Finally, at long last, Talita is getting a hug.
Transcript
Gillie, Bip, and Idrisah all look with concern at Talita, who is slumped face down on the nose rig of the front loader, arms hanging limply, with her damp feathers in the air. The towel has fallen off her shoulders.
Idrisah: Do… Do you want a hug?
Talita picks her head up and turns back to them miserably.
Talita: …Yeah…
She sits down near her friends, and Gillie and Idrisah wrap their arms around her torso for a group hug. Bip watches from the webcam, their avatar looking thoughtful.
73 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 236”
HeadWood
Go on Bip, crush them with a loader. She needs this.
TeethBurglar
Talita: If there was a place to runaway to get of this planet. Runaway to the stars perhaps
Bip: Say that again
gnome_artificer
I sense a “Title Drop” incoming. Say the line Bip!
Gar G
Poor baby…
She really needs this
hurgaburga
oh god her face looks like this https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/crying-cat
she does need a hug D:
arf
When family has a group hug, it is often accompanied by a pair of paws planted on someone’s backside (ie dog wants to join in!)
If we ever do encounter alien life, it will be one of many interesting things to see if hugs are a universal.
Jay Eaton
It’s not universal for RttS aliens. While humans, bug ferrets and centaurs generally enjoy squeezing pressure from other bodies and can find it calming; avians find it unpleasant and similar to being constrained by a predator. Adult avians are not very touch receptive outside of mating season but generally show physical affection through allopreening and light hand or beak contact. Duns will also allopreen their children year-round as an affectionate gesture (and to just to keep them clean).
athofear
oough, Ooh. bip’s Waaatcning. tje shceming planner. #lookful. huge fan. Huge fan. hello talita. so sweet and nice, ahh… biiipp. Hug too, please…. tha blossums of memotional attachments.
Jason Myers
POOR MUPPET CENTAUR ;A,
Trees
I sometimes think it’s a shame I don’t enjoy being touched*. Humans, both real and fictional (and giant, feathery, hexapedal aliens) really seem to extract a lot of joy from a hug. Alas, I must be like Bip and remain a dirty, rotten hug voyeur.
*…by humans. Strangely enough animals don’t have the same effect.
Carmenifold
FRONTLOADER HUG! FRONTLOADER HUG!! COME ONNNN
The Opossum Witch
third panel is equivalent to an elmo doll dropped in a puddle, poor girl!
the Inmara
Also very reminiscent of her childhood photos.
AccordYeen
JOIN THE HUG, BIP.
HAMKITTENS
AUUGHHHGH SOGGY TALITA
Mr. Skeleton
There’s Bip, watching the only other centaur he knows potentially losing everyone she cares about because she’s stuck on the rock she helped Bip leave. I wonder what Bip has got planned?
Mr. Skeleton
They, I mean.
Lettuce Vervain
maybe some kind of… running away…. to the stars….
Mr. Skeleton
Don’t be silly that ship don’t got legs.
Kasekine
You say that but now I’m picturing Bip putting in some modifications to the ship so they can transform it into a giant centaur…
JoB
[insert mental image of Bip / the Runaway using those swiveling radiator panels as fins to mock-“swim” through space]
Mot
cmon Bip, use them frontloader arms. Join in
malmo
you know they’re thinking it
hold bird like hamburger
the single most pathetic wet-sock face of an expression to date has been reached! the saddest muppet fell in a puddle and was forced to eat cement from 5 hours old
Random Internet Stranger
I GIB HIG TOO \o/
Famout
Remarkable artwork, it takes skill to make someone who actively is, and looks like a “hyper predator” be so vulnerable and relatable.
Poor space taur.
cypr
ohhh talita… bip hugging with their eyes
Felixscout
Oooooor,scheming.
Enai
Both? Both. Both is good.
*Nodnod*
A Box Of Fox
And I now finally see where Adam was coming from with that “stripey sock puppet” remark. He’s still a major jerk, though!
Also, that there is maybe the most-needed hug in all of sci-fi.
LizardWizard
that’s like the best part
Hunter
What a sopping wet cat of a sophont.
