Gillie!! KILL HER!!!!!!
Transcript
Idrisah and Gillie watch in surprise as Talita abruptly begins to turn around and head for the door, panicking.
Talita: S- sorry, I still don't think I'm... ready... I'll come by later!!
Gillie flushes with anger and leaps across the couch to grab Talita’s shirt sleeve.
SFX: GRAB
Talita stops walking and looks back at her in shock. Gillie is furious, ears flattened back, short white tail bristling.
Gillie: (ASL) Do you want my help with sign or not!?
72 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 177”
Sen
Talita is like a spooked horse. Gillie is about to spook her right back to the right path… I hope.
Famout
I think about every side of this has been covered so won’t discuss who’s right/wrong etc.
I just wanna cover how amusing it is, and honestly a sign of how well they know each other for someone to just… GRAB what amounts to a hyper carnivore like that.
Like seriously, Talita’s very existence should trigger some fight/flight response, and here Gillie is just casually grabbing on. Feels like a mark of real friendship for such an action to be something so easily done like that.
SheTheTDE
Remember, friends are more afraid of you than you are of them.
JoB
I guess that raises the question of whether centaurs’ evolution on their homeworld saw them faced with smaller animals that would nonetheless attack them¹ and thus provided them with reflexes to counter those …
·
¹ a.k.a. “hunting packs” and/or “parasites”
Enai
See also: domestic cats when faced with a mouse that come toward them. Extremely irritating behaviour, cat usually runs away.
zofifi
Eh, Talita. Trying to speak in foregin languge for the first time is scary, especially in front of native speaker but you need to stop chickening out because it is getting rude. Gillie is xeno-linguist, it’ll be fine.
cinna
also I really dig the way Gillie’s arm is drawn in the grab panel, really solid sense of tension and directionality in the lines and details like her elbow and the tendons in her hand 👌
cinna
Honestly, as an anxious person myself, I think I’d feel weirdly relieved in Talita’s position! I mean, this reaction would be startling for sure lol, but I’d appreciate Gillie making her feelings known. To me, ambiguity is a lot more anxiety-inducing. Gillie’s expressing that this is something she cares about, and that she’d like as a friend– she’s willing and eager to put in effort to help teach, in exchange for Talita making an effort to learn. Relationships aren’t transactional, of course, but reciprocity in some form or another is pretty foundational.
cinna
We also have parallels being set up here, between Idrisah and Talita’s social challenges, and Gillie and Talita’s physical challenges. I think, just like the former pair was able to understand each other a little better through conversation, so can the latter.
Solidago
I would like to draw attention to Gillie’s foot shadow on the couch in panel 2.
cinna
5 dabloons!
Ruby
“Get over here!”
hessian
man, i love the way you’ve written a grounded conflict here. “slice of life” does not mean that everything is always sunshine and roses!! you’ve shown that the baggage these characters hold matter, and the clash of them is important. really love it. breaks my heart.
SheTheTDE
I get so frustrated reading bad slice of life comics. So many start out good but then spiral into uninteresting relationship drama and I just sit there wondering where that came from and where all the better plot threads from earlier went. I’ll be reading about a woman returning to the town where she went to high school and even up to where she’s dating her high school crush it’s a normal story, next chapter she’s contemplating cheating on him and I’m like… This isn’t a fanfic, this is a published comic. Why did the main character get a relationship and then lose half her braincells? I much preffer stuff like this where it’s grounded in a real issue that every person has to deal with and it’s not out of character for anyone and it’s been built up to for quite some time. In my mind Slice of life should feel like real life feels. It should be the story of the day to day problems and ocasionally life changing problems in the lives of some characters who ultimately none of them are anything special.
Tyrone
U are freaking her out Gillie. If Tallitas “flee” reflexes kicks in, that exit-door is toast!
