The only thing Talita's temps have in common is that they were willing to take a labor-intensive job a two-week trip and 6 minute lag away from the rest of civilization.
Transcript
Talita removes her steel toe boots and puts her socks in them next to the suit lockers. Clayton approaches.
Clayton: Morning, boss.
Talita: Hi… you can just call me Talita, Clayton. Where’s the rest of the crew?
Clayton: Relatively on time.
The other temps approach. Phoebe is grimacing and rubbing her forehead, and Adam is squinting.
Talita: Had a fun Sunday night, huh?
Dominic: Phoebe and Adam were the only ones drinking, boss.
Phoebe: Don’t TELL them that!
Talita grimaces, rubs her throat, and looks away. Her face bristles.
Talita: “Her” that… please…
Clayton: Where we headed today, boss?
Talita: Slag field. Suit up and check in with me before entering the airlock.
19 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 84”
Trees
Look at this guy! This is the best guy!
The terrible posture, the expression, the manner of speech. The rumpled, incorrectly buttoned shirt. Perfect!
There’s no way Clayton didn’t fall out of a Terry Pratchett novel and land in this comic.
I’m half surprised he’s not smoking a horrible, scavenged fag-end that he lit by striking a match on the bottom of his boot.
Arcstone
Goat girl cute.
Also that old guy definitely has at least two armed robberies under his belt.
Guy got a real gets told by a guy in a pinstripe suit to rough a guy up at the docks and he’s like “okay, boss” then later gets his teeth punched in by silver era batman kind of vibe.
Fallingfeather
I LOVE that one newbie’s perpetual o-o face.
JoB
Yeah, don’t *tell* her that. It’s visible enough that she picked up on it all by herself. 😀
JoB
(On the flip side, it seems that Phoebe did *not* drink enough to migraine-floor from her own yelling. How much *would* it take before Talita were forced to declare them unfit to work today? Not that we’d *want* to see her being given an extra leaving urge by losing one of her temps in an accident, of course …)
Rad Internet Stranger
The one with goat horns gives a no thoughts, head empty vibe haha
Apollo235
Utterly vacant I love them
Sidenote: does their helmet need to be shaped funny?
feesh
wait a couple pages and see!
un_pogaz
It’s amazing how easy it is to forget how tall Talita is, but when she’s next to a human, it’s absolutely obvious. She BIG.
Well, they’re new, so I can understand that they’re still having trouble integrating Talita’s pronouns, but it makes me realize how difficult Talita’s interpersonal relationships can be for her outside a circle of familiarity. And when it comes to humans, Talita’s favorite species, various FAQs tell us how much more complicated and awkward the situation is with Centaurs. If Mel’s really planning to bring in Centaurs to Dirtball, it’s going to be a disaster.
In any case, this whole scene sows the seeds of Talita’s discomfort with staying here and leaving this place. Perhaps with that criminal and annoying, but very understanding AI.
Curona
They’re called temps, but how temporary are we talking? A few months? A year?
Is there a company market where imported items can be bought by employees? If the plant is “two weeks from everywhere” I imaging getting recreational alcohol could be pricy. That is, unless there is a brewing/distilling wing of the agriculture department?
Claire
Something about that small aside, “‘Her’ that… please…” hits me hard.
Its not that this moment is especially significant. Its one more grain of sand.
But its a moment where we can see that its one grain of sand on the belt sander that wears against her, another “tiny” thing that *others* her. This instance is tiny, but the pattern is unrelenting and wears on her. I’ve felt that and this really matters.
The fact that no-one acknowledges Talita’s correction is worth noting.
Doubloon
Girl deserves better colleagues than these schmucks. ;(
JoB
Clayton repeating the “boss” in the last panel isn’t exactly helping, either …
evileeyore
Ugh, two week travel to the job site… helluva commute.
This is one of those “take it for a few years then shift back to Jovia” jobs isn’t it?
Apollo235
Does the person with the ram’s horns also have a pentagram belt-buckle? I dig their aesthetic
Teod
They’re the only one wearing all black too. If you’re born with horns like that you might as well… I wonder if that’s the exact idea their parents had, or if it’s their own initiative. I wonder if their parents are like that too.
Trees
The joke’s on us when that person gets ready to put on their helmet and it turns out they’re just plastic horns on a hairband.
creetur
ooh.. custom clothes and such for aliens will always be cool to me (saw the suit in the background)
Peter Jensen
And Talita made it herself, too. Though as Shyam noted in this comic, “Homemade EVA suit” sounds like a 3 word horror story:
https://jayeaton.site/Art/RttS/Comics/TalitaandShyamEclipse
Of course with her size, body plan, respiratory system, etc. it was pretty much guaranteed that there would be no readily available EVA suit design. Particularly as her species isn’t yet at near the same technology level as the rest of the sophonts. I wonder about how well the diversity of GMH bodies is accommodated for. You definitely need a particular helmet design to fit those horns.