Annnd that's the end of the chapter. Can you guess how the title was thematically relevant?
As always, I'll be drawing some character responses to reader questions after the log pages post. You can submit questions for the characters to reply to here (remember to read the rules). This time around I will probably be doing one question response per update to make it more sustainable for myself.
Transcript
The projector on the back of Talita's tablet flicks on, projecting a gigantic version of Bip's icon and their speech bubbles on the ceiling and back wall of Talita's apartment.
Bip: WELCOME, ACCOMPLICES! READY TO BREAK SOME LAWS?
Gillie grins ecstatically, looking at the giant Bip with sparkling eyes. Idrisah looks haggard as a the reality of the situation sinks in.
Idrisah: Is it too late to leave–
Talita: (grimacing) Yep.
89 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 134”
zel
im only just now catching up to these (like whenever the updates get posted on tumblr) and yay this page was posted on my birthday !!! also i havent commented before so i wonder what avatar i get
StellaTheRose
Gillie is made of chaos and I’m totally here for it 😀
Lucian
Gotta say its lovely actually having to scroll down quite a ways to leave a comment! I remember only seeing two or three at the beginning and its great to see everyone being vocal, woo! God I love all these characters, and Bip is SO fun.
JoB
Uhhh … given that Talita(‘s tablet) is offset to our right and in front of us, Bip’s hind foot showing on the (closer to us) curtain should be offset from the leg to the *right* as well, rather than the left, shouldn’t it … ? Same with the part of the leg showing on the ceiling lamps …
OJ
it doesn’t matter <3
why do you keep doing this
1) this doesn’t matter in regards to the effect bip projection has on the storytelling. 2) talita is clearly holding the tablet higher than human head height in the panel, and then lowered it in the second. this would cause bip projection to show up…. pretty much exactly like that, if it matters so much
Vinemaple
Bip may be able to compensate for the distortion of the projection, by using the camera and internal motion & location sensors on Talita’s tablet, and a 3d model of Talita’s house.
LegendofMoriad
This page is just amazing!
Storm
I can also the zucchini as representing the overwhelm and monotony they’re all experiencing working here for so long, like here’s more zucchini. Here’s even more zucchini, better figure out what to do with it. Are you tired of zucchini yet? Too bad, here’s more. Bip says something like “have fun coming up with more recipes for zucchini,” and I think it’s like, have fun continuing to slog through and trying to come up with reasons you still like it here. The zucchini never ends. Everything tastes like zucchini.
Origamigryphon
I think this is my favorite interpretation.
Zuorai
I was thinking zucchini represented a hypothetical watchful eye? Like it’s something that’s always there with the human Ixion workers and the “new recipes for zucchini” meant ways to navigate around getting caught, and Idrisah avoiding Rasheed at the end is her and Gillie’s gateway out of getting in trouble with Bip.
DOSRG
Genuinely so awesome to see the characters Ive enjoyed for so long in the context of the main story. I love everything im seeing
also really interesting to see the reactions of those who are brand new to RTTS vs those who have followed the universe for a while. Challenges some of the ways i’ve come to view the characters and is really interesting to wonder how the relationships will build from where they are now to the relationships I know will form- unless of course it’s all a masterful bait and switch and we’re going to hard turn into space horror lol
Glitchbunny
So I started with reading RTTS with pretty much no context (I remember spotting the mini-comic with Talita trying out makeup a while back, loved it) but then spent like a whole day this week reading up on ALL the art on the site. Honestly the thing it gave me the most perspective on was how massive the story will grow to be! I’d never know from only reading the first three chapters, but after all that diving I’m even more excited to see it. The universe and characters and interactions are so deeply unique and intriguing, I’m happy now to know the effort that’s already gone into making it a saga, not just a story. So oddly… happy to know more now? There’s so much to look forward to!
Hunter
I love how Gillie is so damn excited XD
Ruby
In my mind Bip is saying this like a wrestling announcer
JoB
“Leeeeeet’s get ready to Raumfahrt!!”
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Raumfahrt
arf
It is time…
Time… for Crime!
HughJass
Calling it now: Bip caused all those things that made the project viable. Bip got all those prototype ships sent down and messed with the aluminum supplier to clear up the schedule. The luck’s too good, and I get the feeling he’s more devious than we’re lead to believe.
Adrienne
Bip uses they/them pronouns, and I think that actually isn’t the case – I think this story is really more about the fact that sometimes fate hands you an opportunity and you’re the only thing standing between yourself and making it come true.
HughJass
Whoops, my bad on the pronouns. Would edit my post if I could.
evileeyore
Most of the coincidences that have gone Bip’s way needed to have started while Bip was still turned off on the phones, or needed a very fast thinking and working AI while Bip was still stuck being 841 phones.
