Line #7 Webcomic/Starslip


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stk363586.jpg]]
2
3	''[[http://starslip.krisstraub.com/ Starslip]]'' is a hybrid Science Fiction / Fine Art comic by Creator/KrisStraub.
4
5	Set in the year 3440 on the Terran Directorate Ship ''Fuseli'', formerly the ''Crimson Fall'', a "[[StarshipLuxurious luxury battle cruiser]]" converted into a museum ship. Built so that the crew would get a morale boost of the opulence of the Fuseli, the caviar rations made the crew sluggish and easily overcome.
6
7	Was originally named "Starshift Crisis" until a potential copyright issue with the video game ''[=StarShift: The Zaran Legacy=]'' caused Straub to change it to "Starslip Crisis" in the "Overdrive" storyline. It was then named for the Starslip drive, the main form of {{FTL}} for the universe, which actually ''slips'' between [[AlternateUniverse parallel universes]] and is normally kept to a very close set of universes where you switch places with a copy of yourself in that universe. Because so many alternate universes use the drive the changes are so small as to be non-existent. Afterwards all mention of Starshift was changed to Starslip in not only the domain name, [[OrwellianRetcon but the comic itself.]] And after "The End of The End" the comic was shortened to simply ''Starslip'', and given an ArtShift to boot. The drive now works by moving the ship along two points on a straighter than straight line, with a wonderfully forced explanation for why this is still called a "starslip". (Incidentally, the {{retronym}} for the old tech? "Shift Drive".)
8
9	The strip began as a send-up of artistic and science fiction tropes, but [[CerebusSyndrome incorporated longer and more complicated storylines]] -- particularly after the ArtShift -- while maintaining humor. It ended on June 15, 2012.
10
11	Main characters include Memnon Vanderbeam, the fussy, arrogant curator of the ''Fuseli''; Cutter Edgewise, the drunk ex-pirate who is now Fuseli's pilot; Mr. Jinx, a cirbozoid, a {{stoic}} insectoid with BizarreAlienBiology, whose race has repeatedly faced extermination at the hands of others; Meridian Holliday, chief engineer with a crush on Vanderbeam.
12
13	----
14	!!''Starslip'' provides examples of:
15
16	* AIIsACrapshoot: Works in humanity's favor for once. A robot shows up, having last been seen planning a revolt against humanity. At some point between then and now, it downloaded the intelligence of a couple hundred robots buried (alive? Functioning, anyway...) rather than leave them. This caused its IQ to explode, at which point it reevaluated its priorities and decided organics were okay after all. It doesn't last long, as he's [[spoiler:blown out an airlock and melts upon reentry into a nearby planet]] soon after that revelation is made.
17	* AlasPoorVillain: Parodied. As Katarakis' plans fall apart, he gets [[http://starslip.chainsawsuit.com/starslip/starslip-number-969/ a page]] where he laments his misfortune in artistic silhouette:
18	-->'''Katarakis:''' All I wanted was to enslave a destroyed universe of tortured dead.
19	* AlienArtsAreAppreciated: One of the main themes.
20	* AllCrimesAreEqual: All crimes on Cirbozoid are punished by [[https://starslip.krisstraub.com/20060727.shtml an acid bath]].
21	* AlternateUniverse: Starslip drives switch with a double in an alternative universe.
22	* AnachronismStew: A 2008 series of strips cleverly plays this with [[https://starslip.krisstraub.com/20081017.shtml Concrete Universe]], future CSI-type "historical drama" set in "the twentieth century" which casually mixes technologies, attitudes and stereotypes from "the past"; detectives ride in covered wagons, wield scimitars, and deal with criminals who "smoke booze".
23	* ArtShift:
24	** "The End of the End" reboot provided Straub with a convenient place to update the style of the strip to the quality and detail he currently prefers to draw in.
25	** Near the finale of the strip, [[spoiler: Memnon starts dreaming of the Renaissance era, in stylized sepia tones and more detailed artwork. It turns out that these are actually memories, somehow.]]
26	* BerserkButton: Teasing Cutter for only having one eye tends to piss him off.
27	* BizarreAlienBiology: Mr. Jinx's physiology gets increasingly ridiculous as the series progresses, and is frequently lampshaded. "His" anesthetic saliva and ability to vent chloroform are used frequently.
