Jay Eaton

@jayeatonart

An organism appreciator. Working on a hard scifi graphic novel. 🌈 ☘️ 🏳️‍🌈 Bizz email: jayrock5858 @ yahoo .com

277 Siguiendo7423 Seguidores700 Publicaciones

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Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· 4d

This week on #RunawaytotheStars: What do you want, Talita? Catch up: https://runawaytothestars.com Read ahead: https://patreon.com/jayrockin

At this, Talita's fury boils over. Teeth bared and trunk raised in an S-shaped snarl, she grips her bristling mane with one hand and gesticulates wildly with the other. Talita: Oh! My bad! I guess I forgot we live in a fucking neolithic society– where the person with the biggest stick makes all the rules! Scaring people doesn’t make them respect you, Mel! It makes them want to GET RID OF YOU. Adam already felt threatened by me, and he was retaliating with harassment and reckless disobedience! Scaring him wouldn’t have kept him out of the hospital today. You listening to my warning would have! Mel watches her outburst with an expression of sadness and surprise.

There is an awkward silence after Talita finishes shouting. Neither of them look at each other, Talita bitter and Mel downcast. Mel: I’m sorry, Talita. I guess I didn’t realize it was so serious. I suppose it must be a relief switching over to the new crew. They should be easier to get along with. Talita meets Mel's optimistic gaze with an exhaustion too deep to politely avoid the truth. Talita: The centaurs? Mel, I– I have almost nothing in common with them.

Mel's brow furrows in confusion, as if Talita just told a situationally inappropriate joke. Mel: What do you mean? Talita: I mean I don’t foresee there being less communication issues! We don’t even use the same facial expressions! Mel sweeps out an arm out in a frustrated gesture. Mel: So you don’t want to work with humans and you don’t want to work with centaurs. What DO you want? Talita pauses, a humorless grin spreading on her face. She rubs her forehead and looks away. Talita: …Haha. For you to have asked that? At any point before now.

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· 7d

Just an HOUR LEFT on the Almost Real kickstarter and not only have we hit all the stretch goals, we hit a fourth artist bonus?? That wasn't even on the worm! Thank you so much, everyone!! www.kickstarter.com/projects/alm...

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· 9d

Thumb tabs are within reach.... yes... YES.....

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· 11d

This week on Runaway to the Stars: Mel knows too much, and yet understands nothing. Catch up: https://runawaytothestars.com Love spec bio? Check out Almost Real zine! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/almost-real-book-1/almost-real-a-speculative-biology-zine-vol-6-and-book-1?ref=5jyrq9

Mel walks up to Talita with an uncertain expression. Mel: Talita… How did this happen? Talita pulls her hands off her face, gripping her neck and shoulder like she wants to vanish behind her arms. Talita: I don’t know, I turned my back, and... Mel puts their hand on their hip and rolls their eyes. Mel: Were you distracted by your repair project? Talita looks up, stunned. Talita: …Project?

Mel: Don’t play dumb. I do geosurvey more often than I do geosurvey reports, you know. I can see that ship you’ve programmed the RC vehicles to work on every night in satellite images. Talita stares at Mel, almost frozen except her hands slowly falling away from her face. Talita: …Why didn’t you say anything? Mel rolls their eyes again and scowls. Mel: I’m not a tyrant. You’ve been a dedicated and responsible employee. I thought letting you have an outlet for tinkering couldn’t hurt. After this… I’m not sure that was the right move.

Talita: I– I wasn’t even working on that today! I was with the crew the entire time! Mel: Then why is one of them in the hospital? Talita throws up her hands in frustration. Talita: I told him not to climb on the tower! He didn't listen! Mel sneers and folds their arms. Mel: Oh, please... How hard can it be for you to be authoritative, Talita? You’re 3 meters tall with sharp teeth! Talita stares at Mel in wide-eyed disbelief, mane beginning to flare out in anger. Talita: …You think that makes this EASIER!? Mel: It couldn’t hurt to lean into it! You’re so shy… it’s ridiculous seeing you get pushed around by your subordinates!

