Wow! How inconvenient! Right Idrisah?
Transcript
Cheevwut: Wow! You look like shit!
Idrisah: I’m fine! I’ve just been. Worrying about stuff.
Cheevwut: Like that’s new. But here’s something that is!
They show Idrisah their phone.
Cheevwut: Ohwitiil fucked up big time! They lost us our aluminum buyer!
Idrisah: Oh… yeah, that would void the contract.
Cheevwut: It would be funnier if damage control wasn’t my job!
Idrisah: Did they have a backup buyer?
Cheevwut: Nope! All those slots in the outgoing schedule are just empty now!
Idrisah's eyes widen and she freezes in place. Behind her, an inset panel shows a day-by-day schedule of shipments, with over half the bihourly slots highlighted.
105 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 128”
Bobulus
It’s unclear to me how much external access Bip has at the moment, so I’m unsure if all these things happening that benefit Bip are narrative convenience or if Bip somehow has a hand in this. Like, we don’t know what the actual action was that voided the contract, but could Bip have changed the text of an outgoing message to raise tensions or something?
Samnang Auflander
Flash thought through her head “Bip if you had an actual neck…!”
Now whether or not they had anything to actually do with it I suppose would be interpretation. But I’m a little sure that Bip would enjoy being on one of those newer ships going across the cosmos, but I also think they’d rather be around others like the crew here because deep down. They want company to hang out with.
40
Dun fashion is so fire I wish I was bird shaped and could wear bird clothes.
Hunter
Considering Cheevwut actually shows Idrisah what looks like some kind of conversation or something, I don’t think this is Bip’s doing like some people think.
SIGSTKFLT
The fact that they’re using a 300 year old font (in the background of the last panel) is ruining my immersion 😛
Cain
Do you expect Jay to create the next Arial?? 😂
Eden
we also still use so many dated things that we don’t remember the meanings for because we simpy haven’t needed to change them. like the save drive and the ground phone icons haven’t been used physically in an entire generation by this point but we still know what they mean when we use them!
JoB
If you want *dated*, have a cow with where the very *letters* in our fonts come from. 😛
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A#History
Justin
I can’t tell if Cheevwut’s expression is one of barely-contained rage, or baffled schadenfreude, but both are great.
Shakura
What a an “unfortunate” turn of events! It’s not like I needed a free spot in the schedule for some dubious activities, but… funny coincidence, right?
stellHex
no wonder idrisah is so stressed; dirtball is using whenisgood to schedule their launches!
Krasudreal
Ack, you beat me to the punch!
Darth Biomech
Honey, if a member of a DIFFERENT SPECIES can tell that you look like shit, you are NOT fine!
JoB
… you *do* remember what the *general impression* is we’re giving the other RttS sophonts, don’t you? It *does* have something to do with secretions …
https://jayrockin.tumblr.com/post/661996648989442048/i-know-the-avians-arent-getting-a-lot-of-love-in
Hotdog
I love that this comic is all about secretly bullying Idrisah jshsjjd
Adrienne
Cheev’s little bowtie is kiiiilling me 🥺
JoB
Cheevwut being an avian James Bond and having a garotte hidden in that bowtie confirmed ;-P
Septemberdale
I like Cheevwut’s hood. Very fashionable.
Heather
Huge fan of Cheevwut’s “Nope!”. The full panel for one word. The avian face just barely making a humanlike shit-eating grin. *chef’s kiss* ART.
