Idrisah is most tormented by the fact there's a possibility they COULD get away with this.
Transcript
Idrisah: (ASL) And to get off the ground… You need a spot in Ixion’s skyhook queue! You can’t slip a whole ship made of stolen raw material into the VERY TIGHT schedule without the person in charge noticing!
Inset panel: A long line of incoming and outgoing payloads are shown being transported to and from the launch loop via the skyhook.
Gillie: (ASL) Aren’t you in charge of the schedule?
They stare at each other.
Idrisah: (ASL) Yes— But— If Ohwitiil or Mel notice we’ll be FIRED! Are you two not worried about that!?
Gillie: (ASL) I mean… we're basically in charge of everything necessary to launch it. And we're trusted longtime employees with essentially no oversight.
Idrisah: (ASL) And you're willing to risk that for some shady A.I. with no record? Why??
Bip: (looking insulted) Hey.
34 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 119”
Gheesfellow
Bip, for as long as these people have known you you’ve been shadier than a pair shades that are placed in the shade of a giant pair of other shades in Shade Township, Pennsylvania. Hush.
Ouroboros
I just wanted to let you know that I audibly cackled when I read this. Thanks for making my day! X”D
HAL9000
the most fun part of adventure- paperwork
Stitcher
As we’ve seen in Daughter of the Lilies, paperwork is the Karen’s great this weakness.
Stitcher
*’greatest’, not ‘great this’
Ugh….speech-to-text has AI now.
FuzzySpiderPawz
Come on Idrisah help them do a crime!
JoB
[after Idrisah flexes her people skills, the Runaway’s launch is accompanied by a ship parade, fireworks, and a honorific speech by the Ixion CEO]
Tyrone the Miner
…To the eternal regret of the known Universe after a while. =)
Redacted
I like that the only words Bip transcribed are the ones that were said out loud.
Phlosioneer
It’s only for gillie, yeah. If bip knew Talita has a little trouble with ASL, they might include it.
Varyon
Is Bip the one doing the transcribing? I assumed that was just part of the software Gillie is using to talk to them.
JoB
[comment copied from previous page]
It’s something that Bip *has* done previously (in particular, on Talita’s tablet), and *if* it were a builtin function of Gillie’s setup, there wouldn’t be much reason why the lastest transcriptions would suddenly be *removed* in page 117 panel 4.
theplushfrog
To be fair, I’ve heard that with ASL, being a language that includes body language and facial expressions as part of not just tone but also context and grammar… it can be pretty difficult due to the need to translate to English and *then* transcribe. (Jay has a couple comics from further in the storyline with a character who won’t appear for awhile who is autistic and struggles to read facial expressions and therefore the grammar and context of ASL at times.)
The comic is doing its own translation and transcription for us, but that doesn’t mean we know exactly each sign used. Bip could likely do it in-universe, but things might be lost (unlike the author translation, that we get I mean), just like any translation from another language, and Gillie or Idrisah might be annoyed with how Bip translated both of their sides. Plus, Talita does seem to understand a lot more than she’s implied anyway, she just struggles to respond.
Vinemaple
I just wanted to point out how everyone is exaggerating their facial expressions when they sign… I see ASL speakers do that, most of the time. That’s the equivalent of tone of voice, right?
bisexual
ASL also uses facial expressions for grammar & distinguishing some vocab, to the point where if someone’s face is covered it can be difficult to understand them. it’s a lot more than just the hands
Cobaltingot
My University that I went to has a very large deaf population with the sister school that’s part of it. When the pandemic struck, they actually gave out masks with windows for this exact reason.
creetur
<:,=
Hubert
So what if Owhitiil finds out? They’ll resign over the scandal and finally get to retire to bird Florida.
(You’d still be out of a job and blacklisted from the industry, though.)
Vinemaple
Hmm. The trio are pretty good friends with Cheevwut…
Uh
Hey <
:-)
Talita has such a cool design for an alien. She looks awesome.
gigithebear
i love this comic because it’s showing what modern piracy is actually like. no, i’m not sailing off into the distance with money galore. i have my paperwork to do and logistics to run.
Ruby
It seems like there was a bunch of that as well in ye olde piracy. Some pirate crews had people doing paperwork, managing the treasury, etc.
JoB
Still wouldn’t want to ask Blackbeard to his lower face whether that’s ink …
JoB
> And you’re willing to risk that for some shady A.I. with no record? Why??
Well, if the problem is just that said AI has no *record* yet, a bunch of then-*eyewitnesses* could certainly change that … 😛
[Bip silently checks whether the Runaway’s air lock’s door-interlock is still disabled]
Phlosioneer
It’s not “risking your job” if you’re aboard the ship! They can’t fire you if you quit first!
dokki
rtts is such a love letter to logistics people and I adore it
oooo idrisah you wanna do crime so badly oooo
Origamigryphon
The beat panel XD
Teod
Job positions like theirs usually come with generous salaries and nothing to spend money on. They might be in a position to just legitimately buy/rent anything necessary. Maybe there’s even an employee discount.
eden
I think in this case with talita(ESPECIALLY so) and gillie they do need to use their higher salaries to supplement their higher cost of living since they wouldn’t be supported by those societies (the way talita talked about mel helping her with scholarships in collage makes me think survival would be very difficult if she wasn’t able to make it into college. I mean food alone would’ve been so hard)
Guest
Adding on to what you said, the Runaway is at least adapted for centaur living. If Talita chooses to live on the Runaway, this might be her only chance to live in a space actually built for her (aside from just moving to the homeworld).
Spinland
Why? With the stars for a prize! Or maybe just for the lulz.
JoB
> maybe just for the lulz
Ooooo you mean they might want to take along some of Dirtball’s old mining equipment, too?? 😉
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lulzacite
Twibbit
Because the 2D Noodle Has protagonist energy.