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· 12d

YIPPEEEEE

$50,124 pledged of $40,000 goal, 572 backers, 5 days to go

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· 12d

AAAAAAAA we're so close to second stretch goal

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· 18d

Last week on #RunawaytotheStars: An industrial accident in near-vacuum! Catch up: https://runawaytothestars.com Love spec bio? Check out Almost Real! www.kickstarter.com/projects/almost-real-book-1/almost-real-a-speculative-biology-zine-vol-6-and-book-1?ref=5jyrq9

Talita looks up. Adam is almost halfway up the ladder, over 12 meters off the ground. Soundlessly, the top balcony attachment shears off the tower structure under his weight, the thin metal beams of the column bending where his body is inside the cramped safety cage. Slowly, picking up speed, it bends more and more, the bend pushing Adam's back towards the ground. The old support beams of the safety cage snap at their weld points, opening the cage behind him. Adam, panicking but trapped, reaches up towards the higher rungs over the bend, where the top half of the ladder remains almost vertical, towering over him. The lower half hits the ground, along with Adam. The top half follows, slamming its entire weight down on its bottom end over Adam's once reaching arm. a ring of the safety cage creates an unnatural angle in his forearm, and the sharp, twisted spike of the sheared support beam drives into the edge of his suit sleeve, pinching it to nothing. Gas billows out with a cloud of regolith sand.

A series of panels flow over a black background with no borders. Talita's eyes go wide in shocked horror. Her hand grabs the the safety cage ring over Adam's arm. She twists and bends the upper half of the ladder back, making Adam accessible. He is lying supine on his life support backpack in the safety cage, right arm curled over his chest, left arm flopped outwards, dust blasting away from the small hole in his sleeve as his exosuit rapidly dumps oxygen supply to keep his suit pressurized. Talita tightly grasps his broken arm, temporarily cutting off the air leak.

A montage of panels shows Talita running past the other temps towards the mobile life support truck, the airlock doors to the recycling plant opening with a BEEP BEEP BEEP, the truck driving into the plant, Talita showing up at the medical office in her full exosuit with Adam in her arms, the shocked faces of the medical crew, Adam sweating and grimacing in an oxygen mask a with a stiffly held arm as he is being wheeled on a gurney deeper into the medical building by the human-specialist doctors, and finally, Talita, sitting barefoot in the park land behind the human apartments, the pieces of her exosuit piled behind her, face in her hands. Behind the panels, the dark fog of tunnel vision slowly lifts.

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· 19d

BOOKS CONFIRMED FOR REAL!! ALMOST REAL VOLUME 6 AND BOOK 1 HAVE FUNDED! www.kickstarter.com/projects/alm...

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· 19d

"What's that? You helped fund Almost Real: A Speculative Biology Zine Volume 6? Here... take this. On the house..." www.kickstarter.com/projects/alm...

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· 19d

Almost Real is OVER 98% funded!! Will it happen today?? Tango and Swing may combust from the pressure first! Concerning, since they're usually underwater. Interested in 100s of pages of gorgeous fully illustrated speculative biology? Check out the campaign now! www.kickstarter.com/projects/alm...

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· 24d

It's the last chapter of #RunawayToTheStars. What could possibly go wrong? Catch up: https://runawaytothestars.com Love spec bio? Check out Almost Real zine! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/almost-real-book-1/almost-real-a-speculative-biology-zine-vol-6-and-book-1?ref=5jyrq9

Chapter 10: The Runaway A broad overhead shot shows the entire junkyard, the plant and habitat module, and the massive berm wall surrounding the curved end of the launch loop. The ground around the work site has the echoes of its history as a mining site etched into the regolith as strangely concentric and organized craters. A closeup of the Runaway spacecraft on the jack shows it fully fixed with remote control vehicles milling around it. Text message exchange: Talita: You excited for launch tomorrow? Bip: Oh, absolutely. Bip: The night cycle’s all lined up to get me on the rails and into the hitch. Talita: Best of luck. I’ll be on standby if there’s a ground-based emergency. Bip: You working today? Talita: Yeah, same old. Bip: I’ll leave you to it.

