Generally it's inappropriate to ask your coworkers about their bodily functions, even if you think their seasonal face bones are cool...
Transcript
Yao: Oh, the velvet came off your antlers.
Talita looks down at Yao's snap-on antlers.
Talita: …Yeah?
Yao: Was it bloody and painful?
Talita pauses vacuuming and rubs her arm awkwardly.
Talita: Er… there’s… blood… But it doesn’t hurt when the skin comes off. After the bone finishes growing, there’s not really any pain receptors left.
Adam, who is standing to her left, looks up at her resentfully.
67 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 227”
SheTheTDE
I think I’m starting to like this one.
Ruby
I like how the background in the 2nd and 3rd panels shows the awkwardness o the conversation lol
Julienne
Thank you for the birthday gift of Update (it’s my birthday and we got an update EEEEEEEE)
Redacted
“Oh my God Yao you can’t just ask people if it’s bloody and painful”
Napkinkat
Yao the noticer
I love xem <3 xey’re so goofy but also xey need to learn how to not weird their cross-species foster boss out. I hope Talita isn't too bothered by xeir questions lol
Are Yao’s antlers real like lab grown antlers/antlers off of a real animal or plastic/some other material? I am very curious. I assume real animal antler would be very expensive in space like wood!
Sparky Lurkdragon
Yo, heads up that “X the noticer”/”Noticing” is an antisemetic dogwhistle.
As for Yao, I’m fond of xem, too. Xer the kind of awkward I tend to be unless I’m actively trying not to be. Good question about xer horn and antler collection! Adam calls them “jewelry” earlier, which, there is cheap jewelry, but I wonder if that might point to being real animal? Not sure we kind find out outside of AMA/Word of Jay, though.
Tim M
Had to look this up… gonna rate this one a “nah” out of 10. Looks like something that originally came out of 4chan and was originally used for 4channish things, but then escaped containment and became very generic and anodyne. I think your intent is good here but I don’t think that everything that came out of 4chan is automatically an antisemitic dogwhistle. (And they don’t get to keep words just because they licked them.)
freak on a leash
It really actually is. I think concept clues make it obvious that thats not what this person is saying about Yao but Elon Musk and his cult are doing #noticing shit all the time, it’s maybe 2% more common to spell it as “nooticing” in that context but this is a real phenomenon & dogwhistle
bryn
Yao maybe couldve picked a better time instead of after the high stress altercation with adam talita just went through lmao 😭🥺
bryn
oops that was supposed to be its own comment ;;; also thank you for sharing about the antisemitic dogwhistle!!! ew!!!!
Napkinkat
ITS A WHAT
OH MY GOD I GENUINELY DID NOT KNOW THANKS FOR NOTIFYING ME
I JUST THOUGHT IT WAS FUNNY BECAUSE XEY NOTICE STUFF 😭
God I hate how mundane dogwhistles can be to the point of people accidentally using them. I am very much NOT antisemitic
Napkinkat
For context when I was typing it I originally worded it as ‘Yao the observer’ but I thought it sounded weird so I changed it 😭
Napkinkat
Makes sense that I didn’t know tho cause I’ve never stepped foot on 4chan and I don’t use Twitter and I genuinely hate Elon. Apologies if anyone mistook this as me legit using a dog whistle when that was NOT the intention. I find yao relatable cause when I was a little neurodivergent kid I would pull this same stuff when I took notice of something the average person wouldn’t think much about or think to comment on. Which was what the phrase was meant to be about. Oof
APOLOGIES JAY FOR DERAILING THE COMMENTS A BIT
Vinemaple
Is what I think is about to happen SERIOUSLY going to happen, this way, on the very next page?
bryn
LOL
previous pages *makes observation/prediction* monkey paw *finger curls menacingly*
Mango The Captain
Oh, I bet I know exactly what adam’s going to say…
Sabella
Yeah this is more the kind of weird neurodivergent question I was expecting Yao to ask. Metal while still being empathetic to pain.
Also damn Adam is looking like he REALLY wants to have an HR moment.
Napkinkat
I wonder if Human Resources would have its name changed? I assume it would be the same department dealing with multiple sophont species or maybe there would be separate departments for each sophont that work together. SR (Sophont ressources)
Sabella
Honestly yeah probably. I just went for the idiom people would immediately understand.
But yeah, SR moment incoming.
JoB
We’ve discussed retconning the acronym to “Hired Resources” previously … 😉
eden
and she knew to call them antlers too! next time ask to ask though yao lol
Sabella
It’s the nice thing to do, please and thank you Yao.
forest @ swifty's hq
adam seems like he is about to be a kind and gentle soul
veltzeh
Adam you better not be thinking about grabbing Talita’s antler. 🙁
Adrienne
It would be bad but he’d be super fired. Or one hopes… Adam is going to do something shitty either way so may there be repercussions for him 🙏
thegriffin88
Adam, it looks like you have something stupid to say.
Chase Wanderstar
I suspect he often does.
Sabella
Must be a day that ends in Y.
Lilybug
I really don’t have a good feeling with Yao. I’d love to give xem the benefit of the doubt… but idk man. Xer vibe is off. If I was Talita, I’d be skedaddling the hell out of there.
