You can tell Talita has gotten very tired of trying to control Adam's behavior because she's resorting to "I am large with sharp teeth" as a motivating factor.
Transcript
The crew puts their exosuits on. Yao takes xer horns off their pedicle implants with a click. Adam grabs one out of their hand. Yao looks shocked.
Adam: Why do you wear these dumb things to work?
Yao: Hey!! Give that back!
Adam holds the horn out of Yao's arm reach.
Adam: What, no “please?”
Talita leans over the two of them, casting a long shadow. She grins mirthlessly to show her sharp, beak-like teeth.
Talita: Adam. Could you not?
Adam: Whatever. I’m sure Yao has a great reason for wearing xer expensive surgical jewelry to a job that requires a HELMET.
He drops the horn and Yao catches it.
Adam: At least it comes off, I guess. Phoebe, why’d you get your ears replaced?
He is referring to Phoebe's long, goat-like furless ears. She looks up from donning her suit torso, offended.
Phoebe: Do I LOOK like a biomodder? These are an artificial gene from my pa’s side.
137 thoughts on “Runaway to the Stars: Page 85”
FuzzySpiderPawz
I wish I could use the “I am large and have sharp teeth method” to deal with rude people
Vinemaple
Been holding my tongue on this until I got all the lore, but as I reread for the nth time, I think I’m finally comfortable saying that… the “temps,” all of them, even Clayton, act like scabs. Adam is on display in this page, but every single one of them has a unique characteristic that clearly makes it hard for them to hold down a regular job, or has probably gotten them fired at some point.
Did Ixion really need to hire these people to replace Calcery on short notice, or is there something else going on? Like, maybe a strike, or a boycott, or Ixion having a bad reputation within the industry?
Hmm, maybe it’s just Dirtball being a fly-in, fly-out backwater, but I’m looking forward to see a second workday with the temps, and maybe get more data.
Howie
I hope Gillie never meets Adam.
Wormhole
Inspiring! Progressive bully torments transgender colleagues using their preferred pronouns!
anon y mouse
This is hilarious. XD
Sen
Adam! You’ve done it now. You brought the wrath of the internet upon you! Never shall ye be forgiven.
Ironically, Adam’s behavior might be the last push Talitha needed, so that she decides to take Bip up on their offer.
Quillpaw
Yao’s expression is just a delight every panel xey’re in.
Apollo235
Damn we really hate Adam! 122 comments counting this one lol. The auto-mod got a good workout, I bet.
Aside: I went through the other pages for curiosity sake, second most commented page is 58, where Talita first encounters Bip. It has 87 comments, most of the comment sections float around 40-50 so this one is just under 3 times more active then the estimated average!
feesh
wow, that feels so….wrong….. adam doesn’t deserve this much hype…
JoB
Ehh, think “flash mob”, only with torches and pitchforks for once.
Jay Eaton
Readers love getting an opportunity to be haters lol
buam
I wish Adam a very “one way trip to HR.”
Greenjoe
I imagine it’d be Sophont Resources in this universe? SR?
Adrienne
Making a guess based on what I’ve seen from the centaur emotions charts, but I think this might be one of the expressions that can be interpreted the same way by people and centaurs. Eyes in what centaurs consider a neutral/happy resting position, but teeth bared threateningly, the balance of “I could bite you but I’m being nice” feels like it’s translated on both sides.
OssumSauce
I don’t know if centaurs would interpret her expression right since she’s using her nictitating membrane instead of her actual eyelid :p
Adrienne
Hmm, maybe not then. Also I’m glad someone got what I said, I was tired when I wrote this. Didn’t even specify what expression I meant… though I suppose it’s pretty obvious. It’s The Expression
EveryZig314
Jail for Adam one thousand years.
