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Bip has a lot to grieve.
That's the end of chapter 3. The interchapter lore page will go up next, then I'll be doing character AMAs again (submit questions here, remember to read the rules if you want to be eligible). I will probably do AMA responses for 2 weeks because I am hoping to finish chapter 6 pages by the end of this year. Those are what's currently going up on Patreon!
Transcript
Talita stops speaking abruptly, staring wide-eyed at the ship below as the elevator silently raises her away from it. The empty starry sky fills more and more of the background. Sorrow enters her expression and she brings a hand to her throat, looking back up.
Talita: I... I'm sorry.
Bip: It's fine.
The panel shows the dark puncture wound that ripped through the side of the habitat module.
Bip: I didn't expect any of them to make it.
34 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 107 and 108”
Paroxysmall
I’ve been looking forward to this page because of how it goes back to Talita’s earlier observations in a new perspective https://www.runawaytothestars.com/comic/rtts-page-89/
Now that I think about it, the massive puncture in the habitat module should’ve been more of a red flag
Zidane
heartbreaking page, and i think its interesting that one of the more humanizing moments with bip lacks their avatar entirely, as opposed to prior pages where they showed up even though talita herself couldn’t see them.
Stitcher
Absolutely agree
Gar G
Damn…
I never really thought about it before bit this crew was like Bip’s family. We’ve seen them interact with the other characters on q&a’s, etc…but I never really thought that they must’ve had so many of these moments with the crew before losing them
Imp!
As Talita stands up we also get more and more of the view of the stars… I wonder if… they’re still out there? I mean, someone had to find/collect the ship, but is it possible they just left the bodies behind, or they floated away too far from the wreck to notice?
What a somber and meaningful page. poor Bip :[[
Elixer
I think all the bodies are still there.
She looks like shes looking down at something distressing, and all the escape pods are still there, so I assume she just saw the remains
cain
I think it’s just a moment of realization. She’s well outside the ship, so even with her centaur eyes, she won’t have a view of the interior. She would have seen the bodies while working inside, if there were bodies in the hab to be seen.
$ilverspoon
I just got that the crew didn’t make it, because the shuttle is still docked đ
TheMushroomInside
My theory as to why Talita didn’t encountered any bodies is because they are all in the emergency boat in which a catastrophic error occurred leading to their death. Likely they dint want to abandon their resident AI and made vain attempts to save Bip or were unlucky enough to experience a catastrophic structural failure when Bip was knocked offline. Regardless if they are still inside the Runaway or not, The emergency Bus is likely not adiquate enough to be used as one and can now be symbolically used as a tomb for the previous crew, to be either released haphazardly off into space to forever travel the cosmos, buried somewhere on dirtball, or even returned to the centaur home world as a final resting place.
dokki
oh thats got me fucked up
the way talitas eyes dilate, I wonder if homeplanet centaurs do that too, or if it’s just Talita. Either way, big sad eyes :”[
we’ve seen the entry wound to the ship multiple times, but from this angle its so much sadder. There’s a hole in their handiwork…
Robin
Heartbreaking composition in these panels. Smallness and lonliness.
creetur
Talita’s expression too. The way her pupils get larger and the subtle look of sympathy in her eyes. Very well done.
Translunary_Animus
Ohh the spacing of the panels.. the length between the dialogue boxes. Ough.. It really hammers home just how much the moment hits
vee
a part of me wonders if bip originally wanted talita to fix him because he held onto that small chance that maybe, just maybe, one of his crew survived and can be contacted somehow. like maybe his pesky attitude was him either in denial about the whole thing or not fully comprehending the full scope of it until he got the answer he was looking for.
bip/bem
remember that bip uses neutral pronouns like they/them!
vee
sorry, i keep forgetting that they’re a genderless electric entity.
creetur
I knew that this page was coming, but actually seeing it makes my heart hurt even more.
I’m sorry too, Bip : (
TotallySomebody
That’s sad
blythe
I wonder if there were any children in that clan.
…Fuck.
Hunter
I wonder if the bodies were ejected via explosive decompression due to the hit they took, or if whoever salvaged the ship removed them.
Tyrone the Miner
If you can stomach it , read about the Byford Dolphin decomp. chamber accident.
However that was from 9 bar inside pressure to outside 1 bar (!!!) it was very very messy.
Here from internal 1 bar (I presume) to outside almost perfect 0 , so somewhat more benign..
Still people tend to….”open up”.
Phlosioneer
In space, itâs not the pressure that causes the problem, itâs the lack of gravity (and associated friction). When a moderate breeze blows against you on earth, itâs trivial to say still. When that same air speed acts on you in space, youâre going with it unless you actively hold on to something. A minute long hurricane-force wind may not be enough to liquidate your flesh, but itâs plenty to send you flying out to space before your brain realizes it needs to hold on to something.
Sen
What an emotional moment with so little words.
Pathfinder
I wonder what the afterlife concepts are for many of the sophonts in RTTS are. Iâm assuming the Runaway had one of the first crews of spacefaring Centaurs, and despite all the tech and Bip being there to help, being the first is definitely dangerous. Criminal or not I doubt theyâll ever get the recognition for that achievement anytime soon though.
1d4Nadg
ooof, that almost empty double page hits hard.
Verc
I love that there are always interesting things to look forward to between chapters!
Liza
If you didn’t expect any of them to make it, why did you ask? You held on to a sliver of hope, and that’s okay. God, I’ve never wanted to hug an ai this badly before.
Phlosioneer
The long pause between asking about further repairs to the ship and asking about the lifeboat was probably filled wirh a mix of 1) ship diagnostics, probably showing a docking clamp in use, 2) deciding whether to believe the sensor, and then 3) building up the nerve/will to ask talita to visually confirm.
Something something stages of grief
Origamigryphon
It’s not fine.
Ruby
Yep, that hurts. Bad.
Lilac
oh………….
Apollo235
If you look on the archive tab, the thumbnail for this chapter is the last panel on this page. It’s been that since the start of the chapter, I’ve been wondering when it would show up
Tyrone the Miner
Called it. However I think Bip to be Blasé about it or tries to be.
Bitty
đ poor bip. Filled with the ghosts of the lives of their friends and crewâŠ..