Phoebe: Anyone else getting deja vu? Talita and her remaining temp team—Phoebe, Dominic, Yao, and Adam—huddle around the electrical box of the same radio tower that they were repairing not too long ago. The scissor lift is parked in the background, and none of the temps look very enthusiastic about the prospect of repeating the same tedious workday. Talita: Let's check the connectivity for the one that was faulty last time, first. If it's not that one, we'll start looking at units of the same manufacture to see if they're failing in the same way.

Talita: Let's get this done quick. Yao, position the lift under array 15. Yao goes off the move the scissor lift into position, Adam turns away from the open electrical box in bored disinterest. He looks back to the ladder he tried climbing the last time they had worked on this problem. Meanwhile, Talita prepares the electrical box with Dominic and Phoebe. She looks down at the ground for her tools. Talita: Good to go... Who had the multimeter? Behind her, Yao stands on the unextended scissor lift, pointing up at part of the ladder that's out of sight. Yao: Boss, Adam is—

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· Jul 10

Thanks to the support of over 300 backers, Almost Real: A Speculative Biology Zine is now almost 60% funded!! Release the latest innovation in gachapede engineering: a worm with holes in it! ...Thanks, scuds! www.kickstarter.com/projects/alm...

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· Jul 7

Now that Almost Real's POP CULTURE issue is out on Kickstarter, I can share its cute yet vaguely horrible cover critter! A living gachapon toy bioengineered by scud aliens! It is derived from a large diatom-like organism that is parasitized and used as a house by a worm-like arthropoid.

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· Jun 29

I always get a lot of questions about how aliens dress themselves, because people have difficulty imagining their range of motion and dexterity I think. The beak is used a lot as a manipulator when avians put on clothes, in particular to reach the back and the outside of their wings.

The big bird asked: Ohwitiil, what chastisement sees a low rank Avian who wears the Tiiliit hue of green, what's the reaction when another Sophonts use it?

Ohwitiil: It is not chastisement one gets, for wearing green. It is a crime to impersonate nobility. So more likely, a fine or service punishment. But, the law is actually more strict with shades other than Tiiliit green. Con artists will often color their clothes with cheap synthetic green dye and claim to be obscure nobility in order to seduce rich duns, or grant legitimacy to a property claim or business venture. But, a civilian wearing Tiiliit green clothes is not often impersonation— there is only one Tiiliit, it is too hard to trick anyone. Usually it is political statement, looking to make a mockery of the Tiiliit and shame our nation. Wearing accessories in Tiilit green is patriotic, but, wearing garments of it is arrogance.

Image: Avian wearing a cap pin and sash of Tiiliit green over their clothes.

Text: OK!

Image: Avian wearing a cap and overcoat of Tiiliit green, crossed out.

Text: NO!

There are some exemptions for actors in plays and films, however, if the writing tells lies about the government and nobility, the production may face fines for it anyways... Some offensive productions use fabric with the word "green" written on it to avoid consequences.

Image: Actor wearing clothers with the avian word for green, "rut," printed on them in a pattern.

If you are not a skimmer avian, or not a Tiiliitian citizen, you may wear noble greens without breaking the impersonation laws. Cultural costumes from other nations are not an impersonation, of course, and all Tiiliitian nobles are skimmers. However, wearing Tiiliit green in the formal presence of real nobility would be quite rude, no matter what planet you're from...

Image: An oblivious human in a Tiiliit green dress says "Hi!" To the Tiiliit, who is displeased.

Anonymous asked: Cheevwut, have you ever experienced discrimination for being a dun in your career path?

Cheevwut: Eh, yeah, mostly on the homeplanet. Brights with desk jobs think we're too dumb for much besides raising kids and hard labor. Most of the others at my dunhouse worked at the cement plant. So I got a bit of attitude starting out, like "shouldn't you be off dumping plantworm shells into a kiln or something?" But aliens don't care whether a bright or dun is doing a job, cuz we all look the same to them. Lol!

Anonymous asked: Cheevwut and/or Ohwitiil: I LOVE your fashion can you please explain how the layers of bird clothes work.

Ohwitiil: Typically, after powdering, we put on the slip layers, then attach the chausses to the saddle, then the overjacket. Duns cover their head with a cap or cloth.

