Archives: Comics

Archives: Comics

Chapter 1: Dirtball

Anonymous asked: Talita, what's a quantum phone, and how is it different from a regular phone? Talita: It's a phone with a quantum computer CPU. It's— this isn't my field, I'm in mechanics, not compsci— but basically quantum computers just use qubits instead of classical bits. This allows them to run more processes parallel to each other than a classical computer.  It's also, like... absolutely a useless extra price point on a personal CPU? Nobody needs that kind of processing to play games or call their mom. If you want to flaunt your wealth just buy hard wood jewelry or whatever. Room temperature quancomps and the vast majority of quantum programming languages also originate from bug ferrets. The legend goes that their code is so spaghetti, it resulted in them accidentally creating sapient AI. …I'm so glad I'm not a programmer...
Posted on June 29, 2024Anonymous asked: Cal, how did you get hired on Dirtball, and what's your job there? Calcery: I had previously been the overseer for a large microgravity recycling station. When Ixion inquired about on-planet work, I was interested, but conflicted about leaving. I compromised by budding off this individual, Calcery, to work at IRP. My parent iteration, Calcine, stayed at the microgravity plant. We keep in touch. My job on Ixion-3... or "Dirtball," haha, was not a huge change of pace. I managed IRP's fleet of autonomous harvesting vehicles. During the workday I actively controlled the vehicles, and during my off hours they followed autonomous routines I programmed for them.
Posted on June 27, 2024Image: A group of bug ferrets exiting a tunnel. Their fur has a variety of colors from dark brownie to reddish pink to white, and their visible unfurred skin is pale green. Most have magenta eyes. Caption: Bug ferrets have been in space the longest of any of the known sapient aliens, and they created the wormhole generating technology that links interstellar space. Avians were the first sophonts they encountered by throwing wormholes into new systems, followed by humans, both of whom had colonized their local systems. Most recently they contacted centaurs, who had only rudimentary electronics. Bug ferrets are reproductively unisex (meaning individuals can both bear children and sire them) and extremely gregarious, living in family groups of up to 30 adults and their children. Native to a cold planet with most of its surface occupied by barren ice caps, bug ferrets evolved to live in the vast biogenic tunnels and cave systems of chemosynthetic organisms beneath their planet's tropics. Although some spacefarers get cybernetic implants that allow them to speak alien languages, native bug ferret communication is a combination of visual sign, tactile sign, and expressive barks. Unlike human sign languages, many bug ferret languages are made of non-representational syllables and can be spoken in complete darkness. Their most commonly "spoken" sign is a constructed inter- national auxiliary language (like Esperanto, but far more successfully adopted) known as BFL-2, as it was ironically the second bug ferret language encountered by humans after first contact. Because of the clunky way that BFL-2 words are transcribed, bug ferret names and entities are usually either given acronyms or nicknames in English. BFL-2 (Bug Ferret Language 2) BFL-2 reading order is bottom up, right to left. Three symbols are transliterated as: [B-X Grasp D-C Drag] Image: The signer grasps their hands around the outside of the receiver's arms and drags them from the second joint to the third joint. [B-P Fist B-D Drag] Image: The signer makes their hands loose fists and drags the knuckles on the outside of the receiver's arms from the wrist to the second joint. [L-P Palm-O B Twist 2] Image: The signer makes their left hand flat with their fingers together and thumb out, and rotates their wrist twice to flutter it, tapping both sides of the receiver's right wrist. Image: A large underground space connects to the cold blue light of the surface through a small skylight. Buildings extend down in a column, cut through by transportation corridors, horizontal areas in reach of skylight growing blue-green plants. Under the column, where it spreads out, a cross section shows homey tunnels flooded with warm light from bioluminescent organisms. Caption: Bug ferret living spaces are a dense tangle of rooms with blurry delineation between public and private spaces.
Posted on June 25, 2024LOG 1.1 Avians Caption: Avians ("Chew" in Tiiliitian) are a genus of small, winged sophonts that walk on their forelimbs and have a bisex reproductive system comparable to Earth animals like seahorses. Though there are five sapient species, the most commonly seen in space are skimmers, who form the majority population of a large colonialist monarchy called the Dominion of Tiiliit. SKIMMER AVIANS Population: roughly 12 billion Image: Two skimmer avians stand next to on another. The one labeled "dun" is taller with drab clothing that covers the back of their head. The one labeled "bright" has a blue and yellow striped crest and eye stripe, and is wearing elaborately sewn blue and yellow clothing. FLIGHTLESS AVIANS pop: 5 billion Image: Bust of avian with a bulky head, small ears, and a huge crest. PYGMY AVIANS pop: 5 millon Image: Bust of a small avian with grey feathers, large ears and a rounded crest. DIVER AVIANS pop: 4 billion Image: Bust of a black and white avian with a pointy face and a flattened, fin-like crest. POLAR AVIANS pop: 3.2 billion Image: Bust of fluffy white avian with almost no visible crest and fluffy ears. Caption: The two sexes of avians are referred to as brights and duns in English. This is due to a mixture of concerns from sexually conservative avian cultures about alien terminology influencing bright-dominated hegemony, Anglophone humans wishing to distinguish between alien genders and their own, and linguistic limitations. Avian languages often have two-tone vowels that sophonts with only one set of vocal cords cannot pronounce. Tiiliitian, for example, is a tonal language with five vowels. But each of these vowels has five different tonal slides, which can be combined, similar to musical chords (although the avian voice has been described less as musical and more like a duet of yowling cats). Alien xenointerpretors specializing in bitonal avian languages often use a keyboard recorder device to layer tones while they speak. The 5 Basic Tiiliitian Tones level tone sinking tone rising tone upwards warble downwards warble The Tiiliit Image: A skimmer avian bright reclines in a huge luxurious robe, and a fancy metal headdress on top their crest adorned with feathers, inlaid stones, and fabric. All of their clothes and the skin of their crest are shades of mint and seafoam green. Behind them is a banner with a symbol made of a circle with three equally spaced radial lines entering from the outside and meeting in the center. Caption: Only the Tiiliit is permitted to wear this hue of green. Other greens are generally only worn by royalty.
Posted on June 22, 2024Talita lies asleep in her bed, directly across from the 8 boxes of recharging phones. Unbeknownst to her, a single phone screen lights up, casting a glow over the foot of the bed.
Posted on June 20, 2024Talita: Ugh, I'll shower tomorrow then... She walks back into her storage unit apartment. Inside, she puts down her tablet and glasses down at her bedside and gets under the covers, watching the tablet from a couple meters away in her bed. In the video on the tablet, two humans sign to each other next to a board reading "ASL LESSON 74: Provided by the North American Republic College for the Deaf". The scrolling caption reads "—ODAY WE'RE LEARNING NEW SIGN VOCABULARY. REPEAT AFTER ME—" Talita watches drowsily from her pillow, but slowly her eyelids slide closed and she falls asleep.
Posted on June 18, 2024Talita looks up in surprise from her bench at the large central pillar of the habitat as it emits a loud chime. SFX: BIIIIING BOOOOONG Overhead, the dozens of bar lights on the habitat ceiling begin to noisily switch up, abruptly plunging the city into nighttime. SFX: CLAK CLAK CLAK Talita: Goddamnit!! How is it bing bong already?
Posted on June 15, 2024Talita puts on headphones and selects a podcast on her tablet, tapping the touchscreen with her trunk. Podcast: Welcome back to J-tech labs, your one stop shop for Jovian polity tech news. I’m Mark— And I’m Kylie. As you may have heard, aerospace company Vspear acquired– Talita puts away the junk on the floor into boxes. Podcast: –their competitor Unitine, though it’s unknown if they’ll continue Unitine’s revolutionary material science research– Talita vacuums underneath the couch cushions. Podcast: –It’s certainly on our minds after the wormhole station failure at Mars L5 caused 11 month shipping delays— Talita hangs up some laundry on a wire. A commercial sized laundry machine tumbles clothes. Podcast: –But the element still needs to to be mined— by infamously slow chemical rocket drones— Talita lies supine on her workout bench and lifts weights in her backyard next to the laundry machines. The weight machine has heavy duty chains connecting the push bar to the weight stack, and the metal plates she's rowing with her midlimbs are several inches thick and about a meter wide. She pants in exertion, the air leaving her body through the excurrent nostrils behind the ribcage of her lower torso. Podcast: –So it may be decades before enough is commercially available to lower prices and raise ship speed— that is, unless ship recycling operations can step up to the demand— Talita: Yeah, right.
Posted on June 13, 2024Talita looks around at the mess throughout her living space. Used pitchers and dishware next to the couch; an electronics desk cluttered with parts, tools, and half finished projects; her floor covered in random supplies and open storage bins. She heaves a long sigh and looks exasperated, then walks into the bedroom portion of her apartment, pushing open the large curtain that separates it from the rest of the living space. She rolls out an extra large charging mat there on the empty floor there and puts the 8 boxes of phones down on top. All of the screens briefly blink white as they begin to charge.
Posted on June 11, 2024Talita walks past Gillie and the ferret line, rubbing the back of her neck in embarrassment about the interaction. She approaches one of the small, half cylinder shaped dry storage units and punches a code into the door number pad. The door noisily rattles as it rolls up to open. Inside is Talita's messy apartment. Most of the furniture looks vaguely cobbled together and homemade, or adjusted from human furnishings that were slightly too small. Windspinners hang next to air circulation units, shop lights hang from the ceiling, and a model space ship hangs from one of the shop lights. To the left is an enormous couch and TV surrounded by used dishes and pitchers, a fridge covered in weirdly shaped magnets extracted from electronics, a sink, and a range. To the right there is an overflowing electronics workbench with a twin-sized mattress on the floor as a crude chair, standing tool chest, and drafting desk covered different types of 3D printers.
Posted on June 8, 2024Talita approaches the far end of dry storage, where her path intersects the bug ferret procession. In the distance, she sees a human conversing with a bug ferret in sign language. She is a fat freckled white woman with medium-short fluffy red hair. Her round face has a button nose, thick eyebrows, and serious expression. She wears a pleated skirt and white collared shirt. Gillie, presumably. Talita watches her intently signing as she walks by, assuming Gillie is too busy to notice her. Gillie spots her anyways and briefly waves hello. Talita, taken off guard, waves back with frantic nervousness.
Posted on June 6, 2024SHIKAVIIL PORT Original population: 1,536 avians Current population: 50 humans, 24 avians, 1 centaur An overview of the city habitat reveals it is a circle about one kilometer in diameter, divided radially into 8 wedges, and a circular road separates those wedges into interior and exterior portions. One half is primarily industrial, with a construction yard, wet storage, animal agriculture units, dry storage, on the exterior; and climate control, water treatment, and electrical distribution on the interior. The other half is primarily residential. The exterior has human and avian housing blocks and park spaces behind the large apartment buildings with corresponding Terran and Avian flora. Between the two housing blocks is the medical offices, and on the end further from the plant entrance is the post office and rec center. The inner section of the residential side has half and half avian and human agricultural units, with rows of covered plant beds and massive multistory aquaponic greenhouses. Talita pushes her cart of phones down the residential side of the circle road, while the ant line of bug ferrets and forklifts goes down the industrial half to the far airlock exit, which has rail access to the ground-to-orbit boats. She passes by a human worker in the agricultural section who is using a sprayer on some of the plants. Talita: How’re the green beans, Rasheed? Rasheed: The spider mites are winning. Talita: Bummer. She continues her long walk, glumly resting her head on the cart's cargo.
Posted on June 4, 2024The large exit door rolls up, showing bright light outside the hallway. Idrisah: If Gillie’s still working with the ferrets, give her a wave from me. Talita: Sure thing. Idrisah: See you tomorrow! Talita walks out of the personnel exit into the massive exterior space, which is, ironically, another interior. An opaque geodesic dome ceiling covers the sky of a small city habitat with a utilitarian mixture of industrial, residential, and agricultural buildings. A large central pillar features the current time in human and avian timekeeping methods. Bug ferrets form an ant line emerging from the vehicle exit door onto the circular center road, driving forklifts carrying Calcery's server units. A few avian residents can be seen flying laps in the airspace above the buildings.
