Mel's kids are both in their their mid/late thirties. They flew the coop long before Talita came into the picture.
Transcript
WolfenWatcher asked: Cheevwut, which of your coworkers is least or most likely to turn to crime, in your opinion?
Cheevwut: Haw haw, the most likely to turn to crime?? Definitely me.
Fomalhaut asked: Mel, do you have a significant other? Or really any help fostering Talita at all?
Mel: I had a husband for over 20 years, but trust me, I’m enjoying the peace and quiet I have now. We raised two kids together
before we split and I transitioned, and THEM I do miss. Now if only they would leave me voice messages without me bugging them first… sigh… With Talita I was really more of a higher education sponsor than a foster parent. She was almost 18 when she came under my wing! At that age they seem to prefer taking care of themselves!
47 thoughts on “RttS Reader Questions 12”
Truther
I genuiely thought Mel was just a biomodder bridging the gap between genders. Oh well, that one comment I made in the past about GMHs confusing new readers did not age well
perro
i mean, what is transition if not biomodding and bridging the gap between genders? im not sure what you were imagining
creetur
Kinda looks like Cheev has ram horns, very charming outfit 🙂
blythe
I wonder if Cheevs “haw haw” is a mimicry of human laughter since it’s said that avians amusement response is mostly in the ears, without a laughing noise. Imagine if it’s super monotone lmao
Adrienne
Cheev’s little “ram horns” hehe :}
AnaKaye
Ram’s horns?
theplushfrog
I think the hood ear-cutouts are what they mean, they do look like little ram horns a bit.
Adrienne
Yes, that’s what I meant 🙂 Goats are my fave animal and avians are my fave sophont in this universe, couldn’t resist…
Vinemaple
Yeah, I’m regretting not putting then in my description of Cheev’s outfit.
creetur
..did not mean to make it seem like I copied a comment, oops
Joysweeper
I’ve never wanted to high five anyone (high… two?) like I want to high five Cheev.
wingedhorror
Cheevwut, my beloved.
Vinemaple
Question: Cheevwut, which of your coworkers is most likely to turn to crime?
Cheevwut’s ears go out and their tail goes down at this question. They’re wearing a simple, rather baggy outfit with a shaped head covering, from which drapes fold after fold of baggy fabric completely obscuring their neck. “Haw, haw, the most likely to turn to crime?”
Cheevwut strikes a pose, looking over their shoulder at you and pulling the baggy fabric up as if trying to hide their face. “Definitely me.”
Question: Mel, do you have a significant other? Or, really any help fostering Talita?
(A large one-third drawing of Mel dominates the page, surrounded by smaller images and speech bubbles.)
Mel smiles slyly, and gestures dismissively. “I had a husband for 20 years, but, trust me, I’m enjoying the peace and quiet I have now.” (INSET: a picture of a younger Mel, completely feminine, with no beard, long hair in an updo, wearing a sheath dress, and very obviously pregnant. They are standing next to a heavyset man about 10cm taller, with short dark hair, broad neck and arms, with hairy forearms and hair poking out of the top of his V-neck T-shirt. They have their arms around each other and are smiling cheerfully at the viewer, but there’s a 15cm gap between them.
“We had 2 kids together before we split and I transitioned, and THEM I do miss. Now, if only they would leave me voice messages without me bugging them first…” Arms folded, cheek resting on fist, Mel closes their eyes and sighs wistfully.
Thinking about Talita, Mel seems to brighten up. “With Talita, I was really more of a higher education sponsor than a foster parent. She was almost 18 when she came under my wing!” Mel gestures expansively. “At that age, they seem to prefer taking care of themselves!”
[Sorry, Jay, but your drawings are really endearing and say so much about the characters in these AMAs, I just had to provide a more descriptive transcript!]
creetur
Oooo.. I like how you did this. I like the original transcripts too, but the detail gives it something extra.
Fallingfeather
Ok the fact that Mel is trans is less surprising to me than Mel being apparently way older than I thought- old enough to have two adult kids and a 20 year marriage! I thought they were, like. 40. 40-something.
TheExaminer
Same. I thought they were 30-something.
evileeyore
Cheevwut-wut! Haha, Cheev you dashing rogue you!
If only Cheev could join our merry crew, but I suspect though they think themselves a criminal by nature, they really do appreciate being head of HR.