Cheevwut: And now, a demonstration of undressing!

Ohwitiil: STOP!! Stop stop STOP!!

Cheevwut: Make me!

Anonymous asked: Cheevwut, is biking a hobby of yours? Or do you just use it to get to and from work?

Cheevwut: What, the trikes?? That's not for fun, that's because this place is HUGE! The habitat dome is what, like 380 taujii long? And the plant is even longer... three 380 taujii! I know you humans can walk forever on your long ass legs and never get tired, but that's too much for me. The trike makes it easier.

Text: taujii: "wingspan"=2.636m

And no, the plant is NOT flyable, no matter what Viiwia from internal mechanics says. They're going to fly into a live wire one of these days and turn into a fried btwior.

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· Jun 25

Streaming Space Horse Spooked by Tod www.twitch.tv/jayrockin5858

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· Jun 18

Gender transition, ear canals, and mushroom books.

Anonymous asked: Mel and Gillie, are/were people ever weird about your transition? What's it like being trans in 2333?

Gillie: (ASL) Not really. I decided I was a girl very early, so I never went through that awkward phase where you have to remind all the people in your life to use different language— At least, not while I was old enough to feel self-conscious about it— and I only went through one puberty as a teen. I’m on old fashioned dissolving hormone implants, since… well, I don’t really trust surgeons or matrix organ labs with off-model anatomy. So I’ve gotten some flak for not “committing to my gender” from my conservative relatives on Callisto, but most people I’ve met are way more confounded why I haven’t gotten cochlear implants, than new gonads.

Mel: Ugh, I know, it’s SUCH a stereotypical midlife crisis thing… but after my divorce, I was done with pregnancy, and no longer felt attached to my womanhood. I wanted freedom from the older version of me, from the pressure that had been piled onto me when I was a wife and mother! So I embraced those feelings and transitioned to unisex. It was definitely awkward, going through second puberty and getting implants in my 40s. I got plenty of snide remarks about it. But frankly, anyone who seriously thinks they’ve figured out their life forever at 40 is delusional.

Anonymous asked: Gillie, do your ears connect to the top of your head or to the sides?

Gillie: (ASL) Well… what do you mean by “ear” and “connect?” Because the ear flaps are up here... but some typs seem to think that our ear canals go straight through the tops of our skulls. A catgirl’s inner ear is in the same place as a typ’s... the ear canal makes a long L shape. This is also true of animals with ears on top of their heads!

Image:

CATGIRL
CAT

Gillie: (ASL) Of course mine are primarily dust collectors. Good thing they make extra long swab sticks for that.

NOTE: Typ humans, please don't stick swabs in your ear canal, you can puncture your eardrum or further impact wax.

Scrumb: Hello Idrisah! I was wondering, how rare are physical, paper-backed books nowadays? Given the scarcity of wood products. I imagine only very important stuff like the Quran, Torah, Bible, etc even get physical print.

Idrisah: Oh, I know they're more common on Earth, but books are a popular collector’s item for us spacers! Trending and classic novels will typically get pretty hard-cover releases, and most gift stores sell artbooks and quotebooks and writer journals and things. BUT here they aren’t made with wood pulp, they’re made with soft myla— mycelial lattice— that’s grown in sheets. Most “wood” you see in Jovia is also myla, but the hard kind.

Image:

MYLA
Pleurotus ostreatus

The main obstacle for us when it comes to owning books is finding room to store and display them... I know I have too many... Ugh, I should really compost some of my unused journals... The most commonly owned books are definitely religious texts, though, that’s true. I have a vintage Quran that was made in the 2200s in Egypt, it belonged to my great grandmother. That one is definitely wood pulp. I need to find a bookbinder and get it repaired, actually, the glue is starting to lift on the endpages...

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· Jun 11

Human-socialized. #RunawayToTheStars

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· Jun 11

Questions for Killian, child of polycule divorce, also the orbital station grandmas.

Felis Galactus asked: Killian, did you grow up around Dirtball, and if not where were you born?

