Who remembers the title of this chapter?
Runaway to the Stars is crowdfunding to become a printed book this April! Click here to be notified on launch!
Transcript
Verengt: Your mechanics team is helping us change our suits for ground work.
Talita's face lights up a little for the first time in the conversation.
Talita: Oh! That’s great!
Verengt glances around, uncertain. They turn back to Talita, eye wider, lip corner tightened, and trunk angled to speak to her more quietly.
Verengt: Talita… Are you the only member of your clan here?
The light drains from Talita's face, overtaken by dread.
Verengt: If possible I'd like to speak to your matriarch, and assure them we will treat you well...
225 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 259”
Vinemaple
Well, at least that answers my question about their EVA suits. Tod and Killian are gonna retrofit them. It’s impressive that Talitaverse EVA suits can be modified like that, nobody IRL seems to want to bank on that concept yet… there’s little call for walking on planetoids yet, and the Artemis project is working on a mission-specific suit.
Cobbington
ahhhhhh here it comes
Kencf0618
It’s a fair assumption than even a species which practices infanticide could have a label for those who, for whatever reason, do not have a clan. Outlaws, one might say. Think of westerns, film noir, and the like.
Kencf0618
“Did you not get the memo?”
Emile Poulpe
for some reason Mel must have judged this an “not important”.
Or more likely thought that she have to present herself to help her be more confident. Sounds more like Mel style.
Smooti
I wonder if in Mel’s idea of the situation they thought that maybe they were finding Talita a clan? “Look, they can be your forever family now : )” While completely ignoring how centaur culture works and that Talita isn’t an animal to be “set free” and “live with her own kind” like it’s the end of a funny animal kids movie.
Just given how much of an HR nightmare Mel already is.
Vinemaple
I’m starting to get the notion there was NO thought from Mel, no research, that it’s all just, “Talita is a Centaur, these salvagers are Centaurs, they match!”
Fireknight014
Oh no… I hope Verengt can understand the situation and offer Talits guidance…
Kencf0618
Mel’s out of the picture. My working hypothesis is that Verengt ~fully understands the situation. Consider that she asks Talita that any concerns she has be taken to her, and that she doesn’t answer Talita’s questions directly, ~and that her own questions are open-ended. To paraphrase, “Take me to your matriarch, if possible.” Verengt can’t not know that Talita has no clan, after all. (The could make a movie about this. The Seven Centaurs.) I’d parse whatever she says quite carefully.
c Senaru
I’m not sure how you got that read on what’s happening but I think maybe it’s far from what we’ve actually been shown, I don’t think Mel has briefed Verengt or their entourage on Talita’s situation even slightly, nothing of what they’ve said so far has suggested that, aside from implying that Talita is the only one at this station. They think her clan is somewhere else on Dirtball or at least somewhere she can contact her (nonexistent) Matriarch, possibly by way of video call or somesuch. Verengt has been speaking in a way that seems more as if they’re trying to get across that they, and their clan, are not here to abduct or take Talita from her people, and trying not to seem threatening to her.
Redacted
Unrelated but Centaur Stud Muffin Number 3 looks like he’s totally spacing out in the third panel, just absolutely zooted
Jay Eaton
Correct, they are bored and zoning out lol
ObeyTheSnarf
There’s a lot more going on ofc, but my first thought reading Verengt’s question was “Excuse me young lady, is your mother home? May I speak to her?”
Mango The Captain
Oh gosh, I hope they take this well and Talita explains it well. Unfortunately for her, I don’t think she will explain it well.
Nikki
also I know its not exactly the point but my god is Verengt stunning.
TotallySomebody
Second Comment here but I just realized the significance of the chapter title… Talita is different from humans on the outside, and different from centaurs on the inside. Neither outside or inside, she doesn’t fit in. It’s sad…
Vinemaple
Thank you, I couldn’t figure out what Jay meant!
Hobbybobulous
It’s so sad seeing the barest beginnings of relief, that perhaps maybe she can work with a crew that won’t see her as an oddity, extinguish with just one question.
Of course Mel wouldn’t have any inkling of Centaur culture. Of course they wouldn’t think to give them any information of Talita. Why would Talita not having any clan even register to Mel? They mean so well, but are oblivious to so much. And it hurts those they should be protecting.
