A friendly smile.
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Transcript
Verengt: Hm.
Verengt considers Talita for few moments, then half-lids their eye and curls their trunk up again, the point of their lower lip down slightly.
Verengt: Well, let us know if you change your mind. It’s been a pleasure to meet you.
Talita tilts her head and smiles politely, drawing the corner of her lip back to show her teeth.
Talita: You too! Will I see you on… Um…
She peters off, confused by Verengt's face. They have flinched away, mane feathers flared, lips closed but drawn taut, trunk flattened up between their flared nostrils in an "S" shape, eyes squinting with nictitating membranes half closed.
Verengt: Talita. Do you intend to bite me?
Talita stares in disbelief.
Talita: NO??
165 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 261”
Rose
crying sobbing throwing UP nooooooooo Talitaaaaaa T ^ T) nooooo Verengt TT A TT)
screaming Mel’s name from the rooftops in hated disgust bc they could have EASILY prevented this from happening with the tiniest bit of foresight and actual care!!!!!!!!!! GAH!!!!
Rose
*foreTHOUGHT
i mistyped
cvv
awww crap there it is
Gabe
im counting on Verengt’s ability to communicate on saving this considering that Talita doesn’t seem to be fully aware of how she mistepped,, still, i’m sure they’d be more cautious of talita after this,, like if she can make such a threatening expression without even seeming to mean to, then what if she does it to their children? how will they know when she *is* making a threatening expression? even if they know talita means well, trust has gotta go down when you realise that you can’t count on someone’s expressions to know how they’re feeling
Undercooked Mothman
I love Talita’s face in the last panel. Hope she can clear this up with Verengt 🙏 they’ve been so polite for this whole conversation even though things got rather awkward.
Oh6
It’s interesting how Talia forgets (or doesn’t realize) that human expressions aren’t a good idea, but is aware from Verengt’s reaction that something went wrong.
Common Handle
aw man, something tells me I’m gonna be experiencing a lot of secondhand embarrassment these next few pages. I wonder if anyone in the comments relates… [scrolls down] Aha. Hmm. Something is happening here.
(no salt intended or anything it’s just surprising to see what people are saying down here sometimes… sometimes I think I’m misreading things a Lot)
AccordYeen
…my aversion to eye contact has put me in a very similar situation to this. this is physically distressing to read.
Heather
Person who was raised by wolves politely leans and licks your nose to communicate their respect for your authority
plover
I’m actually extremely glad Verengt is being so open and honest about how they’re interpreting things when they and Talita are conversing. Much better then leaving things unresolved or unknown about between them two. Unfortunately the big thing about “intending to bite me” made the April Fools’ comic come to mind LOL …
I wonder if Talita will go to Bip and ask them more about centaurs. Maybe they could help her learn more potentially …
HAL9000
THANK YOU FOR MAKING ME AWARE OF THE CENTAUR YURI COMIC… BEAUTIFUL
Cobbington
W H O O P S YUP I WAS WORRIED ABOUT THIS
my heart just dropped out my ass oh my god
Quad
Oh God this is like. THE worst combo of expressions for these two D: Talita is smiling bright but as a centaur LOOKS like she’s gonna start biting things, meanwhile Verengt is defensive and irritated, maybe a little scared, but if you’re reading their lips through a human expression lens they almost look like they’re smiling. It’s so unfortunate…
I think we’re about to get an idea of it, but I’ve been wondering how familiar Talita is with how centaurs express. I thought earlier that she was covering her mouth because she knew how open mouths read, but now she seems unaware why Verengt is bristling. Maybe she’s just become so comfortable it’s slipped her mind.
blythe
kinda makes me wonder what an inverse situation would look like if a human were raised by centaurs
no smiling bc teeth is rude, even though smiling is kinda instinctual for humans. no trunk, but given how loose lips are also positive, maybe approximate a trunk smile by pursing the lips as if to kiss/pout? to us would probably look like a moody fish when trying to be friendly. flaring the nostrils also helps with the positive centaur face. human disgust cringe i think translates well enough with the wrinkled nose and squinted eyes, along with tightened lips.
