Hello, pest control? There is an obnoxious worm crawling all over my fourth wall.
Transcript
Talita has a direct message exchange with Mel.
Mel: Just got a message from the medbay. Clayton slipped a disc, he's off work until he gets better.
Talita: Oh no! That sucks. I hope he feels better soon
Mel: You and your temps will have to work harder to make up for it. No distractions, ok? 😉
Talita: Of course
Later in the day, Talita is testing a breaker box in the junkyard with a multimeter, while Dominic and Phoebe peer over her shoulders. Bip's avatar pokes its head up from behind the panel, looking down curiously.
Bip: You around?
Talita: Not now, Bip.
Bip leans out over the panel to look at her grumpy face.
Bip: When will you be available?
Talita scowls.
Talita: Later.
Bip hangs off the edge of the panel, nonchalantly swinging their legs over the fourth wall and blocking some of the view with their avatar's body.
Bip: Well, I've processed about 100 tons of heavy water.
69 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 222”
CaptainStroon
It’s fun how much you can tell from the name a character saved an other character’s contact as in their messenger. It characterizes not only Talita herself but also her relationship with Mel. Unless it’s an MS Teams situation where the display names are managed by admin and I’m jut reading too much into it.
Harumin
I really do not appreciate Mel’s passive aggressive “you have to work harder now”. Like, excuse??? Why are you, the manager, shoving all of the effort needed to fix the problem onto your employees with not even a mention of how you plan to help?
Bullshit and i wish it weren’t so damn real :’O
23 Vast Eyes
I wonder if mel is not trying to offload extra work as the sole action here, but to have the extra work serve as a distraction itself? Talita is very observant and mel is clearly planning something to do with bringing more centaurs in, and maybe they want talita too occupied with work to notice some of the finishing touches?
Darsara
I suspect that was an attempt at a joke; perhaps an poorly-worded one, but still
ilvos01
fuck off, Mel
Kayjack
Doubtfull this is the right place for this, but any chance we’ll ever see full sized posters in the merch store? I love your illistrations and would Kill to hang a diagram of the Runaway or the Dirtball habitat on my wall.
Tentament
That mulitmeter must be a pain to use with gloved, centaur-sized hands.
JoB
Well, it already has been resized …
(The Fluke 17B+ mentioned below is 18.3 cm long, it’d fill a human hand like shown, Talita could probably wear it like a wrist watch.)
Hoofburd
I’m glad to see the Fluke persists into the space-future.
Personman
default first-initial profile pic because you don’t identify strongly with your own appearance is the most relatable rtts content yet
edenmachine5457
.oh. oh damn. never have i been called out so dang strongly before (silly tone, jokingly accusatory)
Eux
CLAYTON :((( oh boy. oh dear lmao. also bip is great. talita pls communicate with them
Momo
idk, I think “not now” and “later” are pretty clear communications!
Gar G
Gosh I love Bip XD
Such an obnoxious little pest
tyrone
Bib weights heavy on her mind.
Also I am glad digital-multi meters still looks the same 300 years in the future.
then there is at-least 1 thing left there, I know how to use
JoB
Hmmm, do centaurs – or avians, for that matter – have something like our intervertebral discs? Sure, spines typically need to be able to bend, twist, and cushion impacts, but nothing says that those features must be “concentrated” into intermittent layers, much less ones not firmly attached to the more rigid parts …
zaratustra
World page has an avian skeleton and it’s made more or less of the same “pieces” that compose Earth animals.
DeadGators
Not all earth vertebrates have intervertebral discs, though. That’s a mammal thing.
Anna Hladíková
What do the other vertebrates have?
JoB
> What do the other vertebrates have?
A ball-and-socket joint, similar to our hip or shoulder joints. However, the evolutionary history is more complex than “mammals only”.
CJ
Really loving Bip’s intrusions on the panels of this page
Lilac
Ohhh assuming bip doesn’t have/isn’t using cameras for where talita is working at the moment and thus doesn’t know she is working very delicately I hope they don’t like keep bugging her and she gets super pissed in front of the temps and they don’t know why Immediate Nightmare Scenario
Lilac
Also get better soon clayton!!!
JoB
> assuming bip doesn’t have/isn’t using cameras
> for where talita is working at the moment
… bold of you to make that assumption … 😉
[frontloader sneaks up in panel five background]
ryn
the channel-switching to talk to bip makes me so nervous that she’s going to slip up and say something meant for them to the temps instead
JoB
… saaaayyyy, is Talita repairing one of the frontloaders out in the field here? There’s no way for AC electricity to still be available from a piece of space junk after it made the entire trip to Dirtball, is there … ?
Vinemaple
Multimeters like Talita is using can also be used to evaluate or troubleshoot an electrical system. Talita might be checking for a sound circuit, or any number of things that don’t require more power than the multimeter has in its batteries. “138.2” is relatively close to standard North American line voltage for household appliances and devices.
With a good knowledge of electronics and electrical systems, Talita could even be figuring out what each unlabeled, formerly-labeled, or untranslatable port is for, based on the readings she gets, and how they compare to common numbers like line voltage, amperage rating, et cetera.
JoB
> “138.2” is relatively close to standard North American line voltage
138.2 Volts is a whopping 15% above the 120 V of U.S. and Canadian mains. I suppose that modern switching power supplies (which typically accept from 110 to 240 without having to be reconfigured) could take it, but the nominal limits are ±5% for the grid tension and ±10% for consumer devices’ tolerance. That’s why Europe couldn’t switch from ye olde 220 V directly to the intended 240 V, and is still stuck at the intermediate step of 230 V; the permitted 240+5%=252 V in the sockets would have exceeded old devices’ tolerance of 220+10%=242 V.
