This one goes out to the Gillisah megafans (me) and the foot fans (statistically, at least a couple of you).
Transcript
Gillie is playing an FPS horror video game on her computer, firing a gun at a monster in a dark hallway. The game has audio captions on. Her phone buzzes on the desk next to her hand, and she glances down at it and picks it up. It's texts from Talita.
Talita: (text) Fixing the Runaway is possible. I think I might do it.
Talita: (text) Don’t tell Idrisah. 🙁
Gillie starts typing back, gleefully excited. Then the lights flick on and off, curbing her enthusiasm. Idrisah has returned to the apartment. Gillie gets up to greet her.
Gillie: (ASL) No zucchini?
Idrisah: (ASL) I escaped this time.
Idrisah takes her shoes off, and Gillie kneels down next to her and holds her face to give her a kiss.
Gillie: (ASL) How are you feeling?
Idrisah: (ASL) Well, work stress rather than… you know. Did that AI contact you again?
94 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 130”
TeethBurglar
Gillie’s smile in the 4 panel is everything ❤️ little cat teeth!
Stitcher
D’awwwww
urlocallesbiab
ahhh, that kiss was so tender! win for all lesbians everywhere!!!
creetur
now kith.
anon y mouse
OMGGGG OMG OMG the kiss! Also glad that they made up. I was worried that they would still be upset at each other.
Also also, I love that they’ve gotten zucchini so often that Gillie can just generically sign NO VEGETABLE? and Idrisah knows what she means.
dokki
I love that gillies phone has like 3 percent. so real
JoB
*Everything is hard to come by out here, cell phone batteries included. Er, I mean, *not* included … no, wait …
C
Funny that the foot fans are being sheepish when there are people salivating over horse-alien Talita /lighthearted
eden5457
god, the little light flick idrisah does when coming home, to let gillie know she’s home is adorable and oh my god it’s absolutely amazing
bitty
their kiss is soo cute omfg ;w; <3
god gives his hardest battles to his strongest fighting chabbits idrisah hang in there
Arcstone
You know, I really like that video games are one of the only places you would add guns, cause then they dont really need to be the all that accurate. 😆
JoB
“EAT BIOWEAPON PROJECTILES, *HYPER*-ALIEN INVADERS!!”
[sound of Terran Space Marine’s signature banananatling gun]
Fallingfeather
THEY ARE. *SO* CUTE. (Also, nice to see accessibility features are common in video games in the future!)
K
Gillie’s face after she got the text is priceless!
Hosp
She wants to commit crimes soooo badly
I support women’s wrongs
Uh
Oughhh kiss oughhhhhh
Rad Internet Stranger
SWEET WIFEY KISSIES
JoB
“Did that AI contact you again?”
“Indeed, but figure this … they said they’ll need all the zucchini we can get ’em!”
“o_0”
Ruby
Oh my gah that kis was so tenderrrrrrr *melts*
Bear-on-a-tricycle
Gillie and Idrisah are the cutest! <3
Also, I have a inquiry. Since AI are considered people. Sentient beings with individual thoughts and feelings, isn't it considered somewhat rude to leave one technically disabled?
If the Runaway is Bip's "body" and it's broken, then fixing or repairing it should be top priority, once the ship is discovered to be an AI's body. That's like leaving someone with a broken arm and not putting a cast on it.
Bip's kinda having an out of body experience and their body is disabled, broken. I know Bip is "off the grid" so to speak because of piracy.
Are their "hospitals" or "doctors" who specialize in "healing" AI bodies?
WorldTaker
tbf that just sounds like an IT position, just a very specific one. Since it’s all computers and code anyone who has enough of an understanding about electronics can fix it. There might be people who specialize in that field but also more generalized computer repair places could help, like seeing a doctor general medicine instead of a specialist.
Ruby
Maybe I’m wrong but I don’t think that AI has the exact same kind of attachment to their hardware that we have with our bodies. That’s not to say that Bip’s situation doesn’t suck big time, but their situation looks more like being stranded on an island rather than being forced to stay on a hospital bed.
