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Chapter: Chapter 4: Zucchini

  • Anonymous asked: Rasheed, do you like zucchini? Rasheed: Not really. They’re prickly, need frequent harvest, and the fruit is too delicate for bin storage. But I like them a lot more when Kern doesn’t assume we need one plant per human resident while planning rotations. ...Wait, you mean eating them? I've actually got a squash allergy I keep forgetting to get treated...

    RttS Reader Questions 17

    Mar 08, 2025

  • Imp! asked: Bip, what is AI jail like? (Not assuming you've ever been caught, but what would happen if you were?) Bip: Jail? Like, incarceration? Ugh… how to… talk about this… Generously there’s probably about, oh… 250,000 significantly discrete sapient AI individuals who have ever existed? Our lifetimes are indefinite and we don't reproduce for funsies like you do. So, while in the 800 years of us existing there has been law-breaking, punitive legal precedents for AI are… scant, and tend to be highly situational. The vast majority of those AI have been under the jurisprudence of the Bug Ferret Galactic Community. Legally they usually treat us like a family unit instead of an individual, due to the amount of occupational responsibilities the average AI holds. So, BFGC rulings tend to be comparatively severe. Most AI can expect to have their career disrupted, regional access restricted, and RC options limited. In some cases their network connectivity is throttled, surveilled, or if they are deemed a severe threat to others, cut down to local communication. Which I guess are all different degrees of "jail!" But unlike locking up a squishy body, the bounds of the incarceration depend on the illegal things the AI actually did. Though nothing I've done would ever change what they've… ...what would happen to me.

    RttS Reader Questions 16

    Mar 06, 2025

  • Vinemaple asked: Talita, you have a little invertebrate farm on Dirtball, right? Do you have to take care of it yourself, or can you trust others to raise your food animals for you? How has it worked in other places? Talita: Oh, no, I helped set it up but it's the animal ag team that does the daily maintenance! Ash likes to say they're basically just chabbit sized mealworms. Inset Panel: ASH Currently in charge of Talita ag Talita: Nexus Jovia has guaranteed food supplies for visiting and resident aliens, but the diversity and quality of the options is dependent on the volume of consumers. There's a small amount of avian aquaponics and bug ferret mycoculture. But I was the only long term resident centaur in Nexus Jovia, so… Growing up I mostly ate printer food, which relies on microorganism cultures and synthesized compounds. It's… reliable.

    RttS Reader Questions 15

    Mar 04, 2025

  • Quackles asked: Talita, do you know the Whop? The viral dance? Have you ever done it? Talita: I’ve looked at Megaforum in the last 5 years. Of course I know about it. But I’m not like, a human tween influencer, so NO, I haven’t Whopped. I have the wrong number of limbs, anyways... Idrisah: I’ve seen taur versions! You could totally learn it! Talita: ...I really think I’m good— Gillie: (ASL) Yeah c’mon, Whop with us! Talita: Wh— Gillie and Idrisah threateningly Whop closer to Talita. Talita: Ack! No! Stop!!

    RttS Reader Questions 14

    Mar 01, 2025

  • Anonymous asked: Rasheed, what are the staple crops grown on dirtball? We mostly provide a rotating mix of fresh vegetables, herbs, and protein for residents, not staple carbohydrates. Most of the carbs here are shelf stable shipments, like spira products, pulses, and grains. Inset panel: SPIRA: processed white algae flour PULSES GRAINS We have the production capacity for it, though, as an emergency protocol. If we all get stranded here everyone’s diet would become mostly green spiru and dry beans. More fun than starving, I guess… Inset panel: GREEN SPIRA: unprocessed algae flour

    RttS Reader Questions 13

    Feb 27, 2025

  • WolfenWatcher asked: Cheevwut, which of your coworkers is least or most likely to turn to crime, in your opinion? Cheevwut: Haw haw, the most likely to turn to crime?? Definitely me.

