Talita works off some stress.
Transcript
Gillie and Idrisah watch Talita leave, blankly surprised. The front door latches with click.
Gillie: (ASL) What did she say?
Talita selects the "10 km SPRINT" program on her tablet, and plugs it into the stand in front of her treadmill. She's in the private backyard behind her dry storage unit apartment, and has stripped down her underwear in preparation of working out. She begins to jog quadrupedally on the treadmill as the speed increases.
SFX: tic
5 km/hr
SFX: tic
10 km/hr
SFX: tic
15 km/hr
She switches to a hexapodal run, the yard melting away with her intense focus.
SFX: BADA TUMP BADA TUMP BADA TUMP
SFX: tic
20 km/hr
SFX: tic
30 km/hr
SFX: tic
40 km/hr
86 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 122”
Failed Patriarch
Is her breathing coupled with he gait. The breathing vents are so close to the middle legs that I think running would push the respiratory system. Like how kangaroos have their breathing coupled to thier hopping. Would be a very efficient system.
chirp
That BADA TUMP BADA TUMP is such a satisfying sfx, I feel like I can hear her galloping for real
Sylvie
PEAK CENTAUR PERFORMANCE: HEAD DOWN! GO FAST!
Chaos
Is it just me or does Talita look like the powerful predator her species is in the last panel? Imagine her coming at you!
Vinemaple
Except for the sad strained eyes
40
Seeing her so much in the rest of the comic has made it so now I’m actually kinda weirded out by her being mostly naked here.
TotallySomebody
Yeah my first thought when I saw this was (half jokingly) “PUT YOUR CLOTHES BACK ON!!!)
Storm
Sent this panel to my nature school group chat and people are analyzing her gait and how six legs works with a trot or a gallop
Dilophoraptor
There’s an animation on Jay’s tumblr for the hexapodal gallop, and it links to a post that has some more casual movement. It looks like this page is still using this post as a guide for the movement so I’m guessing it’s still accurate to the centaurs?
https://jayrockin.tumblr.com/post/703486341078482944/a-second-attempt-at-animating-a-hexapodal-gallop
Avalon
Oh she is ZOOMING
Ruby
Gotta go fast!
Pathfinder
Stripes: Out
Speed: Yes
Anxiety about this cluster heck: Working on it
Gar G
I just realized that even if Gillie could read lips it probably wouldn’t help with Talita 😅
JoB
… thank you for the novel thought that my simply having grown a beard could qualify as an affront, given the ri^H^Hwrong company …
TeethBurglar
The dead eye stare is perfect here! It’s like you can see her visually disassociate.
Robin
Such a good rendition of musculature… you can just tell how powerful Talita is. Reminds me of a panther.
fishfacedterror
well i suppose this is one way to run some errands!
Darth Biomech
I see that centaurs have their version of “lift heavy stone, make sad head voice quiet” as well.
AnormalADN
That would be pretty intimidating to see IRL I feel. From a human perspective. 3m tall alien gradually speeding up to reach the speed of a car on a highway. I wonder what a centaur on all sixes and at full speed would sound like
JoB
… dang, you ninja’d me. :-3 I *just* came back to post:
Next page:
Gillie (ASL): “… why are you looking out the window?”
Idrisah (ASL): “Just checking something …”
SFX: bd dum bd dum bd dum
Idrisah [closes window] (ASL): “… jup, she went straight on her treadmill.”
Gillie (ASL): “… don’t ever *tell* her folks can hear her doing that on pretty much the other side of the habitat, willya?” 8-|
JoB
(Did something change with the comments section? I’m pretty sure that when I specifically typed an empty line between paragraphs/lines in the past, like between “post:” and “Next page:” here, the comment did *retain* some vertical space between them …)
Phasma Felis
I’m seeing a very small vertical space, but it’s easy to miss.
Vinemaple
It occurs to me that Talita’s house is a fair ways from the Human residential block… I wonder what gait she used on the main road…
If I was her, I would probably trot around at the vehicle speed limit whenever there wasn’t a reason not to.
