Runaway to the Stars: Page 262
Posted on April 7, 2026 by Jay Eaton

Welp... talk to you later, Verengt... 🙁

Runaway to the Stars is crowdfunding to become a printed book this month! Click here to be notified on launch!

Transcript

Verengt: Then do not show me your TEETH.

Verengt turns away and leaves with their entourage. Talita is left shocked and alone, a hand over her mouth as if it wasn't too late to take it back.

Runaway to the Stars: Page 262
Posted on April 7, 2026 by Jay Eaton

Welp... talk to you later, Verengt... :(

Runaway to the Stars is crowdfunding to become a printed book this month! Click here to be notified on launch!

Transcript

Verengt: Then do not show me your TEETH.

Verengt turns away and leaves with their entourage. Talita is left shocked and alone, a hand over her mouth as if it wasn't too late to take it back.

310 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 262”

  1. $ilverware

    that was going so well too TQT

  2. Eri

    Behold: the universal autism experience

  3. Sopita

    Omg this is like a no sabo kids worst nightmare but even worse. Probrecita 😭

  4. MyUniverseinaBox

    Yeah this sucks 🙁

  5. YoaNix

    Mel wanted to surprise Talita by giving her centaur colleges, Talita have no experience in communicating with centaurs or their way of language in general, Talita tells Verengt that she was raised up by aliens, Verengt misunderstand Talita’s way communication even though Talita told Verengt a few moments ago that she was raised by non-centaurs/aliens.
    Mel’s idea for a surprise was not a bad intention, but ffs you don’t give people surprises unless you know them or even check if your damn surprise would be a issue in the first place even if you are her supervisor.
    As much Mel is doing their job they aren’t doing a good one when it comes to checking if there’s gonna be problems, than again I could be wrong which I’m fine with and that Mel is more busy than it seems.
    People are either struggling to communication with others or people don’t communicate enough so confusion can be minimised, or both.

    1. SheTheTDE

      We need to de-normalise surpring people as a way to show you care. It’s not. I suspect the concept of surprise gifts actually started as a tool for control. Imagine if your boss made a big show of surprising you with a promotion. That’s not a gift. You’re doing more work in a field you’ve less experience in for barely more pay. They made it a gift so that you’d be unable to refuse. If you say no in front of everyone, you’ll be the a**hole. Plus, they’ve probably already done all the setup prior to springing the surprise on you so now it’s too late to refuse. The same thing is happening here because of well intentioned dummies. It’s already too late for talita to explain that this was a terrible idea so the atempt would jut make her look like a bad person. She can’t afford to be seen that way right now because a lot of people are already looking for an excuse.

      1. Adrienne

        Or maybe just normalize better communication lol. I imagine for some, getting a promotion in front of the rest of the office would be the best bing bang bazinga day of their life. But if Mel was really interested in good communication and not manhandling the situation, they would’ve said “Hey Talita, do you like surprises?” And Talita would say “No Mel, I do not” and Mel would say “Okay cool” and then the comic wouldn’t exist because the catalyst for Talita leaving wouldn’t happen and none of us would be here arguing about Verengt

    2. therefore I am

      something that I think is especially messed up that I don’t see talked about often is that mel basically surprised talita with a “gift of other people” so to speak
      Like could you imagine how this would be received in modern day? “Hey Lucas, hope works been going good. By the way here’s four black people (just like you!) to be your new team! Yes, a gift of coworkers Just Like You! Surprise!”
      Also screw anyone who had knowledge of this! Surely someone should have thought to themselves ‘is this maybe a little racially insensitive?’

  6. Pseuds

    I do think everyone getting VERY testy about Talia getting misinterpreted should scroll the comments and see how many people think Verengt is smiling

    1. Pseuds

      Of course my phone decides talita isn’t a name 🙄

  7. stitcher

    I think I’ve almost always smiled without showing my teeth Incidentally, I only seem to show my teeth while smiling as an adult if it’s a cheshire smile or malicious grin.

  8. Mango The Captain

    Talita I am dragging you out of this situation to go play memory games with me.

    1. Mango The Captain

      Also unrelated: so many people who read this webcomic look at this problem from both sides, that’s really neat!

    2. Solanuma

      memory games? what is this a reference to?

      1. Mango The Captain

        I just really like memory games

  9. bug

    im going to take this moment to appreciate the comic website mods. thank you for your work

  10. milk4evertoasted

    Talita I understand. I would have actually atomized and drifted away as a suspicious cloud out of fear and shame

  11. Flitt

    So, they come into Talia’s culture and insult her? They need to check themselves cause they aren’t in centaur space anymore, they are guests and need to be less judgmental.

    1. Gander of the Shinies

      Talita did the universal centaur aggressive gesture. I don’t know how much etiquette you would need to suppress a valid instinctual response

      1. bug

        ^^^ yep

    2. bug

      .. no. they’re misinterpreting her humanized expressions. showing teeth — a smile by human standards — is hostile to other centaurs. i (and others) assume Mel failed to give them a heads-up that Talita behaves and expresses herself differently than other homeworld centaurs — since she was raised by humans. it isnt any sort of *entitlement*, it’s *miscommunication*

      1. bug

        also — it isn’t an insult! it’s a stern, but corrective warning/bit of advice to Watch Her Body Language around them. im honestly not sure where you got this conclusion/assumption?

    3. owl

      she’s doing the equivalent of squaring up and putting her fists up, i think anyone would be like ??? What The Fuck Are You Doing, Stop

      1. Maned Wolf

        “Have a nice day! 😡🖕👹👺”

    4. Aleris

      i mean… for a human equivalent imagine you just walked up to a 6’4 ripped stranger who’s acting shifty and on edge, and all of a sudden they square up aggressively as if they’re about to punch you, all while you’re holding a newborn baby. Verengt is handling this surprisingly well imo.

    5. Gabite

      i mean if your new boss flipped you off mid conversation you would be a little peeved even if you knew they grew up in a completely different culture right? verengt was right to be a little upset, they just learned a lot of weird potentially scary things about their new boss back to back and all that was punctuated by getting flipped off

  12. Boyshorts

    The “trunk manners” on display throughout this conversation have been really interesting to me. Verengt points her trunk at Talita when she speaks, and then tucks it away when Talita does. Talita holding her trunk to her throat the whole time probably comes off as overly submissive to the point of rudeness. Though up until the end, she seems to be fairly accommodating to her obvious shyness. If that’s the way they’re reading her, then the reaction to the sudden aggressive-looking gesture of the smile makes even more sense. It seems super jarring compared to how she was acting previously.

  13. Gar G

    Poor girl….

  14. Skadoosh

    I get WHY they’re acting this way, but damn it still hurts.

  15. MissZena

    The wide-eyed consorts in the background are giving me the same energy as when you’re in class and the teacher loses their temper and starts yelling at someone

    1. halley

      when you’re at a friend’s house and their parents start yelling so u try to astral project outta their business

      1. Maned Wolf

        *blows up parents with mind*

  16. Drawsstuff

    This is how it feels to be an autistic woman and trying to make female friends 😭

    Ok ok, on a less personal anecdote, I started reading this a few weeks ago and I became OBSESSED. I love this setting. I adore these characters. The artwork is amazing and your output makes me somewhat jealous. It’s both reassuring and a little depressing that our problems of today will be our problems of the future. Even if they’re given new coats of paint.

    I somewhat optimistically hope everything is going to turn out ok and these two will get to know each other and maybe be able to call each other friends 🥲.

    I want the best for her, and despite any assurances she might have otherwise, I think she needs a friend of the same species.

  17. HAL9000

    everyone thinking “trunk raise = smile” reminds me of how many people think “dog tail wagging = happy” and how many bites occur from that every year

    1. c Senaru

      That’s exactly what’s happening! I keep being confused by such commenters, because compared to the happy trunks we saw in the pages prior with the kids, the raised trunks aren’t so tense. In this and the prior page we can SEE how tightly pulled back S shaped it is, like even if I hadn’t looked at the basic emoting guide for them, I could have reasonably guessed that Verengt in the last two pages is very much NOT pleased

      1. Redacted

        I’m being reminded that not everyone has obsessively binged every scrap of RTTS content they can find. Like me. ‘Cause I’m normal like that.

        1. Gander of the Shinies

          Same. Up top ✋

      2. HAL9000

        mm, like in pretty much every earth mammal incl. humans tightness around the face and tense posture is a universal signifier of “i’m not happy”. perhaps it’s harder to read in still drawings then movement but the tense posture, pulling back, glaring eyes, bristling fur and tight mouth/trunk to me reads clear enough

    2. TTT

      there’s also the phenomenon of dogs ‘smiling’ with their front teeth because they see humans smile at them and know it means affection, treats, attention. as someone skilled at ‘reading’ dogs, yes its freaky looking as they wiggle happily towards you. if i were a dog instead of a human with the ability to analyze whats going on, i’d back up in a hurry.

  18. Hydrurgus

    Verengt DEFINITELY carries some trauma from teeth

    1. cain

      I don’t think it’s trauma, purely a stark cultural clash. Humans are weird; showing teeth in most creatures is a threat display. Verengt, matriarch of the clan, received a threat of violence and got pissed. Ultimately their reaction was pretty diplomatic.

      1. c Senaru

        Essentially what happened, from this clan’s perspective anyway, is that Talita just said she doesn’t have a clan, then (politely) refused an offer to marry into the workers and join a different clan Verengt has a good relationship with / knows they’re looking to expand worker pool.

        Following on the heels of that, Talita seemingly squares up at the end which could read like ‘I don’t want to join as a worker, you have a great clan right here’ like, I’m not sure if all you have to do to become Matriarch of a clan is be the one who takes out the leader but if that’s the case, then her seemingly sudden ‘threat’ might appear like she’s eyeing this one- which naturally would involve all that entails when a new Matriarch takes over. Talita of course, was just smiling the way a human does, but a threat towards their leader is how it looks, or as a powerplay / posture at the least.

        Whether any aspect of it comes from trauma, we haven’t seen evidence of, but for the moment it’s pretty right on for a severe culture clash as Cain says. Really no one is having fun in this interaction, poor Pay in the middle- they’re so floofed and stunned. It looks like the darker coated one whos name I really need to learn how to spell is tightly alert but we can’t see their face so hard to say if they’re closer to Pay or the first one there. Poor Talita, this has just not been her day.