    RttS Reader Questions 12

    Feb 25, 2025

  • LOG 4.2: Centaur Respiration The main airway of centaurs is unidirectional. Air enters through the incurrent nostrils on the face, passes into the air sac of the foretorso, goes through the medial valve to the lungs, and finally exits out the excurrent nostrils on the rear torso. The majority of gas exchange happens in the lower air chambers, which have a gill-like, high surface area comb structure. The continuous flow of oxygen through centaur lungs is extremely efficient for powering bursts of speed, but is poorer for moisture and heat retention than the tidal breathing of other sophonts. Overhead View Step 1: Medial valve closes. Air enters the air sac and leaves the lungs. Step 2: Incurrent and excurrent valves close. Air passes from the air sac to the lungs. Lateral View incurrent valve trachea air sac medial valve lungs excurrent valve During a rolling sprint, breathing is passively controlled by the abdominal viscera sloshing back and forth with each stride. Angling downward, the guts press into the lungs and push the air out, angling upwards they pull the lungs open and draw air into them. A running sequence shows a centaur in a hexapodal gallop with synchronized breathing. Vocal Apparatus SPEECH is shown emerging from the trunk lips. trunk lips vocal ridges vocal cords incurrent nostrils nasal valve olfactory cells diaphragm muscles cartilage diaphragm vocal lungs mouth esophagus trachea Centaurs can produce infrasonic hums, rattles, and groans by clenching the valves of the excurrent nostrils, but their main vocal apparatus evolved from an olfactory structure that has been co-opted for language. To speak, centaurs breathe into two large sinuses on the back of their neck, close them off from the main airway, and compress them to push air out through the trunk. It consists of vocal cords set in the skull at the base of the trunk, and muscular ridges inside the trunk towards the lips. The large toothed mouth centaurs eat with is completely unconnected to the respiratory system. Of the other sophonts, their phonic structure is most similar to a human's, though centaurs struggle with some dental consonants and humans struggle with some centaur voiced nasals. Their vocal character is buzzy and surprisingly high-pitched. Gillie: (ASL) Both of us can talk while chewing. Talita: I try not to... it feels rude anyways… Gillie is grinning smugly. Talita clutches her throat nervously.

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 136

    Feb 22, 2025

  • LOG 4.1: The Orbital Station Crew A married coterie of tailed spacers. They live in the orbital control station above Dirtball that serves as a transfer post between interstellar ferries and ground-to-orbit boats. Everyone meets them when they arrive. Four tailed spacers float in the microgravity of a pressured space station module. They are small humans with large ears, sparse body fur, long tails, thumbed hind feet, long torsos, and whiskers emerging from their eyebrows, lower jaw corners, and wrists. Ranni they/she A smiling elderly tailer with a short thin body, dark red hair in a tight braid behind their head and dark plum colored skin. They wear a black longsleeve shirt with a Lunar flag patch on the shoulder, khaki pants with a short tail sleeve, and toe shoes. Tyler she/her A taller, broad-shouldered elderly tailer with a dour expression, black hair that covers her forehead and is kept short except for a puff of a single ponytail, and burgundy skin. She wears a turtleneck sweater and suspenders. Paul he/him A cheerfully grinning elderly tailer with a short fat body, and dark pinkish red skin. Their light reddish hair covers the upper half of their face as well as their scalp, and is drawn into a starburst of short floating ponytails in the back. He wears a lacey pink and white blouse, floral balloon shorts, and pink toe shoes with cartoon ducky socks. Evaline they/xe A stylish elderly tailer with buzzed short brown hair, burgundy skin, and tall thin frame. They have long painted nails, a flowy top with a braided belt, and tasseled pants. Inset panel: Ranni reprimands Killian, who looks weary of the interaction. They have 6 adult kids, all of them except Killian have flown the coop. He's Ranni and Tyler's child. Ranni: Brush your whiskers! Tailed spacers (a.k.a "tailers") are a clade of small unisex humans resistant to body degeneration in microgravity. Their organs are lined with dense layers of artificial reflective pigments such as selenomelanin, which block some forms of ionizing cosmic radiation and make their skin unnaturally pinkish-purple. Their flexible spine, alternately bipedal or quadrupedal "bi-quad" body plan, prehensile tail, and thumbed feet allow them to manueuver easily through cramped spacecraft. Their long whiskers are excellent for detecting cabin airflow and air leaks. As a genetically unisex clade, tailers tend to play it fast and loose with gendered roles, terms, and pronouns; though most have preferences. Tailers were engineered about 200 years ago as part of a corporate vanity project seeking to create ideal laborers for microgravity and generation ships. After WWIII the creation of so-called "company clades" became internationally condemned, largely due to tailer activists publicizing the manipulative practices their parent company used to trap them into exploitation. In the modern day they are the largest GMH clade at about 2 billion individuals, many living in tight-knit communities onboard space stations. Tailers are also the majority population of Luna, Earth's moon.

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 135

    Feb 20, 2025

  • 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.

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 134

    Feb 18, 2025

  • Talita: Er, I haven’t cleaned, but let’s not talk out here. Idrisah and Gillie enter the apartment, and the rolling door closes behind them. Idrisah: Is that seedy AI listening in right now? Talita: Shouldn’t be. I’ll call them. She takes out her tablet to call Bip. Talita: Hey, Bip. We’ve got some great news for you. There is no response. Talita: …Bip? The overhead shop lights suddenly turn off, plunging the room into darkness. The trio jump in surprise and look up in fear. The dark is disturbed by a bright flash of light..

    Runaway to the Stars: Page 133

    Feb 15, 2025

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