28	-->'''Cutter:''' [[https://starslip.krisstraub.com/20091014.shtml Mr. Jinx! Use one of your gross biological functions to stun him!]]
29	* BloodyMurder: Most people might think that Cirbozoids would have acidic blood, but no: Mr. Jinx has an ''alkaline'' blood.
30	* BodyHorror: Mr Jinx often veers into this. So does Dahk Tarr when he is assigned as ship doctor. Tarrs species are shapeshifitng translucent blobs of jelly with clearly visible organs floating around inside.
31	* BodyBackupDrive: Quine does this. If his body is killed, a new one is created in a [[CloningGambit cloning tank]] on board ship and his consciousness downloaded into it.
32	* BottledHeroicResolve: Cutter.
33	* BrickJoke: The Jovians working on an alternative drive was first seen as a newspaper headline.
34	** The Deep Time agents stop a pitched battle when they remember the weakest weapons they have put holes in planets. [[http://starslip.chainsawsuit.com/starslip/starslip-number-899/ Much later...]]
35	* BrokenPedestal: Vanderbeam to Holiday, after she discovers his lingering obsession with Jovia, and the lengths he'll go to to restore her.
36	* BrownNote The Spine of the Cosmos, when viewed in context, makes people into mental slaves of whom ever owns it. [[spoiler:But it's art, so if you alter its context enough to [[DeathOfTheAuthor make the artist's intended meaning inapplicable...]]]]
37	* {{Buffyspeak}}: Used by Vanderbeam on occasion when he tries to sound "authoritative".
38	-->'''Vanderbeam:''' Target its ''go-parts'' and ''make explosions''.
39	* ButtMonkey: Officer Quine
40	* CanonWelding: Vore, AKA Vaporware came from ''Webcomic/CheckerboardNightmare'', Straub's previous strip.
41	* CaptainErsatz: the directorate monoliths are the SEELE committee from Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion. WordOfGod acknowledges this in a [[http://starslip.com/2010/01/ blog post]].
42	* CloningGambit: Quine's BodyBackupDrive (see above) is cloning-based.
43	* CosmicRetcon: As of January 9 2009, forget everything you know. They've slipped two years into the past, in a world where Starslip Drive has been outlawed.
44	** Perhaps also includes the major plot event when they slipped into a universe where [[spoiler:Princess Jovia died]] several months previous. The AlternateUniverse nature of the drive makes it insanely easy to do this, which used to be the titular crisis.
45	** Its not really a cosmic retcon if you keep on adding to the old continuity with major plot points. [[spoiler: The Chronomantic is revealed to be Time Traveling Vanderbeam's son. ]]
46	* CrackPairing: Deliberately invoked to screw with the future. When Deep Time invades, they're invulnerable so long as they know what the future will be. Holiday decides that the most random and improbable thing to do to mess with the future is to start making out with Cutter right there on the spot. May have led to a LastMinuteHookup (see below).
47	* CreatorCameo: Straub was in attendance at SDCC when the Fuseli accidentally timewarped to 2007, seen [[https://starslip.krisstraub.com/20070802.shtml here]].
48	* DeathIsCheap: For Quine, the cost of death is just the raw materials used by his cloning vat. And clothes. And pain.
49	* DrinkingOnDuty: Cutter, in [[https://starslip.krisstraub.com/20050906.shtml this strip]], among others. In fact, there is nary a moment when Cutter isn't drinking on duty.
50	** Sure there is. Even Cutter has to sleep sometimes.
51	* EldritchLocation: The Fuseli, if you can believe it. During one arc exhibits start going missing, then turning up in other places badly mangled. It eventually turns out that, due to some bizarre and arcane technical specifications and factory defaults, the bulkheads of rooms connected to the outer hull actually ''move'' slowly, and the missing exhibits are simply being scraped off the walls as they pass.
52	* EnergyBeings: What mankind evolved into in the "really far future". Deep Time was created to protect the timeline from anything that might endanger that future.
53	** [[spoiler:Future Vanderbeam's plan ensured that humanity will never become this, meaning Deep Time will have never existed.]]
54	* ExpositionBeam: [[https://starslip.krisstraub.com/20090504.shtml Subverted.]]