then comes the question of how that would work with the combined airway/esophagus humans have. talking will overtake the lips being used to compensate for a trunk, unless they just talk with duck lips all the time lol. i guess protruding your lips while talking also minimizes the chance of showing teeth accidentally. i dont think any centaur would take a centaurized human snarl seriously though. a centaurized human would have to be super liked by their clan to not get bullied.
now im imagining an underdog story of a human ngthan player… god theres such good potential material for a reverse talita situation even if realistically, any centaurs recognizing a human child would send them off to the humans. but maybe human children growing up alongside centaurs would pick up some things. iirc naya pradesh has a substantial centaur population. itd be impossible for at least some meshing to not occur.
T-Bird
Oh dear… I didn’t realize Talita apparently knows SO little about centaurs. At least that’s how I interpret her expression in the last panel – less “Oh no, sorry, I forgot to keep my expression schooled” and more “why would you SAY that D8”
I wonder if this is part of why her previous interactions with random centaurs went so poorly. Not only because of her clanless status but also she kinda comes across as a feral weirdo with her expressions and body language all out of whack.
I just hope they can sort this out. I mean, Verengt knows Talita was raised by aliens and they seemed extremely chill until now.
Of course this all could have been avoided if Talita had had more than ten seconds to prepare for this encounter and maybe read a “basic etiquette for centaurs”-primer, MEL!!!
Zidane
I think she does know at least that showing teeth isn’t something you want to do, when Verengt first approaches her and she sort of bares her teeth because she’s startled, you see her close her mouth with her hand the next panel, I think the transcript on that page also noted it. I think its actually a little worse for her, in that her interactions with other centaurs were probably so brief and anxiety inducing for her that accidentally grinning at them never even became something she had to think about, whereas here she maybe lets her guard down a bit and smiles the way that comes involuntarily to her without even realizing it. Either way its got to be heartbreaking that genuine happiness coming from you is going to be completely misconstrued as hostility or anger.
Solidago
And the fragile thread of cordiality collapses at an inevitable understanding..
Verengt is showing how even knowing some context of Talita’s situation, those hard-wired interpretations will happen. Especially given that they only learned Talita was raised by humans like 40 seconds ago, and don’t know the extent of her isolation from her own species. Meanwhile poor Talita has likely never had this level of social failure with a centaur before. Given what we know of her history, I doubt she’s been in a personal enough conversation to have flashed a big freaky smile at one. If it had happened before I imagine she’d be anxious enough to be keeping it in mind right now. Even once they get used to each other, it may be hard for Talita to not be nervous around the calm centaurs because they look annoyed (an expression she’s had to “correct” on her own face!), and it may be hard for the Gwailer centaurs to not feel uneasy when their boss is cheery or trying to reassure them. Unfortunately, I don’t think Talita has a confident enough personality to make them feel welcome and supported despite being hard to read, and I imagine the Gwailers, who have come to this *entirely separate planet on a contract* only to immediately encounter challenging details they weren’t informed of, will not be feeling very secure.
Wow, this comment section is almost as tense as the conversation on the page 😳
Fallingfeather
OOPS. OOPS WHOOPS.
mossrabbit
i feel like we genuinely need to give verengt more grace, and our love of talita is biasing us against them. verengt is nursing (a stressful time for all animals that do so), just came off a (presumably) long shuttle ride either that day or last night, had to organize their clan for a new job, have a long meeting with an alien (mel) and thus remember all the human social cues they know, and then have a second meeting with their new manager and handle a barrage of new and upsetting information within like 2 minutes and then handle a presumably explosive situation as said manager, who seems extremely shy, anxious, and stressed, suddenly escalates with random hostility despite the conversation going well.
all things considered, verengt gave talita 100x more grace than i would if i was jetlagged, exhausted, nursing, and socially drained, and the person i was talking to suddenly leered at me with a huge cocky grin on their face and their body stanced up to fight. they’re giving her a chance to explain herself instead of resorting to snarling, their teeth aren’t bared, they aren’t making accusations. they’re asking “are you trying to start a fight?” as calmly as they can manage, after just having received a threat from somebody they know was raised by aliens and may not understand the signals being sent.
