#they're in a desert with little to no landmarks

[reallyromealone]

Ganon omegaverse 2 baybee

Fluff, male reader, omegaverse, made up Hyrule lore, mentions of the Oracle's as I have been playing seasons and ages again as they're the best Zelda games fight me

🔺🔻🔺🔻🔻🔺🔻🔺🔻🔺🔻🔺🔻🔺🔻🔺🔻🔺🔻

(name) was in awe as he looked at gerudo valley, the endless sand dunes and the hot sun as they took a break at the Kara Kara Bazaar "we prepared clothes for you, the weather's aren't as fair as they are in the castle" Ganon said smoothly as one of the guards presented him with clothes.

Omegas were treated the same as women in Geredo town, many omegas saught refuge there and were welcomed, so it made sense that omegas wore similar clothes as the gerudo people "uberosa has graciously offered to help you in any way" Ganon said and (name) nodded as he was led to the small inn, the Gerudo who ran the Inn bowing to their king "Sav'aaq...my mate needs a place to change his clothes, could we perhaps use a room?" Ganon was calm and kind to his people who nodded "o-of course! It would be our honor!" One said and they were led to a large bedroom "Sarqso" Ganon said and (name) said a soft thank you with a curtsy to them much to their suprise.

"Uberosa can help you change as needed...I'll be outside" Ganon said smoothly and (name) nodded, the trip had been a bit of a blur so far.

"Did you know of the engagement?" Uberosa asked casually as she helped him clasp anything and adjust, when needed "I wish I did... I-I don't know why my sister would keep something like that...not just from me but from everyone-- aside from betraying me she could have caused /war/"

"The pain it would cause both our people... it's selfish of her" he said and Uberosa was quite shocked, so far the Omega seemed dainty and like many omegas in upper class status but to hear him openly call the Queen selfish /and/ think of not just his people but the Gerudo was quite refreshing.

"I formally apologize for my sister's negligence" (name) bowed to the Gerudo who pulled him up "Fret not little Omega, you are not responsible for your sisters actions"

"I just hope I can make a good impression with your people"

"/Our/"

"Hm?"

"You are mates to my brother, you too are a Gerudo"

"Wait-- you're his sister?" (Name) whispered in awe "you're my sister in law?"

"I am" she smiled softly at his look if awe "A-and you do combat? That's so cool! Zelda knew how to use a sword but I wasn't allowed because I was an Omega, gosh I have so much to learn about the Gerudo people!"

Uberosa found the smaller Omega (compared to her any Hylian was tiny) quite fascinating as she helped him finish up, dressed in lovely Gerudo clothes, the poor Omega fitting in their more teen sizes.

"Fit like a Gerudo" Ganon said smiling as he could see (name) beam from behind the delicate silk that covered his mouth "you think? It's so much more light weight than Hylian clothes" he said happily and Ganon led him back to the carriage "you look wonderful".

The valley was vast as Ganon pointed out things in the far distances, landmarks and such "that is the temple though it's far to dangerous to go into at the moment" he explained and (name) nodded, fully paying attention as he looked at where the other pointed. Ganon found his curiosity precious and was incredibly pleased his mate loved the valley as much as he did "this will be your home, so it's best you know things about it that aren't from books" he looked at (name)s outfit, enjoying the sight of his exposed stomach and knew (name) was sneaking glances at him, the male Gerudo clothes showing his muscles fully and he could faintly smell the attraction from the other who desperately tried to hide his scent.

"Welcome to Gerudo town" he said as they stopped before the sandstone walls that hid the large city, Ganon stepping out as the door opened to help the Omega out and smiling internally at the look of awe on his face "better than the books?"

"Far..." The hot sand slid slightly against his flats, the hot desert Sun like no other but he was giddy none the less.

Between the sandstone buildings were vibrant shades of colored fabrics as stalls lined the townsquare, merchants selling their wares and the sound of water from the stream running through the city. He felt his body shake in excitement and eyes looked around with wonder "you live here?"

"We live here" Ganon said to the other who flushed slightly "we can give you a tour of the town tomorrow, for now we should get you settled in yes?"

The rooms were grand, soft looking blankets and pillows adorned the room he was led to as windows looked out the endless cast desert "I prepared you a room of your own, I didn't want you to feel pressured sharing quarters with me just yet" (name) chirped at his kindness as Ganon took his hands in his own and gently kissed the knuckles "I will leave you to settle"

When night rolled around, (name) had a blanket wrapped around his shoulders as he gazed through the large windows of his room, the valley was beautiful at night as stars littered the sky like flecks of paint... It was like nothing he had seen before at the castle. It was colder too, the Omega shivering slightly under the thick blanket "troubles sleeping?" (Name) turned around to see Ganon dressed in a Bastian shirt and dark pants and shoes.

