FULL SIZE IMAGE
Bip is excited to have a guest over! Tablet screens and computer monitors are soooo restrictive.
Transcript
THE RUNAWAY'S HABITAT MODULE
A cutaway shot shows Talita following the worms, exiting the docking ring and walking carefully through the lower storage room that connects the habitat module to the rest of the vessel. Bip's avatar follows, appearing to walk along the doors of the cabinets, the vector lines of their body interrupted by seams and handles as if they were a painting behind them.
Bip: Sorry about the bumpy terrain, "gravity" in here isn't supposed to go sideways.
First Floor: Kitchen and Commons
The habitat module resembles a four story building lying on its side. Each floor's main space is a ring around the central spine and elevator shaft. The first floor contains a living space with a screen, seating areas, food preparation and storage areas, all clean and empty. It's the area that had a hole in it that Talita peered through on first her look inside the Runaway, but the spotless interior and large wall patch makes it almost unrecognizable. Talita leans over the considerable drop to the far wall of the kitchen to poke her head into the living room.
Talita: Wow, you really cleaned this place up.
Bip's avatar slides around the 90 degree bend between floor and wall, elongating, appearing larger than Talita.
Bip: I did what I could with the electrician worms and onboard actuators.
Second Floor: Crew Dormitory
Talita walks through the spine, surrounded by open doors to rooms with a much messier interior. Furniture has been knocked loose and tumbled around these rooms, settling to the lowest walls were gravity has pushed it. Strangely shaped chairs, beds, handmade chests, tables, desks, and things smashed beyond recognition fill these otherwise barren rooms. Bip goes with Talita, elongating further and winding their avatar's body around the curve of the spine through multiple room floors.
Bip: A lot of the heavier objects still need to be secured or removed, though.
Third Floor: Passenger Dormitory
Talita leans through one of the open room doors and smirks at Bip's giant avatar displayed on the wall.
Talita: Are ALL of the walls in here electrowetting displays?
Bip's avatar and two nearby worms strike a pose.
Bip: Much classier than a tablet screen with wheels, don't you think?Talita: The tablet with wheels would be more useful for moving furniture...
Fourth Floor: Bip's Servers
Furthest up the spine and shielded by the thickest walls on the vessel is a command room. The thing Bip essentially is, the animator casting shadow puppets inside the walls of their own body, is a ring of 40 server boxes fixed to the upper corners of the room.
93 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 205 and 206”
hold bird like hamburger
*Fourth floor: Bip dormitory
Hunter
Ah, so technically the ship is supposed to be oriented “up”, not on its side.
JoB
Well, “oriented” … it’s not supposed to ever experience an external gravitation, other than being in orbit (and thus at microgravity), that it could “orientate” in reference to. The pseudogravity people aboard may experience is, of course, in the direction opposite to the main engines’ thrust.
Egg
Which is a lengthy and obfuscating way to agree that the ship’s intended “orientation” *as perceived by passengers experiencing pseudogravity within* is vertical rather than horizontal.
Cugz Arui
thats interesting though because then youd inevitably have periods of abnormal gravity whenever you changed direction or slowed down and yet this furniture clearly wasnt meant for that. i wonder how they wouldve dealt with it
Corvus
It’s Thursday, isn’t there supposed to be a new page up? I thought it was just a little late but it’s almost 10 pm now. (Not trying to bug you at all, just curious)
Lezzlebit
I wonder if this double page counts for two days?
jdeltia
are the electrowetting displays color or black and white? i imagine that if they’ve gotten good enough to have a high refresh rate and span entire curved walls they’d be color, but i’m curious
Jay Eaton
They can do color, but the comic can’t, lol.
Gar G
Took me a moment to figure out where everything was supposed to be until I tilted my head to the side xDD
Love the detail of all the furniture piled up on the wall and how Bip streeetches their long body along the wall
zims
I know it’s probably tasteless to suggest, but…free clothes, free furniture, free whatevers in centaur styles and sizes! Imagine having a bed and chair that actually fit! Assuming this isn’t like Star Trek or Murderbot where things can be generated/woven/3D printed from a handy shopping booth and need to be physically shipped places, this is a huge savings. She just needs to be okay looting, and not get caught looting, and for Bip to be okay seeing her walking around using the stuff. If nothing else, maybe she could raid the snack cabinet.
JoB
Not knowing for how long they’ve been sitting around, with any sealed packaging likely ruptured by the contained atmosphere when explosive decompression happened, would make me wary of the noms. :-3 Also, I’m not sure that human-culture-assimilated Talita would want to wear fully centaur-style garb. Her clothing obtained from Nexus Jovia(-derived) places admittedly is so-so, see the beginning of AMA 3.
Salvaging some furniture might be an idea with merit, but note that at this point, Talita doesn’t intend to leave Dirtball yet, so she’d be hauling it over to her “dry storage”, if at all.
JoB
P.S.: Now if the previous crew left any usable centaur-fitting space suits behind … !
