Talita's fine, whatever. The real content of this page is the USB cable joke.
Transcript
Idrisah and Cheevwut sit in her cubicle organizing a pile of loose cables on the floor.
Idrisah: Cheevwut, do you know where I put that USB-G cable?
A series of increasingly loud thumping footsteps causes Idrisah look up in surprise. Talita has returned, gripping the top of the cubicle wall, eyes wild.
Idrisah: Is something wrong?
Talita glances fearfully at the entrance to the admin wing, the direction she fled from.
Talita: There’s… centaurs outside.
Cheevwut: Oh yeah, that’s your new temp crew.
38 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 247”
1d4-nadg
IDRISAH SAVE HER
HAL9000
okay i KNOW talita is in shock and everything but from the perspective of the matriarch this looks so bad 😭 girl looked up and saw a stranger centaur see their visible facial difference and immediately Freak out and run away. i would immediately assume talita was being a dick. i mean idk if its different in centaur cultures but running away when you see someone new is generally rude in many places even if it is out of geniune shock
Redacted
To give Cheev and the other employees the benefit of the doubt, I’m not surprised that the others wouldn’t really know the details of Talita’s insecurities with her own species. Idrisah and Gillie are the ones Talita is closest with and they only found out about it relatively recently, plus Talita is established to hate talking about herself. I wouldn’t be shocked if the other employees just didn’t think to question Mel when they asked them to keep it a secret, they’ve known Talita the longest so from an outsider’s perspective they wouldn’t necessarily have reason to suspect that Mel doesn’t actually know what’s best for Talita. Idk maybe I’m being overly gracious?
Bug
Welp!
Lilac
I can like audibly hear the second panel in my head dhfhfs also it’s interesting to see Idrisah didn’t know or wasn’t told although if she did she definitely probably would have told talita or like tried to talk Mel out of it
Also I’m excited but scared. Both. Both things are true. Sorry Talita
Lilac
Like I mean I am excited for the Story and the Drama but Scared for Talita and the Character’s Emotions
Trees
You just know there is at least one SCART cable in that mess. Nobody remembers where it is from but it never got thrown out ‘just in case’.
FuzzySpiderPawz
Why tf did they not tell the woman who is actually in charge of the temp crew about the temp crew?!?!!?!!!??
Que that image of Talita saying “I’m going to have a panic attack”
Vinemaple
AUUWUUURGGHHHH! I made the same scream I make when I accidentally hurt myself, disturbing the people I live with. You actually did it, Mel. You actually went ahead and #!%?ing did it, you put Talita in the worst possible situation you can put her in. Mel, Ohwitiil, I hope you are left with nobody to do the station’s primary job, and with Ixion breathing down your necks, preferably in the person of someone actually competent enough to see who is at the center of all the instability and interruptions at Shikaviil Port. AND that they, or your resulting situation, causes you to actually take a ?@!&ing look at who you’ve been as a person, and start to make some changes.
Heather
So in order to execute this surprise, Mel put in the effort to find a centaur clan to work as temps, got an entire apartment building remodelled to suit them, had the centaur food supply and waste treatment systems on Dirtball expanded, and looped in most of the other managers to cooperate on the project AND keep it a secret from Talita.
But when Talita made a direct request, Mel wouldn’t deal with the productivity loss that MIGHT have resulted from transferring Adam ONE WEEK before his contract expired–a guy who, let’s remember, habitually harasses his boss and coworkers, disobeys orders, and violates safety protocols.
This is, genuinely, amazing writing. Mel will work hard and deal with inefficiency, but only if they think it will make them look good. What an incredible portrait of a character who nominally values compassion, but ultimately prioritizes their own ego above others’ wellbeing.
Vinemaple
THANK YOU for this comment. These are the terrible bosses who can slide by for years and get themselves defended by most of their workers, who just see someone “nice.”
Just like the parents, and “friends,” for whom the ability to tell themselves that they’re good people is more important than actually BEING good people.
I really, really, really want to find out what Mel did to Calcery, now.
Heather
Exactly!!! Perfectly put!!!
CALCERY SPILL THE TEA
Enai
Yeah. Where was that “submit your questions” google form? I’mma ask Calcery for the story. It’s got to be good (bad. But a good story, youknowwhatImean). I mean, what can a squishy even do to an AI whose job it is to run the fleet of automated vehicles? Gotta almost get inventive, or be very, very incompetent in the interpersonal skills department.