Posted on June 1, 2024Talita: Besides cleaning the hell out of my apartment. Idrisah: Don’t worry about it. We’re probably just going to take photos and hang out. I’ll leave the boring stuff for my parents afterwards. Talita: Is your wife coming? Idrisah: Of course! Talita: I’ll have to brush up on sign language… Idrisah: (ASL) You already understand us well! Talita: Yeah, I just wish I could… uh… reply. She wiggles one of her four fingered, symmetrical hooved hands in the air. Idrisah: If Gillie can talk to ferrets, I think your hand shape could work for most signs. Talita: Ehhh… She looks away, face bristling in embarrassment. Talita: I’d just look like an idiot. Idrisah: That’s always part of learning a language! Talita pushes a button on the panel for the exit door to the recycling plant.
Posted on May 30, 2024Talita and Idrisah exit into the hallway and walk towards the plant exit while Cheevwut and Ohwitiil continue to scream at each other. Talita: Wow, those two can barely get through a shift together. Idrisah: Just wait. They bicker all year but I swear— every spring they pair. Talita: Really?? Cheev, NO… Idrisah: At least Cheev’s not keeping the Ohwitiil eggs in. BOTH: ewww Idrisah: So are you excited for the party tomorrow? Talita: Oh! I wanted to ask… I only know about the Jovian holidays, is there anything specific I should prepare for Eid-al-Fitr?
Posted on May 28, 2024Ohwitiil: AND YET IT DOESN’T SEEM TO GET FROM YOUR HEAD TO YOUR BRAIN! They gesture between Talita's head and the area between her midshoulders. Another avian walks over, this one crest-less with simple pleated garb and a cap-like head covering. Cheevwut: Stop having a hernia over dust and negotiate with our aluminum buyer, geezer. Ohwitiil: Cheevwut. I can hear your disrespect, even if you use Jovian English. Cheevwut: What, are you gonna dock my pay? Oh wait, I’m in charge of payroll now. Ohwitiil: I’M STILL YOUR MANAGER! They scream at each other in Tiiliitian. Talita waves awkwardly to Idrisah, who is peeking over her cubicle wall to see the commotion. She scurries over to Talita and starts gently pushing her towards the exit, smiling politely at her arguing coworkers. Idrisah: Excuse us!
Posted on May 25, 2024
Posted on May 23, 2024Talita: Idrisah? She peers into Ixion Recycling Plant's Admin Wing. Inside is a large open office space with humans and avians working at cubicles. Idrisah stands in the center aisle of the room, speaking to two avian workers in their language, Tiiliitian, with the assistance of a keyboard and microphone pinned to her sweater. She is a tall, friendly-looking woman in her thirties with a long face and nose, medium brown skin, and a turban style hijab. The avians she is speaking to are feathered, bird-like aliens half her height with black bare-skinned faces, hooked beaks, six small beady eyes, and large bat-like ears. They stand on their winged forelimbs and use their computers with the two-fingered hands on their hindlimbs. One is smaller with a colorful striped head crest and flashy elaborate dress, and the other is larger with drab clothing that covers the crest-less top of their head. Talita waves frantically from the entrance. Talita: Idrisah! Idrisah continues her conversation, oblivious.
Posted on May 21, 2024Two bug ferrets sit in a forklift and awkwardly operate the human-designed controls. They begin to lift one of the server rigs. Ferrets swarm around Talita's legs, tapping her. Ferret 1: Noove. Ferret 2: Go. Ferret 3: You’re in the way. Ferret 4: You have to noove. Talita: (panicked) I’m going! Talita exits and grabs the cart again. She watches the forklift heading out with a Calcery unit at the far freight door. She looks wistful as she walks deeper into the facility. People speak indistinctly in the distance.
Posted on May 18, 2024Talita: But it pays well, you know? I owe it to Mel for onboarding me right out of college. Calcery: It’s been almost a decade. No one owes an employer that much. Ferrets come over to tap Talita's side. Ferret 5: Ninute is over. Ferret 6: Electricity needs to go off. Talita: I’ll text you, Cal. Safe travels. Calcery: You too, Talita. Talita: But I’m not— Calcery disconnects with a click. Ferret 7: TRILLLLL! One ferret yells and signals frantically with a hand while another switches off the server power supply. SFX: CHUNK, descending hum
Posted on May 16, 2024Calcery: Aw, that’s sweet. I’ll miss you too, Talita. Working with you made this fly-in-fly-out hellhole a much nicer place. Talita: Haha, well, you too. Calcery: Say bye to Idrisah and Gillie for me. Spend time with them outside work! Talita: Yeah, of course! Talita pauses. Talita: …Was the fight with Mel really that bad? Calcery: As attentive as they act, I’m not sure Mel is ever actually listening. But no manager could make staying on Dirtball WORTH it, you know? Talita: Yeah, I’m honestly surprised Ixion kept you this long. Calcery: When are you going to leave? Talita: Me?? I don’t know. It’s fine here. Calcery: No, it isn’t.
Posted on May 14, 2024Ferret 1: Friend of the A.I.? Ferret 2: We leafe soon. Ferret 3: It’s too late. Ferret 1: No, he’s still awake. Ferret 3: The centaur should just text hin later. Ferret 2: Don’t de rude. Ferret 4: No conns. Ferret 2: Fut in this jack. They shove a bug ferret headset into Talita's hand. Ferret 4: (signing on Talita's leg) You have a ninute. The ferrets leave. Talita looks dazed. Talita: Uh. Thanks. She plugs the headset jack into one of the server rigs and puts it to her ear. SFX: biiiii-boop Calcery: Hello?? Talita: It felt wrong to let you leave without saying goodbye “in person”.
Posted on May 11, 2024Talita: ...Buddy? She leans out over the crowd of ferrets to shout at two humans sitting in a forklift. Talita: Tod? Killian? Did they take his comms equipment already?? Tod is a tall fat black man in his late fifties with stubble and thinning hair. His forehead has a large white piebald patch. Killian is an extremely short genetically modified human in their mid forties with a long prehensile tail, thumbed feet, and crinkled whiskers on their eyes, jaw, and wrists. Both of them look tired and slightly irritated. Tod: No idea.  Killian: Ask the ferrets. Talita approaches two ferrets speaking in tactile sign by tapping each other's arms. One is sitting in a forklift. Talita: Um, excuse me... Ferret 1: Yesh? Ferret 2: Can we helf you? They turn their heads to address her but do not pause signing. Talita: Is Calcery still online? I’d like to say goodbye.
Posted on May 9, 2024Bug ferrets abound. Their faces have stalk eyes with a pupil shaped like a serif I, two triangular fan-like ears, flat frog-like ears, insectoid mandibles, and a "goatee" of two tufted antennae. Talita abandons her cart in the hall and awkwardly wades through them to get into the server room. Talita: Sorry. Excuse me... SFX: HUFF. rr. eef. HF! wuff. Ferrets are scuttling in and around the room, moving stuff. There is a row of numbered black server rigs taller than Talita, each labeled "Calcery." Talita: …Cal? Hello? SFX: huff. Rr. wuf.
Posted on May 7, 2024Mel: Sigh… I don’t know. It’s not like he’s talking to me. Talita: I’ll go check. Mel: Oh, real quick– Could you send me those old schematics you drafted for your apartment? Talita: Uh, sure. Why? Mel: You’ll find out! Mel: (walking away cheerfully) Don’t trip on the bug ferrets! Talita tugs her cart of phone boxes further into the facility, exiting the vehicle bay and entering a hallway with bug ferrets in it. They are low-stanced hexapodal aliens with bug-like legs on fuzzy tubular bodies covered in whiskers, and not very covered in clothes. They have a variety of large spotted fur patterns. They tap each other's arms and quietly vocalize. SFX: WUFF. YIP. HURF.
Posted on May 4, 2024Talita: I’m gonna recharge them at my place. If their CPUs weren’t fried by engine radiation, I should be able to ID them. Mel: Thanks, Tal. Mel: So... how was the temp crew? Talita: Well! Nothing more field experience can’t fix! Mel: You can always come to me if there are… issues. I know people sometimes make weird presumptions about centaurs. Talita: It’s fine! Really! She waves a hand in frantic dismissal, the feathers on her face prickling in embarrassment. Talita: You know you’re my manager now and not my legal guardian, right? Mel: It’s my concern either way! Talita: Anyways! Do you know if Calcery’s packed up yet?
Posted on May 2, 2024Mel: How was the reclamation run? Talita: Nothing special, just prepping scrap for the automated night cycle. But you know that fusion ship that just came down the launch loop? Mel: Oh yes! Nice ship, isn’t it? Most of it we can just dismantle and resell. Talita: Check out what I found in the habitat capsule. She pulls over a cart with some large boxes in it. Mel: Eight boxes— Of quantum phones?? These are... worth a LOT of money. Talita: Yeeeah.
Posted on April 30, 2024Talita puts her glasses on. They have an elastic band that holds them behind the rear ridge of her skull. SFX: THWAP! Mel: Talita! Talita: (From inside the suit she's taking off.) Ah! Talita takes off the middle section of her suit and speaks with the mouth at the end of her trunk. Talita: Mel! What’s up! Mel: How was the reclamation run? Mel walks over from the direction of the admin wing. They are a thin middle aged human with a greying close-cropped beard and feminine proportions.
Posted on April 27, 2024Talita starts to take of her suit in front of the staff lockers. She twists off the air hoses to her helmet, undoes the latches at the base of her neck, twists the neck seal open. Human crew members walk by, their heads barely taller than her lower torso. She pulls off the helmet to reveal her face. Her neck is tiger-striped with an integument somewhere in between fur and feathers. Her owlish face tapers into a short slender trunk with lips at the end, and a larger mouth in a more predictable place has two round, dark patches of skin on either side of the lower jaw. She picks up a pair of rectangular glasses on top of the lockers.
Posted on April 25, 2024The recycling crew returns from the junkyard with a swarm of heavy equipment vehicles, passing through the airlock. Text labeling features inside the industrial interior of the recycling plant is bilingual, with English and an alien language. Talita: Now you can unlatch your helmet, Dominic. Dominic: Sorry.
Posted on April 23, 2024Talita looks deeper into the gash in the hull. The hole continues to the inner spine of the ship, where it has wounded the electronics. The torus-shaped living room is lying on its "side" and completely trashed, like a house flipped around by a tornado. Hundreds of phones spill outwards into the habitat module from boxes near the outer wall, screens glittering in the headlamp light. Talita: …Phones?
Posted on April 20, 2024Calcery: Goodness. I guess I don’t! Please, resume the reckless self-endangerment. Talita: What is this writing, anyways? Avian? Human? She leans over the rail of the jack stairs to look up at the symbols on the outside of the habitat module. Calcery: Centaur. As was the crew, presumably. No clue what it says. I think only two of your species’ written languages have been fully net documented. Talita stares at the writing. Calcery: Shoot, they’re packing my radio stuff. Catch you later, Talita. Talita: –Yeah! Sure thing. SFX: (radio click)
Posted on April 18, 2024Calcery: Not sure, it was part of a bulk deal from a scrap trawler. I guess the habitat capsule got busted enough that it wasn’t worth refabbing? Talita climbs up the stairs on one of the jack's bracing arms, to where it contacts beneath the puncture wound in the habitat capsule. Talita: Huh. It looks pretty spotless otherwise. She peers into the dark hole, eyeshine flashing. Talita: Probably even sound enough to walk inside. Calcery: Sure, if you want to risk getting trapped or crushed. Talita: Oh, I’m sorry. Do you work here?
Posted on April 16, 2024SFX: (radio click) Talita:  Aaauuugh Cal! I hate being a supervisor! She scrambles away on all sixes. Calcery: My condolences about your promotion. Talita: I hope working on a ship full of bug ferrets drives you nuts. Calcery: Haha! Talita: Then you’ll be stuck back on Dirtball with me again. Calcery: Hey, you could come with! Talita: Very funny. You’d have to saw me in half to fit me in that stupid hamster tube maze. Talita: Also, sorry to bring up work… But why’d we get this fancy little torchship? She approaches a large spacecraft sitting on a a massive sled jack. It's sitting on the rails next to the berm between the launch loop and the junk yard.
Posted on April 13, 2024Talita: Hey! Adam! Don’t walk within 3 meters of the grinder blade! She is yelling at a human worker in an exosuit, who is carrying something near the operating rotary blade arm of a utility vehicle. Adam: I’m not in front of it. Talita: Shrapnel can fly out at any angle! Adam: Isn’t that what the suit is for? Talita: Your suit is for breathing. You don’t want to find out what happens if you blow a hole in it! Adam: Fine. He walks further away.
Posted on August 15, 2023Talita is walking through an area with people working in large utility vehicles. She is a centaur-like hexapod with a long owlish face mostly obscured by a helmet and mantis-jointed arms ending in symmetrical, four digit hands. Calcery: Packing up is such a pain, but. Talita, I swear to god. If I stay here another day I’m gonna flip out and drive a front loader through the admin wing. Talita: Ugh, at least you’d be doing it on purpose. This temp crew is not very experienced with outdoors work. They’ve been– uh— Just a sec, Cal. SFX: (radio click)
Posted on August 15, 2023Opening scene on Dirtball. Overhead is a starry, atmosphere free sky with an enormous launch loop rail stretching off over the horizon as a string of lights. Talita is wearing an exosuit and walking in the spacecraft junkyard, having a radio conversation. Talita: How’s the move going over there, Calcery? Calcery: Shouldn’t you be busy managing my replacements? Talita: What are you, my boss? Calcery: Not anymore! Haha!
Posted on August 15, 2023