NTLS
what are you being fed that drives you to make these insanely detailed comics holy shit. damn
bonescaro
BIG LAYOUT DIAGRAM PAGE my beloved 🥰💖 lift capacity aside, it does look like Talita may have some trouble just maneuvering some of that furniture out
Paroxysmall
I always wonder about AI having more control over their avatar and voice manipulation than organic sophonts, it would seem like it would make it easier to hide emotions/lie, yet sometimes we see Bip making expressions that seem “unintentional”/ revealing of thoughts or feelings they otherwise obscure (reader questions 16). Often we see them with a neutral face and even tone when acting seriously, but i just wonder about the few facial expressions that seem more subtle and almost like Bip made them to themself.
Also, Bip winding their avatar all over the walls, presumably with cameras inside from multiple angles, reminds me of someone using an LPS mascot to imitate walking around and talking in a playset that they can see from multiples angles. But then the transcript reminds me that this is technically the first time we see Bip physically (and in the one room with no dialogue).
Jay Eaton
Reader questions are weird grey zone because the characters are disclosing way more than they would with a real stranger. I guess their tone is more like a blog entry, where the characters can vent their frustrations into the void, consequence free.
In the comic, if Bip is making an expression with their avatar that another character can see, they are purposefully making that face to be seen. Nothing about the avatar’s animation is unintentional, though Bip isn’t omniscient about how other characters might perceive or react to their choices. Bip is also not completely rational and calculating and will sometimes make decisions based off their emotions. If they have conflicting emotions, they may have trouble deciding what expression to use.
INFANTEATER
im so obsessed with this page oh my GOODNESS!! i keep coming back to just stare at it 😯😯MORE BlP ON WALLS!!!!
Gheesfellow
Pretty sneaky Bip, practically advertising the place like that. You got smarts! …like, forty of them.
Teod
Actually Bip has 841 smarts.
Claire
I counted… forty-one?
Did I count that right?
JoB
The transcript speaks of “a ring of 40 server boxes”, but I suppose that a number of quantum theorists would exhibit a postmortal spin of 5/2 if the conversion to “smarts” didn’t involve an irrational factor.
IncompleteMachine
postmortal rotation aside I do wonder if the quantum phones actually add a significant amount of additional processing power to Bip.
Enai
Talita, I’d argue that Bip in their present form as a starship is much better at moving furniture than a tablet with wheels would be. Reason: they’ve moved furniture, people, themself, and cargo across literlal light years of space :-p
Also, the tablet with wheels would be useless in the sideways hab. It can’t hold onto the walls.
…
That said, the Runaway sure does look comfy if right side up. I wanna book a passage to some bug ferret planet, just to see what traveling in her is like.
.(•∆•).
Fallingfeather
Geez, I’m amazed Bip’s servers stayed intact when everything else got thrown around like a ragdoll! They didn’t even budge!
Adrienne
I’m assuming that bolting those to the floor comes in big handy – they look pretty secure
HGoose
Aren’t they bolted to the ceiling?
cain
Probably walls, floor, and ceiling. (There’s supports from “underneath” visible on the far wall, which might also contain connective wiring?) You really don’t want those things moving around in travel. If anything happens to Bip, the ship can’t steer.
Phasma Felis
I’m more surprised that everything else *wasn’t* bolted down. Some of that stuff must have at least wobbled during end-over-end rotations. And you’d want to be prepared for sudden, unexpected jolts and impacts.
But I guess these guys were pirates, after all.
hessian
prismo bip!!!
halley
ohh THAT’S what i was reminded of!! prismo bip <3
Truther
Those panels remind me of these silly little educational books that explain everyday things with silly little cartoon animals in different roles…. Oh my, it is BEAUTIFUL
Mellco
Richard Scarry books were always my favorites when I was a kid!
arf
Little Talita scurrying around the Runaway like a striped mouse…
The Opossum Witch
just googled these guys, CUTES
Paroxysmall
i didnt think this was referencing a real animal but im happy that these exist, what a pleasant surprise ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ
Sen
A yes. Clutter. It happens all on its own in real life, but drawing it is major pain in the rear end.
Really lovely page giving us all of Bips best looks.
Eux
i love everything about this!!
Xploding Muffin
I noticed that the habitat is built for when the ship is accelerating. Do ships in this setting have enough fuel between regular trips to be under (mostly) constant acceleration? If so what, would the acceleration be in a normal “speed up for half the trip and slow down the other half?”
JoB
The (future) role of the Runaway as an “express courier” ship (or words to that effect) is based on her torch engines being able to more or less do that. The storyverse also includes ships that have to stick more closely to Hohmann transfers, though. The Runaway’s nominal thrust amounts to one gee (hence, a bit more than Dirtball’s 0.8 g), the limit when maxing out the engines (as has been suggested in the comments for the situation that cost her the previous crew) remains unknown for now.
Chrysalis
Seeing Bip on little screens all the time, it’s easy to forget that they’re physically the largest member of the cast! (Though their avatar’s making up for that a bit here.)
I love this method of introducing us (and Talita) to the layout of this section. Even in its current state.
TK-421
Even in space, there are junky old file cabinets in the basement that nobody wants to bother throwing out.
Arcstone
Damn. Big space.
