Runaway to the Stars: Page 263
Posted on April 9, 2026 by Jay Eaton

Whatcha doing Talita? Uh... yawning?

Runaway to the Stars is crowdfunding to become a printed book this month! Click here to be notified on launch!

Transcript

Talita sets down her tablet on her bedside dresser, which is ringing for "Unknown #." She sits stiffly on her bed gripping her neck and face, watching the tablet buzz as no one picks up.

She begins to tremble. Seemingly against her own will, Talita begins to strain forward against her own hands, trunk curled tighter and tighter, mouth opening wider and wider, her sharp beak-like teeth exposed by her snarling lips.

Runaway to the Stars: Page 263
Posted on April 9, 2026 by Jay Eaton

Whatcha doing Talita? Uh... yawning?

Runaway to the Stars is crowdfunding to become a printed book this month! Click here to be notified on launch!

Transcript

Talita sets down her tablet on her bedside dresser, which is ringing for "Unknown #." She sits stiffly on her bed gripping her neck and face, watching the tablet buzz as no one picks up.

She begins to tremble. Seemingly against her own will, Talita begins to strain forward against her own hands, trunk curled tighter and tighter, mouth opening wider and wider, her sharp beak-like teeth exposed by her snarling lips.

200 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 263”

  1. Towhee

    God i can HEAR that scream-sob in my head so clearly. The fact no-one picked up when she needs it most. Was she trying to call Cal, I wonder?
    Her expression is so fiercesome looking but it’s one of immense pain. I just want to hug the poor dear

  2. Kencf0618

    Hardly as as visceral as this, but once in a great while an old wound opens up and one just shouts in frustration. Sometimes just a sore spot that gets touched unexpectedly. For Talita it’s “My life and welcome to it”; it’s a grinding constant that just peaked DRAMATICALLY.
    P.S. July begins on a Friday in 2033.

    1. Vinemaple

      It’s the Jovian calendar, not the Gregorian. There’s no July 4th, and June has 31 days. (kidding)

    2. Magpie

      It’s 2333.

    3. Magpie

      It’s 2333, not 2033.

  3. Artor

    Everyone else is commenting on the raw emotion of this post, and I don’t have anything to add to that. But holy shit, is the background in those 3 frames stippled by hand? I can see where the greyscale was used, but that background does not look like it’s cut & pasted or anything. That had to take hours just to shade in each of those panels.

    1. Claire

      I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a brush for the texturing in whichever art program Jay uses. You can get brushes for far more complicated repeating or semi-repeating patterns.

    2. aron

      I think it’s a noise filter at different levels of black vs. white. art programs can do that type of thing

  4. Joyfully

    You can really see the defined jaw straining on the last panel 🙁 talita… I wanna hug her so so so bad. as someone who fucked up their jaw joint from stress-related behaviours i empathise gah

  5. The Opossum Witch

    God the despair is palpable on this page. I’ve said similar on the Patreon but Jay your ability to condense emotion into these intensely concentrated scenes is incredible. I can feel the pressure building in her head and throat as if it were my own.

  6. goose

    i LOVE how talita’s nostrils flare when she eeks out. god, crying without proper tearducts is so visceral. social skills are hard girl. sucks when you biff it.

    i recognize that mel thinks that they are doing the correct thing in this scenario but their raw and unadulterated incompetence when it comes to talita’s perception of her being and herself in general / the correct thing to do for her in any situation at all is hurting people and i think maybe we should beat them with hammers. they’ve gotten squeaky-hammered but now it’s time for some viking shit methinks

  7. cinna

    ah…. yeah. that kind of sobbing, where your body does a bunch of involuntary, uncontrollable things and leaves you feeling more sore than relieved

    1. Uh

      Gotta love the unstoppable shaking and hyperventilating lol. Thanks human body very cool.

    2. Vinemaple

      On a lighter note, love your new avatar!

    3. Alex

      That bit where her whole body and everything around her is turning to static–I know what that feels like.

  8. Sabella

    It looks like there’s implied infrasound as a kind of “silent scream”.
    I do not like people giving Talita a reason to do this.

  9. MutableAlias

    i love when character’s glasses are blank so it covers up their eye expressions but it’s not as dramatic nor realistic as a lens glare, just stylistically blank. also Return of the Dithering.
    also also just noticed 1) already her eyelid and nictitating membrane are both out together and 2) in the 2nd to last panel you can just barely see the top of her eye, closed shut 🥺

  10. nick

    i havw the emotional constitution of a rich victorian child who lives in a house with lead & arsenic wallpaper so rhese last two pages will have me bedridden with feveer for a week. that means the fiction is good ithink

    1. Maned Wolf

      Almost exhaled cereal out my nose because of this comment

  11. Daredevild

    Oh I know the feeling… all your facial muscles tensing, you know it’s about to happen, you don’t want to but you can’t stop it. Alone in your room.
    Others are saying the “yawn” may be an attempt to not chatter or a stress yawn, and they’re definitely more correct than me, but I’m so worried she’s about to just slam her jaw shut… please dont hurt your teeth and jaw Talita…

  12. plover

    I may be wrong but I don’t think this is Bip she’s calling. I think this is most likely Cal she’s calling, who she’s been saying hasn’t been replying back to her as of late ever since he quit, who she was closest to here before he left, who was telling her she should leave this job the very last time they talked on-screen (also preemptively wished her ‘safe travels’ as his final on-screen words), and who would of all people understand leaving this job due to Mel being thoughtless. I think Bip is a lot easier to get a hold of at this time, since they’re accessible from any of her devices. I do think they’re going to show up soon due to that, though, unless someone else interrupts her crying that they’d rather not be around.