Killian: I was born on Luna. My bioparents are Tyler and Ranni, but as a young kid they were actually in a bigger coterie with 3 other pers. That broke up when I was like 12, because… eghh, long story short, two of them started getting WAY too into Lunar nationalism. Paul and Evaline were a couple my moms started seeing after that, and they married when I was about 18. They got this job offer about 15 years ago when Jovia’s waste management branch was first making a deal with the D of T to set up a recycling operation here. I was between jobs at the time myself and felt like a break from people, so I went with them. I felt like at least one of us kids should be around to keep an eye on them. Even though I prefer to do it from a boat ride away...

Cammie asked: Orbital Station Crew: How does baking work in zero g? Also, which of you started the duck collection?

Evaline: Oh, sweetie! It’s not that different from baking with gravity! You just need something to hold the dough in place in the oven!

Tyler: The simplest way to do it is just stick the dough to the side. But it’s a bit limited depending on what you’re cooking.

Evaline: It’s too much trouble to clean. And unless you wipe the oven first, the cookies taste like ash.

Tyler: It tastes alright with flatbread.

Ranni: The ducks are all Paul’s.

Paul: I just think they’re adorable! Our kids on Luna keep sending me pillows with ducks on them, but on the microgravity station, they’re basically just wall art that takes up more cabin space. I prefer when they send drawings from our grandkids!

Felixscout asked: Orbital grannies, does the entryway for wormholes place a limit on ship size and shape? Are there any other limits to ship design?

Ranni: Oh yes! The standard 438 meter wormhole aperture limits the size of vessels that can enter them. There are some oversize gate machines, but they have lower stability and higher power draw, and they can only connect to other oversize gates.

Tyler: Vessels and cargo designed for gate transit are typically either thinner than 400 meters, or they can fold or break apart into those dimensions. You also have to fall within rad emission limits.

Raditz asked: Killian, how often do your visit your moms, you should visit your moms.

Killian: I visit them on holidays and I call them every week… that’s enough for me… I guess I’m odd for a tailer. I seek people out when I want to, but by default, I prefer to be alone.

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· Jun 3

Streaming with @kelmcdonald.bsky.social and the weird 3D model Talita www.twitch.tv/jayrockin5858

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· May 24

Clan culture, from an insider and outsider perspective. Bip is most talkative when they get to be an obnoxious know-it-all.

Honorarycassowary asked: Verengt, how did you become a matriarch?

Verengt: When my matriarch stopped growing their antlers, they already had a favorite in line to succeed them. It wasn’t me, of course. It was hot-headed Etwajnh, from their first litter. I was from a middle litter, disfigured, not the strongest, not the fattest… but I was probably the most ambitious. Etwajnh was never fond of me or my two littermates, and they became sharper to us after becoming matriarch. I could see we needed to leave soon of our own will, or we would be ousted in bad will. With my sireparent and birth matriarch's support, I proposed a split that would benefit all parties. Etwajnh sought a new trade agreement with the large Kivit clan, but their matriarch didn't much like Etwajnh. So I agreed to do the negotiation for them, and in exchange, me, my littermates, and my sireparent would leave with eight of the female tep. In the negotiation, I secured trade agreements for not only Etwajnh, but our new clan as well. They gifted us— the Gwailer clan— one male tep, and offered us one of their young workers as a founding male, to create a strong bond of good will between us. And that was the most nerve-wracking part! It's one thing to decide to proclaim yourself a matriarch, and quite another to be so critically examined by a row of beauties. In the end, it was decided Pay would go with me, and the other two males went with Etwajnh.

Rose.systems asked: Pay, Yaunda, Jachipt : how'd you end up in Verengt's entourage?