No the two possible culprits I suspect are Calcery and/or Bip’s parent Nabi-Nabu. The fubared aluminium deal would have been dead simple for Calcery, as would have knowing that Talita (and Gillie and Idrisah) were bored and needed a challenging psuh in their life would have been somethign Clacery was already aware of. Also Calcery did make a cryptic remark impying they knew Talita would be leaving Dirtball sooner rather than later. Possibly also hiring the salvage team to bring The Runaway to Dirtball and not loot it. Which also would have been easy for Nabi-Nabu. – This is not something Bip could have accounted for at all, and I’m sorry )not sorry), I cannot believe that a salvage team wouldn’t have looted the qPhones. Salvagers live on super tight margins, every dollar counts, and they have the right to loot salvaged ships (unless space laws are different, which is super hard to believe).
Manipulating the megacorp into buying out the prototype fleet and selling it for pennies on the pound might have been easier for Nabi-Nabu (though we really don’t have any understanding of the full capacity of either AI, so who knows there).
So, yeah, I believe it was Cal, maybe Nabi-Nabu, possibly both working together.
Vinemaple
Oh. Oh, this makes my speculation on the 03/06/25 AMA with Bip even *more* concerning. There are, thankfully, other possible interpretations, but this could be… ominous, even though it finally gives me a reason to be as sympathetic towards Bip as everyone else is.
Sparky Lurkdragon
The best Bip moment thus far. XD
Guest
Honestly with how happy Bip is to eavesdrop, I’d be worried that on the Runaway no-one has any privacy, which makes me feel dread.
Jay Eaton
Eavesdrop? She called them just now.
JoB
Only twice (by name) … I thought it’s traditional to call *three* times to prompt such an entrance? 😀
Googily
If they weren’t eavesdropping, then they wouldn’t know the group agreed to repair him and send him off, so Bip wouldn’t call them “accomplices” yet. They’ve done this a few times already, where they do something outrageous to distract from the fact that they’ve violated somebody’s privacy or a previous verbal agreement.
Beans
Talita said she had great news. I think acceptance of Bip’s request is the only good news to Bip, so they made a (correct) assumption on that
0xabad1dea
I think Bip was not eavesdropping – they are going to respect Talita’s direct, personal request not to listen in on her home uninvited, but they’re almost certainly aware of the general business situation of the incoming spaceships and sudden schedule issues, hence understand what a phone call about “good news” entails – but you might be interested in looking into the Ancillary Justice series, which explores the idea of space stations and spaceships having central AIs that really are listening to everyone, everywhere, all the time. In that world setting, it’s quite clear to the reader that the AIs do have feelings and opinions, but the humans are strongly encouraged to think of them as robotic, so they can socially tolerate this level of snooping.
evileeyore
I’m sure Bip followed the letter of the request: stop spying through Talita’s tablet/phone and turn off the passive audio/video inputs devices on the qPhones (unless called). However, nothing was mentioned about all the other listening devices that Bip has haxxored into on Dirtball… or the Touati-Sharpe residence.
And that’s if Bip is even honouring that agreement (they are a self-described pirate after all) or just trying to be more sensitive about not making it obvious they’re still eavesdropping all over the place.
40
Bip seems to be not the worst with spying and all that. But could an AI just lay low and just stalk a whole colony of people and subtly influence their lives without anyone noticing? There’s gotta be systems in place to prevent that, but then again Bip is hacking into things pretty easily.
Feles
LOOOOOOL
Paroxysmall
the progression of how the character AMA rules have been written is its own story
Jay Eaton
Fighting for my life over here trying to get people to not submit unusable questions
Lilac
Well they did say it was a nice projector……..
Vinemaple
So, about an hour and a half ago, while looking forward to loading this page for the first time, I came up with my final pre-reveal guess to why the lights went out on the last page: the thing Mel wasn’t listening to Calcery about was the fact that the power plant is on the verge of failure, and Calcery didn’t want to be caught on an unpowered station. Why Calcery couldn’t have gone around Mel for something that critical is something I never figured out.
Googily
Once again, Bip masterfully manipulates the rest of the cast with eye-catching theatrics and now none of them are going to notice how he was absolutely listening in to their whole conversation.
Not meant to be complaining here, just hope one of them calls out Bip for his responsibility-avoidant behavior at some point.
Phlosioneer
Yeeeaaahhhh
dokki
*their
Guest
Awww I love you Bip.
Cobbington
Bip is having a Pennywise moment
JoB
“… and soon you’ll be down here with me, and you’ll float in space too.”
“You’re not ‘down here’, but up on my ceiling, and not ‘floating’ but projected onto it.”
“… spoilsport.”
BravoLimaPoppa
Flair for the dramatic +1.
Also, Gillie, I love you, but your orange side is showing through there.
TotallySomebody
Gillie is a white cat! (I think?)
TotallySomebody
Yep! https://jayeaton.site/Art/RttS/AMA/1
scrunky
White cats are basically albino oranges, I have two of them so I should know lol.
Peter Jensen
Which also tracks with her deafness (highly common in white cats, particularly white cats with blue eyes). IIRC, some of the same genes are involved in some congenital deafness types in humans.
evileeyore
She a bottle orange, they’re 100% more cray-cray than natural oranges.