JoB
[Mel making a couple last-minute changes (reinforced doors) to the remodeling of the neighboring residential building in 5, 4, 3, …]
Jackie
I understand Gillie being frustrated and the visual is funny but as an anxiety haver myself Id squeak out the quickest apology for being a bother, leave, and then be to panicked to hardly think about the situation again much less actually go back 😅. There are few things more anxiety inducing then realizing the person I wanna learn from is frustrated/mad/upset with me
Enai
Yeah… We’ll see how Talita handles this…
thegriffin88
Gille ain’t playing no more.
Vinemaple
I’m a little concerned about how many commenters are starting to characterize one person or the other as being “in the wrong” or “problematic” here. It’s a gross oversimplification, both ways. This is a pretty complicated situation, with valid concerns and missed opportunities on both sides. They’re also getting to the point where this all has to be worked out if they are to remain friends. If they go any longer without addressing these problems, it’s going to start creating resentment and anxiety and push them all apart.
I’ve seen enough of this kind of thing in other fandoms to know that if we can’t all agree to love all the characters, it’s going to be a lot less fun to see each new page. And in this particular case, come on, folks, there’s no reason to be assigning blame or fault or antagonism here.
And can we please just let the whole scene play out, before we start moralizing about it? And maybe accept what DOES happen as proper, finished canon, and not insist it should have been something else?
Because I can kind of feel that coming, and it would be a really ugly and painful thing to see happen here, of all places.
the smart scholar of figured out all media correctly (currently thinking with mind)
well i need to figure out da good guys and bad guys. thats how it works, like in dora the explorer (my favorite story 😏) (the bad guy is swiaper btw)
thegriffin88
As a writer for both prose and comics: You cannot have your readers love every character. That’s impossible. You can have most of them like the majority, but you simply can’t control people like that. Not everyone is you. You just have to learn to accept it.
Gar G
As someone with anxiety I relate so hard to Talita here…
Bwizz245
GET HER ASS
Common Handle
YES! KILL! verbally I hope
HeadWood
Gillie! Cut off her balls!
zaratustra
Kick her in the grill!
Prism
Jay you are creating a well written dynamic here where both characters have very deep-seated and understandable reasons for their feelings and behaviors rather than only presenting conflict as having a definitive victim who is in the right and villain who is in the wrong. It’s a joy to read.
Hunter
Talita’s too scared to try signing yet too scared to ask for help.
Poor anxiety-ridden bean. Good thing Gillie’s here.
Boxthing
Oh snap, she means BUSINESS!!! D:
Be afraid, be very afraid…
Greebus
I love Talita on the first panel. She really does look like an alien. Great character design. Also Gillie’s puffed-up bobtail!
Guest
Mrs. Touati-Sharpe
KILL HER
Heather
THE COUCH VAULT!!!
Enai
I adore angry!Gillie, but still maintain that Talita is treated unfairly here (by Gillie). For instance, instead of springing “Let’s adapt sign right! Now!”, they could’ve said “Let’s meet on Xday after work to adapt some sign language for Talita”, giving her time to psych herself up.
Enai
“They” meaning “the Touati-Sharpes”, not Gillie.
Adrienne
Seems like everyone will be learning some better ways to communicate with each other today 😉
JoB
Dunno, some someones [points page-top-wards] still seem (to me) to rather be headed towards growls and bared teeth instead … 😉
Dan
It’s easy to look at a conflict from an outside perspective and see how everything could have been conducted smoothly and with all parties happy, but that would make for a less interesting (and realistic) story! The “Let’s meet on Xday after work to adapt some sign language for Talita” works when both parties actually want to participate, and Talita isn’t even communicating her true reasons for putting it off. Gillie’s been rejected many times now without ever being given a reason past “maybe some other time”, and with something that’s quite important for her. As far as writing goes, this feels like a very natural feeling conflict to have developed and I’m very compelled by it. I feel for both of their struggles in this matter, and right now the onus is on Talita to finally explain herself, and decide for herself if she values comfort over accommodation with her friend’s disability. Whether or not Gilie’s anger is disproportionate, I think some people’s perceptions of her anger (I’m calling out some commenters from the last update going so far as to call this manipulation), are people projecting themselves on Talita, though I believe Talita will show more interest in how her actions/inactions impact her loved ones.
