This Character "Ask Me Anything" was a Patreon goal! From April 1st to 2nd 2023, people sent me tumblr asks directed at specific characters from Runaway to the Stars and I responded to as many of them as I physically could with short lineart comics. It took me until July to complete them this time because I was simultaneously working on book pages.

She also fixes her own clothes and shoes, so really the only thing she’s not confident doing is fashion design…

That’s 3.6 feet, for the imperial units crowd.

Talita’s got “horsefeathers.”

Something about "environmental damage" and "city shadow stunting crops" and "poor worker conditions" and "local economy disruption." You know, that kind of dumb stuff.

They're like, kind of above it all. You people who love shouting at each other about policy wouldn't understand.

These two are minor characters in the book I'm currently working on. Ohwitiil is Cheevwut's elderly manager, and the two often pair in spring, despite their clashing personalities.

Interacting with the cultural decency standards of aliens doesn't necessarily make the ones you grew up with less meaningful.

Standing upright, Guiomar is 274 cm tall (almost 9 feet).

Year-round relationships are weird for all avians. "Contractual" monogamy with financial dependence (or co-dependence) is legally a form of prostitution in the Dominion of Tiiliit.

The bigger the budget, the harder they fall.

She finds it distracting.

Another eccentric A.I. form of... music? Temporal decoration? Is huge files of recursive self-deleting code they repeatedly download for the apparent aesthetic entertainment value.

You might as well ask how many languages Windows operating system speaks. For A.I., language fluency is mostly limited by the availability and quality of downloadable language programs, and internet connection. Although, unlike an OS, A.I. will dynamically edit and add languages they encounter with insufficient online resources.

These two are like if a bungee cord and a weighed blanket were dating each other.

Don’t you FUCKING dare.

Technology adoption is a very controversial topic among homeworld centaurs, and the concern of people like Wintle-Layliv is that their cultural identity will be replaced by what aliens would prefer they be.

Also, Maulu is drawn as ≈20 y.o. here, but is like 8 when the main RttS story is happening. These AMAs take place outside time, don’t worry about it.

Large motorized vehicles are kind of rare in space habitats, which bias towards rail transit. Private cars are more of an on-planet or rural thing. None of the space-dwelling characters in this story have driven a car before, and would probably find such a responsibility frightening.

Chkbrr had a rough adolescence, and getting into terrestrial botany gave them an outlet for their impulsive thrill-seeking urges that didn’t involve clashing with local authorities and the adults of their parent’s household.

Gillie had a pretty lonely childhood, and her dads being work-at-home introverts didn’t help. She didn’t realize her social needs weren’t being met until she moved out for college and she was in contact with way more ASL speakers.

Catgirls (and similar) are a popular choice for GMH designer babies. The common conception is that because “only” the ears and tail are effected, it’s a low risk aesthetic change.

Shyam is easily overwhelmed by social situations and tends to be very hard on herself for being slow to pick up on non-verbal cues. She’s kind of a loner because of this.

In case it wasn’t clear, Shyam is in a long distance relationship with Talita. She is not a crew member of the Runaway, Talita visits when they’re docked at Naya Pradesh.

I don’t think any of the characters would self-identify as “artists” but Gillie is by far the most prolific doodler. (Gillie artwork drawn by the superbly talented @dimetrodone.)

BFL-2 writing is read down-up right-left, both vertically and horizontally.

It didn’t help their animosity that they thought Shyam was awkwardly ignoring Talita’s obvious crush, when actually, Shyam’s terrible at reading people and was politely assuming her feelings for the giant hexapodal space alien weren’t reciprocated.

Dr. Zhou was a human pediatrician who only had some xenomedicine experience with avians, but there were no other local xenophysicians in the Garriton cylinder when Talita was surrendered to human foster care. They're a deertaur GMH and their first reaction to colleagues redirecting Talita's case to them was "you know i dont know how to take care of this thing just because we have the same number of limbs, right?"

Talita had a handful of relationships and flings with humans in college. None of them stuck, for a wide variety of reasons. Most humans seeking relationships with her have been looking for novelty. Talita doesn't want to feel like a novelty, she wants to feel normal.

Growling is a distressed noise for bug ferrets, not an aggressive signal.

By the time she entered the public school system, she had mostly gotten the hang of it.

The cylinder district Idrisah grew up in has a circumference of about 19 kilometers.

Giant housecats are a fairly common GMO pet and come in a variety of domestic, wildcat, and fantasy coat patterns. Feijoada is black and tan like a Dobermann dog.

In the main story timeline, Sirawit is introduced working for Turii and is then hired by the Runaway crew to do supply management. Also, 14 years is adulthood for avians. Sirawit is 17 Earth years old but that’s equivalent to 25 for a human.

Sirawit, are you— are you sure that’s a GOOD thing?

The relative positions of authority mostly applies to proper nouns, like people, nations, cities, and organizations. You could start a war by using the wrong tone in your articles.

Gillie finds it more exhilarating than overwhelming. She’s had more than her fair share of being left out of conversations.

Gillie looooves it! (She does not)

There’s also a handful of planets that show evidence of having had life in their past, but it went extinct after planetary conditions became too harsh to sustain it.

I swear Gillie and Bip actually like each other, they just express this via mutual bullying.

No mooching allowed!

This religious belief has lead to bug ferrets investing deeply in terraforming and interstellar wormhole technology. They have a much, much larger territory than other sophonts.

Bip actually answers a question, for once! Having someone who doesn’t need to sleep fly the spaceship and watch out for potential collisions is pretty useful.

What’s a spaceship if not a very elaborate wildlife habitat?