JoB
Well, Calcery was *moved* to their new workplace, not uploaded. (Neither are we talking about full down-/uploads between the Runaway and the quantum phones.) *Some* mutability seems to be available (IT hardware needs repairs from technicians, and how else would URTtW
https://jayrockin.tumblr.com/post/669696662863822848/under-river-through-the-weeds-a-server-room-that
have done their self-modification?), but.
Phasma Felis
In Bip’s case, it’s sorta like having an injured fugitive stumble into your backyard and ask you to care for him yourself, because if you take him to the hospital the police will find out. Yeah, he’s in a bad way, but he’s also asking an awful lot from you, both in terms of personal effort and in terms of endangering your own livelihood and future.
evileeyore
Not a bad analogy, but it’s closer to…
A possible fugitive, whose vehicle and person were damaged in a suspicious manner has parked in the parking lot of your place of work. You helped them to fully recover //themselves// (restored power to Bip’s servers), did some digging, and have found they don’t officially exist. Now instead of alerting the authorities, who would get to the bottom of who this person is, maybe fix their vehicle or get them into a replacement, they’re requesting that you //steal// from your company to help them fix up their vehicle so they can leave, oh and could you also //forge// government documents so they can go about ‘legally’ flying around again doing the smuggling they were doing previously.
Bip is now whole. Bip’s smuggling/getaway ship is not. Bip could turn Bipself in if their “injury” were so grievous they could not continue on.
Let me say that again for everyone going “aaaawwwww Bip uWu is so hurt, pwease heal my wittle Bipirino, Bip so fragile, just give Bip hugs and kwisses make better BIp”, Bip is in the perfect position to get themselves out their current predicament, they just have to ask the authorities for help. But they aren’t and won’t. So ask yourself, how many people has Bip murdered along the way? Maybe their previous crew?
(That’s not to say I dislike Bip, I like all the characters* in this, but don’t blind yourself to Bip’s actual position here. Bip is not a ‘goodguy’, Bip’s the badguy that the characters see and say “I can fix them”.
* Gillie, Cheev, and not yet met avian dun are my favs.)
Beans
I would think that Piracy of a high enough value would get you locked away for a long time (or whatever the AI equivalent is) depending on what was stolen and from whom. Seems reasonable that they would want to avoid authorities because of that without being a murderer.
JoB
> If the Runaway is Bip’s “body” and it’s broken, then
> fixing or repairing it should be top priority
> That’s like leaving someone with a broken arm and
> not putting a cast on it.
·
… well. I’ve said before that letting Bip *die*, or suffer indefinitely, should be out of the question (and that it’s Idrisah who’s getting closest to suggesting that). They are, however, hard pressed ATM to restore Bip to *full* health (up to and including a fully operational power plant, return to usual surroundings = space with plenty fuel for *that* as well, yadda yadda); it’d probably be debatable whether what they can realistically offer (… so far …) should be likened to a cast (but no monitoring for complications), a mere splint, or even less.
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Considering that AIs are bug ferret technology, and that even THEY don’t quite understand how they work in the first place (that’s why *all* AIs in existence ultimately are spawned from the initial random happenstance, Nedebug), I’m not sure that an “AI hospital” would hold as much promise to them as RL hospitals do for us, though …
embersand
gillie!!! charge your phone!!!
Robin Bobcat
It’s the future, that’s probably at least 24 hours…
Napkinkat
Oh my god I love how deranged Gillie’s face is 😭
LupusAstartis
She generally has all of my favorite panels. Though the top one for me is still the one where she’s holding the meat and looks kinda like a religious icon.
Quillpaw
uahhhh how is gillie the most perfect beautiful woman ever. i love her, i love her :3 face, i love her funky pseudo-beans, i love how much she loves her WIFE AAAAAAAA
Spinland
Gillie’s kitteh mouth in frame six. *swoon*
the Inmara
Oh that panel of Gillie totally focused on playing, with her controller and teeth, is absolutely going to be somebody’s social media icon, if it isn’t already. That’s such a beautiful panel.
the Inmara
Oh, wait. no, she’s typing into the phone!