(Because they know ‘oranges’ [red-heads] have a reputation of being fiery and crazy, so they work extra hard to over live up to the expectations.)
Gheesfellow
If this didn’t look like a deal with the devil before, it does now!
Fallingfeather
I loooove how Bip’s speech bubbles are both representations of sounds (for our use, because webcomics are silent), but also literal within the space so Gillie can read them as well.
DasGanon
Good time to point out one of my favorite words “diagetic” which basically means “seen to the characters, not just the players/readers/listeners”
So Bip has Diagetic Speech Bubbles.
Sen
Bip shows you can be a shifty, little gremlin and people will still love you, as long as you have charisma.
Uh
Bug on the ceiling !!!
JoB
> Can you guess how the title was thematically relevant?
… the threat of being handed a metric ton of zucchini when they show up kept the actual police from busting everyone here and now?
·
“Is it too late to leave?”
“Yep.”
“… alright then.” [chucks tablet out an airlock instead]
TotallySomebody
Bip. Bip I love you.
qoala
It really _is_ a nice projector, isn’t it?
Chrysalis
The feeling when so MUCH good fortune falls in your lap all at once that it starts to feel oppressive and a little ominous, but what are you going to do, NOT accept the free food? (And/or windows of criminal opportunity?)
Anyway, i don’t know about thematic relevance, I’m assuming it’s because Bip’s avatar is kind of zucchini shaped
Vinemaple
No, it’s what you said in your first paragraph! What are you going to do, NOT accept the free opportunities?
Soup
Do Talita’s eyes glow in the dark, like a cats? That’s so cool :0!!
Peter Jensen
Yep, centaurs have a tapetum lucidum like structure. It shows up a number of times in the comic, like when she’s outside working (and I love that attention to detail, BTW). Also a key part of this out-of-current-timeline comic:
https://jayeaton.site/Art/RttS/Comics/TalitaShyamStarlight
Filiya
There’s been a question that’s been bugging me for a few weeks now, but I don’t know where best to ask it.
Apparently centaurs are the strongest of the sophonts. Avians are probably stronger than scuds, and humans are stronger than avians. But how strong are bug ferrets relative to humans? Bug ferrets’ limbs seem pretty thin and they have limitations for building muscle mass. But bug ferrets are heavy, which means they are not weak. Could an average bug ferret beat a strong non-modified human in arm wrestling? How good are bug ferrets at carrying heavy weights?
Vinemaple
Intellectually I know there are many valid reasons for wondering about this, but emotionally I’m concerned about why you think this is important
HAL9000
intergalactic interspecies olympics would be riveting to watch ngl
JoB
Heck, INTRAspecies olympics should be interesting, at least with the humans!
https://www.runawaytothestars.com/comic/rtts-page-51/
Filiya
Since I think about this sort of thing a lot in relation to developing my aliens, I’m curious how other authors handle it. Not that I personally want to overpower a bug ferret in battle. Though maybe I wouldn’t mind testing how tight they can hug.
40
“When it comes to bones, bug ferrets are a weird case. Their distant ancestors were exoskeletal and molted to grow in size. A clade split off from this group that had less molting events during life, instead molting from an exoskeletal larvae into an adult form that had a layer of fat and skin over the skeleton, allowing for continuous growth and reshaping of the bones on all sides by living cells. Bug ferrets are descendants of that clade, but now their only true exoskeletal stage is embryonic. The bug ferret exoskeleton is now tough but springy plates that run the length of their body like a living armor– very useful for shoving your body through dirt and surviving tunnel cave-ins. Some hard plates on the face, like the mouth parts and eye caps, are still technically exoskeletal and get shed annually.
Because of this evolutionary history, most bug ferret muscles attach inside their hollow, tubular bones, such as the retractor muscle of their claws. Fat storage is on the outside of their bones, allowing them to gain adipose tissue freely, but they have a hard limit on how much muscular bulk their body can support.”
40
So I can’t say anything about their average strength, but with squishy bones and finite muscles there’s not gonna be a very high upper limit.
Apollo235
You can ask Jay questions directly on their tumblr, at the top of the page theres an ask button
Filiya
Thanks! That’s probably what I’ll do
Jay Eaton
Strength has a very high correlation with body weight. This is because if you weigh 100 kg, you have to be able to lift at least 100 kg to walk, and etc. Centaurs are the strongest sophonts if you’re measuring the average kg weight they can lift, simply because they have to be.
Bug ferrets are on average heavier than humans, so on average they can lift more. However, going by percentage of their body weigh they can lift, bug ferrets have a harder upper limit to how much muscle mass they can build, while for humans the upper limit tapers off more and can reach a higher percentage of our body weight than bug ferrets.
Phlosioneer
I don’t get the zucchini thing 🙁
gabite
zucchini are kind of famous for being easily overgrown. you just kind of end up with a lot of it