 

Chapter 2: Party Guests

Birdie asked: Talita, what holiday traditions did you grow up with, and which of them was your favorite? Talita: Oh, mostly just the Jovian holidays... so like, the maintenance weeks, Easter, the quarters, Allnighter, Independence Day... Allnighter was always my favorite. In the Garriton District kids got to help program the festival lights. At the UoJ us engineering undergrads would set up these races with improvised vehicles, using scrap we scrounged during maintenance week duties. Allnighter on campus would get pretty rowdy, and we definitely weren't helping. I usually ran with the races and played watch duty for campus security, heheh...
Posted on October 3, 2024gigi-the-bear asked: Gillie, what was it like visiting earth for college? I'm sure that amount of nature everywhere was strange for someone who grew up in space. Gillie: You Terrans think we live in 6 foot grey tubes... Nexus Jovia has, like, parks. There's way more nature on Earth, obviously, but that wasn't the most jarring thing about it... For me it was the sky! Not being able to see the rest of the city above me felt so unsettling? Like we were all going to be swept out into space at any moment!
Posted on October 1, 2024Honey asked: Bip, how much can you feel it when the device(s) you're on are moved/touched? Do AI have external sensation at all? Bip: What, like, innate sensation?? That's not a thing. I have to be connected to sensors to feel things. So do you, though you come in sort of a... wet package deal, which doesn't react well to being disassembled. These phones just have a dinky little accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, and capacitive touchscreens. It sucks. My equipment on the ship is sooo much better...
Posted on September 28, 2024LOG 2.2 Animal Agriculture Caption: Alongside the horticulture in Shikaviil Port, livestock are kept for biological waste processing and dietary supplementation. Each variety of sophont has their own unique and frequently incompatible biochemistry, requiring different agricultural branches for each of their native biospheres. Invertebrates and other small, low maintenance animals are a more sustainable source of food for spacers than large livestock, although some exotic terrestrial meats (like beef and pork) can be replicated with a food printer supplied with microorganism sourced macromolecules. But this is a lower quality food, often relying on imports. Closed, relatively diverse food systems are preferred in space habitats, as it helps prevent starvation in emergencies. Avian Livestock Animals Background Image: A tarp-lined pool of tinted water has suspended nets vertically submerged in it with stuff growing on them. a fish-like creature with six eyes and horizontal caudal fin a chiton-like animal with a seaslug face, fins, and greatly enlarged antennae a red colonial tunicate-like honeycomb crust an extremely round crab-like thing a crustacean-like animal with a long segmented eel-like body a polychaete worm-like animal with body segments that transition into new individual worms who break off Caption: The avians' animal agriculture is primarily aquatic, with large saltwater ponds split between algal tanks and livestock tanks. Avians have a more carnivorous diet than humans, and rely more on livestock for sustenance. The animals in the tanks include filter feeders that scrub the water of the hydroponics system; detrivores that recycle farming byproducts, waste, and food scraps; and herbivores that graze on algal buildup. The water in these tanks is tinted magenta by the presence of dissolved cobalt salts, just like the huge ocean of the avian homeplanet. Human Livestock Animals Background Image: A long hutch full of chabbits with nesting boxes at the end. a chabbit, a hexapodal GMO with bird-like hindlimbs, winged midlimbs, and rabbit-like forelimbs. The rear torso and pelvis are feathered, while the front of the animal resembles a typical rabbit with a chicken comb and wattles. The individual shown is a commercial breed with black and white pointed coloration. chabbit eggs, two varieties shown: a pink stripe egg and blue egg with green spots. Their markings are distinctive but naturalistic. mealworms (Tenebrio molitor var. stelladomesticus) crickets (Gryllus assimilis var. stelladomesticus) freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) freshwater fish (Sarotherodon galilaeus) Caption: The humans' livestock includes a dry section, with chabbit sheds and a cricket and mealworm bin farm. The invertebrates are fed food waste, while the chabbits are fed plant clippings from the park section of Shikaviil. Originally produced as an "Easter bunny" GMO pet; chabbits are now popular egg producers in space for being entirely herbivorous, quieter than chickens, and more sociable than rabbits. Old layers and excess roosters are also occasionally slaughtered for meat— a rare treat. The wet farm raises freshwater fish and prawns, and forms the back end of the hydroponic system supporting the fruit, vegetable, and fungi farm beds. Centaur Livestock Animal Image: A lifecycle of an alien invertebrate is shown. They have jar-like eggs with ridged sides and a circular "lid" which pops open when hatching. The juveniles look like smaller versions of the adult female, who is a strange hexapod with a mottled brown, partly exoskeletal body with six tiny eyes and an appearance somewhere in between a caterpillar, and guinea pig, and a sea cucumber. The female pupates and then becomes an adult male. The male is radically different with jointed butterfly like wings, a slim shrimp-like body, a proboscis with large compound eyes, and bright red, yellow, green, and black coloration. Caption: Talita's invertebrate farm is a small operation producing an animal with several different edible life stages. All of them start their lives as females, going to adults about the size of guinea pigs, then pupating into flying males about the size of crows. Talita mostly eats them raw or frozen, to supplement a diet of food printer sausage and starch patties. Homeplanet imports are a rare and expensive delicacy for her. Image: Talita bites into a whole adult female bug. SFX: crnch
Posted on September 26, 2024LOG 2.1 Humans Caption: Due to the Pleistocene extinction event, humans only have one remaining natural species in their genus. However, their history with genetic modification has created new human species, colloquially referred to as GMH (genetically modified humans). “Humans” are thus described as a genus of related animals, like avians. TYP HUMAN Image: An ordinary human. TYP WITH ARTIFICIAL TRAITS Image: A human with green hair and slightly pointed ears. BIOMODDER Image: A human dressed in holographic, black, and white alternative clothing. Their skin is ink-black and blue, and their hair is bright orange, red, yellow, and black arranged in defined colorblock areas. They have fur in their hair colors on their neck and shoulders. Their ears are fin shape with bright colors matching their hair, and their eyes have red scleras and yellow irises. Their bone structure is the same as a typ human's. TAILED SPACER Image: A small human with dark reddish purple skin, auburn hair, supraorbital and genal whiskers, and very long prehensile tail. Their feet have thumbs and their body proportions include a long flexible spine and arms and legs of approximately the same length. CETASER A large human with defined grey and white countershading, neck gill slits, more body fat, webbed hands and broad webbed feet, a raptorial stance, and thick dolphin-like tail with a dorsal fin. MAGPIE BRIDGER Image: A small human with a pair of winged limbs positioned over a pair of short but otherwise ordinary human arms, a deep chest, a feathered tail, and thin digitigrade feet. Their feathers are black with white patches. DRAGON Image: A human with blue and copper scales, large ram-like horns, claws, dorsal spines, digitigrade feet,  and reptilian tail with a club at the end. TAUR Image: A hexapodal human with a human-like foretorso and an ungulate-like rear torso and rear four legs. They have white fur and hair, deer-like feet, a long tufted tail, horse-like ears, and single horn on their forehead. ANDROTHERIAN SPECTRUM Anthro-type and catgirl-type Image: A couple sits with their child between them. The anthro-type has a dog-like appearance with tan fur all over her body, a fluffy tail, floppy ears, a very short snout, and black wet nose. The catgirl-type has an ordinary human appearance other than their cat-like calico colored ears and tail. The child is somewhere in between the two, with a single floppy ear and partial fur coverage. Caption: After the popularization of GMO pets and livestock, the Overton window on human modification was shifted by financially powerful gene lab institutions who stood to gain from a designer baby craze. GMH children were especially popular as a status symbol in pre-WWIII United Martian States culture. Though the hyper-capitalist UMS government did not survive the Climate Wars intact, the natal lab institutions did, and pre-natal human alteration is still considered relatively normal in the modern day. Not that there isn't a lot of political fighting over legality and regulation— made more complicated by the fact that humanity's extreme genetic variability now means many parents need natal lab intervention if they want to have genetically similar, healthy children. Naturalized Artificial Traits artificial eye colors piebaldism pointed ears artificial hair colors iridescent hair artificial skins colors stripes Caption: Most modern clades of GMH were originally created by the designer baby industry, or by scientific communities seeking to create humans hardier to the conditions of space travel and a changing Earth. Groups of reproductively compatible humans large enough to form stable populations are referred to as “clades”. The largest clade is “typ” humans, which includes non-modified humans and those with minor artificial traits like pointed ears, skin patterns, and unusual colors. Typ humans with these naturalized artificial traits are not usually classified as GMH for the same reason a non-modified human wouldn’t be classified as GMH for undergoing gene therapy for cancer treatment, microgravity tolerance, or other routine medical purposes. The distinction is entirely constructed, since all of them have undergone some level of genetic modification. Bio-modders are a separate phenomenon from GMH, as they undergo elective cosmetic surgical and gene therapy changes as adults, while GMH are altered before they are born. Mods for adult bodies are much more limited than pre-natal alterations, but medical technology is slowly catching up.
Posted on September 24, 2024
Posted on September 21, 2024Talita is using a web browser on her tablet. She is on a website called "A.I. Lookup," which has a pair of cartoon glasses representing the double "o"s in the title. She has selected "shipboard" from a "location" drop down menu, "sapient" from a "class" menu, and has the "services" dropdown menu open. It lists "general hire, translation, information, communication, administration, pilot, any." She selects "any" and types the name "Bip" into the search bar. No matching search results are returned. The website's glasses mascot looks sad. Talita looks annoyed. Talita: Ugh... She goes to the Ixion Recycling Plant employee portal and looks at the list of yard deliveries, which are listed by date, item class, and SIMS number. She selects and copies the SIMS number ATJTW-62398562.
