I swear the next scene will be something not actively making things worse for Talita.
Transcript
Talita: I don't think me being his boss is working out. Could you transfer him to internal mechanics?
Mel puts a hand on their hip and thinks, expression doubtful.
Mel: Well… it’s only about a week until his contract expires. Could you possibly stand waiting that long? We wouldn’t really have the time to retrain him, and your team is already short a member.
Talita leans her face against a hand and looks away, dread and exhaustion closing in on her like the ceiling pressing against the back of her head.
Talita: I… I guess.
Mel: And if you'd rather I have a chat with him, let me know!
The connecting tail of their speech bubble passes over Talita's face, as oblivious to her distress as Mel.
59 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 232”
Madame Thunderbone
What does Internal Mechanics do?
TeethBurglar
You know with this page reminding us the new, probably centaur, temps are coming in next week I have to wonder the emotional fallout that’s going eventually happen between Talita and Mel. My theory being Mel will pull the whole “it’s a surprise gift for you! Why are you mad at me?” card and Talita once again being forced to justify her feelings and final put much needed space between herself and Mel. Either that or the more dramatic Talita leaving unannounced because they can’t muster talking to Mel who refuses to listen. Maybe, again it’s too early to say but I imagine that’s where this is going.
MyUniverseinaBox
Love the poster in the back about being a team. This is so real LMAO. Workplaces love to yap on about this crap but we all know it’s all bullshit. Mel is honestly a moron, how horrible. This indecent should be written up, reported, Adam fired, what-have-you.
Nickalart
At the end of the day, if Talita had been able to bring more objective things to the table (Adam doing things that could get himself or others killed), Mel would have a lot more to act on as an HR representative. At the same time, physically pulling on another person IS assault and I feel like Mel minimizes that because Talita is so much bigger and stronger than the human temps. It’s a super nuanced and complicated situation and the thought that went into this whole scene is superb.
ryn
“I swear the next scene will be something not actively making things worse for Talita”
bip and/or gillie and idrisah to the rescue PLEASE
bryn
mel did you just roll your eyes??
petra
i interpreted it as that kind of stress/concerned thinking gesture, like kinda looking off to the side and upwards which is sort of a reflex when ur having big thinks.. their head is also facing the direction their eyes are looking
Chase Wanderstar
Mel is a dumbass. Adam is not just irritating, he is dangerous! He works outside! On a shitty space rock! And yet, he climbs things he shouldn’t and gets in playfights with real sharp objects, and when quite reasonably corrected about either, he causes trouble and decides to be a dickwad and on top of being a generic dickwad also whatever the equivalent of racist is against aliens (aliens aren’t a race, they *have* races (at least if one takes “race” to mean “a classification of sophont populations between ethnicity and subspecies in breadth” rather than “what color human is that”, obviously a nonhuman cannot be a specific color of human, that is nonsensical), but aliens is not a race.).
AmbroseTV
the word you’re looking for is xenophobic! but yes, he is a liability to everyone’s safety
Septemberdale
Pretty sure xenophobic is what my jerk of a mother is towards my husband (who is a different ethnicity from me (but within the same race, so it’s not racism)) and has nothing to do with aliens.
Perhaps whatever the one about aliens is called does not have a word yet! But maybe it does, there’s been quite a lot of sci-fi with aliens in it.
TotallySomebody
The poster back there is so ironic
theotherther1
The primary emotion I remember from elementary school was bloodlust. People bullied me and teachers did the same ineffectual things Mel did here. They are VERY lucky that Talita has the restraint not to want to do that. And Adam is putting not only Talita but everyone else working with him at serious risk.
Lilac
What The Hell Mel (It Rhymes) (but also I recognize how this situation is in many ways extremely nuanced and Mel’s words are not necessarily out of maliciousness) (but still What The Hell This Sucks Poor Talita)
whirly
the “we are a team” poster behind mel here is a nice touch
EveryZig314
Despite being Talita’s mentor and manager for decades, they really don’t seem to know Talita on a more than surface level. They should know that for Talita complaining to a higher-up *at all* is a sign of a serious problem.
