Spacetrawler, audio version For the blind or visually impaired, December 19, 2019.
It’s a relief to have a young character in this story, someone who can unabashedly naturally just laugh.
12/19/19 – Ship Rules
It’s a relief to have a young character in this story, someone who can unabashedly naturally just laugh.
Don’t worry, the others will also have a second shower when you shake yourself dry.
Sure, Aitana can laugh NOW, but if Ruddock ever decides that she poses a “serious” treat to Emily’s authority, he won’t be nearly so cute. After all, Emily’s the Alpha of their “pack” and as every canine knows, YOU MUST OBEY THE ALPHA.
Very much liked Ruddock’s lines and expressions in this one! (also true in general, but this time especially)
Curses!
Double curses!
Is there anything better in an adventure than a lovable comic relief?
I love Ruddock
They had a home in the desert. Well, a ship. Well, a garden shed. 🙂 I suppose I ought to shower as well. Only once, though, as I am over 12.
BTW, if anyone’s interested, according to Google, “Aitana” is Portuguese for “glory.” If no one’s interested, well, that doesn’t really change anything. 😉
@Ronald, nice! I named her after the mountain range in Spain, but nice to know the meaning too. 🙂
Curses!
I hope Ruddock sticks around and is a full member of the crew like Binkie
Coyote comic relief. Wonder if there is a groomer’bot on board, might change his mind about getting a shower? Will he get scritches and cuddle-y with anyone? Don’t quite see any of that from Emily (?)
There’s no telling how many robots are on board; Galactic technology extends as far as sentient doors. Even the approxiscans themselves are, in effect, robots, as seen by the chatty one that Aitana stole and which is presumably safely ensconced in her pocket even now (too bad it’s been programmed to not tell the crew anything about its original owners). If it’s mechanical and it can engage in prolonged conversation, it’s a robot. More or less. 🙂
Hopefully, the artist will eventually depict Emily’s ship’s robots. Perhaps Aitana will insist on being introduced to each and every one of them because, hey, kids, right? Or perhaps Emily will get fed up with her human guests challenging her authority, start putting things to a vote, and then rig the vote with robots programmed to agree with everything she says. Unless they don’t. 🙂
Just thought. Are those houses significant, like people you know? Or just random houses you’ve rendered? I could see fans clamouring to get their houses crushed in the strip.
@Steve, I did! It was one of the support levels on my Kickstarter this autumn. 🙂
When you are lip syncing animals in animation, you kind of have to give them people mouths. They didn’t do that for the recent Lion King and it looked weird. I guess you don’t have to do that for comics. I get the impression that Ruddock’s untranslated language is coyote yips, whines and woofs.
Plus the occasional growl. Which I don’t think we’ve experienced yet.
Maybe Aitana can convince Ruddock to shower with her. As the “cub” of the pack, she’ll need extra protection against the evil liquid soaking her (admittedly sparse) fur on her arms and legs.
If she can learn to give a good coyote massage, he might learn to enjoy the showers.
Soweli Nasa, with CGI you can make any mouth sync to the words. What they do with foreign animation too. Or make the animal fully CGI these days.
Ruddock is a great foil and the way he is drawn the stances and expressions sell the character.
Out of nowhere, maybe Emily has some holo-recordings (or whatever) of some of her past bad-assery fighting Growp and other characters whom I don’t recall as easily. Viewing those might teach her new crew a thing or two about a thing or two.
I’m impressed that the coyote not only knows how old it is in years, but can handle concepts like “under twelve.”
A scanner like Emily’s that can apparently tell how old a person is would not be a popular app on Earth.
Just found this article this morning. Apparently a guy in Iowa adopted a coyote cub (“Drifter”) that had been abandoned by its pack and is now trying to get permission to keep it as an emotional support animal:
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2019/12/19/waterloo-iowa-man-wants-coyote-back-emotional-support-animal/2701010001/
You know, this comes to me late. Wouldn’t that approxiscan of the Puppies that Aitana stole know who the Puppies are, where they’re from, and who Kregger is in regards to their scheme? Come to think of it, how much of that scheme DOES that approxiscan know?
Time for some machine interrogation. IGOR! Fetch the sticky keyboard and the kinked USB cable! (Or OBLIGEY-BOT, if that’s easier)