Jay Eaton
LightNews LightNews
banner
jayeatonart.bsky.social
Jay Eaton
@jayeatonart.bsky.social
6K followers 260 following 540 posts
An organism appreciator. Working on a hard scifi graphic novel. 🌈 http://patreon.com/jayrockin ☘️ http://jayrockin.tumblr.com 🏳️‍🌈 Bizz email: jayrock5858 @ yahoo .com
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Jay Eaton
jayeatonart.bsky.social
Finally caught up on crossposting these, aiieeeee. The "tertiary" here mostly refers to the recombinations of 3 different digit states to reach 8, as the combinations are ordered in a way that feels mechanically intuitive to an avian and not by typical base-overflow rules.
October 24, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Reposted by Jay Eaton
jayeatonart.bsky.social
This week on #RunawayToTheStars: Yao probes, Adam escalates, Talita is alone.

Catch up: https://runawaytothestars.com
Read ahead: https://patreon.com/jayrockin
Yao: Oh, the velvet came off your antlers. Talita looks down at Yao's snap-on antlers. Talita: …Yeah? Yao: Was it bloody and painful? Talita pauses vacuuming and rubs her arm awkwardly. Talita: Er… there’s… blood… But it doesn’t hurt when the skin comes off. After the bone finishes growing, there’s not really any pain receptors left. Adam, who is standing to her left, looks up at her resentfully. Adam reaches up and grabs Talita's antler, yanking on it hard enough to swing her head around. He smiles smugly. Adam: So you can't feel this? Talita recoils from him with a hand in front of her face, staring in shock. Yao gapes and then looks away fearfully from the two of them. Talita: What the fuck⁇ He throws his hands up defensively, still smiling. Adam: Hey, calm down!I thought you said it doesn’t hurt! Talita's face bristles in rage. Talita: What!? That doesn't mean you can YANK on me! Adam: Ugh, ok! Since you grabbed me, I thought you'd be fine with it! He waves a hand dismissively and walks off, flanked by Phoebe and Dominic. Yao follows after them at a distance, looking back at Talita uncertainly. Phoebe and Dominic whisper to Adam, still unaware Talita can hear them. Phoebe: You trying to get fired? Dominic: Screw that– are you trying to get gored?? Adam: Whatever. We’re getting “fired” soon either way. It’s not like it’s gonna use those things, anyways. Talita tenses at his words with an electric shock of fury, gripping her face and clenching her jaw as if she could curl inwards until she imploded. Then the temps are gone. She slumps down to the floor of the changing area. The massive vehicle bay room is empty.
November 25, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Reposted by Jay Eaton
jayeatonart.bsky.social
The square cube law is not in the reader's favor here, sadly. Mars has a huge battle mech scene. They can get away with heavier bot designs at 0.38 g, and have thousands of kilometers of uninhabited desert on which to stage battles far away from structures that could get obliterated by shrapnel.
October 24, 2025 at 10:58 PM
jayeatonart.bsky.social
This week on #RunawayToTheStars: Yao probes, Adam escalates, Talita is alone.

Catch up: https://runawaytothestars.com
Read ahead: https://patreon.com/jayrockin
Yao: Oh, the velvet came off your antlers. Talita looks down at Yao's snap-on antlers. Talita: …Yeah? Yao: Was it bloody and painful? Talita pauses vacuuming and rubs her arm awkwardly. Talita: Er… there’s… blood… But it doesn’t hurt when the skin comes off. After the bone finishes growing, there’s not really any pain receptors left. Adam, who is standing to her left, looks up at her resentfully. Adam reaches up and grabs Talita's antler, yanking on it hard enough to swing her head around. He smiles smugly. Adam: So you can't feel this? Talita recoils from him with a hand in front of her face, staring in shock. Yao gapes and then looks away fearfully from the two of them. Talita: What the fuck⁇ He throws his hands up defensively, still smiling. Adam: Hey, calm down!I thought you said it doesn’t hurt! Talita's face bristles in rage. Talita: What!? That doesn't mean you can YANK on me! Adam: Ugh, ok! Since you grabbed me, I thought you'd be fine with it! He waves a hand dismissively and walks off, flanked by Phoebe and Dominic. Yao follows after them at a distance, looking back at Talita uncertainly. Phoebe and Dominic whisper to Adam, still unaware Talita can hear them. Phoebe: You trying to get fired? Dominic: Screw that– are you trying to get gored?? Adam: Whatever. We’re getting “fired” soon either way. It’s not like it’s gonna use those things, anyways. Talita tenses at his words with an electric shock of fury, gripping her face and clenching her jaw as if she could curl inwards until she imploded. Then the temps are gone. She slumps down to the floor of the changing area. The massive vehicle bay room is empty.