[OBLIGATORY DISCLAIMER: I AM AUTISTIC! I AM A PERSON OF COLOUR! I AM BUTCH! I AM AWARE MANY PEOPLE HAVE AGGRESSION ISSUED TO THEM UNDULY. BUT ACTING LIKE VERENGT SHOULD RESPOND PERFECTLY TO RECEIVING A THREAT IS, ALSO, ISSUING AGGRESSION UNDULY.]
Alternate
Also v true. Those factors are why I worry this social interaction is just going to go downhill more. And I wouldn’t blame Verengt for any of that. But it would yeah, suck for our protagonist big time. (But aye, shes gotta runaway, so,,, something has to happen). I also worry for what’s gonna happen with Verengt and the Gwailers here once she runs away. 😡 Oof. Hopefully things work out for them, they HAVE prior experience– Or with their apparent connections, maybe they could find other prospects… Oof though.
Alternate
that is not the emoji i wanted excuse me : c
milk4evertoasted
this comment is a truthnuke
Enai
Yes, Verengt for sure rolled a critical success on diplomacy here. Talita, bless her, not so much. With a lot (a lot!) of patient talking, these two could get along, awkward body language and facial expressions and all. The workers however may not be so adept at coping with Talita’s quirks, even if Verengt briefs them on her (from a centaur POV) strange facial expressions. To say nothing of Talita possibly being equally unnerved by them looking like they’re perpetually annoyedly squinting at her.
*sigh*
Mel, you know how onboarding new workers is your job? So’s briefing their prospective supervisors on cultural sensitivity and such. Preferably before they encounter each other!!!eleventy1!
Alternate
Lowkey hoping Verengt just follows this up with a ‘then please refrain from doing that’ or some kind of education on why that expression/what part of the expression startled them. Maybe it’s just cause I’m autistic but I’d like a *full detailed run down on what I did that caused someone to startle like that*. But they could also just pull back and perhaps, be at the end of their rope in being chill with Talita. Oh I hope their rope isn’t that short. But the tension of waiting makes me catastrophize as I would with my own interactions wuff.
Green Heron
The worst part of this is that in panel 4, if you’re not keen on Centaur expressions, Verengt almost looks like she’s about to burst out laughing
Green Heron
*they. Whoops
mustarjil
to those who find verengt’s reaction to be uncharitable, or even cruel, i urge you to remember that not only are they carrying children right now, but talita is going to be the manager of their children. this isn’t a casual conversation between two ppl who will never see each other again, but a professional discussion regarding a job that is quite risky & im putting that mildly. obviously, our poor girl talita deserves better than the cards she’s been dealt, but neither she nor verengt were briefed about one another. this whole thing could’ve been avoided if mel had an ounce of foresight. in my opinion, if my manager signaled to me violent intent, idk if i would’ve reacted with as much grace as verengt is currently showcasing lol… i’d be pretty spooked and probably hightail it. i think that illustrates the tragedy of the situation & the lonesome predicament talita finds herself in, especially given that she tried her best to maintain a neutral expression this whole time.
Danny
Extremely well-said! It’s a very difficult situation that neither party anticipated being thrown into.
Trees
‘…not only are they carrying children right now…’
Wait!
Verengt is carrying children right now on this page? Not carrying as in ‘is pregnant’ but carrying them physically? May I ask how you know that or have I missed something really obvious like baby centaurs peaking out somewhere?
mustarjil
hello! so, full disclosure, but this is an assumption on my part– https://www.runawaytothestars.com/comic/rtts-page-245-and-246/ <- here you can see bumps over verengt's back, which to me look like nursing babies tucked under fabric. those very same bumps also appear on the pages before the Fateful Misunderstanding. lastly, i'm not the only one who has come to this conclusion, so it'd be fun if i, along with the others, were correct in our assumption heeho.
pelya
Verengt: That made my neck fur bristle.
Talita: Isn’t that normal? Mine is always like that when I talk to people.
A Ninny Mouse
man, poor talita… mel when i get you!!! at least verengt is asking her if she’s threatening her instead of assuming she is but man… even though its understandable why vergengt would feel threatened its just awful for both parties. talita has to walk on eggshells because even just smiling because she’s happy is seen as threatening in centaur culture, and for all she knows she might cause more miscommunication issues just by being herself…
moonbarking
Oh Talita nooo! Ahhh I hope she can bring this back on track.
Threethousandonehundredtwentysecond
Talita: (pulls arm back into a locked fist raised to eye level)
Verengt: Talita. Do you intend to punch me?
Talita: nooo?? I’m initiating a fist bump. don’t leave me hanging 👊
Punperson
This seems like a great comparison to me lmao, that would be pretty bewildering!
Athelind Llewellyn Long
You nailed it with this one.
Greenjoe
It is good that Verengt pushing the matter, and dropped it when Talita said no.
Greenjoe
Wasn’t pushing, rather*
c0rpzet00nz
fascinating how people are managing to react negatively to Verengt like they’re misogynists when they’re not a woman. it’s really impressive and annoying
c Senaru
….Wot??? I’ve been reading the comments on these pages all week because I love the community, theories and speculation about how this is all going down and I don’t think I’ve seen that?
c0rpzet00nz
yeah it was basically only one guy, and i didn’t want to name who because it’s not my job to moderate. Jay named who, though, so you can scroll to see who they responded to lmfao.
Lilac
the second hand embarrassment…… it’s so potent……. it’s almost lethal…….. Its going to kill me im going to die………
Trees
Quickly! Hold the comic page further from your face! I hear second hand embarrassment potency drops off exponentially with distance!
…. Lilac… come back to us! Don’t go into the light!!!
Lilac
Being rushed to the hospital As we speak they have confiscated my phone so I cannot look at the page anymore just dont ask how im typing this right now
Ave Zancuda
If prince Atahualpa calmly stood knewing Hernando de Soto’s horse rearing and neigh were mere bluffing of barbarians – for they disrespect nor know any of the rules any peasant on the Andes must follow when speaking to the Inca.
Then Verengt should know this girl alienated from her ancestry won’t share any of her expressions, she should have juxtaposing flashbacks of heated Clan drama, Talita and Mel showing they’re gums. She should giggle it out with the wonders of the universe!
gnome_artificer
Nice historic reference!
BigRiver
Verengt is one smart cookie…they’re alarmed on an instinctive level, but their reaction is still to pause and clarify Talita’s meaning rather than immediately take offense, because they’ve already noticed her expressional differences…I like them!
BigRiver
My guess, unfortunately, is that the people from this clan that Talita will *actually* be working with on a day-to-day basis are just going to be a repeat of her last situation with the temps, but in the opposite direction. Sigh.
MutableAlias
“grandma just passed away 😭💀” type moment
Zidane
this comment made me realize there must be a younger generation of centaurs out there on the intergalatic internet whose lingo and sense of humor completely baffles their parents, theres no way thats a human specific thing
JamTime
OHHH TALITA MY BELOVED!!! I love her smile so much, the cultural difference is very unfortunate but makes a lot of sense
Vinemaple
Augh, reading this conversation as it updates is like trying to follow a fight scene in Aurora as it updates…
I can see Verengt going one of two basic ways here: “Do you intend to bite me?” seems like a setup for either some kind, motherly advice for the Centaur who just said they, er, SHE, was raised by aliens, or a steely admonition to watch her body language and/or attitude around them and their workers.
It’s gonna be 2 1/2 days before I find out which. I suddenly envy the people who will, in the future, read this conversation for the first time by flipping through the physical book in a few minutes.