Eux
poor talita… gosh…… :(( i hope someday mel uhhh. understands where they have fucked up. maybe many years down the line with distance from all this they can. establish a better relationship with talita.
Eyes5
Hello! I come here in defense of Mel, who I think is being unfairly maligned. I think they’re doing what they can and they’ve got a good heart. I see their generosity in fostering Talita, and I see their compassion when they are immediately sympathetic when Talita walks into their office with an obvious issue. They’re not dismissive of Talita’s problems—they were actively trying to sniff out centaur-phobic issues with temps earlier in the comic (page 13 and 92). But it’s not really fair to expect Mel to immediately fire/punish Adam based on a single low-stakes incident. Discipline is a thing that should escalate with the severity and number of incidents. Talking to Adam, giving him a warning or counseling him on etiquette/safety, is a good first step, and standard procedure in HR policies. But Talita doesn’t want that, given her past experiences with xenophobic abuse and her own avoidant personality. Which is such a shame. Talking to people can often be effective in changing their behavior for the better, but Talita has given up on even trying. It sounds like Mel would’ve been more open to transferring Adam if not for the unfortunately inconvenient timing. It’s perfectly reasonable to ask if Talita can handle another week with him, after all, it’s only a week. Talita could’ve pushed the issue. But she caves immediately, again because of her avoidant personality and desire to not be seen as a problem.
Yeah, lots of comments accuse Mel of not being sympathetic. But how can they be, if Talita isn’t sharing the severity of her issues.
Lilith
the problem is that this is a complicated, nuanced situation. nuance simply does not exist on the internet
eden
everything everyone else is saying about how mel is messing up, AND it’s apparent from mel just admitting it that mel doesn’t want to deal with addam because he’s about to leave anyway. and frankly the whole point of mel as a character in this story IS that having “good intentions” simply isn’t enough and you can cause active harm from not addressing your internal biases and not listening. you and eyes5 need to remember that it’s the person in power here mel has the ability to genuinely help talita. I’m sure if a manager handled you reporting being assaulted you’d have a different opinion as well. and frankly to me saying mel is just doing their best demonstrates a lack of nuance when this story is working very hard to depict this form of corporate abuse.
EveryZig314
Mel’s mistake here is not asking followup questions to get more information, *especially* as someone who has been in charge of Talita for a decade and should know by now how hesitant she is to talk about problems at all.
jade stormcloud
Except it’s not just “a single low-stakes incident.” Talita was attempting to list off the other, much more serious, issues, but Mel cut her off. They didn’t even seem interested in hearing the work-safety issues that Talita started to bring up. Someone not following instructions in a high-danger job like this is a HUGE problem, and Mel’s refusal to listen is continuing to endanger everyone who works with Adam.
Dotcom
Oh, I see this as Mel lacking the ability to see how this could end for them or the company. They are trading the convenience of having a shitty dangerous temp worker for one more week versus keeping a competent permanent worker. On top of that? They seem to be willing to risk their relationship with their foster kid. This is someone who cannot see past themselves very well to understand far-reaching consequences. There are a number of reasons someone can fall into this trap—including health problems, outside family stress, and beyond clouding their perception. However? Based on all we’ve seen and heard of Mel (particularly how they talk of their relationship with their biological children) it seems they are someone who has perception issues and can be checked out from others’ needs.
OhGollieItsOllie
The only times we the audience hear about Mel is usually in the context of some sort of bungled relationship, starting with Cal at the beginning of the comic (saying if they spent another day there they were gonna drive a front loader through the admin wing after their fight with Mel!), and then their kids and their ex. The whole narrative has been alluding to this.