If gillie and idrishah ever gomes aboard, they’re gonna feel like tiny toddlers.
Claire
LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP
Quia
❤️ they’re gorgeous! Beautiful page(s)
What I wouldn’t give to live on a ship like that 😆
dokki
My one question about this layout, where is the area shown in page 105? And are the patterned cloths there among the things that Bip removed?
I have a lot of feelings about the furniture being removed… I wonder who will care for it now or if any of it is salvageable at all
the Inmara
We suspect that was the cargo hold, toward the aft of the ship (to the left of this diagram/scene). And, until we see it, we don’t know if Bip did anything with it. So, good question!
Jay Eaton
That was the cargo hold. It would be to the left offscreen here, past the docking ring
40
Oh my god they’re like Prismo.
ryn
so electrowetting displays means that the walls are like screens, and bip can show up without needing a projector?
Jay Eaton
Yes. It’s also not backlit. The technology has the same principles as e-ink but with a video-capable refresh rate
Jay Eaton
Also this technology exists in reality. It has yet to gain commercial adoption; Amazon Kindle essentially murdered it in the cradle by buying the company producing the technology and then doing nothing with it for going on a decade now.
un_pogaz
Damn, is that really possible? That’s huge!!!
I would like to give Amazon the benefit of the doubt that when they acquired it, it turned out to be unworkable on a commercial scale (okay) or that they didn’t want to invest in R&D to make it viable (classical short view capitalist).
But knowing the company, it really could have sat on it so that no one could use it. *clenched fist*
JoB
Considering the tossed-up furniture and that Talita doesn’t ask “WERE all of the walls EWDs?”, I’d guess that the RttSverse has replaced our Gorilla Glass with Galactic Godzilla Gontainment Glass™, though. :-3
Enai
One absolutely ought not give Amazon the benefit of the doubt. They’re a multinational tax dodging and monopoly securing company that works in the best interest of nobody except their own market share. If that means strangling promising energy saving screen technology, they’ll do it and not even hesitate.
JoB
> It’s also not backlit.
… somebody who can ignore (loud)speakers will someday shut Bip up by simply turning off the lights, won’t she?
Vinemaple
1. Wow, Bip has some stylin’ server boxes! Classy…
2. I recognize the dining area from Oil and Water!
3. That faux kerosene lamp, though, still plugged into the wall… that really gets me in the feels.
Phasma Felis
I saw that lamp! I love it!
Greebus
I’m looking back at this after looking at page 105 bc I wanted to see if this ship was originally made for centaurs or not. Since there’s English writing, I think this ship was made for humans, by humans and then a centaur clan bought/stole it. I wonder how Bip came onboard. Maybe they budded off onboard, or they were brought in like Cal was. It’s also sad to see all the votives/good luck charms that the clan had, and how there were still bodies of them in there when the company just bought the ship for parts. I wonder where Bip put all the stuff of their previous clan that they were able to move out. Something I love about this comic is how many details there are. It really feels like we’re peeking into a fully-fledged world, and there’s more around the corner.
the Inmara
Note the centaur sized doors and ceiling heights, though.
Obviously, things could be retrofitted later, of course. But it seems like the ship is scaled for centaurs.
the Inmara
Also, wehre’s the English writing? We’re not seeing it (besides the typical comic narrative text).
the Inmara
Ah, no, nevermind! Saw it on page 105. Also, the origin is talked about in a blog post that is linked to via a comment on that page. Not explicitly spoiling it here, but that text is definitely a clue.
ArBe
Ooh, I recognise that commons area from the mini-comics set in the relative future! Awesome to be able to place those spaces in the context of the ship.
halley
talitas so cute!! her little face on the first floor
Imp!
Ooooo the electrowetting walls is so FUN!!! And very fitting for Bip, considering how they love using their avatar. Can’t wait to see more.
Lilac
Passenger dormitory… did the centaur clan have guests sometimes, or was that just the original ship’s intention with the rooms and they used it for other things? I wonder…
Lilac
Also, what will they do with the stuff they’re moving? I would feel very disrespectful just throwing it away, but maybe bip thinks differently..
Lilac
(The furniture and personal belongings, not the already moved corpses, for one should not keep corpses)
JoB
(I’m not keeping them, they can leave whenever they want …) 😈
JoB
Well, on the traditional pirate ships, in order to prevent capsizing, you had to use the lowest decks to keep the piles of gold on … 😉
Vinemaple
Well, the Runaway is registered as a ferry vessel, and Bip has said in AMAs that most of what they did was smuggling, so having a fully-fitted-out passenger cabin, and even a few legit passengers, would be a good cover for their illegal activities, and also provide some clean money.
As to the centaur crew’s personal effects, I hope we get to see some of those handmade blankets and stuff, I think one actually had antler velvet sewn onto it as decoration… Perhaps Bip has just stored it somewhere in the pit, so they can have the room to clean up and rebuild.
I would feel so violated, if I was a starship whose beloved crew’s stuff, and bodies, got thrown every which way by salvage, towing, hard deceleration, and finally horizontal planetary gravity. While I was unconscious.