By "40s" Talita is referring to the 2240s. I generally refuse to do biochemical worldbuilding for RttS because I know enough about biochem to know I'm woefully incompetent at it, but generally speaking, the sophonts all use water as a solution in which to dissolve sugar and oxygen for performing cellular respiration. Everything else is ehhhhhh (hand wiggle).
Also heads up, this is gonna be a long AMA session. The book pages will return on the 23rd of October. This is partly to make up for the lack of any AMA responses after Chapter 6, partly because this past year was kinda rough on me and I'd like to have more time to build a comfortable backlog before launching into Chapter 8 here. If you need your fix sooner, that's what the Patreon is for!
Transcript
Anonymous asked: Talita, what's your favorite sweet treat? Can you have them with how different your tastebuds/gut microbiome is from humans?
Talita: Oh... I can't taste sugar... It's a centaur thing. Like, we evolved for a diet of mostly meat, and simple sugar detection got lost at some point because it wasn't important to survival. Other sophonts can. Simple sugars are basically the only thing we all have in common, biochemically. Avians, humans, and bug ferrets all consume ethanol too, as a sugar byproduct. It makes humans and avians drunk but bug ferrets are basically immune. For centaurs it... just, uh, kills us. Another fun carnivore perk! I've seen alcoholic carbonated glucose water called a "pan-sophont beverage!" before, which... well, maybe it was in the 40s, but that feels pretty insulting nowadays... Though it's always kinda been a lie. Avian sugar is the opposite chirality as human and bug ferret sugar. Apparently they taste the same, but your body can't actually do anything with a mirror-image sugar molecule. Except give you the runs, I've heard. Heh.
49 thoughts on “RttS Reader Questions 25”
Sen
I love your world building so I’m fine with either.
Biochemistry is a well studied field and yet there are still huge gaps in how the chemistry of life on earth works.
So handwaving alien chemistry is a good idea. I think you already put more effort into it than 99% of fiction writers.
SheTheTDE
Ooh we’re getting into some real science here!
fluffy
TIL that glucose is chiral! This webcomic is educational.
Mr. Son
I am getting flashbacks to the Olestra commercials and the little disclaimer they had to tack on at the end…
Gar G
Gosh poor Talita just being reminded of one of the many issues with being a Centaur, especially in a world catered to everything else…
But nice to see her smile at the end^^
Famout
I am actually very very surprised by this! Then again not a biologist either.
Still, in my mind sugar sweet things in the wild, like fruit are extremely easy to get and break down energy, hell of a lot less dangerous then having to hunt. To say nothing of how human minds use glucose as a main source of power and actually have to burn a good bit of it to function, I would think most creatures of a higher grade thinking would be similar.
Not saying this as a “plothole” or anything like that, since it’s clear the author has put a hell of a lot more thought into this then I ever will, I’m just fascinated and would love to learn more why centaurs turned out this way!
schaf
Worth noting that the “lost the ability to taste sugar molecules” trait is present in an IRL earth hypercarnivore line. Felines, including housecats, can’t taste sugars. (Cats like dairy for its fat content, not its sugar content.) Very different from canines, which are carnivores but aren’t *as* exclusively carnivorous as cats are.
It’s possible that centaurs’ ancestors already developed into a hypercarnivore niche long before they started developing sapience. Even though they can choose to supplement their diets with tubers, the ability to taste their planet’s equivalent to “plant sugars” in those root vegetables is long gone.
zaratustra
If carnivores were the chief pollinizers of an area, would plants start producing fruit that tastes like jerky?
Septemberdale
Well, there’s already a plant in Ethiopia pollinated by wolves, and it has flowers that have sugar-based nectar like anything else, but if it started needing the wolves to spread its seeds too then I’d expect a fatty, buttery-tasting fruit rather than a meaty one, since we know already that such a thing can evolve (the avocado, whose enormous seeds were once spread by ground-sloths, which, while herbivorous (as can be proven by their impressive molars), are believed to have not been opposed to occasional opportunistic scavenging, as a recognition of meat as a possible food but no interest in hunting it themselves (as can be seen in the fact that they don’t have the right teeth for eating meat) would explain their taste for fatty, unsweetened fruits.).
JoB
Do you mean to link the flowering and fruition phases of the plant, or should we read “start producing blooms that smell like carni-nom” instead?
Having plants use (large) animals that have no incentive to get near them as pollinators/dispersers beforehand seems … challenging. For example, obligate carnivores would need fruit adapted in more than just taste (or else they’ll fall ill), active hunters (like centaurs with their motion-tracking vision) need cues that plants should find hard to send, and … let’s just forget about ambush predators (“you move first and get over here!” – “no, you do!”). Something like burrs (and fur) works for the dissemination, but burr-like pollen actually getting all the way onto a pistil sounds problematic.
Quite frankly, in such a setting, I’d expect the plants to reorient their strategy towards the commensalist (orchids) — symbiote (algae on sloths) — parasite (zombie fungus) axis and grow directly on the animal in question …
Felixscout
Well it depends on many things. On Earth we do have carnivore pollinators, wasps and hornets. And then there are the corpse flowers which smell like rotting meat to attract flies that eat such things to do the pollination.
