Ironically, mobile phones aren't famous for their self-mobility.
Transcript
Idrisah: You think we’re BORED enough to commit CRIMES for a STRANGER?Bip: Well, now we’ve met! Would you consider crimes for an acquaintance?
Talita rubs her eyes and pushes her glasses up, holding her face. Her expression is haggard.
Talita: Can everyone
please
leave my apartment.
Bip: I’d love to, but I’m 841 phones.
Talita: (murderously) Get off my tablet.
Bip's avatar looks nervous.
Bip: Could I at least get a yes or no on the power reconnection?
62 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 68”
c_rowles
the comedic timing here is PHENOMENAL for a story being told via a completely visual medium. This whole sequence with meeting Bip is outstanding. I especially love Gillie clearly coming around to considering Bip’s proposal while Idrisah stays outraged (and poor Talita gets pushed further into overwhelmed exhaustion). And the ALL CAPS of Bip’s self-generated captions gives the lines presented that way a bluntness that makes them read even funnier.
841PhonesFan
Bip’s smart in using such a cute avatar for themself, I’d do crimes for that sad worm on a string face.
Hydok
“I’d love to but I’m 841 phones” is absolutely sending me thank you Bip
Gar G
Poor girl is under a lot of stress right now
Paroxysmall
About how much/what parts of Bip are contained on those phones? About how much of Bip could be stored on one quantum phone? How did they move their data onto them? (I don’t really know much about electronics)
Paroxysmall
Talita looks exactly like that one screenshot from Penguins of Madagascar:
https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/879666-penguins-of-madagascar
Greenjoe
The fact that Bip is showing a transcript of what the others are saying as well as subtitles for their own speech is cool, and I suspect their transcripts are far better then what Gillie’s phone app could do.
Ankh
See ngl, I would’ve been convinced by ‘space fugitive phone’ immediately because boredom is really That Serious for me. Maybe I wouldn’t tell my friends if it’s clear they don’t agree but best believe the second they leave I’m asking for Pirate Stories
Hunter
Talita’s about to beat some ass XD
evileeyore
I think Talita is about to curl up into a ball and have a good cry. But regardless… she’s needs some space to think about this before she either takes a hammer to 841 phones or has a meltdown.
Apollo235
Given what we know of Talita crying seems like the most likely option, or, more specifically, infrasonic-distress-buzzing and tooth clacking
https://jayeaton.site/Art/RttS/Comics/TalitaTeenageHeartbreak
Mr. Skeleton
Oh no Talita is gonna go off.
1d4Nadg
Poor talita, she wasn’t kidding about that panic attack…
Patteroast
We can all relate to being 841 phones, sometimes.
Tyrone the Miner
Awww. Puppy eyes Bip!
Also , Talita, find a small pallettruck and haul his 841 phones out. Even though I think she is strong enough to just push a box of that size out. With your guests on top of it!
arf
I get the impression we’re going to be seeing a Centaur version of She-Hulk shortly, and it will not be pretty.
Sen
I really interested to see how Bip and the gang will continue. Right now cooperation does not seem likely as they have high moral standards.
Ruby
The lady of the house has spoken, Bip. Poor Talita looks like she’s about to either explode or cry.
CorvidaeCry
Welp. “I’d love to, but I’m 841 phones.” Is entering my lexicon
SIGSTKFLT
Has the culture changed on shoutycaps or are they Just Like That™
Jay Eaton
Honestly I rarely read all caps as shouting. It looks like classic comics dialog, a font choice, heading text, or the “look here first” part of a graphic to me. Kind of an edge case here since I write Bip’s non-diegetic speech bubbles in lowercase. Main takeaway is Bip’s a ham who wants to make sure you see the very important things they have to say.
SIGSTKFLT
It wouldn’t feel as shoutycaps to me if it wasn’t typeset in Helvetica. Obligatory Atkinson Hyperlegible mention.
Jay Eaton
The font is actually Leelawadee which… hilariously I think was mostly developed as a font for Thai.. but a lot of the sans serif in the comic is that and a lot of the serif font is Garamond
Bravo
The second to the last panel, that’s the equivalent of a muscle twitching in someone’s cheek or forehead isn’t it?
In humans, that’s not usually a good sign.
Sparky Lurkdragon
“I’d love to, but I’m 841 phones.” Comment of all time, ahaha. Another for the ‘became a stim’ books (though I usually amend it to ‘a bunch of phones’ per memory issues!)
the namely namester
sad bip 😭
Redacted
“Noooo, I’m just a little guy, and it’s my birthday! You wouldn’t hit a litttle birthday Bip on their birthday!”
Liza
So that’s 105 phones per box except one has 106. If they’re distributed evenly, which they don’t have to be. Sorry, I like simple math.