  13. Chaos

    People wrote better comments more eloquently but, gosh this page breaks my heart.

  14. aquilegia

    oh god I got a lump in my throat at the last panel

  15. Senri

    Ohhh nooooooo 🙁 🙁 🙁

    I really hope Bip picks up 🙁

    And I hope we get more interactions with the Gwailer before this book ends… I want them to go better than the first round. I feel like Bip has been kind to Thalia. Maybe a friend coaching her through Centaur Interactions 101 will be easier than digging into it herself should that happen…?

    On the other hand right now would be a prime narrative moment for things to be complicated by another crisis, like someone discovering Bip or the centaur ship.

  16. Ave Zancuda

    Jay is so masterful at conveying emotions, the pure grit

  17. Altariasong

    For those unaware, Jay has established that teeth clacking/chattering and infrasonic groaning are involuntary responses to distress in centaurs. Talita is doing the centaur equivalent of holding back tears on this page and it’s breaking my heart…

    1. dwemerDraconic

      Additionally, for the folks willing to dig, there’s a comic in the Art (or Comics and Animation) menu titled “Talita’s Teenage Heartbreak” that shows a much younger Talita trying and failing to not cry. Not as intensively shown as this is, but still heartrending all the same. You can even see her trying to hold her mouth shut in what I can only assume is an attempt to stop her mouth from snapping. 🙁

  18. radish

    oh babyyyy

  19. Napkinkat

    Poor Talita i think she’s trying to stop her teeth from clicking
    I think we’re about to find out what centaur crying looks like 😢
    I wish we could all just give her a massive hug.
    Also unrelated but I wish I could open my mouth that wide damn.

  20. Smooti

    Oh, Talita : (

    If what’s she’s doing here is opening her mouth wide to avoid teeth snapping / grinding, then even here in this moment she is forcing herself to go against what her body naturally wants to do in order to not disturb the humans around her. Her whole life has been trying to make herself more palatable to those around her one way or another, and even in this moment of raw emotion while alone she can’t stop herself from doing it again.

    1. Cat

      I think it’s a stress yawn, her body’s automatic attempt to relieve some tension/draw air because she’s taking shorter breaths because of her heightened emotional state. Humans do it too (though most people associate the behaviour with dogs)! It’s just… much more dramatic when Talita does it for… obvious reasons

      1. Adzy

        Funfact! Centaurs don’t breathe through their mouths. Just through their trunk and rear pneuma cavities. That mouth is just a food hole.

        1. Cat

          I know that, but you can also see her nostrils flaring as she yawns, so she is likely still drawing air as part of the yawn.

      2. Ky

        Teeth chattering/clacking is part of the normal distress responses for centaurs. It’s not a yawn, it’s more the equivalent of trying to hold back sobs (holding her jaw closed).

    2. Pocoloco

      I had been trying to figure out how to word this, but you did it much better! I relate so hard to constantly policing your own body for the sake of others so much that it bleeds over into time when you’re alone, too, until you just can’t stop it from spilling out. It’s also such a cruel reminder of her centaur biology when she has species dysphoria… an absolute onion of suffering. Poor Talita!

  21. Noodlederg

    reflexive smile, instinctive crying, never in control of your own body.

  22. Gar G

    Poor girl….

    looks like she’s trying to scream

    1. Trees

      It’s one hell of an expression, yeah.
      On the other hand, it’s been communicated that the author has purposefully drawn instinctive centaur facial expressions that are inscrutable to humans.
      Perhaps we are misreading it.
      Perhaps Talita is merely really hungry after a trying day and is just getting herself ready to eat a whole roast chicken in a single bite.

      1. halley

        oh, of course. yeah that’s probably it

  23. Pi

    This is absolutely brutal.

    9 chapters to sharpen the spear to a fine point, 3 panels to drive it home.

    1. Kencf0618

      The pacing is superb.

  24. Redacted

    Wait crap I just remembered I submitted a question in the QnA for Verengt under “matriarch” before their name was revealed. Hope that doesn’t cause any issues, assuming Jay chooses to answer it that is.

  25. Stray Cat

    Wow. I could do a detailed breakdown of just how well the last three panels, alone, are an incredible example of visual storytelling.

    The complete lack of dialogue–no text aside from the onomatopeia and the text in the background.
    The way the static/white noise in the background becomes more intense until it’s just white.
    Talita’s eyes no longer being visible.
    The fact that this both uses and breaks from every single aspect of how Talita expresses herself, both the human and centaur aspects, that has been shown up to this point.
    The connected shiver lines, surrounding her like an aura.
    The expressions breaking out of the panel boundaries.
    The use of screentones and hatching instead of flat colours.
    The lack of shading.

    And all this on a character of a species that literally does not exist in real life.

    Wow.

    1. Vinemaple

      Thanks for this I’m barely up to this kind of analysis even at the best of times… I also notice that the “white noise” starts in the first panel, as stippling around Talita’s head and shoulders. Having this kind of panic/anxiety reaction really can feel like a growing sort of mental “white noise” inside one’s brain.

  26. Rad Internet Stranger

    It’s incredible how well you convey emotion. Talita is an alien and though she’s been conditioned to use our expressions, in cases such as this, she uses instinctive expressions rather than learned. To us it looks more like Talita is utterly furious and the only reason we know that she’s instead having a panic attack (and very likely crying) is the context of the previous pages and what we know of her. If any of us saw her make this expression without context, I can guarantee that we’d all interpret it as angry, at least at a first glance.

