...Yeah, this was never going to go well.
Transcript
Mel: Is that it?
Talita is taken aback.
Talita: Well he did it, like, maliciously! He was trying to hurt me!
Her face begins to bristle in frustration, and she grips her neck, back hunched to keep her head from knocking the ceiling.
Talita: And he’s– he’s been– saying really rude things “out of earshot,” misgendering me, not listening to instructions in the field–
Mel: I’ll talk to him about it tomorrow.
Talita's eyes widen.
Talita: No! Don’t– That wouldn’t help.
66 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 231”
Ruby
*sigh* And then Mel goes “Then I don’t know what you want me to do about it.” And Talita will say something like “I dunno, prevent this from happening with future temps??” And then Mel will say “Weeeeell, I wanted this to be a surprise buuuut. Ta-da! We’re hiring centaur temps! Surely they won’t be as insensitive and they’ll be more prone to listen to a fellow centaur!” And thus Talita is going to have full blown crisis.
jax psylla
making a serious comment for once to say that i had to write a report about unwanted touching in the workplace once and i cannot believe they are brushing this off. the touch doesnt have to be harmful or inappropriate. it doesnt even matter if every other person in the workplace is allowed to touch you. you learn in 5th grade to keep your damn hands to yourself and touching people without their consent – in ANY way, whether you meant it maliciously or not – is a one way ticket to getting kicked to the curb. talita girl get a new job im so serious GET OUT OF THERE!!!!
mocha
im a 5’2” woman and once at hd a coworker, who was like 6’11” army vet picked me up without asking on the work floor, and when i told HR about it i was told i had to talk to him about it myself alone or nothing would be done about it because he obviously “ment well” . so
blythe
mel this is why your kids dont FUCKING love you /ref
Jason Myers
This is the kind of HR that whether they realise it or not, shows that they don’t care to actually fix the issue and only care about maintaining the status quo. What happens if somebody like Adam shows their true colours while visiting young Centaurs from their homeworld arrive? Is their first experience with a human/mixed species station going to be this kind of xenophobia? And would Mel take it more or less seriously, since it’s not Talita? All of these are serious questions that need answering before we can trust that Mel can manage a situation like that.
Talita is not communicating clearly- but Mel’s job as her boss is to ask the questions. “Is That All?” Is a conversation ending statement, not a real question.
jade stormcloud
Darn it. 🙁 I was afraid of that.
Even if Mel is trying to play the impartial boss here, they still really aren’t being a great listener (and not a great manager either). They seem to be trying to jump to the end of the conversation and come up with a “fix” without even bothering to get all the information on the problem they’re addressing. -What exactly happened with the antler? What specific things have been said? What issues have there been in the field?- All of that needs to be addressed to understand the scope of the issue and to document the behavior for the records. If they jump the gun like that any time a work problem comes up, I’m surprised things haven’t fallen completely apart before now.
I hope Tailta gets some sympathetic friend time STAT.
Mr. Son
“Is that it?”
I mean the most charitable reading of that sentence is “is that the only thing, or is there more?”, but that’s giving Mel MASSIVE benefit of the doubt when we already know Mel… isn’t great with handling interpersonal disputes or people mistreating Talita.
So ignoring that, it’s like. Mel. MEL. Someone /grabbed part of Talita’s FACE/. It wouldn’t be cool if a coworker yanked on your beard or ear, would it? How about we get Adam in here to say snide things about you and yank your beard and see how you feel about that?
petra
love the perspectives in all these panels accentuating talita’s size and thus visually representing how she ‘doesn’t fit’ in her environment, both socially and physically.. also i dunno why but i cant get over that wall shelf. the angles of it make it feel like a real background object that belongs there, and not something that was just drawn in to fill space. (if that makes sense???)
Light_In_The_Fog
yesss theyre so good!! Especially in the second panel where u can see the pipes in the ceiling and with mel looking up at talita, it gives such a ‘walls closing in’ feeling thats really cool
Light_In_The_Fog
Mellllllllll 🙁
I feel so bad for Talita in the way I interpreted the tone on the part about misgendering. I know from personal experience that that is such a hard thing to correct people on without support, and Talita really must feel like that support is being pulled away 🙁
Mitta
The humiliation of having to run to your boss to report an assault, a boss who was also legally your parent for much of your teenhood, and being treated like you just told them that a kid at the playground wouldn’t let you on the slide. One of the main themes I have taken from this comic is the way corporations and society treats marginalized individuals and takes advantage of them. And this arrangement with Talita working for Mel feels ethically questionable at best, almost like Mel is still letting their parent-dependent relationship overshadow the severity of the situation. Looking at Talita like “Thats not a big deal Talita, be the bigger person, run along now sweetie”
PostMortem7571
This is probably going to be the kick in the pants Talita needs to leave. It’ll be good in the long run, but I’m certain it will get much more uncomfortable first. People are about to hurt each other’s feelings much more badly, I’m sure. Mostly Mel’s fault, I predict. I know they mean well, but they seem to be the kind of person who simply hasn’t endured enough bullying to understand how bad it is or how best to handle the situation.