JoB
… hold on a second. It doesn’t look like the skyhook could possibly serve an incoming and an outgoing payload in the *same* transit (unless the incoming goes to the slag field, rather than onto the launch loop). If this one lost buyer means that “over half the bihourly slots” are now unoccupied, does that mean that Dirtball has virtually *no other outgoing shipments at all* in the schedule?? If so, the reason why everyone, even Idrisah, ultimately chooses to leave might well be that Ixion’s about to go bankrupt … 8-t
evileeyore
There’s always someone who will buy aluminium, but what we’re seeing here is Idrisah’s “oh no” face over all that rescheduling, the scrambling to find other buyers who will probably pay less (not her department, but it might effect yearly bonuses, etc)… and of course the creeping realization horror that Bip will get Bip’s way…
dpflug
Over half of the bihourly slots *on the outgoing schedule*. Aluminum being the bulk of their export makes sense, and (if I understand correctly) having a single buyer making up the majority of your business isn’t unusual in raw materials. That said, not having backups seems like a major oversight unless it’s one of those “We can’t arrange that much pickup in that little time” things.
Ruby
Oh yeah, it’s all coming together. 😏
Truther
Tags: sci-fi, space opera, one womans psychological horror
$ilverspoon
foul play? (looking at Bip)
Adrienne
Or just fowl play. Ohwitiil probably did fuck up
evileeyore
I’m still “blaming” Calcery (or some other AI, though even if another AI masterminded it, I suspected Cal had a strong ‘hand’ in things). Bip might be a great hacker, but unless he was setting the seeds of this from the very beginning (possibly before the 841 Bip-phones were even recharged), I doubt Bip could have pulled it off. Contracts like this tend to take more than a few days to get through and if I’m right, this should be the contract Ohwitiil was working on //before// 841 Bip-phones began being recharging
Cain
Bip uses they/them or xey/xem pronouns!
MyUniverseinaBox
lmfao I love this comic
Jewel
Love to see it. bip is an anime protagonist and talita and idrisah are being dragged into their latest arc.
AspenWinterhart
…You know what you must do, Idrisah
un_pogaz
Hmm, I’m beginning to understand why Cheevwut will also take part in the Runaway adventure. The question now is: How?
Good colleague or not, I don’t think anyone will spontaneously ask them to join the team, unless they really need they help. There’s even a chance that they’ll be the one to discover their conspiracy and say “Whatever shenanigans your do, I’m in, especialy for leave this place.”
HAL9000
Cheevut isn’t the avian featured in the other comics, that’s Sirawit 😉
Paroxysmall
what’s next to Idrisah in the third panel, is it a rehal box?
Apollo235
Ok the fact Idrisah “void the contract” rather than something like ‘loose the buyer’ or ‘mess things up’ does make me suspect that Ohwitiil unintentionally revealed some information, maybe violating an exclusivity clause??
Ganderius Shinyrius
What a happily convenient turn of events. (Is Bip responsible lmao, are they actually more capable than they let on)
Rad Internet Stranger
Damn.. Destiny really wants Talita and co to leave
gnffs
Well ain’t that a bit too convenient?
Coldest Lew
It’s the start of the story, contrivance is perfectly acceptable until the first twist.
JoB
Aye. With all the Deus-Ex-cavation in the last couple pages, and Cheevwut doing payroll, I’m pretty much expecting the next page to have them go “unfortunately ‘damage control’ has priority, so nobody’s getting paid ’til I’m done, unless you magically get yourself *another* paying job out here in the boondocks, wink wink nudge nudge.”
Followed by Talita running across not more quantum phones but a stack of Golden “do ‘test’ flights when- and wherever you wish” Tickets, to solve
https://www.runawaytothestars.com/comic/rtts-page-118/
, aboard those prototype vessels.
Vinemaple
Everyone’s talking about the bowtie and the first free appearance of the Fighting Chabbits shirt, but…
Why is nobody talking about the barrette in Idrisah’s hijab? To me, that’s a fascinating little detail that I’ve been thinking about since Monday. I’m racking my brains trying to remember if any of the Malaysian girls in my high school kept their hijabs in place with a barrette, but that was… so long ago.
Boxthing
Oh, snap! What’d they do to lose the buyer?! D:
Ruby
Knowing Ohwitiil, just talk lol
CheevwutBowtieStan
I LOVE CHEEVWUT’S BOWTIE
Vinemaple
How many outfits does the average skimmer avian HAVE?
evileeyore
Cheev is such a dapper dun.
