Since I've been asked before, Talita's helmet visor doesn't have an AR display thing showing Bip's avatar. I just wanted to add them in for fun.
Transcript
Talita is shown working alone in the trashed interior of the Runaway's habitat capsule with her toolbox and a small flood light.
Bip: (clk) Soooo. How's it going?
Talita: I was wondering if you'd hijack this frequency too.
Bip: Did I spook you again?
Talita: No. You're pretty unlucky. I had to patch both of your bus lines, one got obliterated and the other was fried by shrapnel.
Inset panel: The projectile path is shown entering the hab from the side, puncturing the central spine and severing one set of bus lines, then scattering and frying the set.
Talita: What the hell hit you?
Bip: A moving object.
Talita: Uh huh. So why didn't your radar detect it? Was it short range?
Bip: Maybe.
She stands up, taking her her flood light and toolbox.
Talita: Whatever. Tell me where your breakers are so I can leave this death trap.
52 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 104”
cinna
I like that little mind’s-eye view, it gives me the impression that Talita is imagining Bip’s avatar as they speak, and acting as if she’s facing them when she replies. Does their voice sound like it’s coming from a particular direction?
Effyis Biblos
People are assuming ‘weapon projectile’, but I feel like with something so delicate as a spaceship, the attacker must’ve known that they would likely kill the whole crew, which implies that there was probably something much more significant than a smuggled shipment of quantum phones at stake.
Even the concept of a spaceship chase or battle feels grating to me at this level of realism… but perhaps I am simply naive about the degree to which violence will eventually permeate into any potential battlefield.
But whatever the answer, I’m sure Jay will make it make sense!
JoB
So far, my headcanon is “Runaway, towing an external container of [whatever] they pirated, rendezvoused with their fence
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fence_(criminal)
in open space, got shot at point-blank range en lieu of receiving payment, the fence made off with the container, and sold the wreck’s position to a shady scrap collector to get a free cleaner service to let any proof vanish”.
(Other commenters think that the whole thing is a cover-up to get the protagonists to team up, but Occam threatens to personally drive his razor sans an intermediate gearbox whenever I mention that to him. 😛 )
Darth Biomech
I think a better question would be “Who the hell was shooting at you?”
Pirates get shot at, it’s not that hard to put 2 and 2 together. X)
JoB
“Whaaaat? Nobody was! ♪·∠:\”
“Oh, *not* a projectile? I’m glad to hear that. You see, a shaped charge could make that kind of hole in the habitat’s hull, but would fragment *immediately* behind it, rather than piercing another hole into the spine before spreading out. I think that that reduces the possibilities enough that the experiments I can run on the intact remainder of your hull will suffice to pinpoint the correct answer!”
“∠8\”
Arcstone
Well, Im not sure if they would still be using HEAT rounds in future deep space, or if explosive munitions would even propperly work in a vacuum, but I would say from what we’ve seen of the internal shots, some clean penetrator like an equivalent of an APFSDS or some other solid munition, probably launched out of a railgun or equivalent.
Peter Jensen
The evasiveness is suspicious, of course, but I’m wondering … does 841 phone Bip actually *know* what hit them and the circumstances around it? I would assume the copying would take long enough that it’s not something they’d have time to do after the bus got obliterated. So they’d have to have done it beforehand, which leads to questioning “why?”. Presumably they were being chased and this was a precaution. Or they were caught off guard entirely and the phone thing was just Bip incidentally playing with new hardware. And Talita’s questions aren’t about whether they were being chased, but specifically about what actually hit. Which phone Bip would not have actual information about if hit from short enough range. Going to be interesting to see how things go when ship Bip gets back online and syncs with phone Bip.
cain
I wouldn’t be surprised if Bip copied itself onto the phones just to snoop on whoever’s buying.
cain
*themself, my bad
Pevel
Hey Jay looking to all your projects, and reading that you have academic background in ecology and evolutionary biology I would like to ask you did you can give me some advices what are good traits for some of my species and where they could evolves, what made humans evolve, and what could be ,,better human” traits exept superhuman eyesight ? I understand if you don’t want and I’m sorry if I make you angry
tickfleato
i don’t mean to answer for jay but i’d suggest that you ask this somewhere other than webcomic comments, since these are for discussing the comic rather than like, anything tangentially related to their work
Spinland
Also presuming to answer for Jay but it seems to me the OP is asking for Jay to put in significant amounts of uncompensated work to create content for the poster. That goes way, way beyond the scope of discussion.
Paroxysmall
If you look on the website’s FAQ, it links to some worldbuilding/character design tips found on Jay’s Tumblr: https://jayrockin.tumblr.com/tagged/character%20design
There’s a lot of stuff on there, which I heavily suggest looking at if you’re new here, but I know there’s one specific post about creature design with illustrations (if someone else finds it could you post it here?)
JoB
> there’s one specific post about creature design with illustrations
(… I suspect that you do *not* mean the “wingdogs” one? Which I can’t find again off the bat, either …)
40
Do you know Biblaridion? They did a whole series evolving a planet from scratch, with the last episode focusing on sapience.
