Talita's always so nervous to meet new people, better to just rip the band-aid off for her, right? They'll all be flocking together like birds of a feather in no time!
Runaway to the Stars is crowdfunding to become a printed book this April! Click here to be notified on launch!
Transcript
As she is walking away, Mel pops around the corner of the hallway, waving for her attention.
Mel: Talita, could you come here for a moment?
Talita shrinks against the wall, grinning nervously.
Talita: I s-should really get going, I'm–
Mel walks up to her, beaming with excitement.
Mel: Starting next week, that's your new outdoors crew! You'll be managing other centaurs‼ Isn't that exciting⁇ I've got a meeting to catch. Introduce yourself!
They walk off, back into the plant.
Talita: Mel, wait. I–
She stops, frozen in pose grasping towards Mel. The centaurs are approaching her.
180 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 256”
10Person
For some reason I can’t help but imagine the new centaur temps looking at Mel and questioning whether this is actually the guy in charge of the whole thing or if they’re the local fool screwing with them for comedic purposes.
Like how smiling too much is associated with foolishness in Russian culture IRL.
Egg
God this is such a horrible situation for everyone except Mel who gets to just leave. I hope the new centaur workers will be able to tell that talita isn’t trying to offend them by being so avoidant but also I would not blame them if they assume the worst considering they situation they got dropped into and the likely misinfo Mel gave them about Talita
00Venator
Uh oh
milk4evertoasted
OHH SHIIII… I SAW THIS BEING DRAWN ON STREAM!!
furiousfran
…well on the bright side, at least the centaur kids aren’t there to ask her the sort of awkward questions kids love to ask
cypr
gorgeous perspective on this page! talita is going to have a panic attack .
cptnqusr
“it’s me, santa claus! your present this year is additional social anxiety ok bye!”
Calcifer
I will repeat that Mel should NOT look so endearing when they’re being such a fool. Look at that damn face.
This just makes me think about when Talita leaves (to the stars, perhaps?) Mel is gonna have NO CLUE what happened. As much as we clown on them, they legit believe what they’re doing is in Talita’s best interests, and that kinda breaks my heart. To be clear, they’ve let her down so SO many times, both as a guardian and as a boss, but just imagining how lost and confused they’ll be when Talita peaces out is kinda sad, lmao. Their dense ass is gonna have no idea.
TeethBurglar
Mel after this will be posting on the AmITheAsshole Megaform like
“Am I (65HN) the asshole for hiring centaurs so my foster kid (33CF) can better learn about her culture and be respected in the work place without telling her?”
Alternate
Wow you really put it in the perfect tone/wording of ‘I genuinely thought this was a good idea, I had such good intentions’. But it’s inevitably like ‘oh MAN Mel you REALLY were THE asshole, you did NOT consider this hard enough’
milk4evertoasted
wish i could like this comment lol
Lettuce Vervain
literally the only thing i can possibly say is AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Jackie
Ooough
Really hoping these centaurs are at least nice
omittedharpy
These last few pages have unfortunately been a huge boon to my collection of Talita Faces, i’m so so sorry my girl
hessian
girl who is clearly so excited
RareBird
I deeply love the framing of the last panel, and the feeling of the other centaur(s) approaching making Talita feel so small.
10Person
I swear Jay how do you keep up with this update schedule? Like this updates more often than many comics with much more stylized art styles despite bring closer to the realistic end of comics than the stylized one.
DerangedTriangle
They’ve got a massive backlog I think
HAL9000
iirc they have predrawn most of the pages before uploading here, as in the comic was half done before it ever got shown
Muse
they only started posting them when the comic was half drawn, and when they were unable to draw, they slowed down/stopped posting pages so that way they wouldn’t chew through their buffer!
halley
huge bummer that mel pulls this shit w nothing but love in their heart
bug
yea real honestly
jasper
Ohh this is going to be heartbreaking. Way to make Talita feel like an outsider among her own species AND outside of it. My heart hurts for her.
mustarjil
[cheevwut’s voice] haw haw.
the Inmara
This
foca
exactly how i’m feeling
Storm
Ooohh noooo poor Talita but also yay I’m excited to meet the centaurs lol
Imp!
Mel looks so cute in panel 4 but unfortunately I Hate Them
Bravo
Mel, you have decent intentions but I’d put you in an airlock without a suit over this.
Jesus, the far future equivalent of Ask A Manager would be having a stroke and the commentariat would be up in arms.
Immersia
I’m torn between being annoyed at Mel and my curiosity about the new temps…
Oberon
1 week in ye stocks + rotten tomatoes for mel
Cobbington
surely this can only go well, right y’all
1d4-nadg
Mel, may you algae bread never rise, your shoes never quite fit, and your best employee give in her two week notice and calmly leave for other stars
tyrone
Mel…So completely ignorant of everything amiss around them that’s otherwise blatantly obvious. A true middle-management type, we have all met.
To add insult to injury they only fall up the corporate ladder while the overlooked just keeps on like a drone with dead eyes or they quit fast.
zims
Somehow I doubt the 2-week notice is going to happen, and her leaving for the stars will probably be a panic-fest.
beth
Dang Mel, you really don’t know Tal at all.