IncompleteMachine
fanfic story after the crew runs off where Cheev – inspired – also runs off and does something scandalous.
JoB
Working title: “The Me, Myself, And I Triad”.
Varyon
Hmmm… is Mel thinking of Talita too much like a human here? I see that the information in the World link states centaurs enter puberty around 15 years of age, as opposed to humans where puberty starts on average at 11 (for girls) or 12 (for boys). That implies an 18 year old Talita would have been only 3 years since puberty, possibly putting her developmentally closer to 14 or 15 than 18, and considering this was only +1/5th the time prior to puberty, an argument could be made for her being comparably mature to only a 13 or 14 year old.
It’s an understandable mistake to make, and perhaps Talita seemed sufficiently-mature, but that certainly could have caused issues.
(I also note that a lot of the old little extra comics seemed to have a much younger Talita interacting with Mel – like when she got lost at a train station from not bringing her glasses. I take it that’s no longer the case?)
Jay Eaton
You’re thinking of Doug, who also has a beard. He took care of Talita from infancy to about 15 years old at the youth foster facility. He hasn’t shown up in this main webcomic yet, just in side comics.
Apollo235
Wait but is this person’s point about Talita’s mental maturity correct?
Varyon
Ah, I suppose I mixed them up on account of the beards. Thank you for the correction. I am still curious about how mature an 18 year old centaur is compared to an 18 year old human, however.
Guest
I believe the younger Talita is actually interacting with Doug. He has a character page on the world website.
Jay Eaton
Jinx, lol
Furubatsu
The crew of The Runaway hear about the Space Cops showing up and start to panic only to see them carting off Cheevwut whose been embezzling from the company for years now.
the Inmara
Cheevwut struggling against their restraints in an attempt to wave at the crew, grinning, literally strutting through their perp walk.
CheevFanNo1
I bet Cheev’s skimming off the top or stealing office supplies or something. Just for the thrill of it!
evileeyore
Headcanon: Cheev has a box full of office staplers in their closet, no one knows what keeps happening to the staplers in the office, despite Cheevwut’s continue insistence that some dashing rogue must be stealing them for some nefarious purpose!
JoB
… saaaayyyyy you wouldn’t happen to have something to do with the fate of ballpoint pens in *our* office, would you … ?
Trees
Wait… Mel was married for 20 years and has children in their late 30s…
I know Mel is only a drawing but they look incredible for someone who must be into the… 50s?!
ryn
iirc the medical tech for humans in this universe has advanced to the point where they regularly live to be 100+ (can’t remember the exact number), so it’s totally possible they look younger for longer lol
Bright
Modern day HRT has, anecdotally, been known to knock years off a person’s appearance. How much of that is an actual physiological thing from doing the puberty thing again and how much is just perceived by others now that the person transitioning is much happier remains up in the air.
Chrysalis
That was my reaction too! I would have guessed that Mel was in their late 30s themself. Probably a mix of future medical tech and naturally sparkly attitude.
Trees
Also, the hair.
Vinemaple
Never worrying about whether or not you’re doing the right thing also prevents wrinkles.
Ruby
Hehe yeah, Cheevwut has what it takes!
Bramble
I 100% believe Cheevwut is already regularly doing petty crime and convinced that the fact that none of their coworkers have caught them means that those coworkers do not have a criminal’s soul.
Chrysalis
There’s only one way to be CERTAIN that you’re the most likely to commit a crime, and that’s to have already done it.
Lilac
Now cheevwut, would you be interesting in some particular crimes involving getting a rogue ai back in their spaceship body……. just a hypothetical……. but would you be interested………
Claire
Oh dang, Mel’s looking great at their age!
Greenjoe
How old is Mel, then?
Jay Eaton
Late 50s-ish. They married and had kids early, like at 20 years/22 years. Divorced in their 40s after the kids became independent, because they and their husband had grown apart and become very different people with opposing goals during that time. Common long term relationship strain stuff.
Guestie McGuestor
Dang. There is soooo much to unpack from Mel’s two answers. This hits me as a parent who doesn’t have much contact with my own folks.
Gar G
“Definitely me.”
Cheevwut, you’re adorable XD
JoB
“I’ve reused insufficiently-voided postage stamps at least thrice so far! Don’t tempt me to try and make a *living* of it!”
Gar G
XDDD Yus