    You’re an incredibly talented artist and storyteller, Jay. Now, please give Talita all the hugs for us, she deserves a break from all this torment ;-;

  27. MyUniverseinaBox

    Coming back because this page is sO FUCKING COOL
    I can hear the white noise becoming more high pitched and overbearing, as it drowns everything else out, and the fact that I know Talita likely isn’t making any sounds, and how honestly terrifying it is to see her this way. I mean most of the comic we’ve seen her looking goofy or pretty or elegant or silly or powerful (in regards to her being very buff), but THIS? THIS??? Her jaw opening this wide, the fact that we can’t see her eyes at all, It’s such RAW emotion, I’m LOOSING MY MIND

  28. 40

    Holy fuck this is well drawn.

    1. 40

      This shit is like that Golb scene, I love it.

  29. Kai

    My favorite page yet. So emotionally raw and visceral. Beautifully done, even though it’s painful to watch

  30. Vinemaple

    It’s like being buried alive, isn’t it, Talita?

    The way every single day brings either a new crisis, or a new loss, or both?

    The way you never seem to have time for yourself, but always have to give time for others?

    The way every way out disappears on you, until the only solutions seem to be either to let it happen, or risk everything, even your life, to escape into the unknown?

    I know how that feels.

  31. J

    CALCERY FUCKN ANSWER!!
    (Pls for the love of gourd she needs you!)

    1. Claire

      I don’t think it’s calcery because this is a live call. Anyone off-station (past the grandmas at least) wouldn’t be a live call, Those would be a series of video messages sent back and forth.

  32. Frankie

    Proud of Talita for reaching out in this moment instead of trying to withdraw!

    1. Bramble

      Is she reaching out? Usually when caller ID says “unknown number” that means it’s an incoming call. If she was calling someone, it should show either their name from her contacts or the number she dialed.

      1. dwemerDraconic

        Not for Bip! My theory is that she’s kept their contact intentionally blank. They’ve noted multiple times that they prefer no one knowing they exist, so it tracks (for both Bip’s sake and covering her own behind!) that she wouldn’t properly name their contact info.

        We’ve also seen “Unknown” be directly attributed to calling Bip specifically in a few other pages. 🙂 If you read the transcript it also clarifies that she’s waiting for the person on the other end to pick up, or at least “waiting while no one picks up”.

  33. buam

    Ooh a panic attack, how fun. What a good and normal time everyone is having.

  34. Rose

    Jay you’re SO GOOD AT COMICS UGH

    the way her shiver lines are connected and lead you through the panels……. the way she is BREAKING OUT of those panels because her emotions cannot be contained…….. the emotions you convey to such a depth…….. i love RttS

  35. MyUniverseinaBox

    Jesus christ that’s kind of terrifying
    I get the feeling that this is crying… my heart, it hurts

  36. mustarjil

    ooo i like that the trunk resembles a clenched fist. guessing the ‘yawning’ motion looks to be an involuntary stress response like how humans shed tears? i know centaurs version of laughing derived from play panting, so it’d be interesting to see how crying came to be—that is, if she is indeed crying, but given the context & paneling, there’s no way she isn’t on the verge of sobbing. poor baby.

  37. Eux

    jay as always your panels and your arts are TOP TIER!!!!!!
    talita…………. ;A;

  38. Bird152

    Let’s all hold hands in a circle and hope Mel barges in to ask how it went and then they both talk it over and everything gets fixed :DDD and then they all live happily ever after :DDD (i have no idea what happens next this is wishful thinking)

  39. Zofifi

    Wow woah woah woo what is she doing? It looks freaky. Is her jaw supposed to open this wide? Jeez…

    1. Tetolita

      Talita is yawning, you don’t need to worry👍

      1. AnaKaye

        Yawning wouldn’t involve the mouth in a species whose mouth is not connected to their airway. Centaurs are such a species.

    2. c Senaru

      This is almost certainly Centaur sobbing, which involves shaking/trembling and jaw snapping involuntarily, as per the emotion guide at least. Poor Talita is not having a good time!

  40. florence

    she better be calling bip i need them to lock inOHHHYMGFOD

    1. Vinemaple

      Bip has always been labeled “unknown #” on Talita’s phone and Gillie’s computer. I guess this can’t be “come pick me up I need to leave with you,” but I’m sure she’s calling Bip.

      The only reason I can think of for Bip not picking up is that they’re for some reason being forced to pretend not to exist… but why that wouldn’t mean a phone call, I don’t know. Unless Bip is doing some sort of server maintenance?

  41. Gheesfellow

    I Have No Vocal Cords in my Throat and I Must Scream

    1. Silly/Billy

      I COMMENTED FOR THE FIRST TIME JUST TO SAY HOW MUCH I LAUGHED AT THIS THANK YOU😭😭

      1. Gheesfellow

        😁

    2. Gander of the Shinies

      This just made me picture a centaur yelling like those cartoon elephant blowing their trunks like a warhorn

  42. Leif

    These pages are really well done, the way that you use the backgrounds and borders to really express how talitia is feeling is, unghagsjskdhsjwosbdksjsb its so good

  43. deathbypixelz

    TALITA NOOOOO BABY I’M GIVJG YOU AN ENORMOIS HUG DESPITE MY TINY BODY COMPARED TO YOURS

    1. Skadoosh

      Let’s make it a group hug, we can all pile onto her

  44. milk4evertoasted

    no.. noooo… talita. I understand ..
    I remember when I was a fussier, more volatile autistic kid,I would bite objects or myself because I was so overwhelmed… talita..

    1. blythe

      i used to bite things as a kid too, but then id feel bad for the things i bit (lol?) so it instead became silent seething

  45. Mango The Captain

    Yeah, that face is relatable

    1. Mango The Captain

      I can remember how hard it is to keep your mouth closed as well (I always tried anyway and failed)

      1. Mango The Captain

        Ok so now that I read more of the comments, I think we were having opposite problems.