Still.
So perfect.
eggvlyn
THEIR KISSY WAAAAUGHHHH
GRUMM
YAAAASSSSSS, GILLISAH!!!
Also, how do the non-human sophonts feel about the depictions of aliens as monsters or enemies in human games and movies? Or even, how do the humans that are friends with aliens feel about it?
furubatsu
Probably the same way SWANA people feel about being made the canon fodder mook in most first person shooter video games?
blupkins
name a few? because I can’t say half-life or doom or bioshock or halo or fallout or resident evil or borderlands or wolfenstein or far cry or cyberpunk or prey or crysis fit that bill
The Hollymonster
I think they meant more the realistic army shooters, like call of duty or black ops or what have you.
Phasma Felis
As a human, how would you feel if you learned that aliens had imaginary monsters from imaginary worlds in their video games? You’d probably think that was perfectly normal, and be struck by how much like us they are.
I suspect that most of the other sophonts (maybe not bug ferrets??) have stories of heroes defeating monsters dating back to their own prehistory, and wouldn’t find it at all strange that humans do as well.
evileeyore
Where bugferrets are more the “family/party group cooperates to defeat enemies” or even “family/party group cooperates with other family/party group…”. I see bugferrets being totally into MMO raids.
Oh cheeseless crisp, they’d dominate in Eve Online… Goon Squad wouldn’t stand a chance.
malmo
It’s also worth noting that most of our alien antagonists in our current media look more like humans than any of the actual aliens in this setting
Phasma Felis
Also true! And on the other end, the monster in Gillie’s game doesn’t resemble a centaur, avian, or bug ferret any more than it does a human.
Arcstone
Turns out there arent any extra terrestrial sophonts that look like little gray genital-less humans with big heads and eyes.
fishfacedterror
handing out out the party favours in honour of gillisah today. w00t!
Opalite
bestie charge your phone 😭😭😭
Vinemaple
I was JUST thinking about Gilliesah and wondering how they met. DON’T SPOIL IT if that’s already released! But I’m sure it’s pretty cute. I love seeing little tender moments like this, they’re the most romantic thing ever to me. Those EYES!
Marcie
They talk about it in some of the character AMAs https://jayeaton.site/Art/RttSArt
Gar G
“No, the ai did not contact me 🙂 ”
Well that’d be the truth XD
Origamigryphon
How did I not notice Gillie’s toe beans the first time around
Greebus
Talita texts in a very cute and realistic way. 🙂 She’s such a sweetheart!
Greebus
Who put that emoji there
Mica
I don’t think I qualify as a “foot fan” exactly, but I don’t know of any part of the internet that doesn’t appreciate a feline toe-bean.
JoB
(There are 14 years between 2300 and 2400 where, at least according to our current-day Gregorian Calendar, 23-May will be a Tuesday.)
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Do Deaf-adapted computer games (of today) actually provide *such* captions? I would have thought that having both gun and monster in the FP view would provide enough visual representation of *that*. Or is it a *separate* CCing software Gillie’s using here, along with the game? In that case, its makers put a lot of trust into its capability to tell the screams of a fictional “monster” from the sounds of a nonhuman sophont with maybe an odd speech impediment. Imagine the field day Guiomar would have with the company if it mislabeled an actual person as a “monster” …
·
… no guesses yet what Gillies *extensive* reply to Talita says? I have a hunch that she asked whether the launch date’s already pinpointed! 😉
BobisOnlyBob
This looks like typical in-game CC, like seen in the Half-Life series.
Mica
Many video games have CC like this right now! These days, nearly all of them at least have subtitles, but the extent to which they describe sound effects varies. There’s no set standard.
Cain
Minecraft subtitles describe every sound in the game: player footsteps, spider noises, eating sounds, water splashing, along with an arrow pointing which direction (left or right of view) the sound is coming from. In a horror game especially, I think those captions and directional cues would be essential.
Daedalus
Pretty normal closed captioning for a game.