Posted on September 19, 2024Talita unites the string holding up the top of her dress and begins to disrobe, then suddenly stops dead. She looks to her right at the boxes of phones with their tiny cameras staring up at the ceiling. Bristling and annoyed, she throws a blanket over the boxes before she finishes undressing. Her dress and all four of her fancy sandals removed, she reclines in bed, operating her tablet screen with her trunk.
Posted on September 17, 2024Bip: Yes. A clan of 10. Talita stares off into space, thoughts racing through her head. Bip rolls their eyes and places a hand on their avatar's chin, tilting its head knowingly. Bip: Would you like to ask me something? Talita: Huh? No. Talk to you later, Bip. Bip: Good night, Talita. The tablet screen goes black again. Talita stares at it for a bit, feeling a complicated emotion, then drops her hand to her side. She stands alone in her apartment.
Posted on September 14, 2024Bip: I saw on your resume that you go by "she/her" instead of the Jovian default pronoun for aliens, gender neutral singular "they/them." Talita: How many of my files have you read? Bip: Only your public ones. Talita: Also, that’s not the same thing as “woman.” Bip: Well, given your education and work history, flawless English, Jovian cultural mannerisms, and human-like body language… I figured you could only be a cross-species foster case. Talita is taken aback. B: So pretty likely you’d also have a human cultural identity. T: You’re certainly astute. …If presumptuous. Talita looks irritated, but her mood shifts as she recalls the symbols on the outside of the ship. Talita: Bip, was your last crew centaurs?
Posted on September 12, 2024
Posted on September 10, 2024Talita picks up her tablet and takes it off the charger. Gillie and Idrisah move to leave. Idrisah: I have to go before my parents send search and rescue. Gillie: (ASL) Seeya. Don’t let the criminal supercomputer murder you in your sleep. The couple exit Talita's apartment. Talita watches them go with a tired expression, then presses the button to close her rattly roll-down door. Now alone, she looks back at the boxes of phones trepidatiously. Talita: …Bip?
Posted on September 7, 2024Talita: Can I get back to you on that. I need to think. Bip: Sure! When? Talita: By Monday. Bip: After work? Talita: Sure. Bip: Ok! The tablet screen goes black. Talita stands there awkwardly as Gillie and Idrisah stare at her. Idrisah: Talita. Seriously? Talita: I didn’t promise them anything. Idrisah's phone buzzes in her pocket. Gillie: (ASL) Text from mom? Idrisah: Shit.
Posted on September 5, 2024Idrisah: 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?
Posted on September 3, 2024Idrisah: YOU’RE GONNA GET ARRESTED WHEN YOU TRY TO LEAVE, ANYWAYS!! Gillie: (ASL) …Yeah, unless you’re planning to forge many papers… Bip: You two would be great help with that.  Seeing how writing those papers is your day jobs. Gillie looks skeptical. Idrisah is deeply offended. Idrisah: EXCUSE ME? Gillie: (ASL) Sounds like a lot of work. What’s the pay? Bip's avatar shrugs. Bip: Oh, I’m legally dead. I have no assets. This offer comes without bribes. I just thought I would ask, since you three seem intriguing… highly skilled… and deeply bored.
Posted on August 31, 2024Bip: Well, if I had to pick… Bip's avatar points up at the wall projection, where they have displayed Talita's diploma from the University of Jovia. Bip: It would be the woman with unlimited junkyard access and a masters in aerospace. Her eyes widen and face bristles. Talita: St— Stop touching my files! Bip: –But, that’s not what I’m asking for. The only urgent thing is the power connection. Idrisah: Yeah, suuure. Why shouldn’t we report you right now? Bip: Because snitching is lame? Idrisah looks outraged.
Posted on August 29, 2024Gillie: (ASL) You’ll have to talk to the gate authorities anyway. Idrisah: (ASL) Yeah, and if you have a piracy record, they’ll find it. They have nothing better to do all day than count ships and find flaws in my paperwork. Gillie: (ASL) Besides, you’ll need to borrow legs from Ixion to even leave. Bip: Well, true! Bip's avatar reclines and points at its "chin" thoughtfully, while the projector displays another diagram with the projector, showing a flowchart connecting a pile of scrap, a frontloader, and their spacecraft. Bip: Though, considering how minimal the damage is… And the piles of spare ship parts… And the fleet of RC drones here… It wouldn’t be that hard to get my “legs” working with help. Gillie grins and laughs loudly. Gillie: HA HA HA HAW! (ASL) Sounds like fun! Good luck getting project approval, pirate! Talita: Yeah, also… Just who on this rock do you think can help you REBUILD a SPACESHIP?
Posted on August 27, 2024Gillie appears bemused and impressed. Gillie: (ASL) Yes… Talita: You want something from us. What is it. Bip: Isn’t it obvious? I’m in quite a predicament! Bip uses the projector feature on the back of Talita's tablet to display an image on the wall. It's a diagram of the Runaway, showing the location of Bip's servers in the upper habitat capsule, the location of the fuel cells and communications systems below them on the spine of the ship, and the severed electrical lines between the two. Bip: Right now, I’m stranded outside my own brain. (Nice projector, by the way.) I was left for dead after the projectile that punctured the habitat cut off my access to communications. It would be simple enough to fix. Talita: And you’re talking to us instead of the authorities because… you have a record? Bip's avatar places its hands under its "chin" in mock-innocence. Bip: What record? Gillie: (ASL) Wait, wait. You’re in a grounded ship?
Posted on August 24, 2024Idrisah: Who is this?? Talita: There was an AI… in these phones from the junkyard… Bip: You must be Idrisah! I’m Bip, pleasure to meet you! Idrisah: (worried) How do you know my name? Gillie: (ASL) What’s going on? Bip promptly switches to a captioned mode, with their dialog appearing as a speech bubbles on the tablet screen. Bip:  Oh, what is that? American sign language? So that’s why I couldn’t hear half of your conversation! Talita: You were eavesdropping. Bip: Give me a sec, I’ll download that. The lights flicker. Idrisah looks extremely stressed. Talita's mane feathers raise in anger. Talita: STOP ABUSING MY BANDWIDTH! Bip: There we go! Stay in front camera range. You’re Gillie, right?
Posted on August 22, 2024Idrisah: …Pirate ship? Gillie and Idrisah stand at the still-open entrance of Talita's apartment. Talita turns around to look at them, shocked, and begins backing away from her tablet. Bip's avatar gestures invitingly. Bip: Come on in! We’re discussing crime! Talita: (enraged) I’M NOT PART OF THIS!!
Posted on August 20, 2024Talita looks up with a completely flat expression and vacant stare. Talita: I’m going to have a panic attack. Bip: No need! I’m not gonna hurt you or your tablet. After all, you rescued me! Talita: Rescued—your data is in all these phones? Bip: Most of it! Some of it’s left onboard, but without power I can’t connect to it. Talita: Wait—don’t tell me you were the shipboard AI of that new wreck! Bip: I am telling you that. The damage cut off power to my servers, but luckily we still had all those contraband phones! Talita: …Contraband. Bip: Oh! Bip moves one of their avatar's hands in front of its face, as if talking conspiratorially. Bip: Don’t tell anyone, but… I was a pirate ship.
Posted on August 17, 2024Talita: WHAT ARE YOU? WHY ARE YOU ON MY TABLET!? Bip: WOAH, woah, calm down! I’m an AI, duh. My name is Bip. Thanks for asking. I’m on here because your security program suuucks. And I got bored of waiting for you to look in the boxes. Talita: The boxes? Talita looks wide-eyed at the eight boxes of quantum phones on the charging mat, then leans over them to get a better look. As she does, every single phone in the boxes lights up with a Bip avatar face on its screen. Every phone simultaneously: Hello!
Posted on August 15, 2024
Posted on August 13, 2024Talita's tablet, which sitting on her bedroom desk plugged in to charge on its stand, has something on the screen. It's a white iconified avatar of a bug ferret with human or centaur-like cartoon eyes against a black background. Talita stares in blank surprise, pitcher raised to her lips. The avatar lifts its two-fingered vector hand in greeting. Thing on the screen: Hello, Talita! Gillie and Idrisah are walking home, holding hands. Gillie is on her phone. SFX: SHRIEK! A loud scream erupts from the still open door of Talita's apartment, startling Idrisah but unnoticed by Gillie.
Posted on August 10, 2024Talita stands at the threshold of her illuminated open door and waves goodbye to Gillie and Idrisah from as they walk away into the dark habitat dome. Now alone, she takes a big stretch that arches her back and sticks a rear leg and arm out. She fills a pitcher of water at the sink and sips it from the spout side, absentmindedly opening the curtain separating her bedroom from the rest of the apartment.
Posted on August 8, 2024It's dark outside in the dome. Gillie and Idrisah put their shoes on as they stand in the open door of Talita's apartment. Idrisah: Thank you so much for having us! Talita: Thank you for coming over! Idrisah: Sorry to be running out right after bing bong. I have to— Gillie: (ASL) Let’s hurry. Your parents are awake by now. Idrisah: (ASL) I know… Don’t tell them we celebrated before I called for Eid prayers. Talita: Is Eid on a different day in the Nexus? Idrisah: Well… on Earth, it’s based on the local sighting of Luna in its crescent phase after the 10th month of the Islamic calendar. In space, everyone usually goes with Mecca’s sighting. But Nexus Jovia is on Martian Valley Time… and Dirtball’s on 23/7 Human-Avian Standard… Inset panel: Human home system showing Earth, Luna, Mars, and Jupiter with Nexus Jovia where Idrisah's parents live. A segment of Avian Territories shows a little star marked "Ixion-3 or Shikaviil-3 (a.k.a. Dirtball)." Idrisah: –I just try to celebrate when the rest of my family does. Talita: I see.
Posted on August 6, 2024Talita: Not right now, though, please. Gillie: (ASL) Now we have more excuses to visit you. Idrisah: (ASL) It’s important we remaining residents stick together! Talita: Yeah… It can get pretty lonely out here. Inset Panel: The barren surface of Dirtball. Gillie: (ASL) Are you two more interested in the bug ferret soap opera now that the TV is muted? Idrisah: (ASL) The audio is only part of the problem! The TV screen shows The Dragon victorious, the subtitles reading "I'm very pleased to claw this victory away from Claws..." Time passes, the lights-out chime sounds out at 20:00. SFX: BIIIIING BOOONG
Posted on August 3, 2024Idrisah: (ASL) Oh, sure! It’s not like we’re listening, anyways. Gillie: (ASL) This app is bad with non-human voices and even worse with crosstalk. We need to train it to recognize you. Idrisah: (ASL) I think Talita should just try signing! Gillie: (ASL) Your comprehension IS really good... Talita's cheeks begin to bristle with embarrassment. Talita: There’s… a lot to work around. Gillie: (ASL) that just makes it more exciting. Idrisah: (ASL) We’re xenolingiusts! “Working around” is what we do! Talita bristles even harder, shrinking away from her friends. Idrisah: (ASL) We’re willing to help if you’re willing to try! Talita: (ASL) …Yes. Gillie and Idrisah smile.
