Questions for Talita. And one more for Idrisah!
Nexus Jovia has no crewed aircraft, because pressurized spinning cylinders that are 15km or less in circumference are not a great place to fly anything large. Meanwhile, Dirtball just doesn't have enough gas clinging to it to make any reasonably proportioned airfoil work.
In the future, Border Leicester sheep have even bigger ears. For, uh, better heat radiation. Because Earth is hotter. No other reason, humans would never gradually exaggerate the breed characteristics of domestic animals over time for no reason but aesthetics!
Transcript
Mr B Natural asked: Talita, do you have a birthday you celebrate or have ever celebrated?
Talita: Well, nobody actually knows exactly when I was born. When I showed up at the foster care home, they estimated that I had pupated some time in the last couple weeks, which means I was probably born in July the previous year. On paperwork, my birthday is July 1st.
- larva: 23 weeks
- pupa: 2 weeks
- imago
Talita: I usually take the day off, but I’m not huge into celebrations. Though, this time Gillie and Idrisah surprised me with a gift. They got me a new windspinner, it has an otter made from a curved metal plate. I guess they noticed I like putting them in front of air vents...
Gwagwa asked: Talita, was there news coverage of you in Nexus Jovia when you ended up in the human foster care system?
Talita: It was kept pretty quiet. Thank god… I think the embassy types involved kept my situation hush hush because they suspected I was a trafficking case, and didn’t want to alarm the responsible party into fleeing or destroying evidence. They never found anything, though. I remember getting bugged a couple times when I was old enough to enter public school, but my caregivers were not very keen on speaking to the media. They wanted my privacy to be protected. As an adult I have gotten approached… more than I’d like. Especially during college, when I became locally infamous just because I stick out like a 3 meter tall sore thumb. Needless to say, I haven’t done any interviews.
Anonymous asked: Talita, what was your reaction when you grew your first antlers?
Talita: Oh. I... um. I tried to grind them off with the file I use for my teeth… And that’s how I learned mature antlers still have blood vessels in the center...
Deerthing asked: Talita, what’s your favorite airplane?
Talita: What?? Don't make me pick one! Aaaaa! I guess one of the coolest ones is the swing wing HX-8 "Luci?" Even with all the comets they've been lobbing at it, the Martian atmosphere is still super thin, so the coffin corner is razor sharp. Because stall speed and Mach are uncomfortably close, Martian planes have low cargo capacity and high aspect ratio wings, and need to go FAST to take off. But, when you hit Mach, the aerodynamics of flight change. Long wings get hit with horrible wave drag. So the Luci folds its wings back to change its shape! It's such an elegant look. On the other end. Um. Heehee. So, there's not a ton of information available about Russo-Venusian aircraft, since they're so isolationist. But Venus has an atmosphere double the density of Earth's. In high altitudes, that means aircraft almost look Terran. But at low altitudes... they're all fat little pressure vessels with stubby wings. One of the earliest manned research crafts on Venus was the Hell Diver, which... for such a tough name, was soooo cute. When I was younger I was really into historical airplanes from Earth, like the Stipa-Caproni, the Concorde, and the Airbus. Sigh... Airplanes are so cool. I'd love to see one in person some day.
Kai asked: Idrisah, as an animal lover, what would your dream pet be? (Ignoring practicalities of food/space on Dirtball.)
Idrisah: ... A Border Leicester sheep...
100 thoughts on “RttS Reader Questions 44”
Pitterpatter
Imago Talita is so scrunkly
Tentament
Any day that we get to see scrungly baby Talita is a good day.
edenmachine5457
.the talita antlers thing is too relatable
NeedsMoreBirds
Talita is SO cute when she gushes about aircraft. I love her.
Filiya
Talita admiring the chunky Venusian helicopter is so off-the-charts cute! It makes me want to ask if I could cut out her faces for a Telegram sticker pack (it’s just sets of different pictures with cats, memes, and emojis that people save and can share)?
venus enjoyer
finally seeing Mars (and Venus!) planes covered has finally made me sign up so I can comment here. wouldn’t trying to file tusks with blood-vessels hurt like with regular teeth? I wonder what she thinks of SSTOs (yes I play KSP)…
NotOkapi
According to Jay on tumblr it didn’t really hurt at all.
deriko11d
I Just Noticed That Larva Centaurs Have Tails… But They Lose It After Pupation
Jay Eaton
Technically it’s an abdomen, there’s an anus at the end of the “tail.”