F657
You are now at comic #11111111 in binary
F657
My bad, #100000000,
The above is 255
Half Phased
I do have to wonder, did Calcery see this coming? Even if Cal didn’t have access to Mel’s files and see that a centaur temp crew was Mel’s solution, I have to wonder if they saw Mel doing something like this to Talita and that’s why they tried to convince Talita to leave. Before something like this happened.
Vinemaple
Calcery’s the one who said “I’m not sure Mel is EVER listening.” Jay says Calcery’s beef with Mel will remain unexplored, but it’s a fair assumption that Cal at very least experienced similar treatment.
Silent Lurker
“I’ve got a meeting to catch.” WITH THESE HANDS MEL >:( >:( >:(
Jason Myers
AND THEN THEY JUST LEAVE HER THERE. TO INTRODUCE HERSELF. ZOOMS AWAY AND DOESN’T EVEN ASK HER IF SHE’S OKAY WITH THIS. I’m telling the ‘talita rude’ crowd now, bugger off omfg, Mel is committing microaggressions.
fluffy
At this point they’ve expanded quite a bit beyond “micro.”
Jason Myers
You’re so right, I’m not being aggressive enough about this. FUCK MEL, and the spaceship they rode in on, GET THEM FIRED!!!
A Ninny Mouse
REAL!!! its mind boggling to me that people are blaming talita for reacting badly to this and even saying/implying she’s as bad as the humans who mistreated her when MEL made the racist assumption she’d get along with complete strangers because they’re all the same species.
and considering the fact talita mentioned chatting with other centaurs before, im 100% sure shes only reacting this badly because mel deliberately kept her in the dark. had she been informed, even if she would still be uncomfortable it wouldn’t be this bad.
Muse
talita is being a LITTLE rude, in the sense that the new centaurs definitely see her just being all weird and flighty around them and giving them weird looks for no discernible reason, but mel being a LOTTLE rude is definitely more pressing in this situation lmao, like if it weren’t for them, talita wouldn’t be being unintentionally rude to the centaurs. definitely can’t blame her for not perfectly accommodating a situation she was forced into, and people who insist she should are definitely a bit off the mark.
purrs
Oh, Talita. You have got to quit your job, Talita.
Wesmikeline
Painfully real.
Vinemaple
Recalling Mel to Nexus Jovia IMMEDIATELY and enrolling them in MANDATORY remedial sensitivity, ethics, and crew-resource-management classes.
Vinemaple
I am coping by imagining Mel stuck in Nexus Jovia going through weeks and weeks of sensitivity training: bored, humiliated, and confused, FAILING the evaluation on a stars-damned sensitivity-training test, and having to take the class AGAIN, still not understanding why, until finally after failing both the sensitivity again, AND the crew resource management trainings, they have to go to a psychological evaluation… all the while with the prospect of demotion or firing over their head. And maybe, one day, there’s a breakthrough, and Mel realizes what they’ve been doing to people for decades, and maybe THAT will be worse for them than any physical pain we can imagine, but at the same time, there’s hope for them as well, a light at the end of the tunnel for them and everyone they’ve hurt. Not “fixing” all of it, but maybe closure, and the opportunity to start healing.
Jason Myers
I think you hit the core of what I wanna feed into people with an iv drip: people like Mel (and worse people ofc) need to be humiliated- but only so that they can accept their own humility and genuinely grow from the experience. What you’re describing is the exact path to growth I want a character like Mel to go through!!
Vinemaple
Thank you! I’m so relieved someone agrees!
Quad
AND I almost forgot, if this clan is gonna be working OUTDOORS (which I doubt they’ve done before), they’re going to need their own exosuits, and Talita would prolly have to make them! Nerve-wracking in so many ways!
Daedalus
Space faring centaurs might have their own suits already. Talita had to make her own because there aren’t many centaurs in human space, but centaurs from the homeworld could probably just buy their own.
Thisfox
I find it incredibly hard to believe that a space-faring race (who have definitely been confirmed spacefaring both by Word Of God and by the centaur-made-and-owned ship that Bip flew in on) have no suits and training of their own. I’m surprised everyone keeps saying Talita will have to (do the space equivalent of) hand-sew them spacesuits. It seems to me, they would have some space experience already of some sort or another, they’re not herdbeasts kidnapped from a steppe on their homeplanet, and it’s somewhat racist to think that they are.
Comito
Isn’t the Runaway a human-made ship, just modified for centaurs?
Archieve
My personal fear that Talita is expected to make and repair Centaur customized items on request for everyone (not necessarily just suits) comes from Dirtball management being sooo cheap. Talita had to research and design all her own things with no outside help, (the bug farm, suit, exercise equipment, etc) and that I worry will be the biggest guilt trip to make it hard for Talita to resign, “you can’t leave, your new temps are depending on you! nobody else can take your place!” especially if her in house skills were used as a selling point for the Centaur clan.
