Runaway to the Stars: Page 93
Posted on November 7, 2024 by Jay Eaton

She's cheating, Dirtball gravity's only 0.8g! Well, slightly cheating!

Transcript

Talita: But in my experience… their style of intervention makes things worse. 

Talita inhales deeply, and her pronounced forearm and upper back muscles tense as she lifts the cutter attachment off the frontloader's nose rig. Tod watches in bemusement as she puts it down on the hanging chains.

Tod: Maybe you should just fling your temps back into orbit.
Talita: Har har. So what’s up with the housing project?
Tod: You’ll find out eventually.
Talita: …You too, huh?
Tod:  See you around, Talita.

Tod walks away, waving over his shoulder. Talita works on repairing the suspended cutter arm alone.

Runaway to the Stars: Page 93
Posted on November 7, 2024 by Jay Eaton

She's cheating, Dirtball gravity's only 0.8g! Well, slightly cheating!

Transcript

Talita: But in my experience… their style of intervention makes things worse. 

Talita inhales deeply, and her pronounced forearm and upper back muscles tense as she lifts the cutter attachment off the frontloader's nose rig. Tod watches in bemusement as she puts it down on the hanging chains.

Tod: Maybe you should just fling your temps back into orbit.
Talita: Har har. So what’s up with the housing project?
Tod: You’ll find out eventually.
Talita: …You too, huh?
Tod:  See you around, Talita.

Tod walks away, waving over his shoulder. Talita works on repairing the suspended cutter arm alone.

86 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 93”

  1. cobbington

    GAHD DAMN TALITA
    I mean how am I supposed to not have a crush on her

  2. Darth Biomech

    I knew she was BUFF, but holy shit!
    Face of a nerd, body of a T-800 >///<

  3. Doof

    wow
    shes so…

  4. woof

    for a lot of the time ive been like ‘why do they keep commenting on her being scary/a predator?’ and seeing that panel of her beefed out, teeth bared, hair bristled, uh yeah, thats a predator that could throw down alright. i love the way you draw her and how we just come to know her as a totally loveable engineering nerd but then hit us with that panel.

    1. stitcher

      Exactly.
      We know she exercises, but we don’t have sn average strength ballpark for centaurs. I’d be willing to bet a silverback gorilla would be scared if she put on a display of strength though.

  5. Whachamacallit

    I just realized that Talita is making the Rosie the Riveter pose on panel 6 lmao

    1. stitcher

      Oh neat!

  6. Ash

    Oh god Talita’s arm. I’m so gay for this woman…

  7. Sylvie

    …n-nice biceps.

  8. Rad Internet Stranger

    O///O

  9. JoB

    Hmmmm … Talitas Temps¹ showed up for work sometime between 8:30 (Talita waking up on page 80) and, say, 10:30 (Tods and Kilians next appointment after meeting Talita on page 82 being at 10:00). Now it’s 13:53, *hopefully* of the same day (of 23 hours). What kinda shiftlets *do* those folks work … !? Or is this just the lunch break?

    ¹ Uppercased on purpose. I don’t think they’ll be anything *but* temps for the foreseeable future. 😉

    1. hal9000

      they did break a pretty major piece of equipment i guess so maybe the work day was called off for safety? idk i just know whatever health and safety space laws there are are likely very complicated and annoying like that

      1. JoB

        The transcript of page 90 says they’re returning “*later* in the workday”, though …

  10. eden

    does he know* and has decided not to tell her for some reason or just accepted that he’s not going to find out either?

  11. sheepthing

    thank you for Talita muscles-

  12. evileeyore

    I told y’all there’d be some sexual awakenings on this page.

    Don’t mind me, I’ll just keep mopin up y’all’s drool…

  13. Carmenifold

    ohhh mercy i am a gay woman.

  14. TotallySomebody

    Are all centaurs that strong or is Talita an exception because she’s JACKED

    1. Origamigryphon

      Talita is jacked: https://www.tumblr.com/jayrockin/662192052280393728/is-talita-considered-underweight-by-centaur?source=share

    2. Jay Eaton

      She is literally a body builder, this is a body type she attained through sustained effort and a very boring diet. The average centaur has more economical musculature under a thicker layer of subcutaneous fat.

  15. Hosp

    I think I hauve covid

  16. Crocus

    Talita is absolutely jacked for a centaur! It’s clear a lot of thought went into centaur musculature, which is a neat detail!

  17. SheTheTDE

    Strong women <3

  18. zaratustra

    like a horse where every leg is a beefy arm

  19. atriflemiffed

    I am 100% normal about Talita in the second panel and not getting flustered at all

    1. creetur

      I like how everyone here agrees that buff Talita is good (Me included)

  20. JoB

    Saaayy, is she using her trunk tip as sort of iron sights in panel three … ?

  21. Ruby

    GEE LOUISE those are not guns, those are secret superweapons disguised as moons!!

