Guys I think she noticed
Transcript
Idrisah: (ASL) Gillie, the farmers got me on the way home again. Could you stand another loaf of zucchini bread, or—
She looks up and is confused to see Talita is in the room, cringing guiltily. Gillie reaches over surreptitiously and presses a button to retract the scroll monitor that's displaying Bip's avatar. Idrisah's look of surprise transforms into a glare. She storms over angrily and yanks the monitor screen back down.
Idrisah: YOU! GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!
Bip: I’m not in your house, this is just a weirdly formatted video call–
Idrisah: Don’t get prescriptivist with me, you souped up malware!
Gillie glances over her shoulder at Talita, who is attempting to quietly leave.
69 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 117”
Bobulus
Despite this not being how technology works, I’m imagining Bip getting rolled up and their view being restricted to the inside of the roll.
common handle
This page is FULL of incredible faces. Shoutout to Talita’s big googly eyes
Arcstone
WAIT, their monitors are a thin flexible material that you can pull up and down like blinds?
Thats fucking cool and I want it!
evileeyore
In this case Idrisah is blaming the wrong person. Gillie chose to take the call, and Talita being there makes it look like they’re all conspiring to “be gay and commit crimes” behind her back… which, well… Idrisah isn’t anyone’s Mom here and they’re all adults, so she is being more than a tadbit controlling…
But I’m still siding with Idrisah at this point. I mean, without the crimes there’d be no story so it’s good Idrisah does not get her way, but… still poor Idrisah, getting drug down into a life of crime “against her will”.
JoB
> I’m still siding with Idrisah at this point.
Well, I don’t … not entirely, at least. She has two clear options here: Allow her friends to help Bip out, standing aside if she can’t bring herself to take an active role in it, if need be; or to inform the authorities, if she’s really convinced that the situation needs to be escalated to them. The logical conclusion of her doing *neither*, which is what she’s been busy doing so far, is to have Bip – an actual person – die by sheer inaction, an outcome clearly *worse* than either of the original two options. She needs to make a choice, *her* choice; the chances of anyone else making it for her (without that backfiring itself) are slim.
Ormur
This is too funny.
Gar G
God I love the expressions here X’DDD
And poor Talita tryin to sneak away. She has nothing to do with this, I swear!
Hunter
I love how it’s “The farmers got me AGAIN”. How many times has this happened, I wonder XD
Also oh, dear, Talita, honey, you’re not gonna sneak out XD
JoB
Well, it seems that Idrisah has eight? zucchini in that net, as opposed to the ten Rasheed insisted for Tod to take. Clemency in action …
atriflemiffed
You can tell Bip is in trouble because they’re not doing speech to text. Not that Gillie would actually need it for *this* conversation I’d imagine
the Inmara
Ooh. Are Talita’s nictitating membranes fully across her eyes in the last panel there?
It is kind of cartooning convention to draw eyes like that, with just the irises, or with empty circles for pupils for someone panicked and embarrassed like that. But, we imagine that it could look a lot like that with her nictitating membranes closed. You could still see her pupils maybe, but they’d be clouded over, if the membrane is translucent rather than transparent.
Kaamos
I think it’s just a cartoonish expression- there’s a panel on page 25 with her pupils styled similarly and nicitating membrane visibly being used for expression. Also, at least based on this couple years old Tumblr post, you would see the nicitating membrane closed- it isn’t just a single bit of membrane, but a bit more like a secondary set of eyelids in how it moves over the eyes. https://jayrockin.tumblr.com/post/656710875472920576
Sen
Fear the angry Idrisha. She’ll take your “technically correct” and throw it back in your face.
JoB
Also, comparing the screen content on page 116 panel 4 to panel 2 here, it seems that Bip has continued to transcribe (Idrisah’s ASL from panel 1), but has stopped (and removed the lingering CCbubbles) in panel 4. They *expected* some profanity filter overload from Idrisah, apparently.
Emma H
“Souped up malware” reminds me of Doctor Smith’s epithets for the Robot in the original “Lost in Space”
JoB
“Farmer*S*,” plural. Rasheed’s got a *team* to block all (three?) pathes between offices and homes and hawk the surplus. No wonder home office is so popular among Dirtballers! X-D
Moral of the page: A sci-fi work-from-home setting doesn’t mean there aren’t still TBIC key( combo)s for good reason. 😛
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss_key
A
Poor Talita, trying to exit the room when there’s an argument going on is already awkward enough, but having to do it on all [s]fours[/s] sixes just compounds the awkwardness…
evileeyore
Poor Talita having to crawl out and taking up so much space in the room she’ll never be able to just sneak out…
hessian
idrisah racism moment???
JoB
Dunno, she’s specifically berating *Bip* here, for very personal reasons. Her relation to Calcery seems to have been OK (judging by the fact that Calcery told Talita to meet with her and Gillie more often,
https://www.runawaytothestars.com/comic/rtts-page-18/ ).
Vee
True, but I think it’s fair to wonder whether it might be construed as bigoted to refer to a machine intelligence as “malware”, however badly they may be behaving in the moment. I don’t know if they have all the same legal rights as biologicals, but AI seem to be regarded as full persons from what we’ve seen so far, so comparing them to dumb software might well be taken as a slur.
Cat
talita darling you are far too large to sneak out
JoB
Large enough to panic and make her own door on the way out, then? 😛
(At the very least, that *possibility* should give Idrisah pause before she tries yelling at the angst-ridden stampedosaur in the room as well …)
petra
4th panel bip is giving me ‘you just caught the cat eating your important documents’ vibe
JJA
If Bip had time to render an image of their avatar looking surprised, then there was also time to hide the avatar or blank the screen or throw up something innocuous. Bip definitely wanted this confrontation to happen.