JoB
According to what we’ve been shown so far, that ring road – with two main airlocks on opposite sides – is split into a vehicles’ (going through the ag sections) and a pedestrians’ (+ hand carts, passing by the residential buildings) half. (And *then* there seems to be a narrow path straight through the center, too.) So far, Talita has been using the “pedestrians’ half” – sufficiently slow to have a quick chat with Rasheed when she was hauling the Bipphones in a cart, and to spot (and *be* spotted in one case) conversations in the distance (first Mel and Ohwitiil, later Gillie and Idrisah).
Sen
Talita both has and is a running machine.
In a medieval fantasy setting, a centaur with a lance at full speed would be devastating!
ilvos01
has she just *invented* degrees of modesty vis-a-vie nudity based on human standards? is she just covering genitals? does she have breasts?
wow I feel weird asking this suddenly
samkee00
The underwear is covering her genitals, and the area coincidentally includes what would be closest to “breasts” for a centaur, the spinnerets.
samkee00
https://jayeaton.site/RunawayToTheStars/Sophonts/Centaurs/Biology#ReproductiveSystem
0xabad1dea
In all the pictures I can find of clothed centaurs in the worldbuilding info, the back region is covered. However, it’s mentioned in one of the little character interviews somewhere that Talita usually keeps her chest covered even though she doesn’t have anything special there, implying that it’s social performance of human gender norms.
Marcie
I’m guessing that wearing a chest covering would chafe if she’s running on a treadmill
Eggs
Something I just thought about, but like, you know the hoof bits on the tips of her fingers/toes? Those surely would wear down with age, due to all of the friction you get from contact with the ground, especially at such high speeds, which is especially problamatic when it comes to the first two appendages since those work as both hands and feet, so I’m guessing like nails they grow from the base to replace anything worn down at the tip? Wait let me search it up, okay it seems that horse hooves can regrow parts that are worn down so I’m assuming it works similairly with centaurs
Mr. Son
Interesting seeing her seem to be using her knuckles to press the screen buttons. Sort of the reverse of when I use a fingernail to press a touch screen for more precision.
Arcstone
Well, her fingertips are basically hooves. I’m guessing she doesnt want to scratch it.
Daedalus
Her lil hooves wouldn’t even work to press buttons on a capacitive touch screen; they’re probably not conductive.
Arcstone
Arent hooves basically just super thick fingernails?
JoB
As long as there’s (conductive) tissue behind the isolating layer, adding to the latter makes the signal weaker (and blurs the exact location of the touch), but having an isolator between two conductive sides is what capacitors *are by definition*.
The point’s somewhat moot, though, since there are *physical press buttons* along the bottom edge of that tablet as well …
Greebus
Unless her hooves have a hardness > 6 on the Mohs scale I don’t think she has to worry about scratching her tablet. I think Daedalus is on the money here.
Greebus
Why is my picture an old woman
Vinemaple
She appears to prefer using her trunk (upper left of panel, and chapter 1) with touch screens, but apparently knuckles can work, if she doesn’t want to lean down or get her face too close on the treadmill…
Kataratakaran
Yaaay running from our problems time!! (anxiety squad scatter!!)
Arcstone
Now I’m kinda anxious she’s gonna misstep ever so slightly, faceplant and then go flying backwards into the wall behind her.
JoB
I’m pretty sure that she *intentionally* placed the treadmill so that in such a case, she’d damage “only” her very own housing’s backyard wall (which isn’t visible from outside thanks to the fence she put up, and I suppose that the habitat’s environ systems do *not* make it “rain” across the *entire* interior – or do they … ? – and yes, I *do* remember that (few) avians might get an *aerial* view of it nonetheless).
In the opposite case (belt getting blocked by mechanical fault and still-legs-whirling Talita pushing herself off it over the *other* end), she’d likely shear off the tablet stand, hit the fence, and maybe the structure behind it – which seems to be a spherical tank inside a steel girder frame.
https://www.runawaytothestars.com/comic/rtts-page-32/
That one looks rather sturdy, and she’d very likely pick up much *less* speed than by faceplanting on a still-running belt, though.
Arcstone
I mean, thanks for putting effort into the analysis, but I’m im more worried about her than her walls.