Pocket Whale
Baby barely sentient dust bunny Talita and her ickle leggies. I can’t even. I love her. <3
Gar G
Poor Talita…
But gosh I looove seeing her fawning like that! <33
godspeed
Baby Talita makes good bitey pipe cleaner….
Hg
Jay, I’m planning to nominate Runaway to the Stars (web comic version) in this year’s Hugo nomination form. Should I list it as self-published or should I put Iron Circus Comics as the publisher, since the print version is already signed to them?
Punperson
Talita Time! Yayy!! So many amazing Talita faces to admire 😊 she’s so happy talking about planes!!!
I am both Idrisah and Gillie. Livestock animals + urban living = no good…
But… So cute…. T-T
Kommi
Kinda wanna introduce Talita to a Geebee, think she’d love the weird little murderous nugget plane.
HAL9000
SWING WING SUPERIORITY IN RTTS WOOO YEAHHHH BABEY THE SICKEST STYLE OF SWEPT WINGS NEVER DIES!!! RAAAHHHHHHHH!!!
oh of course talita likes the stipa caproni if she fucks with the hell diver… little orb craft i love you….
also 👀at the airships? on venus. i love airships… they deserve to be in every fictional scifi setting ever purely through rule of “isnt this cool as shit?!”
creetur
I love everything here
The sheep, itty bitty pipe cleaner Talita, squat little sausage plane… delightful
blythe
i too mourn the fact i missed riding the concorde
my dad got the opportunity and said that on the flight from washington dc to london you could see the sun rise and then set again within three hours
HAL9000
she was the sunchaser… once kept up with an eclipse. beautiful machine, she went too soon 🙁
Enai
Sunchaser, you say? Like the centaur clans?
…
Say, Jay, is that an easter egg or just a coincidence? Because I love it.
gnome_artificer
Ooo that Luci is a fine looking machine. And the Hell Diver is so damn cute. I how there is only the most wholesome aeromorph fanart.
Martian coffin plots would be pretty dire. I wouldn’t be surprised if RATO pods (or just rocket planes in general) were common in the Mars aviation industry.
Honeysprings
Boy why you so ears
PersonMcPerson
Interesting that Talita specified that her gift from Idrisah and Ghillie was a “surprise” — I remember there being speculation about what exactly Mel’s surprise was, and how Talita isn’t very keen on those very often.
I also like the detail of how Talita is clumping together aircraft from three very different periods of time (Stipa-Caproni = 1930s, Concorde = roughly 1960s-80s, at least that was its heyday, Airbus = roughly 2000s to 2020s) — I don’t blame her, naturally, it’s just interesting to see how denizens of the far future group almost a hundred years of history into the same breath.
Lezzlebit
Well, a small birthday gift like a wind spinner is (probably) not something that will have much of an impact on your living situation… It’s a pretty harmless and fun surprise. But Mel likes to surprise Talita with things that she should reeeally have some input in, and Talita is *kind of* forced to accept a pretty major change (like living in a new apartment) because if she says no, then all of Mel’s work would have gone to waste
NotOkapi
I don’t think it’s necessarily that she’s just not fond of surprises, to quote uhhh page 152-
“I just wish Mel had ASKED… by making it a ‘surprise,’ Mel has made it non-optional. And because it was a gift, if there’s any issues with the remodel, asking for changes will upset Mel…“
Mel’s present being Big and a Surprise and a Gift are all coming together to make it a problem, something small like a wind spinner is a fun gift! An entire apartment complex + the possibility of More Centaurs is a Problem.
HAL9000
not crazy different times, really… they’re all aircraft from the 20th century
Nerdbird
Please someone take Talita to see the spruce goose, she could fit inside it.
capslfern
that low altitude Venus helicopter is looking especially democratic
Krasudreal
Ugh. I would freak out so much if I was in Talita’s situation. Imagine shaving your beard and learning that actually you shouldn’t do that because if you do, you might bleed to death.
Also, you don’t realize that you’re not supposed to not do it because all your acquaintances are of the non-beard variety…
JoB
> Imagine shaving your beard and learning that actually you
> shouldn’t do that because if you do, you might bleed to death.
… relevant historic terminology: “styptic pencil” … 😉
TeethBurglar
Idrisah is so real for that
foca
what a nice round of questions to end this hiatus in. can’t wait for chapter 9 next week!!
SheTheTDE
Your characters are so cute when they start geeking about their passions.
Peanut Hamper
The Luci plane is confusing me. The wings pivot back then half their length is gone? Did they double fold? Is the tail also folding?
Also is that a balloon vessel on Venus? Cloud City?