Enai
I am not criticizing the story from a Doylist perspective. I’m criticising *Gillie’s* actions from a *Watsonian* one. Of course a story with conflict is more interesting. I am allowed to think the characters could have done better in dealing with it.
.
Put another way: if the hanfsome main character wisely resists the charms of the obvious honey trap agent sent lure them to the villains lair, no plot happens. If they do fall for the temptation, I still get to yell “Nooo, you dumbass!” at the TV. This is me yelling “Noo, you beautiful idiots!” at the TV, or screen anyway, so the creator may read it and enjoy having elicited a reaction. It is not actually a criticism of the writing.
Dan
I didn’t mean to imply you were criticizing the writing, I should have just made it my own comment at that point 😛
colas
i think at this point this avoidance has actually been happening for a very long time now, gillie probably HAS attempted to do what you think she should, but talita has been promising and then making excuses to not do it. what we’re seeing is the tipping point of gillie’s patience
Enai
We don’t know that. Sure, all manner of things could have happened offscreen, but I don’t want to insert too much of my own fantasy of $character(s) into the actual happenings. Gillie is allowed to not be perfectly socially adroit. And I can be annoyed with her for it. Same for Talita or any and every other character.
colas
this is actually super my bad- i think i may have imagined some sort of timejump. i just skimmed the comic really quick and i noticed we literally have watched talita meet gillie and the original accepting of gillie’s help w/ sign
Paroxysmall
transcript says sign instead of signing
Jay Eaton
Fixed.
Stray Cat
I see an argument incoming. I see possible misunderstandings coming as well.
MissZena
YEAH I SAW THIS COMING NGL
Like yeah Talita has her reasons for continuously trying to dodge learning sign but she hasn’t communicated them to Gillie at all and comes off like she’s making promises then flaking on them at the last minute which is EXTREMELY frustrating, especially when its something as important as being able to communicate with one another in a more comfortable fashion so Gillie isn’t being left behind in conversations and having to use an unreliable phone app that can get thrown off by background noise
evileeyore
NOOOOOOO! Idrisah, protect your curry bowl!
Light_In_The_Fog
It *better* not be the second casualty of this interaction!! (the first, of course, being Talita)
JoB
Third escalation level of this chain of complications: Talita (and Gillie) rolling in the noxious-to-nonhumans substances spilled on the floor while focused on their discussion-turned-physical …
Tentament
I 100% believe Gillie could take Talita in a fight.
S0glet
If biting isn’t allowed then yes
Apollo235
If biting was allowed Gillie would bit Talita first, Gillie still sweeps
Apollo235
*BITE DAMNIT
Jay Eaton
True. Talita is a wuss who hates pain that isn’t muscle exertion.
ttt
this is why talita is actually my least favorite protagonist atm. for all her whining about wanting to be accomodated with her consent (see her rant about how she perceives getting to know any of the various centaur cultures as being physically discriminated against with the freight elevators, and her irritation with mel *not talking to her* about ‘inclusive’ housing accomodations–and fair enough, those are valid points of view that need better self-and-community advocation), she’s not willing to meet gillie’s preferred accomodations! and guess what, meeting accomodations is gonna be uncomfortable sometimes! so unpack the ableism, talita, and do better!!
(this comic is capable of making me angry with realistic scenarios, which is how you know its well-written.)
potatosapien
I wouldn’t call that WHINING, that’s a little extreme. And also, she isn’t refusing to learn ASL at all. She understands Gillie pretty well, I think. And the situation isn’t exactly analogous to a human learning a human sign language. Taking past outdated art into account, I’d speculate that it might still be canon that there isn’t much if any research into centaur’s ability to understand and speak human sign languages. If the whole “centaurs can’t understand human sign” thing is still canon, then that kinda just adds more fuel to the fire.
I’m also pretty sure part of her hesitation has to do with body dysmorphia and a bit of discomfort with being perceived as “other”. So it’s not necessarily just learning another language for her, but more confronting a of deep-rooted insecurity that many humans might not relate to.