    2. gog

      guy A: (cocks pistol)
      guy B: woah what the fuck
      you: they must have gun trauma. this is the only explanation for having a negative reaction to a gun

  19. Corbin

    WOE!!! EXTREMELY BAD FAUX PAS BE UPON YE!!!

  20. arf

    I’m inclined to think Verengt is trying to help Talita out, but some lessons need to be learned *fast* or they will be learned *hard*.
    Not showing teeth to apex predators unless you’re intending to commit or sustain serious injury is one such lesson.
    Especially if they are a clan matriarch.

  21. halley

    i would never recover from this ever. id ghost everyone i know. id run away to the stars and forget to bring gillie and idrisah id be outta there so fast. youd never hear from me again

    1. Syn

      Wouldn’t even need the skyhook. Just achieve escape velocity on a pillar of shame.

      1. halley

        go up like a roman candle. spontaneous combustion. id be gone faster than you could blink

  22. Stray Cat

    This is probably different from the tone of other comments, but: I want to take a moment to praise how this comic embraces the idea of “the more things change, the more they stay the same”. Society still doesn’t know how to accommodate people who are Different in a way that can’t be “fixed”. People still erroneously assume that two strangers will get along purely because they’re both the same minority. HR still sucks. It’s amazingly grounded for what’s ultimately a fantastical setting, and I applaud the comic for embracing how conflict can naturally emerge even in a peaceful setting.

    And now I join the crowd in shaking my fist at Mel.

    1. cain

      I know, right? Jay’s doing such a good job

  23. Senri

    OHHHHH NOOOOOOO
    I hope we do see more of Talita and the Gwailer interacting… and that someone salvages it a bit :’)

  24. Hubert

    That’s two for two of Talita’s temps thinking she’s going to bite them. Can’t catch a break!

    1. Athenabird

      I don’t think she ACTUALLY thinks Talita is going to bite her. She was “smiling” as she said it (the trunk curled upwards is how Centaurs normally smile). I think she understands that it’s a quirk of Talita being raised by humans, and having little interaction with her own species. Talita tends to emote (I.e. smile) more like a human. She was polite about it. Basically telling Talita “hey, don’t show your teeth to other centaurs unless you’re gonna bite them.”

      I could be totally wrong. We’ll just have to wait and see how their relationship develops in later pages

      1. asmolfirefly

        The trunk being pushed up flat against the face while the rest of the facial/body language is tense isn’t actually smiling. I wish I had the post on centaur expressions on hand, but it’s a sign of tension / aggression. Someone explained that it might be flat against the face to be kept out of the way of tusks/teeth when attacking! It’s definitely not supposed to be a happy facial expression, Verengt is very tense and pissed at Talita 🙁

        1. dwemerDraconic

          IMO it’s easier to remember if you look at the trunk like a cobra, if that doesn’t sound too odd lol. Nice open curve = nice happy smile, whereas the tight to the face S we’ve seen both on Verengt and on Talita in the past is a bit like a cobra making a threat display or about to strike! Lots of tensed muscles for a tense stress response.

        2. milk4evertoasted

          It’s like how some chimps/humans “smile grimace” vs an actual relaxed smile… Verengt was grimacing! They were scared and uncomfortable!

  25. CorvidAsh

    Verengt actually had to be “threatened” TWICE by her new boss in front of her entourage to have this reaction.

    Talita first flashed her teeth back on page 257, and Verengt’s expression of genuine centaur friendliness in the first panel (relaxed face, trunk up) was replaced with something that matches Talita’s alien-influenced smile… which we know is not actually a Centaur smile. At first I thought Verengt was trying to smile comfortingly at a startled Talita, but on a re-read I see Verengt taking a tense pause to try and charitably brush off an aggressive interaction as a misunderstanding.

    Here, they are putting their foot down when that aggression shows up again in such a short span of time.

    Cool how I can go back and see the different perspectives! I get to see how this sucks for everyone involved!!!

    1. dwemerDraconic

      Oh man you’re totally right, I almost forgot she’d flashed her teeth initially! Poor Verengt. It really is a testament to their ability to stay composed that they not only told her off for it but also gave a /reason/, like I’ve seen a few other people also point out. Like hey, yeah, you’re setting off some pretty scary signals, you gotta knock that off!

      I can’t wait to see how things go with the worker pool later. Ough. Hang in there Talita!

    2. Adam

      I went back and looked, you’re totally right. It feels weird that she’d be that upset about teeth, but that’s because I’m human. I’m trying to imagine what the conversation must have looked like to the centaurs.
      “Are you mad?”
      “No”
      “So sharpening knives at 2am is just a hobby?”

      1. HAL9000

        well, it’s sort of like a human stranger getting very close into your personal space and raising their fists while glaring at you. in almost no culture would anyone be chill with that, especially when in a formal enviroment and not in a playful informal context

    3. milk4evertoasted

      God I feel nervous.. no wonder Verengt was so firm…

    4. Ceaseless Song

      Oh m¥ god you can go back and they-

      Verengt approaches them- Talita grimaces, flashing teeth, and Verengt actuall stops and goes “Sorry, was I approaching too fast?”

      Honestly you can read it as both, like in the first case its unsettling but she can dismiss it as her own, stepping across boundaries. But then it randomly shows up again and- Yeah.

      Oh Man

  26. FuzzySpiderPawz

    C’mon Talita!!! It’s time to escape to the one place that hasn’t been corrupted by capitalism!!!!!!

    1. wingedmonkey

      SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE

  27. Eosapian

    This is worse than what I did to those robots in 2005.

    1. Teltze

      You can’t just say that and then not elaborate further.

      1. Paul

        And then we never heard from Eosapian again.

      2. Eosapian

        Ever watch the 2005 documentary Alien Planet?

    2. Maned Wolf

      Jessie, what the fuck are you talking about?

  28. Kencf0618

    Faux pas.

  29. mossrabbit

    verengt did the best thing for this situation tbh. a firm boundary set, then leave immediately before the situation escalated any further/before talita panics and digs herself a deeper hole. mel locked these two in a room with a pipe bomb and expected it to go over fine

    1. MagicHats

      Yeah honestly to play devil’s advocate for a second I feel like Verengt did the mental strategizing of “hey this centaur told me that they weren’t raised around other centaurs” and while perhaps a bit rude, did in fact inform Talita that the expression wouldn’t fly around centaurs in a pretty clear way (eg, if you show teeth, most centaurs will interpret that as a threat / as “I WILL bite”, so don’t show teeth if you don’t intend to bite), and did so with minimal emotional over-reaction (the reprimand sucks but it’s tame in comparison to stints like what Adam did previously).

      My main concern is that if this is Verengt handling it maturely and tactfully as a Matriarch (that is to say, diplomatically), whether or not the workers who aren’t present are going to be able to handle Talita’s off body language well or not in comparison (be it them running to Verengt to problem solve and raising tensions there, or very worst case scenario a centaur gets an accidental smile from Talita and responds by actually attacking / biting her to the implied threat).

      Also doesn’t help that the other big concern is that this unintentionally sets Talita up to look worse if they seemingly can’t get along with Humans or Centaurs on paper / to Mel. “You were kind of rude to your previous human coworker Adam there, and now you’re being hostile to the Centaurs I hired to help you with your centaur socialization you’re not being a team player” type issue.

      1. Calypso

        I think it’s possible she could work amicably with the workers… Once she has the full space suit covering her up!

        1. Finch

          To use a human analogy, this read very much like some interactions where one of the people is autistic. They might communicate more effectively when body language isn’t a factor, for example: in online chat rooms. (Not to say that this is how things work for all individuals with autism, each person experiences it differently!)

          That said, I agree that once she’s in the suit, it could make her communication with the worker centaurs more effective and comfortable for Talita. Talita’s verbal communication and willingness to work with others could outdo her awkward body language.

  30. Epic Null

    It has occured to me that while Verengt is being harsh here (and clearly trying to set boundaries in this weird and hard to navigate situation), she has done Talita a clear favor.

    They clearly spelled out the mistake.

    Social queues are hard, but they are even harder if you are required to intuit them based on other social queues you don’t understand.

    It would not surprise me if Verengt, over time they do not have, could figure out how to work with this feral child, though it would probably have worked better with a flipped power structure – one where Talita was brought in to do the work, but Verengt was the one in charge.

    1. mossrabbit

      oh totally! harsh as it was, and probably intended more as a scolding than sympathetically looking out for talita, it was still clearly intended as advice and, honestly, having been in this situation myself (though not 1-to-1), being harshly told off hurts, i might cry or sulk or hide, but ultimately i 100x prefer harsh scolding to people dancing around what the issue is. better to hurt my feelings than be left in the dark.
      then again, talita has a lot of unique issues outside of just making a social faux pas. i think a harsh scolding from another cree person, because i violated a cultural rule, would probably hurt a lot more than anything else, as a disconnected cree trying to learn. especially in talita’s case where this was sprung on her without her permission, input, or feedback.

  31. Mitta

    Centaur and human body language may be incompatible, but centaurs actually have something in common with avians, and its that they both grind their teeth and fluff their feathers when in distress. https://www.deviantart.com/jayeatonart/art/Avian-Alien-Expressions-1007808934
    Avians do this while happy too tho

  32. Rose

    crying sobbing rolling on the floor AAAAAAAAAAUGH TALITAAAAAA ( TT A TT) you poor thiiiiiiing

    i am SO impressed with Verengt. they’ve handled themselves so incredibly well throughout this whole entire stressful exchange. like, imagine taking a remote job and finding out the boss who’s in charge of your kids is a feral whacko. and then you get threatened. like daaaaaaaaaamn girl (nongendered). i’d be freaking tf out. it’s crazy that they made this a teaching moment for Talita, albeit an incredibly harsh one. Verengt def got the Matriarch Powers.

    1. Rose

      i’m vaporizing Mel with the Horrible Obliteration Purgatory For Assholes Lazer Beam. because they deserve it.

    2. Kencf0618

      Definitely. Matriarch takes some serious skillz.

