Page 37. Own ways.
Starting today, the third and final print volume of O Human Star is live on Kickstarter. Go back it now for a collection that includes Chapters 6-8, a side story, and developmental art!
O Human Star
by Blue Delliquanti
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I can’t get over how proud of Al Brendan looks. They both have come a very long way.
Oh, yes! Brendan also looks content, I think, happy for Al.
I love this look, so heartwarming.
Brendan “Thats my wife” Pinsky.
Hands <3 T_T
Oh no, I can’t remember the origins of the bracelet…
Yay, Volume 3 on Kickstarter! Green cover with Sulla on it, so beautiful! ❤️
Al has it on her wrist at the start of fhe chapter when she was styling Sulla’s hair. I think the reason why its chosen as the anchoring item was because it was the first time Al ever acted as Silla’s mom.
Oh, so that’s when we first saw the bracelet! Thank you!
Rochi, yes. It’s not a bracelet, it’s a normal hair band, the kind you get at the store in packs of 50. Al has it on her wrist because she has a daughter with long hair that she was just helping her braid. It’s an extremely mom thing to have, kind of like one of any number of kid supplies you would have in a typical huge mom purse, but also intensely personal– that long long hair is a symbol of gender affirmation for both Al and Sulla. It’s good to have to be able to put your hair up if you happen to be a roboticist with hip length hair and need to tie it up when you’re working on giant robots, but the mom aspect of this is what made me tear up when I first saw it.
Ah, it’s a hair band! I didn’t realize. Thank you so much for pointing it out! This is beautiful.
I think at this point it’s also specifically a reminder of the conversation Al and Sulla had on pages 21-22 of this chapter, about “but it still doesn’t feel real to me” & “I know you want something you can see. but you told the truth, and that’s important, too.”
<3
This is such a beautiful page! Off to back the Kickstarter ^__^
This isn’t like a biological transfer of a brain. Are they both going to be active at the same time?
I’m hoping Brendan just takes the physical ‘brain’ and puts it into the new gynoid, otherwise it’s honestly sorta questionable if that’s even her.
I mean, I personally think if you transfer all functions gradually it would still be the same person -only one stream of consciousness-, but if the old brain could just be… Turned back on? With her still in there? Then you’re definitely just making a copy.
I think they are going to transfer the brain. This could be like when you get a new cellphone and transfer the Sim card over to a new debice. The old phone would still “turn on”, but won’t function.
i thought the old guy ended up being a girl or something so why does he still look like this
A. Al’s already a woman, she’s just not done the robot/AI equivalent of transitioning yet, we’re literally looking at the body Al will be in.
B. The way your phrased that kinda sucks. Please don’t ever speak this way about a real trans person.
Also, Al (the older person) and Sulla (the young lady) are different people. Sulla had different experiences from Al and believed she was an imperfect copy because of her gender being different from what everyone believed Al’s to be. The fact that this wasn’t actually the case is a nice turning point for them both that Al is now getting the chance to follow up on.
Not only because of different post-awakening experiences, but also that the associative links to unlock the memories weren’t there initially and Sulla was pretty much an amnesiac person learning to connect to life and memory, and when she gave her recovered memory linkages to be used to index the new copy of Al, she was perhaps doing multiple things. One, granting an opportunity for Brendan to see Al again. Two, granting an opportunity for Al to do a conscious self-assessment with the ability to actually recognize and admit that she could now transition and actually DO it. Which is rather deeper than the first reading suggests. Sulla grew up as a person with amnesia into a new person, but AL never got the chance to complete her transition. Now she can.
The next question: Will Brendan choose to be “uploaded” and stick around? It would be nice to actually live out that life with the person he loves.
I just discovered this comic from a recommendation on twitter! I have seriously enjoyed reading this. I love that you’ve used the sci-fi setting to explore identity in such a gentle and hopeful way. Thank you for making such a heartfelt story!
; – ;
We’re getting so close to the end! Given how meticulously planned the comic has been, though, better to wrap it up as the complete story it was intended to be than to do otherwise. I have happily contributed to the Kickstarter and look in awe of 8+ years of work that have never missed even half a beat in terms of cohesion and compellingness.
Al’s “I’m not your dad” from Chapter 2, Page 6 takes on a whole new meaning now.
I’ve been thinking about Al’s reaction to Brendan’s immediate question about whether Al might be a trans woman. No denial, just a very chilly ‘did I ever give you that impression in the slightest?’ I noticed this so long ago, and yet hadn’t seen the truth!
I always thought it was odd that Al heard about “Sulla” and immediately assumed she was Brendan’s wife. Now that we know the truth, in a way, her assumption was correct.
That’s fascinating!
Oh gosh, the last memory of significance is the bracelet. Blue! Have you played, read Kan Gao’s indie game “To the Moon”, and “Finding Paradise”?
Beautiful!
I was wondering whether Al is going to change her name—will she be Alice or Alison Sterling, maybe? It would be a nice mirror image of Sulla, which is almost Alis(tair) backwards.