55	* {{Expy}}: Zillion seems to share a few traits (mostly cosmetic) with [[{{Series/Firefly}} Captain Reynolds]], as played by Nathan ''Fillion''.
56	** Just to drive the point even further, Zillion even uses the name "Fillion" as an alias at one point.
57	** For that matter, Admiral Huff of the ''Spacica'' calls Admiral William Adama of the ''Galactica'' to mind.
58	** Ash Cordry (from another comic of Straub's, [[http://fchords.com/ FChords]]) makes a prominent appearance in the [[https://starslip.krisstraub.com/20100113.shtml Cutter Edgewise, P.I.]] storyline. He's identical to the original Ash, [[spoiler:except he's actually a wig-wearing alien impostor.]]
59	* FanOfThePast: Memnon is very much a fan of the past (his specific area of interest being late 20th to early 21st century), being an art curator. His art exhibits include the last remaining copy of the ''Catwoman'' film as well as ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''.
60	* FasterThanLightTravel: Starslip
61	* FlatWhat: [[https://starslip.krisstraub.com/20110105.shtml "She's made of pressurized vapor."]]
62	* FutureImperfect: The ShowWithinAShow "[[https://starslip.krisstraub.com/20081017.shtml Concrete Universe]]", which combines covered wagons with laser technology in a perfect example of 20th century police work.
63	* FutureSlang: Mostly parodied with "Space" being added in front of everything.
64	** Even going as far as "What on Space-Earth?!"
65	** "Good [[DepartmentofRedundancyDepartment space heavens!]]"
66	** Taken even further with Zillion's "Deep Slang", which largely consists of dropping the last word of ''every''.
67	*** ... sentence.
68	*** According to WordOfGod, Zillion's entire purpose is as an extended TakeThat to what Straub viewed as an excessive use of FutureSlang in ''{{Series/Firefly}}''.
69	* FriendToAllLivingThings: The Jinxlets, to the point where they emitt an energy that causes other animals to feel happy and at peace.
70	* HiddenDepths: Cutter, paralyzed by seeing the Spine of the Cosmos in it's proper context, hears Vanderbeam pedanterizing about how it's not being seen in the proper context because they're just seeing a filmed projection of it. He processes this revelation and snaps out of it. The drunkard ex-pirate is the only one for whom this tactic works, suggesting that he ''actually understands what Vanderbeam's going on about.''
71	* HistoricalInJoke: Fuseli was an 18th-century painter.
72	* HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct Deep Time used to kill Hitler then go back in time to save him as a way to pass weekends.
73	** HistoricalInJoke: Hitler survived a ''lot'' of assassination attempts through what seemed like pure blind luck.
74	* HumanNotepad: [[spoiler:Katarakis]] uses this to cause Deep Time to [[spoiler:detonate the Jupiter Bomb ahead of schedule...]]
75	-->''[[https://starslip.krisstraub.com/20090101.shtml "NEVER LEAVE A POWER-MAD TIME DESPOT ALONE WITH A SPORK."]]''
76	* IDidntMeanToTurnYouOn: Poor Holiday...
77	* ImmortalLifeIsCheap
78	* InfiniteCanvas: "The End of the End", where the Starslip website itself was destroyed.
79	** The [[https://starslip.krisstraub.com/20090109.shtml archived version]] doesn't do it justice. On the day it ran, it took up an entire splash page. As an added bonus, the ''tumbling navigation buttons really worked''!
80	* InterspeciesRomance:
81	** Quine and Raquel. To specify, Raquel was originally a drone from the Quel collective, a race of telepathic beings joined in a HiveMind, until Vanderbeam accidentally caused them to develop independence.
82	** Silane (a sentient gas cloud) and Cutter.
83	* ISurrenderSuckers: [[spoiler:Zillion]] uses this to bait the [[spoiler:Xenotrids]] into range after [[spoiler:he, Cutter, and Jynx are shot down]].
84	* ItOnlyWorksOnce: Averted - when the ship finds themselves in the war against Katarakis for the second time, they defeat him in the exact same way they did before travelling back in time (i.e., [[spoiler: Jinx wearing the Spine of the Cosmos as a hat.]])
85	* KidFromTheFuture: [[spoiler: The Chronomantic turns out to be Vanderbeam and Jovia's son. Who spent his formative years in the Renaissance. Go figure.]]