  33. Zidane

    Even though Talita does have to do her titular running away at some point, I wonder if we’ll see her and the clan members interact more before that happens. This is mainly me chomping at the bit to see more of them because I’m curious but man its gotta suck for Talita to have yet another interaction with centaurs go poorly, and if she left on that note (which she would totally be justified in doing, to be clear) I imagine it’d be a very long time for her to want to reattempt. Not to say Talita needs to connect with other centaurs to be “whole” or whatever, and that interacting with others of her species will immediately solve all her insecurities, but I feel like as avoidant as she is about encountering or studying centaur culture I feel like with some of the questions she’s asked Bip I don’t think she’s in a “I’m not interested in centaur culture period” situation. I just hope she gets to have a more positive interaction with them at some point, even if not here on Dirtball, hopefully on her own terms and not “you’re being shoved into the same workplace as these people and have to act as their boss. bye”

    1. Anon

      Honestly I’m interested why everyone here in the comments seems to assume Talita will run away because of some huge super negative confrontation happening with the clan. Has there been something said about that somewhere else?? She could very well just see how miserable and alone she actually is on the dirtball after interacting with the clan and comparing herself to that, and then kinda have a long-needed self-reflective moment and skipedi out with some frens to seek a better life. Or if there’s a big conflict, it’s Mel -__-

      I don’t think having the reason be some super mega problem be with the centaurs really fits the theme and story so far..? but, I am not good at reading emotional stuff at all so maybe I’m completely wrong here.

      1. dwemerDraconic

        My guess is that it’s not going to be so much of a huge blowout incident, but more of a straw breaking the camel’s back kind of thing – even if things can be smoothed over, Talita isn’t someone who can easily move on from stuff like this. It hangs over her head like a knife at the neck, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it exacerbates future conversations. She’s losing her friends, her manager/adult foster/work and college sponsor isn’t listening to her when she reports a temp getting physical with her, and now she’s being thrust into a situation where she’s expected to lead a group of workers who’s social signals clash with her own in some of the worst ways possible. On the very mildest end of things, I can see her getting more pointedly avoidant of the clan, but if she has to be the one leading them that surely wouldn’t last forever…

        1. Zidane

          Yeah this is was I was thinking, while she ‘s got a whole lot set up for her to go (friends leaving, big convenient pirate ship set up to take off ) She’s specifically said the fact that she feels indebted to Mel is why she feels reluctant to leaving, so realizing “wow I actually can’t deal with what they’re foisting on me anymore” feels like the most likely way she’ll decide to go in my eyes.
          Obviously it could easily not go this way, hell even some of the clan might be like “yeah your boss is wack you should scram” but yeah some sort of conflict with the other centaurs (or adam) finally being what makes her decide she’s done is what i feel like is looming.

      2. HAL9000

        yeah i’m in the same boat. i don’t think there’s going to be a big fight, i simply think talita will at last realise that this place isn’t suited to her anymore, and maybe it never was in the first place.

  34. Vinemaple

    WELP. That coulda gone a lot worse.

    I had hopes that Verengt would mother Talita a little, but I guess I was right about them having a core of steel under all that fluffy integument. But they didn’t overreact! Just a stern warning for Talita to watch her alien body language. But this also means that Verengt is not going to put up with any bullshit from Mel, either… we may actually get to see Mel getting held accountable for their actions, in the next chapter or two… or possibly in an interlude in the next book…

    I’m pretty sure now, myself, that Talita is going to be crying because “I fucked that up so badddd” for the most part. But if I was in her place, I’d also have a full-blown anxiety attack when it came time to meet the Centaur workers. I might even message Bip the night before, to send a loader around to pick up a crate full of tools and manuals and wind spinners and a certain blanket…

    1. kabbb

      PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LET MEL FACE A CONSEQUENCE…………

      1. Gheesfellow

        Guess in whose hands this bunch will end up in once Talita logs off the server :3

    2. cain

      This, too, feels like a form of mothering. They were stern about it, but they very clearly told Talita where she went wrong and what not to do in the future. Like a schoolteacher firmly telling a child, “We do not growl at our friends.”

      1. Athelind Llewellyn Long

        That was my reaction: differing gender roles in centaur culture aside, this was UTTERLY maternal. Even when I was little, my mom would always explain WHY something should or shouldn’t be done. She’d never just say “Because I Said So”.
        And that’s what Verengt does here.

  35. Undercooked Mothman

    Learning new manners the hard way 🙁

  36. Goji

    This is great – culture shock works like this, and it’s a bugger. In a way Tal was lucky – half the time in life when you do something this incorrect between cultures no one bothers to let you know clearly what just happened because they’re trying to be “polite” to the clueless party.

  37. Gabe

    Ohhhh noo talita 😭 verengt is completely reasonable for reacting the way they did but man, what a gut punch for talita 💔 hopefully she’ll cry somewhere the centuars cant hear otherwise she might tank her reputation even more. I love how verengt’s entourage are all wide eyed in the background

  38. dwemerDraconic

    There’s something kind of… maybe not quite amusing for how frustrating it is, maybe ironic is a better term for it – on the handful of commenters getting up in arms and making very harsh, sweeping assumptions about this clan & centaur society at large based off of this /one/ interaction we’re seeing. As if a matriarch very sternly telling someone with mismatched social cues to knock that shit off (which could be as much for Verengt’s security as it is Talita’s! I saw another commenter rightfully pointing out that if she does the same around the Gwailer workers it might not end too well!) is somehow them being a horrible person, or means that all centaur clans/the society in general is strange and horrible because how dare they not have perfect understanding of a completely unprecedented situation they were made aware of, at best, maybe two-three minutes ago. Y’all haven’t forgotten most clans would choose to cull an abandoned centaur infant, right? The odds of this ever being something that’d be on ANYONE’S radar are insanely small.

    Feels just a touch like the exact kinds of sweeping judgements Talita has had to deal with being leveled AT her, just being pointed in the other direction… X)

    Either way, fantastic page as always. The framing of that last panel made my heart sink for Talita, what a nightmare of a situation to be in. Even if things do get cleared up between her and the rest of the clan I can imagine this is going to be stuck in her mind for months to come. Makes me wonder how Mel’s going to scramble their way out of this one… You might have had fantastic intentions there, bud, but we all know that saying about where assuming things gets you.

    1. Vinemaple

      I’m glad someone else sees it this way. It seems like this is the way fandom is, now: always with people loudly demonizing or running apologetics for one character or another, and refusing to see that character or others as complex and nuanced attempts to portray realistic people, who are complex and nuanced and often contradictory, with both deep flaws and redeeming qualities.

      1. caramelizedallium

        I don’t think people leaving strongly worded comments are necessarily refusing to see nuance. I feel like it defeats the purpose of being able to appreciate nuance when it’s sometimes used in a way like this over people having (maybe exaggerated) emotional reactions to plot points or characters rather than being able to see everything analytically from the start.

    2. Intet

      One?
      What about the culling of clanless children? The strict matriarchy? Individuals of lower rank not being allowed to speak? Delegation of menial jobs according to birth? Gender defining the maximum status an individuals being able to achieve? Individual worth being determined by birth of clan? Bip seemingly having a problem with Centaur authorities ( could or could not be related to their style of ruling at this point). Someone not knowing how to behave being treated with talking down to that person and dismissing the conversation. Individuals treating Talita badly every time she told them about her story in the past. Calling clanless children ‘it’ etc etc

      1. Jay Eaton

        I’m not going to go point by point here but think that both you and some of the commenters you are arguing with are imagining a way more rigid version of centaur social life than actually exists based on generalities, this conversation, and the really unusual circumstances surrounding Talita’s abandonment. Centaur societies aren’t utopian in ways that are shaped by the stressors of preindustrialized subsistence living, and human societies in this setting aren’t utopian in ways that are shaped by the stressors of international political tension and corporate economic interests.

      2. Phasmafelis

        I think, culturally, the culling of unwanted infants for centaurs is very similar to late-term abortion for humans.

        There is a point in time where an unwanted clump of cells becomes a precious infant, and the definition of that point is so culturally bound that humans can’t even agree on it amongst ourselves. I’m not a huge fan of cultural relativism in general but I don’t think it’s useful to judge centaurs the same as we would human baby-killers.

    3. dweller

      You’re so right!! holy

    4. Caloph

      “Y’all haven’t forgotten most clans would choose to cull an abandoned centaur infant, right? The odds of this ever being something that’d be on ANYONE’S radar are insanely small.”

      THIS! As far as we know, “fostering” as a concept isn’t really a thing for homeworld centaurs, so even knowing Talita was raised by aliens (and she didn’t specify humans, adding one more layer of confusion), it likely wouldn’t occur to Verengt or the entourage until a while later that “raised by aliens” means “wasn’t necessarily taught centaur facial expressions/facial expressions aren’t known from birth” (I think most people, if you told them smiling was something babies had to be taught to do, would either be surprised or might not believe you). Going from that to “and therefore she must be instinctively emulating the facial expressions of another sophont” is yet another logical jump that maybe requires some knowledge of child psychology, and then to correctly guess “she is, in particular, emulating a *human* smile, which is NOT a threat display” requires both a correct guess that she was raised by humans (rather than, say, avians) AND the previous inferences about masking/child psychology which, if you didn’t know already, would be hard to come up with on the spot.

      1. HAL9000

        wait i thought smiling was proven to be an innate action, since fully born blind people still smile when excited or joyous, although they won’t use it for social communications (obviously…) and struggle to emanulate one when asked, at least according to this. other facial expressions are likely learnt though- it’s mentioned as well that though blind infants will smile initally they may smile much less as they get older since they lack the social reinforcement aspect of it.
        to relate it to rtts, talita cries the same way homeplanet centaurs do (which we’re sadly going to see this chapter), and probably did at one point naturally smile like homeplanet centaurs do, but had that behaviour socially reinforced out of her to the point it’s become second nature to emulate humans instead. she also displays true anger expressions like native centaurs (angry talita video here), and of course she laughs like native centaurs do, as we’ve already seen in this comic. poor talita

        1. dwemerDraconic

          We’ve also seen her do actual trunk smiles! 🙂 When Gillie was first figuring out how to help her start using sign. It’s likely that there are a number of baked in responses that she had to “append” with the human equivalent while she was young and still learning how to person. Kids learn like mad when they’re super young, and a lot of that sticks with them – it makes sense that a lot of her expressiveness followed in the same way. After all, it’s one thing to be constantly clearing things up as an adult – when you’re a kid and you can figure out a way to adapt, it tends to stick.

