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Oh golly, so that's what Mel's surprise was!
Transcript
Walking past the edge of the sound wall, Talita sees the source of the noise. Far across the dome, near the apartments, a group of centaurs walk on the circular road. There appear to be five adults, four smaller and one larger, as well as four children half their height. All of them have half-lidded eyes and implacable expressions.
The four smaller adults are dressed in loose belted leather overpants on their rear four legs, with fabric undershirts that are neatly tucked into their waistbands to leave their upper torsos bare. They wear decorative fabric collars and necklaces adorned with dangling beads, strings, tufts of feathers, and pleating. In their manes they have tucked ornamental combs made from metal, bone, feathers, and beads. Three of them appear to be light in color with thin dark stripes and dark irises, and one is darker with broad stripes and light irises. All have a bar piercing through the upper portion of their trunks, and the oldest of the lighter individuals has two bars. They speak amongst themselves.
The four children wear identical dark capelets with tassels that appear to be furred tails. Three are light in color, one is darker. They look around with wider eyes, and one curls their trunk up. They stand close to the small adults, who put reassuring hands on them.
The largest adult stands in front of the group, speaking to an enthusiastically smiling Mel and politely smiling Tod. They are finely dressed in a tasseled skirt that covers their lower body and overpants, with a collared cape featuring long hanging panels with embroidery and a tasseled scallop pattern, with a brooch of a carved animal's head at their throat. A chatelaine with a six-legged turtle-like creature hangs from their belt. They are white with black stripes and dark facial markings that extend to the tip of their trunk, which has two bar piercings. The right side of their face is an eyeless crater of scar tissue, with bone missing from the crown of their head to nearly their nostril, an injury that on a human would have been instantly fatal.
The large centaur turns their single dark eye and makes eye contact across the distance with Talita, who stares back in dumbfounded horror.
56 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 245 and 246”
Egg
Well. At least she is far away enough that she can escape this situation
Egg
Mell I swear to fuck if you try to beckon her over I will get you
Imp!
Live Talita Reaction
bug
jay your 3d enviroments are insane
WombatDog
Can litters of centaurs have multiple sires?
WombatDog
Ah I love that the one on the far left has their lil hands tucked into their garment what a cute detail
Heather
Oh my gosh I LOVE the details in how the other centaurs are dressed. What amazing jewelry and patterns. I also love the detail that the three kids are dressed identically; it hints at a specific social structure or tradition. Man sorry Talita but I can’t wait to learn more about these people!!!!
BravoLimaPoppa
Mel, you god-damned idiot.
Adrienne
Just like a broken clock is right twice a day, Talita’s facial markings become eyebrows in very rare scenarios and it’s specifically when she’s shocked out of her gourd
hessian
the kids tho …so cutes.
Anonymous
Their little cloaks…<3
Lilac
AND THEY HAVE CHILDREN WITH THEM?
Lilac
While this is unfortunately terrible for talita From my outside entirely unaffected position as a neutral observer I must say they seem very cool hopefully theu are at least like nice or mean well or something (sorry talita)
Lilac
*they
Entguarde
THEY’RE HERE!!!
Are these guys Nightchasers?
jade stormcloud
OMG! they’re so amazing! The little ones! And all the detail in the clothing! I wish I could see them close up in real life.
Zuorai
Waitwaitwaitwaitwait ITS HERRRRRRRRRRRRRR
un_pogaz
Kid detected. Nurturing instinct activated: “I will die for their cute baby face.” *load shotgun* “Don’t dare try me.”
Really, it’s crazy how you give them realy such handsome face. And the adults a quite impressive.
Else, it’s a shame that I suspect this will end badly. Talita will never be fully “Centaur”, but it would be so nice to see her talks with her peers and make “peace” with who she is, and even become affirmative and proud of that. Today could be a great opportunity, but it’s still too soon, and definitely not like this.
Claire
:Y
tyrone
Oh no..Its even worse than “just a few” Its a entire freaking clan………
Also she is already getting the , singular, stink eye….
Impressive wound by the way, must just have scraped of the outer layer of the skull….
Soon they will all point and look at her derisively trough their monocle while whispering….
Its like my 1 day at school all over again ( minus monocles.)
Redacted
Well centaurs all have rbf to humans, maybe it’s not as bad as at looks. Not that Talita would know.
Teod
It’s probably not a stink eye, centaur facial expressions are different from human (and from Talita’s).
That wound is not as bad as it looks – centaur brains are in the torso. Sill pretty bad though, that could have hurt respiration and speech.
The monocles are for reading, at long distance centaurs have pretty good natural vision.
Matt
We know that Talita’s tusks are out-of-season (due to stress, it seemed) and far too frequent, I wonder what this looks like for the clan centaurs! Maybe like seeing somebody who has stress-induced grey streaks in their hair, or heavy eyebags?
Ash
BABY CENTAURS THEYRE SO LITTLE
oodle
GOD i love their beautiful little monocles.
Martin
Man poor Talita. Not only are there other centaurs here without any warning but they all have wayyyyy cooler outfits than her.