"It's pretty..." Was all (name) said as his fiance walked to where he was and (name) reached out "care to join me?"

The two couldn't understand their attraction to one another, it was predestined for centuries but it felt like the stars aligned in their favor.

"Absolutely"

(Name) let himself be sat in ganons lap as they looked at the stars, (name) pointing to the constellations that were not able to be seen from Hyrule Castle, what he learned in his books coming in handy as he spoke "that is the constellation for din, it's said the star shines brighter when a season changes" he explained and Ganon hummed "in Hyrule, we could only see farores... What do you think the Oracle's were like?"

"I was told that Din was a traveller, a Nomad one could say... She was one of the first to settle in Gerudo valley..." Ganon said softly, holding pride in his people "it's said nayru still lives, she travels through time and visits periods and watches over to make sure time stays right"

"And farore?"

"None is known about her but it's said she travelled to ta neighboring kingdom and lived in a tree not unlike our Deku tree" ganons voice was soothing as (name) settled in his chest, the smell of spices and honey comforting him as his eyes slipped shut, enjoying the sweet words his fiance spoke.

Ganon stopped speaking when he felt (name) slump, smiling at the Omega who was sleeping so gently against him.

He was truly made for him.

[tobiasdrake]

Digimon Adventure 01x41 - The Raging Sea King! MetalSeadramon / Sea-Sick and Tired

Previously on Digimon Adventure: Piemon invited the Chosen Children to see the show he's been rehearsing. But when they weren't very impressed, he started stabbing people instead. Fucking auteurs, man. Some people can't handle a little criticism.

I would love to tell you where that leaves us, but before we can begin, the dub needs to finish the previous episode first.

We open on Piximon giving the kids' barrier bubble a hard bop again.

Piximon: You're as ready as you'll ever be! Go get 'em! (Piximon bops the bubble and sends them away) Izzy: I think that was meant to be encouraging. Kari: (flatly) He has an awful lot of confidence in us. (Piximon turns and faces the Dark Masters) Piedmon: You may have fooled those silly children with this brave act, but we know better, don't we? Piximon: What makes you think it's just an act!? (Slow pan out from the coliseum) Kari: Oh, it doesn't seem right just leaving him there-- OHH!? (bright flash) Tai: (matter of factly) Remember, he wanted it this way.

Izzy shits on Piximon's last words. Kari's like "Maybe we should go back OH GOD HE DIED." It's hilarious the way the explosion signifying his death suddenly spooks her like that during her line, and I genuinely don't know if it was meant to be. Then Tai's like "Eh, it was his call. Moving on." XD Wow, guys.

Today's episode begins with the Children at their destination. Lost in a thick fog, they can't make heads or tails of where Piccolomon's final barrier brought them to.

Taichi: Where are we? Sora: There's sand under our feet. Yamato: We could be in a desert. Koushiro: Uh, I smell salt.... Mimi: Are those waves? Jou: It's the ocean!

There's something funny about Yamato speculating that we might be in a desert while we clearly see the ocean in front of them. Dramatic irony isn't just for drama.

The fog gradually lifts, giving the kids a better view of their surroundings.

Takeru: I'm starting to see things more clearly. Hikari: The fog is disappearing.

Once the kids can see more clearly, Taichi and Yamato check on the others.

Taichi: Are you all okay? Sora: No, we aren't okay. Everyone's exhausted. Yamato: In any case, do we know where we are?

Being bounced like ping-pong balls between the Dark Masters hasn't left the children in the best of states. Poor Mimi had to watch an old friend sacrifice his life for her, and also Chuumon. This was not the victory lap that the kids, high on success and new Ultimate evolutions, were anticipating.

The dub uses the clearing of the fog as a bit of an awkward transition line. Tai speaks up to announce that it's clearing while we're still fading from Piximon's death explosion to the foggy beach in the first place.

Tai: Look, the fog is finally clearing! Joe: Great. Now we can clearly see that we're lost! Izzy: It's more productive to think of ourselves as on our way, Joe. Matt: (sarcastically) Tch, yeah. I feel better already. T.K.: All I know is that I'm getting pretty hungry! Kari: And I'm getting cold! Tai: But everybody's okay, right? Besides being hungry and cold and lost.... Sora: Don't forget frightened, tired, and upset about PIximon. Matt: Otherwise, we're fine.

They start by taking out the geographic guessing game banter and exchange it for bickering. Honestly, though, I do like the bickering here and the subsequent conversation about the group's feelings. It conveys the impression that these kids are high-strung and are psychologically hanging on by a thread right now. What happened has utterly shattered their confidence plus, as Sora points out, they're all grieving on top of it.