          Now if only my inability to grasp sarcasm could’ve been something I adapted as a kid… xD Jokes aside it really is a fascinating situation to be in. Jay’s been knocking it out of the park in the writing for all of this, it’s been an absolute treat.

        2. Caloph

          Ah sorry, I wasn’t trying to spread misinformation, I just came up with the baby smiling thing on the spot 😅 (that’s so interesting about the blind babies, now I gotta look that up!). I was mostly just trying to convey that the average person (including, obviously, myself lol) might not know enough about the development of facial expressions to understand immediately that being raised by aliens means Talita’s facial expressions might not conform to centaur norms.

        3. cain

          Thank you for the links! This interaction had me wondering which facial expressions are innate in humans and would need to be masked, if the situation were reversed and a human was raised by centaurs.

    5. PhasmaFelis

      Did a bunch of comments get deleted maybe? I don’t see a single comment being negative or even neutral towards Verengt in the entire thread up to this comment. Everyone thinks that she was, at worst, harsh but not without reason.

      1. Gander of the Shinies

        There’s this one person that threw the c-word slur in the last page and continued to be a real thorn by hating on Verengt like they tried to kill Talita

        1. dwemerDraconic

          Lmao yeah pretty much, most of it was last page – I was just a little surprised and a tad bit amused to see it making a return on this one. X) I was like hm, this feels narratively familiar… The overwhelming majority of folks on here don’t seem to be on that boat, it was mostly a fringe case thing that I thought was interesting enough to point out

        2. bug

          adam behaviour

      2. LineOfThy

        i think there aren’t that many neutral/negative comments because it’s pretty clear they’re being harsh but not without reason.

  39. May

    I am now wondering what was intended by “Do you intend to bite me”. At first, I took it as they were confused and wanted clarification. Now it looks like they definitely took it as an aggressive gesture, so I am wondering if they meant it as “I see you are challenging me. I won’t back down from a fight, so do you want to get physical or yield.”. They might actually still think think that Talita was testing if the clan was vulnerable to a takeover.

    1. EricaMZDM

      Yeah, I read this as more, like, “You wanna *get hit*? No? Then don’t *talk shit*.”

      The teth-barrring is overtly agressive/insulting(think agressively flipping the bird), but wouldn’t *generally* be the prelude to an actual physical attack (again, like flipping the bird), buuuut – your new manager signing off the initial meet ‘n greet with the finger is still not something it’s wise or *safe* to just tolerate or excuse.

    2. the Inmara

      It’s hard to say, because Verengt is not fully explaining what they’re thinking, and none of us are centaurs, nor does any reader here accurately read centaur body language.

      Verengt could be taking it as you say. But they could also just be correcting Talita, knowing that she’s been raised by aliens. And then walking away to prevent further misunderstandings from happening.

      It just remains to be seen what we’ll all be shown in the story.

      1. HAL9000

        well also Verengt’s meaning is being filtered through translation- English is not their first language, and is unlikely to share much similarities with their own. The nuances of speech get lost when trying to recall which word means what and how to get your basic point across effectively

    3. Kencf0618

      I took it as the Matriarch slyly–note the slight smile–asking Talita a valid question, and upon getting a valid answer put the hammer down by very brusquely, in no uncertain terms, telling her the the context & how she had screwed up. Harsh but fair.

      1. T-Bird

        I doubt that’s a smile there.

      2. c Senaru

        Yea, there was no smile happening there, not even a little bit

      3. LineOfThy

        centaur and human expressions aren’t equivalent. what’s happy to a human isn’t happy to a centaur, that’s the entire reason this interaction happened

    4. Bird

      I read it as an implicative, “You are indicating that you want to bite me, but contextually I do not think that is true, so I am asking bluntly to let you know that’s how you’re coming off”

  40. Eosapian

    This is worse than when the other skewer hit the second expedition cone pod

    1. Madame Thunderbone

      I beg your dear pardon?

  41. Quad

    Aw… Talita… 🙁
    I have mad respect for Verengt. They’ve been very cordial despite the circumstances. I hope their next interaction with Talita leaves off on a better note…

  42. spess mureen

    She (Verengt?) actually seems quite reasonable to me. That kind of reaction probably isn’t something she could easily control. Of course, she’s saying things which would shock Talita (and the reader), but that’s jus ta culture shock rather than a personality thing.

    1. edenmachine5457

      .verengt is they/them btw! all aliens that haven’t specifically chosen human language pronouns are automatically they/them because alien genders do not equate to human genders!

  43. Myorp

    I’ve been imagining that really buff guy from spongebob (carrying patrick) with the crazed expression

    maybe our cool local ship AI will have some socializing tips for her

  44. Dividia

    I’m calling this, the Nexus jovia diplomat bros are charitable and compassionate fellows compared to Verengt’s megaclan ivory tower she comes from, they who dreams of digitalizing the scriptures and annihilating with Napalm the bandits and Anarchists that menace their insatiable quests for power!.
    Hail the Lechek clan and their exports of glasses, the printing press and Immunization campaigns!!

    1. cain

      what? what are you talking about?

      1. JoB

        The bros (from the Lechek clan) appear here, the dispute of “adopt alien tech or not” is something that shows up – not exclusively, I guess – with Maulu and Wintle-Layliv (try searching the former name on the tumblr), and I suppose that the rest of the details is from even deeper strata of the lore …

    2. LineOfThy

      wha-

    3. glazeliights

      “megaclan”? as far as we know there are 3 entourage members and 8 workers. plus a couple children, give or take. if we count the larvae, thats like… 20 people at most. theyre starchasers, theyre not living in big multi-clan cities. what in the world are you talking about

  45. Siege

    Oooof. Talita just had the “don’t point that thing at me if you’re not going to use it” card pulled on her. Yikes on bikes.

    Horrible misunderstandings abound, but Verengt is still handling this situation INCREDIBLY diplomatically imo. They just had the cultural equivalent of a gun pointed at them and yet notice that they do not bare THEIR teeth in response at any point, because I’m sure that would be answering the “threat”. Instead, they use their words and calmly ask for clarification, and /very sternly warn Talita not to do that ever again/, because you know who might not have the level-headedness to not immediately meet that perceived threat? The workers.

    However, the workers are still Verengt’s /adult children/. I’m not sure how centaurs handle “your mom” jokes but I feel if they hear about this I kinda doubt they’ll just take Talita basically threatening not only their matriarch but also their mother, on purpose or not, lying down? Would most /humans/? I hope Verengt tells the entourage to zip their yaps about this because I fear if this gets back to the workers, Talita might have eight much larger Adams with a vendetta on her hands very soon. I hope none of them try to jump her later for the slight or something.

    Also, despite the clear agitation on their face I want to have hope this is Verengt still immediately pocketing new info (centaur raised by aliens has weird/confusing body language), but also the involuntary response on their part is completely understandable, and also warning Talita in NO uncertain terms that if she does it again there Will Be Consequences… a warning that Oopsie Teeth 2: Electric Boogaloo might not be so bloodless. Other centaurs Talita meets (like members of the clan, but not just them) likely won’t be as calm about a casual show of teeth like that. But that could easily just be me reaching and Verengt is reading this mess a completely different way.

    I wonder if the clan only took this job because there was going to be a centaur manager, but nobody warned them said centaur was poorly socialized. C’: And well, the title… they’re gonna be Talita-less eventually.

    1. AccordYeen

      I really don’t think it’s comparable to pointing a gun at someone.

      actually pointing a gun at someone is, in and of itself, Assault With a Deadly Weapon.

      1. Athelind Llewellyn Long

        I don’t know about you, but I’d say “deadly weapon” describes those razor-sharp ridges in a centaur’s mouth to a T — especially when they’re backed up by muscles like Talita’s.

        1. AccordYeen

          you misunderstand. I capitalized “Assault With a Deadly Weapon” because that is the legal title of the crime you’d be charged with for pointing a gun at someone. as in, a full-on felony charge. as in, in the state of Washington it is legal to kill someone for doing that. https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=9A.16.050

  46. Threethousandonehundredtwentysecond

    Talita, a singleplayer over-buffed noob, who upon meeting new recruits for her sidequest guild she is going to be moderating, admits she has never used multiplayer before, and has in fact been solo-leveling her entire game. After clarifying she was not banned/kicked, she declines offers to join guilds accepting new party invites to keep grinding solo.
    Then, in the pvp language well understood by online multiplayers, she presses the hotkeys that only a hostile player would use mid-chat to show they can one-shot you.
    Talita randomly did a *equip weapon* *take aim* at the current guild mod.

    (which, on her no-pvp server, are animations used to show the other players you’re friendly)

    1. Threethousandonehundredtwentysecond

      [xX_V3R3NGT_Xx](Gwailer Mod) Lvl. 47: are you threatening me?
      [Talita1234] Lvl. 99: nO
      [xX_V3R3NGT_Xx](Gwailer Mod) Lvl. 47: unequip your weapon then.
      [Talita1234] Lvl. 99: sorry
      [Talita1234] Lvl. 99: this is my first time playing this game
      [Talita1234] Lvl. 99: im sso fuckign s.orry

      1. Gar

        this is so good

      2. Cobbington

        lmao you’re a genius

      3. dwemerDraconic

        this is like the best analogy I’ve seen so far LMFAO props to you

      4. Adrienne

        10/10 to both you and the OP

    2. mossrabbit

      pack it up guys, THIS is the best metaphor for the interaction ever written

      genuinely so true though. on a keepinventory server i played with friends a while ago, we would literally just kill each other for kicks. i had to remember to not punch people repeatedly when i went back to a normal server.

    3. ribbit

      hmm, me my entire life. this explains… a lot, actually

      1. cain

        Have you looked into autism? (I am autistic, and this interaction feels Real)

    4. hurgaburga

      excuse me is that a CUSTOM PROFILE PICTURE?