HAL9000
the tail folds too by the look of it
JoB
How do you get “half their length is gone”? When I guesstimate where the pivots must be and measure from there to the tips, both wings and stabilizers seem to almost have the same length in the swept-back configuration.
What I do find mildly surprising is that both have winglets(?) – which have to swivel (on the wingtips) as well so as not to disrupt airflow.
The rear ends of the engines confused me for a second, because they’re off the hull, suggesting that they’re attached to the wings instead [engineer panic attack when imagining how you’d try to swivel those]. But if those trapezoids that become visible only as the wings sweep back are the intakes, chances are that it’s just their exhaust end that’s separated from the plane’s main body.
INFANTEATER
This set of reader questions was an absolute GOLDMINE. talita larva art, Talita imago art, child Talita, lore galore, aeroplanes, that adorable fourth face on the plane page, AND SOME IDRISAH AND GILLIE!!!
Effy Dubs
So many good answers this week! The spinner looks neat with the little otter endlessly chasing leetle feesh and never catching it, Doug deflecting the looky-loos away from interrupting Talita, teenage accidental discoveries, cool aircraft designs, and sheep. I know how much sheep need a herd to be happy, but the urge for cute sheep is always going to struggle against the harsh reality of taking care of livestock.
Different tack, the fact that piloting is so much riskier on Mars than it is on Earth makes it make more sense that it was a one-strike-and-you’re-done to yank Adam out of the training program in the last round of reader questions. Not exactly much wriggle room for error with tight tolerances,, and they probably aren’t hurting for new applicants, so they can afford to be choosy about who goes through. Not saying that it was JUST one incident, but it wouldn’t take much to get booted if you aren’t a team player, and he certainly hasn’t been much of one in what we’ve seen. Even if the students have been neglecting a ‘redundant’ safety check, I can definitely say that the difference from going from the safe school environment where it just leads to getting kicked out, to the harsh real-world environment where it leads to getting colleagues and people you care deeply about killed or horribly maimed is one that is hard to see until the tragedy occurs, and then it’s far too late to do anything about it. All you can say in the end as the coach is that hopefully they either find fulfillment in something else, or see the wisdom you’re trying to pass along before it gets to that hard edge and end the risky behaviour on their own. I’m just glad that the SRM seems to be trusting their staff, instead of trying to push unfit trainees through the filter to get enough bodies to counteract a likely very high attrition rate.
ryn
i really love comments like these, i didn’t even notice that detail and make the connection to adam. glad i have other people to pick up stuff like this and expand on it!
F657
Ah, so Venus has been terraformed to the point of being not impossible to visit? How’d they do that?
Logograms
It seems Talita is well aware of what every aviation enthusiast eventually discovers for themselves: that variable geometry aircraft are cool as fuck.
Michi
Not even people powered aircraft on Jovia? Like the ultrasuperlight from Rendezvous with Rama.
Eris
Nexus Jovia is a space station, so for 1 I think they’d probably want to avoid anything possibly crashing into a wall and breaking the vacuum seal. But they also use the spin of the station to keep everything “on the ground,” so if anything flew it would be subject to less of that force, basically lower gravity, the “higher up” it went. I imagine accounting for that would be kind of a nightmare for a person to account for in anything simple/small/light enough not to be a risk to the station.
Michi
Haha, those are the exact arguments Clarke makes to even allow the pedal plane to fly inside Rama. Little gravity at the centreline, so little lift is needed. Together with the plane being ultralight makes it possible for a guy on a bicycle to fly the length of the cylinder. Mind you those planes would lose against a paper plane in a collision, but it’s still one of the best chapters in that book.
Raydfil
AWW YAYY fantastic round of questions to finish off the long hiatus!!! these all fill me with such joy i cant get over talita’s expressions omggg… i love how excited she is about airplanes what a nerd.
Hosp
BORDER LEICESTER SHEEP MENTIONED 🗣🗣🗣
Fallingfeather
*googles the sheep* Oh my god look at it. LOOK AT IT OH MY GOOOOOD.
Also now I’m curious about the Russo-Venusian stuff. Is that a colony? A country? Does Russia (or its descendent country) just own Venus in the future?
Green Heron
Checked on the worldbuilding (Sophonts–>human culture). What I could gleam is that there were Russian colonies on Venus that revolted during WW3, and Russia itself shattered at the end of said war. Oh and 39% of Venusians are nonbinary!
Felixscout
That low altitude helicopter makes sense for the pressures involved* but feel both cute and derpy. Derpycopter?
*I do not know what is the current chemistry of the Venusian atmosphere.