Jackie
It occured to me that even if we ignored the nonconsensual grabbing, Adam could have very well caused Talita to accidentally injure him by doing it. We all know she’s nonviolent but imagine how easily she could have accidentally scratched him or even poked out an eye if she happened to jerk in surprise when he grabbed her. I bet Mel would not be so dismissive if that happened instead (Adam probably would be the biggest whining baby if it did and not shut up about it either).
Sabella
Remember all the way back on page 18? Where Talita asks Calcery, “Was the fight with Mel really that bad?” And he responds, “As attentive as they act, I’m not sure Mel is ever actually listening.”?
Well here we are at Mel minimizing Talita coming forward that she was just physically assaulted by one of her direct reports. Showing no concern for her wellbeing or curiosity about what lead up to this moment. Here we are at them “meaning well” as the only thing they say in response is that they’ll “talk to him”, which Talita is right to be concerned will escalate the situation in a way that doesn’t protect her.
Mel lacks empathy in way that makes them perfect for a middle manager position. Those who have worked in a corporate environment and endured Mel’s style of performative kindness understand what Talita is dealing with right now.
Talita deserves better. A lot better.
Heather
What I find particularly interesting about this is that on page 13, Mel explicitly tells Talita to come to them if there are problems with the temps. But the reason they expect problems is, in their words, “people sometimes make weird presumptions about centaurs.” It’s as if Mel’s entire concept of the bigotry Talita experiences is that sometimes humans are unnecessarily skittish around big hypercarnivores. Which is… really not even close to an accurate or nuanced enough way to describe Talita’s struggles in this setting. And then when Talita experiences targeted physical harassment that DOESN’T fit the specific pattern Mel has in mind, they dismiss it.
The extra wild thing is, Mel has now known Talita (as her guardian and later her manager) for, what, over 10 years? If anyone should have an accurate view of her experiences, it should be them. This REALLY backs up Calcery’s observation about Mel not listening. Performative kindness is right!!
Scolopendra
So. Mel is responsible for a crew that repeatedly does hazardous work out in hard vacuum. They’ve just been told, by a subordinate directly responsible for critical safety operations (because Hazardous Work and Hard Vacuum), that she’s being physically harassed and treated dismissively by one of _her_ subordinates, one of the people whose safety she is responsible for. Again, because HAZARDOUS WORK and HARD VACUUM.
For the love of all that is good and holy, even if Mel wants to discount physical harassment and insubordination as minor (and they are very much not, nor ever, but _especially_ in space operations), they should at least realize that on a job site like this it’s a SAFETY issue. We already knew Mel wasn’t really good at their job, but this indicates that they are actively DANGEROUS at it.
Every person on the salvage crew is wearing a thin space suit and running around with hull cutters. They are all eggshells with hammers relying on the other eggshells to be cognizant of their safety. It doesn’t take much for someone to slip up and badly injure if not straight up kill someone else, and that’s just from accidents due to them being distracted–what if someone lashes out? I don’t mean Talita specifically; if the culture permits harassment _anyone_ might blow a fuse and even if it isn’t as much as a cold-blooded act or a hot-blooded swipe it may be as simple as deciding not to do a suit integrity check as diligently as one should because, hey, screw that guy.
Yeah, Talita needs to get off Dirtball not only for all the obvious reasons but because it’s an actively dangerous worksite just asking to become a Space USCSB video.
topaz
Yes! That’s the thing that’s been bugging me for the last few pages. Talita experienced (as far as we can assume) verbal harassment in college and Mel’s talk escalated to damaging her and the college’s property. What does a talk to someone who has already been physical escalation look like? Talita’s suit isn’t even locked in a locker. Even if Talita hasn’t thought about this specific workplace harassment implications. She already has a Mel’s talking/scolding = dangerous.
