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!
188 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 228”
SheTheTDE
DO NOT FIGHT HIM! Walk away and report him. No one ever notices he start of a fight so if you react you’re the one in th wrong. Especially since you’re someone who stands out from the crowd. Humans hate people who are noticably diffeent to themselves. Trust me. I’ve been through all this myself for beign born with Autism, for being taller than other people. For beign LGBT. If something about you makes you not fit in, that something is criminal and they’ll watch everything you do for something they can weaponise to prove their bias against you. So just walk away from him.
embersand
ohhhh im so pissed on talita’s behalf
Eris
I think the worst part is how strategic Adam is being about this. People have pointed out that this is taking place in a locker-room like setting so it’s possible there is no/minimal monitoring, for one. But he also has a witness who was also being inappropriate with Talita at the same time. While Yao simply asked an uncomfortable question and didnt physically assault her, if Talita now goes to the high-ups about Adam’s behavior, he can point to Yao and say “Well why aren’t XEY getting written up too, huh? Yao was also being weird, that’s not fair!”
His little smirk tells me that he is VERY sure that he will be getting a slap on the wrist at most. And while I want to give Mel the benefit of the doubt, it may be out of their direct control, and no matter how well-meaning they might be Mel IS still management first, and therefor beholden to corporate fuckery if they are first line to deal with this.
The next pages sure are going to be stressful.
The Opossum Witch
Worked with an Adam before, guy who thought he could do anything because he was a guy and all of his higher ups were “women or gay”. He eventually got fired for taking pictures of HIPAA info to use in his stand-up comedy routine. Jay you have captured the essence of every workplace bastard who just can’t comprehend how they’re in the lowly peon position while “undesirables” are in the position they want.
AdamSmasher
Oh god. This made my skin viscerally crawl. The way Adam feels he can just touch Talita’s body, paired with his smug look and the fact that I *know* she’s experiencing serious species dysphoria from it…
DeerGod
This is the first page i am commenting on, for any comic. Usually i lurk and just simply read the pages and enjoy the comic on my own, but this page has gotten such a visceral reaction out of me. The way Adam has grabbed Talia’s antlers like that surely cannot be comfortable, i yelled at my screen when i saw this page. I dont usually do such a thing, but this Adam has managed to shock me so much. The expressions and they way he looks after grabbing her is so much, and Talita’s shocked face…I hope he gets some retribution soon, even if it just a scolding. This and the centaur temps implied to be arriving later will be the tipping point for Talita, i bet…
Thank you Jay for making this comic so expressive it even makes an introvert like me angry at Adam…
Jerach
Well, I feel like this is definitely going to undermine any attempts by him to try to make a formal complaint about Talita grabbing him earlier.
cvberdemon
send him to the principals office and have him EXPELLED
Famout
So, we fully know Talita is over a gentle soul and the like.
But lets be honest, Adam is a bit in LOVE with trying to upset a creature who is likely over four times his mass, has teeth made for eating bones, is able to run at the pace of a car, and on top of all of that is a body builder in her spare time.
This man has zero survival instinct and it shows. He would right up to a gator and put his arm right in it’s mouth.
Eris
He absolutely WOULD, wouldn’t he? This dude has the survival instincts of a lemmings, what the actualy fuck is he thinking? He has to know this isn’t going to end well for him on some level, good grief.
Milo
you’ve heard of Florida Man, now get ready for Dirtball Man
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.
AmbroseTV
it’s a meme of doing an “incorrect” past tense, sometimes based on other words’ past tenses, like “snow” becoming “snew.” this is one of the nonsense ones
Enai
See also: the scream I scrumpt, or the meme picture with the text “Now rethink what you just thoke”
All excellent wordplay imo
hessian
australian rtts gang rise up
MyUniverseinaBox
YIPPEE
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.
the Inmara
Ideally and hopefully, yes.
But if it doesn’t, and instead Talita gets reprimanded for manhandling him off the latter, then it will end up being motivation for her to just leave. Which is what our plot instincts are screaming is going to happen.
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