...Alone?
Transcript
Talita picks up her tablet and takes it off the charger. Gillie and Idrisah move to leave.Idrisah: I have to go before my parents send search and rescue.
Gillie: (ASL) Seeya. Don’t let the criminal supercomputer murder you in your sleep.
The couple exit Talita's apartment. Talita watches them go with a tired expression, then presses the button to close her rattly roll-down door. Now alone, she looks back at the boxes of phones trepidatiously.
Talita: …Bip?
28 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 70”
urlocallesbiab
slightly off-topic, but talita’s apartment is so *neat* now!! she cleaned up really well, that makes me happy :3
in general, this comic makes me *extremely* invested in the mundane details of characters’ lives — it’s so vivid, fantastical but deeply realistic, so personal! your hard work is an absolute delight to look at <3
Bruce Mickelson
Bip is supposed to be a smooth operator, but he has not given the three characters any good reasons for leaving their safe, comfortable (if boring) day jobs for a dangerous life of crime. Does not seem to be a good first impression on his part.
Pathfinder
In the last panel to the left, I was wondering if that was a drawing/drafting tablet or a soldering station. I just love how lived in her place is, all the detail!
Ana
Jay (or anybody who can answer and maybe point me in the right direction)…I’m totally backtracking here but I’ve been reading this since the first comic on THIS site… however, I get the impression that Calcery has been a major character in whatever happened prior to that first comic, in which we learn that Calcery is leaving. I feel as if I’ve missed something and I would love to know what I missed! Is that previous story/backstory material available anywhere? I kind of feel as if I’ve wandered into a movie that’s been running for half an hour and I’m trying to pick up the thread of what’s going on.
dokki
fairly long time RTTS fan here (have been reading Jay’s stuff since 2022. Really not that long but ive gone through their blog many times but dont have paid access to patreon) and the formal online release of RTTS was the first time I’d ever met Calcery. We’re in the same boat, I think all we can do is see what happens to them next.
Jay Eaton
Calcery is introduced in this comic. His leaving early is supposed to give the same impression of loss to the reader as it has to Talita. The backstory is just that they were work buddies.
Apollo235
Oh I bet Idrisah is not gonna be happy if Talita goes behind her back!
evileeyore
How happy do you think she’ll be when both Talita and Gillie are helping behind her back?
1d4Nadg
Wait I just realized, where did her tablet go between the 3rd and 4rth panel?
Is it the first blooper? (1 in 70 pages is a good rate, GG Jay Eaton!)
Rubicon Art
She’s still holding it in her lower hand, you can just about make the edge, we’re just looking at the thin side.
1d4Nadg
OH!
I thought that was her second finger somehow. My bad!
Ruby
Talita probably has some more personal inquiries to make. The ship has centaur writing on it, maybe it had a centaur crew as well.
Trees
Aaah! Why would Gillie say that?!
evileeyore
Because Gillie is the type of person that enjoys those sorts of ‘mild pranks’ and ‘pushing at people’s buttons’ in small ways to get a rise out of them.
Note how Talita looks absolutely bland in the next panel? That’s the proper “non” reaction to someone when you don’t want your buttons pushed but also don’t want to say anything that might be taken the wrong way.
Trees
Hmm. Pushing at peoples buttons in a way that’s intended to make them feel worse is something bullies do. Perhaps it was just a deeply tone deaf joke (no pun intended) or maybe Gillie has a streak of cruelty in her. That’s ok. Character flaws are good for drama.
evileeyore
I don;t believe Gillie is doing it to make Talita feel worse. It’s… if you’ve never had a friend group you can tease each over small things, it might not be easily understandable, but Gillie is just teasing her.
Gillie isn’t against helping Bip, she clearly thinks it’s exciting, does she know Idrisah is highly upset? Yes, but Idri is her spouse/gf, Gillie knows how Idrisah operates, she knows she burns hot and not to poke her right now about it. Gillie and Talita aren’t friends, they’re acquaintances, so Gillie might not realize how stressed about this Tali really is, Tali has learned how to reign herself in. She’s a large carnivore in a smaller omnivore/hunter’s world, so Talita keeps herself tightly bound up and despite the fact that we (or a bunch of us) have learned to read her “I’m stressed” signs, Gillie probably hasn’t yet.
So Gillie is just gently teasing Tali, the one-ton lifting mass of carnivore, about the phones getting her while she sleeps…
Spinland
I agree with evileeyore. For my whole life my circle of friends, acquaintances, and colleagues has indulged in what we’d call “ball-breaking” or “chops-busting” forms of humor. It’s similar to telling a performer to “break a leg.” It’s meant in camaraderie, not to be hurtful. I feel that sort of humor fits Gillie’s cat-person image quite well. 🙂
Gar G
Nah they won’t kill her. They still need her 😛
And oh dear, I think she’s gonna take up that offer so she can run away to the stars!
Ruby
Roll credits!
Liza
I’d love to know how Gillie expects Bip to kill Talita in her sleep. To quote Bip “I’d love to, but I’m 841 phones”
Tyrone the Miner
Never underestimate having your legs tangled in cables for phone accessories, those things can be lethal! Well….when standing on the top of stairs or next to open fuseboxes etc….
Effyis Biblos
She’s in a home/workshop full of various machinery, and Bip has demonstrated capability of accessing the station’s systems (or at least its databases). I don’t doubt a well-placed electrical surge could cause a lethal catastrophe (and probably pass it off as a freak accident to everyone who isn’t aware of a rogue AI in the area), assuming Bip currently has enough cognitive capacity to place it well enough. Of course, they have no reason to do this and many reasons not to.
Liza
oh yeah Bip has no motivation to, I was just being silly. And yeah I suppose electrocution is a possibility, yeah.
Joey
makes me think of that xkcd what if comic where, in a robot uprising, phones set themselves to vibrate in the hopes of rattling themselves off the edge of a table and landing on an unsuspecting foot.
M
or pantheon! highly recommend watching that show. maybe pantheon picked up the idea from xkcd.
Zidane
i love how nonplussed gillie seems to be about the whole situation in contrast to the other two girls. Presumed dead space criminal in my friends apartment asking me to do crimes for them as a favor? Eh. I’ve got bigger things to worry about, like family celebrations with my wife. This trio (soon to be quartet i imagine) is so good
1d4Nadg
Oooooooh, Talita taking initiative! You go girl!!
hal9000
surrounded by the sound… of silence….
…BUT NOT FOR LONG!
at least, not if Bip’s got anything to say about it