The grandmothers control our transportation systems.
Transcript
Cheevwut: Man, the orbital station grandma polycule is gonna be pissed.
Inset panel: A group of four old tailed spacers in a weightless space station hallway with disapproving expressions.
Cheevwut: Too much incoming inertia will make the skyhook spin too fast. They’ll look for any excuse to not burn fuel slowing it down!
Inset panel: The skyhook spins through space, firing small rockets to ease the spin.
Idrisah looks off to the side with a thousand yard stare.
Cheevwut: I gave you something new to worry about, huh?
Idrisah: (hysterical) Worry?? About what?
Talita arrives home and sets up her drafting tablet. She begins to create a mockup of the Runaway in a drafting program, scratching her lower jaw thoughtfully.
62 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 129”
cobbington
LMFAO IDRISA’S FACE HELP
Number1OrbitalStationGrandmaPolyculeFan
Orbital station tailed spacer grandma polycule, my beloveds!!!
JoB
[imagines polycule giving someone currently traveling on the skyhook (“in the wrong direction!!”) that look from panel 1]
[that is, *down the hollow shaft of the 600 km tether*]
How’s *that* for a “656,168 yards stare” …
Bartimaeus
This is perhaps rude of me, but every tailed spacer I’ve seen so far looks like they went through the dryer and came out rumpled.
Jay Eaton
The fact the tailers introduced so far are 4 elderly people and Killian, the most crumpled man alive under 40, may unfortunately be providing a skewed perspective.
Boxthing
OHNOES NOT THE SPACE GRANDMAS
Hessian
THE TIME HAS COME! ORBITAL STATION GRANDMA POLYCULE BE UPON US!
Tig
Orbital! Station! Grandma! Polycule!! LET’S GOOO
OrbitalStationGrandmaPolyculeEnjoyer437
ORBITAL STATION GRANDMA POLYCULE!!!
Hosp
The soft shading on Idrisah’s face has the same feeling as when things are rendered hyperrealistically for shock value in Spongebob
Gar G
It really does!
un_pogaz
So, in addition to losing their main buyer, they’re also going to lose a fortune in fuel, almost negating the point of having a skyhook? *slow clap* Congrat Ohwitiil, it realy some great art you done it here.
I really like that all that seems push Idrisah to the direction of the “If I’m no longer here, it’s not longer my problem” strategy.
Sen
It’s amazing how you can casually throw out weird concepts and it just works ^^
SheTheTDE
“Orbital Station Grandma Polycule” is my new favorite sentence
Sheliak
At last, the context for the orbital station grandma polycule and what they are gonna be pissed about! I have been enchanted by that description since their cameo on tumblr.
Ruby
Orbital Station Grandma Polycule mentioned!
iisaw
OSGP represent!!! XD
Trees
Hmm. Is Chevwut enjoying Idrisa’s distress?
It’s hard to parse the body language because Chevwut is a little bird alien but we’ve seen that they are capable of recognising human expressions so it’s a real jerk move to be piling on the stress like this if it is purposeful. Perhaps it’s merely the big, round eyes and jaunty bowtie that makes them look so gleeful, like a clown reading a eulogy.
Also: possible nitpick, but is Chev missing a third pair of eyes in panel 2 or are they just hidden by the contours of thier face?
creetur
I think they’re just hidden. If you look close at the top left corner, one of their eyes is facing a different direction than the rest.
40
Everytime I think I’ve got a grasp (hah.) on how Talita’s funny little hands work, you drop a page like this.
eden
there is an awesome animation of her rotating her arm somewhere in the art archives!
Robin
Ohhhh the itch of Talita’s tusks growing in corresponds with her itch to connect with centaur culture and escape the society that spurns her centaur traits… symbolism…
Zuorai
Erm *antlers actually /lh but you are so right I didn’t even realize that
Guest
I keep wondering what that thing on Idrisah’s file cabinet is A crochet tissue box cover?
Trees
Actual cream cake?
Amber
I think it’s a tissue box with a cute cover, yeah. The decor at the apartment would be in line with such a thing
Vinemaple
…So I guess we’re just doing this, now?
Chrysalis
I’m sure that Cheevwut doesn’t secretly know about Bip and isn’t just messing with Idrisah here.
I’m like 90% sure.
Queso
“Man, the orbital station grandma polycule is gonna be pissed.”
We did it gang, my favorite line ever has crossed over from patreon to live.