  46. FuzzySpiderPawz

    Ohhhhh Talita :((( Bip (at least I assume it’s Bip) please pick up she really needs this

    1. FuzzySpiderPawz

      Although I guess it could be Calcery?

  47. T-Bird

    I’m confused, I read this page as an unknown number calling Talita? But reading the comments, it seems I’m in the minority here. Am I missing something?

    That out of the way, Talita needs all the hugs she’s comfortable receiving, right now. Poor girl has such a rotten time of it right now…

    1. foca

      when you receive a call, your phone is not gonna display “Calling…” on the screen. this is also confirmed on the transcript of the page.

      1. T-Bird

        Aah, I see. Sorry, the Unknown# threw me completely.
        Thanks!

    2. #SaveTalita

      i thought it was bip, they’ve shown up on talita’s phone as unknown caller before

  48. TotallySomebody

    Oooagh no I don’t like it I want to make Talita happy I want to give her all her favorite things. And a hug maybe.

  49. TeethBurglar

    Bip please pick up, Talita needs this! She need to runaway to the stars!

    1. TotallySomebody

      Purple scud twin

  50. Animus

    Poor thing, she should honestly take this as a sign to leave at this point. Hope she gets the ability to apologise and explain to the centurs her human upbringing including mannerisms and expressions.

    1. Archieve

      The curse of being a people pleaser is you never feel you have a justifiable reason for inconveniencing others even if they don’t show you any consideration. I’m hoping Verengnt realizing that not knowing anything about Talita in advance is a red flag for dirtball management.

  51. Eosapian

    I know centaurs speak through their trunk, but from a human perspective it gives the impression Talita is trying not to scream.

    1. Lilac

      Well her trunk is all crumpled up too so maybe…..

  52. Zuorai

    Brb throwing my slipper at Mel REALLY HARD

    1. boxesofboxes

      I am going to grease all of the doorknobs in their life.

      1. Rose

        i’m going to put tacks on all the chairs they ever sit in forever

        1. Fizzy

          I’ll melt all of their popsicles ever

        2. creetur

          I will make their belt loops snag on every handle

  53. Redacted

    Must be nice to cry without getting your glasses all smudged up. Source: am glasses wearer, have experienced emotions. I lost a pair of prescription sunglasses that way. Took them off to cry, put them down, and that’s the last I remember seeing them. Still haven’t found them.

  54. WayanayaW

    Waugh 😭
    This page is gorgeously illustrated and I feel so bad for her…. Wonder who she’s phoning cos I feel like my first thoughts would be saved numbers. The comments saying it might be Bip though might be onto something…

    1. malmo

      If I was colluding with a pirate I would not save their number on what might be a company device either

  55. cypr

    oh talita…

  56. Heather

    The composition of this page and the last couple are absolutely gorgeous. Stunning use of panels and space to convey Talita’s mindset.

  57. halley

    coitada : (

  58. Mitta

    This sucks for her but her little feets sitting on the bed are so cute

    1. Alternate

      I JUST noticed how she’s sitting. Oh her feets. I *just* saw a tumblr poll about ‘do you like this furries feet’ (wild that they call her a furry) for Talita and honestly. I GET IT. SHE GOT CUTE FEETS (PLATONIC). (feel free to delete this comment if it feels toooooooo,,, mentioning of furry feet for the public).
      But the way she gets to both dangle her feet off the bed AND grip the bed with them, that’s gotta be satisfying. I am now… contemplating the dexterity of her walkin hooves vs her hand-hooves. Can those front walking hooves grab things like her hands or are they built DIFFERENT?

      1. Redacted

        I thought that guy was creepy, I blocked them like instantly.

      2. Mitta

        They look pretty much the same as her hands but I wont be surprised if the front hands are biased a little more towards dexterity with more fine muscle control. From what I’ve read on the centaur lore page, a common hunting strategy involves just grabbin their prey with the 2 sets of hands/feet and teeth and tackling them to the ground. Human feet are also pretty flexible and some people are really good at grabbing stuff with their toes cause like, monkey ancestors and all

      3. cain

        There’s probably a lot heavier muscle development in the walking feet than the furthest front limbs, since they bear weight most of the time, so maybe they’re slightly less dextrous?

  59. Alternate

    *glazes over the emotional aspects* YEAR 2333! Woo! A scifi story that doesn’t obfuscate the year with 2XXX or ‘new year designation like BC/AD, so its technically 2000 but 2000 HC or somethin’. Actually that second ones not a bad idea, maybe I’ll use that in my own story. But I’m fixated on the date like ‘WOW. So much can CHANGE in such a small amount of time. Not that three centuries is small. But wow.’ Is it official *when* aliens/first contact happened in this story? I’ll have to check the World tabs again.
    Wonder if this comic will get a ‘call back to old media, its officially 2333 when RTTS was taking place woo’ (but if this comic is right, that’s like expecting somethin like Ancient Egyptian Transcripts being super popular in modern times… But who knows, maybe I’ll pass down the books through my lineage).

    Okay back to the emotional aspects, everyones said somethin I woulda said already honestly, it’s just good shit. Not for Talita. But the illustration, the FEELING, the comic structure, all Very Good. GIRL NEED A HUG. FROM TEN THOUSAND LIGHTENING BBUGS (move girl I wanna see that poster behind you).

    1. cain

      I mean, yeah. Three centuries ago from our current time was the Industrial Revolution.

  60. Lark

    oh my goodness this is so much emotion in one single page. My heart strings are being yanked so hard. (amazing story, please keep pulling them!)