Archieve
To clarify, the clan might be knowledgeable of space travel but Talita is an engineer with specialized knowledge that Mel likely promised to them as part of their employment accommodations.
austroraptor
thank you for saying this oh my goddd. just because spacefaring centaurs are rare (largely due to lack of dietary support systems) doesn’t mean the ones who ARE are all clueless and stupid and exploited. just because there aren’t any widely-available centaur gear on the market doesn’t mean that two different centaurs… could independently develop spacesuits… because they both live and work in space… they’re clearly FULLY capable of retrofitting other ships to suit them (ex. the runaway) so I really don’t see why so many people are expecting them to be Literally Clueless with no idea what they’re even doing here. also there’s some people who seem to think they’re going to be?? full on violent?? or OKAY with potential fatalities because “well they kill their larvae sometimes so if someone dies due to fucking around on the job they’ll think it’s fine because clearly they were a liability.” like I’m sorry but saying you hope adam gets gored by one of the new centaur temps is not the woke take you think it is. they’re not animals.
HAL9000
yeah like Talita making her own spacesuit doesn’t mean centaurs don’t have spacesuits, it means Talita doesn’t know how to even begin approaching Centaur culture to see if they do. she doesn’t speak any centaur languages, she doesn’t read any, only a few are net-documented so she cant use translators, and hell, maybe centaurs upload their schematics to niche centaur-exclusive webforums or something. i wouldnt know how to even begin, say, making a woven blanket using methods from a small asian mountain tribe who speak a minority language, not because the tribe doesnt have blankets, but because i can’t access that information.
this is a seemingly successful clan. they presumably know how to read, speak english, etc to get this far, they have also likely interacted with previous jobs for humans and other aliens and know how limited their accomodations can be, they know what they signed up for, so presumably they have already forseen issues like “do we have exosuits” and solved that themselves
Vinemaple
I think an experienced clan of Centaur salvagers is the best possible scenario here, people who know what they’re doing, and therefore have enough value to retain agency under Mel, and to figure things out for themselves. A clan, maybe, who has worked as temps for non-Centaurs before…
Archieve
I personally dont expect the clan to be clueless but I do at this point expect that Mel made them promises that depend on Talita the engineer remaining on dirtball. Imagine a scenario with human temps taking a job that advertises a five star chef only to come and realize the worker who was previously trained as a chef never agreed to cook for everyone else, that’s the sort of situation it seems Mel has likely put Talita in. Worry is not with the clans incompetence, its with Mels.
Skadoosh
A centaur clan wouldn’t even need to design their own spacesuits, they could just hire someone.
I personally hope Adam gets sued by the clan, because it would be appropriate consequences for his actions and the exact opposite of what he would expect from centaurs, making it even more hilarious.
guest
fr a lot of the discussion about the new temps seems to expect them to be unequipped and clueless about navigating any part of interstellar life and to be dumb animals who will become furious at Talita if she makes a humanlike expression at them
Skadoosh
The question is, does whatever EVA gear they have fit the safety regulations this specific company presumably has to protect them from lawsuits in case someone gets injured? (Color, material, radiation shielding, how many minutes of oxygen the tank holds, battery charge, damage resistance, harness attachment, how easy it would be to remove or put on in an emergency, compatibility with the refueling vehicles.) Though maybe they just need TÜV stickers and we’re all worrying about nothing.
eden
yeah, and it’s not that I expect centuars to have NEVER developed their own suits over the last eighty years, i’m just saying if the actual availability for things like food is so scarce to the point most centuars who travel outworld have to eat exclusively printer meat and all their ships are customized avian and human ships, and centuars are commonly exploited for their labor in space, then I doubt those centuar suits would be readily available or financially accessible either.
Claire
“I have a meeting to catch” MEL WHY IS THIS NOT YOUR MEETING TO CACH AAAAAA
bramble
Talita needs to get off-planet like yesterday… although since she only seems to have confided in Idrisah and Gillie about Mel’s bullshit and THEY’RE leaving too, I’m concerned that whatever internal investigation follows Talita going AWOL with a ship that wasn’t supposed to be functional won’t be able to find anyone who can testify to how extremely hard Mel’s mismanagement fucked the operation over. Maybe if someone thinks to call Cal?
Archieve
Given how lax everyone on Dirtball is and that the vessel has already been approved and acknowledged, if there are any questions it will hopefully be on management to explain where their vessel came from and be their fault when they cant give clear answers.
Ruby
Nit the JoJo panel!
Quad
OH…. TALITA…. D:
Mel’s behavior here makes me ache. They KNOW how Talita expresses and is getting every signal that she’s not comfortable right now, and still they just bulldoze over her because they’re SO SURE Talita will be as stoked about this as Mel thinks she will. I suspect they might be getting a rude awakening soon…
I am so so excited to see the centaurs talking though!!! I wonder if they might try to use some homeplanet languages with her.
Mr. Skeleton
I assume the first thing that’s gonna happen is the new hire is going to speak to Talita in their own language assuming she knows it and Talita will have to explain they she doesn’t speak it.
Claire
Im so, so hoping that they say something like, “This is very clearly not what we signed up for. Why dont you tell us whats REALLY going on.”
JoB
Considering that meeting language barriers should be a somewhat frequent thing for centaurs (because meetings between nomadic and settled clans on their home planet), that’d be a rather daring assumption …