86	* LamePunReaction: Vanderbeam probably isn't the only one [[https://starslip.krisstraub.com/20090629.shtml rolling his eyes]] here.
87	* LastMinuteHookup: Implied in the final episode. Holliday and Cutter are holding hands.
88	* LetsGetDangerous: A not-quite-mock-combat-caused flashback [[http://starslip.chainsawsuit.com/starslip/clarification/ gives Vanderbeam]] ''[[http://starslip.chainsawsuit.com/starslip/clarification/ motivation]]''.
89	* LovingAShadow: Vanderbeam's obsession with Jovia.
90	* MadArtist: Xxxyyy (more below).
91	* MassiveMultiplayerCrossover: One was planned between ''Starslip'', ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' and a few others. However, due to various different factors, it was cut short.
92	* MeaningfulName: A ''quine,'' in programming terms, is a program that can reproduce itself.
93	** Memnon may also be an example, named after a great king and warrior in ''Literature/TheIliad.'' Whether this is an ironic NonindicativeName or {{Foreshadowing}} is still up in the air.
94	** And Cutter Edgewise is a pretty deft hand with a [[LaserBlade laser cutlass.]]
95	* MetamorphosisMonster: The Jinxlets are adorable little bug creatures that gain nourishment from cuddling. When fed Royal Jelly, however, they turn into terrifying berserker engines of destruction.
96	* MundaneMadeAwesome: "''This will be... MY GREATEST CURATION EVER!''"
97	* MythArc: Memnon's secret quest to find a way back to Jovia drives a lot of key plot and character development, and gives us many of the strip's more dramatic moments, but can sometimes be easy to lose sight of amongst all the shorter, more contained story arcs and gags.
98	* NakedOnRevival: Quine, over and over again.
99	* NiceJobFixingItVillain: [[spoiler:The insanely paranoid Zarde staffed his warship entirely with TrickedOutTime copies of himself. The instant Deep Time realizes that the warship only has technically one crewmember - a deranged psychopath they're more than willing to kill - they instantly vaporize it.]]
100	* NoodleImplements:
101	-->'''[[https://starslip.krisstraub.com/20061122.shtml Aldus Vanderbeam]]''': I also learned I wasn't good at talking to nude models, art professors, the dean of the art department, and campus police. You will never hear that story.
102	-->'''[[https://starslip.krisstraub.com/20080116.shtml Ervoth Von Lucifuge]]''': Remember the Harrakon disaster of '37? That was ''me''. And ''six trained goldfish''.
103	* NoodleIncident: Whatever happened to Hyper-Maine (which was meant to be similar to how Japan is now in space), people typically don't discuss it.
104	* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: The transition from ''Starslip Crisis'' to ''Starslip''.
105	* NotSoAboveItAll: Vanderbeam starts giggling about holes in [[https://starslip.krisstraub.com/20110629.shtml this strip]].
106	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Captain Zarde's "outside-the-box thinking" in a training exercise manages to ''royally piss Vanderbeam off''.
107	-->'''Zarde:''' [[BlatantLies We just had a weapons malfunction is all!]] Don't get so ''touchy!''
108	-->'''Vanderbeam''': You're a ''bad captain'', Zarde. People like you only learn by ''being touched'', and ''hard''. And you will greatly disapprove of where ''[[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything these men put their hands]]''.
109	-->'''Cutter:''' Oh my god.
110	* PlanetOfSteves: Nearly everything on the Cirbozoids' planet is simply named "Cirbozoid", from cities to rivers to their currency to warcries to the planet itself. The planet's moon is called Cirbozoidmoon.
111	* PostModernism: The Starshift to Starslip switch
112	** And, more recently, "The End of The End" which also switched the title again to Starslip.
113	* QuickNip: Cutter, ''repeatedly''.
114	* RedShirt: Subverted. In a clear ShoutOut to the TropeNamer ''Franchise/StarTrek'', the "redheaded" protocol officer Quine is stabbed through the heart on the ''Paradigm'''s first mission, five minutes after landing on the alien planet. It's not until ''after'' Vanderbeam mourns his death that we find out about the BodyBackupDrive.