Felixscout
Though I can also imagine the Tupolov design bureau is doing just fine on Russo Venus producing very traditional Russian aircraft designs which work just fine and look right.
Heather
TALITA’S EXPRESSION AT THE CUTE AIRCRAFT IS GIVING ME SO MUCH LIFE OMG
Wait that’s a question actually–I wonder how much overlap there is between what centaurs and humans find “cute”? That’s a response that has both biological and cultural elements. I definitely think the Hell Diver is adorable, but would a centaur raised on their own homeworld think the same? Does it look enough like an abstract centaur larva to trigger that response? Much to consider…
Cat'O Moss
Given that centaur pupa are so round and stubby? Probably a little similar at least, though culturally Talitas probably absorbed varying ideas of cute – round and stubby probably come off particularly cute.
Proxy
The back end of the little helicopter also curves upward, and centaurs smile by curving their trunks like that too, so it might even look like a little smiling larva!
Potato Sapien
I think it has to do with the humor of an aircraft (something which must be lightweight and aerodynamic) appearing round and heavy. Much as how we consider very round birds to be humorous. It’s probably not an innate thing, I think centaurs just have the same general reaction as humans to humorous subversions of expectations. It also looks like a round creature on tiny little thin legs, which centaurs might find cute due to similarities to their larvae, or maybe just due to the juxtaposition, like with humans.
Chrysalis
Now I have a new favorite Talita face AND a new favorite aircraft.
Arcstone
Yoink.
New reaction face.
EnchantressEmily
Talita, you are such a nerd (affectionate).
And omg, that imago centaur drawing needs to go right next to “skrunkle” in the online slang dictionary!
Cartoon dinosaur
is Venus undergoing a terraforming project? if so, how are they going about it? are they using giant mirrors to cool the surface? or some other way with bug ferret tech? or are they just building cloud cities?
Also, is the moon being paraterraformed? because its to small to hold onto an atmosphere so the only way for it to become habitable would be to make it a shell world.
1d4-nadg
The face of a lady forced to pick a favorite airplane
cinna
alas, sheep are one of those species you Cannot simply have one of if you wanna have a healthy happy animal (edge cases aside)
cabbage
I need to see whatever the fuck is going on in russia venus
tyrone
NOTHING IS GOING ON AT RUSSIA VENUS !!!! NJET!
Now pass along, please.
Rose
Talita’s smiiiiiiiiiiiile omg!!! ;;~;; <3 she's sooooo cute. i hope she gets to see a million airplanes someday.
ALSO I WANT THAT SHEEP AS A PET TOO Q_____Q <3 bunny ear sheep….. omg
fuse
TALITAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA SHES SO CUTE WHEN SHES ENTHUSIASTIC!!!!!!
MutableAlias
everything here is such a blessed image but, little elementary school Talita with the giant glasses probably doing schoolwork on her tablet with a chunky child-safe case, watching as Doug advocates for her to have the right to privacy and not sensationalize her publicly and try to give her a relatively normal childhood on top of everything else…
there’s more to it but. kidlita. kidlita is too real
Vinemaple
Also note that the banner in the background says “Maker Space.” A tidbit from Growth Chart: Talita built a mechanical bank toy by herself, when she was only 10 years old!
MonstieMunchies
I also love aircrafts!! My absolute favorite are Towed Gliders, they remind me of seagulls. I was lucky enough to get to ride in one around 10 years ago and the pilot caught an updraft that sent us higher than usual. If I remember right it was about 4,500 feet in the air (frightening)
malmo
You might like Airsled if you haven’t had a chance to read it yet
MonstieMunchies
I havent gotten the chance yet but I’m looking forward to it!
Vinemaple
Bless you Jay, I am eating well today, I really needed a good page to cheer me up… and this is about as good as I could probably realistically get, without getting 6 of my own questions answered!
JoB
“The” Airbus? I smell a ton of historic information burned to a crisp in the nuclear war on Terra …
That sorta blimp-looking thing in the Venusian overview panel … is that a floating station where passengers and freight change between the very dissimilar low- and high-altitude aircraft?
JoB
… and do I guess correctly what’d happen when a high-altitude craft has an engine failure and drops to the high-external-pressure regions whose craft look rather like submarines for a reason … ? =8-C
Felixscout
Less burned to a crisp and lost I suspect and more of a bit of “telephone” where at some point digital records were lost or fragmented in a low publishing world so you had fragmentary information repeated over and over every few decades so after a couple centuries Airbus and the various model lines are reduced to the Airbus.
Or she’s referencing the A320 which has been built over 8,600 (in 2019) times in various subvarients making it kinda “the Airbus”.