TotallySomebody
One thousand years dungeon /ref
Fallingfeather
Dude xie isn’t EVEN wearing them to work. Xey took them off and were going to put them in in xer locker! Like anyone would with jewelry! And I don’t think you can really argue “well why would you take it to the jobsite” when the jobsite is a place that does have casual social areas and you’re, y’know, gonna spend several months/years there. In space. C’mon bro.
atriflemiffed
Talita is a better woman than I because in her place I’d definitely arrange a workplace accident for that guy
Tyrone the Miner
Nothing like explosive decompression in Hard-Vacuum =)
But who will clean up the mess ?
JoB
Whoever gets to be next user of the space suit.
Tyrone the Miner
EW EW EW EW !!!!! =)
holly, allegedly
man fuck you adam
arf
Talita smiling has definite Kzin vibes.
Adam? Consider yourself motivated.
Quadrell
Does Yao have a perpetually “O-O”-looking face for the sake of being cartoony, or does she have something that always makes her look wide-eyed? I like her expression a lot.
Jay Eaton
Xe just looks like that. Popped out of womb looking like
Quadrell
Wonderful
Carmenifold
i wanna beat the fuck outta this clown
AnaKaye
Just tell me when and where. I’m down for it.
waterfan2
For the author: Do you find it easier to write for jerk characters or for nice characters?
Pretty much every author is different so this really doesn’t mean much regardless of the answer.
Jay Eaton
It’s fun writing a wide variety of people. Everyone acts different ways for different complicated reasons, even jerks.
Paroxysmall
I like how the shot of Adam in panel 7 looks almost serene, considering the context (context: Adam)
Gar G
I just realized how Talita’s suit probably had to get custom made for her. I mean there might be other Centaur space suits out there but they’re probably hard to obtain
Cobbington
She actually made her own! I believe we learn it in the extras section elsewhere on the site
Ankh
Not even gonna pretend – if I had the ability to use clip-on horns, I would wear them in literally every situation I could get away with. Sorry you’re boring and lost your whimsy Adam but xir(?) horns are objectively awesome
Vik-Thor / Lirleni
Yes! So much this.
(I’ve seen this comic on Tumblr occasionally , finally got it in my RSS feed this weekend. I am going to have to catch up. )
Ruby
What a douche. I’m sad that Talita has to resort to stereotypes but I’m glad to see her take full advantage of it.
evileeyore
I don’t see what stereotype she’s resorting too. She asked the bully nicely to please not.
It’s not Talita’s fault the bully isn’t used to having to look up, and then some more up, at his boss and peeing themselves just a little (we see how you’re totally not at all intimidated Adam) when being called out for their bad behavior.
Cobbington
The “stereotype” in this case is that she is a horse sized apex predator with very sharp teeth, both of which she displayed when she loomed over Adam with said teeth exposed
Septemberdale
That raises an interesting question. Does it count as a stereotype if it’s true? It seems to me that “Centaurs are Fuckoff Big compared to other sophonts.” is less a stereotype and more just a fact, in the same way as “It is harder to train terriers than most other varieties of small-to-medium dog because they are stubborn” is. It’s definitely a statement about a population of living beings, but does that make it a stereotype if it’s also observably true?
Green Heron
Replying to Septemberadale, I think it’s complicated? I mean, a lot of stereotypes *are* extrapolations of the truth, just taken to extremes.
I think in this case, it starts being a stereotype when you extrapolate something based off that fact (Centaurs are large hypercarnivores –> Centaurs are scary and brutish, let’s avoid this one) and / or treat people differently because of the fact. (Centaurs are large hypercarnivores –> Centaurs are brutes and can’t do smart people jobs).
holly...!
i’m glad to see talita being assertive!
Darth Biomech
Adam’s a xenophobic douche, and hopefully, it’s a “him” problem, but it got me thinking, are there any noteworthy instances of the reverse happening in the setting? Gene-modded humans being xenophobic or bigoted towards baselines?
Gar G
It kinda makes sense that they might view them as inferior or themselves as superior, and I can imagine that might’ve been the case at some point in the past (no doubt all kinds of conflicts took place in the early days of genetic modification, especially with baseline humans either feeling threatened by gene-modded ones or seeing them as freaks)
evileeyore
“Gene-modded humans being xenophobic or bigoted towards baselines?”