      1. Threethousandonehundredtwentysecond

        this site looks to use Gravatar dot com for avatar customization, which uses your profile with your gravatar account to wherever you login with when using same email. (example: mousehuntgame dot com) which doesn’t limit it to just this site, but any that uses it for comment boards/profiles! (which is more convenient than making a separate account for each website)
        i am currently using a screenshot from Talita going “are you INSANE!?” in response to my question on a Q&A as my profile pic :^)

  47. J0RBITS

    People have been misinterpreting Verengt’s “smile” within the past few pages, but I think this page especially shows just what it actually is. Verengt has been acting fairly cordially this entire conversation, albeit obviously confused and taken aback at times. Their trunk has been extended, even loosening their lips at times. When Verengt “smiles”, it’s during the more stressful valleys of the conversation. It’s apprehension, sneering – lips tightly pulled back, as opposed to relaxed (a real smile). From Verengt’s perspective, they’ve been confronted with an extremely strangely-behaved individual that acts almost threateningly. With Talita’s strange behavior, her sex, and her position as superior, this situation can easily be misinterpreted as an exile making a gambit for Matriarch.
    Mel is a horrible, HORRIBLE boss. By being completely ignorant, Mel has put Talita in a potentially VERY, VERY dangerous position. Their negligence to explain Talita’s situation to the Gwailers could get her straight up killed.

  48. Intet

    Seems living in Centaur society kinda sucks.
    I don’t get is why everyone here is blaming Talita or Mel to this extent. Yes both clearly could be a whole lot better researching and taking care to prevent offending anyone. They are far from blameless. But this society has all the signs of being extremely bigoted. Blaming people for how they are born and raised and then treating it as personal worth. What human society in this comic has seemingly gotten rid of. This is nothing to glorify. Treating intolerance with tolerance is being intolerant after all. I am sure we will see good aspects too and missunderstandings and judging a culture as an outsider has lots of trappings. I am looking foreward to potentially being proven wrong. But given what we know, living within centaur society seems like a very unpleasant time.

    1. Myorp

      I think largely cause Mel was one of the people that raised her.

      If I raised an orphan crow or elephant, does great with people, and then tossed it at the first flock or herd I saw, I’d feel pretty bad if it got pushed around. They aren’t speaking the same language at all physically.

      Someone could say “I was raised by wolves” but even if you tried to be polite about it you’re NOT gonna appreciate it when they try to lick your face. (And perhaps if these hypothetical wolves knew people well enough to stage a meeting, they should have given the heads up to not do that)

      1. HAL9000

        yeah this is very much an “animal imprinted on humans can never be returned to the wild” situation. there’s a reason illegal wild pets are typically kept in captivity even when rescued, it’s because their behaviour has been fundamentally modified in often unsalavagable ways from their base species because of their formative years being influenced by humans…

    2. tickfleato

      “What human society in this comic has seemingly gotten rid of.” What on earth gave you that impression?? A major part of the comic is about characters, particularly Talita and Gillie, navigating a society—human society—not built for them and at times actively hostile. And as for centaurs, I don’t think one can or should judge a culture based on a single, highly unusual interaction. If someone pulls a knife on you, I wouldn’t exactly call it *intolerant* to scold them for it. Just because someone told you a few minutes ago they were raised by wolves doesn’t mean you’re actually going to be prepared for them to behave in a strange and threatening way, and Verengt is handling it pretty well, all things considered.

      1. Intet

        This is not about a single impression. Culling clanless children is the biggest of quite some points accumulating.

        It has not been my impression at all there was any hint of institutionalized active hostility towards people needing accomodation. There were individuals who were bigots or thoughtless and limited resources for accomodations in some extreme cases. Deafness being described as having become extreme with it being almost eliminated and an edgecase alien orphan. But there have been so many scenes on the other hand of different human forms and experiences being embraced and completely integrated institutionally. It is a huge point in this comic that acceptance has been hugely widened, but yes not all problems are solved and completely new challanges appeared for this society.

        1. Myorp

          I’m guessing quite a lot, but my assumption is that its a result of the exploration of how different biology might result in a different view of children. (Or at the very least, if I was writing it that’s a dynamic I’d find interesting) It makes sense that a species that takes a long time developing one baby at a time would have different feelings then one that has 6 less developed babies at a time.

          I wonder if the feelings on the centaur side are something like that old experiment where kids are raised without language. Something like, Yeah you could, but how will this effect them for the rest of their life. Why would you raise someone like that?

          In any case I believe it intentionally contrasts with human common sense, and would personally recommend viewing it as a source of narrative conflict rather then a societal failing.

        2. JoB

          > like that old experiment where kids are raised without
          > language. Something like, Yeah you could

          The ones where some medieval potentates hoped that the (human) children, devoid of living examples to learn a current language from, would fall back to using some primordial ancestor language, thus allowing to research that one? IIRC, on top of no such builtin default emerging, they didn’t live long, much less in good mental health …

        3. Myorp

          @ JoB
          Yeah that’s the one, it sets those kids up for a pretty rough life. I was trying to avoid sensitive topics and just comparing it to animals again. After a full nights sleep I think I’m just gonna skip the odd comparison and go with “Getting rid of offspring in tough situations is bad to humans but a very common pragmatic solution in nature”

    3. Sabella

      Mel created a sink-or-swim situation for Talita that is deeply traumatizing and alienating for her. It’s not glorifying the negative aspects of Centaur society and culture to expect a manager to have a certain degree of emotional maturity, and not surprise one of their workers with a culture clash that reminds them that they’ve been raised by aliens and don’t fit in anywhere.

    4. Pocoloco

      I don’t read any of what’s happened as Verengt treating Talita poorly for how she was born. The second they found out she had no clan their immediate instinct was to help her get into one, which is a misunderstanding of Talita’s needs but seems to come from a well intentioned place, and to me doesn’t imply at all that they think Talita is lesser than other centaurs.

      The only thing they’ve reacted overtly negatively to so far is after seeing what, based on world building info, seems to be equivalent to waving a knife around someone’s face in a society where you can issue a legitimate legal challenge with a knife. If the ‘Verengt is nursing’ theory is correct then it makes even more sense why they would be alarmed and upset by it, since they have to think of their larva as well.

    5. mossrabbit

      girl how are you finding a way to be racist to fictional aliens
      all the societies in this universe have their upsides and downsides, including humans society, who very notably destroyed half the earth in a climate war, and also invented new and exciting forms of discrimination (on top of the old stuff) by inventing entirely new kinds of humans to oppress and problems to navigate.

    6. Phasmafelis

      I don’t see anyone beating up Talita here (Mel, yes). I definitely don’t see any sign of Verengt in particular being an intolerant jerk.

      Imagine an excited autistic kid suddenly whipping out a knife and pointing it at you. After a moment of shock and adrenaline, you realize that he’s just trying to show you his cool new knife. He doesn’t mean anything threatening by it.

      It’s still the responsible thing, for you, to make it very very clear that YOU DO NOT PULL KNIVES ON PEOPLE, in a way that he will remember. Even if it hurts his feelings, because if he does it again he may get a lot more than his feelings hurt.

      Talita has a mouthful of deadly knives. It’s not her fault that she was raised by a species that is a bizarre outlier even among our own clade for thinking that baring the flesh-tearing organs is a sign of friendliness (do NOT smile at a chimpanzee). But she does need to know how the proper etiquette before she gets herself into real trouble.

      1. cain

        This is the right metaphor

    7. LineOfThy

      “What human society in this comic has seemingly gotten rid of”
      NO??? Did you miss the entire existence of the temps???

      1. Calcifer

        Yeah, or Gillie choosing to hide her ears and tail because of how common GMH discrimination is (especially against off-model GMH). Thinking this universe’s human societies have gotten rid of discrimination is a WILD conclusion that is nowhere even close to implied. Humans have traded old bigotries for new ones. The OP comment is incredibly bizarre.

  49. FuzzySpiderPawz

    I just…. What in the HELL made Mel think this was a good idea?????

    1. Archieve

      My theory…Money!, I suspect that despite the accommodation costs, 8 Centaur temp salaries is nowhere near as expensive as buying/maintaining another machine vehicle “workhorse”, Mel might have sold it to the higher ups as saving costs instead of investing in functional machinery.

      1. tyrone

        Ah yes. Good old Greed. the foundation of Human expanse and innovation..
        God Bless….

    2. FuzzySpiderPawz

      Cause I’m sure Mel knows that Talita hasn’t been around many centaurs so she wouldn’t know what is and what isn’t appropriate to other centaurs so WHY did they think it was a good idea to make this a surprise leaving her NO TIME to prepare????????

      1. Archieve

        Combination of Mel expecting all Centaurs will get along and knowing Talita might object if she was given prior notice, I suspect.

        1. FuzzySpiderPawz

          If it is true that Mel didn’t tell Talita prior because they knew she would say no and waited to tell her when it was too late makes this so much more fucked up

        2. Muse

          you can just dump a bunch of random ferrets/avians/humans together and have them rrreeassonably get along so long as they all speak a language- at least get along enough to do a job. these centaurs can speak jovian english so surely talita’ll get along with them just as easily, they can talk out whatever differences they have, just like talita did with the other temps. :{D}

    3. Phasmafelis

      I kinda think the answer is “unexamined racism.”

      Mel’s thinking is equivalent to “I’ll put the African-American lesbian in charge of the new immigrants from rural Nigeria. They’re black, so they’ll totally understand each other!”

      1. Archieve

        I agree with this being the reason why Mel thinks a group of random Centaurs would all get along perfectly with Talita though why they all of the sudden decided she needed their “help” now after over 7 years of leaving her to fend for herself also reeks of an ulterior motive as a driving factor.

        1. cain

          Based on Talita’s assumptions about Mel’s secretive behavior, I think she’s come to expect “helpful surprises” from them. Mel seems to be the kind of person who thinks affection and care is best expressed through grand gestures, rather than everyday actions. They don’t stop to consider whether the grand gesture is wanted in the first place.

  50. Gander of the Shinies

    OH HELL IT ALL WENT TO SHIT

  51. FuzzySpiderPawz

    🙁

  52. Martin

    I cannot tell whether for centaurs Verengt is still smiling. Their trunk is still in the smiling position but the rest of the facial tension & body language idk. But it’s possible that they are not intending to express as meanly as we interpret it.

    1. Martin

      Having looked it up: nope! That’s not a happy face.

      1. Tripping Hazard

        Reading centaur expressions reminds me a little of reading dog body language because the same signal can mean wildly different things when taken as part of the whole. Like, most of the time a dog showing its teeth is snarling, but if its face and eyes are soft and the body is loose and wiggly, a dog showing teeth is engaging in a submissive display. Similarly, a trunk curled upward on a relaxed face and half-lidded eyes is a smile for a centaur based on diagrams folks are referencing in the comments, but a trunk curled up on a tense face and squinting eyes is not a smile at all (I’d guess frightened and/or angry). Verengt has their trunk curled very tightly in these panels, plus their nose is wrinkled—that’s a really tense expression.