JoB
Feel free, but keep in mind that predators evolved to do high-speed *cross country* chases don’t tend to be all *too* likely to suffer debilitating injuries when the inevitable occasional misstep+tumble happens. :-}
(That wall isn’t load-bearing *at all*, if the barrel-shaped roof is any indication.)
Lilac
and by chores she means HITTING THE GYM (presumably in her backyard)
Also that whole meeting went a lot better than I expect yippee woohoo!! I thought some maaajor serious arguing was about to go down lol. Maybe later
Lilac
*expected
Lilac
Also i imagine this is how she avoids thinking about things/tries to distract herself, focusing all on the movement & the pattern of whatever workout she’s doing for however amount of time it takes. Or maybe she does all her thinking during this while her body carries out the motions. Or maybe she’s thinking unstoppable all the time too much forever. If it’s that last one, So Real I Relate So Hard. Maybe I’m reading too much into these just panels of her running though lol
eel
I love this sequence of panels here and upcoming. Talita’s wide-eyed stare is a little disconcerting.
thing
to think that this is only about a third of the way to her top speed of 120km…. (according to one post, not sure if its the most updated speed) god shes so cool
TotallySomebody
Go Talita go!
iisaw
I just realized that her relatively narrow pelvis gives her a longer possible stride-length than would be possible for a hexapode based on average Earth quadruped structure. Given a fairly flexible spine, she should be _wicked_ fast on all sixes!
Darth Biomech
She can freely outrun a cheetah, IIRC.
zofifi
I just imagined her galloping throught the vast grasslands like that. The entire group of centaurs in full run must be a beautiful sight.
JoB
… as long as you are or can move out of their way. :-3
[cue “super cheap flight training! Come to Shess and embrace your avian heritage!” advert]
[Sidenote: The “centaur homeplanet” doesn’t seem to have a proper name (that I could’ve used in Shess’ place) … ?]
Joey
Earth doesn’t have a “proper name” either. Lots of different names for it.
JoB
Yes, but there *are some*. I would’ve taken the humans’ slang “that-a-way” of canon choice if I had found *that* at least …
gliesedragon
There are a couple centaur names for their homeplanet on Jay’s blog’s RTTS FAQ page: one major Shess language calls their homeplanet “Aun,” while in a couple of the nomadic languages, it’s “Maks” or “Meks.”
blythe
i like the detail of her using her knuckles for the touchscreen since her trunk is out of reach
Rubicon Art
Oh I love this one so much!! I remember seeing bits of it on stream. The MOVEMENT is so satisfying. Also hehehe dot eyes always amuse me. Nothing quite like zooming in your back yard in your undies.
Liza
I’m reminded of that meme of that super swole guy who says something like “every time I feel anxiety I do 1 pushup”
K
English major brain just kicked in and can confidently say that Talita is running from her problems, though I think running is also a massive stress reliever so it would make sense she needs to get some of that anxious energy out.
Uh
Ah, right, the chores
Claire
The Zoomies!!!
SIGSTKFLT
Zoomies!
creetur
Working out in your underwear, as you do
Guest
TBF it’s not like they make any athletic wear for her 🥲
eliimortal
lookit her go !
the strength and power of that last panel makes me think of mooring ropes for big ships. which is to say, normally totally safe, but one slip and you have a large amount of mass moving at dangerous speeds. would stare, but at a distance
veltzeh
NYOOOOM
Guest
I like the second panel. Talita feels alienated a lot (because she’s literally an alien) but her actions are also alienating others as well.
JoB
Yup, running away from a situation needs some “technical aid” when you’re *actually* locked inside a one-mile-across habitat with everyone else. :-3
… umh, Talita? That’s *not* the centaur hexapodal “walk” cycle seen in the older animation, is it? Do you have a couple more “gears” to switch to as you approach your top speed, or do you, in fact, even *move* differently from homeworld-socialized centaurs?
Adrienne
Imagine telling someone their walk cycle is wrong lmao. What are you talking about anyway? Nothing weird about it to me.
Apollo235
I think JoB’s referring to how Talita’s running pose doesn’t *quite* line up with what’s shown in this animation.
https://jayeaton.site/Art/RttS/Animation/CentaurHexapodalGaits
To my eyes it looks like an in-between for the trot/jog gait and the full sprint gait.