Apollo235
I’m wondering if Bip is counting Talita’s tablet. 840 seems like a nice even number to smuggle
Liza
Oh I hadn’t thought of that! That makes a lot of sense, they are a presumptuous lil shit.
Jay Eaton
You’re assuming all the phones safely made it into Talita’s apartment.
Liza
oh that *is* a silly assumption, isn’t it?
Apollo235
Jay says there are more phones, WHERE ARE THE OTHER PHONES JAY???
/not srs
evileeyore
Probably floating in space somewhere. Those phones were right next to a big gaping hole in the ship.
Feather
Bip’s eyebrows!! I love them!!
dokki
my friends and I had a *whole* argument over whether it was 841 or 849 phones. I may owe them money now
TotallySomebody
Poor Talita she looks so tired 😭 I get you, after a long day of being in other’s company I’d not want to deal with this either
TotallySomebody
I didn’t mean for this to be a reply oops
un_pogaz
You know, now that we’ve had a long conversation with them, I think we have a better image of them than the little sneak-peak on Twiters, and it’s more positive than we think.
They’s a little prick, that’s a fact, and they manages to be sarcastic at every turn, that’s a fact too, but many detail show that they has a very strong regard for others. Whether they’s interested in being fixed or sincere, I don’t know. In the end, I’d say Bip’s more mischievous, in a very annoying, heavy-handed way, because of the quasi-systematic nature of his antics, but not in a malicious or contemptuous way. In fact, it reminds me a lot of a teenager.
I can see they becoming a good, sincere friend of the gang, but some days, oh so tiring to live with.
evileeyore
I 100% am sure Bip is sincere in wanting to be repaired… and in wanting friendship. But Bip is a sneaking, conniving, little sneak, so it’s all subtle manipulations and pressures and cajoling, rather than (at least at this stage) being direct about wanting friends.
I think Bip has also read everyone on station like a book and knows exactly what levers to push on to get these three to jump through the hoops for what Bip wants.
scout
doesnt talita worry about scratching her glasses with those hooves?
Johanna
I don’t even have hooves and I do that
Jay Eaton
My fingernails are sharper than her hooves and they’ve never scratched my glasses. As far as I can tell…
Redacted
Must be nice to not get skin oil all over them. I swear I don’t even have to touch my glasses for them to get smudged.
BullCityFats
If her hooves are made of a material similar to keratin (which Earth animal hooves are made of), then they’re not hard enough to scratch glass.
Peter Jensen
The hooves themselves won’t scratch the glass, but if there’s hard dust (such as bits of regolith) on the glass, touching can still scratch, and it’ll be easier to do with something firm like her hooves, than softer human fingers. But who knows, maybe in this setting, growing synthetic diamond is cheap enough to use for the ultimate in scratch-resistant glasses.
Johanna
Legit forgot about the Mohs scale. Guess I don’t need to worry abt scratching my glasses anymore lol
Vik-Thor Rose
(This is more of a general reply about this whole thread)
Even today, most prescription lenses (I.e. glasses) are plastic of some type. Polycarbonate is common now.
So, easier in general to scratch than glass.
I would expect that by this time, there are materials sufficiently tougher than available today. Diamond has been mentioned.
Ashran
For being so expensive, those phones couldve been given the ability to move. That way even if you lose it, it’ll come back.
Jay Eaton
The legs upgrade is extra.
EveryZig314
Bip could have gotten a job in sales (and likely would have become even more hated by the general public than as a pirate).
Fallingfeather
Bip biiiig puppy eyes
0xabad1dea
sometimes you are just eight hundred and forty one phones. on a really bad day maybe only eight hundred and thirty nine
hal9000
so uh not to put pressure on Talita here but isn’t the Runaway due to be scrapped pretty soon? if she puts this off too long she might inadvertently be responsible for the manslaughter (AIslaughter?) of another sentient being… albeit, through some kind of negligent homicide, but still. she knows someone’s trapped in that craft
hal9000
also i love bips little óvò face there
Fallingfeather
I was under the impression that even if she doesn’t reconnect Bip, she had every intention of turning him in to law enforcement. So like, he wouldn’t die.
R
apologies i can never find a way to say this without sounding extremely passive aggressive but bip uses they/them or other gender neutral pronouns for future reference :+)
Trees
Since Calcery just quit I think Talita is in charge of all the actual outdoor, boots-on-the-ground manual work. Perhaps her comically inept underlings will somehow accidentally launch Bip’s ship into the sun and no one will have to worry about it anymore.
evileeyore
Talita is in charge of the scrapper teams, pretty sure she knows the whens and whats her teams are up to. And worst comes to worst, she just doesn’t have the teams work in that area while she does whatever repairs are needed to reconnect Bip.
Zuorai
NOT THE LITTLE EYES…… AND EYEBROWS…….
BobisOnlyBob
Being 841 phones is definitely one of the better excuses for not doing something.
Apollo235
Damn Talita is absolutely DONE for today lol