I’m sure it happens. All human groups get people will ‘other’ those outside their group, become hostile or act as though the out group is “not as good” as their in group. It’s just how humans are.
feesh
**small spoliers for the worldbuilding tab**, but it seems like bigotry tends to be primarily directed towards GMH due to long existing economic and political tensions. many GMH are custom commissions from natal labs, which can only happen if your parents have a pretty good income– i imagine this creates some resentment towards “designer babies” and maybe a wide-scale perception of them as members of the elite. additionally, some GMH projects like Magpie Bridge are seen as a waste of tax money… and there’s the can of worms of Company GMH who were created to fill a specific niche in the labor market, like Tailed Spacers, and all the power dynamics that come with that. of course that doesn’t mean it’s totally black-and-white, but there’s definitely cultural precedent for xenophobia from typ humans towards GMH wayy more than in the other direction.
annie
to be honest eugenics politics are probably going crazy in this setting. humans love to fight over that kind of thing
Aaron
I vote we throw Adam out the air lock.
AnaKaye
The main problem with that would be the inevitable paperwork afterward. Otherwise, yeah. Maybe give him a suit the *first* time, but if there needs to be a second, all bets are off. Just as long as he KNOWS that…
(I do not tolerate bullies and their bullshit if I have the means to stop them.)
Liza
I love the implied “…not that it’s any of your goddamned business, Adam” at the end there.
feesh
i have to wonder where adam was raised to foster such an ignorant and assholish attitude towards GMH and non-humans (gotta be earth or mars right) (is it mars)
Jay Eaton
The Adam deeplore that you crave is that he grew up on Earth, where artificial genes and (most types of) GMH are fairly rare. The bad attitude is a him problem.
feesh
i can’t wait for the 30 page adam backstory loredump in chapter 7
0xabad1dea
If horns, elf ears, basic spacesuit safety and friendly aliens all rub him the wrong way, I’m thinking this dude really made the wrong call moving to outer space
JoB
Maybe the ship on which he left Earth had some nice plumage?
(As in, gotten tarred and feathered ’cause its illegal to do that to its *passenger* anymore these days …)
AnaKaye
My guess is he’s been kicked out of everywhere else, because bad attitude.
ImJustaTourist
He’s been cancelled in twelve systems.
evileeyore
I’m betting he went were the jobs were… and isn’t ready to be a decent person in the wider space he’s now in.
It’s possible he’ll grow out of it, especially as there are only a few on the temp team who are “pure baseline” (by his standards as he’s displayed) and he was willing to have drinks with Phoebe, so he’s not a complete xenophobic bigot… just a biased jerkwad bully with an slacker-attitude problem.
eden
so you’re saying she should live every day of her life (because she lives at her workplace, they all do) walking around with massive obvious things in xerskull… because xe can take them off to wear a helmet. do you think xe sleeps in those horns??? (let’s be honest even if ce DID leave the horns at home that guy would be movking xer for the waste of money.
SheTheTDE
I love seeing neo pronouns in comics. I wish I lived in a world like that instead of the real world where just asking for she/her makes some people hate me. My actual prefference is it/its but no one is comfortable adressing me that way.
Darth Biomech
Calling a person “it” is the oldest dehumanization trick in the book, so I’m not surprised few people are comfortable doing this.
Potatoe
She/her has also been historically used to dehumanise people, because assholes will use whatever language they want to oppress people. But if ur not an asshole, and you’re not trying to oppress anyone, listening and using a trans persons preferred pronouns should be no problem, right?
JoB
Define “no problem” … I struggle enough to memorize people’s *names* (and faces) … :-/
(Managed to misremember my PhD advisor’s first name once. Into his face. Sorta good thing he turned out to be quite the questionable character later …)
Potatoe
It has a right to be referred to how it prefers. Doesn’t harm anyone to be decent
ovis
respectfully, telling someone whos sad it cant be open about its preferred pronouns lest people hate or feel uncomfortable around it that its actually understandable some people arent comfortable isnt exactly the best or most kind response ^^;
SheTheTDE
I can’t express the joy it brought me to read these replies where my pronoun choice is actually being respected.