Tye
“Is that it?” Gut wrenching. Mel must think Talita can handle it because she’s bigger. But she shouldn’t have to! I can’t stand Adam but I think I dislike Mel way more now. We know Adam is an ass but Mel is a polite ass, which is worse.
Light_In_The_Fog
The way that people who are perceived as threatening are always given responsibility in this sort of situation is so harmful! Cause you know if the roles get reversed then the neutrality everyone seems to have might just disappear. As a tall clocky trans woman i relate to Talita here a lot
🫵
I’m so glad Mel isn’t a mandatory reporter. Could you imagine?
bryn
“is that it?” MEL WTF..
Claire
The largest mistakes that Mel is making (in tandem with dismissing Talita’s concern) is that they didn’t ask her for a full story (He pulled on your antler? How did this happen? It’s important you tell me the details, etc.) nor did they ask her how she actually wants this handled. Instead, all they say serves to dismiss Talita and her concerns. Caught up in what they *think* Talita wants instead of asking her, right there. Assuming what she needs, rather than talking her through it.
…And none of this precludes my prior prediction of them going nuclear on Adam! Yayyyyyy…
NotOkapi
God yeah… Mel following Talita’s request here to not talk to Adam about this is probably the best outcome, it means there is some record of Adam’s past abuses when the situation gets even worse but Mel also doesn’t make the situation worse by aggravating Adam through their refusal to peruse proper disciplinary action, so of course Mel isn’t going to listen…
Vinemaple
I wish this wasn’t my prediction, but… I expect Mel to dismiss Talita’s “that wouldn’t help” next page, and steamroll forward with another bad management decision that escalates the problem.
dzamie
“is that it” as though physically assaulting a coworker isn’t usually an immediate trip to HR if not the unemployment office
Mel, what the fuck.
Septemberdale
Adam is a dickwad, but Mel is an idiot.
cinna
Ahh… I was wondering why she isn’t mentioning how much of a safety liability Adam keeps proving to be. Now it’s evident that Talita was hoping to speak with Parental Figure Mel, but is getting Boss Mel instead.
cinna
Although, I suppose she was getting there with “not listening to instructions.” Mel just isn’t inviting her to elaborate.
Heather
Mel what the fuck. If a human came to you with a complaint that someone had yanked on their hair, would you say “is that it?”????
…Actually, maybe you would. Oh no.
forest @ swifty's hq!
and if someone yanked on your moustache it wouldn’t be harassment right… -_-
un_pogaz
Honestly, the “No! Don’t—That wouldn’t help” sends a contradictory message to Mel, but knowing teir track record in negotiation, it’s legitimate on Talita’s part. Especially since the lightheartedness with which they takes this is really not encouraging. At least, Mel don’t try to minimise it, they just dumply understimate the seriousness of the events.
Also, I think the first panel is the moment when Talita understands what Calcery meant about Mel by “As attentive as they act, I’m not sure Mel is ever actually listening.”
un_pogaz
PS: Is regrettable that Mel’s reaction was expected, and it problematic, but I had feared mush worse on their part.
cain
mel. mel he yanked on part of her face. mel–
ciel
do…do they not realize that someone pulling on Talita’s antlers is the equivalent of someone grabbing a person’s neck or pulling hair? It’s invasive and very traumatizing physical bodily harassment, this is not a ‘talk’ to have with Adam, this is a ‘warning’ to have with Adam and fire his ass and put him on the nearest ship back to Earth.
J
That, and SHE’S HIS BOSS. What the heck mel!
Kitty
Yeah I think the comparison to grabbing someone’s hair is very apt… In particular, if Adam had grabbed a fist full of a black person’s natural hair while making a stupid comment about it, or something else where there is an additional level of obvious cultural baggage coloring the action. Especially disappointed that Mel isn’t even interested in the misgendering enough to ask follow up questions. Talita isn’t expressing herself super clearly, but Mel should be more capable of helping her along.
Vinemaple
Hey, that IS a good analogy! I wish we’d thought of it pages ago, heh…
Tentament
Everyone here hates Adam, but honestly I think Mel is so much worse.
EveryZig314
“You’re so nice. You’re not good, you’re not bad, you’re just *nice*.” -Into The Woods
Enai
Unfortunately, yeah. Talita would’ve been better off talking to Idrisah and Gillie. Or Tod, even.
Coatl
Bip. Talk to Bip about it, I’m certain nothing would go wrong.
Bravo
For Adam? Not a thing. Nuh-uh. He just happened to fall asleep and wind up duct taped naked to the ceiling.
rain
my disappointment in imesurable and my day is ruined.