Vinemaple
I like to think Cheev is *subversively* dapper by conservative Tiiliitan standards… pushing the limit of what a dun can appropriately wear, both as self-expression and to wind Ohwitiil up even further, which probably results in Ohwitiil being that much hornier come spring.
Sen
Everything is falling into place. Now we only need the line-piece for an epic finish!
Doubloon
I guess Cheev proves the principle that people feel more comfortable swearing in secondary languages.
Wasser
What a coincidence!!!
Oh, it is so definitely Bip doing this.
Vinemaple
Yes, at this point, it’s definitely Bip’s fuckery. My only real question is, how much of this is real, and how much is Bip *gaslighting* Dirtball’s admin with fake comms and such?
The prototypes being sold off by V-tech sounds like a real thing, I think someone would know if any of those ships were standard production models, but maybe there’s no such thing.
Oh, gad, Bip could be making it ALL up! If they have access to station comms, and the ability to spoof everything. I’m having an existential crisis about a webcomic…
Proxy
I know for almost sure that the liquidation is real, the podcast Talita was listening to in the first few pages was talking about it!
Vinemaple
Oh, yeah, you just made me realize she listened to the podcast BEFORE she discovered the phones, I’d forgotten about that! It means that Bip probably couldn’t have spoofed the podcast, which was what initially made me really have an existential crisis!
Vinemaple
*recharged the phones
eden
I wonder what avians think of the earth birds they’re named after. someone she cheevwut a picture of a blue macaw!
TotallySomebody
I asked that for one of the QnA’s actually!
JoB
Their “Emperor’s Yellow” is (blue-ish) GREEN, though …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-rumped_parrot
Ruby
My guess is that they’re as uncanny to them as their salamander ape is to us (even their sheer variety could be off-putting depending on their beliefs). They might like their colours though.
West
every things comin’ up Bip!
Hi
Oh yeah. It’s all coming together.
eden
lol I would love to hear about the stupid tantrum owhittill pulled to do that
Vinemaple
Knowing skimmer avians, it could just as easily be carelessness or arrogance.
Typhin
I kinda wonder if maybe Bip had a hand in one of these events, but not all. No matter how it all turns out to have happened, this is definitely beating poor Idrisah over the head. It’s like a chorus of Fate Angels all chanting “Do it! Do it! Do it!”
Do it! ^_^
Pocket Whale
Idrisah’s face in the last panel! Idrisah makes the best faces. Love her!
Bramble
Honestly I see why everyone’s speculating that Bip has something to do with this, but I feel like everything we’re heard about Ohwitiil points to this being exactly the kind of disaster they’d cause. (Of course, that also might be that Cheevwut seems to be the kind of gremlin person who’s capacity for being mad tops out at “cheerfully exasperated,” so it’s a little hard to tell how shocked they actually are by this development.)
Solidago
I thought it was just commentary on corporate clumsiness and unpredictability, rather than engineered by Bip. Suppose we’ll find out!
creetur
..Well, that’s gonna be useful for sneaking in the repairs for the Runaway. Funny for the main cast that everything (might) work out.
Kry
It would seem Fate has a sense of humor! Or it’s trying REALLY hard to make it up to Bip. “Oh shit sorry, lemme just [fiddles with some things] get you back on your metaphorical feet”
Perfect xD
zarky
loading the page and seeing that first panel had me dying laughing
Sparkax
I did the same!!
casualevils
[kronk voice] oh yeah its all coming together
Calcifer
I don’t know what would be funnier: fate just so happening to perfectly align all of these fuck ups together into the perfect coincidence for Bip to get off planet, or Bip themself being a conniving little shit who somehow has the ability to pull this all off.
I feel like both Talita and Idrisah are going to meet up and have a simultaneous heart attack about both their excuses being so thoroughly annihilated.
TotallySomebody
Bio just getting everything ready!