Also, consider that sometimes monsters scream when they’re not in your field of vision, which is useful information for the player to know.
Vinemaple
I would think a HUD system, that replaces the sound design, would be useful in a lot of games. I remember Overwatch (the original) had some weird visual markers in the shape of a boot and a lightning bolt, that I thought might be tied to the audio cues of enemy characters’ footsteps and weapon fire, but I couldn’t figure out how they worked. Unlike everything else in the HUD, they seemed static.
I actually told a deaf friend not to bother with that game, because the sound design, and the information it provided, was so good, and I couldn’t figure out how I’d play it without sound… but I’m pretty sure the UI designers tried, because the visual UI was also absolutely incredible at providing exactly the information you needed, in the most useful way possible. RIP.
Phasma Felis
Also true! And on the other end, the monster in Gillie’s game doesn’t resemble a centaur, avian, or bug ferret any more than it does a human.
Phasma Felis
IIRC, Half-Life 2 had captions like that 20 years ago.
whirly
kiss :DDD
Adrienne
Gillie’s “How are you feeling? uwu” face, so innocent after that text with Talita lmaooo
Lilac
the little frowny face talita included in her message…..
Truther
Fuck, Id pay (with my soul) for an essay on how videogames have developed in all the years. I hope that in all of those years, developers started to actually optimize their games again, just so they can pack them with more features. Like, how is AI used? Are titles with NPCs that appear concious and self-combust when told they are inside a simulation common, in, I dont know, comically large amount of A’s games?
SIGSTKFLT
The fact that they still use doorknobs in the future is ruining my immersion. We were supposed to switch to door handles 300 years ago!
Door handles are much easier to use if you’re disabled, for example if you lack the grip strength to squeeze a knob.
DasGanon
That’s assuming that it has a twisting motion. I suspect considering the Electronic Latching mechanism, it just requires a push like modern badge locks.
Joysweeper
Why would doorknobs stop existing? Even if handles become the default, one’s own home isn’t a public place. And if this apartment was set up by whatever Jovian company, what’s immersion-breaking about a company blithely overlooking accommodations?
Adrienne
I think it might be fair to imagine that because this is someone’s personal house and not a public place and the two women who live there have the grip strength for a door knob and are able to open the door to help anyone who needs to get inside their house, that while it is noble to be considerate of accessibility around you, your lack of immersion may be your own problem and not the comic’s
Guest
300 yrs ago from the comic’s setting is like… modern day. We were using door knobs 300 yrs ago too.
Mica
While you make a good point, the two can coexist. Handles and knobs aren’t really that different, mechanically, it’s just a different shape in the actual user-facing element, the latch itself is still being operated by a spring-tension twisting motion.
Maybe they just like the look of knobs more, or the handles kept getting stuck on their bag straps and annoying them. Maybe the contractors who built the apartment blocks just so happened to have a big stock of knob-style latches and gave them a slight discount just to get ’em out of the warehouse!
If there’s one thing the worldbuilding in this comic seems to be saying, it’s that life is complicated and full of wild exceptions, to everything.
JoB
How many door handles did you see in Star Trek? >;->
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The part that makes *me* raise an eyebrow is that Idrisah has to *manually* flip the light switch to announce her arrival. If I were deaf, I’d want the lights (if on) to dip automagically whenever someone rings the door bell (which Idrisah could do as she walks through the frame), if not whenever the door opens. That’s within the reach of smart home technology *today*.
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Knob/handle and *lock* being (still) separate is an actual pet peeve of mine. I pass through a bunch of doors where the locks have electronic “knobs” on their ends, like
https://www.simons-voss.com/de/komponenten/digitalzylinder-ax.html
and it’s supposedly NOT POSSIBLE to build those sturdy enough that they’ll stand being USED as a g-d knob. (Imagine the maker of a classic mechanical lock cylinder telling their customers that it isn’t made to withstand the force with which you’d pull a door open, much less an *actual* attempt to *rip* the door open / lock out!) Nooo, you’re supposed to *hold* the lock turned with one hand *and* pull the door open by the *actual* knob/handle with the other!