Centaur laughter is derived from a panting response like human laughter, but is a lot less frantic and resembles hiccups more in speed. The laugh involves the first step of their breathing cycle, where air exits the lower lungs and enters the upper air sac, compressing the lower abdomen and expanding the upper one. As a part of the inhalation motion they reflexively jerk their nose upwards. The exhale is not voiced, but it is usually a noticeably loud whoosh.
Bip can't hear it through her suit but they can tell she did the centaur equivalent of hunching forward with a sudden laugh.
Transcript
Talita's nose flicks up and she pants loudly out her side.
SFX: whuff
She looks away with her hand over her helmet window.
Talita: …I don’t know you.
The front loader points at her triumphantly.
Bip: I saw that head toss. You thought it was funny!
Talita glances back, face fuzzy, then waves her hand and walks into the control center of the plant.
Talita: Whatever. I’ve only got ten minutes to waste here, let’s get the console running.
The control center is a short rectangular room with consoles inside that come up barely as high as Talita's stomach. The aluminum sheet ceiling has apparently been haphazardly cut open and pushed back to allow easier access to the equipment inside.
Bip: I see that you've previously accessed the control room. From the... uh... carnage.
Talita: Hey! Avian ceilings are like a meter tall, and I didn't want to go spelunking in an exosuit!
38 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 168”
florence
the way bip emotes with the lift is so funny theyre putting their hands on their hips 😭😭
Vinemaple
Clearly Talita isn’t concerned about Mel or Ohwitiil seeing the ripped-off roof from the inspection satellite.
Havlock
The hydrolysis facility is in a enclosed building, so the ripped open control room is blocked from view of any satellites.
Vinemaple
Oh, I get it now–it’s outside the dome, but inside a pressurized “portable shed” style structure. That I’ve seen in every find-the-giant-rat double page.
CicadaCrash
I think it’s an interesting detail that Bip DOES recognize a centaur laugh, given that their previous crew were centaurs, and it’s likely a lot of other people in Talita’s life wouldn’t be so quick to see it.
Rubicon Art
idk what’s wrong with my brain but I cannot figure out how Talita is saying that first line. My instinct is it’s one of those like ugh I’m not associated with you bc she found it funny and she wants to hide the fact? but it’s also possible it’s said in a ‘don’t joke with me I don’t like it’ way and I cannot figure out which it’d be
gooeymander
yeah same, i keep reading it as her being ashamed of having this overly excited reaction around a new friend, but come the next panel she just seems mildly flustered. i feel like your reading of it as an “ugh, lol you suck” reaction makes more sense but with the elipsis and without being able to see her face my brain keeps flip flopping.
Vinemaple
Note the ruffled integument on her face in panel 3. She’s “flustered,” but also not genuinely upset.
aphungay
This just occured to me, but what do AI sound like? Do they have generated voices, or do they have a voice bank to pull from? Do all AI share a voice and sound the same?
Ara
I presume that they’d customise their voice packs in the same way they do for their avatars, having personal preferences on how they’re heard as well as seen (E.g Nabi-Nabu looking very different to their child AI, Bip) . Now you mention it though, I too am now curious as to how Bip makes themselves sound.
Peter Jensen
“They sound like something in between Bill Cipher and Phil Hartman’s performance as Jiji from the English dub of Kiki’s Delivery Service”:
https://www.tumblr.com/jayrockin/658725873481039872/hello-there-i-was-wondering-and-i-apologize-if
Unfortunately the linked audio has now been removed, but I heard it before and I thought it was very fitting.
Talita Fangirl :)
NOOOOOOOOO
aphungay
oh wow, i’ve never seen this! thank you!
The Opossum Witch
not really related to this page but i keep rereading the comic here and on patreon cause i just can’t get enough of it.
JoB
… so, where do you need to be in ten minutes¹, Talita? Is that the MTBTFU (Mean Time Between Temps’ Eff-Ups)?
¹ plus travel time, which would be way the dominant delay factor for any appointment back in the habitat
·
[pictures Talita eventually putting a leash onto Adam]
Vinemaple
I think it’s Dom who really needs a leash. Adam, in my mind, would best be served by duck tape over the mouth.
Sen
I love a little bit of corny humor myself. Nothing wrong with a laugh now and then ^^
dokki
TALITA LAUHGH!!@”@&@&# AAAHHHHH
bryn
the budding bip and talita friendship is WONDERFUL im living for it! bip can get her in ways others cant, and probably vice versa as well <3
Greebus
Awww. The centaur laugh is so endearing.
Origamigryphon
Really worried about all those ragged edges being so close to Talita’s exosuit
Claire
I think that’s the reason they’re all curled very much away from the user
Deimos :}
Hoooly shit, I made it to the end! 😀 excited for next chapter!!
About centaurs, are there any entries on their facial expressions? I tried looking through the culture session on their page, but I couldn’t find anything
Redacted
I think there’s one on their Tumblr somewhere
zaratustra
here ya go https://www.tumblr.com/jayrockin/674032871372111872/talita-is-a-weird-fringe-case-with-very-human
JoB
Also, for comparison, this one.
Enai
So the “ruined tarp” I thought I saw two pages back wasn’t, but still the consoles underneath are perfectly functional. Well then. I’m sure Talita will only have to turn on the master switch and it’ll all be smooth sailing, won’t it?
Won’t it??
.
*Anxiety intensifies*
JoB
“By the way, avians are in the habit to have the really important wiring run though the ceiling, where water can’t get at it …”
“OH COME ON!!!”
Enai
I wouldn’t put it past them. From a planet with so much ocean as theirs it makes a lot of sense. But Talita would’ve noticed that she’d damaged several cables, cursed, and repaired them already. She’s nothing if not thorough.
qoala
I love Talita ‘s remodeling services. The original avian designers should be thanking her for her commitment to the open “air.”
Zuorai
How’d she even do it or get away with it? Is it safe, or will ever be repaired? Is this located where the regolith dust can’t get it?
Enai
It’s a rather large building that looks like a hangar. I believe it used to be pressurized, too, so that implies rather good insulation against matter from the “great outdoors” of Dirtball. How well these measures work after two decades of disuse is anybody’s guess, though.
Zuorai
Ohh okay, I didnt fully recognize they weren’t outdoors anymore
Enai
This page contains an outside view of the electrolysis plant. I swear there was a double page spread with labeled locations outside the dome, too, but I can’t find it. Maybe my brain made that up.
Raydfil
oh aw! Thats probably the first time someone has ever been able to read Talita’s centaur gestures as opposed to her adopted human behaviors. i wonder if we’ll see a bonding element between the two of them as Talita finds a way to connect to her birth culture…
HAL9000
HAH, she finds them funny. the terrible worm is growing on you girl!
Ruby
They’ve wormed their way into her heart
hessian
talita laugh :]!!