Mel how would you feel if a human woman was getting called “it” and having her hair pulled by a subordinate? i’m somehow sure it would be rather different.
TotallySomebody
I knew that was going to be Mel’s response…. Augh
v
oh talita, sweetpea… i know it’s probably just from being stressed and not having the language to talk about it, but she’s not being misgendered by adam, she’s being DEGENDERED, called ‘it’ like she’s not even a person. but without the framework to talk about her experiences accurately, the only more commonly used word i can think of that would portray those experiences adequately is ‘dehumanizing’, which isn’t a word that works well in multi sophont spaces, especially for someone like talita with such a complicated relationship to her own identity to start with…
it’s on mel to react appropriately to talita’s concerns (they are not) but it definitely doesn’t help that talita tending to downplay her own struggles is putting her on the back foot here, she’s trying to portray the gravity of what happened to her but how do you even begin to portray that to someone who’s never lived in a world that’s not designed for them… starting with adam yanking on her head centers the core of the problem (him using her species against her and disrespecting her for it) while also being the thing that mel can least relate to; harsh whispers, misgendering, and insubordination are all more general grievances that read, out of context, as less racialized, but while adam does have an attitude problem, the real issue is him being bigoted to talita, and it’s the one thing she can’t portray properly to mel
Hubert
Lmao does no one normal work at this shithole? This is like when your first relationship is god awful so you don’t know it’s not supposed to be this hard.
tyrone
And….There is the workplace-relationship fracture. I think everyone can see where this is going now.
HAL9000
girl its time to run away
TotallySomebody
Perhaps to the stars…..
EveryZig314
To the stars you say?
sugar-goat
I really like how the “is that it?” is frameless. Really makes The Vibe
eden
yeah! and with every other panel after that exaggerating her size to make you feel more constricted and claustrophobic… it is very effective
Vinemaple
Makes you really respect how Talita has learned to navigate Human-sized spaces. I’d like to see the community’s Centaur OCs, especially the non-spacer ones, attempt what Talita does every day of her life… Here, she looks like one false move could bring a wall down!
I ESPECIALLY dream of someday seeing Tadder and Relaghuul, the two Pahk diplomats from “First Contact,” shoehorning themselves into corridors and conference rooms on Nexus Jovia!
ttt
its very similar to the angle of how talita’s face was drawn when she was yanked. mel is *psychologically* yanking on her antler.
Accursed Dirt Boar
Oh yeah that exactly the kind of reaction i expected
I guess we have to poke Mel whit sticks now as well…
Greenjoe
Does Mel actually work as the site’s HR? Or is there some person Talita would be better off going to (if there even would be anyone…)
Matt
Talita I love you, but we gotta work on your communication skills
Bravo
Agreed. This is a violation of personal space and should get Adam sent off on the next ship.
Claire
True, but I really see this as her *trying*. Struggling to do better. And yeah, she is struggling for sure. But man… if this is what she’s consistently met with? No wonder this is where she’s at.
Sabella
Gotta say, as well as I’m sure you mean, this is rather victim-blamey.
petra
i dont think wanting someone to learn to articulate their problem better is victim blaming.. i think she does have to explain her situation a bit better… which she does when Mel says “is that it?” but you can totally tell she’s flustered and did not think through what to say fully by the way she stutters.
it’s unfortunate but in workplace/problem solving situations in an environment like this, you gotta be prepared to explain shit that happened to you with as much info as possible or it might just get dismissed
eden
to be fair mel has the ultimately responsibility if listening to her and asking followup questions, and there are plenty of situations (like this one) where it doesn’t matter how well you speak, you’ll still get dismissed. and also “someone pulled on my body part” is pretty good communication, and should have been immediately unacceptable. there’s really no reason for any other response other than mels incompetence
laika wallace
i love the the perspective on these past couple pages, making talita seem like she’s towering over mel (which she is, i guess, but the deliberate choice to show it that way is what i’m talking about). to me it’s really nicely showing how talita feels in this situation, hyperware of her size and her species while trying to get help for harassment that specifically is targeting these things
Payphone Call
It’s one of the things I’ve always loved about Runaway, how well the internal world of the characters is shown visually. I’m not sure there’s been a single thought bubble, and I’m not sure there’s ever been need for one!
NotOkapi
Oh Talita, I’m so proud of her for saying anything but of course there’s nothing Mel would think to do that would actually help.
Vinemaple
Exactly. It’s good that she’s trying to stop Mel from making things worse, but we know it’s not going to make anything better.