  22. Sen

    Mhm yes. Talita would be amazing at chess boxing. She can whoop your butt and your mind at the same time.
    It is so lovely how the world building is woven into story, scenery and character interaction. It never feels stilted or staged. All flows naturally.

    1. JoB

      She’d yeet you right through the nearest wall, and *then* stand up from the chess table to don the gloves. 😛

  23. Calcifer

    I’m so excited to find out about the housing project. Re-reading everything reminded me of Mel earlier asking for Talita’s room specs and talking to Ohwihtiil about getting permission to hire new temps but Ohwihtiil saying the biggest challenge would be even sourcing those specific temps in the first place- which leads me to believe other comments are right about it being new housing for Centaurs specifically. Oh boyyy.

    1. Calcifer

      Disregard the fact I managed to spell the same name wrong twice

      1. evileeyore

        I wouldn’t worry about it, Ovaltine’s name is kinda hard to remember.

        *deep sigh*
        I’m leaving it as a way of shaming ‘autocorrect’, shame autocorrect, for shame.

        1. JoB

          Given the default volume/attitude setting, it should be “𝕺𝖍𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖎𝖎𝖑”, anyway. ;-P

  24. Trees

    !?!
    The loader arm on our New Holland at work weighs something like 800kg and it’s not much bigger than that!
    The Dirtball management seem to be determined to alienate* all the staff with literally superhuman ability. First the sapient AI that can do the work of a whole squad of people and now the only employee that can see like an eagle, hear like a bat, outrun a stooping hawk and benchpress a grand piano.
    And Talita has a MASTERS DEGREE IN ENGINEERING!
    Forget working a trade, with a CV like that Talita could go to Earth and join the fucking Avengers.

    *no pun intended, I promise.

    1. JoB

      So, according to the species info:
      https://jayeaton.site/RunawayToTheStars/Sophonts/Centaurs/Biology
      she’s lifting roughly her own weight here … [test-lifts a couple soft drink crates] uhhh outta *my* league for sure, but the guys visiting the six-pack shack in the basement might have a different opinion …

    2. Hanroz

      I want to know what her superhero identity would be now!

      1. JoB

        The Masked Machinist?

        “Listen, Slim. We *have* to find out who that damn cape is that roughed you up. Tell me – any chance he had, like, *six* limbs?”
        “Sorry boss, I can’t tell – he was *masked*!”

  25. Egg

    I’m sure Talita, being into working out as we know from extra material, knows her body and knows how much she can lift without injuring herself but holy shit are you sure that’s good for your back??

  26. Luke

    your RSS feed doesn’t work, just so you know.

    1. Jay Eaton

      For the comic RSS, copy the link from the sidebar button (it should be https://runawaytothestars.com/comic/feed/) and paste it into the searchbar of the RSS reader of your choice. It seems like some RSS readers only find the blog or comment feeds if you search by plain text.

  27. Ray

    making my first ever comment after several months of observing to say godDAMN TALITA IS STRONG. like HELLO?? i wonder what her maximum weight is for lifting?? also wow. strong alien woman,,

  28. samkee00

    I like Tod

  29. ImJustaTourist

    Frankly, I think the odds are slightly in her favor at hand fighting…

  30. Kataratakaran

    I am looking respectfully 0u0

  31. som

    talita i am concerned for your equivalent of lower lumbar. easy!!

  32. crush haver

    anyone else feeling 100% normal and fine and not dizzy and flustered about strong alien woman or is it just me, Normal Guy, who never lies

    1. SJ

      You’re not alone!
      https://jayeaton.site/Art/RttS/Comics/TalitaBendsIBeam

  33. Hunter

    So, what, she thinks reporting her temps being blatantly disrespectful to her will only make it worse?

    1. Adrienne

      It might make things more awkward. Not that it would be her fault, three of her five temps deserve at least a finger-wagging, if not a firing.

    2. InkyZuzi

      It’s not uncommon for workplace harassment to escalate after it’s been reported. It could be that something like that happened to Talita in the past after Mel intervened and so she resolved to just deal with it on her own in the future unless it got too bad

  34. Abalisk

    Talita is a fantastic reminder of fitness goals, like dayum!

  35. GRUMM

    Oh, okay. 😳

  36. MoonyBeasty

    Things about Talita I’ll never get over:
    1. How BUFF she is.
    2. How BIG she is.
    3. Her face :3

  37. bramble

    Interesting parallel here between “Talita doesn’t want to get Mel involved when her temps are blatantly undermining and harassing her” and “Talita chooses to wrestle the broken equipment into the hoist manually despite it being an obvious physical strain on her.” Feels like they could be manifestations of the same complex about needing to solve things personally and efficiently so she’s not in anyone’s way…

    1. Guest

      TALITA: I shouldn’t bother other people by asking for help. (strains a muscle)

    2. evileeyore

      So… for people who routinely workout or engage in sports, pushing yourself and testing limits is a way of burning off stress and feeling good about yourself. Even if you can do whatever you tried, you feel better having wrestled with something you //can// wrestle with, and if you succeed, like Talita here dead-lifting the vehicle arm, you feel even better.