  61. bug

    bip we need you to lock in and save talita

  62. $ilverware

    Oh Talita, oh darling TQT

  63. FuzzySpiderPawz

    *aggressively and wildly gestures to the name of the webcomic*

    1. Archieve

      As comforting as it is remembering that she does eventually leave and everything gets better, I still feel wildly anxious of the thought of her having to spend another day in this toxic work environment pretending everythings fine.

      1. dwemerDraconic

        Augh, same. Was watching one of Jay’s art streams last night on one of the upcoming pages for next chapter and I literally had some kind of quasi-lucid predictive stress dream about it??? 😭😭😭 It’s such a high stakes situation, and with chapter ten being as long as it’s projected to be… This is gonna be a hell of a ride

        1. FuzzySpiderPawz

          I’m not ready augh I don’t know how much more Talita plinko I can handle

  64. Trees

    Talita might be feeling sad at the moment but she can always take solace in having overcome one of the great engineering challenges of the universe: how to get your charging cable to sit neatly on your bedside table and not immediately slither onto the floor like a stroppy snake.

    1. Redacted

      She accidentally used up all her luck points on that

  65. Tentament

    When the Talita plinko finally hits the bottom

    1. Lezzlebit

      into the low quality fire gif you go

      1. Skadoosh

        And then she gets flung right back to the top

  66. Adrienne

    The “please please please I never ever want to leave my room or be seen by anyone ever again” pose… We’ve all been there girl 🫂

    1. hurgaburga

      i just had a moment like this today myself oh god no… D: as if i needed another reason to wanna give her a big hug…

  67. un_pogaz

    And we reach the breaking point.

    Whoever picks up on the other end of the line will end on a truly awful sight. Talita is just going to be a total mess of cry, hope their will know how to react to that.

    For several pages now, we have been complaining about Mel’s incompetence, but I’ve remained coolly analytical. I’ve been observing the events from a distance and watching the characters develop with a touch of humor. It’s a story one on wich I really invested in, but nothing personal.
    Now, is personal.
    I honestly feel deep anger and hatred toward Mel. It’s real and personal one.
    What is happening here is, and I say this in all seriousness, a traumatic level event. This anxiety attack will leave a deep mark on Talita’s psyche. It is absolutely heartbreaking to watch such an event unfold right before your eyes, feeling powerless to do anything about it. There can be no forgiveness, ever.

    1. goose

      I mean, I understand your anger, but Mel wasn’t the one who abandoned Talita as an infant, Mel wasn’t the one who advised Talita be culled instead of fostered with a centaur… A lot of systems have led to this moment and pinning it on one person like this feels like disrespecting Talita’s pain and its source. Even if Mel had been the most compassionate, well-meaning, connected manager in the world, nothing would automatically make Talita a centaur-y centaur, and it’d be outright discrimination to deal with it by never hiring other centaurs.

      1. Half Phased

        Mel isn’t responsible for all of Talita’s issues, but they are the architect of the situation.

        Mel’s behavior drove the coworker Talita got along best with to quit. They then pushed Talita into a managerial role over temporary workers with poor discipline in a dangerous environment with no training. They’ve created an environment where their employees realise there is no point in raising issues as Mel will belittle the issues or insist that it isn’t a problem. When Talita came to Mel for assistance with the temps despite that, Mel belittled the issue. Mel then deliberately did not inform Talita that the next group of temps would be a centaur clan and instructed others of the plant to not inform Talita to make it a surprise.

        And that’s what we can say with 100% certainty. It’s highly likely that Mel passed over applicants for the temp position just because the centaurs were centaurs so that Talita could be with “her own people”.

        All of this is “bad manager of the century” material, before you consider Mel’s relation to Talita as foster parent, which means they should be aware of Talita’s needs. And yet they seem to be operating against them.

        Mel may not be actively being malicious, but their actions make people’s lives harder as they don’t seem to fully stop and think about them or check what other people want. And this is the 3rd known time of this occurring.

        1. goose

          I’m not defending Mel. Talita just carries this pain no matter what. Eventually, even if not here, Talita was going to encounter another centaur, and was going to be rejected by that centaur, because the way she was raised is so at odds with what centaurs expect. Eventually, something was going to poke a really sharp stick into this sore spot. Saying this is entirely Mel’s fault dismisses that in a way that doesn’t sit right with me, that’s all. It takes the focus away from the existential pain no one really can solve.

        2. un_pogaz

          reply to @goose
          That argument do not work. Sure, some day Talita should have faced this situation and I’m with Idrisah that avoiding them is not a good strategy in the long run.

          But this is something she have to control of, doing it at her own pace in an environment she can control, and with thorough mental preparation about it.
          Not be cruch in her face, like stabing in her back, especialy by someone she trusted and whom she naturally turned to for help before.

          You don’t teach someone to swim by throwing them into the water.

          Maybe you not defending Mel, but you downplayed their responsibilities and that not good eaither.

      2. Archieve

        Counterpoints: Mel is the one who got Talita promoted to a manager role she was clearly ill suited for. Mel is the one who promised to be there for her then refused to act when Talita tried to make an official complaint even though it’s literally their job. Mel is the one bleeding talent like Calercy and replacing them with mostly bad tempts. Mel is the one who denied Talita the opportunity to think for herself if managing other Centaurs was something she was ready for, they failed to give her proper notice for very racist coded reasons and have succeeded in creating an increasingly hostile working environment. The company can hire as many new Cebtsurs as they want but expecting Talita to manage them is taking her for granted.