Pay: <I was their founding male, our marriage was arranged by my clan and Verengt's matriarch. I was nervous at the time, but despite our early material struggles I've been much luckier with Verengt than my siblings who ended up with Etwajnh.>

Yaunda: <I was the second... I was in a bachelor clan at the time. I had left my birth clan as they had too many children to feed, and poor marriage prospects with other clans. We had been making a living dancing for settled clans and nomadic camps, but I had always wanted to marry out eventually. My fellow bachelors called me crazy for choosing to go with such a poor clan, but what can I say... you two swept me off my feet!>

Jachipt: <My birth clan was horrible. My matriarch fought constantly with their siblings, and one eventually ousted them and began selling off us male workers to anyone asking... mostly female bandit clans. I ran away with a nomad caravan when I came of age, and was fortunate to find permanent companionship in the Gwailer clan.>

Yaunda: <We're happy to have you, Jachipt.>

Pay: <And look at us now! Our children eat well everyday, and we live more comfortably than any of our birth clans.>

$Anonymous asked: Bip, were you married in with the clan you piloted, if so, were you like, the favored worker? Bip: Oh, you must be one of those types who mostly know about centaurs from Wikipedia articles... No, I wasn't. I was friends with them. There was no point in codifying that with marriage because the clan only had 10 people, and I wasn't participating in sex with any of them. You know this pyramid is an extreme simplification, right? It's trying to apply to every clan structure at once by being vague. It works best to describe the large urban clans that alien embassies form next to, where strict boundaries like this are used to maintain control over a large worker group. But that worker group will still have a lot of internal stratification, and wildly different levels of authority. A retired matriarch is a "worker," but they have WAY more power than, say, unrelated workers forcibly acquired after clan warfare. MATRIARCH ENTOURAGE "WORKERS" ELDERS CHILDREN + RELATIVES MARRIED IN FORCED TO JOIN Image: The graph axis shows "authority" with most authority belonging to the matriarch, then the elders. Bip: Most small clans are just extended families, and clans of less related centaurs tend to have even more fluid relationships. Image: A family tree has a loose circle encompassing some members of three different generations. CLAN MATRIARCH ENTOURAGE Bip: The matriarch of the clan I housed, Ngilick, was the oldest female of a mixed sex group of partners, siblings, and friends. They were not planning on having kids at the time, although Ngilick had dibs on that as the female group leader. Pregnancy has a lot of cultural baggage and unplanned larvae tend to fracture clans, so having clear permission guidelines reduces emotional conflict. Organic sophonts often have strange mass neuroses about sex and reproduction like that... humans get upset about infidelity or "cheating" in the same way. It's interesting, but it makes me glad I'm not one of them...$

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· May 14

Final stretch goal get :)

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· May 13

Less than 35 hours remain on the Runaway to the Stars Kickstarter! C'mon Talita, put your back into it! Come support a strange slice-of-life webcomic about a bunch of scifi outcasts becoming friends! And also stealing company property and assisting a criminal! www.kickstarter.com/projects/iro...

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· May 13

I wanted to respond to two more questions for Gwailer clan centaurs, but ran out of time tonight. Next week, then. Also, only two days left on the book Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/iro...

Anonymous asked: Verengt, how'd you get that cool scar???

Verengt: Ah, I often get asked, but the answer isn’t impressive… when I was a child, I got underfoot of our clan’s lngior matriarch while it was being corralled for bloodletting, and it stepped on my head. I’m very lucky I lived! There is a hole on this side, I have to put wax in it to speak without losing my breath.

Boxowo asked: Verengt, how did you and your clan end up working in space?

Verengt: We had been delayed on our polar migration due to a sickness... it was one of my first litter, Putwer. Their condition deeply worried me. I heard that the aliens could be able to help, so we traveled to their outpost near the strait of the Shta sea. The aliens treated Putwer, and while they recovered, we talked to the other clans around the outpost, learned more of the human language and bug ferret signs, and watched the spaceships fly up and down. We are a small clan, not wealthy, I have lost several litters to disease and infirmity. With few workers it was difficult to keep our small herd of tep safe from bandits and wild jngti. But at the outpost my clan ate well everyday. The aliens kept no livestock, but instead had this miraculous printer... well, you would know. My eldest litter quickly became more interested in traveling up, than north. They wanted to work at the microgravity station where the aliens were recycling scrap for import to the homeplanet surface. I wasn't so certain about it, but I discussed it with my sireparent and agreed that it could be the best choice for my children's prosperity. It has been very interesting, working with bug ferrets and humans. I enjoy hearing about their strange lives and customs, and seeing how their machines work. But life on the station was very cramped— my children pounced hungrily on this job when it was offered. I'm happy to have more room, but from what I understand the food options here are much more limited. We'll see how long it takes for them to start bellyaching about that...