Posted on August 1, 2024Idrisah: TEMPS… With Calcery gone, our apartment building is crowded for once. Your new crew is NOISY, Talita. Inset panel: Idrisah taking out the trash and looking down the end of the apartment hallway at the 5 temps raucously conversing and drinking. Talita: Not like me telling them off would do much. Idrisah: Are they being jerks? Talita: It’s the usual vibes. Like they’re worried that if I get mad I’ll flip out and maul them, or something. Idrisah: That’s so stupid!! You’re just a person! Announcer: TEN! THAT’S A MATCH FOLKS! CONGRATS TO– Gillie nervously looks down at her transcription app as the two talk. It is struggling with the overlapping conversation. App transcript: ??1: it’s remarkably hard to condense the dragon— ??2: for besting her opponent and waning— ??3: Thor 3 meters tall with sharp teeth galactic cup— Idrisah: I wish you could just tell them to go fuck themselves— ??1: threats are absolute bottom of the 100 kilo weight last— ??2: of things that help— Gillie: Ahem Gillie: (ASL) Can I… uh… mute the TV?
Posted on July 30, 2024Talita: Not any weirder than the rest of the stuff you all do with your genetics. Idrisah: Yeah, natal labs will let people do some crazy stuff to their kids. Gillie: (ASL) And sometimes they don’t even get it right. She tugs on one of her ears. Talita: Um… If it’s not too personal… do you conceal those in public because you were born off-model? Gillie: (ASL) I never know when one of the temps is gonna be a prick about it. The humans because they know what a designer catgirl is SUPPOSED to look like… Inset panel: An on-model catgirl reclines on her side. She has furry cat ears and a long fluffy tail, but the rest of her body is perfectly humanoid. Gillie: (ASL) And skimmer avians are just freaks about GMH in general. Talita: Like they aren’t bad enough about other species of avians. Inset panel: A skimmer avian bright yells "Blasphemous speciation!"
Posted on July 27, 2024Gillie: (ASL) We’re going to watch something COOL. She selects a different channel. Onscreen a large human woman with scales and thick tail grapples a woman with fur, large cat ears, and taur bodyplan with a catlike rear torso. The border text reads: GMH Wrestling Galactic Cup, Round 4, Katya "Claws" vs. The Dragon. Idrisah: (ASL) Ah… The girl-watching channel. Idrisah: Well, if it works for Talita… Talita: I’m not picky. Announcer: KATYA GOING FOR THE FOUR-LIMB GRAPPLE! Announcer: THE DRAGON’S DOWN! CAN SHE BREAK OUT IN TIME? The cat-taur grips the dragon woman with her front four limbs and pushes her down to the floor of he arena. Idrisah: You know, I’ve always wondered… is it weird, seeing human taurs as a natural hexapod?
Posted on July 25, 2024Idrisah: Oh, speaking of history… I’ve been meaning to watch this climate wars documentary… She selects a media file with the PC remote titled "Flooded Coasts." Gillie: (ASL) Hey!! We could watch that ferret soap opera I captioned! Idrisah: (ASL) Gil, I love you, but those give me a headache. A diagram shows an example of a bug ferret soap opera. There are many chaotic text, image, and video layers overlaid on the "main" content. Gillie: (ASL) That’s why they’re fun! Idrisah: (ASL) There’s also this new story letsplay from RingLight Studios. Talita: Those are usually big budget awards-bait shlock. Idrisah: I just wish more series were playing anything other than Luxcraft. Talita: Yeah… I prefer classical survival games. Gillie: (ASL) You two don’t get it. You watch RingLight series to mock them. Idrisah: (ASL) Yeah, but it still gives them views. Gillie: (ASL) AUGH! Give me that! She grabs the remote out of Idrisah's hand.
Posted on July 23, 2024Idrisah: At least you aren’t eating entirely from that food printer anymore. Talita: I’m still shocked I could find enough info on centaur invertebrate farming to set it up here! Bugs are a lot better than just printed meat. She takes a bite of the smoked meat. A diagram shows the food printer machine and the hexapodal invertebrates that look somewhere in between a sea cucumber, a caterpillar, and a guinea pig. Idrisah: You’d think 80 years after first contact with centaurs there would be more spacer resources. Gillie, who has been following the conversation via live captions on the phone in her lap while chewing on a chabbit leg, taps Idrisah's shoulder. Gillie: Nm-m-mh. Gillie: (ASL) Bug ferrets shouldn’t have contacted a sapient species in their radio age in the first place. At least humans and avians already had space infrastructure from colonizing their local star systems. Talita: Mel used to joke that I must have gone into engineering because I had to build all my own accommodations anyways. Idrisah: That seems too true to be funny.
Posted on July 20, 2024Gillie gives Idrisah the stick PC, a chocolate bar sized rod with a plug on one end, and she plugs it into a port on the side of Talita's TV screen. The rear casing slides off, becoming a handheld remote. The trio sits down on Talita's massive couch, Gillie opening a box of prepared food. Talita: Do you two mind if I have your gift now? I haven’t eaten yet today… Idrisah: Go ahead! Gillie: (ASL) We brought meat too! And not mealworms— I struck a deal with one of the animal ag guys… She holds up what appears to be a breaded and fried rabbit leg, grinning cheekily. Idrisah: I feel so bad for the chabbit, though… Talita: Must be nice to have options. Being a carnivore is SO expensive in space… Talita pops open the plastic shrink wrap on the smoked meat with sharp beak-like front incisors.
Posted on July 18, 2024Talita taps an entry code into the number pad by her apartment door. She, Idrisah, and Gillie walk inside under the rattling roll-up door. Idrisah: I can’t believe they still have you living in DRY STORAGE. Talita: Well, setting up the separate septic over HERE was a nightmare enough. Besides, I fit. Idrisah: Yeah… I feel bad having you come over… A small diagram shows Talita standing on all sixes under a human building's 2.5 meter ceiling. Talita: Eh. All sixes is only a hassle if my hands get dirty. Talita presses a button to lower the door and Idrisah turns to Gillie. Idrisah: (ASL) Can I get the stick PC? Gillie: (ASL) Just a sec. She reaches into her hair and removes two soft ear clips, revealing pointed ears somewhere in between a human's and cat's. She unties the sweater from her waist, underneath which is a short tail covered in white fur. She stuffs the sweater in her bag.
Posted on July 16, 2024Three closeups of the trio's hands show them taking photos of the others on their mobile devices. Gillie takes a picture of Idrisah and Talita posed elaborately, back to back and holding hands over their heads. Live captions show Talita asking "Am I posing right?" While Idrisah laughs happily. Gillie's phone has a large rectangular screen with no buttons, and her hands are chubby and freckled with thick narrow nails somewhat resembling claws. Idrisah takes a photo of Gillie and Talita kneeling with their hands supporting a large cartoon heart image that has been overlaid digitally. A photo filter has made their appearance very cartoony and a background starburst effect has been added behind them. Idrisah's hands are thin and expressively posed, and her phone has a screen block attached to a large camera block and a Tiiliitian tonal keyboard block. A small phone charm with a cat face bead dangles off the keyboard. Talita takes a photo on her tablet of Idrisah blowing a raspberry on Gillie's cheek. Gillie grimaces, showing off sharp teeth as she playfully pushes her wife away. Talita's hands have naked palms and a short coating of horse fur-like feathers elsewhere, and her fingers end in dark pointed hooves. They make her large tablet with a manual key block look smaller than it is.
Posted on July 13, 2024Talita: Woah, that’s huge. Idrisah: Well yeah, it’s for you. Gillie hands her the meat. Talita looks astonished. Talita: Wait— this is from the centaur homeplanet!? Idrisah: Yep! Smoked meat, express shipped! Gillie looks at her phone's live transcription app as the two talk. Talita: Idrisah, I can’t accept this! It must have been so expensive! Idrisah: Well, we can’t eat it! It’s got the wrong molecules! Talita: But— Idrisah gets Gillie's attention. Idrisah: (ASL) Hey! Ready to take photos? Gillie: (ASL) Yep. Gillie steps back to get both of them in frame on her phone camera. Gillie: (ASL) Smiiiiile! She grins, revealing cat-like pointed canine teeth.
Posted on July 11, 2024It's 10:30. Mel calls Cheevwut, stirring eggs in a pan. A Tiiliitian musical ringtone plays from the phone on Cheevwut's floor. Disgruntled at being woken up, Cheevwut picks up the phone, sees that the caller is "Mel (boss)," picks up the call, and then throws their phone across the room. Mel hears a muffled thud on the other end of the line and is confused. It's 11:00. Talita waves from outside her apartment to the approaching human couple. Idrisah waves back, Gillie is holding a large bag. Talita is wearing a light flowy chiffon sundress and fancy sandals. Idrisah is wearing a black twisted headwrap and a pantsuit with a capelet and belly band. Gillie is wearing a shortsleeve romper with lace trim and and a long beaded necklace, and has a sweater tied around her waist. Talita: You two look lovely! Idrisah: Aw, you too! It’s been so long since we had an occasion to dress up! We brought more than ourselves, though… Gillie pulls a massive shrink-wrapped piece of smoked shoulder meat out of her bag, and holds it over her head triumphantly.
Posted on July 9, 2024It's 09:30. Gillie rips the blankets off Idrisah. Idrisah: EEEK! Idrisah: (ASL) You’re already dressed to go out?? Gillie: (ASL) I’m hungry. Let’s go! Gillie packs their belongings while Idrisah gets dressed. Idrisah taps Gillie's shoulder. Idrisah: (ASL) Can you carry the gift? Gillie: (ASL) Yep. Meanwhile, Talita takes a mist shower, blow dries her head feathers, puts on her dress, and uses her tablet front facing camera as a mirror to tie the string of the dress top behind her neck. It's 10:00. Mel calls Ohwitiil. Both of them are cooking breakfast in their own apartments. Mel: Sorry to call you on a day off, Ohwitiil— I was just thinking about the next round of temps— Ohwitiil: If you can convince Jovia it’s worth the tax money, I doubt the Dominion of Tiiliit will care. Mel: We’d need another water filtration loop, more invertebrate agriculture units, remodeling… Ohwitiil: Sourcing them in the first place will be harder. Staffing is Cheevwut’s area, not mine. But that brat is probably still asleep. Cheevwut is indeed, still asleep. They are curled up naked in a round bed with random clutter beside it; like food wrappers, their phones, a cup, and a bowl full of discarded bug heads (the bodies presumably eaten).
Posted on July 6, 2024It's 09:00. The view of the habitat dome zooms out, with small comics appearing connected to their location in the dome with a tail. Gillie pokes her wife Idrisah, who is tucked into bed, in the face several dozen times. Idrisah shifts in bed and signs, eyes still closed. Idrisah: (ASL) 5 more minutes.... Mel scrolls through their phone contacts while brushing their teeth, stopping at Ohwitiil. Meanwhile, in a different apartment, Ohwitiil is filing down their upper bill. In yet another apartment, Cheevwut is asleep. SFX: BEEDLE BEEDLE BEEDLE BEEDLE BEEDLE Talita's alarm goes off on her bedside desk. After a while, she props her head up with her eyes closed, wobbling with drowsiness and mane feathers rumpled into an unflattering lumpy profile.
Posted on July 4, 2024Chapter 2: Party Guests SFX: BING BONG It's 08:00, the tower chime sounds out and morning comes to the unchanging dark side of Ixion-3. The huge protective berm surrounding the even taller launch loop towers over the kilometer wide circle of the habitat dome. Massive rail tracks, building sized cranes, and neatly arranged piles of scrap lie to the right of the small habitable area.
Posted on July 2, 2024

