Talita files her teeth instead of brushing them, since they grow continuously. It feels nice to her but makes humans cringe.
Transcript
Talita's tablet sits on her bedside tablet next to her glasses. The room is dark.
SFX: BEEDLE BEEDLE BEEDLE BEEDLE BEEDLE whap
The 8:30 alarm goes off and Talita hits the tablet with her trunk to stop it. She squints blearily at the light, then gets ready for work in a montage of closeups: filing her teeth, brushing her mane feathers, snapping on her overalls, and pressing the button to open the rolling garage door of her apartment. Having left, she casually presses the button to close the door with her hind foot. Off in the distance by the human apartments, she notices two figures talking.
33 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 80”
fen
when talita files her teeth, scales come off of them, right? does she have to file over a towel or something so she can gather them to throw away, like a human cutting nails? i can’t imagine space plumbing being cool with water-insoluble flakes going down the sink drain all the time. or does she just let them fall wherever and clean them up later as a result of general cleaning?
Greenjoe
It’s the beedle alarm.
I wonder what those two are talking about…
zofifi
I cant get enought of seeing Talita moves with all those limbs and trunk. And I supposed so is the author or they would not make a whole comic about it.
Ruby
Honestly? I wish that I had Talita’s type of teeth. I know that forever-growing teeth have downsides that once-in-a-lifteme ones don’t, but it sounds way less stressful (at least in some aspects).
Sen
I notice her teeth have pattern a bit like wobbly hexagonals. Is this a result of using a rough file on them. or is that the pattern on the teeth themselves?
Btw. love that she uses her hind leg to close the door. Like humans sometimes do with their feet XD
SJ
Centaur teeth are comprised of layers of scales/plates, they grow up from the root and shed worn-down scales as they go. So the equivalent to human tooth-brushing is more to knock loose old scales and keep wear patterns even. Link: https://jayeaton.site/RunawayToTheStars/Sophonts/Centaurs/Biology#DigestiveSystem
D
you can see a similar pattern if you look up parrot fish beak.
Cammie
I love that Talita seems to have both four-legged overalls, like she’s wearing on this page, and two-legged overalls, like the ones her 3D model wears. “How would a centaur wear pants?” Solved! I wonder if each pair has a different uitility for her, or if they’re meant for warmer or cooler “weather.” (All weather would be artificial in space.)
Thylacereal
The Whap makes me wonder how fast Talita can swing her trunk around…. Wonder if she can speak whilst doing so, and how funny it might sound
Tyrone the Miner
Waiting for Talita “Brushie” memes popping up!
Liza
My money is on those figures being Mel and Ohwitiil, or possibly Cheevwut.
AnaKaye
I’m lovin’ those custom Chucks of hers! 😀
Zuorai
Talita you are so hot
Myst
What.
evileeyore
Look, don’t question it. Humans are weird beans.
Auld_Lang_Syne
This reads as a real interaction the humans and other sophonts would have on Space Internetâ„¢
Zuorai
Talita’s gf is literally human. There’s nothing weird going on here
Spugpow
How did Talita learn how to take care of her own health growing up as the only one of her species in human society? It’s sad to imagine.
Gar G
Probably research, though I can only imagine what it must’ve been like growing up since her caretakers would have to be the ones constantly worrying about stuff
evileeyore
Her adoptive parents and the orphanarium did the proper research. So they taught her growing up.
gnome_artificer
Dagnabbit, we missed BING BONG.
AnaKaye
Seriously, I should think BING BONG would wake anyone up without the need for BEEDLE BEEDLE
evileeyore
She tired. Probably usually gets up with BING BONG, but decided to snooze an extra 30 after all that late night crammin for the non-test.
feesh
talita pressing the door button with her foot is a Top Tier Talita Habit for me. she’s so silly
evileeyore
That’s such a casual power move. You show off girl, you do it!
SIGSTKFLT
boop
Mr. Skeleton
Does Talitas face tentacle have tastebuds on it? It would be pretty annoying to have to taste everything she touched.
Cobbington
It’s entirely disconnected from her digestive tract so most likely not
Peter Jensen
But the vocal lung did evolve from an olfactory structure and still has scent receptors in it, so while she isn’t *tasting* everything she touches with her trunk, she still has to be careful not getting it close to something smelly. For humans, a large part of what we think we “taste” is actually input from our sense of smell. There’s some argument about how much, but I’ve seen it cited as 70-95% of the experience. No guessing how centaurs do it, though.
evileeyore
Taste buds are just chemoreceptors we jam right into the thing we’re chemorecepting… so… yeah.
Amanda/OwlBear
ooh, big pockets!!!
Pathfinder
Snap buttons my beloved
JoB
“It feels nice to her but makes humans cringe.”
Well, except those doing camelid husbandry, which usually entails trimming their teeth with various power tools, I suppose.
https://www.kleinwiederkäuer.ch/fileadmin/04_kleinwiederkaeuer/03_Kleinwiederkaeuer/Neuweltkameliden/NWK_Zahnprobleme_bei_Neuweltkameliden_12-07_d_f.pdf?page=3
I’m somewhat surprised to see Talita lift a *right* leg to press a button off her *left*. Certainly, with 3+ other legs, she’s not as prone to falling over as we humans are, but still …