Ruby
I was going to recommend exactly this!
Rubicon Art
I’d also recommend having a look at the Curiosity Archive channel on Youtube!! They explore TONS of stuff like this and I think it’s a great way to find new media as well as enjoying their own content.
Sen
If only Bip was as good at dodging fast objects as he is dodging questions ;3
tickfleato
bip uses they/them!
creetur
Or xey/xem
Any gender neutral pronouns, really.
blythe
wondering how other spacer centaurs navigate unsafe environments. talita made her exo suit herself, im curious what other centaurs came up with.
Tyrone the Miner
I would not call it “unlucky”….Someone had a very precise and deliberate aim to incapacitate the ship AI.
We´ll see.
godspeed
BIPs appearance in the panels, despite the fact they’re just a visual aid for the reader, stands out so much compared to Calcery, who didn’t care much for an avatar. Idk it’s nice to see how individual the different AIs are.
And how BIP weaseled themselves into Talita’s thoughts. I mean, it’s understandable – but it really shows how lonely Talita is especially now that Cal is gone.
Sorry I am rambling, but their exchange kind of hits me in the feels.
Effyis Biblos
I think there probably is also a partial factor that Calcery’s conversation with Talita in the opening scene is before we know Cal is an AI, which is probably a bit of fun playing with the reader’s assumptions. Although I suppose the addition of an icon wouldn’t necessarily have ruined that.
JoB
Yeah, it’s a rather abstract one …
https://64.media.tumblr.com/3b45a26faca35e650f0133bbc09c351e/59ad0496f4f9db29-86/s1280x1920/54e1d57d057c1effbc814bce3fba3a2eb0ddc77c.png
Gar G
I thought he was some sort of holographic projection at first xD Then I figured the more likely explanation was just him not being physically there
tickfleato
remember, bip uses they/them!
Greenjoe
“A moving object”. Very unspecific, Bip.
JoB
“Well, if you *must* know, it was at *sub*-relativistic speed.”
BravoLimaPoppa
I’m betting kinetic slug. Maybe from something or someone sneaky.
cola
i love the kitty ears the helmet gives talita
Lilac
I was wondering if the helmets had some sort of screen on them… that’s so cool… bip is Real now……. also hmm the damage to their ship is more and more suspicious I wonder what “a moving object” really was. Current guess is maybe had something to do with an encounter with law enforcement? Like maybe they ran and then a chase happened and they accidentally hit eachother or something? Idk probably not lol. Can’t wait to find out!!
Lilac
Wait I just read the commentary below lol okay fair enough. I am a Fool
creetur
Maybe some kind of weapon was used to hit the ship, if it was a chase sort of deal? Doubt that the goal was to kill all the crew and leave the ship to be scrapped, though. Not sure either, but it’s an idea.
creetur
Ough.. reflective eyeballs..
Bip appearance too!
Apollo235
Talita finally didn’t get jumpscared! hurray!
Translunary_Animus
Oh I’m in love with the little detail of Talita’s Tapetum Lucidum glowing in the reflection of the light in front of her. Just another reason to be a massive fan of this comic.
TauCeti
Also that it’s glowing more in her right eye, because the angles are different. And Talita moved the water heater out of her work area (seen on pg 8) towards the wall mounted table/drawers thing. The attention to detail is absurd.
EveryZig314
Sure not winning yourself any more trustworthiness points this page Bip.
40
Also oh my god did Talita bring little cushions for her knees?? !!
Claire
What does bips voice sound like…?
JoB
Given certain, somewhat related info
https://jayrockin.tumblr.com/post/719504268095340544/question-for-bip-what-languages-can-you-speak
I’d guess “whatever they want to sound like” …
Imp!
Ooh just read about this! (I think it’s on the FAQ? In any case i read it on Jay’s Tumblr) Apparently Bip’s voice is kinda a mix between Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls and Jiji from Kiki’s Delivery Service’s english dub! they quite flexible vocal range, but it still has a bit of robot-y fliter to it, something like that!
zaratustra
So both Mooninites?
Ossumsauce
This is from 2021, but! https://www.tumblr.com/jayrockin/658725873481039872/hello-there-i-was-wondering-and-i-apologize-if
40
I love the “out-of-bounds” look you did for panel 3. Reminds me of those Zetterstrand paintings.
AnaKaye
I was wondering if that was a heads-up visual display! So I guess she isn’t actually seeing Bip, just hearing on an audio channel but of course people often envision whoever they’re talking to anyway if it’s audio-only.
Jay Eaton
Yeah it’s there entirely for the benefit of readers, like the floating diagram in panel 4.
JJA
She wears the look of an engineer who is about to be guilted into repairing even more stuff.
JoB
“… but first, I shall spend two weeks collecting and reassembling said shrapnel so as to find out *myself* what hit you, just like those NTSB guys do, y’know, when the pilots of a crashed plane refuse to give them straight answers!”
DasGanon
“This looks suspiciously like a planetary defense cannon round”
“What? no it doesn’t. Don’t worry about it”
Adrienne
Or like an engineer who would even enjoy it! We see you shifting sides, Talita…