McFrugal
The worst part is Mel was told about this part of Centaur culture when they adopted Talita. But of course, they’re so self-absorbed they conveniently forgot to bring up that difficult topic and left Talita to handle it.
McFrugal
*fostered
$ilverware
ruh-roh, Raggy
Gar G
Oh those eyes! _<;;;
DOSRG
augh what a position for everyone to be in
the thing is, it *would* be inappropriate for Mel to lay out Talita’s Whole Shit when acting in a professional capacity…… but there’s so many ways this COULD have been approached had there been deeper consideration of Talita’s position! We may not have all that detailed view of Doug, but the general impression i’ve gotten of him makes me wonder what his working relationship with Mel was in the transitional period between youth and adolescent foster. In an alternate world where Doug was talita’s lifelong foster worker, would he have also made similar mistakes? Obviously, we can’t know that lol, it didnt happen that way! Of course, I bring up Doug not to put him on a pedestal (we’ve seen him, but only in passing and in side stories) but because I wonder just how long Mel’s lack of consideration/foresight might have been visible. Everyone involved in Talita did the best they could, and frankly it’s a miracle things have gone as well as they have… but also MEL. YOU COULD HAVE BRIEFED TALITA ON THIS INSTEAD OF SUDDENLY CONFRONTING HER WITH SOMETHING THAT. EXTREMELY OBVIOUSLY. CLEARLY COULD CAUSE MAJOR DISCOMFORT IF NOT OUTRIGHT PROBLEMS (they guiler clan seem nice, im honestly inclined to think it will be a case more of “innocent insensitivity” rather than any kind of malice or outright disgust. Verengt seems like a great matriarch and “people person”)
b
one difficulty with vetting people like mel from a foster/adoption standpoint is that, although mel has an oblivious streak a mile wide, they also have been able to provide talita with opportunity and material support in a way that can’t be denied, they arent outright hostile or obviously abusive that we’ve been shown. They’re majorly dropping the ball with talita right now, but one of their motivators here is trying to help talita…. but good intentions don’t count for everything and there comes a point where their material support of talita can only go so far to mask the other disparities that being mel’s child – adopted or not – causes. in a way theyre acting like a helicopter parent, making decisions on talita’s behalf without consulting, effectively infantalizing talita without even realizing it (or maybe not seeing it that way i suspect :P) ….actually now that i really think about it, maybe mel was a previous adopter even, and her other children could have been adopted! so maybe doug had some trust built between him and them based off past successful adoptions. maybe he knew them when they were still married, who knows what the timeline looks like in that regard…. all things considered, helping a little person get their footing and then go on to live their own adult lives is seen as successful even if the one doing the caring also has flaws. not every parent is perfect….
talita, you’ve grown too big for the nest and you know it, its time to open your wings and fly away from dirtball girl!!!
b
…ive gone back and reread and it looks like both mels other children are biological (pg 216, ch8). and also they never adopted talita i forgot about that! their phrasing is “i used to be her foster parent” (reader Qs 43 at the end of ch8). which really doesnt make any of these decisions where they leave talita out of the equation as a “surprise” any better or justified! kind of cold actually…..
Rose
GDI MEL!!! you had all this time alone with the clan and you didn’t prepare them for Talita’s situation!?
WORST MANAGER EVER!!
Rose
also i’m sooooo curious about the significance of the chapter title name… what could it mean…
c0rpzet00nz
I think the chapter name, and the visual metaphor of nested panels (here, Verengt backdropped by a panel, inside a different panel, and Talita in the bottom panel being completely outside it) is about being a perpetual outsider. I remember seeing a metaphor once- i don’t know who wrote it- that’s along the lines of “there is a circle that everyone else is inside, one that I cannot see but they can, and they Know I am not inside the circle”
All of our main cast are Outside the circle for their respective groups, in part because of disability, in part because of separation from their culture. Gillie is Off-Model GMH and Deaf, which is very stigmatized among humans. Idrisah is incredibly anxious and doesn’t feel as connected to her family’s culture as she wishes she did, but doesn’t know how to bridge that gap without feeling like a fraud. Talita is much the same, but with the added bonus of fully being a cultural orphan and treated like a perpetual outsider by the Human culture she WAS raised in.