OhGollieItsOllie
*Cal is he/him whoops
Adrienne
I can’t help but feel these are the words of someone who has not been expected to put up with an active bully for over a week. Which I’m glad for on your behalf but yeah. It sucks fyi
Lezzlebit
I understand Mel’s perspective *to some extent*… this is a very tricky situation, and Talita could’ve communicated better. Yeah, I think people are sort of turning Mel into a villain here… they’re just a flawed person. But they aren’t really helping Talita much here. They could be a lot more empathetic and I hope they realize that, as a result of their (in)actions, Adam’s gonna get away with no real consequences.
pitviperofdoom
People are pointing out that this “low stakes incident” is part of an escalation of bullying behavior but I want to point out putting your hands on a coworker without their consent is not a low stakes incident. That’s battery. If I went up to my boss, yanked her hair, and laughed in her face when she told me not to, that would absolutely be grounds for firing me on the spot. Not everything requires a PIP.
MyUniverseinaBox
lmao assault is not a low stakes incident.
Eyes5
In response to some of the comments to my comment: “Mel’s mistake here is not asking followup questions to get more information” They’ve asked plenty of questions already, in the past and now, and they aren’t about to put Talita in a metaphorical headlock trying to pry out more information. That would be even more disrespectful. Talita is an adult; she volunteers the information she feels is appropriate. That she isn’t forthcoming with enough information to Mel is an unfortunate symptom of her past and personality. (Although, look at how well metaphorical headlocks work on Talita! Gillie did it, and now they understand each other great! But it took quite an explosion of emotion and circumstance to get to that point.)
“This is not a single low stakes incident.” Given the information that Mel has, it is an isolated incident that warrants verbal discipline, which they are willing to do. More severe punishment is reasonable only if incidents keep happening, and only after investigation. We as readers know that Talita is suffering greatly and Adam ought to be thrown into orbit, but Mel needs to be an impartial manager and work with the information they have. They can’t just express favoritism for their former foster child and unilaterally take extreme action based off one testimony.
So yeah, I maintain my position that Mel is doing their best. They can certainly do better, but only if Talita opens up.
1d4-nadg
Wait, does that mean the foreshadowed next round of temps arrives… NEXT WEEK???
TeethBurglar
AND THEY STILL HAVEN’T TOLD HER THEY ARE CENTAURS???? Jesus Mel…
Dotcom
This feels like three different horrific incidents will be happening to Talita to push her to Blip and onto the Run Away. This is the first, Adam is likely to do something even worse now, and then the addition of the Centaurs will likely be the breaking point.
Entguarde
god once again the paneling and use of speech bubbles is perfect! everything closing in around and over her, god talita i feel for her.
sort of an unrelated question, but what brush do you use for background details like for the ceiling/distant shading?
1d4-nadg
You’ll have to get a confirmation from Jay, but I’m 90% sure this is a stock texture with a perspective effect and transparency mask applied.
If the streams are in your time zone and you don’t mind spoiler, you can look at the process there!
Gheesfellow
“You can always come to me if there are…issues. I know people sometimes make weird presumptions about centaurs..()… It’s my concern either way!” Mel, Chapter 1, p.13
Well gee Mel, thanks for nothing. Guess Cal was right about you not actually listening.
Koumori
To be honest, Mel’s choices are very close to how I likely would have handled the situation, were I in his position; having a stern discussion with the offending employee feels like an appropriate first step, and transferring someone to a new department requiring new training when they’re leaving in a week anyway would be terribly inefficient. I would not, however, have said “Is that all?” Deliberate non-consensual physical contact is a serious matter, and even with my autism I can tell that it’s a vaguely condescending thing to say when someone comes to you with concerns.
Anyway, judging by the other comments, it’s probably for the best that I’m not employed in a managerial role.
Light_In_The_Fog
Mel’s pronouns are they/them btw!
Koumori
Oh yeah, that totally slipped my mind. Thanks!