        1. Siege

          You’d also probably quickly want the trunk out of the way if you think you might be getting into a biting match.

        2. Napkinkat

          Granted it’s the same for humans
          Showing teeth for humans isn’t always a sign of happiness it can be used to signal agression, discomfort, or anger depending on the shape of the mouth and the rest of the face. We’re just wired to pick up on our own subtle expressions! I bet it’s hard for centaurs, other than Talita who has lived around humans her whole life, to tell the difference between a grimace and a smile. 😬 😁😀 (using smiling and grimacing emojis as an example that they’re quite similar even when heavily styleized to exaggerate the differences.)

    2. c Senaru

      The trunk tightly raised up out of the way of the mouth, not in a relaxed upward position, mixed with the fluffing and squinted eyes is a mixture of irritation and disgust. Look how tightly curled back it is in the prior page, reeling back and out of the way of the ‘I may need to defend myself’ zone. Emotions are complicated and fluidly moving things, so there might be more than just blanket disgust and irritation, but there’s about 0% happy happening here! It’d be like confusing a toothy snarl/grimace for a smile in people- while we don’t usually make such expressions nowadays, we certainly used to! In fact, a lot of cultures here on earth find the bared teeth smile of muricans to be off-putting- I’m one of them and honestly I agree lol. Kinda same for the ‘look me in the eyes while speaking’ thing- lots of places don’t do that like it’s pressed to do there.

  53. Caloph

    Rereading the last five pages – this all happened VERY quickly. Verengt saw their children’s new boss (who is also a centaur, how nice to see a friendly face, and they won’t have to explain centaur things to an alien supervisor ☺️), and walked over to introduce themself and their entourage. But the supervisor is clearly terrified of something, so they try and reassure her, and find out that she is a semi-feral “exile” (except not exactly because she wasn’t ousted, she’s *choosing* to live as an exile, which, what the fuck??), and during all of this while they’re trying to appear friendly and polite the boss is nearly scowling at them, then when they try to gracefully bow out of this insane social interaction to go process that THIS is who is going to be in charged of their children? Someone who is either being intentionally rude or doesn’t even care enough about their employees to learn the basics of their culture?, all of a sudden the supervisor stances up like she’s going for your throat, then acts surprised when you call out how unacceptable that is???? Yeah, I’d be pretty pissed, defensive, and DONE with the whole situation as well! From Verengt’s perspective, this social interaction is fucking CRAZY – until like 60 seconds ago they thought Talita was another skychaser nomad, and beyond that, as far as we know, Verengt and the other centaurs are under the very reasonable assumption that their new boss knew who they were and that they were coming, so even if they can integrate “strange edge-case raised by aliens” into their understanding of the situation in 60 seconds, that doesn’t excuse the new boss acting like she’s terrified of them, hates them, and wants to physically fight them? She presumably had *weeks* to look into Centaur culture and basic social decency if she wasn’t familiar with it, but she clearly didn’t do even that bare minimum. I think Verengt’s reaction of being hella pissed at the lack of cultural knowledge and walking away is completely reasonable under the incorrect but most plausible assumption that Talita is being incredibly, almost maliciously, ignorant and inconsiderate.

    1. asmolfirefly

      It sucks, because this whole interaction going so wrong is neither Verengt nor Talita’s fault!! It’s all Mel, and they aren’t even here to see the full extent of how much they fucked up!!!!!

      1. Archieve

        Easier to avoid the fallout of you actions if your not present! I suspect the real reason Mel wanted a “suprise” was so Talita couldn’t object or talk of quiting. Their taking advantage of her shy accommodating nature by denying her the chance to gracefully refuse since accommodations have already been built and the clan is already there, expecting her to be prepared.

        1. SumB

          we gotta send mel into solar orbit for this shit

        2. Vinemaple

          Endless remedial crew-resource-management training, whatever-the-Jovians-call-our-sensitivity-training, and mandatory therapy sessions, until they can pass a psych eval that certifies them as fit for management.

    2. moonbarking

      Even WORSE speculation is out that Veregt is carrying young making them even more on edge. This is a situation made in hell. Thanks Mel!

  54. creetur

    The centaur polycule is angry at you 🙁
    I’m hoping she can at least clear up why she smiles like that but.. oh dear

  55. Foxqlove

    It’s a super awkward situation for both parties I don’t blame either of them. Like, what would you do if some stranger you were being nice to suddenly squared up with you and threatened to attack you, like of course you’d say hey buddy back off don’t do that

    1. Lilac

      It’s like if she just pulled out a gun and pointed it at them and like not only that but someone of like “royal” (kind of??) status like okay even ignoring that second part I would probably be like ????? Why are you pointing a gun at me????? And then if they were like “omg sorry didn’t want to shoot you” and put the gun down you would still probably be a little like ?????? I’m scared dhfhds
      And for some, fear is self defense is anger. So like all in all it makes total sense they react that way…… poor talita…….

  56. rory

    tbh i kinda hope verengt goes to mel and is like “omg she bared her teeth at me and she doesn’t even want a clan what is wrong with this person” so that mel can at least be vaguely aware of what they’ve done. (mel has a track record of not responding to stuff so im not worried about talita’s job here. then again i feel like they’d probably just go up to talita and be like “dont smile around the others!” and pretend that fixed it.)

    1. Archieve

      Most likely, avoidant types like Mel always expect the people pleaser to metaphoricaly starve dso everyone else can eat. I’m sure if Verengnt tells Mel their reservations with Talita Mels will not defend or explain Talitas body language one inch and just promise to “talk” (I.e. blame) her later.

      1. Muse

        god just imagining mel having that conversation where they blame talita (probably not outright but, yknow, the mel way™) pisses me off because it sounds very much like something they would do lmaoo

    2. rory

      for clarification, i don’t think it would fix anything, i just want mel to experience guilt. not that they realistically would before talita’s already left dirtball but i can dream.

      1. Archieve

        I atleast hope they end up in a work situation of their own making, like they won’t hire another manager because nobody will take it for their price so they have to finally work in the junkyard after acting like a positive attitude is all that’s required for junkyard operations.

        1. JoB

          Mel working “in” the slag field … ? I’d expect them to take a Calcery-like approach, grab a joystick and a gamer chair, and RC the machinery and radio-instruct the centaurs all over the place. Definitely NOT good news for anyone donning an actual suit.

  57. Filiya

    Verengt, you’re too cruel! Even if you didn’t understand about the alien facial expressions, what if this person just has a nervous tic? The threat doesn’t match her words!

    1. Ruby

      Honestly? I don’t think Verengt’s speech matches their expression either.

      1. Muse

        how so? most of their expression is disgust/irritation, and earlier, shock. that matches pretty well with the barely-restrained instinctive response to having a ripped stranger pull a knife on them while sternly telling her not to threaten them again.

    2. Archieve

      In Centaur culture teeth are weapons so its a much more serious display then a nervous tick. Talita is not at fault in anyway but neigher is Verengnt for reacting to a universal Centaur threat. The cruelty here is all from Mel who lied by omission to both Talita and the Clan, then threw this on Talitas shoulders right after telling her an abusive temp was more important then her.

    3. holly...!

      i mean, imagine meeting someone who seemingly winds up to punch you mid-sentence. not an easy situation to react to

  58. cypr

    GODDAMN

  59. Lilac

    Talita is stronger than me I would’ve started crying and throwing up immediately

    1. c Senaru

      Well I don’t know about throwing up but Jay did say we’re going to see what Centaur crying looks like this chapter so I’m going to place the bet that following this interaction, poor Talita is likely going to have a crashout. I mean I certainly would, too- She thought she was getting through this interaction relatively free of too much othering, save for them offering her a clan she could marry into, but didn’t push her aside from letting her know she could change her mind if she wanted to later- All for it to suddenly crash down because she used a genuine smile, on reflex. Poor thing, she didn’t deserve this, and Verengt deserved to be told up-front by Mel at least the non personal aspects of Talita’s situation and means of emoting- if they’ve even realized that Talita emotes different. One would hope they would but honestly at this point I’m not even sure about that. Things were going to be awkward no matter what, and reflexive mistakes may even have been made no matter what, but at least they could have prepared the clan that she wasn’t clan raised. What a sad situation to be in for everyone- Except Mel, who is the root of the current issue. I’d hope they’d feel some amount of regret for things when Talita eventually Runs Away to the Stars, but somehow I suspect they will blame everyone except themselves.

      1. Muse

        i’m really hoping that at some point, when they have time to reflect on this whole mess of a situation and maybe talk to some others around the place, they’ll be allowed to connect the dots that humans are super toothy when they’re being friendly. or maybe mel will manage to accidentally mention she grew up with humans, specifically (since i know they’d never be so helpful as to purposefully mention it.)

  60. planetixin

    I feel sorry for you Talita. I would literally cry afterwards if it happened to me. And situations like this happen to me quite often.

    1. ribbit

      🫂💯
      kin.

  61. Zii

    Chat, are we cooked?

    1. Gander of the Shinies

      Yeah. We’re cooked to congratulations

  62. Argon

    Poor Talita. I suppose it makes sense for Centaur culture, you don’t need to move your mouth to talk when you speak from the trunk. As harsh as Verengt is being, it feels in line. As he’s used to it, he was just gravely threatened. Being harsh can come from both being shaken at receiving such a display and in the necessity of the lesson. Talita’s to look after their children, after all, in their mind it’s likely best they make this boundary known immediately and clearly.

    And goodness, Mel… I believe I remember someone saying at the start of this comic that Mel never really seems to listen. Mel seems to prove them right again and again. It’s going to blow up in their face eventually, though I question if they’ll learn a lesson from it. I hope they do.

    1. entguarde

      Verengt uses they/them!

      1. Argon

        Thank you – I’d thought to look halfway through but hadn’t realized I’d already gotten it wrong earlier in my comment, I’ll need to be more aware in future.

  63. Trees

    I like the middle dad’s weird little hat thing.

    1. HAL9000

      these centaurs are dripped up to the max fr

      1. Adrienne

        Yeah not only did Talita have a miscommunication, she had a miscommunication with a fashion icon and their equally fabulous polycule. I think I’d launch myself into the sun

        1. mossrabbit

          real reason talita has a meltdown is bc she watches her “hotties fumbled” counter go up again

    2. Vinemaple

      Pay looks straight up traumatized tho… it’s one of those combs that stays put when you put it in feathers

  64. K

    I wonder if Verengt acted so aggressively to Talita showing her teeth because now they know that Talita has no clan and has no desire to BE in a clan if an implicit negative bias toward clanless centaurs wasn’t altering their reading of the situation.

    1. dwemerDraconic

      It’s been mentioned very directly by Jay in one comment chain last page that to Verengt, this reads to them like a very inappropriate powerplay or something like it. Sort of a “Oh no I don’t have a clan. But you sure have a nice one :))))))” which given EVERYTHING ABOUT THAT. It is horribly impressive that they didn’t react more aggressively. I think Talita’s only saving grace here is the fact that she directly mentioned she was not raised by other centaurs.

    2. Tye

      I think it’s more likely that just showing your teeth is an aggressive action for most centaurs. They seemed nonchalant up until that moment. Even if Verengt is logically aware Talita is acting abnormally, reeling back at the possibility of getting bit would be a very normal reaction. When you sense danger, what can one think about except keeping themself safe? Since they speak with their trunks, there is no reason for a centaur to open their mouth except to eat or bite. Unless you’re Talita, and you’ve been taught to smile with teeth like a human.

      1. P2Mc28

        It would be rather shocking regardless of how you understood the slightly off person in front of you if they drew a weapon and pointed at you. Perhaps even more so if you just confirmed for yourself said person was slightly off.

        1. P2Mc28

          (this was meant to be @K rather than @Tye)

  65. Grub

    lowkey looking back at this page after seeing it on patreon I think it’ll all be fine. perhaps a little “that was rude, don’t do it again” at their next meeting, if this wasn’t sufficient. and not to say explanations fix all wounds but Verengt seems EXTREMELY reasonable and honestly pretty parental, I think they are more inclined to have understanding to Talita than not. Hopefully!!! Good luck girl!!

  66. Bambi

    My heart break for Talita, I just want one good thing to happen to her

  67. Sleeb

    I don’t think her explanation was harsh at all, if anything, she seems amused.

    1. Morbidipea

      I don’t think so. This reads to me as Verengt being, at minimum, highly irritated/defensive/disgusted.

  68. pon

    oh man this is actually miserable. this is my worst nightmare. i am so sorry talita. i would never be able to recover

  69. Tentament

    Aww I wanted to see Jachipt’s reaction

    1. Vinemaple

      You mean LACK of reaction? lolol

      If Jachipt doesn’t actually turn out to be utterly unflappable, I am going to make a Centaur OC who does.

    2. HAL9000

      they’re too busy centaur-mewing to care about petty power struggles 💁‍♀️

  70. Eyes5

    You’d think Verengt would be more understanding of a social faux pas, given how Talita just announced she was raised by aliens, all her weird non-centaur social tics she’s been exhibiting throughout the conversation, the otherwise pleasant context of their conversation, and that they’re the matriarch of a starchaser clan who’ve presumably dealt with, and enjoy dealing with other sophonts and all their exotic behavioral norms. I guess showing teeth is that strong and that rude of a cultural no-no.

    I wish Talita would have the opportunity to explain herself and smooth things over with the seemingly reasonable Verengt, but I suppose that’s not where the story is going.

    1. topHatSurgeon

      Another aspect i’d imagine is that those other aliens are just that, aliens.
      Verengt probably understands that aliens have alien ways, however Talita (despite being raised by wolves) is still a centaur. Therefore they’d probably still read a centaur showing teeth as an aggressive display, and would probably still get pissed in a first instance.
      A human analogy would be meeting someone from another culture, and even if you understand that person is from another culture, if they suddenly pulled a knife, you’d probably still be alarmed by that.
      That’d be my read on the situation though

    2. Archieve

      Others have equated baring teeth to pointing a knife to one’s throat which I think is a good take on the perceived threat level when translating Verengnts interprtation/reaction to a humans perspective. It would be nice for Talita and Verengnt to reach a peaceful understanding before she leaves but not in the context of a working relationship, this is just too fast for Talita. Since Mels responsible for bringing the clan in with no input from Talita they can serve as the acting manager since they think a confident attitude is all a manager needs to suceed.

    3. Muse

      thing is it’s really easy as a member of the audience to say what you’d do in any given situation, or to say “i mean she just said that, why didn’t the other person listen?”, but hearing something, comprehending it, and internalizing it are all separate things. if someone says “hey i’m homeless and was raised by wolves but i’m happy like that,” you might be shocked and confused, but given how relatively civil they’ve been in the conversation, you go.. well.. alright then i guess. they’re a little odd, they mumble a lot and stare at you with their eyes fully open at all times, but it’s manageable. and then they suddenly pull out a machete and point it at you. you flinch back and ask them if they’re going to hurt you, and they put the machete away and act baffled at the concept.
      like yes verengt learned about 3 seconds ago that this person was raised by wolves, but it would take longer to really internalize that, and more dedicated effort to retrain her instincts to not react to the person-raised-by-wolves swinging a machete around for no reason.

      1. Muse

        …their*, dammit, got distracted while writing : (

        1. dwemerDraconic

          Youuuuuu. You get it you get it you get it. Shaking your hand!!! Yes at all of this!!!

    4. HAL9000

      i mean this entire conversation has happened in just a few minutes. super easy for us as readers because we have literal days to ruminate on the perfect response but in context, this is a brief and terrible interaction that leaves you going “shit i shouldve said xyz” about four hours later

  71. Jackie

    TvT
    We need more quality time with the girls (Gillie, Idrisah, and Bip (who is made an honorary “”girl”” for the sad times)) after this gd.

    Oh… Oh I just realized this potentially parallels Talitas interaction with Adam. V didn’t grab her like Adam did obviously but it’s the assumption that Talita could be dangerous/violent

    1. charlie

      OH MY GOD NOOOO :((

      1. Vinemaple

        Oh, right. Now THERE’S another rung on the Talita Plinko board: getting deemed a dangerous threat after being assaulted and bringing it to HR and getting blown off.

        That also makes me realize, there was probably a little “a little Human grabbed my big strong tough dangerous foster daughter? Did that REALLY scare you?” in Mel’s reaction. Big, strong, or emotionally resilient people often experience others assuming that horrible situations are “no big deal for someone like that.” I hadn’t seen Talita that way before, but I can see Mel and some of the others seeing her that way.

  72. aaaaaa

    I would start crying IMMEDIATELY

  73. Quid_Foe

    Every time I open this comic I have to mentally prepare myself. It’s like I’m in Talitas goddamn shoes, I feel so bad for her, someone give her an out ASAP!

  74. A Ninny Mouse

    * shaking my fist and screaming at the sky * MEL!!!!!

    this truly is the WORST way things couldve went, holy fuck. and mel will probably STILL think they did her a favor, or that this can just be patched up easy peasy.

    i genuinely can’t see her staying any longer, even if its understandable from our perspective why verengt would be so upset, how could you stand to be around your own kind and having to walk on eggshells, not knowing if something you do will be seen as incredibly insulting or even threatening in their culture? especially when you were ALREADY struggling to even begin trying to learn about your species? on top of ALREADY having the baggage of a trans-species adoption??? aghh this is so painful

    1. Archieve

      I pray that Talita doesn’t stay long enough to force herself through a shift with the new crew, even if everyone is trying to otherstand each other the resulting stress will be inherently distracting to both sides and increase the risk of accidents. Workplace danger aside this is the worst way to get someone interested is connecting with their orgins though I belive if Mel were being honest with themselves they would admit that helping Talita meet new Centaurs is secondary to hiring workers who can replace the heavy lifting equipment that keeps breaking down.

    2. Zidane

      literally, people have already cursed Mel’s name all up and down the comments, but like. i genuinely cannot see them learning from something like this (if talita even decides to bring it up to them, which i doubt, because they’ve already shown they’re willing to brush aside talita’s discomfort). like i imagine it’ll just be something like “it’ll be a good learning experience once you get over this first hurdle!” or something about the centaurs only just arriving and Talita being the one who’s most qualified to lead them in their field work so she just needs to “tough it out” or whatever. I genuinely can’t see something changing unless Talita leaves or someone else gets mad at Mel on her behalf because I don’t think Talita’s the type to flip out on them even over something like this. Like even if you were so insistent on having centaurs work with Talita you could’ve try and helped mediate even slightly. Just really thoughtless behavior all around from someone who is not only her boss but her former guardian.

      1. T-Bird

        I don’t think it’s going to happen, but I would love to see Idrisah give Mel a piece of her mind, and then some. Her righteous fury on Talita’s behalf was SO satisfying.

        1. Archieve

          I too want Idrisah to ripe Mel a new one, not that I think they will learn anything from it but it’s important for Talita to see where her most valuable relations lie and that she’d be losing more staying on Dirtball then by leaving on a friendly ship.

        2. Vinemaple

          Imagine Idrisah AND Verengt, tag-teaming Mel.

    3. JoB

      > * shaking my fist and screaming at the sky * MEL!!!!!

      … you may want to try the opposite direction.

      1. Common Handle

        Well, they are in space… so it’s sort of accurate…!!

        1. JoB

          … they’re on a planet’s surface, and thus not any more “in space” than we are … ?

          (Now that I think about it, however, what would the imps and devils in the underworld of a planet that never had any life on it look like, other than “incredibly bored, for a near-eternal lack of souls to torment”? Like avians, because those were the first to settle on it? Dirtball!Satan then better oughta take crash courses with Ohwitiil if he doesn’t want Mel to do a “(one-sided-)friendly takeover” of hellish management!)

  75. Reid

    a harsh lesson for sure, but one that Verengt recognized was necessary to establish just how severely detrimental the differences in Talita’s and the clan’s communication styles can be. Verengt knew that Talita wasn’t actually threatening them, but had to express just how grave of a misstep baring her teeth could be…

    1. Falconette

      I’m not sure Verengt *did* know, at least not for certain…

  76. Jason Myers

    Yeahhhh my opinion on Verengt stands firm. They can take a long walk into space without a tank.