JoB
Still missed out on the “ow, bonked my head when you released the roll-up screen, Gillie” joke, though.
Paroxysmall
i wonder what Gillie’s desktop icons are
goose
The comedic timing on this page is absolutely fantastic.
dokki
TALITA LEAVING I CANT
kate
trying to decide what my favorite part of this page is and i think I’ve settled on bip’s stance in the second panel, it’s just so good
zaratustra
Gillie’s face on the third panel
Apollo235
Jay said that any alterations to Bip’s avatar are completely conscious decisions. So Bip had like a half-second to decide “do I want to do the helpful thing and hide my avatar, or the funny thing and pose myself like a startled and guilty cat?” and since Bip is Bip they chose the latter
Apollo235
Oop replied to the wrong comment lol, was supposed to be for @JJA
JJA
No prob, I got it. : )
Bip’s just helping the organics to work through the emotional component of their thinking processes so they can all get down to the brass tacks.
Bramble
Yes Gillie, rolling up the monitor is definitely going to solve the problem, good job.
ECG163
Calling an AI “malware” seems a bit racist.
evileeyore
Bip is being intrusive and unwanted… so… (it kinda fits)
Still very rude at the least, but…
Ruby
Lmao 🤣
Talita discreetly trying to leave like the “holdup” SpongeBob meme is not helping either 😂
iisaw
Time is so hard to depict in comics, and _comedic_ timing is an order of magnitude more difficult, but you’ve completely nailed it here! Still funny on the third read-through!
WayanayaW
The expressions are killing me this is so good :’D
MoonyBeasty
This is my new favorite page! I am really hoping Idrisah WHIPS around to point at and scold Talita next before she escapes.
Teod
Even if she manages to just escape – someone will hear Idrisah yelling “get out” and see Talita getting out. Some misunderstandings are about to happen.
Kasekine
Especially when, from an outside perspective, it looked like Gillie was sneaking Talita inside.
whirly
gillie’s computer background… beans??
space_vermin64
Talita’s face is priceless
Vinemaple
Hopes that Talita could stand up and block view of the screen with her massive body… dashed
bitty
oh that would have been a great idea, if only she hadnt immediately begun panicking and froze up x3 ah well, rip the bandaid off i guess hahaha
bitty
CRYINGG
GladHatter
I am *howling,* every panel here is flawless XD
Greebus
I LOVE THIS PAGE IT’S HILARIOUS
“souped up malware” oh Idrisah’s bringing out the AI racial epithets now
also I love Talita trying to leave the house quietly like CLIP CLOP CLIP CLOP
FloridaBird
Idrisah’s time with skimmer avians has rubbed off on her
Kira
And exit stage right for Talita
Nethie
Run Talita run!
Guestie McGuestor
“YOU! You digital homewrecker!” XD
Guestie McGuestor
Also? Loving Talita trying to slink away in the back. XD
Bruce Mickelson
This is comedy gold!
Lilac
The artstyle suddenly got a bit more cartooney woaah (unless I am misreading somehow fhdhdhs) but gjfjdhs all the reactions and talita trying to sneak off… incredible….. Big Fan Of These Drawings In Particular
Adrienne
Talita’s little pinchy scared hands… and then “I’ll see myself out 🫥”
Aries
TALITA TRYING TO SNEAK OUT …. very inconspicuous I’m sure this will go so very well. GOD I love this comic
Rad Internet Stranger
I don’t think im ever going to get over the expressions you do
Rad Internet Stranger
Side note, I wonder, can Gillie hear the faintest noises if it’s loud enough or can she not hear anything at all?? I’m curious because I know deafness isn’t always as cut and dry as cannot pick up any kind of sound no matter how loud it is
waterfan2
Like, how well could Gillie pick up the ‘groaning’ infrasonic noises Talita makes when she’s really upset? if it’s loud enough to shake the walls …
Joysweeper
I think totally. Being off-model means surgical options are too risky, but if she had partial hearing that opens up non-invasive options to amplify sound like the hearing aids we have today – I bet she would have liked that better than caption glasses.
mossrabbit
if i remember correctly, gillie doesn’t have any hearing at all (medically it’s called profound deafness but i’m not sure if that’s the term preferred by the community). when she ‘heard’ talita’s groaning, it was more like how sounds that are loud or deep enough can be felt, since (ALSO if i remember correctly) sound IS a physical force or at least one capable of being felt. if you’ve ever been near a road and had a large semi-truck pass by, the odd pressure you feel as it goes is your body “feeling” the sound.
fun fact: it’s actually not uncommon for deaf folks to use very loud sounds as ways to alert themselves, even if they have no hearing at all, especially when living alone, BECAUSE sound can be felt
Greenjoe
It looks like Talita is standing up now and in the process of walking out.
JoB
Considering that she’s turned away from Gillie’s desk in panel 2, I doubt that she’s still loafing on the ground there. Already jumped to her feet when Idrisah opened the door, I guess …
DasGanon
Absolutely fantastic insult/retort by Idrisah in the last panel.
Amanda/OwlBear
gods, Gillie and Talita’s faces in that last panel, they’re great!!
boxesofboxes
PHENOMENAL expressions on display! Gillie releasing the screen to hide Bip, Idrisah pulling it back down like she’s grabbing them by the shirt, Talita’s crumpled-trunk grimace, ARG! All SO GOOD!!!!