Varyon
Yeah, a stern talking-to is likely the appropriate thing to do. The issue IIRC is that Talita has already established that Mel doesn’t actually give stern talking-to’s. I’m assuming they’re basically just like “So-and-so said you were being a meany-face, could you stop that? K thx.” Which just makes things worse since there’s no punishment involved, just letting the offender know who blabbed (or maybe Mel doesn’t state who it was that informed them, but it’s still relatively obvious from context who it likely was). I think the most appropriate course of action would have been to get the full story from Talita, possibly gone to some of the more reliable temps for confirmation, and then confronted Adam with an ultimatum – something like “Cut that out and apologize to those you’ve wronged, and you can finish out your term without a black mark on your record. Keep it up or escalate, and you will be immediately terminated, confined to your room (or a jail if Dirtball has one) until it’s time to ship you off, and fined if not formally charged with assault.” Or whatever is in Mel’s power/influence to realistically threaten.
TeacupAngel
Gosh Talita’s eyes in the last panel 🙁 That look of it finally sinking in that this is it. You gave your best shot doing what you were supposed to and yet the bully is getting off scot free, exactly as he knew he would, because anything else would be too inconvenient for the system. The abuser won and now you are stuck with him and at his mercy.
What an incredibly relatable heartbreak, gosh. It’s a genuine relief now to know the story will be going away from this place, and that’s so rare for environments you’ve gotten to know over hundreds of webcomic pages. Incredibly well told
OUCH
;-; 👍
Kitty
I get that this is a tough situation to be in as a manager, but damn, Mel could really be showing so much more support while saying this. Like asking even a single question about what happened besides “is that it?” At least then it would feel more like Mel actually wanted to give Adam a meaningful scolding rather than just be like “Hey could you be more a team player? Thanks.”
Even if I felt like my hands were tied in Mel’s position, I’d still want to know the details, to make sure I understood how serious it was. And to make sure my company didn’t give this guy a good reference.
Velocira
The walls and ceiling- they feel like they’re literally closing in on her.
T-Bird
I expected very little and somehow I was still disappointed
un_pogaz
Jesus Christ Mel, slaps that get lost. The worst thing is when the situation blows up in your face, you’ll be the first to be surprised that “nobody see that coming”, “it was unpredicatble” and “I couldn’t do nothing to avoid that”.
Adam
Hm. You don’t have time to retrain him. His contract expires in a week. He literally ASSAULTED HIS BOSS. I have an idea, why don’t you just fire him early?
Ruby
“Just” one more week, eh? We betting on Adam escalating the situation?
Adrienne
Can you stand working with a guy who has no respect for your or your boundaries and doesn’t even see you as a person and has the self-preservation skills of a toddler for another week? Because it would be so much more convenient for me if you did 🙂
edenmachine5457
.MEL??? HELLO??? you didn’t even bother to ask her to tell you about the whole situation… you didn’t bother to find out more details… YOU DIDN’T EVEN TRY TO COMFORT TALITA!!!!!!! AARRRRGHHGGGHHHG jay you’re SO good at writing characters that are realistically frustrating because I’ve experienced something like this myself and it’s. AUGH chefs kiss
Zuorai
The self-absorbed disbelief in Talita on their face in the second panel. Nonbinary Wrongs
Accursed Dirt Boar
So that’s what Adam meant when he said they were “getting fired anyways”, dude knew management would only give him a stern talking to at the most, and it seems he is not even gonna get that at all
Also while i can understand Mel’s logic here, it is still really disappointing by just how nonchalant they seems to be to this situation, like, you are not only Talita’s boss, you are their *foster parent*, have some empathy at least
ttt
it’s because its a *pattern* of behavior for adam. he knows exactly how much to poison the well, and when, so management won’t interfere or throw him tangible consequences, because HE’S DONE THIS BEFORE AND WILL KEEP DOING IT.
k-bonx
Mel is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns btw!
Matt
the pronouns here are all in reference to Adam, though
Heather
The inspirational sign behind Mel in panel 3!!
*chef’s kiss* a beautiful cherry on top of the horribly uncomfortable sundae that is this entire scene
Undercooked Mothman
Its so good! It perfectly encapsulates Mel rn. A nice thought that doesnt really mean anything. we are courteous, we are patient, we work together, we are a TEAM.
Matt
Mel, we need to work on your job skills.