And here's the reason Gillie was pinning her cat ears. Sometimes, if you have visible deformities, even if nobody says anything directly rude or invasive they'll still stare at you like a gross oddity and it sucks. Gillie doesn't want to deal with it.
Transcript
Talita: Not any weirder than the rest of the stuff you all do with your genetics.Idrisah: Yeah, natal labs will let people do some crazy stuff to their kids.
Gillie: (ASL) And sometimes they don’t even get it right.
She tugs on one of her ears.
Talita: Um… If it’s not too personal… do you conceal those in public because you were born off-model?
Gillie: (ASL) I never know when one of the temps is gonna be a prick about it. The humans because they know what a designer catgirl is SUPPOSED to look like…
Inset panel: An on-model catgirl reclines on her side. She has furry cat ears and a long fluffy tail, but the rest of her body is perfectly humanoid.
Gillie: (ASL) And skimmer avians are just freaks about GMH in general.
Talita: Like they aren’t bad enough about other species of avians.
Inset panel: A skimmer avian bright yells "Blasphemous speciation!"
53 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 52”
Redacted
What’s with the little blocks and antenna behind the avian? Is it supposed to be an avian radio show?
boxesofboxes
It’s a simplfied genetic tree. Skimmer Avians believe that they were the original species of Avians, and that all of the other varieties come from a garden of eden type sin event. Because of this, they believe that humans are basically toying with god and actively in their fall from grace. More info here https://jayeaton.site/RunawayToTheStars/Sophonts/Avians/Culture
Redacted
Ooooooooohhhhhhhhh. I was looking at that completely wrong lol
Andrew
I mean, they’re kinda not wrong about that “toying with God” part, we’ve basically made our own alien races by that point
Sen
Are there options for parents to pre-mod their children so they look mostly like normal humans, but have an easier time modding themselves once they become adults?
Like a really short tail that does not disturb the child while growing up, but can then be removed or extended if they wish. Or strategically place additional nerve endings throughout the body, where extra limbs can be attached later?
SJ
GMH (genetically modified human) creation comes from DNA and embryo manipulation. Modern medicine is working on things like growing/printing organs (or things like noses and ears) with a patient’s own stem cells, so I don’t think surgically adding limbs is out of the question, but the level of difficulty for connecting nerves and muscles and blood vessels and then healing afterward would be intense!
Gillie’s supposed to be a human with cat ears and cat tail, but being “off-model” she isn’t cat enough in those areas and too much cat in regards to her hands, feet, and even white cat deafness (she dyes her hair red and plucks her whiskers). Here’s her as a kid: https://jayeaton.site/RunawayToTheStars/Characters/gillieandidrisahkids.png
Eden
yeah! typ humans can alter their dna after birth too! they aren’t as extensive as born gmh but zebra boy (not zebra gmh just stripey) in talitha childhood comics since a parent had altered their dna and it passed on.
spamtonium
gillie i love you ;-;
evileeyore
Huh… just an out there observation, but once we get to the point of being able to have GMHs, I doubt we’d have a whole lot of bigotry against “off-model” GMHs in particular, Certainly far, far, far less than we have against GMHs in general. I mean, I’d expect we’d have all the same bigotry against GMHs in the future that bigots have against “others” now, and I doubt any of the other bigotries are really going to go away either (hopefully decrease, but there will always be those who hate “others”).
Regardless, thanks Jay for making this somewhat central to your story and depicting society in a realistic fashion. Great story, great art, great ideas.
Grim
I think it probably depends! Imo it’s reasonable to suggest that unmodified humans would be more bigoted towards GMHs with more extreme, unusual, or less conventionally attractive modifications, regardless of whether they’re off-model or not. People are probably comparatively used to seeing “on-model” catgirls with cute fluffy ears and a tail but an otherwise human appearance, whereas a more even blend like Gillie would stand out. Not to mention, off-model GMHs are more likely to have traits that are disabling or would be illegal to modify for on purpose (Gillie’s deafness, other GMH characters that haven’t appeared in the comic yet who have gigantism or whose modifications mean it’s hard for them to walk upright, etc). If everyone knows what a catgirl is “supposed” to look like, and Gillie visibly deviates from that standard, I imagine it’s pretty alienating to have people look at you and think of you as a mistake or an accident, or ask invasive questions about why you don’t look like a “normal” catgirl.
Matt
A little question: Is Gillie’s skin very stretchy and she’s showing that off by pinching it, or are those just motion lines from a gesture? 🙂
Jay Eaton
It’s motion lines, she’s signing “cat.”
Rubicon Art
I also thought she was pinching her skin rip.
Mica
Don’t worry, it read well to me! Though, I use sign language in my daily life, so maybe that’s just context bias…
wingedhorror
At first I was confused how Avians would even able to recognize an “off-model” GM-human since the subtleties of human features are [literally] alien to them. BUT! Now I get it, it’s just gene-modding in general they oppose. Easier to tell what’s not a typ human if it has a tail or ears in a different location. Other humans might be able to tell she’s a mod by the more subtle differences but as long as she keeps the more extreme mods hidden (the ears and tail) your average Avian is just like, “yeah that’s an average human alien, they all look like that.”
RavenWorks
Transcript says “bad even about” but the comic says “bad enough about”!
Jay Eaton
Fixed.
Arcstone
I’m gonna go right ahead and say that chubby shortstacks are cute af, and that youre not allowed to have catgirl versions of that is a damn crime. Fite me.
tickfleato
gillie isn’t off-model because of her body type, she’s off-model because she’s more of an even blend than most catgirls, i.e sharp teeth, hairless ears, short tail, nail/digit shape etc. on-model catgirls just have the ears and tail, as seen in the picture.