The kids look around to try and get their bearings. They quickly find an incredibly helpful landmark.

Koushiro: I feel like I've been here before... Ah!

As soon as Koushiro gasps, everyone whips around to see what he's looking at. Probably a good reflex for them to have developed in this place.

There, on the beach, are the destroyed remains of a series of phone booths.

Koushiro: Broken telephone booths....

Taichi, Yamato, and their Digimon all stare in wide-eyed shock, gasping. Flashback to the phone booths before they were destroyed.

Yamato: Ah! It's those telephone booths! Taichi: You're right. This is the beach on File Island where we met our Digimon for the first time and set off on our journey.

Taichi's remark is a little dry, but it's been thirty-nine episodes since we saw these phone booths. It's probably a good idea to explain the context for kids who hopped in somewhere in the middle.

In the dub:

Izzy: I have a feeling we've been here before. Wait a minute, look! (Everyone looks at the phone booths) Izzy: Those smashed-up phone booths! Sora: You don't think that they could be the same ones, do you? Tai: Of course! I can't believe it. This whole time, we thought we were making all this progress but now it looks like we've just been traveling in one big circle!

Tai, what the fuck are you talking about?

We did not "travel in one big circle" and end up here. That's not.

We did not get here by traveling. Our goal wasn't traveling in the first place. There was... A lot of plot has....

What?

I am genuinely baffled by the words that the dub team chose to put in Tai's mouth. It still captures the idea that we have returned to a place we were once at but his outrage over "traveling in a circle" and unmaking our progress is contextually bizarre.

Meanwhile, the Dark Masters have retreated to the top of Spiral Mountain, where Piemon has scouted the children's location with his giant-ass telescope.

Piemon: I've spotted the Chosen Children and their Digimon. MetalSeadramon: As the king of the seas, the coast belongs to me. The lives of the Chosen Children and their Digimon are mine to take. Now, who should I use from my Deep Savers Ankoku Gundan?

MetalSeadramon's army is called "Deep Savers Ankoku Gundan", mixing English and Japanese while directly referencing the name of the V-Pet release that he's from. Fans of mech anime might recognize that last word; gundan is the Japanese word for military armed forces.

Ankoku, meanwhile, means "darkness" - not quite "evil" as the subtitle up there suggests. Though darkness and evil are often related ideas, it's best here to not be poetic with it and leave it at darkness due to the association with MetalSeadramon's faction. Fitting that a Dark Master would have an ankoku gundan.

(From an American perspective, calling them an army also seems weird because. Like. They aren't ground troops. They'd be more like Marines over here. But different cultures have different standards for armed forces terminology.)

If you were to try to localize this for Americans, something like the "Deep Savers Dark Forces" would make sense to me. The dub has its own solution: Not mentioning that MetalSeadramon has an army at his disposal at all.

Piedmon: How small they look from here. Like ants! Strange that such little creatures could cause SO MUCH TROUBLE!!! MetalSeadramon: They won't for long! They're standing on the edge of my territory now: The sea! I'll be the one to finish these DigiDestined once and for all! Piedmon: Hmm, bold words! But you're not the first to make such a boast, MetalSeadramon! MetalSeadramon: But I will be the last! They'll be shark bait before the day is through!

...okay, now it's Piedmon's turn in the "What the fuck are you on about?" chair. He's so mad and. Like. The kids haven't fucking done anything yet. XD

Piedmon is coming at this from the angle of Rita Repulsa plotting her 87th scheme to destroy the Power Rangers but. Like. At this point, the Dark Masters have had one altercation with the Chosen Children that they handily won. Why is he so mad?

Piedmon is so mad that MetalSeadramon doesn't even get to bring up his Deep Savers Ankoku Gundan.

Why is everybody so mad? XD

While MetalSeadramon is picking out his forces, the Children try and figure out next steps.

Koushiro: Since we're back on File Island.... Yamato: Is there a meaning to it? Sora: We must have been sent to File Island for a reason, right? Taichi: But what are we supposed to do here-- Voice: HELP ME!!!

The kids look and see some poor 'mon flailing and screaming out in the ocean.

Takeru: Someone's drowning! Hikari: We have to help them! Takeru: But our Digimon are tired.... Hikari: Then we help them ourselves! Takeru: Oh!

Hikari sprints for the shoreline, ready to dive into the water and swim out there herself - with Takeru trailing behind her. Fortunately, Taichi and Yamato's Big Brother Alarms start blaring in their brains and they jump in, physically stopping their younger siblings.

Yamato: TAKERU!!! Taichi: Hikari, wait! Let's all go help them. Yamato: We can use that canoe over there.

Leaving their Digimon Partners on the shore, the eight children pile into the convenient nearby canoe. This definitely is not a trap.