 

Chapter 3: History

 

Chapter 4: Zucchini

 

Chapter 5: Construction

Anonymous asked: Idrisah, what was the first time you heard Tiiliitian, and what made you want to study the language since you can’t speak it? Idrisah: Well, I've always been a language nerd. In high school I took most of the classes they offered. Those were human languages, though... Portuguese, Mandarin, French, etc. I had definitely HEARD Tiiliitian spoken before, but it never stuck in my mind as anything more than "strange." My first real life encounter with it was during a cultural exchange program our band did with an avian musical school. They learned to perform some of our human music, and we learned to perform some of theirs. But for the pieces with a vocal section, we couldn't sing their bitonal lyrics. So they had me and another clarinetist duet those parts. Harmonizing with the Tiiliitian instructor as they sang our part with us was enthralling. In those moments, I felt like I was on the precipice of a well of history as deep as humanity's, that I simply hadn't even considered before. How could I not want to learn more?
Posted on May 25, 2025Anonymous asked: So Gillie, you're a redhead now, but did you ever experiment with other colorsor styles when you were younger? How easy is it to dye your hair and stuff in the future? (Does Dirtball have a hairdresser??) Gillie: It's been many colors, having white hair makes it very easy to experiment. I spent a few years in college as pink, but I've settled on orange for now. The annoying part has always been staining my lashes and eyebrows to match. Idrisah has suggested I get gene therapy to become a permanent redhead, but that would probably make my body hair darker, too. No thanks, I'd have to shave even more often... Shikaviil having a hairdresser is a funny joke. Most people here cut their own hair. I just use a box dye.
Posted on May 22, 2025Chaos asked: Talita, how would you feel about living in the centaur home world? Do you like centaur culture? Do you want a clan? Talita: I don’t know... And I don't... fucking care... I’m so tired of people asking. A lot of humans seem to think all my problems would be solved by assimilating into some culture I know jack shit about on a planet I’ve never seen. You know, humans who have been to Earth, like, once? Assuming I feel isolated because I’m not surrounded by centaurs, and not because their idea of accommodating me is telling me to fuck off to a place I’ve never been? Like thanks, sure, I’ll uproot my entire life straight away sir, so you don’t have to worry about me needing the keys to the freight elevator to get to my third floor classes ever again! So glad we got that settled, sir!!
Posted on May 20, 2025Angoryt asked: Ohwitiil and Cheevwut, where did you two grow up? Are you from Nexus Jovia. What are your educations? Cheevwut: Ha haw! I've never been to Nexus Jovia! I grew up on the homeplanet! I was born at Oowouiib Ayiizty, a huge dun-house in the east of the Wia archipelago. Specifically in the Viiolech principality. Right next to all the rich fucks in Tiiliit's Throne. Not that they gave anything to us! My house had some community education for kids, but I hated it, and my dunparent never forced me to go. I left the house to work when I was 10. I was always interested in human media and wanted to work somewhere less lame than Viiolech, so I did some administration work training, took English classes, started doing remote work for Jovian companies, and eventually landed here! Wia Archipelago: Viiolech Tiiliit's Throne Ohwitiil: I was born in a small dun-house in Uunraashi City, which has many humans from the China republic. But, my dunparent traveled often to Callisto as part of their work researching the compositions of icy moons and exoplanets for resource extraction. I received early education from my dun-parent, and they instructed me on their field of study as well. I was selected by a bright-sponsor at 11 and went into a formal science tutorship. I grew up speaking Mandarin more than English, but I currently work with English speaking humans. Hmph. I still find it more difficult. Uunraashi City: icy crust vertical shaft horizontal shafts
Posted on May 17, 2025SIGSTKFLT asked: So, how does everyone's colour perception work? Humans: Violet through red visual range with red-green-blue sensitive cells and low light vision cells. Brightest perceptual hue is yellow, darkest perceptual hue is violet. Mel: Yellow appears brightest to us because it activates more of our retina cells. Killian: Makes sense, our sun is yellow. Avians: Ultraviolet through red visual range with red-green-blue-UV sensitive cells and low light vision cells. Brightest perceptual hue is cyan, darkest perceptual hue is red. Cheevwut: We're the only sophonts who can see UV. It's kinda annoying in co-species spaces. I feel like I'm spotting ghosts half the time around my human coworkers. Like, what do you mean you can't see that stain? It's right there! Our sense of color contrast clashes too. I hate when humans put cyan text on white. It's so hard to read. Ohwitiil: Or red on black. Bug Ferrets: Green through red visual range with red-yellow-green sensitive cells and heat/IR sensitive pit membranes. Brightest perceptual hue is orange, darkest perceptual hue is greenish cyan. Gillie: (ASL) Bug ferret color vision is specifically geared to see the common colors of bioluminescent nectar and fruit sources in the tunnels of their homeplanet, giving them narrower sensitivity bands. Their heat pits functionally allow them to see infrared, but the image loses clarity if it's too hot and humid to keep the membrane cool. Fancier bug ferret screens have a heat pump layer to replicate the "color" of IR for digital images. I've heard they can lag badly with video, though. Diagram cross-section of bug ferret pit eye: pit casing dermis skull plate muscle nasal cavity heat-sensitive membrane Centaurs: Blue through near infrared visual range with red-yellow-cyan sensitive cells and low light vision cells. Brightest perceptual color is golden yellow, darkest perceptual hue is sky blue. Talita: Violet and indigo just kinda look grey to me... Near IR doesn't make my vision that different from a human's, but I sometimes get surprised by the missing red contrast when I look at things through my phone camera. Human RGB screens tend to look really washed out, especially the reds and cyan. And the slow refresh rate on cheaper models gives me a headache... I usually get 6-tone screens for my devices with a panspecies refresh speed.
Posted on May 15, 2025OfAllTrades asked: Hey Bip! I was wondering: What do you like to do as a hobby/in your free time? Do AI even have hobbies or free time? Bip: Ugh, squishy people... Do you know how you sound? "Surely, because I can only conceptualize you as a talking tool, you have no desires outside of tirelessly working to produce goods and services for me!" I used to have a vibrant social life. You know, before a giant hole got blown through it!!
Posted on May 13, 2025TomTheDragon asked: Clayton, what do you suppose your supervisor is getting up to that's more important than babysitting your coworkers who have a death wish? Clayton: That's none of my business.
Posted on May 10, 2025LOG 5.2: Electrician Worms Image: A segmented worm-like robot with a soft plastic exterior, thin retractable ribbon-like legs, and a cone shaped face made of a ring of folded thin metallic tool arms. It has two camera arms that it holds up like eye stalks. Electrician worms are soft-bodied robots that contain sophisticated, flexible pneumatic interiors. Much like modular frontloaders, they can either be remote controlled, or given a program to complete with their simple onboard AI. They are often used to repair or delicately dismantle electronic parts hidden in tight spaces on spacecraft, and come in a variety of sizes (although the smallest ones have much more limited equipment and self-governance). The exact set of tools found in their manipulator set can vary, and some worms are specialized for tasks including light welding, metal cutting, and drilling. Cameras wire stripper heavy manipulator soldering iron soldering paste printhead wire cutter fine manipulator drill soldering paste storage CPU batteries retractable legs pneumatic segments retroflective polymer skin refueling ports Leg Components: Image: A cross section of one of the ribbon-like legs shows it contains thin cables attached to the inside of its flexible flat plastic casing. electrostatic adhesive pad cable tendons Cables pull on the inside of the thin leg casing, flexing it to grip surfaces without adding bulk. Segment Locomotion: Turning Twisting Extension The pneumatic segments push against each other, while intersegmental servos twist and push segments to produce a wide range of motion for navigating tight spaces.
Posted on May 8, 2025LOG 5.1: The Modular Frontloader The main workhorse of the junkyard is the modular frontloader, a semi-autonomous electric utility vehicle that can be remotely or manually controlled. Image: A mid-sized orange, grey, and black utility vehicle with manipulator arms, a front attachment hitch, an oversized cab, and folding radiators is parked in resting position. It is slightly over 3 meters in height and 4 and half meters long. Next to it stands Tod, a human slightly under 2 meters tall, and Talita, who is 3 meters tall. Modular frontloaders can be programmed to follow autonomous cycles, and have a basic algorithmic AI that can assess environmental conditions and make decisions about how to best complete assigned tasks. This AI isn't nearly as complex (or energy intensive) as sapient AI, and when it encounters problems it can't resolve, like the vehicle getting stuck or damaged, it alerts the junkyard staff of the issue to come help it. The vast majority of the work done by the staff is responding to these distress calls, field repairs, and completing tasks that the basic AI can't handle. Manual operation of the vehicles can also provide training data for the vehicle AI, which helps it handle similar tasks on its own later. A sapient AI operator like Calcery can actively monitor and remote control an entire fleet of vehicles to a much higher degree of efficiency than the onboard AI, but still needs time off work and field assistant staff. The large cockpit is fitted for a human wearing an exosuit. Folding radiators keep the vehicle cool even in Dirtball's scant CO² atmosphere. Manipulator arms allow the vehicle to perform more delicate tasks on its own. Talita The other workhorse of the junkyard. Tod ATTACHMENTS Front attachments can be mounted to the nose rig for specialized tasks. Counterweights in the rear of the vehicle can be swapped to balance the load capacity of the attachment. Airless tires require less maintenance and cannot pop from the wear of driving over abrasive regolith grit. Cutter: An arm attachment with a disc shaped grinder blade on the end. Scoop: A wide, low to the ground frontloader shovel attachment. Excavator: An arm attachment with a bucket shovel on the end. Crane: An arm attachment with a grasping claw on the end.
Posted on May 6, 2025Talita's cheeks bristle and her pupils constrict. She looks off to the side and digs her thumbs into her hands hard enough to tremble. Talita: Um– I– She gets up from the mattress on the floor, apologetically wringing her hands. Talita: I’ll just text you. I don’t want to waste your time. She walks towards the exit while construction noises blare in the background. Idrisah looks sad and disappointed; but Gillie is flushed, ears flattened, and glaring at Talita's retreat with obvious hurt.
Posted on May 3, 2025Talita starts responding to Gillie, but the construction noise starts again, obscuring her answer. Gillie looks down at her CC app in confusion as it transcribes nonsense. App transcript: Talita: Can't sure Talita: Make Talita: Spis Talita: All of Talita: An Talita: More SFX: RRRRRRRRRR Gillie: (ASL) Um, could you repeat that? The CC isn’t working. Idrisah: (ASL) Oh, it must be the construction noise… Gillie smiles at Talita. Gillie: (ASL) How about trying it in sign, then?
Posted on May 1, 2025Idrisah: I wouldn’t know what it’s like to grow up apart from my own species. But I don’t think avoiding them is a good strategy in the long run. Idrisah's laptop sounds out a ringtone again. She quickly slams it shut. Talita grins sardonically. Talita: Do you ever take your own advice? Idrisah: Shut up. Gillie gets up from the computer and stretches, then sits down on the arm of the sofa next to Idrisah. Idrisah: (ASL) Finished work? Gillie smirks. Gillie: (ASL) Wasn’t working. That was the wormhole transit authorities. The vessel’s been declared active. Does Bip have a flight plan yet?
Posted on April 29, 2025Talita: I don’t even know where to start. There’s a lot on the internet about the Shess languages… But ethnically I’m probably from one of the nomad groups? Panel background: The map of the centaur homeplanet looms above the two of them sitting on the couch, in a rectangular projection. The single continent forms a continuous loop between the two poles, with two divided oceans. A counterclockwise arrow shows the travel path of the nomadic ethnic groups as they circumnavigate the globe from one pole to the other, following the edge of the middle sea. Labels on the continent note the major settled ethnic groups: Biing, Pahk, Auolut, Bii, Chuchae, Shta, Daewirgh, and Shess. The Shess are positioned on the same large peninsula as the first contact site. Talita: And even if I share genetics, it’s not like I belong to any of those cultures. So researching them just makes me feel like even more of an outsider… Idrisah looks knowingly at Talita. Talita's cheeks bristle and she looks away shyly. Talita: Maybe you're familiar. Idrisah: Well…
Posted on April 26, 2025Idrisah: It’s like bug ferrets, right? Big families with lots of adults all married into a coterie? Panel background: A swarm of stick figure ferrets is labeled with "8-40" and combined male/female symbol. Talita: Er… it’s… closer to bees. Or meerkats, I’ve read? Clans have a matriarch responsible for bearing young, their partners, And the majority are caretakers, who don’t participate in reproduction. Panel background: A pyramid of centaur stick figures shows clan structure. On top is the "Matriarch," one female centaur with larvae on their back. below that are the "Entourage", a small group of mostly male centaurs married into the clan. Under them is a much larger group of "Workers" who are a mix of male and female, mostly consisting of the matriarch's children, but a few are married in. Talita: I didn’t run into other centaurs very often, living on Nexus Jovia. But their first question was always about my clan, and it gets awkward fast when I say I’ve never been in one. Inset panel: Talita is sitting in a public area in Nexus Jovia, looking up in alarm from her tablet as a pair of centaurs silhouetted in the foreground call out to her. Talita: That is, when they speak English. Idrisah: Have you ever tried picking up a centaur language?