115	--> '''Vanderbeam''': Oh, Quine! [[GenreBlindness There was no foreseeing your demise on an unknown alien world.]]
116	** Quine continues to die on subsequent missions, making him a ''recurring'' RedShirt and moving the whole trope into ZigZagged territory.
117	* RetGone: [[spoiler:The elderly Vanderbeam tricks Katarakis into using his time suit in an attempt to rewrite the Universe from the Big Bang. Instead, the suit spreads an engram that ensures that TheSingularity Deep Time arose to protect will never form in the first place, slowly erasing Deep Time from the timeline and Katarakis with it.]]
118	* RidiculouslyCuteCritter: The Jinxlets. Their main source of nutrients is '''SNUGGLING'''.
119	* SeriousBusiness: Fine Art is really, ''really'' important. At one point, Memnon's art curation skills save the universe.
120	** "''In order to save your life, you must make a '''classic, lasting''' piece of art. '''Now'''.''"
121	** "'''This will be my greatest curation EVER.'''"
122	* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Menmon. Even in old age. [[spoiler: Even when he's dying.]]
123	* ShoutOut: [[https://starslip.krisstraub.com/20070109.shtmlThis strip]].
124	** A quick shout out to [[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 MST3K]] [[http://starslip.chainsawsuit.com/starslip/starslip-number-85/ here]]. (Rocket Number Nine being the catch-all for any exterior shot.)
125	** [[https://starslip.krisstraub.com/20080128.shtml Jinx]] mentions a Titan-class Cirbozoid getting loose on pre-contact Earth.
126	-->'''Mr. Jinx''': "My family doesn't talk about cousin Film/{{Cloverfield}}, sir."[[note]]This strip was put up ''the day after'' someone commented on the forums on how the Cloverfield monster reminded him of a Cirbozoid. Straub replied with a link to the strip and the phrase "[[AscendedFanon CANON'D]]"[[/note]].
127	** The [[https://starslip.krisstraub.com/20101103.shtml mech]] Vanderbeam pilots to fight an overgrown Jinx is essentially an [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Evangelion]].
128	*** And it carries the designation number [[Film/JamesBond 007]].
129	** Two different [[ShoutOut Shout Outs]] in [[https://starslip.krisstraub.com/20110622.shtml the same strip]]: ''Manga/TheEnigmaOfAmigaraFault'' and ''Literature/CandleCove'' (which Kris Straub also wrote.)
130	* TheSingularity: It exists in the far future, and is the reason for Deep Time's [[KnightTemplar extreme]] measures against the Starslip drive.
131	* SmallNameBigEgo: Vanderbeam
132	* SpacePirates: Cutter has the eyepatch and everything. He was a pirate science officer.
133	* SpaceX: Space-parodies this space-trope space-''constantly''. See also FutureSlang.
134	* StableTimeLoop: Used several times by both our heroes and Deep Time. [[https://starslip.krisstraub.com/20080807.shtml One strip even thanks Heinlein]]
135	** Well, it did, back when it was on Wordpress and had individual titles.
136	* StandardStarshipScuffle: With occasional Lampshading.
137	* StarfishAliens: Invoked [[https://starslip.krisstraub.com/20090713.shtml Here]], with giant, armless centipedes.
138	* StarshipLuxurious: The Fuseli itself
139	** It was originally constructed to test a theory that pampered soldiers would fight harder and win more battles so they could get back to the caviar faster. This failed predictably, and it was converted into a museum.
140	** [[https://starslip.krisstraub.com/20050524.shtml Diamond-reinforced mahogany....]]
141	* SufficientlyAdvancedAliens: The aforementioned centipedes, who [[spoiler:teleport the ''Paradigm'' and its crew along with ''every single celestial object known to mankind to the other end of the galaxy'' just to be left alone.]]
142	* SwapTeleportation: The titular drive system works by swapping the ship and its contents with a counterpart in another universe that's already at the destination. The issues become quickly apparent.
143	* TalkLikeAPirate: Cutter not so much, but his friends back in the SpacePirates, oh so yes.
144	* {{Teleportation}}: Subverted -- the crew steps onto a "relevator" (with a design reminiscent of the transporters of Franchise/StarTrek) which turns out to simply shoot down onto Cirbozoid's surface at near-light speed.