Phasma Felis
I feel like Yao’s vibe is mostly just autism. The kind where you ask inappropriate questions so people decide you’re the Devil.
PostMortem7581
I love Yao’s big round eyes.
Tentament
Moments before disaster…
petra
yao’s comment is a good example of someone who maybe is a lil’ weird, a lil’ neurodivergent, and has special interests that forgo “normal” social courtesy… as a kid i used to ask hikers about if they found any cool animal bones because i wanted to see/collect them but people take that awkwardly because no one really wants to come face to face with any form of flesh-based death and decay even if signs and the possibility of it is greatly heightened in the woods.
TotallySomebody
I would have been so excited to encounter you on a hike. I also collect bones. I have many I have found myself, and many I have bought.
Sabella
Yao’s my kind of weird and I love xem.
Fallingfeather
Ohh… I wouldn’t be surprised if Yao is curious/even envious about Talita’s antlers, given xeir own love/desire for antlers. Xe’s wearing them right now!
Also, Adam. I don’t like that look, Adam.
Zack
Ooh, OSHA Violation’s about to say something racist
Napkinkat
I News you to know that this caught me off guard and caused me to choke on the water I was drinking 😭 perfect nickname for Adam spot on
Adrienne
“Adam” more like “a DAMN walking OSHA violation”
Scolopendra
Oh good, he’s earned a callsign.
Tye
dangit yao, you were so close to not being too weird about it.
MutableAlias
totally random but. anyone feel like listing 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, and 1 thing you can taste
Teod
Love the spider shirt design.
Corbin
Adam is, unfortunately, written so well that when I see or read about him I get the same gut feeling I get for when I saw my Horrible Roommate that I had for a while.
Corbin
In short, Fictional Character Adam gives me a Fucking Stress Response
Enai
Fictional Character Adam is unfortunately Very Realistic and real Adam-like people are Extremely Stressful to be around.
Except if you’re a Real-Life Dominic, of course.
Sabella
We just need more Real-Life Claytons.
Smooti
I love this because Yao is clearly trying to bond with Talita here, being curious about a part of her biology xe thinks is cool, but in doing so is just pointing out Talita’s otherness. Even when you’re trying to be positive about it you can trigger someone’s dysphoria.
mossrabbit
what i find interesting is yao knows the growths on her face are antlers and not tusks! xe definitely has at least researched centaur biology, maybe even in response to meeting talita. i wonder if maybe xe has identified talita as ‘a fellow weirdo’ and wants to be her friend, not realizing that talita wants to be seen as anything BUT a weirdo. conflicting neurodivergencies are at hand here
Smooti
Exactly! I always find that kind of dynamic so interesting. So close and yet so far from truly connecting in a way that’s no one’s real fault here.
Duke 1337-o
With coworkers like these, I’d probably flee to space too
NotOkapi
YAO HOW DO YOU HAVE ANTLERS AND KNOW WHAT VELVET IS AND NOT KNOW THERES NO NERVES LEFT AT THE END YAO NO YOU WHERE THE CHOSEN ONE-
BobisOnlyBob
Probably more familiar with terran terrestrial biology than xenobiology.
NotOkapi
Oh that’s actually fair, understanding that the skin that covers centaur’s antlers would be called velvet but not just assuming that it’s similarly painless makes sense as a position (especially for someone who’s clearly pretty blunt).
HAL9000
xey dont have actual antlers iirc its just fashion
NotOkapi
Ended up arguing about this on a different thread but i felt bad not responding to you so i will say its funny you’re the only person who got a centaur profile pic in this whole thread.
HAL9000
oh yeah lmao. now i’m picturing a few humans sitting around discussing this and a singular scud chiming in on the antler talk (which none of them possess) while a centaur (only one there with antlers) just wanders by like lol wonder what theyre talking about
Smooti
To be fair to Yao, xer antlers are clip on
NotOkapi
Xer antlers are clip on but they KNOW what velvet is, which implies above average knowledge of antlers.
Smooti
True, but I’d say a lay person wouldn’t necessarily know how painful or painless the velvet shedding process is! A lot of people see the bloody aspect of it and assume it must be. That and because Talita’s look more similar to Earth tusks than our antler wearing critters, perhaps Yao thought it might be more like a new tooth coming in?
Nerdanel
I know that velvet is, but I had never really considered how many nerve endings in it are still active at time of removal. I guess I assume that the sensation of needing to get the velvet off would mostly be really itchy.
Enai
To be fair, unless we ask, we’ll never know if shedding antler velvet hurts. Unfortunately, no deer has spoken about it yet, so asking Talita is the only way to find out.
Lettuce Vervain
i dont like the way adam is looking at her. you mind your business, safety hazard
J
“Mind ur business, safety hazard” is such a great line,
imma use it
Enai
Would be great printed on a safety vest or hard hat 😅
JoB
Let’s upgrade Adam to a “Wait, you’re an employee here … don’t mind your business, either” cuirass, then.
guest
Talita don’t look now but there’s some kind of rat behind you