Posted on April 24, 2025Idrisah: But leaving for 3 months… right after Cal quitting… is so hard on the rest of admin… Talita: It’s your right to take leave. The company can figure it out. Idrisah smirks. Idrisah: Ha. That’s rich, coming from you. When’s the last time you visited your homeplanet? Talita freezes, then looks away, rubbing her face with a hand. Talita: Oh. I’ve never been. Idrisah's eyes widen. Idrisah: NEVER?? Talita feathers raise in embarrassed agitation and she rolls her eyes, waving a hand dismissively. Talita: I don’t… mesh well with other centaurs. Idrisah: How so? Talita: Are you familiar with the clan system?
Posted on April 22, 2025Idrisah: I studied avian xenolingiustics in college… and I’m fluent in Tiiliitian! A bitonal language I can’t speak without a keyboard! Inset panel: The silhouette of an avian with their respiratory track in white is shown saying "Tiiliitwau" using their syrinx. Idrisah is shown using a recording keyboard to layer the tones of her natural speech to produce the same word. Idrisah: But studying Arabic and Urdu makes me feel so… fake? Like an outsider to my own family. Inset panel: Idrisah stares at a book looking anxious as basic Arabic phrases for tourists float in the background: "How much is this?" "Do you have any recommendations?" "Where is the airport?" "Do you speak English?" Idrisah: And I already stand out way too much in my family… I’m the 183 cm tall agnostic lesbian from Jupiter. Idrisah rests her cheek against her fist and rolls her eyes. Panel background: Little cartoon spaceships float by in front of Jupiter, including Idrisah in a spacesuit with alien antennae. She says a speech bubble full of cosmic gibberish. Talita: Does it make reunions stressful? Idrisah: They’re mostly lovely– I like the in-person stuff! But I didn’t go to the last one. So mom and dad have really been putting the pressure on when I call…
Posted on April 19, 2025Idrisah: With my mom’s side arguing in Arabic… my dad’s side arguing in Urdu…  Panel background: On one side, Idrisah's mom argues with several of her middle-aged and elderly family members. On the other, Idrisah's dad argues with his own family members. Idrisah: And me… who isn’t fluent in either… Panel background: Idrisah stands awkwardly in the background while the silhouettes of her family members argue with each other. Talita: Your parents never taught you? Idrisah: We mostly spoke English at home, when I was a kid… It’s always been easier for us to use translation apps for family gatherings.  Talita: What’s there to be anxious about, then? Idrisah: Well… I’m a linguist! I learned sign language as a kid to befriend Gillie… Inset panel: Kid Idrisah offers help in ASL to a crying kid Gillie, who has fallen off her bike and scraped her knee bloody. Idrisah has long wild black hair, a t-shirt, and cargo shorts. Gillie is has long fluffy white hair in a high ponytail, mystacial and supraorbital whiskers, and sparse white body hair on her arms and legs. She is wearing a quailicorn graphic tank top, short shorts, and flip flops. Her dropped purse is shaped like a cute penguin and her bike has a design with Saturn on the seat.
Posted on April 17, 2025Idrisah swiftly taps the decline button for the invite. SFX: WHAP There is a pause where Idrisah stares at her laptop and Talita stares at her. Then they both start talking at the same time. Talita: Should I– Idrisah: Ahaha you were saying– The laptop ringtone starts again, this time with a video forum invite from her Dad. Idrisah frantically taps the decline button while Talita looks on, wide-eyed and uncertain. SFX: WHAP WHAP WHAP WHAP Idrisah grips her forehead in her hands and hunches over her laptop screen, sweating. Talita: If it’s urgent, I can, er… leave… Idrisah covers her face with her hands. Idrisah: It's not urgent. My parents keep trying to get me to join these big family reunion planning calls…
Posted on April 15, 2025Talita: No, no, it’s not that! She waves her hand dismissively. Talita: I just wish Mel had ASKED. After 8 years living in dry storage,  I’m not opposed to moving… But by making it a “surprise,” Mel has made it non-optional. Panel background: The south curve of the habitat's circular road shows Talita's dry storage unit across the way from the apartment buildings. Talita: And because it was a gift, if there’s any issues with the remodel, asking for changes will upset Mel… Panel background: Mel holds up a gift box for Talita, smiling. Talita takes the lift off and grimaces at the contents. Idrisah: Sounds like you should tell them the jig is up. Talita: Then they’ll be upset that I guessed the surprise, instead. Idrisah: Sometimes you have to have to tell people stuff they don’t wanna hear! Talita: Ugh…… Suddenly Idrisah's laptop starts playing a ringtone, and a video forum invite from her mother appears on the screen.
Posted on April 12, 2025Idrisah: Well, they better figure it out. Gillie will need that for her half of the papers. Loud construction noises rev up outside the apartment window. Talita looks up, alarmed. SFX: RRRRRRRRRR Idrisah: I really wish they'd wrap it up before 17:00. Talita rubs her eyes under her glasses and grimaces in embarrassment. Talita: Ugh, sorry… Idrisah: Sorry? For what? Talita: Have you noticed that Mel has been weirdly secretive about this project? Idrisah: You don't think… Talita: They're remodeling it to fit me. Idrisah grins and nudges Talita with an elbow. Idrisah: That's so exciting! We'll be neighbors! Talita stares of into the distance, looking irritated. Talita: I guess… Idrisah: You... don't want to be neighbors?? Talita glances back to Idrisah and is shocked when she looks as if she might burst into tears.
Posted on April 10, 2025Talita: The jack measures the Runaway at about 120 kilotons. But the tanks are empty– And I have no idea how much fuel we’re going to get out of that old hydrolysis plant. Panel background: The empty tank of the Runaway is shown with a moth flying around inside it. The derelict hydrolysis plant interior is shown with a cobweb and spider over it. Idrisah: Luckily the gatehouse can accommodate day-of changes to mass. Talita: Good, because I wrote a low estimate.  She looks sheepish. Talita: 10 tons. Idrisah squints. Idrisah: …Will the ship even make it to the wormhole? Talita: Sure! Just… Very slowly. Idrisah: Yikes. I guess that’s fine if you can eat sunlight while you coast for decades… Panel background: The Runaway drifts through space with its solar panels extended. Idrisah: I go crazy enough on the 2 week trip to Nexus Jovia. Where’s that AI traveling to, anyways? She hands Talita her tablet back. Talita: They haven’t said. Without money and assets their options are pretty limited.
Posted on April 8, 2025Talita removes her shoes in Gillie and Idrisah's apartment, looking apprehensively at Gillie, who is standing up and signing at one of her scroll monitors. Talita: Gillie’s still working? Idrisah: Don't worry, we're out of frame.  Idrisah pats the couch next to her, where she is sitting with her laptop. Idrisah: I got the spare mattress out for you. Sit!  Talita sits comfortably down on the mattress with a fitted white sheet that has been placed on the floor and leans an elbow on the couch, handing Idrisah her tablet. Idrisah: Did you get the specs? Talita: Well, mostly. I had to do a lot of… estimating.
Posted on April 5, 2025Clayton radios in again, watching Adam throw a random chunk of metal at Dominic, who ducks. Clayton: They’re throwing scrap at each other now, boss. Talita switches radio channels and begins to sprint over to the elevator on all sixes. Bip waves goodbye with a front loader arm. SFX: clk Talita: Jesus christ. Over in 2 minutes. Later, Talita rings the buzzer on the keypad to Gillie and Idrisah's apartment building. While she waits for one of them to come to the door, she watches the construction activity happening at the adjacent building. Humans and avians seen in the distance working on the scaffolding; while a fenced off area of the roadway houses piles of trash, construction materials, and a basket lift vehicle.
Posted on April 3, 2025Bip: What about Gillie and Idrisah? You three talk about all kinds of things. Talita: Oh! Yeah, they’re friends. Bip: What about… me?? The front loader places its manipulator hands on both sides of its cokpit in an attempt to look endearing. Talita stares back at it, wearily unimpressed. Talita: Well, you’re definitely not a coworker. So… sure. A friend. Bip: A bestie, even? Talita glares at the front loader. Talita: Don’t push it.
Posted on April 1, 2025Talita hurriedly shoves the wriggling worm robot back into the cart. Talita: Whatever. It’s not like they’re currently being used. She begins to push the cart towards the Runaway, with the front loader trailing behind. Bip: Was Calcery the previous resident AI? Talita: Yeah. The worm robot pops its head up out of the pile of inanimate worms cart to look at her weary expression. Bip: Were you friends? She looks away from the cart wistfully. More worms come to life to watch her. Talita: I thought so… but… he hasn’t texted me once since he left.  She turns back and is slightly alarmed to find over a dozen worms looking back at her. Talita: And I– uh… don’t even know what we’d talk about, besides work.  Bip: Sounds like you were coworkers, not friends.  Talita: Maybe that’s everybody I know, now. She pushes the cart up to one of the staircases on the massive rail sled and the fleet of worms begin to crawl up the ladder.
Posted on March 29, 2025Talita walks along the length of the sled, and the front loader follows her, gesturing at the Runaway with its manipulator arms. Bip: Honestly, the biggest thorn in my side right now is the habitat capsule. It's less urgent than the exterior, but I haven't been able to work on it at all. The front loader taps itself on the side of the cockpit. Bip: Can't exactly squeeze one of these through the airlock. Talita: I actually brought you something for that.  She reaches into the large handcart they've approached and pulls out a small soft-bodied robot with a segmented worm-like form and a conical face made up of many metal limbs. Talita: I’m letting you borrow Calcery’s old fleet of electrician worms. The worm suddenly springs to life, twisting to look at Talita and extending its small camera eye limbs. Flat ribbon-like legs emerge from the node spots on its body segments. Talita stares in shocked horror. Bip speaks as if from the body of the worm. Bip: Wow, you’re being awful generous with the equipment!
Posted on March 28, 2025Talita looks up at how tall the extended radiators are and panics. Talita: –Actually, take them back down. She gets a radio message from the temps. Clayton:  Boss, where are you? Dominic and Adam are roughhousing. Adam: Narc! She switches to the temp channel. SFX: clk Talita: Cut it out.  I’ll be right there.  She switches the channel back to Bip. SFX: clk Talita: I have to go keep the temps from killing each other. Do you need anything else? Bip: Oh, lots! More welding, electrical work, shield patching, fuel refills for fusion and RCS– Talita: …Maybe tomorrow.
Posted on March 25, 2025The pair of triangular radiators raise up, then rotate apart, forming a split diamond shape. The highest tips extend above the edge of the building foundation's pit. Further away in the junkyard, where the temps have been left to their own devices, Yao notices the "ears" poking out of the hole in the ground. Behind xem, Adam and Dominic are sword-fighting with two long pieces of scrap, oblivious to the suspicious activity.
Posted on March 22, 2025A closeup shows the welding arc melting a round pool of aluminum that Talita is carefully dipping the filler rod into. SFX: bzzzzzzzzzz Talita: That's because the equipment you're using was designed for demolition, not repair. Bip: I'm very lucky to have your help! Talita looks up from the work and the black on her helmet window fades again. Her cheeks bristle shyly. Talita: Uh, sure. Talita starts walking back to the freight elevator, rolling her welding machine with her and detaching and reattaching her FAS harness clip along the railing of the scaffolding where the vertical poles interrupt the horizontal bar. Taking the elevator down to the base, she walks up next to the front loader and begins taking off her over-suit welding gloves and apron. Talita: Ok, try extending your radiators.
Posted on March 20, 2025Bip: The lag between all those phones was like thinking in molasses. I could barely keep up with our conversations! Talita: I hadn’t noticed. SFX: bzzzzzzzz Talita is hunched over and TIG welding an aluminum seam, the curved glass of her helmet completely black against the blinding light of the welding arc. Bip: That’s because you squishy people are made of molasses. She looks up from her work, the black fading in a hexagonal pattern to reveal an irritated expression. Talita: Well, if I’m welding too SLOW for you… Bip: No, you weld about the same speed as these frontloaders. You've got much better dexterity, though. And these onboard cameras are impossible to get into tight angles.
Posted on March 18, 2025The building foundation pit hiding the Runaway is abuzz with activity. RC front loaders and dump trucks mill around processing and carrying scrap material. Two tower cranes have been erected next to the Runaway; one holding a vehicle hoist with an RC front loader in it welding part of the spine. Talita is up on a large scaffolding platform that has been erected along the radiator wings, welding near the extension joint. One of the front loaders is on the ground next to the scaffolding, gesticulating excitedly. Bip: It feels SO GOOD to be back in my servers!
Posted on March 15, 2025SFX: BEEDLE BEEDLE BEEDLE BEEDLE BEEDLE Talita wakes up to the sound of her alarm and scratches at one of the pointed, velvety brown nubs growing on either side of her lower jaw with a feeling of dull irritation. She gets out of bed shirtless and opens her freezer, taking out a long, thick bone in an opened plastic bag. Clamping down on the knobbed end with her sharp molars, she twists her head and snaps it in half like a breadstick. SFX: SNAP She crunches on the bone happily. SFX: bing! Her tablet sounds out a notification and she picks it up to check the text message. UNKNOWN #: Need help welding again.
Posted on March 13, 2025Chapter 5: Construction 3 panels in the foreground show the progress of deconstruction on one of the apartment complexes, with scaffolding and a tower crane being erected and floors being carefully stripped down to support pillars to be rearranged. In the background, an ant line of vehicles in the junkyard travel between the Runaway in its hiding spot and the newly arrived prototype vessels, taking parts with them to repair the Runaway.
Posted on March 11, 2025