        1. Archieve

          My point being in response to the take that conflict with other Centaurs was inevitable…not necessarily she was slowly gaining knowledge at appreciation througj Bip, but and even if so, Mel exasperating the issue in the workplace by denying her the chance to step-down from the management role was blatently disregarding her personal autonomy and this incident is completely their doing. if Mel treated Talita like a normal employee who recieves notice and introductions damage could have been minimal but they still want to play “hero” when it’s convenient for them which resulted in this boundary stomping incident.

      3. un_pogaz

        Oh sure, Mel is not the single source of failure, is a complex situation.

        I only juge them fo the direct consequence of their own actions. And their are. Absolutly. Catastrophic.

        They was the “last guard”, the one that was the most power but do nothing to avoid or prevent it. Even worse, they ran into it by actively brought those events. And that because of a almost criminal level a wrong assumption and ignoring numberous feedbacks. Things are even worse when you consider that Mel isn’t just Talita’s professional manager, but was also their sponsor college, so their acquaintances for years, and they STILL ignore the felling of Talita about Centaurs, and all her fellings in general.
        No, just No. Mel fuck up in an unforgivable way. Most reasonable people would have suspected something was amiss, would have taken a step back, and would not have acted so irresponsibly. AND don’t forget that the Centaurs Temp is just the last one of long list of systemic failure of Mel part.

      4. C3/C3

        Hanlon’s Razor: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by ignorance.”
        Equivalently: Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.
        Mel did not act in malice, but the end result is indistinguishable. ‘Intentions’ only matter as far as damage-control-going-forward goes. The actual resulting disaster-to-be-learnt-from cannot be undone, and Mel dropped a lot of ball-bearings that led to this particular emotional-OSHA cataclysm.

    2. C3/C3

      I’m a brand-new reader fresh off a first-time binge (whee first comment)! I haven’t had a chance to read The Discourse since comments are a second-binge deal, but I feel the same way you do about this: Unforgivable.

      I don’t just mean that as the kneejerk response to getting the whole story-so-far in one dose without time to really analyze much. I’m the same kind of reader you seem to be, but Mel’s whole thing’s been personal to me from the moment I understood the ‘road to hell’ vibe they bring to the story.

      …Sorry for coming into this kind over-sharing, but I can’t really convey my feelings about this without sorta-kinda-disclosing my personal experience with it.

      Sometimes, people are well-meaning and ignorant. I, personally, judge people based on if they’re genuinely trying their best with what they have to work with. That’s all anyone can do! The universe is a bitch, and it’s largely luck-based on what information and resources a person will have to work with during their whole, learning-to-be-a-person-in-the-world-without-hurting-other-people thing.

      I do truly believe that. And I kind of hate that I do, because it forces me to deal with a very painful cognitive dissonance, that I’m still wrestling with — in the WWE sense, not the UFC sense. I know what the answer clearly is (so long as I keep my internal mores consistent,) but I really don’t like it and don’t know what to do about it. All I really can do is go through the requisite emotional-motions. I can’t just skip over an emotion in the process just because I know what the end result I’m coming to is. Would be much more convenient. Apparently some people CAN do that and I would very much like to know how speedrun this process, but I digress.

      ‘Good people do the best they can with what they have,’ is my personal judgement standard.

      It is very difficult to cognitively mesh that nice, tidy little ideal with the reality that the person who was ‘doing the best they could with what they had to work with’… fucked up. Severely. Fucked up in a way that’s permanently damaged you. That, even if you could snap you fingers and make them magically, immediately understand everything they did wrong, can’t be undone or fixed. That no amount of ‘sorry’ or ’empathy’ or ‘self-correction’ or ‘doing-better-going-forward’ can fix. You can’t un-break the egg, or un-whisk it, or un-mix it with the other ingredients, or un-bake the pastry, or un-eat it or un-digest it or un-shit-it-out. Those seemed like all the right things to do at the time, for the person who wasn’t the egg.

      All the dominos that fell over on the path to ‘Wow You Sure Got Fucked Up Have Fun With That I Guess’ can’t be re-righted with all the retrospect and goodwill in the world.

      And, unfortunately, damage usually leaves scars.

      Some scars are unobtrusive, and only noticed occasionally.

      Some are visibly marring and permanently debilitating.

      I love the person who gave me CPTSD. I genuinely believe he did the best he really could have done with what he had. I could go through a laundry list of ways he went above and beyond because he loved me. And, when I came to him as an adult with my grievances and retrospects, he listened and validated me and really did what he could going forward. I chose to forgive him, because I had arrived at that decision logically:

      Person did unfair thing –> I was affected –> I made person aware –> Person changed for the better in response –> Unfairness resolved –> Forgiveness, because what’s the point of staying mad? I used my Mad to do the healthy social thing it was supposed to do, no point in keeping it.

      Yeah. Turns out it did not work out like that. Because what I had failed to understand during that time in life, is that ‘Unfairness Resolved’ never happened, never would happen, and the efforts I put into trying to achieve ‘Unfairness Resolved’ would be an exhausting and — had I kept doing what I was doing — likely endless process. It is Unfair that I am saddled with the consequences of another’s control over my life. I will be saddled with these consequences forever. There is no ‘making this fair’. There’s only the solace I can take in harm reduction and damage control going forward.

      For whatever worth I can wring out of it.

      And I am reminded of that with every well-meaning, ignorant thing my loved one does and says that reminds me of what they did. Taking upon myself the responsibility of educating him in all the ways he failed was not a one-and-done process. So many little things about who he is and how he views the world fed into what I became, and you can’t just unravel all that in one sitting and… augh. You get it. Every time one of those nits pops out of the grass to bite you, it’s not just the pain of the nip but the fact that you have to make the active effort to slap it elsewise it’ll bite again. There are so many nits to slap. They are often defensive about being slapped. You are already very, very tired. You have non-nit things to be doing, and all the nit-scarring already makes it hard.

