When you finally get a jab in at your lame boss š
Because I strongly suspect the comment section is going to get heated: please remember, Adam cannot read your threats, but I have to. Don't say anything overly graphic. Also, while discussions are great fun, please be courteous. I do prune comment threads when they become pointless inflammatory arguments, but I'd prefer if I didn't have to.
Transcript
Adam reaches up and grabs Talita's antler, yanking on it hard enough to swing her head around. He smiles smugly.
Adam: So you can't feel this?
Talita recoils from him with a hand in front of her face, staring in shock. Yao gapes and then looks away fearfully from the two of them.
Talita: What the fuckā
He throws his hands up defensively, still smiling.
Adam: Hey, calm down!I thought you said it doesnāt hurt!
Talita's face bristles in rage.
Talita: What!? That doesn't mean you can YANK on me!
170 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 228”
TeethBurglar
Talita you NEED to go to space. Watch her not bring this up to Mel because itās been shown in the past that they canāt handle that.
dokki
mister electric. kill him
Vinemaple
Well. I wasn’t expecting THAT to be the Stupid Adam Trick I read was coming. That’s the thing about people like Adam in real life, they DO think about what they’re doing, but their thought processes and sense of right and wrong are so warped that it’s hard to predict how they’re going to come at you, at least at first. And then the MOMENT it’s too late to stop it, the whole line of their reasoning seems obvious, and you feel like kicking yourself for not having seen it coming.
But you shouldn’t, because only someone like Adam would think that way.
Rad Internet Stranger
Ohhohoohhh that was a dumb move on Adamās part, Talita you have every right to intimidate him into deserved submission >:0
MisterLuK
OFF WITH HIS HEAD
hedwig
he will be boiled
Lilith
jay if you kill Adam you will be reincarnated as a beautiful lotus flower
Jay Eaton
Promise? šŖ·
Raydfil
oh WOW i was not expecting him to do something like that the bastard. holy shit man. i hope Talita is able to figure out how to handle this because wow heads would be rolling if that was a situation i was in. props to this page for singlehandedly making me feel more anxiety and rage at a fictional white guy than i have ever ever experienced before.
Raydfil
also the fact that he looks SO perfectly happy and smug in the 3rd and 4th panel is so so so well done and so absolutely infuriating. get his ass talita
Vinemaple
I told myself I was gonna read all the comments before commenting, but this. That smug. So much this. The Adams of the world jsut can’t comprehend there are things they don’t have a right to do.
jax psylla
talita my queen i will save you
Corbin
I also wonder how, if Adam did this to a homeworlder centaur, how different centaur cultures would react. I canāt imagine any of them being okay with it, because that looks rough on the neck at least, but I wonder what different severities of ānot okay with Adam doing thatā they would have.
Greenjoe
I feel it would go very poorly for Adam.
florence
the amount of rage this page makes me feel is indescribable . adam im gonna GET !! YOU !!!!!! im going feral
Anonymous
I don’t think any other webcomic has managed to make me feel the sheer amount of anxiety that this one has during scenes like this. Like idk something about how these tense interactions are written is really good and stressful. This is a good thing! I’m on the edge of my seat each page!! AaaaH!!!!!!!
Jackie
Taking bets now šµ! The next thing outta Adams mouth is gonna be something about how Talita grabbed him so its totally fair for him to do the same!
On the bright side Jay you at least know you made an extremely successful hateable jerk XD
buam
I think so too. And he legitimately doesnāt understand the difference, because in his mind heās never done anything wrong ever in his entire life. Regardless of where this goes next, itās going to be on Talita to deescalate – which is realistic but so so infuriating.
Rad Internet Stranger
Spot on my friend!! People like Adam donāt know when to quit because theyāve never been told they have to, they think theyāre above everyone else. Adam is a fantastically well written example of these kinds of people, well done Jay!!!
kazoo
HOLY SHIT WHITE BABY YOU CANNOT DO THAT.
Dylan Pickle
Oh noā¦ I can see where this is goingā¦
Eux
i hope commenters can. be chill, for you jay. excellent work on all the expressions! the swirling! godddd. i’m so anxious/excited to see where this goes. we all know she’ll leave dirtball and be on the runaway crew eventually but theres so much suspense to see HOW that happens! delightful
mossrabbit
what fascinates me about adam is his sheer contempt for talita. her authority, her body, her species. he makes it clear as day he does not see her as a person worth his respect on an even person-to-person level. we can see he has overall disrespect for biomodders and GMH (which jay has explained that, on homeworld/earth, biomodders and GMH tend to exclusively be wealthy and privileged individuals, far and away from the spacer culture where being a GMH is just something that you are, and biomodding can be like getting piercings or tattoos), which he views as punching upwards. to some degree, THAT i can almost give some wiggle room for. he’s a homeworlder who clearly doesn’t know shit about spacers or the modern form of GMH and biomodding, and thinks he’s the underdog who has to swing his weight around. this is NOT to excuse his actions btw; he’s an asshole who has notably been rude to pheobe and assaulted yao by grabbing xer horns without consent (grabbing someone’s prosthetics, decorative or not, while they are being worn or handled, is assault)
but his violent contempt for talita… is he just treating her like he does GMH? does he have a problem with aliens? with centaurs? does talita just act in a way that triggers his ableism/misogyny (she behaves in a way that reads as neurodivergent to humans, after all)? is it simply because she’s an authority figure and he isn’t? what’s his fucking problem? i’ve called him a cracker before, and truly he exemplifies the worst of white jackasses who think they’re the smartest guy in the room, but sheesh.