Arcstone
No toofs? Whats even the point then?
Mica
I mean, I think probably her teeth are an issue for the same reason dental health is always something to be concerned about: despite her fangs, she’s still an omnivorous human, with a human-sized and human-shaped jaw. Having long sharp teeth sounds cool until you see the dentist’s bill for repairing how your canines have worn a hole in the enamel of your lower incisors. I imagine that on-model GMH and typ humans aren’t going to have the same issues, because their bodies were designed with more care and attention to detail.
Zuorai
Damn, in front of her wife?? Lol
Liza
Also, the on-model catgirl example is hilarious, cheesecake pose and all
Redacted
“Alone on a Friday night? God, you’re pathetic!”
Liza
The transcript probably answers this but is that Ohwitiil in the cutaway or just some random bigot?
Gar G
Just some random Avian, it doesn’t specify that they’re Ohwitiil
TotallySomebody
“BLASPHEMOUS SPECIATION!!!” 💀
Viashino_wizard
The dominant religion among Skimmers has a Tower of Babel-type story, but instead of different languages they were separated into different species. Naturally, Skimmers themselves just so happen to be the most similar to the original “true” Avians
Arcstone
https://youtu.be/l3T_X2E26sQ?si=6nZ8CbrRHL9Z-H15
Green Heron
This page got me thinking: Out of the 24 Avians on Dirtball, are any of them non-Skimmers?
Mr. Son
Really into all the subtle details of Talita’s body language. The way her midlegs are folded up on the couch, the little puff of fur on her trunk in the last panel.
Gigi
honestly gille is what i would expect a human/cat hybrid to *actually* look like
Zidane
omg is gillie doing the sign for avian in the last panel? if so i love it
Peter Jensen
Looks like it:
https://jayrockin.tumblr.com/post/666752955492581376/gillie-helps-talita-adapt-the-asl-alphabet-and
Redacted
If furries could genetically modify their children to look like their fursonas they 100% would, I mean look at the kind of money they already drop on art commissions.
Zidane
that makes me wonder what the furry community would even look like in the time period of this comic now that giving yourself or your kids animal features is possible. Has the popular style of fursonas shifted to look more like how GMHs do? Would furry culture be considered part of the reason why GMHs started being created? I imagine the advent of biomodding started a lot of discourse on traditional fursuits vs just getting surgery to get animal ears too. Much to think about.
Rubicon Art
I don’t think it’s really able to be done retroactively. Like, it’s your kids or nothing.
Zidane
it is possible, but it can’t be done as extensively as what can be done before before birth. This post goes over some of it: https://jayrockin.tumblr.com/post/180735470758/patreon-ko-fi-humanity-in-runaway-to-the
Joysweeper
I believe I’ve read that humans are the most interested in animals out of the different sophonts and that has me wondering what, if anything, “furries” are to the others.
Like, to a human wearing clothing that features a tiger or tiger colors is unremarkable, but would that be true of someone of another species who wore the colors/patterns of an ancestral predator, or would that be considered notable, maybe perverse? I could see avians thinking it was weird, skimmers have got a lot of restrictions. Would a culture less fascinated with animals tend to have more negative associations with them, or just to not find any appeal in mingling aspects of them with people?
Zuorai
I wouldn’t wanna mod my own kids tho I’d modify myself. But like before I was born. Somehow
Claire
Wait- I’m a little confused. I thought Gillie was deaf. I know some deaf people learn to lip read to understand people when they’re speaking, but Talita’s lips are curved away, and at an odd angle, which would make lip reading hard…
Am I wrong about Gillie, or is something else going on here?
Kaamos
Earlier on, Gillie was using a transcript app on her phone, and she’s still got the phone out – you can see it on her thigh!
SIGSTKFLT
She’s reading the phone attached to her thigh. You can see the UI on page 45 and see her looking down at it in a couple places
Claire
And then I remember her phone has the Speech-to-Text app up. Right there and everything. Derp.
40
Now I wonder if one could lip-read Talita’s weird nose mouth…
Mica
Maybe… but only if she stops pointing her trunk the wrong way when she speaks. I guess she gestures with it whilst also talking? That’d make it hard to lipread.
lasalebete
Gillie my most beloved Gillie…. Gillie…. Save me Gillie…….
Jay Eaton
Talita mumbles into her chin a lot. It isn’t beneficial for deaf OR hearing conversational partners, she is just vaguely self conscious about how the way she talks looks strange to humans.
SIGSTKFLT
I’m amazed they’ve never had these conversations before.
~~I know it’s an exposition contrivance shut up~~
Curona
It was mentioned on previous pages that Talita doesn’t know Gillie as well as Idrisah, so perhaps this is the first opportunity Talita has had to ask.
Jay Eaton
It’s because they don’t know each other that well. Talita and Gillie haven’t had a long conversation before this.
eel
Now I’m wondering if Idrisah and Gillie moved to Dirtball together (likely) or if Gillie was hired later. Long distance relationships In Space…… But there are plenty of reasons you can live in the same small station as someone for 8 years and not interact much. Now I’m wondering how remote jobs work, since that seems to be most of what Gillie does with no bug ferret population in Shikaviil Port.
Mass
I mean, it might be for interaction with the BFGC and other bug ferret authorities? Having a translator on hand to interact with the vast matryoshka doll that is bug ferret governance might be useful for a recycling operation- or if bug ferret clients want to buy stuff from the recyclers, etc.