      I suppose at this point I’m just rephrasing what I’ve already said. It’s just, important to me to get this feeling across, without being mistunderstood as seething and resentful and simply not capable of forgiving. Emotional pain and physical pain register the same way in the brain, so I’m trying to get across how visceral this kind of thing can be, this kind of thing that is usually thought of as relegated to the head and heart, without the consideration that the head and heart are made of meat-goo-electricity-all-in-a-certain-shape just like the rest of you.

      Forgiving the person responsible for your trauma is like trying to forgive a dagger for stabbing you, then judging yourself for flinching whenever you catch its gleam in the corner of your eye.

      I guess I’ll finish it by re-summarizing as cleanly as I can how I feel, what it is that I am projecting onto the Mel-Talita dynamic:

      This person assumed responsibility for my care. I was and am vulnerable, and this person made my vulnerability their responsibility. This person, doing the best they could to be good to me, failed in a way that will effect me for the rest of my life going forward. For the authority figure, this failure will, at worst, be a long-lasting source of guilt from which they get to learn and become a better person.

      For me, it is a permanent part of my person. This could be in a temporary sense; as in, ‘This severe harm affected the choices I’d make and ways I felt at the time, and that in turn shaped the rest of my life in a way I can trace back like dominos’. It could, alternatively, be in the chronic sense; as in, ‘This severe harm has given me long-lasting trauma that’s physically embedded into my nervous system in a way that can never be truly undone.’ It could even be both! (Hot Life Pro Tip: It is often both.)

      So… yeah. I can’t vouch for anyone else’s experience with this type of hurt, but for me? Trying to forgive the person who has hurt me in this way has been a long-term experiment in how often I tolerate having a scar scraped open again, and again, and again, from all sorts of creative angles and edges, before I get sick of the metaphorical pain-and-infection that comes along with varying degrees of retraumatization.

      That is why I agree.

      Not for lack of a want to try.

      Simply… Unforgivable.

      1. un_pogaz

        Thanks to share you very personal experience.
        I wish you all the best.

        That something that come in my mind later about the Talita/Mel situation: is too REAL.
        Like, this isn’t a movie plot or pure fiction; it’s a situation that can, has, and will continues to happen. It’s add a painfull layer of credibility and my mind quickly slides trough to the ones who realy live such situation, and ampathy hit hard.
        Besides, it makes me think of my own close call experience of such things, far from that extreme, but that I can related.

        It’s impressive of Jay part to describe this situation with such realism and sincerity.

  68. ronan

    oh talita :'[ this is such a visceral and heart-wrenching page…assuming it’s bip she’s calling, i hope they pick up. she really needs someone to talk to :[

    1. dwemerDraconic

      Bip’s the only person we’ve seen consistently shown as “Unknown” in Talita’s contacts, so it’s highly likely that she’s calling them, yeah. Poor girl 🙁 You really can feel the misery and strain in every inch of the page

    2. goose

      Wait, oh my god, I hadn’t even considered that it’d be Bip. Bip, Talita’s only non-judgemental connection to centaur culture that we’ve seen on page…

      1. goose

        I mean, not specifically judgmental towards Talita about it

  69. Kaffee

    I think that was the last straw, is Talita gonna call Bip (or get called by Bip?) and decide to runaway?

    1. Trees

      I wonder if you have to call all 841 of Bip’s phones before they’ll pick up?

      1. Skadoosh

        That’s probably something you would have needed to test before their phone-mind merged back into their server-mind.

  70. Tye

    Oh no…. now *I* want to cry with her. 😭

  71. Teod

    It took me a while to understand if she’s calling someone or if someone is calling her. How do you even call an unknown number? Surely if you call someone you know their number and if you don’t then you can’t call?

    1. ry

      it’s probably bip, so since they’re a piece of technology themself, maybe they’re callable without actually having a number?

    2. Epsilon Rose

      You might know the number, but your caller ID might not know who the number belongs to. With that said, the page is a bit ambiguous.

    3. Synthaphone

      The screen saying ‘Calling…’ indicates that she is the one calling. She presumably has this contact saved in her phone as “Unknown #” (probably because that’s what the caller ID referred to them as the first time she received a call from them) and hasn’t updated the name to reflect who it is that she’s calling.

    4. HAL9000

      i thought it said “unknown” as in, unknown contact. presumably she knows the number because she called it but it’s not saved to her device

  72. :(

    the antler velvet blanket in the foreground of the first panel :”””””(

  73. Quid_Foe

    Oh no! she’s crying 😭

    1. Kaffee

      Poor Talia 🙁

  74. Archieve

    Wonder how fast she could pack up all her possessions with reliable transportation..and how many days remain until Bips scheduled departure.

  75. Fantia

    Ouhh, baby. 💔 I’m so sorry.
    The portrayal of the raw emotions here is just incredible.

    I wonder is she’s trying to call Calcery?

    1. redsquidz

      That was my thought 🥺

  76. creetur

    I wonder if she’s keeping her teeth apart to avoid the clicking/being heard, or if that’s a natural response to extreme stress, either way auuuughhjhhjj my heart…

  77. ry

    that seems like a lot of ringing, i get the feeling whoever she’s trying to call might not pick up 🙁

    1. hurgaburga

      if they do they wont like what they see…

    2. Archieve

      The feeling of waiting for a lifeline that doesn’t appear is so well conveyed.

  78. creetur

    Kind of page that you feel in your bones, holy shit, Talita no…

  79. blythe

    ngl it must be nice to have a crying response that doesnt result in mucous all over your face and clogging up your airways

  80. Lilac

    She’s calling bip……….

