Can't take your eyes off him for a second.
Transcript
The scissor lift begins to retract for repositioning. Bip's avatar is flopped over the tops of the comic panels, looking frustrated.
Bip: I don't have much time to wait, I've got a rapidly approaching appointment with the launch loop. Can you do it off the clock?
Talita switches radio channels and turns to write something on a physical logbook with a pen attached to its ring binding. Adam dismounts the scissor lift behind her.
SFX: clk
Talita: Tod's gonna ask questions if I pull that too often.
Adam hops up the radio tower foundation and begins to scale the ladder up to the tower's ring platforms.
Bip: Is there a tool I can borrow..?
Talita: Hm... actually, I might be able to replace the claws with something more—
She notices Adam out of the corner of her eye.
Talita: –ADAM! GET DOWN FROM THERE!
Bip's avatar pokes down in front of the comic panel with an apologetic sweat drop.
Bip: Wrong radio channel.
Talita: God fucking dammit!
56 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 224”
Toad Moss
Welp, Adam had a good run. He shall be missed, such a shame. Bye-bye
IncompleteMachine
if he gets himself killed it will genuinely only be his fault
creetur
Incompetence where it shouldn’t be expected is.. tiring, I’ll say that much
arf
O-kayy!
Had a feeling Talita’s multi-tasking was going to lead to an incident.
0xabad1dea
She glances back at them and everything’s fine, looks back to what she’s doing for a few seconds, and glances back again and notices a potential safety risk in the near future. Fumbling with the wrong radio channel for a second isn’t really changing anything here: she is going out of her way to keep an eye on them. I don’t think she’s failing in her duty as a manager, I think Adam is determined to cause problems on purpose.
Adrienne
Talita’s multitasking still led to an incident. Even if Adam is responsible for himself, well, here we are
HullScrap
Probably not the page to be asking this cause it seems like its about to go down but has it been acknowledged how Talita reads any close display and writes on a note pad without her glasses in the exo-suit? Is the suits dome prescription? Or is holding something an arms length away enough for her to make out text despite her farsightedness….. On the flip side if Adam dies at least it was foreshadowed in chapter one with him disregarding the shrapnel of a saw, and all the other rough housing… alongside Tod in the QnA talking about the mummified Tiiliitian… RIP in advance.
JoB
> Is the suits dome prescription?
That’s at least the fandom-favored explanation, seeing that she always takes her glasses off as soon as she dons the suit.
Peter Jensen
It is also Word-of-Jay:
https://www.runawaytothestars.com/comic/rtts-page-10/#comment-143
HullScrap
Ah, I figured there was an officially stated answer somewhere. Just a bit hard to find on such a long running project.
Peter Jensen
For sure, and while I remembered having read it, I wasn’t sure where. But figured it was likely a detail mentioned in a transcription, or a comment. Thankfully, though it’s gone downhill recently, Google still has the “site:” command, so just had to search the pages for a key-word. In this case “prescription” got me the right page.
folti
probably have prescription inserts in one of the internal layers, that can be moved away. Kinda standard on a lot of safety/biking/skiing glasses nowadays.
And can be set in a way, that it only affects her vision if she looks down for working with her hands.
Flori
Non patron, but still some spoilers ahead
Unfortunately for us morbid little freaks (but very fortunately for Talita), I believe she successfully gets him down from there, if the thumbnail of one of Jays streams is anything to go by. (The one where Jay jokes that she’s flinging the temps into space)
Altariasong
Pretty sure Jay uses they/them pronouns 👍
23 Vast Eyes
I think the “She” being referred to here is Talita, not Jay.
Flori
I’m aware, but thank you anyways! (Not sarcasm)
As the other commenter said, ‘she’ is referring to Talita. I used Jays name when I referred to them to try and prevent any confusion, since ‘they’ can also be taken for Talita by some
Jordan Aster
My concern is that she’s a centaur, he’s a human, and she made it physical. I’m worried how Adam might spin that narrative in his favor and whether or not the other temps would be willing to advocate for her. I know that… uhh, the horned person I can’t remember the name of might speak up. But I feel like the others will see it and think “Well, she’s a lot bigger and she put her hands on him. We saw it happen.”
king_kazma
i know it would be overall very terrible for talita if there was a workplace fatality under her management, but there is still a very vicious horrible part of me that’s watching adam like I HOPE YOU DIE BADLY WITHIN THE NEXT 3 PAGES
theotherther1
That looks more like a Stomp set than an array of antennae someone actually uses.
DasGanon
I mean there’s both the “Sci-Fi Macguffin” answer of “It’s how FTL communication works” either “by going through the wormhole but needing Bug Ferret Modulation Device” or “it just works but needs THE DOME to do so” or alternatively there’s the Junkyard “make it work” answer of wedging things and plugging wires until it’s sort of functional
Or probably a mix of both, really.
Duke 1337-o
I used to live right next to a cell tower that looked exactly like this, so I think it’s pretty on point.
JoB
… how so?
Considering that most of these antennas apparently aim their beam horizontally (-> not communicating with space) and the tower isn’t very high (-> not optimized for long distance, like, the slides moving along a 2700 km launch loop that follows the plant surface’s curvature), I’d say that its purpose is harbor-internal communication.