Origamigryphon
Which is funny, because my late grandmother called me and all of her kid’s kids “it” and it was cute and endearing for me.
SheTheTDE
Being dehumanised is the point for me. I mean look at the things people do. I’d rather not be asociated with that. What would I rather be asociated with? Flowers. Flowers are generally all both sexes so she/her or he/him don’t fit a flower. I’m also not a flower I’m just a wanting to be a flower-like thing. Things are generally “It”. So it’s literally the same logic as the insult but I’m using that dehumanization as an escape rope. I’m not one of those horribles, I’m just a flower-thing.
evileeyore
You go be the flower you want to be. I want to be “1s and 0s’ running on bare metal, just a digital form no messy biological goo to gum up the works.
SJ
So glad to see even in the far future tall white guys are still annoying
forest
when it comes to reading the room, this guy seems to be illiterate… LMAO
GRUMM
Ah, so he’s going to die like an idiot, got it.
tyrone the miner
“Adam , could you not?”
Thats “a sharp knife wrapped in silk-paper” if I ever heard one.
Apollo235
How do GMH with natural horns wear helmets and other PPE? Would their only option be to file them off?
Jay Eaton
There are compatible helmets but depending on their specific situation they might have to get a custom fitting.
JoB
Well if *Talita* can get a larger helmet to accomodate her head …
(AFAICT a *space suit* helmet is not meant to cushion the head in case of impact, like a hard hat or a bicycle helmet is, and thus doesn’t need to be as closely-form-fitting as those.)
Rob
A few thoughts: a *work* space helmet might also need to function like a helmet/hardhat, and therefore be more fitted.
Also, I wouldn’t want to have my helmet so large it was hard to reach the top of it if I didn’t have to.
JoB
That’s a set of competing goals, though. A helmet protecting the head against impact does so by absorbing part of the energy, usually by allowing parts of itself getting *destroyed* (that’s why they (should) get summarily *replaced* whenever they took a blow). However, the primary job of a space suit is to keep a bit of breathable atmosphere around your nostrils. Seeing a handful helmet-shaped shards on the ground around you is *not* a happy “works as designed” sight during EVA.
(… or whatever they call it, since it’s not an Extra*Vehicular* Activity here.)
evileeyore
IRL space suit work helmets will probably be designed with an external ablative shield, basically a “crumple zone” (in car parlance), so the external plastic/composite shell will fail first and absorb some impact, hopefully sparing the secondary hull (to borrow from space ship lingo) from being breached.
Something easily (cheaply compared to the suit helmet) replaceable once the sealed helmet is safety inspected to make sure it’s still up to OSHA standards.
Vik-Thor / Lirleni
Also, having large airspace around horns may throw off the O2 balance system for the suit.
JoB
“You can tell Talita has gotten very tired of trying to control Adam’s behavior because she’s resorting to ‘I am large with sharp teeth’ as a motivating factor.”
Makes you wonder why there apparently aren’t any shark-mod humans around. :-3
To think that the very same Adam is the *first* temp to demonstrate the ability to memorize someone’s personal pronouns (or other kinds of preferred address) here …….
bisexual
honestly took this more as “it’s normal enough at this point for people to use what we wld consider ”nonstandard” pronouns that even jackasses wouldn’t bother misgendering or even see the point”.. or just that there are newer, more exciting forms of being a cunt in this setting
JoB
If I remember correctly, it’s been said that the *default* genderless pronoun in *Jovian* English is “they/their”, though …
feesh
i imagine adam is plenty familiar with humans choosing their own pronouns. transgenderism has been around way longer than genetic modification, after all! seems like societal power dynamics have shifted around a lot in this setting, maybe gender isn’t so much of a subject of bias for humans anymore (at least, when aliens aren’t involved… be strong talita)
Abalisk
Ugh, is Adam some kind of bioessentialist xenophobe or some shit? What a turd…
Amargarrex
I understand that feeling
foca
81 pages later, and adam is still just as much of a dumbass! wow!