(Getting into Bip’s stuff would be a lot of theorizing on my part but even before they were found on Dirtball, they were a criminal, and the way the BFGC handles AI crime sounds disabling to experience- movement restricted, communication restricted, for long or permanent sentences. Meatbags like us, even in physical prisons, still have the physical faculties that we had before being contained. Bip also doesn’t seem to keep friends with other AI, for some reason we’ll find out in the next book I bet. Again, though, cultural outsider.)
Hunter
Oh boy, I bet this whole thing is going to do a 180 when it turns out Talita doesn’t HAVE a clan.
Thanks a lot Mel, ya dipshit.
Teod
The deep ocean floor background from the Heavy Water chapter is back. The pressure is mounting. Stay strong, Talita.
Nikki
this could go so many different directions im on the edge of my seat
Jefffy
Of ALL the things Mel told/conversed woth Verengt about after their arrival, of ALL the things and ways Mel should’ve picked up on the fact that there was a CLAN of Centaurs arriving to assist the Centaur Talita, AND IT JUST NEVER OCCURRED TO MEL to mention Talita was clanless, leaving it up to Talita to say HERSELF??? If it was intentional then holy mother of MOLY, Mel
This is such a good bit tho I’m just over here in my deep dark hood like yess Talita let the hate towards Mel flow through youuu
izimb
Who is the matriarch of clan Runaway?
Gander of the Shinies
Idrisah
Enai
Bip, by right of inheritance. They’re the only surviving member, after all.
Gander of the Shinies
Tbh they’re more worker coded
dragonofmarch
oh dear i feel like our centuar friends are missing important information
Kencf0618
Flip it. They know everything they need to know. Not least that they’ve been sent to a planet called Dirtball.
arf
O-oh, Mel! You should have stopped to think where paths laid with good intentions lead.
Centaurs are *not* just people with six legs.
A quick check of the archives suggests that traditional centaurs would regard Talita’s abandonment as labelling her as ‘clanless’ and worthless. One saving possibility is that Verengt’s injury may predispose her to thinking ‘Well, I wasn’t meant to survive either.’
wingedhorror
[ALARM SIRENS BLARING]
Oh, oh no.
Claire
Its interesting that Verengt refers to an unknown matriarch as “them”, rather than “her”.
HowDoIComment
From what I know, I think all home world centaurs are referred to as ‘they’ (this includes verengt). Although they have female and male sexes as we do, their cultural and gender norms function quite different and aren’t rlly equivalent! Talita is an exception bc she was raised by humans and it impacted her gender identity, but almost all other centaurs are referred to with the they pronouns, whether they are male or female! That’s also the pronoun used for verengt in the transcripts of the pages, it just seems to be the cultural norm
c Senaru
Well, the transcript also does, in descriptive terms outside of any character speaking. The Matriarch is ‘They’, definitively, and so to would be the assumed Matriarch of Talita, from Verengt’s perspective at least.
There’s lots of neat details of each page in the transcripts, they’re really worth reading after each page and can help with some context bits at times!
Skadoosh
This dialect of english doesn’t loan pronouns from the languages of other species, and using human genders pronouns to refer to nonhuman sophonts is considered rude unless the sophont in question offers it, so people just use the gender neutral option. (Though I would love to know what Verengt’s and the entourage members’ native pronouns/genders are. Using “they” is a bit unwieldy in sentences where it is used to both refer to a group of people and every single individual inside that group. Also, I love lore.)
Light_In_The_Fog
Remember Talita is unique in having a human gender identity. Even though Talita is arguably cisgender, her gender identity is more of a human one than that of a female centaur. Aliens of any gender are normally referred to with gender neutral pronouns in RTTS bc human and alien gender identities are often seen as separate things, even if those genders are assigned to sexes with similar reproductive capabilities.
Basically Talita is unique for using she/her rather than they/them.
FuzzySpiderPawz
Oh god I was so happy that the conversation seemed to be going well so far all things considered that I forgot that of COURSE they’d ask Talita about their clan. Mel I know you mean well but this is definitely something you should’ve briefed the other centaurs about
Ox
This whole exchange has just given me a worse and worse sinking feeling as it’s gone on, and I feel like the rock hasn’t even hit the bottom of the pond yet. I’m so heartbroken for Talita.