But the salient point is that Talita is measuring AC here, which batteries – whether in the multimeter, or part of the scrap – do not provide; it takes an inverter to get such from a battery supply, which would empty the battery sooner rather than later. (And digital multimeters aren’t as sensitive to voltage reversal as coil-and-needle displays were, so “use the VAC setting, just to be safe” is falling out of fashion in favor of “first try with the highest VDC range and look whether it shows a minus sign”.)
JoB
Well, looks like Clayton failed in his special assignment …
Apollo235
No he succeeded, he just put his back into that smack for maximal effect
Vinemaple
What I want to know is, what are Dominic and Phoebe smiling at, while Talita troubleshoots abandoned electronics? Surely not Talita’s butt?
JoB
They don’t know that the wagging antenna actually is a sign of irritation.
furubatsu
Maybe they’re happy to have Talita actually teaching them something? She has more than reason to have a hands off approach to being their supervisor but I imagine some of them are happy to have days where she’s actually like “Ok guys, today were gonna be doing something else so pay attention”
Lezzlebit
No…. Talita… Why don’t you have a profile picture girl…
mossrabbit
obviously its cause the cool picture she took of a circuit board she made was too big of an image to upload as an icon, and definitely for not other reason at all
Andrew
good to know Fluke still makes the 17B+ in the distant future
Dotcom
Why did you process so much heavy water, Blip?
JoB
Because it’s available, and useful to them … ?
(Assuming that Talita was still calculating tonnage of heavy water back then in the first place. If she already knew that the Runaway would take Deuterium and meant 10 t of that, well, 100 t of D2O still translate to “only” 20.1 t of D2, minus processing losses …)
Vinemaple
Because Bip has… refined… tastes!
Marcie
They’re a thirsty lad (gender neutral)
bryn
oof, get well soon clayton!
Adrienne
If you ask your employees to work 1/6th harder, I hope you’re also willing to pay them 1/6th more! 😉
Lettuce Vervain
mel what do you mean no distractions winky face. what does that mean. get back here.
bryn
YEAH UM–
Mobi-gg
Yeah Mel, the only person allowed to be cheeky and withhold information is Bip >:(
furubatsu
God, could you imagine if Mel knew this whole time and when it comes time for Talita to *Runaway to the stars* Mel’s reaction is just to go “I knew this day would come, have fun Talita!”
Peter Jensen
That seems … like an uncharacteristic amount of awareness, from what we’ve been shown and told …
Vinemaple
That would certainly throw us for a loop… but I love it when the heavy and stupid personal drama that appears ready to bring the story to a grinding halt… just doesn’t happen, because everyone turns out to be reasonable, or something emerges to de-prioritize personal drama.
I’ve been thinking about this, though, and I’d find it plausible if Mel knows or suspects Talita is doing SOME kind of personal project on the clock, but has no idea it’s this big… and consequently hasn’t felt the need to say anything until now, because targets are being met and Talita is a valuable employee.
EnchantressEmily
Bip climbing on the panel borders is an excellent touch!
IncompleteMachine
Bip, you’re leaning pretty hard on that fourth wall there…
JoB
That’s what the keeping one foot on Phoebes face(plate) is for …
edenmachine5457
.come to think of it, how does talita type on her device even though she has basically big fingernails? i don’t see a keyboard, are touch sensors just advanced enough in the future to detect her hooves? or are modern touch sensors enough?
boxesofboxes
She used her trunk the last time we saw her typing, I believe. Back when she was searching up Bip.
Daedalus
Touchscreens that work with anything are actually a very old technology. Resistive touchscreens just detect pressure and have been around for longer than capacitive touchscreens.
Peter Jensen
They’re prone to be less accurate, hard to get multi-touch working reliably on, and easier to physically damage. But they’re still pretty widely used on industrial equipment touch panels (nearly all Siemens panels, for instance), because you don’t need bare hands or a special stylus to work them. I think you can still get some phones with them today, though they tend to be low end (because resistive touch is cheaper). Useful for people who have conditions that prevent their skin from registering on capacitive displays (this was an issue for my grandmother, in her final years).
Daedalus
Yeah I mean we switched to using mostly capacitive for a reason, but there’s niches out there for ye olde touchscreens.
Undercooked Mothman
Mel texts like my mom. Same tone
Genko
Can’t imagine dealing with your mom as your boss. The psychological pressure sounds intense
narwhalsarefalling
I hope nothing bad happens since Clayton is the most reasonable Temp here (low bar)
Teod
Oh no, Clayton was the only one who snitched! Without him they’re going to mess something up real bad.
Arcstone
With any luck, medical science will have advanced enough in the future that a slipped disk is basically the equivalent of a lightly twisted ankle.
Enai
He also probably was the best worker of the temps with his “just put my head down and crack on with it” – attitude. This does not bode well.
#Prayingforclayton
STAY STRONG CLAYTON
NotOkapi
you CALL PEST CONTROL on bip? you smoke them out like the cockroach? oh! oh! jail for creator! jail for creator for One Thousand Years!!!!
IncompleteMachine
If not pest, why pest shaped?
Enai
(Sounds of a scuffle with at least one six-limbed participant)
IncompleteMachine
bonus round: who would win in a wrestling match Bip’s Avatar or Centipede from James and the Giant Peach?
JoB
[comic goes on extended hiatus]
Tangerine
NOOOOOOOOOOOO not Clayton 🙁 🙁 🙁