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.
62 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 84”
bloodstoppin
as a trans masc who is constantly they/themmed without my consent, it’s really nice to see that i’m not alone in that happening, and that someone knows how bad it feels. T_T
Paroxysmall
just noticed how the interns stand shortest to tallest in the seventh panel lol
bisexual
really really love how the extras and background people in this series look like People.. theyre all wrinkly and gangly and a little awkward in the way people tend to be. very cool
Mr. Skeleton
I don’t know what it is but Clayton is giving me Rugrats vibes for some reason.
Solidago
this is exactly the experience with seasonal employees who don’t want to be there. 😭 most of them are great. but it’s really night and day when someone doesn’t love it.
Tyrone the Miner
I must confess those interns seems just as bored , non-dedicated and uninspired in the future as the ones I occasionally have the misfortune of spoon-feeding some sense into today(aka the “past”) In a way that’s a comfort!
gigi-the-bear
of course adam is hungover, he’s the same idiot who was standing next to a grinder blade
Zidane
i know people comment this constantly, but holy moly the second panel really shows how big talita is compared to a human, even sitting down. Every time we get a wider shot with her next to one it floors me, i keep imagining her around average horse size because centaur but its not even close.
Viashino_wizard
She’s like Clydesdale sized even before you factor in the entire extra torso
Jay Eaton
She’s like 16.2 hands or 5 foot 6 at the midshoulder standing which is the size of a thoroughbred or quarterhorse. Horses are large.
hal9000
Clayton calling Talita boss immediately created a vision of a 1960s noir Talita with her goons (not that kinda goon) lmao. Talita would make a terrible mob boss though I’m sure Bip would love it.
jokes aside poor Talita, the kinda personality drawn to that kinda isolated work can sometimes be a lil rough to get on with, from personal experience. there’s a certain kind of folk who seek work like that just cuz they don’t jive so hot with society. also the awkward joys of having to tell new folk your gender / name day in day out is always fun
hal9000
also i love the goat folk’s O_O face. hehehe
JoB
“Nice torchship ya got there, son. Would be a shame if something *happened* to it …”
“Wha … ? Something *did* happen to it, that’s why its here!”
“Ah, I see … ya wanna make this a hard sell, eh?”
Mothman
Ah, the crew!
Considering Adam was already kind of rude/ignoring of Talita *without* a hangover, I hope this day’s upcoming work doesn’t go poorly.
evileeyore
What kinda drama free comic would that be then?
Mothman
Haha, true
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.
hal9000
i know!! this guy looks like he’s just dropped straight out the Night Watch haha, i lowkey love him already im hoping he doesn’t turn out to be a dick 🙏
BullCityFats
I’ll bet he’s as careful putting on a spacesuit as he is putting on a shirt
Trees
Perhaps Clayton will surprise us by being weirdly competent.
Egg
He is the first to show up so who knows, maybe he cares a little for punctuality.
hal9000
if thats Clayton on page 9 next to Dominic, he seems competent enough in the suiting up department
Redacted
I doubt that smoking is legal in space.
Green Heron
Confirmed by Jay on a Twitch stream, smoking is illegal. They said it while working on a future page; they had to clarify that *smoking* weed is illegal on Dirtball but not weed itself.
JoB
So, the door sign on page 15 is more of a blinkenlights revival … ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinkenlights#Etymology
ImJustaTourist
Quaritch was right about how low gravity will make you soft.
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.
the apersoninoursociety
3 meter tall woman experiences workplace microaggressions, 2333 colorized
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!
Rad Internet Stranger
Can’t wait to see sum Mickey Mouse lookin things
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?
evileeyore
I’m sure there’s a thriving under the under-the-counter zucchini moonshine business… probably several.
Curona
Ha! That makes sense! If you have an abundance you gotta get creative on how to use it before it spoils.
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. ;(
Sen
They have been in transit to this place for 2 weeks. This may have been their first weekend off in 2-3 weeks. Letting a bit loose is understandable. Not recommended when working outdoors with dangerous equipment, but understandable.
JoB
Clayton repeating the “boss” in the last panel isn’t exactly helping, either …
Claire
Oh yeah, good catch. Reinforces that it wasn’t a sign of respect, but a generic stand-in.
I hope Talita gets a hug.
Gar G
Not to mention that she literally just told them that they can call her Talita, showing that she isn’t comfortable being referred to that way
(We know that she hates being a supervisor so I can’t imagine having that little reminder feels good to her)
evileeyore
But in Clayton’s defense, he might not be comfortable getting too chummy with management. Having been on both sides of that equation I can understand it,
dokki
now THAT is a good analogy, goddamn
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.
JoB
[please be patient as the author reworks the next pages to have her blood-supplied horns go through holes with proper gaskets so as to serve as *radiators*, like those on the vehicles] ;-P
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.
Greenjoe
I wonder how she made sure it was safe.
Packbats
She probably had to go through the whatever kind of testing is used for commercial EVA suits in Jovia – there’s gonna be defined standards for that kind of thing that she can design her suit to follow. It was probably pretty expensive but it’s definitely doable in theory.
Viashino_wizard
Presumably wearing it in a pool or other body of water deep enough to check for leaks.
JoB
“She probably had to go through the whatever kind of testing is used for commercial EVA suits in Jovia”
… I’d sincerely hope that those suits get REtested on Dirtball in regular intervals, too …
Packbats
@JoB Sorry, we meant that Jovia as a whole probably has standards for testing and retesting – possibly including stuff like the water tests Viashino_wizard suggested? we’d want to pressurize it to some multiple of working pressure to see if it can hold pressure in – and Talita’s suit has to comply with those standards. Reading the info page, it sounded like Dirtball was part of Jovia so we figured those standards would be what Dirtball uses for testing and retesting.
JoB
@Packbats Ah, I see; yes, Dirtball is under Jovian administration, which *should* imply that their regulations apply. Seeing that the habitat was *built* by avians and that Talitas temps seem a bit unfamiliar with even basic operation of EVA suits, however, I wonder how much bearing those have on the reality there. :-3
(FWIW, not diving(heh) into technical details here, but (over)inflating and dunking into water is *not* how a technician would do a proper leakage test.)
Ruby
Going off-topic, but the way Talita taps the surface of the roof is way more impactful when you know about centaur writing.
Peter Jensen
Yes, I love that detail. While it’s unlikely she ever learned the tactile writing of her species (she didn’t even recognize the written centaur glyphs on The Runaway), she most likely knows about it.