betrayal” is so “perverse” on so many levels, it’s really going to be violent for her.

    1. Chrysalis

      Sometimes you’ve been dreading something for so long that it’s a relief when it finally happens. Sometimes you like to see your favorite characters suffer in the hope that they’ll come out of it better off than they were before. Sometimes you just want to see them finally shout at someone who’s earned it.

    2. 1d4-nadg

      That’s the climax of the book! Of course you are excited, we are all excited! Fiction is fun because you can root for something bad to happen, it will be of no consequences to anyone real 😀
      (except in the way that fiction influences you as a person, which this book definitely does to me)

  62. foca

    oh no…………

  63. Charlie

    Oh god.

  64. Teod

    “Surprise!”

    This page feels like an incoming panic attack.

    1. Enai

      For real. Like that feeling you get at the beginning of a nightmare.

    2. TheOneAndOnlyVoid

      Jay did say we will se centaur crying this chapter.

    3. Heather

      This is visually paced like it’s a horror movie. I love it. TALITA RUN

  65. hurgaburga

    OOOOOHOHOHOHHO YEEEEESSSSS THEY’RE HERE THE THEORIES WERE RIGHT
    cant wait to see Gillie’s Idrisah’s (and Talita’s) replacements

    1. hurgaburga

      FYI i am exited for this theory to finally be confirmed. less so for talita’s understandable crashout.

  66. Phosphene_eyes

    What!! There’s no way… Omg I can’t wait for the next panel!!!

    Also, I’m loving the story so far. I’m on the edge of my seat!

  67. Fogblitz

    Uh oh!

    The way my eyes widened in fear reading this page haha. Oh, Talita, you’re sure in for it.

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