145	* ThirtySecondsOverTokyo: the islands of Japan are now In space.
146	* TimePolice: Deep Time
147	** Deep Time could also count as a {{Deconstruction}} of the TimePolice concept since they take the usually noble goal of "protecting the future" common to similar organizations to its logical extreme: making them crazed [[KnightTemplar Knights Templar]] capable and willing to go to literal ''war with the past'' and using every underhanded tactic in the book, ranging from killing innocent people for the sole fact that they don't have any significant impact in future history, abusing TrickedOutTime, as listed below and finally [[spoiler:building and activating a giant bomb that ''destroys the entire timeline it's on'' and replaces it with one sure to result in the creation of Deep Time's "present"]].
148	* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Tea for Vanderbeam, alcohol for Cutter.
149	* TrickedOutTime: Memnon uses A2-Z to compute a certain important Starslip path, but instructs him not waste computational time answering questions he answered the first time.
150	** Deep Time especially abuses this. At one point they attack the Fuseli and go back in time to plant hypnotic triggers in every member of the crew. [[https://starslip.krisstraub.com/20080306.shtml Some]] [[https://starslip.krisstraub.com/20080307.shtml more harshly]] [[https://starslip.krisstraub.com/20080310.shtml than others]]. One agent goes back in time and FATHERS AND RAISES A CHILD so that the child can grow up, become a guard on the Fuseli, and not be able to make himself shoot his father when the Deep Time agents raid the ship.
151	%%* TrueArtIsAngsty: Many art-centered strips, but especially Xxxyyy (pronounced "zee"), a deconstruction of the modern artist, rebelling against the label, trying hard to create something that will make people wake up and realize she's just a hack. Offensiveness included here because one piece involved driving a species to extinction to use their pelts as a canvas. Oh, and I suppose [[spoiler:attempting to blow up a ship with full complement]] counts, too.[[invoked]]
152	%%** And, y'know, [[spoiler:remaking the entire universe.]]
153	* UncannyFamilyResemblance: [[spoiler:Zarde and Katarakis.]]
154	* TheUnintelligible: Zillion's FutureSlang speech makes him almost impossible to understand. Especially his habit of leaving the last word off of his.
155	* UnreliableNarrator: Mr. Jinx's information of his biology is occasionally countered by other Cirbozoids (like not needing their vestigial eyes to see) or himself (being unable to smell as Cirbozoids can only exhale).
156	** At one point, he's surprised to find out that his species is ruled by a brood-queen. [[spoiler:This may be explained by severe timeline changes.]] When they actually meet her, he offers several insightful observations about her, such as how she can't hear Memnon.
157	* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: Memnon Vanderbeam, step right up.
158	* UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler:''Katarakis'', for the ''future Vanderbeam''. Future Vanderbeam took advantage of Katarakis' ambition (at the cost of his own life) as part of his plan to retgone Deep Time.]]
159	* ViewersAreGeniuses: Much of the humor can come from artistic related puns, while art context is at least once the key to saving the galaxy.
160	* VitriolicBestBuds: Type 2: Cutter and 'Beams' almost never stop sniping at each other, but will defend each other against outside criticism, attempt to protect each other, and have plenty of nonromantic (and often promptly lampshaded) AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther moments.
161	** Jinx and just about anyone else might count as Type 1; Jinx is submissive to a ridiculous degree and takes all manner of insults from everyone but Holiday, but the others have gone out of their way to help him on several occasions, and vice versa.
162	* WaxingLyrical: [[http://starslip.chainsawsuit.com/2005/06/27/starslip-number-26/ This strip]].[[note]]These are fragments from the lyrics of Music/EltonJohn's "Rocketman".[[/note]]
163	* WelcomeToTheRealWorld: A haphazardly-plotted Starslip jump caused the Fuseli to crash into the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con.
164	* WhatTheHellHero: [[https://starslip.krisstraub.com/20100920.shtml "You have no idea how much of my respect you've lost. For good."]]
165	* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: Vanderbeam and Art.
166	* YearInsideHourOutside: When a Deep Time agent needs to think they will time travel away to think and come back a second later. At least one agent wastes his entire lifetime on a stupid idea, asking a friend to stop him from wasting it on that idea.
167

Context Webcomic / Starslip