EnchantressEmily
This page really emphasizes for me just how much Talita’s humanized clothing and mannerisms make her look “less alien” to us-the-readers. After 8+ chapters of seeing Talita all the time I thought I was used to what centaurs look like, but this clan still made me go “oh wow, those really are a Different Kind of Creature.”
Jumpus
Oh I adore how you’ve given each of them a little intricate looking glass so they can read smaller text that’s so awesomes
Momo
such nice details!! even the handle looks perfectly built for a lovely little hoof grip
Famout
I was NOT prepared for the “battle damage.”
That said, on this page, one centaur really stands out, as if they where raised in a while other culture…
Surely dressing and acting very human won’t cause any trouble when interacting with a very exclusive culture.
Redacted
OMG IT’S HER!!! Aside from the horrible surprise this is for Talita I’m loving all the details on their outfits! Three of the entourage are wearing magnifying glasses for reading like the centaurs she met in First Contact, and the matriarch is wearing two charms that look like centaur homeplanet animals. None of the adults have their antlers in while Talita does, they’re probably synced on a different cycle.
Also my gut is telling that that Chekhov’s gun of Talita’s problems with the temps is gonna fire hard, if she can’t get a bunch of humans to listen to her, there’s no way a clan of stranger centaurs would respect a meek, clanless, human-socialized outsider over their matriarch. Hell of a surprise. Why would Mel do this? Are they stupid?
Skadoosh
Hopefully the matriarch has the good sense to tell the workers to listen to Talita when it comes to work safety. Talita may be (in the eyes of more traditionalist centaurs) a lunatic space hermit who dresses and acts as though she was a human, but she is the expert in the field, and sometimes you just have to put up with some “eccentricities” to learn something.
foca
Also, i am SO FUCKING SCARED about what will happen. i have no idea what they will think about Talita, however i imagine it’s not gonna go well since (spoilers) jay said there will be centaur crying this episode. gosh, i’m so excited and terrified!
foca
GAAAAAAHHHHHH…!!!!!! THEYRE FINALLY HERE!!! these are such beautiful designs, i’m in awe with all the intricate detailing on their clothes, i could stare at these for hours. the kids are so cutewith their little capes… and like others have commented, it’s so cool to see the ‘matriarch with a broken crown’ concept be used here!!!! wahhhh
Montydragon
the teens look so teen. a little nervous to be in a new place with their parents but also excited. gahhhh how does jay fit so many mundane sweet details into these drawings
Jay Eaton
Those kids are about 8 years old, actually. Teens would be taller
BlueJay
Awww baby centaurs!!
But very valid reaction from Talita yikes
ronan
man i am SO nervous for how the clan and talita will interact 😬 i wonder how much mel has told them about talita and what they will think of her…
but they do look SO cool, i love the little diamond markings on their faces, and the matriarch’s dark trunk! and if i remember centaur expressions correctly, one of the kids looks like they’re smiling which is cute ;]
jellex
The difference in style between the other centaurs and Talita in that final panel is: 1) very good comic-ing 2) unfortunately very very funny due to how starkly they are being juxtaposed right next to each other (sorry Talita
Sol
OMG so the surprise was not a new big apartment upgrade?? That will make it easier for Talita to leave.
Redacted
Well I’d expect that Mel was planning on part of the surprise being to move Talita out of dry storage and into a bigger apartment. Where she’ll have to be neighbors with a bunch of stranger centaurs. Yay.
Mr. Skeleton
No one is prepared for anything that’s about to happen!
Mechie
Least of all Talita, I think
Skadoosh
I so wish this page was in color. I want to see all the little accessories and the diversity in “plumage” between them.
Momo
oohhhh ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
aw so cute how you can tell the kids are all siblings from the matriarch with those cute trunk spots
AnormalADN
oh golly indeed
(But also gosh they look very pretty in their getup, and the young ones are very cute)
40
HOLY SHIT ITS HER
Mimi-Fox
Are these young centaurs?! They’re so cute!
This seems like a very tense moment for Talita! I hope she will be okay after this meeting.
rory
i am having Emotions
K
ITS THE MATRIARCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(https://www.tumblr.com/jayrockin/655550323873742848?source=share)
Also it looks like she has larva under that jacket that’s draped over her!
Momo
oh yeah i didnt notice, youre right they might be grubnant… (grub pregnant)
hurgaburga
one one hand: talita’s mixed feelings at BEST about mel’s surprise
on another: OOOH COOL CENTAUR DESGNS ALSO ONE REFRENCING THAT ONE POST YOU MADE ON TUMLR EEEEEEEEEE (this one: https://www.tumblr.com/jayrockin/655550323873742848/matriarch-with-a-broken-crown-i-get-asked-a-lot)
Chrysalis
YES. A terrible thing to spring on Talita unprepared (or possibly at all), but they all look SO COOL. I want to find out their names and their family dynamics and their history and their skills and the significance of their clothes and accessories and
rory
talita. good luck girl.
robug
UH OH!
edenmachine5457
.AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA