They've adapted handshapes, now it's time to adapt facial grammar.
To prevent it from becoming the entire comment section, yes, the next page will immediately address the fact Talita does not have eyebrows.
Transcript
Talita signs “Did anything interesting happen at work today?” in ASL. Each sign is drawn in the accompanying ASL translation.
ASL TRANSLATION: TODAY YOUR WORK ANYTHING INTERESTING HAPPEN ?
Gilie: (ASL) Good! But...
She imitates Talita's question mark sign, a wiggling index finger.
Gilie: I probably wouldn't use "?", I'd just sign the sentence with raised eyebrows.
She demonstrates, signing a truncated version of the sentence: "Did anything interesting happen?"
ASL TRANSLATION: ANYTHING INTERESTING HAPPEN (raised eyebrows indicating "?")
63 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 192”
RavenousRex
man, caught up with the backlog in two days. i absolutely love this series’s worldbuilding and characters
keyboard smash
Is this just straight ASL? As in, the Jovian English they’re speaking is handwaved as translated to straight English for the readers’ convenience, and so Jovian ASL is translated to straight ASL?
Jay Eaton
Yep, this is modern ASL with no changes
Furex
The thought of having to do facial grammar sounds exhausting as an autistic person that struggles with neutral face syndrome, even when speaking aloud I struggle sometimes with tone, so the idea of having a dedicated question mark for speech seems really useful
Peter Jensen
Same. I don’t read faces very well, so having it be part of the (more frequently used) grammar sounds daunting. I definitely sympathize with Shyam in this comic:
https://www.tumblr.com/jayrockin/676473350654181376/a-visitor-on-the-runaway-spacecraft-shyam-has
Vinemaple
Oh, thank you so much for linking that… that is the CUTEST drawing of Talita and Shyam I have seen yet!
Furex
Wow yeah I SO relate to Shyam in that lol, I’ve never seen this comic before haha
arf
The interrogative inferred by Talita leaning in with eyes wide might be ‘are you edible?’
I presume Gillie has a satisfactory alternative to the ‘?’ sign on the next page, or pointing it out like this to her dysmorphic pupil might turn out to be a wee bit awkward…
JoB
> The interrogative inferred by Talita leaning in
> with eyes wide might be ‘are you edible?’
Not that anyone she would sign to would have to worry about that being the intention. 😛
“Yes, like mushrooms … at least once!“
Eggvlyn
gillie looking so cutes 😭😭😭
zofifi
Talita could like… open eyes wide and lean forward a bit but yeah… its not the same as raising erbrows. I personaly think she should really stick to questionmark, for extra clarity. Even if Gillie can tell it was a question it would put Talita at ease, knowing she is being comprehensible. This space horse has anxiety.
“b
i wonder if gillie pinning her ears down all the time would atrophy her ear muscles
Aidan
I mean she can’t hear out of them so I don’t think she really cares. Plus, even if they did work, I think most people would be able to tell how she’s feeling based off of her normal facial expressions without needing to rely on the extra gesticulations of her cat ears.
JoB
Well, it’s been said that she does prefer to work from home to avoid the necessity, so it’s not literally all the time …
(Also, having them pinned doesn’t preclude flexing the muscles anymore than having your arms “pinned” under a barbell gives rise to an atrophied biceps … just saying.)
Undercooked Mothman
This page reminded me to keep up on learning asl, i only know a few of the signs here.
maskteeth
Ooh is that Idrisah praying to the side there?
Teod
Oooh, that’s what she’s doing, I was wondering why she’s away.
Now I’m wondering how she picks a direction.
Nox
Apparently there’s an app to point to Mecca for spacefarers – one of the Q&A sketches mentioned it. Though, seeing as space is 3D, I’m not sure it’s always helpful. Like, what if it’s straight vertical of your current position?
maskteeth
Considering Dirtball is a ways away from Earth (and therefore Mecca), it’s probably simple enough to just face in its direction. Makes me wonder how she’d do it if Earth happened to be directly on the opposite side of Dirtball at that particular time…
It’s probably more difficult to decide *what time* to pray… although googling it shows that Muslim astronauts have figured that out already
JoB
> Makes me wonder how she’d do it if Earth happened to be
> directly on the opposite side of Dirtball at that particular time…
Shouldn’t be fundamentally different from being on the antipodal point of Mecca on Earth … (which is around the Pitcairn islands)
Proxy
I believe there was an AMA that said there’s an app in the RTTS timeline that tells you where Mecca is!
TotallySomebody
“It’s currently… Up there.”
Peter Jensen
Here: https://www.tumblr.com/jayrockin/668054909155966976/question-for-idrisah-do-you-follow-islam-if-so
Arcstone
I guess asl also has its version of being overly formal when learning a language.