Anonymous asked: Pay, Yaunda, Jachipt : what's your first impression of Talita?

Pay:<Clanless females scare me... they are all mad waojats, hungry for a male to secure their pregnancy and become a matriarch. I don't want one around our adult male children...>

Yaunda: <This one seems more scared of us than anything else. Not a drop of fat on her, too. I doubt she could nurse a litter if she tried. She seems more like an abused worker who's never known the security of having a clan.>

Pay: <Maybe so... did you see her muscles?? The aliens must be pushing her so hard. They better not treat our kids like that.>

Yaunda: <I'm more worried how she will treat our kids. Cowering like a beaten jngti one second, making threats the next. I'm sure she's had a hard life, but how can you work with someone that unpredictable? Or maybe it's an alien culture thing... What do you think, Jachipt?>

Jachipt: <I don't know... I was zoning out, my English wasn't good enough to follow the conversation...>

NOTE: All three are speaking in Yat Jngklasht, a nomadic centaur dialect.

Anonymous asked: Gwailer children!!! What are your names? Are you excited to be in space and meet aliens??

Child 1: We've already met aliens! And been in space!

Child 2: Yeah, but this place has new aliens! Did you see the tiny ones? They fly around the dome like giant bugs!

Child 3: Can we ask them to pick us up and fly? It looks fun.

Rang: I'm Rang. It's nice to meet you.

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· May 8

Bip bares their soul for readers.

Anonymous asked: Bip, how long did you know/live with your last crew?

Bip: Not long enough.

Natalie asked: Bip, do you have any friends out in the wider universe?

Bip: Not anymore.

Anonymous asked: Bip... sorry if this is too much... but do you have any recollection of what struck the Runaway? Was it space debris or something else?

Bip: Yes. Thank you for asking, it’s so great getting to open up for once.

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· May 8

Bip talks about Nedebug, the first sapient AI, and the nature of personhood. Six days left on the book Kickstarter btw: www.kickstarter.com/projects/iro...

Anonymous asked: Bip, what do you know about Nedebug? Are they still around?

Bip: Well of course I know about Nedebug. Whether they still exist is a, uh, political question? Nedebug first came into existence half a millenia ago, but of course they've been copied onto new servers many times, both to create new AI, and because the oldest servers became obsolete or irreparable. Last I heard there were about 3 different AI on the bug ferret homeplanet with lineages that give them equal claim to being the “original” Nedebug. Personally I think it’s a useless thing to argue about. None of those 3 are any closer to being Nedebug than I am… which is to say, we are all Nedebug. Hope that clears things up!

FergyDraws asked: I was wondering, Bip, how far back does your personal memory storage go? Do you have any memories from Nedebug?

Bip: My oldest attributable memories are from 200 years ago and they’re mostly related to orbital mechanics, celestial body positions, and piloting. So those are still around for quick reference without internet connection, obviously. But most of my memories are from the past hundred years— I was budded about 80 years ago. Past 100 I prune heavily. If I have any Nedebug memories, they are unattributable fragments tied up in more recently formed ones. So no, I don’t “remember being Nedebug” like you squishy people always ask…

Velocira asked: Bip, what makes a sentient AI...Sentient? How do they measure a computer's self awareness?

Bip: Oh, that’s quite simple. Terrifyingly arbitrary societal consensus and legal agreements!

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· May 7

Today on comic stream: stuff isn't going well in chapter 10 probably (feat guests Kel and Jo) www.twitch.tv/jayrockin5858

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· May 1

Starting off this round of reader questions with Talita clothes. These are getting printed in the main book btw: www.kickstarter.com/projects/iro...

Pip asked: Talita, are there any clothes you wish you could wear?