VariousGameMasteries
Ah, yes. Nothing like harassing and profiling the people you’re working with in a small, isolated, fully sealed facility. Careful, Adam, these people know exactly where you sleep. Maybe don’t be an ass.
wingedhorror
Where you sleep… where your oxygen lines are….
Guest
Talita over here having to supervise toddlers
Martin
If I had sick goat horns I too would only take them off when absolutely necessary
Yay
literally
JoB
Gee, *someone’s* asking to get a few replacement body parts as well here.
Like, management replacing everything from the metatarsals up …
Rad Internet Stranger
ADAM!!! STOP IT YOU BULLY!!!!!
Rad Internet Stranger
Like seriously, grabbing Yao’s horn and assuming Phoebe’s ears are mods not to mention standing in front of flying shrapnel in the first pages!! What a douchebag!!!
Rubicon Art
I consider it something like snagging someone’s hearing aids. Like, yeah, it’s not an actual piece of someone’s body and it’s not something needed for disability reasons, but it’s still the same as taking a bit of someone’s body away.
Rad Internet Stranger
Agreed!!
eel wheels
i think all 3 of them are typ humans, yao has surgical implants + phoebe has an artificial gene, but is still typ human because they’re part of the typ human genepool, as i understand it.
but yeah adam is such a dick!!
Guestie McGuestor
Wow! The Typ humans are pretty awful here.
Eldermage1
Pretty sure it’s more of Adams personality than him being a typ
Guestie McGuestor
Typ person number 2 (I don’t think we have her name yet, do we?) is being a poop by making assumptions about Phoebe, and the way she asks (when it’s clear that Adam is bullying others for not being typ) is pretty shitty. Pheobe may also be kind of showing rudeness to Yao with her comment (though its more of a gray here). It’s interesting to see the bigotry the humans have—not just to Talita—but the other humans as well.
Darsara
Are you thinking of Dominic, the one that said that Adam and Pheobe were drinking last page? If so, they aren’t talking on this page, the person asking about Pheobe’s ears is still Adam according to the transcript, he’s just shadowed from the angle.
feesh
i may be misunderstanding your comment, but the person asking Pheobe about her ears is still Adam!
Entropy
Yao my beloved xer the best
Can’t help but think otherkin(specifically goat or ramkin)
Rockclanhawkstar
Oh man, if I could get mods like that, I would get myself a Pair of horns and a mane! (Dragonkin)
Yao is just wonderful, already! Love seeing folk with body mods!
Calcifer
Damn, can’t believe we still got fuckbois in the future. All my homies hate Adam.
On that note, though, this is the second time we’ve seen this dude make an ass of himself. I hope he’s being set up to get some karma in future pages.
Kage
it’s weird that adam is implying that yao is unprofessional for removing xer jewelry when xe is supposed to, in order to follow safety regulations. meanwhile, best case scenario is that adam forcefully took a workmate’s expensive jewelry away from xer hands and refused to give it back; worst case scenario is that he did that with a body part. sooo professional
Green Heron
Assuming it *is* jewelry and that Adam’s not just calling it jewelry to degrade Yao. Since xer horns are surgical implants, they might legally be considered a part of xer body.
hal9000
hes implying xer unprofessional for not just leaving it at home rather then bother wearing it all the way to the changing area to then remove the horns
Kage
I understood that, I just think he’s wrong
hal9000
talita with a threatening smile i love you
hal9000
also sad to see the character who looks scarily like me is a dick. adam when i catch you adam
hal9000
wait sorry for the massive comment chain im terrible with organising my thoughts but i love the way all the people in this comic actually look like just average people. like i can literally point at the page and go “lol that looks like me” or “that looks like a guy i know” its so great.
Calcifer
Oh, absolutely! One of my favorite things about this comic’s artstyle is how everyone just looks like Some Dude™. It’s compelling how completely grounded and believable humans with almost other-worldly modifications feel.