In the dub, the kids are still inexplicably whining that returning to File Island again somehow means they've accomplished nothing.

Matt: So we've just gone in one big circle, huh? Makes the whole thing seem kinda pointless, doesn't it? Sora: Hold on, maybe that's it! Maybe the pointlessness of it is the whole point! Agumon: Say what? Tai: (sarcastic) Thanks for the philosophy; That's a big help. Voice: HEEEELP SAVE ME!!! Mimi: Look! Out there! Someone's drowning! Kari: Somebody's gotta do something! T.K.: They're too tired; They'll be drowned themselves. Kari: Okay, then in that case, we'll have to go! (Tai and Matt intervene) Tai: Kari! Matt: Yo, wait up, T.K. Tai: Maybe someone bigger should go. Matt: We can use that outrigger. T.K.: I'm coming too! Kari: ME TOO!!! Tai: Okay, okay. Sora: Wait up! I'm coming too! Mimi: I can help!

I want to make a "The real xyz was the friends we made along the way" joke but I genuinely do not know what the kids think they have failed to achieve by returning here.

Matt's totally casual, "Yo, wait up" made me laugh. What a weird vibe. XD

I do like that Sora and Mimi volunteer themselves to help, rather than Taichi speaking for the group that they'll all go do this.

Making the worst decision imaginable, the children set out by themselves to go help the drowning 'mon.

Voice: HELP ME!!! HELP ME!!!

As the children approach, their target starts to come into view. A single horn sticking up from the water, with an inflatable tube around it.

Mimi: ...huh? How can they be drowning when they have an inflatable tube?

Suddenly, Shellmon explodes up from the water, with the rinky-dink tube dangling from one of their shell spikes.

Shellmon: SHELLLLLLLLLMOOOOOOOOON!!! Taichi: HUH!?!? Hikari: Do you know them, Onii-chan? Taichi: We fought them once before! We can't win this! RUN FOR IT!

Gotta appreciate Shellmon screaming their name like a Pokemon in case there's any confusion about which Digimon this is. XD Togemon does this too sometimes and I am just. I'm a sucker for any time a fighter shouts their own name as a battle cry and lunges into combat.

In the dub:

Voice: HELP ME!!! HEEEELP!!! Tai & Matt: Stroke! Stroke! Stroke! Stroke! Voice: (deep voice) Hohoho hahahaha! Mimi: Did his voice get lower or what? (Shellmon ambush) Shellmon: RAAARGH!!!

The dub puts a commercial break here, as Shellmon reveals himself. Good spot to use for that commercial cliffhanger. Then we come back to Shellmon revealing himself again.

Shellmon: RAAARGH!!! Tai: Whoa! Kari: Guys! A sea monster! Tai: You can say that again! That's Shellmon, and he's not here to play water polo! PADDLE LIKE CRAZY!!!

So, the bad is that we lose Mimi pointing out the WTF of Shellmon's inflatable tube. The dub goes out of its way to give her something else to comment on instead, leaving the tube as an unremarked upon weird visual. Sometimes it feels like they make different choices just for the sake of being different.

The good is that "Paddle like crazy!" is a fantastically flavorful way to translate "Nigero!" pronounced nee-geh-roh, the Japanese verb for fleeing from something. A+

The children paddle for shore as fast as they can, but Shellmon gives chase.

Shellmon: (chasing) LET ME DROWN YOU ALL!!! Agumon: FASTER, HUMANS!!!

The humans do not acquiesce to Shellmon's request, forcing them to swim after them.

Mimi: AHHH!!! THEY'RE CLOSING IN!!!

Shellmon gets close enough to try and bite down on the canoe, but the kids manage to paddle away too quickly for their jaw to hit its mark. Sinking under the water, Shellmon instead picks up speed and smashes through the 'iako connecting the main body of the canoe to its ama.

Shellmon: (exploding up from the water again) THERE'S NO ESCAPE!!! Agumon: We have to push down our fatigue and go save them! Pyokomon: WAIT!!! Mochimon: Let us take care of this.

Mochimon, Pyokomon, Tanemon, and Pukamon volunteer to step in so that Agumon, Gabumon, Tailmon, and Patamon can rest.

The dub, of course, cuts Shellmon directly saying he wants to drown the children.

Shellmon: There's no escaping! You're in my element now! Agumon: Come on, guys! Move it! Tai: (panicked) Stroke! Stroke! Stroke! Stroke! Stroke! Stroke! (Shellmon closes in) Mimi: He's right on top of us! Izzy: Watch out! (Shellmon misses his bite) Mimi: Eugh, that breath. EVER HEAR OF FLOSSING!?!? Tai: (panicked) Stroke! Stroke! Hey, are you guys paddling or am I just talking to myself!? (Shellmon breaks the 'iako and re-emerges) Shellmon: RAAARGH!!! Agumon: We may be exhausted, but we can't just sit here! We've gotta help! Motimon: No! Leave it to us; You save your Digi-strength!