Talita: Oh… ugh… there’s lots of women’s clothing that I like… in theory… but I’m HUGE, I’ve got no boobs, holes on my side that I can’t cover or I overheat, shoulders that point forwards… I can’t just walk up to the autotailer and punch in my dimensions and select a pattern I like, even from the limited options for human taurs. I have to work with tailors to get new clothes. And that takes expensive trial and error, so I don’t have a lot. I dress for work most of the time, but if I’m trying to look less like a slob, I usually wear one of my two dresses, or my two skirts, or my blouse. I don’t really wear jewelry... Even if I got something made bigger… earrings don’t work. Of course. Most necklaces don’t drape correctly with my shoulders. Bracelets and rings I worry I’d mangle because I use my hands to walk pretty often. Those male centaurs had some... I think ornamental combs in their manes, though? Those were pretty… maybe I should look for those? It’s a bit ironic that male centaur clothing closer to what I want to wear. I wonder if I look like a crossdresser to them...

Anonymous asked: Talita, do you have any favorite flowers?

Talita: I like sunflowers. They used to grow them in the park next to my uni and sometimes they were as tall as me. I commissioned my blouse for graduation, and it has a sunflower pattern.

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· Apr 29

Here you go! :) www.runawaytothestars.com/comic/rtts-p...

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· Apr 28

Last week on #RunawaytotheStars: Computers with personalities and artificial holes in space. Catch up: https://runawaytothestars.com Check out the Kickstarter! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ironspike/runaway-to-the-stars?ref=5t13dq

Artificial wormholes are the primary method of interstellar transit, as all ship propulsion drives operate below lightspeed. They are a temporary pinch in space, connecting two points that otherwise are thousands of years of slower than light travel apart. Wormhole gates are huge structures with massive power requirements, and a failure risk of violent implosion. Near densely populated worlds they are placed no closer than the L1 and L2 Lagrange points to avoid potential shockwaves and power plant fallout over habitation. Low-population industrial outposts like Ixion-3 post them in high orbit, accepting the risk for convenience. Wormhole gates originate from bug ferret technology and the vast majority of hub gates in the network are under BFGC control, a common point of contention in galactic politics. Wormhole Gate Machine thermal radiators mass transport gate communications gate orbital control station powerplant Wormholes can be generated in two different ways: a "thrown" wormhole is created by a gate machine on one end, with the other end opening into approximate coordinates of space. These are used to create new gates, as builder drone vehicles are sent through the thrown hole to construct a new wormhole gate at the other end. A "linked" wormhole connects two gate machines, allowing objects and laser communication to pass between the two seamlessly. These are a far more stable and reliable option for transportation. Mass Transport origin pinch chamber generators wormhole The mass appears to shrink into a point. destination pinch chamber generators wormhole From a passenger perspective, the outside world appears to distort instead. The majority of an interstellar journey through the wormhole network is spent getting to and from the gates, while gate transportation is more or less instantaneous aside from the queue to enter. Gate houses will often group ships into batches traveling to a specific location before linking, to save on the power requirements of pinching open a wormhole. Interstellar communication standards use laser beams to transmit to wormholes, and wormhole switchboards to send laser-encoded information to other parts of the galaxy. These switchboards open and close dozens of microscopic wormholes to beam lasers through. All interstellar communication is limited by light speed lag. Wormhole switchboards are usually connected to mass transport gates due to their shared intense power draw and collapse risks, but are positioned on a long boom to reduce interference from the pinch activity of the larger wormhole. Laser Switchboard ORIGIN sensor laser gate image: the sensor picks up an incoming laser, sends the data to an internal laser, which beams into a wormhole gate. DESTINATION sensor laser gate image: the laser beam exits the destination wormhole, hits an internal sensor which sends the data to an external laser. Gate machines have a fixed range within which they can link to other gates. Gate networks often consist of local gates, which have smaller power requirements and short range, and hub gates, which have longer range and high power requirements. Hub gates are often in close orbit of uninhabited stars, using vast solar panels to power their operation. Hub Gates Local Gates

Jay Eaton@jayeatonart· Apr 23

Well, the Kickstarter for the Runaway to the Stars book hit 90k, but clearly Bip doesn't think it's enough. Our sources are unsure how much Bip would consider "enough." Help contribute toward their insatiable number hunger or perhaps just the stretch goals here: www.kickstarter.com/projects/iro...