JoB
… please excuse me for a moment, I need to get my BMI some more into “launch *him* into space? You and which nation’s GNP!?” territory …
7arty
A disregard for authority’s rules in the workplace, and a tendency to assume things have to be rich kid toys like jewelry and genemodding? Won’t make him any less of an asshole, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out he was brought up in poverty, maaybe with hard unionists or communists in his close circle, if not at the very least someone with the kind of shitty job that prompts someone to turn that way (and rightfully so).
feesh
huh, he strikes me more as someone who just grew up in a bubble without much diversity, and maybe isn’t so used to being told “no”….. im not getting any huge class vibes from him in any direction
Phlosioneer
Reminder: every time she opens her mouth, it’s on purpose. She talks through her trunk and can’t breathe through her mouth.
evileeyore
Hah, yeah. I’m just used to Talita being a big shrinking violet so I didn’t see “trying to smile as she gently rebuked the bully” as a “threatening dental display”! But in retrospect, clearly that’s how Adam is taking it (and Yao*).
* I have no idea how Yao is taking it, they have a perpetually “deer in the headlights look” with their very wide eyes, so it’s hard for me to read their expression as anything other than some degree of shocked.
Amanda/OwlBear
frankly, big ram horns have a purpose and Yao should use them for that purpose, support angry goat crimes
JoB
… not if they come off *that* easily …
forest
it feels like they have a sort of snap or locking mechanism, so maybe it’s not as fragile as you might think?
JoB
Let me put it like this: Whatever the construction details of those horns may be, it looks like they were added after the fact, which means that her skull hasn’t grown a reinforced support structure from the get-go. Yes, sure you can make the artificial horns and their attachment crazy sturdy. *I* would prefer to have *them* snap before excessive force splits my head right down the middle, though …
un_pogaz
Okay, he going to be a problem.
Also, It was also Adam who didn’t respect the safety rules with the saw on the first pages. I don’t want anything bad to happen to him, but boy I want to see him put in his place harshely.
Trees
Concur.
New people being late, inexperienced and/or unenthusiastic is understandable but if this Adam is as much of a wilfully irresponsible bully as his (two?) appearances imply then he’ll ruin morale even if he doesn’t get someone hurt.
I think Talita’s going to have to bite the managerial bullet on this guy, anxiety be damned.
Tentament
Intimidating bared-teeth Talita, my beloved.
Greenjoe
Huh, so Yao’s horns are implants rather then a genetic thing, that makes the helmet situation easier for xer.
WindmillGhost
We gotta kill this guy
Packbats
I wonder what the rules are on firing your interns, because Adam is frankly asking for it.
Greenjoe
Yeah, Adam is being quite an asshole. I’m wondering if he’ll cause any problems while outside…
evileeyore
Hopefully there’s a union with a good union rules (ones that go both ways, protect the worker and protect eh business from bad workers) so Talita can start getting paperwork on him. Ironically the two incidents we’ve seen so far are things a good union shop steward would not have documented, but at this point they’d be taking Adam aside and having a polite “if this keeps up I’m going to have to document this behavior” discussion.
boxesofboxes
Adam if you’re going to commit workplace harassment don’t do it LITERALLY NEXT TO YOUR BOSS. Yao can wear whatever xe wants before it’s PPE time.
Liza
Between this and the shrapnel incident, and that he’s hungover, I’m thinking Adam does not have the best grasp of consequences.
evileeyore
He’s a young man… hate to say it, but the stereotype of “irresponsible youths” exists for a reason. Likewise that “young men are unreasonably stupid” also exists.
AS an old male I believe I’m allowed to admit that the second one definitely is a thing (still not sure how I survived to 30, let alone 50).
AnaKaye
Adam doesn’t even read as “young” to me, merely as extremely immature. In my head he’s hovering around 35 to 40, easily, but his personality is stuck in whatever the local equivalent of 8th grade would be. Maybe I’ve just run into way too many adults, some of them even over 40 or 50, who are like that. I can recognize the type.
Jay Eaton
Canonically he’s mid-twenties. Bad behavior is ageless; older bullies tend to be a little wiser about avoiding trouble, though.