.
I’ll bet Mel is the second. I believe they think of themself as pretty good with people, while being, well, not.
Ellindsey
USB-G? Thanks, I hate it.
Also, that face on Talita. My god. That poor girl is traumatized.
PhasmaFelis
“Dammit, I’ve got like five of these useless USB-F cables, why can’t they just settle on a standard”
Heather
It’s all been downhill since USB-E tbh.
Adrienne
Cheev hitting Talita with the five-word horror story
Vinemaple
Worst POSSIBLE scenario, and yes, HORROR story, because thanks to Jay’s narration and pacing, we’ve all seen this coming, and been unable to look away!
foca
my reaction to that line was “sigh… USB-G?”. i definitely appreciate that joke.
Teod
To be honest, merely moving through five more versions over the next three centuries almost seems like the best case scenario. Although the fact that she specified G means that multiple versions are in use simultaneously. But the extras might be just compatibility options to connect to alien tech.
pelya
https://www.datapro.net/news/usb-type-d-connector-unveiled.html
Iterate on this design three more times.
AnormalADN
great surprise Mel 🙂 she sure is so surprised
Arcstone
“Bip, come pick me up and get me out of here, now!
IT’S AN EMERGENCY!”
ilvos01
You’re absolutely right, I audibly laughed. USB-G. Fuck’s sake.
More to the point, it bothers me that no-one who knew about this “surprise” understood how this might be stressful for Talita. Especially Mel. It’s like they don’t know her at all.
Enai
Having a group of workers to oversee from a different culture that you know nothing about ought to stress out anyone. If it were me, I’d like to at least have a heads up so I can read up on at least the bare basics of their culture: dress and behavioural norms, eating habits, some essential words, the most important holidays, that sort of thing. Talita knows nothing and she’s supposed to lead them??? She’s been set up to fail worse than anything I can imagine.
notableanonymity
The worse part is that no one really knows about Talita’s situation and feelings towards other centaurs. Idrisah was surprised when Talita said she had never been to the centaur home world.
The person who knows the most is unfortunately Mel who probably told everyone how this surprise would be so good for her and so they all went along with it.
Vinemaple
I realize this is one reason we’re all focused on Mel and not Ohwitiil or Cheev. Because we KNOW the Avians DGAF, we expect them not to care, it’s one of the most obvious culture clashes between Tiiliitan and Jovian society. But Mel is Jovian, and Human, and therefore we expect them to uphold the same standards of behavior, empathy, and compassion that we do.
Enai
Okay, I don’t understand what you mean by “the Avians DGAF”. Can you explain what you mean? I did read the setting/worldbuilding pages and, of course, the comic, but I don’t get the sense they would just make a person who does not even speak the language of the new workers the point of contact. The local Avian managers all speak Jovian English, for one.
edenmachine5457
.UUUAAUAUAAUAUAAUUAAUAAGGAHAAGGHGFHHGGGFHFG <- crying
Entguarde
EVERYBODY BUT THE WOMAN IN CHARGE OF THE TEMP CREW WAS IN ON IT?!!!?
oh my godddd even Cheev knew. Oh my godddddddd
hurgaburga
can’t wait for Idrisah’s crashout at the fact that everyone important was made aware of the identities of the new temps EXCEPT FOR the one in charge of all of them, AND the fact that they’re “ACTUAL” CENTAURS which Talita has some… feelings about
Frankie
fast forwarding the timeline to see what usb-z looks like
izimb
how can hecking everyone be in on it except the person it concerns most?!?!
notableanonymity
To be fair, Cheevwut is in charge of payroll so they would know as part of hiring.
PhasmaFelis
And to be fair to Cheevwut, it is absolutely not their job to keep people informed about personnel changes. They may not even know about the “surprise.”
NotOkapi
Because practically these are all people who needed to know about this “surprise” to pull it off, and Talita has been purposely kept out of the loop. Unfortunately while administration and other managers needed to know about hiring new temps/internal construction, as the manger for temps going outside all they had to tell Talita was that she was getting “new temps” and leave it at that.
Some rider
Ohh hold on, Talita
Mitta
the stance your cat makes when you put a cat-shaped item near it