November 25, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Reposted by Jay Eaton
jayeatonart.bsky.social
This week on #RunawayToTheStars: Talita plucks Adam off of a ladder like a naughty cat.

Catch up: https://runawaytothestars.com
Read ahead: https://patreon.com/jayrockin
The scissor lift begins to retract for repositioning. Bip's avatar is flopped over the tops of the comic panels, looking frustrated. Bip: I don't have much time to wait, I've got a rapidly approaching appointment with the launch loop. Can you do it off the clock? Talita switches radio channels and turns to write something on a physical logbook with a pen attached to its ring binding. Adam dismounts the scissor lift behind her. SFX: clk Talita: Tod's gonna ask questions if I pull that too often. Adam hops up the radio tower foundation and begins to scale the ladder up to the tower's ring platforms. Bip: Is there a tool I can borrow..? Talita: Hm... actually, I might be able to replace the claws with something more— She notices Adam out of the corner of her eye. Talita: –ADAM! GET DOWN FROM THERE! Bip's avatar pokes down in front of the comic panel with an apologetic sweat drop. Bip: Wrong radio channel. Talita: God fucking dammit! Adam continues to the scale the rungs of the ladder. Then, without warning, Talita's hands clamp around his rib cage and she plucks him off the structure, putting him down on the foundation of the tower with an unceremonious THUMP. The surprise wearing off, he gets up and turns to look at her furious face. SFX: clk Talita: Do you have a deathwish⁉ Adam: It's GOT handrails! If we were using the damn things we'd be DONE by now! The other temps stare awkwardly while Adam is reprimanded on the shared radio channel. Talita: Those rails were built decades ago to support 20 kilo avians! These structures are not stable enough for you to climb! She walks away to return to the job. Adam glares daggers at her back, cheeks flushed. Later, the crew returns through the vehicle airlock. SFX: BEEP BEEP BEEP Talita vacuums the outside of her exosuit after hanging it up. SFX: VVVVVVVVVVVVV She absentmindedly tugs on her lower lip with her trunk lips as she works. To her right, Yao looks curiously at her bare antlers while putting on a pair of prosthetics resembling deer antlers.
November 19, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Reposted by Jay Eaton
jayeatonart.bsky.social
Man-made horrors beyond comprehension, and an extremely deep lore callback. Readers of this comic often ask the characters about their favorite animals, likely because they are Creature Enthusiasts, but Idrisah is the only one of the main cast who is a fellow Creature Enthusiast.
October 24, 2025 at 10:55 PM
jayeatonart.bsky.social
This week on #RunawayToTheStars: Talita plucks Adam off of a ladder like a naughty cat.

Catch up: https://runawaytothestars.com
Read ahead: https://patreon.com/jayrockin
The scissor lift begins to retract for repositioning. Bip's avatar is flopped over the tops of the comic panels, looking frustrated. Bip: I don't have much time to wait, I've got a rapidly approaching appointment with the launch loop. Can you do it off the clock? Talita switches radio channels and turns to write something on a physical logbook with a pen attached to its ring binding. Adam dismounts the scissor lift behind her. SFX: clk Talita: Tod's gonna ask questions if I pull that too often. Adam hops up the radio tower foundation and begins to scale the ladder up to the tower's ring platforms. Bip: Is there a tool I can borrow..? Talita: Hm... actually, I might be able to replace the claws with something more— She notices Adam out of the corner of her eye. Talita: –ADAM! GET DOWN FROM THERE! Bip's avatar pokes down in front of the comic panel with an apologetic sweat drop. Bip: Wrong radio channel. Talita: God fucking dammit! Adam continues to the scale the rungs of the ladder. Then, without warning, Talita's hands clamp around his rib cage and she plucks him off the structure, putting him down on the foundation of the tower with an unceremonious THUMP. The surprise wearing off, he gets up and turns to look at her furious face. SFX: clk Talita: Do you have a deathwish⁉ Adam: It's GOT handrails! If we were using the damn things we'd be DONE by now! The other temps stare awkwardly while Adam is reprimanded on the shared radio channel. Talita: Those rails were built decades ago to support 20 kilo avians! These structures are not stable enough for you to climb! She walks away to return to the job. Adam glares daggers at her back, cheeks flushed. Later, the crew returns through the vehicle airlock. SFX: BEEP BEEP BEEP Talita vacuums the outside of her exosuit after hanging it up. SFX: VVVVVVVVVVVVV She absentmindedly tugs on her lower lip with her trunk lips as she works. To her right, Yao looks curiously at her bare antlers while putting on a pair of prosthetics resembling deer antlers.
