She's been tricked! How devious!
This is the end of the chapter, next is a log page.
Transcript
Talita stares off into the distance, calculating Gillie's math question, then looks back to her.
Talita: (ASL) About... (binary sign) Nine??
Gillie, still grinning, keeps the eye contact.
Gillie: (ASL) It’s nice to look at your face when you’re talking to me, nerd.
Talita blinks in surprise and then breaks into a shy smile, trunk curling upwards and cheeks fluffing slightly.
Talita: (ASL) …Thanks.
Idrisah: (ASL) Wanna try fingerspelling next?
Talita: Sure… I’ve got time.
54 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 186”
Teod
Are the chapters getting shorter? 1 and 2 were both 30+ pages, not even counting double sided ones. This is page 22 of ch6 I don’t mind variation in chapter length, but I hope it’s not a long term trend. Although 6 isn’t a huge sample size, so maybe I’m worrying over nothing.
un_pogaz
What makes me laugh is that Talita has just straight forward answered to a mathematical calculation where the majority of people answered “You’ve got kidding me, right?”
As a result, Nerd is an accurate qualifier.
arf
We have a communications breakthrough!
(Shades of ‘Arrival’?)
Ruby
Aw, this is very nice. I’m glad that they’ve sorted it out.
$ilverware
awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
galmetallic
gillie calling talita a nerd like she isn’t one herself lol
Stray Cat
And just like that, they Communicated, to figure out how to Accommodate each others’ needs, to improve their Everyday Lives.
.
Wow, that sounded less corny in my head.
But yes, hopefully this serves as a reminder: just because a conversation starts on a bad note doesn’t mean it has to end on one. Adults can actually talk about interpersonal problems, and their causes, in a reasonable manner. And it’s through talking that, maybe, they can figure out solutions to these problems.
.
Hats off to Jay for this scene; I’m impressed at the comic’s willingness to tackle complex issues without making them simplistic. Hats off to them for getting sensitivity readers (one of whom helped with writing Gillie). And hats off to those sensitivity readers for their help.
hessian
this yeah!!! the sensitivity readers did such a great job, thank you all!!
Kitty
I think this may be the cutest Talita yet!
Also, Gillie is so smooth, socially. She is SUCH a vibrant person.
Imp!
Awww what a nice way to end off the chapter!! The bonds grow stronger, and i have a feeling that in a little bit of time, Talita will need all the support she can get…
BravoLimaPoppa
I love it!
Mazatl
This is so terribly sweet the way the interaction progresses it’s so genuine and organic I love them 😭
cinna
What a sweet moment… 🥺
TawnySoup
Ooouuuhhhhh, my heart!!!! 💖 That genuine little smile and the realisation she’s actually kind of enjoying talking to Gillie this way 🥺 WAAAH!
Appleeatinggoat
I love how Talita trunk smiles here
makes me wonder why, since she has a human tooth smile most of the time
Origamigryphon
Some things are just instinctively hardwired. She also does the angry s trunk when agitated
The Opossum Witch
Even blind people smile and frown, and deaf people laugh aloud. some things are innate
the Inmara
Some people have a hard time smiling in the way that their dominate culture does it (such as showing teeth). For us, it feels stilted and wrong, when other people seem to do it naturally.
To us, that kind of smile is definitely learned. But we still smile in our own ways, usually.
At least, that’s our experience as autistics.
Vinemaple
I don’t think we’ve seen Talita really *happy* before! Doug said in an AMA that as a toddler she picked up Human social cues like a sponge. It’s a little performative, sure, but it’s also second nature to her to emote with her nicitating membranes instead of her “creepy” sideways eyelids, smile by adjusting her toothed mouth, and demonstrate attentiveness by staring at you with eyes wide open. At the same time, she can’t always control her feathers, she laughs like a Centaur, and sometimes, under high emotions, she lets her trunk come up. So it’s a little of both. You could say that emoting with her trunk instead of hiding it is a little bit like “unmasking.”
Trash Ax
I love that when Talita’s feathers on her face ruffle up It’s sort of mimics The hatching marks that a lot of artists do to represent blushing!
Momo
waaahhh 😭❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
bunnomaly
trunk smile trunk smile
Proxy
TRUNK SMILE SPOTTED!!!!
blythe
makes me wonder if such expressions are instinctual. huh. are human smiles instinctive or learned..?
enemy
Its been said before theyre learned, like how talita’s eyelid expressions are too! I imagine growing up with humans made it a strong habit, though
JoB
> huh. are human smiles instinctive or learned..?
·
Smiles change over the first couple weeks of a newborn’s life, but they do some sort of smile early enough (first day) that you could, I suppose, call smiling in general an innate behaviour.
(source)
godspeed
Yeah Human Babies smile to strengthen our bond to them. It’s not a social smile that serves a purpose adult humans use them for. Toddlers often use smiling as an appealing gesture, to calm down situations they don’t like or want to escalate. If you told your toddler not to do something and they do it and smile afterwards when you scold them for it, they don’t want to be cheeky, they smile so you mimic the social smile and stop making the situation uncomfortable.
Vinemaple
So lovely to see her trunk curled forward in a fully genuine smile!
Greebus
I love how Talita can’t help but smile!
Origamigryphon
And that ray of positivity shines through the negative emotions still lingering around her
cr0wf34thers
OH THEY’RE SO CUTE
TotallySomebody
Yaaay!!
Mr. Skeleton
Yaaay!
Zuorai
THE FRIENDSHIP…………
qoala
Yay, comfy and cute Talita
Septemberdale
I’m still curious about Avian counting.
Peter Jensen
Well, there *is* usually a Q and A section after the log pages, so …
tehto
this is so cute
AnormalADN
AWw
Fallingfeather
A BREAKTHROUGH!!
Vinemaple
And just like that, this is happening. It feels so good to be right about something *good,* for once!
Solidago
CUTE
VariousGameMasteries
Talita loaf!
Tumorhead
Talita loaf!!
zeekubeast
trunk smile!! trunk smile on talita!!!
Chrysalis
That moment when you realize that you’re already doing more of the hard thing than you thought you were.
HAL9000
well that resolves the decimal problem i guess, just estimate it :p
also resolves the problem of whether you should take a spoken (signed?) equation as it comes or to do it in order of operations
HAL9000
anyway, this is a genius way to get someone used to the idea of sign and make them feel more confident with it. Gillie’s got some good interpersonal skills
godspeed
Yeah and she chose something that’s unique to Talita, her upbringing and her way to interact with the world. Signing numbers in binary is familiar to Talita, so this felt probably less alienating to her than she feared.
I guess Gillie has put some thought into it cause she wanted to shape this experience as positive as possible.
JoB
> also resolves the problem of whether you should take a spoken
> (signed?) equation as it comes or to do it in order of operations
·
“Resolves”, LOL. I’m pretty sure that they (society as a whole) still have heated discussions about it. With the non-involved being grateful that The Fantastic Future™ has provided for a couple light-years of DMZ between the participants. 😛
ObeyTheSnarf
Teared up a little, ngl. This is so wholesome!
yay
<3 <3 <3
Duke1337-o
Ha! Gillie fooled her out of her hand shyness with arithmetic! The fiend! The scoundrel!
Marcie
Awwwww