MyUniverseinaBox
I’d honestly chalk it up to a mixture of all those things. Probably especially because Talita has authority over him, and he clearly doesn’t like that. I think we can all agree managers and bosses suck just because of the power imbalance, but I don’t think Adam is coming at it from that point of view lol. Adam seems the type that just likes being in charge for ego reasons.
Flori
I donāt have anything to add, I just want to say this is an incredible breakdown of his character! I loved reading this
buam
Itās never risen to this level, but Iāve had male employees deliberately ignore my instructions because Iām a woman. And it was always on *me* to remain calm, since I was the one in charge – and they faced no consequences, even when going against my clear instructions caused harm, because I didnāt have disciplinary power & my boss decided the entire situation was my fault. So yeah, Adamās behavior & the Adam/Talita/Mel situation is distressingly realistic.
Vinemaple
It’s interesting, if you go way back, maybe to the first locker room scene in Chapter 1, or maybe on the characters page? But somewhere, Jay described Adam in terms that make him sound like a pretty normal homeworlder typ Human, which… is starting to hit different.
Lucy
Oh the gasp I gumpsed at that invasion of personal space!
Rad Internet Stranger
Iām sorry gumpsed?? Is that a word Iām too Australian to understand??
leecetheartist
I’m Australian too and I’m right with you there.
Mountaincide
I feel like this stunt might get adam thoroughly fussed at by the equivalent of HR and maybe even discharged from his internship YIKES.
Illy
Eeeugh! Uncomfortable! It really really doesn’t help that he pulled hard enough to move Talita’s whole head – that’s not just some idle light tug š
Vinemaple
Makes my messed-up neck ache just looking at it!
R
Really great sense of motion on this page, wow. The violence really comes across. Yeesh.
MyUniverseinaBox
Woof, did not expect that.
Greenjoe
I wonder if there are cameras in that building that caught this incident…
Mountaincide
I would be surprised if there weren’t honestly. I mean they do all essentially live inside of space crafts in a hostile environment.
NotOkapi
Yeah thatās how Bip is watching. Which might actually be a problem if the footage needs to be pulled up for review.
malmo
Where I work, cameras are not installed in locker rooms, gowning/decon rooms, or bathrooms.
bryn
i even considered this to factor into his choice to assault her here, in a semi-private space where he might not have a camera/radio isnt on… and maybe because hes gotten away with bullying yao without significant consequence/xe hasnt reported him, he thinks xe isnt a threat here either…
godspeed
It’s sort of a relief to see how dumb Adam actually is.
I thought he would try a clever move, going to HR with a sob story how this giant creature grabbed him, while he tries to figure out how to be more efficient on the job.
Instead he goes for a Kindergarten Level of getting back, to feels like he is in power again…. he’s almost to be pitied. (Unless he is smarter than he looks and tries to provoke a bigger reaction than this from Talita, but who knows.)
I feel sorry for Yao and Talita though, it’s hard to give rise to a good group dynamic if you have such an toxic idiot in it.
Talita is also not a good boss, she should never have been forced into this position, but this was probably a hindsight on Mel’s part, too.
Thegriffin88
You still going to tell me idle curiosity is as much a crime as straight up laying your hands on someone? At least Yao wants to learn but you all seem like the kind of people who are the reason we have problems. You’re the people like Adam. You bully someone for asking questions you bully me.
??
No one said that??
NotOkapi
Did you repost your comment?
florence
what?? /genq
Corbin
People considered Yaoās awkward questions on the last page to be inappropriate due to being about Talitaās body and thus Kinda Invasive, and they (not Yao, the commenter)(idk the pronouns) took that as a personal attack on themselves and their own autism and have been being inflammatory towards other commenters over it since.