SIGSTKFLT
“orbital station grandma polycule” fracking killed me
JoB
… anyone else here who, upon getting to the last panel, thought “she’s picking her nose … on camera!” before getting the anatomy sorted out … ? :-3
·
So Idrisah is now *obliged* to find stuff to launch into space to save her employer the hassle and expense. If there indeed is someone orchestrating *that*, I bet that Satan’s worried about losing his throne by now. X-D
JoB
(… not that, assuming that they’ll *eventually* find another buyer for the aluminium, couldn’t have that parked *in orbit* ’til then to keep the skyhook’s schedule balanced, though …)
evileeyore
Well… akshually…
They probably can park aluminum in space if they needed to. But, a better method would be to leave junk parked in space until they have good windows to bring it down. Even send some junk back up and park it in a safe orbit to bring it back down later once they need counter-mass.
That isn’t going to be as much a problem as “need buyer” is, it’s just that this area of logistics is Idrisah’s responsibility, so it’s her headache to figure out, and she stresses too much.
JoB
Hmmm, dunno. Given that that schedule supposedly was *full* for the next *two years* (with bihourly slots, that’s almost 9k shipments, as we’ve been told that the loop’s being operated in the staff’s off hours as well), putting the waiting queue on the *incoming* side sounds like just delaying the problem, rather than solving it …
Mr. Son
I think the problem with parting incoming junk instead of outgoing is you need the junk being disassembled for parts other than just its aluminum content. They have other buyers for other materials, after all. They need to get it down and extract any gold, lead, copper, I don’t know but everything else.
Greebus
I thought the same thing! I thought she was picking her nose!
Mr. Son
I only think it now when I come back to look, because of your comment. But now you’ve got me stuck thinking about her nose/truck in general and how much it would absolutely SUCK for her getting her version of a cold. I guess the upside of seeing her own kind so rarely is she’s not constantly picking up the latest bug.
JoB
It *has* been said (somewhere in the tumblr pile) that whenever other centaurs came even as close as being in the same (Jovian habitat) atmosphere as her, she’d inevitably come down with some bug ……. :-/
Mr. Son
Oof. I think I remember that, now that you mention it. And unfamiliar bugs can knock you flat. The first time I moved where I lived now, I get a NASTY flu.
gigithebear
grandmas!!!
Calcifer
Orbital station grandma polycule name drop, lets fucking go.
creetur
Orbital station grandma polycule!!! Love how Cheev speaks
Idrisah is gonna have a.. time, that’s for sure.
Kry
LOVING Idrisah’s expressions, she is so shaped /pos
Lilac
Ok wait that’s so funny hfhfhdhdhs. Just. we have angered the Polycule … fhfhchdhss
Apollo235
Does this grandma polycule have any relation to a certain woman who hasn’t yet shown up?
C
Killian’s related to them, as per the Characters page. But he’s not a woman so idk.
Apollo235
I don’t see Kilian on the characters tab, where did you find this?
Sheliak
Here under secondary characters (listed third in the section, after Mel and Tod):
https://www.runawaytothestars.com/characters/
Apollo235
Ah so theres the characters tab on Jay’s side and a separate one here!
Jay Eaton
No relation to Shyam other than being the same clade of human.
ryn
orbital station grandma polycule mentioned!!!
Wind
The space grandma polycule is now my favourite set of characters, I love them dearly and would read a whole other comic about them in an instant /j good for them.
Mica
The first step downhill is often “open photoshop”. It’s a slippery slope, Talita!
Daedalus
Doing drafting in photoshop would be a wild choice for an engineer
hirsch
she’s using this program called “autoCAD if it was fucking awesome”
JoB
AutoRAD
Speck
Yaaaaas!! The Orbital Grandma Polycule finally make their debut!!! 😍
0xabad1dea
the fact that an alien casually refers to them as “the grandma polycule” in-universe is just. incredible. top-notch.
Hubert
The monkey people creeped me out at first, but they are my favorite humans now. Even the avians are becoming a bit cute, in a yippy little dog way.
evileeyore
The avians are my second favorite muppets in this universe, right after Talita, right before the bugferrets.
If I had millions of dollars, I’d invest in getting this made as a film done by Jim Henson’s studio…
the Inmara
Oh, please, yes, please! Same.
Peter Jensen
Muppet Talita:
https://www.tumblr.com/jayrockin/755663940357439488/imagine-the-possibilities-are-endless