So to answer your question, it depends on the pollinator and their niche. Also as we see here on Earth, animals that move from one niche to another may regain “lost” abilities since they help in the new role. I suggest watching PBS eons to get started on thinking on this.
CJ
Talita looks so pleased at the end here
bryn
aww poor talita looks unhappy she cant taste sugars ;; i would be upset too….. now i feel lucky that i can taste em
40
Nowadays (2300s) could I legally sell “Pan-Sophont Beverage!!!” and it’s just water? 😭
JoB
You might be required to add a “please drink responsibly” disclaimer. With “drink” actually replaced by a list of two dozen verbs to cover all possible modes of consumption.
(And considering that it’d need to essentially be distilled water, I might not even be joking here …)
Jay Eaton
Well, you could still carbonate it and maybe add some fun bio-inactive food dye and shimmer powder.
Hunter
Oh, so it’s like the amino acid thing from Mass Effect, kinda.
wingedhorror
That’s exactly what it is! Chirality in organic compounds!
Arcstone
You know, I dont think I’ve ever seen a setting refer to specific decades like that in other centuries than the 20th one.
Has anyone done a gag like that? Like a peasant in like 1211 being like “hey man, remember the 80’s?”
Somemushroom
I have a single memory of a gag from “Sabrina: The Teenage Witch” where one of the aunts gets confused that someone is talking about 80s fashion, and she’s thinking of the first century 80s.
Stray Cat
I’ve seen it used as a bait-and-switch gag before, but that’s about it. It was along the lines of “I’ve been active since the 90s.” “What, old man, the 1890s?” It does have a lot more potential than that, though.
Felixscout
So many times in SF, Fantasy, and even more general fiction.
The long running SF webcomic Schlock Mercenary, now done, used to do that quite a bit.
Lezzlebit
I love the AMAs!! Though, I’ve wondered for a while (if this was already answered somewhere feel free to reply with a link) — will the AMAs be in the printed book? I assume the logs at least will be (i think they help with pacing)
Joysweeper
Ever since reading that Talita wishes she could try fancy human pastries I’ve daydreamed about her getting an aesthetic equivalent along the lines of some kind of whimsically shaped deep fried fatty skin (like pork rind made with centaurworld animals) studded with large salt crystals resembling heavy sugar grains. Layer ‘cake’ with silk cheese between layers and the ‘frosting’ is some kind of whipped or frothy egg.
edenmachine5457
.hold on, why does this sound yummy? why am i actively salivating? if this existed i might try it, it sounds so good what the hell (especially considering i am crazy over cheesy and salty flavors). i want this now
creetur
If you’d like a savory cake.. I’d suggest smörgåstårta
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sm%C3%B6rg%C3%A5st%C3%A5rta
Joysweeper
Sandwich loaves are fun! Sliced spam with cream cheese or other fillings between the layers is also worth looking into but that can very easily be so salty it tastes bad. I’d rinse the spam or soak it in cold water to desalinate it a bit.
BravoLimaPoppa
I’m good with a period of AMA’s. They help me understand and I think they enhance things in the comic.
Now, what does a centaur take for pain? Euphorics?
Hell, what are their religions like?
A Box Of Fox
Well, what their religions are like is detailed in the Culture section of the Centaurs section of the World tab of the website, but I don’t think we know much about centaur medicine.
JoB
> I don’t think we know much about centaur medicine.
I suppose that that’s something we might even hear Dr. Henriques say …
Curona
So what is a treat/dessert food for you, Talita? Something super rich and fatty like foie gras? Is caviar a thing in centaur cuisine?
Sparky Lurkdragon
I believe Jay’s said that the Yummy Flavour for centaurs is fats, so you’re on the right track!
Common Handle
Damn talita can’t even get drunk… which could be a perk depending on your stance on alcohol.
HELL yeah more AMAs!
Claire
Talita is not above chuckling at potty humor. Heeheeheehee.
A Box Of Fox
Who among us isn’t?
Tentament
Poor Talita always looks sad when she’s reminded that she’s a centaur.
Paroxysmall
im assuming there have been more incidents like with the notorious Haribo sugar-free gummy bears
hurgaburga
context: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/879327895990305117/
hurgaburga
warning: there are some very graphic descriptions there
Ashran
That link doesnt appear to lead anywhere lol
JoB
Quick reminder, the Press Code mandates a triple content warning for any article detailing humanity’s Luddite Moon Shot.
Madame Thunderbone
Terribly sorry, but I don’t quite understand the reference.
JoB
You see, the other sophont species are still wondering why the developmental phases of human spaceflight were so focused on rockets …
[hands point out shape and orientation of (typ) human body]
Madame Thunderbone
I beg your dear pardon, Job, but I still can’t for the life of me understand what the fact that humans are skinny little animals that stick straight up ridiculously has got to do with the history of gelatin-based snack foods eaten by humans, aside, of course, from that both involve humans.
Joysweeper
It’s an “explosive diarrhea” joke.
TotallySomebody
AHHAHHAHAH
Lilith
These AMAs are one of my favorite things about this comic. I’m glad you do them
Vinemaple
Without randomly discovering a Cheevwut AMA, I might not be here, and that would be a tragedy. I really think this comic is unique!
Apollo235
Which one?