Entguarde
sorry to leave a second comment but i noticed something and i have no idea whether it’s intentional or not: is panel 1 from Bip’s perspective?
Cobbington
Nah, based on the last page, Bip’s perspective would be looking over Gillie’s left shoulder
Enai
According to the transcript, Talita moved between the two points in time, so maybe you’re both right.
creetur
Drenched worm on a string, sweetheart nooo…
Gheesfellow
Man, she is the saddest Jim Henson puppet I’ve ever seen.
petra
sopping wet beast.. both literally and figuratively
Lilac
Bip just like brings out the electric worms to join too sdghffssgs
Lezzlebit
Alternatively Bip starts up The Runaway and maneuvers it towards the habitat dome like a classic scifi airplane-ufo-spaceship that can just ignore the laws of physics. Torchship hug incoming! Watch out!
LizardWizard
OH GOD NO!
Pocket Whale
Oh my gosh her sad little face 😭 it’s going to be all right, baby girl, I promise!
WayanayaW
🥺💕
Ouhhhhh Talitaaaa I’m glad you have friends to hug you
fishfacedterror
while i dont think bip will (or would be allowed to) give talita a hug just yet, i feel like they might be seeing what shes going through here and calculating a plan to get her the heck out with everyone else… no leaving a friend behind!
c Senaru
I’d be willing to bet money on Bip using at least one of those fixed frontloader arms to join in! That’s the face of someone calculating!
Nikki
im going to cry forever
cabbage
Ooooh my sad wet horse 🙁
jax psylla
OUU MY MUPPET
Lettuce Vervain
OOUUU SAD MUPPETTTTTT
&bip is also there !
foca
that is an awesome Gillie image in panel 2.
Accursed Dirt Boar
the saddest, wettest beast
Lezzlebit
Thank god this soggy worm finally gets a hug
Bip I know you want to drive the frontloader over and wrap its arms around her too but I thank you for resisting the urge because unlike your friends that frontloader is not squishy
Light_In_The_Fog
a) frrr she so soggy muppet-core its so sad and so cute at the same time
b) omg hi lezzlebit fancy seeing you here
BravoLimaPoppa
Like a sad muppet in panel 3.
Chrysalis
I can only assume that Bip is considering whether using the front loader to apply a third hug would be welcome or just uncomfortable.
JoB
You mean “whether to hug Talita with that … or Adam”, I suppose? :-3
Ruby
Yeah, maybe getting a really tight hug from a front loader would fix Adam 😂
un_pogaz
Oh, won’t Bip think about asking Talita to propose to leave?
I wonder how he would present such an idea to her. He will most likely start with his usual insolent little jerk tone, but I am confident that he will quickly adopt a much more serious tone and explain her that she has no reason to stay here and hurt herself for nothing.
rory
don’t forget bip uses they/them :]
un_pogaz
craps, always forgot to check pronons after I translate my comment.
Adrienne
Arms adapted over thousands of years for grabbing prey around the middle? Nah. Arms adapted over thousands of years for giving really good hugs. Science
Raydfil
OUHHH HONEY :((((((
Lucy
The faceplant of sadness is so expressively drawn.. I want to hug her too ;_;
Starchaser
Bip be like:
My GOD, these birches are GAY!
Good for them….good for them….
Tyrone
Dunno….more like looking into something he can never be part of, always on the other side of a glass-panel.
And Bip hugging back through an Automaton is just not the same. Never will be.
Starchaser
I know……but my my copium reserves are running out…
Everyone here is busy calling talita a sad wet muppet (which she is, don’t get me wrong), but bip is not getting nearly as much empathy imo…poor bip T^T
But hey! Atleast they have a new centaur to care about!
hessian
my scrumblies. also bip thinking most thoughtfully
Entguarde
like a sad little grayhound… god talita you deserve the world
AnormalADN
ouhh… 🙁
Junebug
Ohh Talitas face in the third panel. 1 million hugs for talita!!!!
Claire
she is so CRUNGLED
meow town
…yeah….
HAL9000
ultimate wet sock puppet face