November 19, 2025 at 12:02 AM
jayeatonart.bsky.social
This week on #RunawayToTheStars: Wake up Talita, back to work!

Catch up: https://runawaytothestars.com
Read ahead: https://patreon.com/jayrockin
Transcript Talita stands on the edge of the dollhouse cutaway, looking incredulously at the enormous luminous Bip avatar. It leans over, considering her with a hand on its chin. Bip: Isn't the water pressure down here deadly? SFX: ping! Talita's eyes open. She is lying disoriented in her bed on Dirtball, awakened by a chime from her tablet on the bedside dresser. Spread over the top of her usual comforter is the antler velvet blanket from the Runaway. She blearily tugs on her reading glasses and picks up her tablet to squint at the source of the notification. Talita has a direct message exchange with Mel. Mel: Just got a message from the medbay. Clayton slipped a disc, he's off work until he gets better. Talita: Oh no! That sucks. I hope he feels better soon Mel: You and your temps will have to work harder to make up for it. No distractions, ok? ;) Talita: Of course Later in the day, Talita is testing a breaker box in the junkyard with a multimeter, while Dominic and Phoebe peer over her shoulders. Bip's avatar pokes its head up from behind the panel, looking down curiously. Bip: You around? Talita: Not now, Bip. Bip leans out over the panel to look at her grumpy face. Bip: When will you be available? Talita scowls. Talita: Later. Bip hangs off the edge of the panel, nonchalantly swinging their legs over the fourth wall and blocking some of the view with their avatar's body. Bip: Well, I've processed about 100 tons of heavy water. In the pit with the Runaway, a frontloader positioned in front of a row of frames containing hydrogen gas tanks holds its manipulator arms as if it were a human with its hands on its hips. Bip: But the solenoids on the transport tanks have these caps with an awkwardly positioned guard ring. I can't grip them with the frontloader claw fingers, and the worms aren't strong enough. One of the frontloader claws uselessly pinches the guard ring. SFX: click click Talita: So cut the guards off. Bip: I thought we were trying to avoid hydrogen tank explosions. Talita rolls her eyes. Talita: Well, then, wait. I don't have time this week to run errands on the clock. She looks up from the electrical box on the ground in front of her and switches radio channels. SFX: clk Talita: Alright, none of those antennae are causing the issue. Let's move the lift and test the next array. She is speaking up to Adam and Yao, who are on the fully extended platform of a large scissor lift next to a short radio tower covered in dozens of mismatched radio antennae. Yao pulls cables from the side of the antenna they're next too, while Adam slouches against the platform railing, doing nothing. In the regolith around the base of the radio tower are the tracks left behind from the scissor lift repeatedly being extended, retracted, moved, parked, and extended again many times.
November 16, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Reposted by Jay Eaton
jayeatonart.bsky.social
Tod uses this story to scare the internal mechanics team interns into traveling in pairs and logging where they're planning to go in the plant at the beginning of the work day.
October 24, 2025 at 10:54 PM
jayeatonart.bsky.social
Today on stream I fight with bright pink 3D box models while listening to my tonally incoherent middle school music playlist. www.twitch.tv/jayrockin5858
November 13, 2025 at 2:38 AM
Reposted by Jay Eaton
jayeatonart.bsky.social
One straightforward answer and one much more complicated one.