A lot more dialogue in the dub version of this chase, including two separate laugh lines: a Mimi Quip violently stabbed into Shellmon's face and Tai pissing himself while trying to be leaderly. Both of these are great. XD

The four Babies evolve into Tentomon, Piyomon, Palmon, and Gomamon, then throw themselves into the fight. Gomamon swims out towards Shellmon with Piyomon and Tentomon flanking him in the air. Palmon remains on the shore.

Palmon snags Shellmon with her Poison Ivy, jerking his attention away from the humans. Once he stops and focuses on the attackers, she lets go. Piyomon and Tentomon move in, strafing Shellmon from above with alternating shots of Petit Thunder and Magical Fire.

For his part, Gomamon's Marching Fishes surround the canoe. Gomamon takes the back of the canoe, swimming with his fishes and ushering the humans safely away from the battleground.

Peppered by enemy fire, Shellmon withdraws into his shell screaming for help.

Shellmon: For real, HELP ME!!!

Shellmon flees beneath the ocean waves, retreating from the fight and leaving behind the inflatable tube. A bit too overenthusiastic, Piyomon and Tentomon try to chase after him, plunging into the ocean and ending up having to use Shellmon's tube to save themselves.

The dub adds a silence-breaker to the kids' Marching Fishes escape.

Tai: Whoa! That's more like it! This is the way to travel!

Then when Shellmon has to retreat, his line is:

Shellmon: Oh, forget this!

Which isn't nearly as funny as his original line.

With Shellmon defeated, the children and their Digimon partners regroup at the beach.

Taichi: I know everyone's tired, but I do think our Digimon are definitely getting stronger! Hikari: Onii-chan, how do you know that? Taichi: When we fought Shellmon before, we could only win after Agumon evolved into Greymon.

Taichi flashes back on Agumon's first evolution.

I'd be remiss not to point out that this isn't a fair comparison. Agumon was the only one capable of fighting back then because the rest of the team was starving. If Agumon had to solo Shellmon now, he'd probably still have a hard time.

But, to Taichi's point, the Digimon were all recently pummeled by the Dark Masters so it's not like they're in pristine condition now. They still managed to pull it together and chase off Shellmon as a team despite it all.

Taichi: This time, we didn't need Agumon to evolve. Agumon: That's because we worked together as a team! Taichi: But Greymon's power alone should still be greater than everyone's powers put together! Hikari: Maybe Shellmon got weaker? Taichi: No. I'm certain that this means each of our Digimon are getting stronger. Honestly, I've been wondering up to this point what Piccolomon meant earlier....

Flashback to their escape from the Dark Masters.

Taichi: Piccolomon, we made it this way believing that as long as the eight of us were together, we could save both worlds. But-- Piccolomon: It's true that the eight of you are together pi but that alone isn't enough to win pi.

Back in the present, Taichi presents his conclusion.

Taichi: I think he was trying to say that we have to get stronger.

In the dub:

Tai: I know they're all dead tired and they may not feel like it at the moment, but I think today proved that our Digimon are getting stronger and stronger. Kari: That would be great, but what makes you think so? Tai: I remember the last time we took on Shellmon. Agumon had to Digivolve into Greymon before we could finally beat him. And even then, it was close! (Flashback to Greymon absolutely working over Shellmon) Tai: But this time, they beat him easily without Greymon! Agumon: Yeah, but don't forget, Tai: They ganged up on him. It was four of them against one. Tai: But they didn't have to Digivolve as far to do it. I still say it means you're stronger than you were. Kari: Or maybe Shellmon's just weaker than he was. Tai: How come everyone's being such a downer all of a sudden!? I'm trying to be positive here! Besides, I still can't get out of my mind something that Piximon said to me back there. (Flashback to Piximon) Tai: But you said it was possible to save the planet if the eight of us were all together! How come it's not happening, huh? What's up, Piximon!? Piximon: The truth is, being together is not enough. There's something else that you need to do to beat 'em. (Back to present) Tai: I think he meant we had to get stronger! And that's just what's happening!

In light of Taichi's suggestion, the rest of the group discuss with their Partners.

Sora: I think so too! Piyomon: You do? Yamato: You've grown up well. Gabumon: When you put it like that, I feel it too. Tentomon: Koushiro-han, do you think that way about me? Koushiro: Well, bit by bit, maybe. Tentomon: (faceplant) Yaghyagh.... Patamon: Have I matured too? Takeru: Yeah! Of course you have! Tailmon: What about me? Hikari: We only joined the Chosen Children recently, so I think it's too early to tell. Tailmon: (droops) Oh. That's disappointing. Agumon: Don't worry! All of us will get stronger! Tailmon: Yeah, you're right!

Poor Tailmon. But, I mean, to be fair... This is like her third day with Hikari. The others have been with their partners for months.

Don't worry, Tailmon. If it helps, remember that you're a stage above them all so you're technically the strongest one here.

In the dub:

Sora: Yeah, maybe Tai's right. Biyomon: I feel stronger! Matt: Come to think of it, you are looking kind of buff. Gabumon: Thanks very much. That's a compliment, right? Tentomon: Do I look stronger to you, Izzy? Izzy: I don't know, make a muscle. Tentomon: (faceplant) I WAS!!! Patamon: Do I look different, T.K.? T.K.: Yeah, you look buffed out to the max! Gatomon: Kari? Kari: Well, to be honest, you don't look any different to me. But give it time, Gatomon; You'll catch up with the rest. Gatomon: (droops) If you say so.... Agumon: Come to think of it, your coat's looking glossier. Gatomon: Really? You think?

Dub passed up a prime opportunity to have Izzy be a dick in a way that's 100% consistent to the original, but the replacement gag is pretty good too.

I don't like Kari's line. Hikari made the salient point that they're both newcomers so they haven't had time for Tailmon to grow from where she was when Hikari met her. She makes no comparison to the others, but points out that she can't congratulate Tailmon for "growth" when they've barely known each other for long.

Kari, on the other hand, directly compares Gatomon to the rest of the team and calls her abilities inferior. Rather than saying that Gatomon hasn't improved much since they met, she says that Gatomon's fallen behind her peers; That is a completely different sentiment, and one not really supported by what we know of her.

Suddenly, the kids notice the sun shining a little brighter, as the heat begins to distort distant things around them.

Taichi: Huh!? Is that a mirage!?

In the distance, the kids notice a strange hut on the beach, distorted by the heat.

Yamato: There's a beach house! Takeru: Did there used to be a beach house on the coast of File Island? Koushiro: That's not a beach house on the coast of File Island. That's a mirage of a beach house on the coast of File Island. Tentomon: No! That's a real beach house on the coast of File Island!

This is a bit repetitive but it flows better in Japanese. Basically, they're all having fun saying the words "File-tou no kaigan ni" at the start of each sentence, which comes through with a nice rhythmic flow.

Metal Gear Solid alert noise but as a flash mob.

An interesting cultural note about this obvious second trap: In Japanese folklore, mirages are created by the breath of clams. I'm not 100% but to my understanding, mirages bubble up from the sea as images of the great city beneath the ocean, from which the dragon god who rules the sea presides. No one who chases these images ever returns.

We've heard a little about the mythical sea dragon god before. Back at the "Pagumon village", Mimi misremembered a folktale about her favorite character Otohime, daughter of said dragon god. Obviously, here in the Digital World, the sea dragon god is MetalSeadramon.

So. Y'know. Don't trust fucking mirages when you're at war with Otohime's papa. Where this building came from doesn't get explained, but there's a cultural implication that MetalSeadramon manifested it via the mirage.

The dub kicks us off with a silence-breaking quip.

Matt: (sarcastic) Did it get brighter all of a sudden, or is it just Tai's sunny disposition? Tai: ...maybe it's like a mirage.... Matt: Huh!? Was that shack there before? T.K.: Maybe somebody moved in while we were gone? Mimi: Mmm, something smells suspiciously like food! Izzy: Let's take it easy, everyone. Remember, we're in the Digi-World where not everything is what it appears to be. Tentomon: Looks may be deceiving, but smells? That's something else, and I definitely smell grilling hambugers! See? It's a snack bar! Burgers, sodas, ice cream, pizza!

Genuinely surprised that Tai didn't use his line to clap back at Matt.

The File-tou no kaigan ni bit isn't going to translate, so they replace it with discussion of a delicious smell flowing out of the mirage.

Ravenous with hunger and gullible as ever, the children fantasize about all the delicious food that might be in the beach house.

I love the little American flag poking out of the cheeseburger. XD

The mob swarms towards the building.

Taichi: Ramen! Agumon: Curried rice! Takeru: Ice cream! Tentomon: Yakisoba noodles!

They're all in such a hurry that Jou accidentally clips the back of of Mimi's foot, pinning down her boot and forcing her to trip and fall out of it. Mimi faceplants into the beach sand.

Jou picks up Mimi's boot, handing it back to her.

Jou: Ah, I'm sorry! Mimi: Mrrgh.... Gomamon: Oh, come on.... What the heck are you guys doing!? Mimi: They others are going to get all the food if we don't catch up! Jou & Mimi: EHHHH!?!?