 

Chapter 6: Binary Counting

Two week hiatus! I am moving! Comic returns August 2nd, 2025! Image: An anthropomorphic darwinopterus and blue tongued skink balance boxes on their heads and walk from an apartment building to a house. The darwinopterus is labeled "me" and the skink is labelled "my beloved roommate Hye."
Posted on July 19, 2025LOG 6: ASL Alphabet ASL, or American Sign Language, is a member of the French Sign Language tree that originated in the late United States of America. Although it uses some English loanwords, ASL has a different lexicon and grammar than English, and many anglophone regions like Great Britain and the Socialist Republic of Mars have endemic sign languages that have no mutual intelligibility with ASL. Gillie is fluent in a Jovian ASL dialect which has influence from both bug ferret culture and Língua Gestual Cetásereio, a sign language used for underwater communication by Cetasers, an amphibious clade of GMH. LGC is closely related to Libras, a Brazilian sign language. Insert panel: Two Cetasers sign to one another underwater. They are humans with short webbed limbs, cetacean-like tails, white and grey skin, and gills on their neck. A table is shown of the ASL alphabet, with Talita's hand position compared to Gillie's. A B C Talita: Uh… Talita creates the C shape with one thumb up, then moves it next to the other thumb to create a symmetrical C shape. Talita: …Both thumbs?? Gillie smiles and gives her a thumbs up. D E F Talita switches between a version where she holds two digits up and pinches her other finger and thumb together to form a circle, and one where she touches her thumb to her palm and holds the other 3 digits up. Talita: Circle or three fingers? Gillie: (ASL) Circle. G H I Talita: Very similar to "A." Gillie: (ASL) Sign "A" open for clarity? J K L M Talita's face bristles and she frowns as she looks at her hand attempting the M and N handshapes. A human thumb poking through the curled pinkie and ring finger of the "M" handshape and between the ring and middle finger of the "N" handshape are not something her symmetrical four fingered hand can clearly replicate. Talita: …These two, are, uh… Gillie: (ASL) Good enough. N O P Q R S T U V W Talita smiles, making a handshape with 3 digits extended and one thumb curled against her palm. Talita: Ah, 3 fingers is more important here than in "F." Gillie nods. X Y Z "ILY" "I love you" Both of them giggle as they sign their versions of the combined I, L, and Y handsign; Gillie with her index, pinkie, and thumb extended, Talita with both thumbs and one finger extended.
Posted on July 17, 2025Talita stares off into the distance, calculating Gillie's math question, then looks back to her. Talita: (ASL) About... (binary sign) Nine?? Gillie, still grinning, keeps the eye contact. Gillie: (ASL) It’s nice to look at your face when you’re talking to me, nerd. Talita blinks in surprise and then breaks into a shy smile, trunk curling upwards and cheeks fluffing slightly. Talita: (ASL) …Thanks. Idrisah: (ASL) Wanna try fingerspelling next? Talita: Sure… I’ve got time.
Posted on July 15, 2025Idrisah: Is that binary counting?? Avians do something similar… Talita: Yeah… Though I’m cheating to take it higher than 15… She swaps between the 0 and 16 fist positions. Gillie grins at Talita. Gillie: (ASL) What’s 2 plus 2? Talita: Uh...  She hesitantly holds up her hand with the binary position 0010. Talita: (sign) …4? Gillie grins wider. Gillie: (ASL) What’s 4 times 2? Talita: (sign) 8. Gillie: (ASL) What’s 30 minus 5 times 4 divided by 11?
Posted on July 12, 2025Gillie: (ASL) Talita! How do you normally count on your hands? Talita puts a hand on her chin and looks away, frowning. Talita: Um… it’s not like ASL. Gillie signs at her forcefully, making Talita turn back with a start. Gillie: (ASL) Show me! Talita: Ok. Talita sits down more comfortably on her rear four legs and holds up a hand. She begins to count with a closed fist, her thumbs postioned outside her curled fingers. Talita: Zero, She first opens her right thumb, leaving the other digits curled. Talita: 1 She next closes her right thumb and extends her right finger, beginning a binary series where curled digits represent zeros, and extended digits represent ones. The current position of her four-digit hand can be represented as such: 0010 Talita: 2 Hand position: 0011 Talita: 3 Hand position: 0100 Talita: 4 Hand position: 0101 Talita: 5 Hand position: 0110 Talita: 6 Hand position: 0111 Talita: 7 Hand position: 1000 Talita: 8 Hand position: 1001 Talita: 9 Hand position: 1010 Talita: 10 Hand position: 1011 Talita: 11 Hand position: 1100 Talita: 12 Hand position: 1101 Talita: 13 Hand position: 1110 Talita: 14 Hand position: 1111 Talita: 15 On the last hand position, Talita repeats the closed fist, but this time with the thumbs inside the curled fingers. Talita: 16.
Posted on July 10, 2025Gillie: (ASL) …And I don’t appreciate being made to feel that way by a friend. She glares at Talita, who sweats guiltily. Idrisah: Talita, you know we don’t mind helping you, right? Talita: I know... but... this isn't a rational feeling. I'm not going to "know" myself out of it. Idrisah makes a somber face. Idrisah: Well, trust me– you’re not going to avoid your way out of it either. Being friends means being each other’s problems. Talita: Yeah… Gillie stares wide-eyed at her phone transcription and then bursts into laughter, making Talita flinch and Idrisah look over in confusion. Gillie: (ASL) HAAHAHAHA! You two are so gloomy! Yeah we got a problem—one with a solution! That’s called a PUZZLE! Puzzles are FUN!
Posted on July 8, 2025Gillie: (ASL) Talita… How do you think I feel, asking you to sign for me? My body’s been a “problem” since birth. My off-model nerves are very risky to cut into for audio implants, so I’ve always had external “solutions” pushed on me instead. Inoperably deaf kids are scarce in Jovia, so it was easier for the school system to stick a gadget on me than put me in a class with other signers. The AR glasses gave me migraines and the sign-to-speech function was slow and inaccurate. Talking to other kids was a chore. Insert panel: Gillie as a child talks to a fellow student. She is wearing a pair of large clunky glasses that have a fabric loop over the arms to hang off of her ears. She is signing, and the glasses slowly translate the signs into English audio: "HI—MY—NAME—IS GILLIE." Her classmate responds, confused, with "Why are you waving your hands?" Gillie: (ASL) Nowadays, I’m a lot less shy… But there’s still the lonely kid in me, who grew up feeling like my existence is a big inconvenience for everyone else. Insert panel: Kid Gillie sits dejected and alone at her desk while her classmates socialize with oral language in the foreground.
Posted on July 5, 2025Talita: I’ve spent my whole life adapting to fit into spaces that weren’t built for me.  Draft plans for human scale buildings appear in white lines floating in a black void behind her head. Talita: It’s hard to think about my body as something other than… A problem. The apartment dimensions appear in sketchy white lines, surrounding Talita's huge, hunched figure like a tiny box. Talita: I prefer it when it’s only my problem. But… In this case, I guess there’s no way to make it NOT your problem. Gillie looks up from her phone transcript to Talita's face, pensive.
Posted on July 3, 2025Gillie is surprised by the transcription on her phone, and looks up confused. Idrisah stares at Talita, coming to a sudden realization. Idrisah: …You have species dysmorphia! Talita hunches with a hand on the floor, other hand tightly gripping her arm. She says nothing, her eyes tracing the ceiling of the apartment that's half a meter too low for her to stand up in, full of furniture too small for her body. Idrisah: That’s… pretty common in cross-species adoption cases, isn’t it? Why didn’t you say anything? Talita scowls and looks away, face bristling. Talita: Because it’s stupid and humiliating and has no solution. Gillie: (ASL) Dysmorphia? Do you want to be a human? Talita: That’s—not… Uh. Well... 
Posted on July 1, 2025Gillie: (ASL) Why?? Gillie looks back to her phone angrily. Idrisah walks closer, looking apologetically between Gillie and Idrisah. Idrisah: Talita, it's a language that was never intended for your body. We won't judge you if you struggle to pick it up. Talita: I’m going to judge myself. Gillie sneers. Gillie: (ASL) For what!? Not being a human?? Talita cringes as if she'd been struck. She makes an admission as heavy as it is small.  Talita: Yes.
Posted on June 28, 2025Gillie: (ASL) I'm not going to keep offering if you're gonna walk out every time! You’re being so fucking rude!  Talita, hunched on all sixes, cringes away from Gillie's anger as her face begins to bristle with shame. Gillie: (ASL) If you don’t want to sign, I won’t force you. But I hate relying on this buggy app to talk to you!  Idrisah awkwardly stands behind the couch with her bowl of fried crickets, politely looking away from the confrontation with a nervous sweat breaking out on her forehead. Gillie: (ASL) I don’t get it!! You’ve clearly gone out of your way to learn comprehension. Is this a pity project that you’re too bored with to finish?! Gillie slumps on down on the arm of the couch, looking at her phone as she waits for Talita to reply. Talita sits, quietly staring at her with an expression of devastation.  Talita: No, I’m… She struggles to extract the words for what she's feeling. Talita: Embarrassed.
Posted on June 26, 2025Idrisah and Gillie watch in surprise as Talita abruptly begins to turn around and head for the door, panicking. Talita: S- sorry, I still don't think I'm... ready... I'll come by later!! Gillie flushes with anger and leaps across the couch to grab Talita’s shirt sleeve. SFX: GRAB Talita stops walking and looks back at her in shock. Gillie is furious, ears flattened back, short white tail bristling. Gillie: (ASL) Do you want my help with signing or not!? 
Posted on June 24, 2025Talita: So is there anything I can do to help? Gillie sits on the arm of the couch across from Talita. Gillie: (ASL) Well, since you said you're FREE today… Face deadpan, she taps the phone, showing their recent message history. Gillie: (ASL) I thought we could finally get around to adapting sign with you. Gillie and Idrisah, who is leaning on the back of the couch, both look expectantly at Talita. Talita appears frozen, with her eyes wide and her mane feathers bristling.
Posted on June 21, 2025Gillie: (ASL) Without a crew, you're gonna have to be the one inquiring for jumps. Bip: And "unmanned drones" don't get to ask for customs clearance… They put their avatar's hands on its chin cutely. Bip: So unless any of YOU ladies want to come with… Idrisah picks up her bowl and chopsticks and gives Bip a death glare. Gillie looks unamused. Talita scratches her face, grimaces, and looks away awkwardly. Bip's avatar shrugs dramatically. Bip: Geeze, alright. I can read a room. I'll go use my processing power elsewhere. Bip leaves the call. SFX: CLICK Gillie picks up her phone and looks at Talita, clearly thinking about something. Gillie: …
Posted on June 19, 2025Idrisah: (ASL) But it would be VERY ILLEGAL!! Not company theft illegal, international border law illegal! Talita: Yeah… uh… what are potential repercussions of this? Idrisah moves the contents of her frying pan to a bowl while Gillie explains. Gillie: (ASL) SIMS copy errors happen often enough with mass convoys that it wouldn't directly implicate us. And an investigation wouldn't happen unless Bip decides to make another wormhole jump. Bip's avatar crosses their arms and looks sullen. Bip: I'd rather not be investigated. Gillie smirks conspiratorially. Gillie: (ASL) Hiding something onboard? Bip: Just myself. I prefer not existing.
Posted on June 17, 2025Gillie turns back to Talita, looking annoyed. Gillie: (ASL) Anyways… The ferrets aren’t going to approve it unless we submit to investigation. Talita: Which wouldn’t be a problem, if we weren’t repairing it illegally… Gillie looks at her wife, who has been spying on the conversation over her shoulder. Gillie: (ASL) Well… there is a way to… skirt the issue. Idrisah sighs dramatically and rolls her eyes. Idrisah: (ASL) So, Ixion sends out most of its shipments in convoys, which are batch-approved. If we shadow copy a SIMS code for a vessel that Ixion owns, it should draw way less suspicion.
Posted on June 14, 2025Idrisah tosses food in a frying pan over the electric stove. She's cooking crickets, sliced garlic, dried peppers, and scallions in oil. In the living room side of their apartment's open floor plan common area, Gillie is in conversation with Talita. Bip's avatar is on her computer monitor. Gillie: (ASL) So. Things just got more complicated. Apparently, the Runaway's SIMS code has suspicious recent activity. Namely, it appears someone has been striking trip and passenger information from the ledger. She frowns and turns towards Bip on her monitor. Gillie: (ASL) And been SLOPPY about it. Bip's avatar glances away, irritated. Bip: Well normally, so are the people checking customs papers.
Posted on June 12, 2025Talita meets Rasheed outside the building next to a group of refrigerators labelled "eggs." The fridge doors are officially labelled with "human ag use only," but are also plastered with handwritten signs saying "DO NOT LEAVE PREMADE FOOD HERE" and "THIS IS NOT A SHARE FRIDGE." Talita: Rasheed, is the ag team expanding my invertebrate farm wing? I hadn’t heard anything about it. Rasheed pulls a baggie of "Garlic Crickets for Rasheed - I" out of the fridge. Rasheed: Beats me. I grow plants, not bugs. Talita: Weird… I’ll shoot Yomi an email. Rasheed walks away munching. Talita pulls out her phone to contact Yomi but gets distracted by a new text from Gillie. Gillie: (text) Are you free today? Need all hands on deck for project related news. Talita: (text) I’m free. I’ll be over in a moment. 
Posted on June 10, 2025Several guinea pig sized invertebrates with soft bodies and feet like caterpillar prolegs mill around inside a long hutch bedded with straw. Talita opens a large chest freezer full of plastic bags of the same animal, including eggs and the pupated winged male forms. A paper sign taped to the lid of the freezer reads "TALITA ONLY!!!!" A zoomed out shot of the building interior reveals many rows of long hutches containing different life stages of the invertebrates. Talita is near the entrance, where there is a cluster of fridges and freezers, a workspace, tools, and straw bales. She looks past the rows of hutches curiously, where there appears to be more under construction.
Posted on June 7, 2025Bip: Instead you'd rather dodge sharp metal? Talita: I had tin snips and didn't expect to revisiting. Go plug in already, wiseass. She kneels down in front of one of the console cabinets with a pair of needle nose pliers. The electrician worm climbs out to the end of one of the front loader's arms, carrying a cable jack. It plugs this into a port on the side of a console. Bip: Ugh, avian programming. I hate base 8. Talita: Yeah well… If you’d rather work these itty bitty avian switch boards instead… She pushes up the sliding cover on the console cabinet to reveal the tiny rows of switches, breakers, and controls. Bip: Ew. No. Talita: Let me know when you’re ready and I’ll start turning the plant back on. The plant is shown from outside at a distance in the junkyard. Quietly, the lights next to its door turn back on.
Posted on June 5, 2025
Posted on June 3, 2025
Posted on May 31, 2025An RC front loader rolls up behind Talita on the empty factory roadway, with an electrician worm perched on its steering wheel. Bip: So there's enough purified heavy water? Talita: Yeah, but I don’t know how much we can convert before Mel does geosurvey in 2 weeks. The worksite is gonna be pretty suspicious from satellite photos. Bip: And running the plant at max capacity would be suspicious in energy use logs… Talita: Like we even could. This plant hasn't refined deuterium in over a decade.  A birds-eye view of the huge indoor space shows rows of water and gas tanks, machinery, and piping under a semi-cylinder roof. The factory floor has road markers painted on it, but there is also a branch-like structure of narrow catwalks connecting the tops of various structures and the inside walls. HYDROLYSIS PLANT fluid cooling pipes water tanks electrolyzers gas separators purifiers and dryers compressors flight access catwalks
Posted on May 29, 2025Chapter 6: Binary Counting Talita is holding up a hand, clothed in her exosuit. Her left finger is extended, while her thumbs and right finger are closed. Talita: Four She extends her left thumb and closes the other digits. Talita: Eight She extends her left finger. Talita: Twelve She extends her right finger. Talita: Two empty… Fourteen. She is in a dark building, examining large tanks with avian numerals on them with the light of her headlamp.
Posted on May 27, 2025

 

Chapter 7: Antlers

 

Chapter 8: Heavy Water