October 24, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Reposted by Jay Eaton
jayeatonart.bsky.social
This isn't the primary reason Gillie wanted Talita to sign for her, but it wasn't helping.
October 24, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Reposted by Jay Eaton
jayeatonart.bsky.social
Yum, raw hairy skin covered in blood!
October 24, 2025 at 10:51 PM
Reposted by Jay Eaton
jayeatonart.bsky.social
Electrowetting screens are real, by the way: youtu.be/Bf1GjCaYzYg
October 24, 2025 at 10:50 PM
Reposted by Jay Eaton
jayeatonart.bsky.social
The tail on the speech bubble there looks (to an avian) a bit like a lip corner. Or, if the whole thing is interpreted as a super cartoony earless head, the tail is a neck.

The "meatballs" menu symbol in web design also looks like eyes to avians. Ohwitiil probably thinks it means "look inside"...
October 24, 2025 at 10:48 PM
Reposted by Jay Eaton
jayeatonart.bsky.social
This week on #RunawayToTheStars: Huh. That doesn't seem right.

Catch up: https://runawaytothestars.com
Read ahead: https://patreon.com/jayrockin
Doug: She's probably already listening. She has very good hearing. Talita looks up from where she has pressed her face against the corner wall of her bedroom with a start. She is younger, with round glasses and large baggy black hoodie. Both the humans around the coffee table and Talita in her bedroom are shown in an impossibly clean cross section of the entire building, which cuts through windows, walls, furniture, and objects with atomic precision, revealing their interior structure. Next to the break room with Doug and the others is a reception area with a desk and mailboxes. It's decorated with a banner of colorful eggs and flowers, and a large paper wall art "reading "HAPPY FEASTER!" flanked by vegetables and a cartoon chabbit holding a broom. On the floors above the break room and the lobby are the dormitories for foster teens, with hallways in the middle. Next to all the dormitory bedroom doors hang miniature decorated brooms, some doors with many more brooms than others. Each of the bedrooms is in a different state of disarray, all with multiple bunk beds and teenage residents who have decorated and arranged their belongings in unique ways. Talita’s bedroom in contrast houses only her, with a large mattress on the floor and an electronics work desk in between her dressers. The ceiling light fixture is unscrewed, with its wiring split between the light and a cable running towards the work desk, seemingly as another source of power after all the wall outlets were occupied by splitters and extension cables. Her posters and decorations feature human celebrity heart throbs and aircraft. Wind spinners hang in front of her window. Outside the cross section, even more impossible, is Earth's deep sea. The building appears to sit directly on the abyssal plain, its cut rooms open to the environment as if the surrounding water were just more air. Brittle stars and sea pigs crawl on the ground next to the floor of the lobby, while crinoids pop up outside the break room like flowers. A group of snail fish swim lazily around the bisected edge of the break room’s window, and far off in the distant dark waters, a bigfin squid drifts by. Talita rolls her eyes and heaves a great sarcastic sigh out of her excurrent nostrils, pushing to get up from the floor where she had been eavesdropping to join the adults. Then, she sees outside the cross section. There, pinned to the surface of the abyssal ooze with a colossal harpoon, is the twisted wreck of a small jet airplane. Coating its peeling metal skin and choking its turbines are growths of bacterial slime and anemones, and the rotting crevices of its shattered frame play house to octopuses, fish, brittle stars, and crabs. Twining through the rotting ribs of the fuselage is Bip's avatar, hundreds of meters long and composed from billions of glowing marine snow particles, making its body shine a brilliant white in the darkness of the abyss. Its head emerges from a great hole torn in the roof of the cockpit, reclining on the nose of the plane with folded arms. The harpoon lodged against the ribs of the plane pierces its chest, as if to trap them inside the wreck. It is looking at Talita.
November 4, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Reposted by Jay Eaton
spacialcube.anomalycore.com
for @jayeatonart.bsky.social !
November 4, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Reposted by Jay Eaton
jayeatonart.bsky.social
Dr. Henriques is used to centaur patients who may not be fluent in English or Shess, may or may not understand what a vaccine is, may or may not be used to injections, and may or may not be cooperative. Caring for Talita is EXTREMELY easy in comparison, even if she's a bit of a whiner.