    1. aves

      Not sure she’d bother calling Bip – they’re pretty easy to get ahold of. She’s probably calling Calcery, or *maybe* Doug? But I imagine Doug would be a saved number, and Calcery’s new location may not be.

      1. Redacted

        Don’t think she could call either of them, since there’s a delay between Dirtball and Jovia/wherever Calcery is right now.

  81. Quad

    OH BABY NOOOOO……

  82. Adzy

    Oh… Talita.
    I’ve cried like this. It hurts. It *really really* hurts.
    Like your body is shaking itself apart. You can’t even make noise because your throat is so tense.
    Your stomach feels knotted, you can hear your heart in your ears, every sob feels like your back is being broken because your muscles are clenched.
    And your eyes hurt.

  83. Zii

    Oh poor girl…
    The page is so nicely done though. The dark static around her that fades as she starts to cry. The way her glasses white out to hide her eyes. How visceral her expression is in the last two panels. Feeling so much and so intensely that the panels can’t contain her.

    1. Zii

      And don’t think I don’t see the gifted otter wind spinner hanging nearby as whoever Talita’s calling (I’m going to guess Calcery) doesn’t answer!

      1. Zii

        BIP! BIP! I’m guessing she’s calling Bip, not Calcery. lol.

  84. hurgaburga

    OH GOD I KNEW IT
    I KNEW THE CHAPTER LOGO WAS HER TEETH CLACKING TOGETHER BECAUSE SHE WAS SAD

    1. malmo

      WAIT I never noticed there were chapter logos

    2. Gander of the Shinies

      Wait what WHERE HOW I DIDN’T KNOW THIS. WHERE ARE THE LOGOS

      1. JoB

        Click “Archive” -> “Chapters” from the top-of-page menu.

  85. Skadoosh

    The page composition is amazing. You can just feel the pain in your bones.

    1. Trees

      You are right, I can feel the pain in my bones!
      Specifically my shin bones where I smacked them on a sticking out trailer hitch while carrying a large box at work yesterday.

      Also: yes, this comic is great!

  86. Gar

    Oh this page is so good, one of my favorites so far. I love how the world around her turns to static as everything hits her at once.

  87. INFANTEATER

    otter windspinner makes an appearance!! AAAGGGGGH THIS IS SO WELL DRAWN… dripping with emotion!!!

    1. JoB

      Also, antler velvet blanket.

      1. INFANTEATER

        you’re right! Wait aaaaa it’s so heartbreaking, the contrast in these two instances of her interacting with centaur culture…

  88. Raydfil

    ohh talita. oh girl i’m sorry.
    BEAUTIFUL page by the way. that anatomy of her mouth is fantastic. but oh man. we get to see those teeth again. I wonder if maybe she’s trying to call doug? or maybe she’s calling bip and deciding to go with them.

  89. Tvastar

    oh my god crying when you don’t even have the mechanisms to create tears is soulcrushing

  90. AnormalADN

    🙁

  91. Accursed Dirt Boar

    Oh, she is trying to call Calcery again…
    Alas, he too has already run away….. to the stars

    1. Raydfil

      OH. i didn’t even think about how it could be calcery. ohhh talita.

    2. K

      I thought she was trying to call Bip

      1. hurgaburga

        it probably IS bip she’s calling. since whenever she calls them they’re only displayed as “unknown #”. like when she called them after running on the treadmill l and it would make more sense to call bip since they have more experience with centaurs and could hopefully give her some advice about the gwailer clan and centaurs in general (so she at least doesnt end up ACTING like a freak in front of them again)

    3. Danny

      Wouldn’t the number name read “Calcery” instead of “Unknown” if she were calling him? Also, based on how disconnected she’s felt from Calcery ever since he left, I’m not sure if she would feel comfortable coming to him for comfort, especially given the context.

      1. JoB

        How do you call an “unknown number” in any case? Must be those quantum phones again (where the number ceases to be callable as soon as you have it displayed) …

        1. Trees

          Quantum Phones! Get yours today!

          Pros – Very fast and powerful processor!

          Cons – May spontaneously become a wave!

        2. Synthaphone

          She presumably has this contact saved in her phone as “Unknown #” (probably because that’s what the caller ID referred to them as the first time she received a call from them) and hasn’t updated the name to reflect who it is that she’s calling.

      2. Archieve

        Hoping it’s Bip. Only reason I can think for Calcery was if she wanted to know if they also knew about Mels “suprise” bur that seems less likly.

  92. lilathaplepeela

    GIVE. HER. A. HUG.

    NOW!!!!

  93. Flori

    Holy shit this page is incredible. There’s others with better paneling or more challenging poses or backgrounds or whatever, but this one just… fuck man. Thats really how it feels. It conveys the emotion so strongly.

  94. Noxum

    Poor Talita 🙁 I hope things smooth over between her and Verengt, it’s a very awful and uncomfortable situation overall for both parties.

  95. NotOkapi

    Oh Talita…

    1. Archieve

      I want to tell her; forget waiting until the old temps contracts are done, just start packing and dont let anyone besides your 3 real friends know. Make it as much of a suprise as possible for management, Mel loves surprises!

      1. Adrienne

        We don’t give Mel enough credit. Without their surprises, Talita would never go with Bip on a space adventure! I guess Mel really was the parent Talita needed all along! [/s x1000]

        1. Archieve

          More like antagonist Talita needed, although arguably she might have been more inclined to quit sooner if Mel didn’t keep sending mixed messages about if they saw her only as a worker drone or as a family/friend.

        2. Archieve

          opps just noticed the sarcasm sign

        3. Adrienne

          Your benevolence shows in that you didn’t notice the sarcasm tag and still chose not to eat me alive for being nice to Mel LMAO

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