    1. MonstieMunchies

      i think thats a little bit harsh for a cultural miscommunication

    2. Chase Wanderstar

      C’mon, man, there’s a lotta stuff that no matter how smart and educated and sophisticated the critter was you’d be less offended by seeing a weird little critter-dude (think, like, the Easter Bunny) doing than seeing a fellow human being doing. This is like being flipped off by a buff gym bro, whereas seeing Mel’s teeth-smile is like being flipped off by Peter Cottontail.

      Could Verengt have been more understanding, given the prior circumstances of the conversation? Absolutely. Could Verengt have been a heck of a lot *less* understanding? Also very much yes! I don’t think a polite and dignified matriarch would realistically bite the new boss, but I bet a centaur slap HURTS, given the hooves, and Talita coulda been smack’d-the-goofy-outta.

      1. c0rpzet00nz

        Not just that, the buff gym bro flipping you off is your kids BOSS and the work being done is EXTREMELY hazardous! That’s automatically gonna raise tensions.

        1. Mitta

          I think its very easy to empathize with Talita as we should, but as hard as it is for someone like her to code switch and shut off a basic gesture she’s learned since infancy, we cant expect Verengt to ignore their own instincts and customs in an instant like that

      2. Cat

        Just ignore this person lol they called Verengt the c-word in the comments on the last page. There isn’t going to be any interpretation besides “nasty alien who needs to die” from this person.

        1. bug

          ew. just… *ew.*

    3. blythe

      you when someone doesnt want to lay over belly up to a hostile display: “clearly they deserve death!”

    4. LineOfThy

      cultural miscommunication -> death???

    5. PhasmaFelis

      Imagine an excited autistic kid suddenly whipping out a knife and pointing it at you. After a moment of shock and adrenaline, you realize that he’s just trying to show you his cool new knife. He doesn’t mean anything threatening by it.

      It’s still the responsible thing, for you, to make it very very clear that YOU DO NOT PULL KNIVES ON PEOPLE, in a way that he will remember. Even if it hurts his feelings, because if he does it again he may get a lot more than his feelings hurt.

      It’s not Talita’s fault that she has a mouthful of deadly knives and was raised to see baring them as a gesture of friendship. But she does need to know the proper etiquette before she gets herself into real trouble.

      Also can I say, as an autistic person, that I get really sick of the attitude that any misunderstanding between a ND and a NT person is automatically the NT’s fault and also ableism. Yes, you should show some understanding and give people the benefit of the doubt. But *everyone* has a certain responsibility to consider the feelings of others and, *within reason,* to adapt to them. I am an adult with agency and I can take responsibility for my own actions. It’s not always easy for me, but some things that come easy to me are hard for others.

  77. MutableAlias

    Talita watches the 👤👤- – icon pop up above her and Verengt’s heads

    1. Rabbitstar

      LMFAOO

    2. HAL9000

      [Verengt disliked that.]
      (?) Verengt will remember that.

  78. Velocira

    Is it too late to do the yuri timeline?

    1. Jay Eaton

      The yuri timeline was a beautiful dream that vanished upon waking

    2. Adrienne

      With the power of imagination and fanfiction, anything is possible

      1. bug

        im expecting something appearing on a03 within the month. maybe. jay has opened the gates

    3. 40

      enemies to lovers arc fr

    4. Vinemaple

      This is the meet-cute. You didn’t realize that?

  79. Tripping Hazard

    Oh, heartbreak. 🙁 part of me had hoped Verengt would be more understanding, but one has to remember this is their first and only impression of Talita. Just having the restraint to ask and then tell her off instead of immediately throwing hands/teeth might have been all the understanding we could have hoped for here.

    I’ve seen others say in the comments that Verengt is carrying larvae, too (not sure if/where that’s been verified? Though that cape is certainly lumpy enough) so they’re probably really rattled by a threat display from another female centaur (and a ridiculously buff one at that). And too they’re probably having some unhappy thoughts in terms of what this degree of miscommunication means for the safety and comfort of all their children, particularly the workers Talita is supposed to manage on the job.

  80. conway-zero

    falls over like that one gif of walter white. talita…… i’m so sorry talita………….

  81. Matt

    I know it probably won’t be part of the comic, but purely from a Watsonian standpoint, I hope that they’ll interact more with humans in the coming days and realise that she was doing a friendly human expression… It won’t undo any of the damage, but I would just like to believe they at some point came to understand what happened!

    1. Atuada

      Talita never clarified which aliens raised her unfortunately, so they legitimately might not. And even then, they’re so busy managing a move that the thought may never creep into any of their minds. I think the workers are about to be hostile towards Talita for essentially threatening their matriarch, so she’s already lost all potential respect she could have had due to a cultural misunderstanding. Barring Bip knowing some kind of commonly accepted apology format, she’s extremely hosed.

      1. Matt

        That’s a very pessimistic reading… I’d like to believe that (intelligent people they are, and especially with how well-meaning the Matriarch introduced themselves, and with how they’ll get to experience a lot more alien weirdness in the coming days) this could be smoothed over fairly easily, at least in theory. Now, whether Talita lets it get to her head, and whether such an opportunity will actually present itself (probably not, for story reasons) is a different thing!

        1. T-Bird

          Even if Talita is about to run to the stars, it would be nice to know there’s at least no hard feelings between her and Verengt (and the rest of the clan). For everyone’s peace of mind.

  82. LineOfThy

    Ok but tbf Talita did just do the centaur equivalent of snarling with your fangs bared.

  83. Alternate

    Damn it’s a mix of what I want (telling Talita what she did wrong) AND it going bad (seeming to terminate the convo right there, truly seeming to be at the end of their rope like I feared)! At least they said why. Hoo. But still ouff.

  84. Entguarde

    FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK……………. it’s so dospaçover
    As an aside: there’s a transcription error! The transcript says “then do not clench your TEETH at me” while the comic says “then do not show me your TEETH”

  85. MothDuchess

    I can hardly tell if she’s bemused or sneering. But I assume the way Verengt’s bristled, yeah probably some degree of agitated.

    1. J0RBITS

      Somewhere between, most likely. Verengt is definitely apprehensive, now… Not a great foot to start on.

  86. hurgaburga

    i thought so… at least the entrourage seems… not angry about this

    1. Atuada

      I get the feeling they defer to the matriarch’s response or at least hold back and wait for them to confirm how to react. They do all seem incredibly perturbed though. I kinda get the feeling Talita’s about to run off and cry alone somewhere, but I also hope that Bip pops up and is willing to coach her on what went wrong (even though she’s almost certainly going to take it as a personal failing rather than a lack of preparation)

      1. Archieve

        It would be good as a life lesson for Talita to get Centaur body language lessons from Bip in general but I hope any advice/lesson this week leads to the realization for Talita that Dirtball is no longer her home and that she now has a better frienship/working relationship with Bip then she does with her remaining coworkers and that forcing herself to continue in the manager role is unsustainable for her.

    2. Adrienne

      That centaur just over Verengt’s shoulder is all of us rn

      1. A Box Of Fox

        That is Pay, who still looks like a muppet.

        1. Archieve

          it’s too bad Talita didn’t meet them under more relaxed circumstances, she and Pay could have bonded over their poor acting skills. Atleast I’m hoping its an inability to mask shock and not them hurtfully gawking at Talita.

    3. Ruby

      They still look pretty freaked out to me (wide eyes, raised feathers, tense mouth). They may not be angry, but they could be pretty scared.

  87. Claire

    Collective sob emoji….

  88. edenmachine5457

    .AAAUUUGJGGGHGGG THAT HURTS…

    also transcript error! page says “Then do not show me your TEETH.” and the transcript says “Then do not clench your TEETH at me.”

    1. bug

      im seeing a lot of transcript errors noticed in the comments. i wonder what’s happening

      1. Atuada

        tl;dr the transcript is adapted from the script, but changes were made when actually drawing the comic so sometimes things get out of sync like that. It’s almost always small dialogue changes like that

        1. Tentament

          I thought the Patreon audience would catch most of these but they must be slacking

        2. Heck

          This is actually to Tentament below you, but the Patreon is not given a transcript with new pages. I actually look forward to seeing the pages here to read the transcript and see if I missed anything

      2. MutableAlias

        afaik it’s because the transcript is based off of the older/original draft of the comic, and doesn’t always get updated when the actual dialogue gets changed.
        personally i’m conditioned to think that pointing out seemingly minor errors is rude/nitpicky, but i know it’s more helpful than that here

        1. Gabite

          people who have trouble reading the comic for one reason or another deserve to have an accurate transcription of what’s happening. it’s not nitpicking it’s an accessibility thing.

        2. foca

          what Gabite said. plus, in previous pages Jay has fixed some of these errors after people pointed it out (they usually reply “Fixed” to such comments) so I don’t think it’s far-fetched to assume they are OK with it.

        3. Pocoloco

          I had honestly wondered if the difference was some kind of artistic choice regarding what they were saying vs what they intended to say or meant, so clarifying why this happens is helpful (to me, anyway!). I was assuming they were put in at the same time as the finished comic.

  89. HAL9000

    welp, ended about as expected.

  90. lilathaplepeela

    welp, since verengt is running away, maybe talita should do the same
    hmmmm i wonder where talita could run away to… 🤔
    the stars perchance???

  91. Bimpledee

    Oh cod

  92. Adrienne

    Don’t worry later they’ll be macking out, thank you yuri for your service 🙏

    1. HAL9000

      rtts toxic yuri au spinoff enemies to lovers slowburn when?

      1. Adrienne

        This scene *could* be their meetcute… if you believe

  93. INFANTEATER

    JQHDJSHFJSHDHS :(((((( AND IT WAS ALL GOING SO WELL!!!!!….

  94. Quail

    Such a painful end to a conversation that was going moderately well…ohh talita 🙁

  95. Accursed Dirt Boar

    It has never been more over than this

    1. Archieve

      I want to see Mel struggling to do Talitas job now. Looking back it seems Calcerys resignation resulted in Mel hastily hiring mostly incompetent workers and promoting Talita rather then seriously listening to Calercys issues. Based on the character Q&A even Mel could see this arrangement wasn’t working but instead of admitting they failed to properly replace Calercy, they quietly hired Centaurs to make up for all the lifting equipment that constantly breaks down and because “ofcourse” all Centaurs will immediately accept Talita as one of their own and solve all of her managment issues.

      1. charlie

        speaking of, where has calcery been?

        1. Vinemaple

          SPACE!!!

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