SheTheTDE
two people bonding over finally being able to communicate is always the cutest thing
INFANTEATER
do i see a teeny weeny Idrisah on the grass over there?
Rex
So much of sign language is facial expressions, I wonder how Talita will translate that to her Centaur face? Obviously she’s very good at imitating human expressions but it might still be complicated
Greebus
Idrisah must be doing the Dhuhr prayer over there. I’ve got to wonder how she figures out where Mecca is in space! Also I think it’s cool that Dirtball has both Avian planet and Human planet flora (fauna?). Now they just need a huge Centaur-planet tree-equivalent.
JoB
> I’ve got to wonder how she figures out where Mecca is in space!
Some intermediate between “leave answering that to a computer” and “eh, good enough”, per AMA 2:
https://jayeaton.site/Art/RttS/AMA/2/idrisahmecca.png
(The interesting part, I guess, is: Does your prayer zip to Mecca instantaneously, or do you have to factor in its (light?) speed, the distance, and the movement of Earth through our galaxy?)
Greebus
I suppose we would have to ask an imam.
¥
“the speed of light is neither reachable nor surpassable” WRONG!!! through allah all things are possible
JoB
I guess that we’ll have to verify a couple more basic facts that might surprisingly not apply here, then …
Is the trajectory of the prayer influenced by the gravitational fields it passes through?
Marcie
Fun fact, people on top of the Burj Khalifa end their Ramadan fast slightly after the people on the bottom because they’re so high up the sun sets later for them
A Box Of Fox
Where did they get the Talita-size picnic blanket?
Greebus
Space-Amazon!
Adrienne
From the Talita-sized picnic blanket store
JoB
From its Talita-sized owner … ?
€
and where did its talita-sized owner get it?
Jay Eaton
Unclear, as large blankets cannot feasibly exist. Must be a black box technology like the wormhole gates
JoB
… are you, perchance, hoping that the comic gets retconned a la “oh, wait, thanks to resource scarcity on a remote outpost, of fabric in particular, everyone not in an all-out space suit should walk around stark naked”? :-3
The Opossum Witch
From Big Blanket obviously https://bigblanket.com/ (not sponsored, i’ve just bought their blankets before and they’re HUGE)
A Box Of Fox
Most likely! Thank you, friend!
Proxy
Maybe they made it with a Talita-sized sewing machine!
Stray Cat
“To prevent it from becoming the entire comment section” – words that could only come from a lesson being learned the hard way.
This does make me curious about how you’d ask that same question in my own country’s sign language. Time to go look it up!
Rad Internet Stranger
With the markings Talita’s got above her eyes and ear holes, I would not be surprised if some people would constantly mistake her for asking a question
Enai
She looks kinda perpetually surprised to me ^_^
Egg
Yeah I was like “she doesnt have eyebrows??” And then going “oh yeah I guess those aren’t eyebrows”
Jay Eaton
People keep telling me they look like eyebrows and it’s never clicked in my brain. They’re just stripes to me.
40
it never clicked until literally one day i looked at her and i was like “oh shit! brows! oh god do people percieve her like that??” 😭😭😭
eden
I honestly thought the eyebrow style stripes were a design choice to further separate her from other centaurs
eden
I honestly thought they were a design choice to further “humanize” talita and separate her from other centaurs lol this is like the cow tools comic from far side
eden
oops sorry didn’t mean to comment twice
HAL9000
same, i thought it was to make her look cuter and more cartoony, like the big muppet eyebrows.
23 Vast Eyes
I know its been said a bunch already but Gillie’s outfit is so cute here
malmo
this is now the entire comments section and I’m so here for it
Ellindsey
Came for the well-realized alien designs, stayed for the unexpected ASL lessons. I wasn’t expecting this when I started reading this comic, but I’m not complaining.
TotallySomebody
I wonder how they’ll address this? I’m excited to find out!
Vinemaple
Also, we finally get to see the Galaxy’s Okayest Park, tucked into a corner of the dome. I’ve been curious about it…
JoB
> To prevent it from becoming the entire comment section,
> yes, the next page will immediately address the fact Talita
> does not have eyebrows.
Comment section discussing sci-fi actuated variants of Groucho Glasses in 5, 4, 3, … 😛
Coriander
Girl likers are eating good this chapter, the bolo tie is suuuch a cute look on Gillie <3
Vinemaple
The bolo tie PAIRED WITH THE WATCH CAP, I might explode, but also, I like that gives Gillie an option other than pinning her ears down!
evileeyore
She is absolutely rocking that look!
DasGanon
Bolo Tie lovers be like “Yeehaw”