Mitta
Curiosity is unfortunately not a good excuse for asking invasive questions about someone’s body, especially when you have made no attempt to befriend or otherwise connect with them in the past. When compared to Talita’s human friends, its clear she actually doesn’t care that much about them seeing her shed her velvet and in a comic she straight up gives a fallen antler to Idrisah. The problem is that Yao asked the question in an inappropriate setting, just out of the blue, and its one of the only things xe has even spoken to Talita. Yes, grabbing someone’s face is worse than asking a question, but Yao and Adam are just two sides of the spectrum of these humans not taking Talita’s personhood and her right to privacy seriously. They exist to contrast each other.
AmbroseTV
TALITA SEND HIM TO MEL’S OFFICE AND HAVE HIM EXPELLED
Lilac
Aw hell, Adam’s Super Asshole Mode got activated. We were only at like 30% before but now he’s reaching 95%. Dangerous levels of assholery. Please Please call sophont resources on his ass oh my god
also Yao looks so anxious nooo xey realized xey accidentally indirectly started something really bad noooo I’ve been in that situation ohhh it sucks
ohhhh my god Adam ohhhh I need uhhhhhh (thinks of lighthearted not especially violent yet still conveys a great distaste verb) i need him exploded
Amargarrex
That guy has a strong desire for death. Did he fall out of his crib as a baby?
Zack
valid to eat fingers valid to eat fingers valid to eat fingers v-
fuse
not a human fingers! she’ll get sick if she eats alien meat!
Enai
No! No eating human fingers! Human fingers are poison for Talita!
Upending an entire carafe of water on Adam’s head, however, is justified, nonlethal, and satisfying to imagine.
Fun fact: in German, “to wash sbd’s head” means giving them a good talking-to. Adam’s head needs washed. You agree.
ghostwhitehorse
Lucky for Adam, Talita is not Sgt. Shlock.
un_pogaz
With such a weak instinct for self-preservation, I wonder how Adam managed to live so long.
Damn, it clear that he definitivly cross a line and Talita will not let that pass in any way. Now the question is if Mel will manage that propely… Pobably not, and Talita will not lets pass that too.
pobsus
lets all manifest Adam getting boiled in the next chapter
Athelind Llewellyn Long
The last time I saw an expression of stunned, unbelieving horror that intense was when Animal Man discovered the fourth wall.
beans
I have known so many Adams lmao. Poor Talita, I hope things start to look up for her soon
7arty
I still dislike Adam more by how he’s written than how he acts. He’s built to be some perfect asshole. Too perfect. Annoyingly uncanny, not realistically annoying :/
Can’t wait for the plot to progress past him already, he just doesn’t register as an actual character to me anymore.
Sabella
You know how some real life events are driven by such cartoonishly petty and mundane evil, that if it were written into a movie or TV show, anyone watching it would complain about how unrealistic it is?
Well I’ve dealt with an Adam or several in my life.
Koumori
I too have, UNFORTUNATELY, had an Adam in my life at one point. Some people just seem to forever retain a childlike lack of emotional intelligence or critical thinking skills.
Vinemaple
I thought that when I became an adult, I wouldn’t have to deal with children like Adam any more. But, nope, all my life I’ve had to take this kind of crap from “adults” like Adam. And it’s so difficult to get anyone to do anything about them, often if you complain, you’re The Guy Who Got Someone Fired, and if you don’t straight up get blacklisted, nobody will talk to you or sit near you.
Part of the reason Adam looks so smug is that he’s certain that he won’t face any consequences for this. And if this was mundane North American life, he probably wouldn’t.
Kyrean
There are people in real life like this. I’m glad you’ve never had to experience them, but those of us who are part of marginalized populations have to deal with shit like this all the time.
buam
Iāve worked with multiple men like Adam, ranging from ājustā micro aggressions to ongoing, severe safety violations that landed someone in the ER. Iāve had them joke about my health, and how much paperwork it would be if I died. I assure you, heās distressingly well written.
Sabella
Well there’s your answer Talita. He DOES have a death wish!
hurgaburga
that is one face just begging to be punched
(and or mauled)
Ruby
Report his ass into oblivion. Otherwise I’m going to trebuchet him into space myself. That’s straight up assault.
Common Handle
Talita quit your job. Join bip’s emo band
May
It looks like he didn’t even hesitate to grab the face of a two thousand pound predator and yank her jaws directly towards his face. Either he is way more suicidally idiotic than previously suggested, or he knows Talita well enough that he instinctively trusts her to not freak out and murder him, yet still chose to bully her. She is literally more than three times the size of a large tiger.
Jay Eaton
“Adam should be scared of Talita because of her body” is not a pro-Talita stance.
buam
Commenters remember that Talita is a person and not a wild animal, challenge level impossible.
Vinemaple
Considering the comments Adam made about Talita in Chapter 2, I think Adam is trying to look brave by showing he’s not afraid of the scary hypercarnivore who he’s realized is a nonconfrontational ball of anxiety with no leadership skills.
bug
workplace abuse is fucked up. put this man in the torture nexus!!!!!!!