Which translated to the various buildings besides the habitat back in the days of the mining operation, and groups of vacuum-suited workers today. Still a tangible purpose, but IMHO it’s unlikely that Ixion would have erected that entire tower from scratch just for their away teams. So it’s likely been there since avians-only times, hence the ladder promising to be a tight fit for Adam right now.
The radio station that’s located right in the launch loop’s end berm is one big radome, which suggests a pivoting, if not outright rotating (radar?), main antenna underneath. That choice is what surprises me the most, after all, the launch loop’s (hopefully) not a moving target.
There’s no reason to install the antennas meant to contact anything in space at much of a distance from “the HQ”, and as page 38 shows, there’s a large swivel-mounted (but domeless) parabolic dish right atop the habitat’s cupola.
JoB
* planet surface.
Not suggesting that The Rat needs some suitably large salad to nibble on. :-3
Vinemaple
The biiiiiig dome made out of triangles looks like the domes on IRL air search or weather radars, it would be nice to have some ground-based satellite (and incoming-vessel) tracking onsite.
Stray Cat
Ah, the dude who blatantly ignores safety regulations and then, going by that one AMA, whines that his managers hate him. The most terrifying force in any sci-fi.
TotallySomebody
Talita. Talita do you know I love you 😭
purrs
Bips apparent hesitance asking about tools they can borrow makes me think they’ve caught on to how stressed Talita is (though the incoming workplace injury has probably sealed the deal)
Vinemaple
Ah, yes, the genius who believes he’s found a better way to do stuff after zero seconds of thinking, that was just… missed, by generations of people learning from industrial accidents. I am so, so familiar with the type, both from the worksite and from the board of directors…
Here it comes.
Felixscout
I am sympathetic to the impulse of “there has to be a better way to do this” even if you are being paid hourly.
But that doesn’t excuse unsafe behavior.
JoB
Ummh, Adam? I’m not convinced that you, your vacuum suit, and its very bulky backpack will fit through the lowest ring into that ladder’s (very skeletal) security cage …
Enai
He’ll soon discover what happens if the suit, which is for breathing, ceases its one function: to keep its occupant breathing, on account of having damaged either: the hose, which conducts the air, which is for breathing, or even the rucksack, which contains the air. The air for breathing. Without which even very arrogant Adams will cease breathing.
.
Or he listens to reason just in the nick of time. One can always hope.
I’d be this >< close to hyperventilating, were I Talita.
Falconette
Alternatively, if he is lucky, no damage but a very stuck Adam, a lot of wasted time and damaged important things to safely remove aforementioned stuck Adam, and very shortly afterwards, a very fired Adam.
JoB
“… oh, Adam is fired? Effective yestercentury? Good to know, but how much longer will I have to watch out that this … [cough] ex-employee doesn’t grab the suit and venture out there on his own?”
“Don’t worry, we’re giving him an express ride off the planet.”
“You’re calling down one of the planet shuttles just for him?”
“Even faster than that! We have an urgent appointment to send something up the loop and into space, and as luck would have it, that decommissioned vessel seems to still have a breathable internal atmosphere …”
Enai
JoB, please don’t give Jay ideas. They’re torturing Talita enough with this oaf as it is. (Yes, I’m aware the plot is mostly set, and the next howevermany pages are already finished. Let me joke around.)
That said, I wholeheartedly support firing Adam, like, now. Into the sun needs too much energy, so into the wormhole it is.
Lilac
Valid Crash Out, as the Youth would say (i say as one of the Youth)
whirly
That’s not youth slang, it’s african american vernacular english.
Lilac
Ah I didn’t realize, sorry, just wanted to leave a silly comment. I suppose a lot of ‘slang’ nowadays is from that though… it seems like a complex topic with lots of different takes.. I’ll try to be more careful about it now though anyways, sorry again!
24CG
is it not both? i feel like it can be both.
(source – I’m one of said Black youth, lmao)
Vinemaple
It’s both, but it means different things, as usual. The “youth slang” meaning is shifting towards just “take a deep nap or serious relaxation period,” these terms usually get misunderstood as they are picked up by non-AAVE speakers.
Phasma Felis
It can be both, and often has been.
whirly
Yeah it can be both, but I always see the Blackness getting erased. I see so many people who just have no idea, you know?
Sabella
Adam about to blame his broken body on nepotism.
Zuorai
I’m trying not to scream laugh at this bc my mom wants me to b quiet
Eux
OH BOY lmao. Talita is At Her Limit
Vinemaple
Look at those incurrent nostrils!
Gar G
Like watching a bunch of toddlers…
CaptainStroon
Talita is a professional cat herder.
Her cats just don’t have 9 lives.
Duke 1337-o
OH WOW THEY WERE A LOT HIGHER THAN I THOUGHT
Greenjoe
At least it was something to Adam on Bip’s channel rather then something to Bip on the other channel. Though it will delay stopping Adam from his idiotic climbing.
Entguarde
workplace injury incoming!
Flori
The way he casually walks off is so funny to me. Where is bro going
Entguarde
he is going PLACES!!
Starchaser
Yeah… 6 feet under, that is
JoB
Without the benefit of a shovel, or someone to operate it for him, in the worst case.
Vinemaple
Or into orbit, maybe, all the while saying, “She just snapped! I wasn’t even DOING anything!”
JoB
> all the while saying …
Rantaway to the Stars