That’s not to say Gillie is unjustified in being annoyed, or that Talita is right. I still am a little frustrated with her too! She definitely should take the opportunity Gillie’s giving her and learn sign. I just don’t think it’s fair to characterize her as whining, or to say that her discomfort is due to her being ableist. In my opinion, her actions definitely ARE somewhat ableist in action, and she should realize that, but her reasons for her actions aren’t ableist.
evileeyore
Part of this is )but it won;t be adressed at all) is that Talita is a little bit of a perfectionist. Just a little bit.
She //can’t// learn to sign properly. She’ll always have a “weird” accent, one specifically developed to speak with Gillie, that only Gillie and Idrisah know*. So part of this issue (IMO) in Talita’s mind is that she simply can’t do it. Now it’s a small, tiny, insignificant part compared to her dismorphia and social anxieties… and thankfully Gillie has gone full alpha predator and she’ll be shakin Talita out of this like a terrier shaking rat….
* Which I suspect for the comic won’t matter or come into play very often if at all.
Hubert
Gillie is a half-cat-half-human thing. Talita and Gillie can be weird un-humans together!
Enai
If only Talita could unwind enough to see it that way…
ttt
as someone with body dysphoria/dysmorphia/social anxiety, it’s still not an excuse to stay passively fluent in Sign if you are ablebodied enough. the Deaf community hears all manner of excuses constantly as to why people wont accomodate or actively sign with them. gillie’s been sidelined for so much of her life by people who won’t bother to put in the work, and who won’t listen. talita’s reasons may not be intentionally ableist, but her actions and excuses are. and they are deservedly being confronted here.
‘whining’ is a strong word, yes, but it’s a word that accurately reflects my level of irritation at this point at how talita has repeatedly treated one of her friends. she’s shutting gillie out of group conversations (see the date night, and the mel-bitchfest) and not treating gillie’s needs as equal to her own. and i’m not down with people just commenting a lot of ‘poor talita!’ when talita is doing the ableist microaggressions. social anxiety is not an excuse for bad behavior, its merely a context.
potatosapien
When did I say Gillie is being unfair here?
And I’m not commenting “poor talita.” I’m just saying that perhaps calling her own feelings of frustration with the lack of accommodation and oversights from others “whining” and “a bitchfest” is something that should be reconsidered.
varve
I’ve definitely had thoughts recently about Talita’s body dysmorphia and…
“it’s yet another way to draw attention to how *different* I am”
Gillie: (gestures to her entire self) off-spec cat, and dependent on assistive tech. I’m also *different* and nobody can forget it either
(hopefully followed by a bit of relatability between the two…)
ttt
yes this is such a good point!! gillie also has body dysmorphia and a limited amount of things she can do to cope with it. and i do hope talita gets out of her own head, apologizes and LEARNS from being confronted about her ableist microaggressions, and does better. i DO want to like talita, but i’m just not a fan of her being an ass at the moment.
other people seem to be taking my distaste for this (as i said before) well-written character flaw very personally, and i’m not sure if they want a frank discussion about hearing privilege or not, so i’m sitting on my hands about getting to involved atm. i too want to see how this plays out, and i know it might be a few weeks of seeing the pages go live for a conversational payoff.
Adrienne
Was looking forward to seeing Talita’s latest excuse and oh boy is it weak! These two are gonna have to let Gillie do all the talking if their Runaway repairs get found out because I don’t think Idrisah or Talita are yet built for improvisational weaseling
primordial pouch enjoyer
let’s gooooo
Undercooked Mothman
I got spoiled for the next few pages a while ago watching the art streams and I’ve been looking forward to it ever since!
gigithebear
talita i understand how scary it is to be perceived but you gotta let your friends perceive you sometimes because that’s how they’re seen in turn
Undercooked Mothman
YEAHHHHHH GET HER!!!
HAL9000
GET HER ASS!!!
Tumorhead
Just now I am appreciating Talita’s big comfy sweater onesie