Absolutely nobody has stopped for them. The other kids eagerly rush inside the hut.

In the dub:

Tai: Mirage or not, I'll take my chances! GANGWAY!!! Group: (Miscellaneous cheering and hooting) (Joe trips Mimi. He stops to return her boot.) Joe: Sorry, Mimi. Mimi: Oh, thanks. Gomamon: Come on, what are you two waiting for!? Palmon: Yeah, they're going to eat everything without us! Joe: Huh? Mimi: UGH!!!

They cut out the kids yelling out specific food items they want to eat, probably because they already had Tentomon run down the list of American Food Things a moment ago. Otherwise, pretty faithful.

Once (six out of eight) Chosen Children are inside, the trap is sprung. The shack is completely empty, and a sudden sandstorm kicks up and seals the door in sand. Then their assailant reveals himself.

Anomalocarimon: (rising from the sands) ANOMALOCARIMON!!!

Anomalocarimon is a Perfect-stage Data-type Ancient Crustacean Digimon. Their name and design both stem from the ancient anomalocaris. They're the other Data Perfect for the Deep Savers line; Cousin to MegaSeadramon and capable of evolving into MetalSeadramon. Clearly a member of the Deep Savers Ankoku Gundan.

Narrator: Anomalocarimon. An Ancient Crustacean Digimon. By crossing their forelimbs together, they unleash their special attack Stinger Surprise! Anomalocarimon: This isn't your average beach house! This is a death house that will drain away all your energy! Yamato: What!? Anomalocarimon: SUNA SHOWER!!!

Anomalocarimon's Stinger Surprise is entirely in English, but Suna (Sand) Shower mixes English and Japanese.

I'm a little sad that Anomalocarimon didn't say "This isn't some beach house on the coast of File Island! This is a death house on the coast of File Island!"

The death house glows with a bright light that begins draining the kids and their Digimon. Anomalocarimon's Sand shower sprays sand from his mouth, forcing the kids to the ground. Taichi takes Takeru and Hikari in his arms, trying to protect them both as the sand shower forces everyone down.

In the dub, Sora speaks up when they notice the door sealing behind them. Also, the dub refers to this Digimon as Scorpiomon, attempting to pass them off as a scorpion.

Sora: What's that!? It's a trap! (Scorpiomon reveals themselves) Scorpiomon: Whuh-hahaha! Snack time! Patamon: (rundown) It's Scorpiomon! One of MetalSeadramon's flunkies. Between his pinches and his tail, it's hard to know which end of him is worse! Scorpiomon: Sorry, but the only munchies around here are you! Now, say goodnight! It's bedtime! Matt: (challenging) Yeah!? Scorpiomon: Yeah! SCORPION STORM!!! (Scorpiomon sprays down everyone with sand) Sora: ...can't...breathe...can't...eugh....

How would Patamon know who MetalSeadramon's flunkies are? We met him like an hour ago.

The dub misses the exposition that the mirage house drains energy, sort of like what Etemon's Love Serenade would do to them. So they just sort of give up without a fight in that version.

Fortunately, thanks to an overeager mistake, only six of the eight children were caught in this trap. The other two remain outside.

Mimi: Those voices! Jou: Did something happen to the others? Gomamon: Let's go see! Palmon: Yeah!

Mimi and Jou hurry to the beach house with their Partners, where they find the doorway blocked up with sand.

Jou: (gasp) This is-- Gomamon: Shh!

Realizing they're standing on the outer fringe of a trap, the group falls quiet. They sneak around to the side of the house and peek in through the blinds, where they see the rest of their nakama unconscious and covered in sand within.

Comically, all four shriek in horror, then clap hands over each other's mouths and shush each other. Great job, team. Way to flex that one shared brain cell. XD

In the dub:

Mimi: (gasp) Joe: Those sounds never mean anything good! Gomamon: Let's go! (The quartet sprints to the beach house) Mimi: (disappointed) Oh, no! Something tells me this means no chili dogs. (Everyone gasps, then creeps up and spies through the window) Mimi: Oh, wow! What's happened to them? Are they... Could they be.... (Everyone gasps in shock then shushes each other)

Mimi gets two silence-breaker lines added. The first one is an inappropriately-timed Mimi Quip but a pretty fair one, I think. Mimi once got so hangry that it thwarted Devimon's schemes. I can believe that being her kneejerk reaction.

The second one is... Is Mimi implying that she thinks the rest of the team is dead? It feels like that's the implication she left hanging there. Which is super dark yet tonally appropriate. They're alive, but not for lack of trying!

I like these extra lines. ^_^

While Mimi and Jou remain hidden around the side of the house, MetalSeadramon's laughter suddenly cuts through the air. He congratulates his soldier on a job well done.

