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!?
88 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 177”
Lithic
GET HER GILLIE!!!
Greebus
I think in Talita’s head, what will happen is that she’ll try to sign, fail somehow because of her nonhuman fingers, and then Gillie and Idrisah will immediately HATE HER, and then she’ll be thrown out the airlock for not being able to sign 100% correctly first try.
BearBeerBear
I love Talita for making Gillie feel bad with her insecurities.
And I love Gillie for not putting up with it and talking to her friend about it.
I understand both of them very well (because I’ve been both “Talita” or “Gillie” in certain situations). I’ve seen parts of this conflict in streams, and I really wanted to see it in a comic. The character development is great, and they feel real. It’s very interesting how Talita will react to the fact that she made her friend sad with her actions… and how Gillie will scold her.
I’m eating the page like a grasshopper, sweet and greedy
BearBeerBear
Damn, I just now reread what I wrote in the first sentence. I love Talita not because she does bad things to Gillie, but because she doesn’t understand how her lack of confidence in this makes those around her bad, thinking that if she doesn’t do what doesn’t work, then no one will be angry with her.
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 …
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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.
Enai
Talita strikes me as more similar to a cheetah than a tiger: terrifyingly fast sprinter, but full of more anxiety than should physically fit into her body. An emotional support Labrador would fix her. Thus: space cheetah.
…
Now I wonder: cheetahs are so full of anxiety because they know full well they’re good lion snacks and water buffalo like to play ragdoll with them. What hunts centaurs? How big are the ill-tempered herbivores on their home planet???
Jay Eaton
I think you may be conflating Talita’s personality with her species. Centaurs regularly hunt, keep, and eat land animals larger than African elephants, though.
TotallySomebody
o oh 😨
A Box Of Fox
Awright, that sounds wild. I gotta hear what these beasties look like.
Enai
Not really, I was just too taken with my fantasy of an overly large species of space cheetahs to type out “Are centaurs always this anxious, or is it just a case of tiny sample size?” Thanks for the mental image of centaurs hunting something the size of a large-ish dinosaur! I shall rotate a six-legged Diplodocus in my mind now 🙂
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!
Phasma Felis
Toe beans
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)
[pushes up anime glasses and they glint in the light so I look really cool]
tch… clearly you havent watched my 10 hour dark theory video essay on why dora the explorer is the real villain of the story… rookie mistake
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.
Atuada
A lot of audience members really struggle with nuance like this. Neither one is right, neither one is wrong. At least not completely. This isn’t a simple situation, and painting it in black and white misrepresents what’s going on, even if it is easier to understand (albeit still a deeply flawed understanding).
You’re also seeing some moral puritanism in action. People have to be 100% right all the time or else they’re Bad™️. People are flawed, and no one is perfect. I quite like fiction that reflects that reality, and this does a very good job of that. Talita and Gillie both want to be understood, but only one of them is even halfway decent at communicating that directly.
Phasma Felis
Right? Talita is anxious and Gillie is frustrated, and both of those are valid. Sometimes two decent people can have clashing needs, and confronting that can be awkward and stressful but hopefully leads to a better outcome for everyone. All healthy relationships have conflict sometimes, and keeping the peace at all costs is not usually a good plan in the long term.
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.
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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 😛
SheTheTDE
Instead of asking what makes the best story, I preffer asking what was the best outcome for the people within the fictional universe which isn’t necesarily if things went smoothly. Talita is only thinking about how human sign language is designed for human hands and so it’s going to be really dificult to teach her. Without this happening she can’t come to undrstand how much it would mean to Gillie for everyone to be making the effort of talking to her wit their hands. And Gillie has been patient with Talita so I don’t think that’s unfair.
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
Enai
Well, there clearly are timejumps. Both between and during chapters, and you’re quite right that the characters could’ve done any number of things in that time. But absent any on-page reference to said action(s), I prefer to remain agnostic abou what they did. Maybe Gillie and Idrisah used all my “Coax Talita to adapt some signs” ideas and then three dozen more. Maybe not. But I try very hard not to yell about things not shown as if they were fact.
For instance, I like speculating about whether Mel actually has managed to recruit (an entire clan of? Or just some?) centaurs and plans to “surprise” Talita with them (If so, bad move, Mel), but until said centaur(s) appear on the page, I won’t treat my speculation as fact. Mel’s on thin ice, but they haven’t done anything yet. Likewise, neither Talita nor Gillie are dealing with this situation too well, nor for that matter does Idrisah, but unless they turn to the camera and actually say “Yes, I behaved like that to hurt her feelings and I meant it!” I won’t call any of them the “bad guy”. Spoilers from Jay’s tumblr make me think this situation will ultimately resolve amicably, but if the comic – canon goes in a different direction than the short comics / concept pages, well, stories have a way of developing in unexpected directions, making early concepts obsolete or even directly contradicting them. If I get too wedded to my idea of where the story ought to go, I run the risk of arguing like my fantasy were fact, and then nobody will know what I’m even talking about. If I can point out that on page ~whatever~ Talita has indeed done $thing, we can have a conversation. If my argument is that I imagine Cheevwut leaving postcards with rude messages in Ohwitiil’s mailbox every night, and they thus would’ve seen Talita do $thing, everyone is well within their rights to reply “Enai, what among god’s glittering stars are you going on about?!?”.
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And now I wonder if people from Nexus Jovia or the Dominion of Tiiliit even write physical letters anymore. Maybe if they send each other packages, like one includes cards with gifts? Surely, writing letters must be even more obsolete than it is now. Interstellar instant messaging being available puts typing on your phone far ahead of writing physical letters in all aspects that aren’t the physical joy of touching the paper and writing with a pen. Or maybe calligraphy. Calligraphy is nice.
JoB
> And now I wonder if people from Nexus Jovia or the
> Dominion of Tiiliit even write physical letters anymore.
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The minimum transit time between systems is four weeks (time it takes a spaceship to go between planets/settlements). Considering that Ixion is a Nexus-Jovia-based company and that we’ve seen a launch loop schedule with a bunch of slots every day, I’d guess that proven technology should allow for letters between Nexus Jovia and Dirtball to not incur any noticeable delay on top of that. And I can vouch that transfers of several weeks do not deter people from occasionally sending cards between the U.S. and Europe …
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> Or maybe calligraphy. Calligraphy is nice.
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We’ve been shown that Idrisah has pieces of Arabian and Avian calligraphy on the walls of the Touati-Sharpe apartment (wasn’t there a RQ about it, too? Can’t find that offhand …), so it certainly exists in storyverse.
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.)