October 24, 2025 at 10:45 PM
jayeatonart.bsky.social
This week on #RunawayToTheStars: Huh. That doesn't seem right.

Catch up: https://runawaytothestars.com
Read ahead: https://patreon.com/jayrockin
Doug: She's probably already listening. She has very good hearing. Talita looks up from where she has pressed her face against the corner wall of her bedroom with a start. She is younger, with round glasses and large baggy black hoodie. Both the humans around the coffee table and Talita in her bedroom are shown in an impossibly clean cross section of the entire building, which cuts through windows, walls, furniture, and objects with atomic precision, revealing their interior structure. Next to the break room with Doug and the others is a reception area with a desk and mailboxes. It's decorated with a banner of colorful eggs and flowers, and a large paper wall art "reading "HAPPY FEASTER!" flanked by vegetables and a cartoon chabbit holding a broom. On the floors above the break room and the lobby are the dormitories for foster teens, with hallways in the middle. Next to all the dormitory bedroom doors hang miniature decorated brooms, some doors with many more brooms than others. Each of the bedrooms is in a different state of disarray, all with multiple bunk beds and teenage residents who have decorated and arranged their belongings in unique ways. Talita’s bedroom in contrast houses only her, with a large mattress on the floor and an electronics work desk in between her dressers. The ceiling light fixture is unscrewed, with its wiring split between the light and a cable running towards the work desk, seemingly as another source of power after all the wall outlets were occupied by splitters and extension cables. Her posters and decorations feature human celebrity heart throbs and aircraft. Wind spinners hang in front of her window. Outside the cross section, even more impossible, is Earth's deep sea. The building appears to sit directly on the abyssal plain, its cut rooms open to the environment as if the surrounding water were just more air. Brittle stars and sea pigs crawl on the ground next to the floor of the lobby, while crinoids pop up outside the break room like flowers. A group of snail fish swim lazily around the bisected edge of the break room’s window, and far off in the distant dark waters, a bigfin squid drifts by. Talita rolls her eyes and heaves a great sarcastic sigh out of her excurrent nostrils, pushing to get up from the floor where she had been eavesdropping to join the adults. Then, she sees outside the cross section. There, pinned to the surface of the abyssal ooze with a colossal harpoon, is the twisted wreck of a small jet airplane. Coating its peeling metal skin and choking its turbines are growths of bacterial slime and anemones, and the rotting crevices of its shattered frame play house to octopuses, fish, brittle stars, and crabs. Twining through the rotting ribs of the fuselage is Bip's avatar, hundreds of meters long and composed from billions of glowing marine snow particles, making its body shine a brilliant white in the darkness of the abyss. Its head emerges from a great hole torn in the roof of the cockpit, reclining on the nose of the plane with folded arms. The harpoon lodged against the ribs of the plane pierces its chest, as if to trap them inside the wreck. It is looking at Talita.
November 4, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Reposted by Jay Eaton
jayeatonart.bsky.social
Sensitive hearing can be quite a curse at times.
October 24, 2025 at 10:43 PM
jayeatonart.bsky.social
Talita has more sensitive hearing than a human but her high to mid range hearing is also much more directional than a human's. Because of how her facial disc is shaped to funnel sound to her ears, her sensitivity is much lower if her face isn't pointed at the source of sound.
November 3, 2025 at 5:38 AM
Reposted by Jay Eaton
jayeatonart.bsky.social
By "40s" Talita is referring to the 2240s. I refuse to do biochemical worldbuilding for RttS, but generally speaking, the sophonts all use water as a solution in which to dissolve sugar and oxygen for performing cellular respiration. Everything else is ehhhhhh (hand wiggle).
October 24, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Reposted by Jay Eaton
jayeatonart.bsky.social
Idrisah's religious attitude is a bit eccentric. Her extended family is a mix of secular and orthodox. She's a woman in conflict between her desire for the stability and connection of tradition; and her magnetic draw towards the strange, challenging, and subversive.
October 22, 2025 at 2:08 AM
Reposted by Jay Eaton
jayeatonart.bsky.social
At least she wasn't trying to dye her tail brown.
