Turns out if you don't communicate about your issues to the people they affect, they're forced to make assumptions about how you feel that may be uncharitable.
Transcript
Gillie: (ASL) I'm not going to keep offering if you're gonna walk out every time! You’re being so fucking rude!
Talita, hunched on all sixes, cringes away from Gillie's anger as her face begins to bristle with shame.
Gillie: (ASL) If you don’t want to sign, I won’t force you. But I hate relying on this buggy app to talk to you!
Idrisah awkwardly stands behind the couch with her bowl of fried crickets, politely looking away from the confrontation with a nervous sweat breaking out on her forehead.
Gillie: (ASL) I don’t get it!! You’ve clearly gone out of your way to learn comprehension. Is this a pity project that you’re too bored with to finish?!
Gillie slumps on down on the arm of the couch, looking at her phone as she waits for Talita to reply. Talita sits, quietly staring at her with an expression of devastation.
Talita: No, I’m…
She struggles to extract the words for what she's feeling.
Talita: Embarrassed.
29 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 178”
jackelabbit
the expressions throughout this comic so far have already been phenomenal, but i think these ones are my favorite so far. i love how talita’s piloerection mimics a flushed face, rather than a dog with its hackles raised; it’s very “humanizing” (for obvious lack of a better term)… and gillie, holy cow, it’s such a gut punch!!! being on dirtball already seems like a pretty lonely experience, I can’t imagine how frustrating it becomes when everything you want to say has to be funneled through an unreliable middleman. you can really see the passion here, too— she LIKES talita! a lot!! she’s extending this opportunity to help talita BECAUSE she likes her that much, and because gillie is just a genuinely sweet person. i really don’t know much about the deaf community, but judging by how important communication is as a… profoundly basal staple of society… it’s a big part of how gillie grew up, it’s a part of who she is. i imagine that talita’s rejection of her (repeated) offers to adapt sign must feel like a rejection of gillie herself— that she isn’t worth the effort to communicate with beyond that janky middleman.
and then you have talita, who’s probably spent her whole life feeling like a burden just for her existence requiring accommodation by default— which she knows isn’t her fault, of course, talita’s a smarty pants, but subconscious insecurities don’t just magically disappear with enough Hard Facts and Rationale. i imagine it feels like yet another “inconvenience” she places on people just by virtue of being a centaur.
all of this to say, i think the expressions in these panels do an absolutely stellar job of portraying both gillie’s and talita’s upset with the situation, and it makes me super happy!!!
Apollo235
I remember seeing GIllie’s angry face in a live stream announcement on Jay’s Tumblr! I’ve been wondering for so long what the context was, I started catching on last time Talita flaked out but its so pleasing to see it for certain!
the Inmara
Really appreciate Gillie snarling, like any other human might actually do (despite what some people on the internet say). But, also, it shows off her sharp teeth so it works extra well.
Moxx
get her ass gillie!! 10/10 page sequence so far
it’d be really neat to see an ASL speaker “dub” this bit, even though its not a pleasant topic. ive always been someone who likes to read intense lines aloud and having a visual aide to pair these with to get the true real-time effect would be so cool
MyUniverseinaBox
I love this page
Gillie’s expressions are also so good
Go off girl, finally 🙏
The Opossum Witch
this is one of favorite pages for expressions alone! i remember seeing it on the patreon and sitting on it for a while
Personman
Love that Beatonian Idrisah face in panel 3 😀
Fallingfeather
Man, I can tell Idrisah knows that Gillie’s yelling at her, but considering Gillie is facing away, I wonder if she can even really tell what’s being said OTL.
cain
I’m sure she knows the gist of the grievance, but good point.
Vinemaple
>chants< HAVE-IT-OUT! HAVE-IT-OUT! HAVE-IT-OUT!
(sorry, I'm just fantasizing about having even this level of up-front meaningful discussion of interpersonal problems with several people in my own life)
Stray Cat
If this situation is going to be resolved positively, these three will have to have a serious conversation about what’s been stopping Talita. “I’m embarrassed” isn’t the best start… but it is a start nonetheless.
Phasma Felis
I’ve been Talita in this situation, so I have a lot of sympathy for her. But it’s not a healthy behavior. Getting things out in the open is good and necessary, even if it’s stressful in the short term.
Stray Cat
I can definitely agree with that – I’ve also been the Talita in these sorts of situations (not exactly the same, of course, but close enough that I get where she’s coming from), and I’ve seen what can happen if these difficult-but-necessary conversations don’t happen. (Which, side note, I now realise adds another layer of meaning to how one of the comic’s themes is communication. “Communication” doesn’t just refer to crossing language barriers, but more personal barriers like this, too.)
blythe
talita i get having body dysphoria but “im embarrassed” might actually be one of the worst things to reply with
Adrienne
It is honest though! And she’s almost certainly about to elaborate on why she’s embarrassed.
abyss
“Pity project you’re too bored to finish” feels REALLY personal and specific- this has probably happened before with someone else.
Enai
Ouch. But I’m sure almost every person who was a disabled kid has had several instances of that…
boxesofboxes
Raise your hand if you were the popular girls’ project as they attempted to “””””fix you””””” and you went along with it because it meant being included
o/
Guest
I think I get it. It can be extremely embarrassing to ask for accommodations, even if they’re being handed to you.
Vinemaple
One has to admit that one is “abnormal” in the eyes of society. I usually do without, and just use techniques to compensate.
Claire
Idrisah:
c c
>–<
gigithebear
CALL HER ASS OUT GILLIE
hurgaburga
both too scared to try and too scared to ask for help. i feel that so hard.
PedraGata
this one hurts, Gillie’s face on this, God, they’re both so upset and I’m glad they’re going to finally talk about this
Adrienne
“Idrisah awkwardly stands behind the couch with her bowl of fried crickets” mood
Graham_Cheshire
Ha, makes sense there’s no cricket sounds in the uncomfortable silence, they’re all fried in the bowl. 😆
DasGanon
There are cricket sounds! That said since they’re fried crickets those sounds are Idrisah going “munch munch”
JoB
I wonder, if Idrisah were to pick up one fried cricket and move its limbs by hand, could it still stridulate and make (the usual) cricket sounds? 😛
ttt
THANK YOU GILLIE