      For peeps like me who hate working out and don;t (generally) enjoy sports… I’d play a stress releasing video game where I “BOOM! HEADSHOT!” bunch of NPCs… while I mentally superimpose stress inducing coworkers faces onto the NPCs.

  38. Heather

    Ok we all know The Flex is the star of this page but I really want to give a special shoutout to Talita’s face in panel 3. I absolutely love it. I feel like I need to print it out and put it in a little locket.

    1. Apollo235

      It really doesn’t look like it from most angles, (probably because the disk shape) but her face is FLAT. I love Jay’s alien designs so much

      1. Heather

        A beautiful barn owl!

  39. Chrysalis

    It’s an intervention from Mel, it’s probably fine.

  40. Tumorhead

    WHAAAAAA BUFF LADY

    1. Claire

      buff fluff lady!

    2. Arcstone

      Talita stronk 💪

    3. Calcifer

      Woahhh mama, that’s a whole lotta lady!

  41. Kage

    I would go sit in the grass with popcorn if she changed her mind about flinging temps into orbit. I’d even take photos

    1. JoB

      … if she flings them far enough that they’ll pass by a place that *has grass and doesn’t mandate a helmet that’d get into the way of ingesting said popcorn*, I’ll join you … as soon as I’ve checked from a bunker that the spelling of “grass” isn’t going to change into “crater”, that is …

  42. The Packbats

    …ah, so that’s why she’s not talking to HR (or equivalent) about this. Dammit, Mel…

  43. Translunary_Animus

    I keep forgetting Talita is alarmingly jacked until panels like this occur

    1. creetur

      Agreed. I think it’s neat to see how the muscle structure on a Centaur works/looks, since her’s are more defined.

      1. Translunary_Animus

        100% Unusual muscle structures are really cool! Though I may be biased towards muscular aliens in general…

  44. Redacted

    Look at her face in the third panel lol

    1. evileeyore

      And Tod’s raised eyebrow in panel four. He’s doing his best no to be awe struck/surprised/somethinged, but that eyebrow is betraying him.

    2. Heather

      The angle is so good. Also I just noticed the detail of her taking a knee!

  45. creetur

    I always forget that she is really fucking strong (both in centaur and in general terms), must be useful if you work with heavy stuff and machinery. Big buff nerd lady 🙂

    1. creetur

      augh, no, why did it correct my smiley face..

  46. Soup

    …. I think I understand Shyam now 😳

  47. Willard

    She’s the woman of my dreams…

    1. Tyrone the Miner

      From an orderly Que….No pushing or shoving! =)

  48. Apollo235

    Whats the *intended* way to remove the cutter arm or other attachments? Not every worksite has a conveniently located jacked Centaur, I imagine. Do they use the loader’s own arms to lift the attachment?

    1. The Packbats

      Maybe something like an engine hoist? We’ve seen Blondihacks on YouTube move her machine tools with one of those, no conveniently located jacked centaur required.

    2. evileeyore

      They use the ceiling hoist. Talita just decided to forego attaching tot he hoist and lifting out that and instead lifted it out herself and set it into the ceiling hoist…

      (The chains she sets it into, it’s probably a ceiling hoist/crane that can be repositioned around in the bay.)

      1. Sevoris

        Not just probably… you can see the H-beam the two slings can slide on in the top of the last image.

      2. evileeyore

        Rechecked the page, and yes, it’s a repositional hoist/crane. Though the controls are weird, they’re up too high for a human to reach.

        I wonder if this isn’t designed for other tractors to be used to perform maintenance, like if this whole bay set up is aimed at AI controlled vehicles and not at all meant to be used by human technicians (or bug ferrets or avians). Though Talita’s height and strength means she’s ideally suited as the only meat technician on the whole rock who can use this equipment.

    3. Phlosion

      These two chains dangling from the ceiling are motorized. Their loops at the bottom also have detachable U-shaped links. So the intended route is 1) unscrew a U-shaped link on both chains, 2) reposition the arm to line up with the chains, 3) reattach the U-shaped links, now slung under the arm, 4) raise both chains till they contact the arm and both hold its weight, 5) raise both chains simultaneously to lift the arm out of the vehicle, 6) move the vehicle out of the way, 7) lower both chains to working height.

      It’d be a total pain. This is much faster.

    4. JoB

      > Whats the *intended* way to remove the cutter arm or other attachments?

      Hmmmm … “don’t do it if it isn’t necessary”? It doesn’t seem that the arm’s hydraulics are connected to the base vehicle’s (nor any other way to supply power it, for that matter …), so I don’t quite see why you would want it detached, *unless* the repair takes a while and you need to use the loader otherwise in the meantime. The entire ruptured hose is on one side of the arm, so I don’t think that it’ll need to get rotated round’n’round to get access …

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