Fallingfeather
What’s Aurora? :0
Cobbington
https://comicaurora.com/aurora/0-1-1/
It is an extremely good fantasy webcomic that I highly recommend
Jason Myers
I see a lot of people identifying with the centaurs over Talita: ‘how would you feel it if you were sent to a weird human guy with weird inhuman tendencies and bad facial expressions?’ Which is cool and interesting, identifying with the aliens to try to make sense of how they’re treating ‘the big SCARY /WEIRD/ alien’… I’m sorry, but that for me reads the ableism in the room: I have met many autistic people that straight up never smile, to me, the question is no different from ‘how would you react if your BOSS was /autistic/.’ Or, on another note, it can be a little… let’s say, xenophobic, in the Terran sense. Not every human culture utilizes the same facial expressions!!Unusual facial expressions and tones in conversation are normal for humans. If I were to meet a weird guy with no knowledge of my culture, I’d be fine, because that’s just a guy I can ask questions of, even if there’s a language barrier, even if his facial expressions are weird, I wouldn’t just assume a grimace meant he’s going to bite me, I wouldn’t assume that a glare means he’s going to hurt me, especially when my own neutral expression is particularly glare-like. What’s going on here is actually, what if your /real species/ came out of nowhere and had something to say about every facial expression, every article of clothing, every turn of phrase every twist of posture every choice you’ve ever made- and you’re a fuckin weirdo that can’t even fit in with ones you were raised with, being offputting /because/ of the ones you were raised with, of trying to mask and fit in, masking for so long that you don’t know what you look like WITHOUT the mask. Too foreign for here, too foreign for ‘home’ indeed.
Vinemaple
Top tier analysis!
Jubjub bird
You’re right, and the mask part sounds awfuly familiar.
Still, I think if my autistic boss looked like he was going to attack me, it’s only logical and natural that I’d be startled.
Verengt isn’t used to seeing human expressions on a centaur, so they probably didn’t even realize what is going on.
Still doesn’t mean it’s okay to think “My boss is a murderer” because of this, especially if he tries to explain it later.
Adrienne
Frankly I’m just focusing on the centaur perspective because I already understand Talita’s… Is stating “wow these centaurs must be confused because this isn’t what they’re used to” really ableism? No one is saying “Talita is socially inept and it’s her job to communicate better” but that seems to be how you’re reading it lol
Jason Myers
Assuming that everyone behaves the same way as you, will have the same facial expressions as you, is a form of ableism, and people like me have gone through physical and emotional abuse due to our inability to ‘blend’ properly. Ingrained ableism often looks like ‘politeness’ but is often masked with rude, accusatory questions like this. ‘Are you mad at me?’ Is fine to ask, ‘Did I do something to upset you?’ would have been WAY more tactful (and removes the blame from the person you’re addressing). ‘Are you going to actually attack me?’ IS RUDE, especially when, verbally, the two of them had been exchanging pleasantries quite well.
You need to trust people for their words- Verengt is not. Some people around you are going to be off-putting. People have literally been thrown in jail for ‘acting weird in public’, even when the behaviour is perfectly safe (or at least, not affecting the wellbeing of others). Talita has multiple times in the comic been accused of being aggressive without cause (or, even in some cases, WITH cause to be!!), and we’ve seen how badly it’s hurt her. And ngl… some of the comments HAVE implied that Talita needs to ‘git gud’ at Centaur shit. Even though part of the crux of the comic is that she wants to do it at her own pace.
HAL9000
i feel like there’s a 3rd aspect here which isn’t being considered which is that english is absolutely not veregnt’s first language. idk about anyone else but i am often far ruder/blunter in my second langauge, usually unintentionally, because i’m not fluent and my meaning and intent can get lost in translation. even the best bilinguals can stumble on this, it’s why translators are a whole job and you can’t just grab any guy off the street who speaks two languages to mediate something
Adrienne
I frankly think if a person was with their spouse(s) and kid(s) while talking to a virtual stranger, and then the stranger said “Nice to meet you” while throwing little punches at the air right in the person’s face, it would be beyond diplomatic to ask “Are you okay? Did I say something to upset you?” I think most people would be bewildered and immediately ask “What the fuck are you doing?” and feel the need to protect their family from someone who isn’t predictable.