Redacted
“Oh I can get my matriarch, she’s just in the other room!” *leaves and comes back wearing Groucho Marx glasses*
wingedhorror
That would be the best haha!
HAL9000
“the other members of my clan? of course you can meet them! let me just-” *whips outTHIS*
Redacted
Maybe she can Weekend at Bernie’s some of Bip’s clan?
Finch
I was wrong.
Gabe
ouhhh the fact that we can tell that talita was happy, then upset, but to Verengt, talita looked afraid/a bit aggressive, then seemed to relax a bit after their question ;; they have no way of telling that they’ve stepped onto a bit of a minefield
Planetfall
I love how Verengt’s trunk always faces the person she is speaking to, even when her head does not. The opposite of how Talita holds her trunk.
Frustration in Excelsis
I had been going to comment that as well — it’s a clever way of showing a difference between regular centaur body language and Talita’s more unique mixture of centaur body language, human body language, and personal tics.
MyUniverseinaBox
Guh, it’s painful watching these two interact knowing neither are picking up on their body language or facial ques correctly. Seeing it from Talita’s pov cause I can recognise her body language and the other centaurs I can’t, besides little things I remember like trunk curled upward = smiling… so of course when Talita smiles in the first panel they don’t recognise that. I love this comic so much!!!!!!!!!
Fallingfeather
About… that…….
AccordYeen
…would it be worse to lie and say “I am the sole survivor of my clan, and I am not comfortable discussing the specifics of how that came to be”?
Napkinkat
I mean that’s not really a lie because for all Talita (and we) knows she IS the soul survivor of her clan and any siblings she had from when she was a baby/newborn but it does leave out a lot of details like how she was raised by humans.
Napkinkat
*sole (apologies for spelling mistakes I am eepy lol)
JoB
Or someone in Talitas place could do one fell swoop and say something along the lines of “I was raised among humans and adopted their customs, including facial expressions – as you probably already noticed – and social structures. Humans don’t do clans [anymore] [as far as I’ve seen].”
Doesn’t change the fact that either is apparently a very uncomfortable thing for Talita to do.
EEF PATTIES CHICKEN
Are they for some reason speaking a human language, even though they don’t know Talita grew uo among humans, or does Talita know a Centaur language?
PostMortem7581
Jovian English is a lingua franca, if I remember correctly. I believe there would be special formatting, , if they were speaking another language.
PostMortem7581
Whoops! The comment system didn’t like my formatting. I’m not sure if it’ll let me show you angle brackets at all, but angle brackets < are typically placed around translated speech in Jay Eaton's work.
Fallingfeather
If I had to guess, there’s a bunch of different centaur languages (just as there’s lots of human ones), so Veregnt probably defaulted to the one they knew Talita WOULD know, because that’s what everyone at Ixion speaks.
PostMortem7581
I find it interesting, the choice to render Talita atop the margins in the last panel. Perhaps it alludes to her not fitting neatly in the social box expected of her? Your compositional work continues to greatly enrich the story as it’s told to us. Masterful use of the medium’s quirks.
Caracole
I think its meant to represent how small she feels, and how this situation is making her dissociate. Because as she comes out of the panel, she also comes on the foreground, and Verengt gets translocated to the background. It makes the perspective lie and say “Talita is far, far smaller than what’s behind her”
Adrienne
I thought it was probably alluding to the chapter title… Because Talita is outside the panel and Verengt is inside it… just like Talita feels like an outsider…
charlie
i personally think its because shes dissociating
hessian
the look in talita’s eyes. decades of a well meaning question with a heavy and frustratingly impossible web of experiences behind it. no malice, no overt rudeness, just a gaping chasm that can only be adressed by the people who are affected by it. just a reminder that something about the life you’ve lived is not what others expect it to be. gaaauugh. blows up
Lilybug
Sorry ma’am. My biological “matriarch” likely had me out of “wedlock”, abandoned/sold me, and now I am more human than Centaur.
edenmachine5457
.verengt already seems to care so much about talita’s feelings. they notice how nervous she is (even if it’s miscommunicated body language), and try their best to try and comfort her, except the one way they tried to comfort her is one of the ways that will hurt her the most, and they had no way of knowing that because Mel did not tell them about it. AUGH. really really good interaction, verengt means so well but because information was kept from them, they end up hurting people by meaning well. jay you are so good at writing this is really really REALLY good