October 22, 2025 at 2:05 AM
jayeatonart.bsky.social
This week on #RunawayToTheStars: Chapter 8 begins. Is anyone else getting a sinking feeling?

Catch up: https://runawaytothestars.com
Read ahead: https://patreon.com/jayrockin
Chapter 8: Heavy Water A closeup of a coffee table fades out of blackness, showing three different people's hands. A hotpad sits in the middle of the table with three normal sized mugs around it. On the far side of the table, next to an empty seat on the couch, is a four cup glass measuring jug full of water. The jug has stickers on the outside of a helicopter, an airplane, a flower, and a cartoon quailicorn; along with rectangular labels reading "TALITA ONLY." Otília: Tea, Mx. Derringer? Mel: Thank you, Otília. Otília pours tea from a teapot into a mug held in Mel's hands. The other seated person rests their hand on the table. It is an older hand, with scars on the fingers. Other person: Shouldn’t Talita be here for this? The view pulls back to show three people seated around the coffee table in a kind of break room, with a sink and cabinets in the background. An e-panel on the wall with a mangled pen cord shows smiling human children and the name "Garriton Teen Village." Mel is younger, with less grey in their hair and no beard. Otília is a middle-aged tabby catgirl, with striped hair in a loose braid over her shoulder. The other person is a bald man with a thick white beard, black metal band shirt, ear piercings, and sparse eyebrows. Mel: Yes, I’d love to talk more with her. Otília: I texted her, but she’s still in her room. Even alien teens are moody, apparently. The man looks over his shoulder out the window and mutters to himself in Portuguese. The man: Hm. Ela está nos espionando… Otília: Mel, anything you'd like to ask before your prospective foster arrives? Mel: Well… Is it true she was anonymously surrendered in a pet carrier? Otília turns to look at the man on the couch. Otília: Ask Doug. We only got her at 15. Doug: Yes. She was six months old, recently pupated. Only this tall. Doug gestures with his hands, showing a height of about 30 centimeters. Inset panel: A pet carrier shows two familiarly round eyes peering out of the darkness behind the wire door. Mel: Wow. Doug: Could run, though. Like a little cat. Doug smiles, Mel strokes their chin incredulously. Inset panel: A little naked creature covered in a coat of wiry spotted feathers runs out of the pet carrier on six long knobby legs ending in tiny four-toed bird-like paws with hooves, with round staring eyes above dark eye-stripes, a tiny tucked trunk, and two tiny spinnerets where a tail might be on an Earth animal. It is familiarly Talita-shaped, but of infantile proportions. Mel: Do you think she's a trafficking victim? The comic panel background dips away, showing a black void behind Mel's head. A gulper eel swims by. Doug: Hard to say. Otília: There wasn't a note, right? Doug: Nothing. Our youth care facility was not equipped to deal with a non-human infant. The first couple weeks were a scramble for food, medical care… Mel: So… They rub their thumb along the top of their mug awkwardly. The panel background of the brightly lit break room dips away again. An abyssal plain can be faintly seen, a lone squid drifting slowly over it. Mel: …Why wasn’t she returned to the centaur homeplanet? Doug: We tried. Otília's brow furrows. Otília: Centaurs don’t really do foster care, do they? Doug: The embassy told us that most clans choose to cull unclaimed infants. Doug: By the time we had arrangements for her here, it was easier to just– He rubs the back of his head, gesturing with the other arm helplessly. Doug: –Keep doing it, than find a clan with a matriarch willing to adopt. Mel: Well, I hope I can provide her with some stability going into college. The panel background is absent. A school of lanternfish flicker past in the inky blackness over Mel's head. Mel: It was a hard enough transition for my two bio kids, but with her circumstances… Doug: We’re thankful for your help. Jovia cuts foster sponsorship on her 18th birthday. The window of the room no longer shows sun and leaves, but open black water. A deep-sea ray swims past. Otília checks her phone and frowns in irritation. Otília: It’s been ten minutes. Should I bang on her door? Doug smiles as Otília gets up from her chair. Doug: Isn’t her room just above us on the second floor? Otília: Oh– yes. Why? The abyssal plane lurks behind the comic panel, sea cucumbers and brittle stars crawling languidly over the ooze.
October 31, 2025 at 2:53 AM