I’m sorry you’ve had people assume you’re dangerous when you only meant to be friendly. That must be really painful. What’s happening with Talita is equally sad to watch. We speak Talita’s language, so we see her intent. We have to imagine Verengt’s, and from all the storytelling we’ve been granted, I would say Verengt’s response is as understandable as Talita’s. Verengt’s children are going to work with this stranger in an already dangerous job – Verengt isn’t afraid to double-check that their kids aren’t going to have a boss who will threaten them with violence.
Agree to disagree, I assume.
blythe
dude you are all over the comments trying to assert that the gwailer are somehow mean and bad and its reading like mega projection onto a whole other type of person
its not ableist to flinch if someone acts like they might attack regardless of how they intended to come across. does that make people who suffered trauma ableist??? if someone looks mean, then yeah, we avoid them at first. because body language actually means something whether you like it or not, and usually if someone looks pissed off, they are. both parties have to come to an understanding there if thats not the case, and youre absolutely reading the gwailer so poorly
Pocoloco
You wouldn’t assume he’s going to bite you because he’s still a human raised by humans, and you’re also a human; although cultural nuances of facial expression exist, we still share a core set of facial expressions that are recognized cross culturally. Talita and these centaurs don’t seem to have that advantage at all, since she’s imprinted on human body language.
For the clan centaurs, if I’m correctly understanding the world building stuff I’ve read, it’s not improbable that they *have* seen (or at least could reasonably expect) serious violence after a female centaur bares their teeth at another female centaur, based on the description of pregnancy aggression. Talita isn’t pregnant obviously, but do the centaurs have any way of knowing that? I have no clue! There doesn’t have to be a victimizer here, it’s possible for everyone to be operating in purely good faith and still be hurtful towards one another.
Like, I dunno, maybe I’m reading this interaction terribly because I’m also autistic and the next page is going to be Verengt going ‘ew wtf I’m not working with this FREAK!’ but that would be pretty abrupt.
OhGollieItsOllie
I know I made a comment like that partially because people were saying “wow, people who are expecting the centaur clan to be unkind to Talita must think the centaurs are like a bunch of wild ANIMALS!!”
Like, no? If anything I’m anthropomorphizing them, because as the neurodivergent person, I know from firsthand experience that people can be very cruel to those who don’t express themselves the way they find “normal.” Is it ableist? Yeah. But is it fairly normal and something I’ve come to expect from most strangers? Also yes.
Immersia
In context this is a full on invitation to fight though. I imagine it would be like having someone randomly pull your hair, slap you or spit on you. I’d have the same knee jerk “wtf” reaction at being threatened before my brain catches up.
Light_In_The_Fog
omg Verengt is so niceee i was worried that this wouldnt turn out well but they seem chill, especially since they’re still smiling when they ask about Talita biting them lmao
Jason Myers
That’s not a smile! https://jayrockin.tumblr.com/post/674032871372111872/talita-is-a-weird-fringe-case-with-very-human It seems to be a mixture of some other expressions, but for me, this is reading ‘disgust, irritation, aggression’.
jasper
Ohhh it’s all breaking my heart. Ohh Talita. We knew it’d be awful. We knew, but maaann, it doesn’t make it any easier to see.
Skadoosh
And now they’re finding out why Talita doesn’t want to join a clan 🙂
(or a part of the reason, anyway)
Eux
oh noooooooo. gosh. as always jay your expression work on literal aliens is so so good!! and i love the way you shade and use contrast. <3 even if the next page is an immediate clearup of like talita saying she was raised with humans and adopted their mannerisms and verengt truly listens to that, it's not going to help that both parties are feeling VERY off kilter
Jackie
Good Lord what a roller coaster these last few pages have been.
Talita had her teeth at least partially bared at the beginning of their meeting, V made it known they were aware of Talitas ‘wide eyes’, have been informed T was alien raised and is clearly not ‘normal’ by centaur standards. But only now decide to seriously interpret potential aggression and return the gesture? V… V please… I really want to like you. You were concerned but observant and polite until now I think. Put the pieces together please 😭
Vinemaple
My own read on Verengt makes it feel like a possible rhetorical question… I hope so, anyway!