Jou and Mimi eavesdrop on MetalSeadramon's meeting with Anomalocarimon.

MetalSeadramon: Ahahaha! Great work, Anomalocarimon! I expect no less from a member of my Deep Savers Ankoku Gundan. Here is your payment.

MetalSeadramon rewards Anomalocarimon with a shower of tasty clams to eat.

Are these the same clams whose breath created the beach house mirage? Or different ones? No idea. But it's a boon that Anomalocarimon is thrilled to receive.

Anomalocarimon: YIPPEE!!! ANOMALOCARIMOOOOON!!!

Anomalocarimon digs into the clams, eating one after another and tossing the shells. One shell bops Gomamon on the head.

Gomamon: Augh! Palmon: Shhh! MetalSeadramon: Huh?

The towering sea dragon turns his head to the tree line, following that unexpected sound. Palmon grabs Gomamon and presses herself against a tree, while Jou and Mimi lay flat against the ground. After a moment MetalSeadramon stops caring and leaves for the beach house.

MetalSeadramon: Mm. Time for annihilation.

In the dub:

MetalSeadramon: Hehehe haha.... Well done, Scorpiomon. These DigiDestined are not so difficult to handle after all! Here's your reward. (Clam shower) Scorpiomon: OOOOH, CLAMS!!! Thank you! Thank you, boss! I just love clams! I just can't get enough of them! (A discarded clamshell bops Gomamon) Gomamon: Ow... Palmon: Shhh! MetalSeadramon: WHAT WAS THAT!?!? Scorpiomon: What is it, boss? You want some? MetalSeadramon: QUIET!!! I thought I heard something. (The DigiDestined pass their stealth check) Scorpiomon: I didn't hear anything. MetalSeadramon: Hmph. (heads out) Well, now to finish them off.

More silence-breakers added to break up the tense moment where MetalSeadramon nearly catches them. This one's a mixed bag; We lose that tension and suspense, but gain a fun little exchange between dipshit minion and his superior.

As MetalSeadramon approaches the beach house, he finds the door blocked off and realizes he'll need a clever way of getting inside-- No, I'm kidding, he moves through it like butter.

MetalSeadramon looks over the captured children for a moment, then withdraws his head from the shack.

MetalSeadramon: ...there are eight Chosen Children. Two of them aren't here.

Another carelessly discarded clamshell strikes MetalSeadramon on the snout, bouncing harmlessly off his invulnerable plating.

MetalSeadramon: And you're just stuffing your face!? Anomalocarimon: (nervous) Ehh...? MetalSeadramon: Hurry up and go find the remaining Chosen Children! Anomalocarimon: A-a-a-a-ANOMALOCARIMOOOON!!! (scurries off)

Realizing he's after them, Jou and Mimi shriek one last time, this time giving their positions away. Abandoning stealth, they flee across the beach.

Anomalocarimon: (aggressive) ANOMALOCARIMON!!!

The dub has some more extra dialogue for MetalSeadramon.

MetalSeadramon: (breaking through the house) Hehehehe! Eight little gnats and their Digimon accomplices. ...hmm.... (MetalSeadramon withdraws his head) MetalSeadramon: What's this!? There's supposed to be eight of them! Two of them are missing! (Clamshell bop) MetalSeadramon: YOU CHUCKLE-HEADED COCKLESHELL!!! Stop eating and find the other two NOW!!! Scorpiomon: Oh, you got it! Right away! I'm on it! (scurries off) (Scorpiomon chases down Jou and Mimi) Scorpiomon: Come back here! (wheeze wheeze) Oh, I hate it when they do this. Hey! Slow down! (gets closer) Aha! I gotcha now!

MetalSeadramon calls Scorpiomon a "cockleshell" with all the energy of telling someone in elementary school to "Kiss my ass-phalt". XD

Neither Jou nor Mimi being especially athletic, Anomalocarimon gains ground quickly. We go to commercial break and come back to Jou and Mimi's legs giving out. They fall into the sand, gasping for breath.

This would be opportune for Anomalocarimon, but they too run out of strength and collapse into the sand, gasping for breath.

Anomalocarimon: ...they're so fast....

Something about this situation motives the kids to get their second wind more quickly than their pursuer, and they get back up and bolt. Anomalocarimon forces themself to resume the chase, ultimately thwarted when the kids take cover behind a rock.

Look, anomalocaris was an aquatic predator. Their biology is not suited to running. You might as well ask a dolphin to chase down a chimpanzee in a land race.

The dub makes this even more pathetic for Scorpiomon.

Scorpiomon: (collapses) ...too many clams for lunch.... (Joe and Mimi get up and run) Scorpiomon: Oh no! Not again! Come on! COME ON!!! ...I'm not built for this. Gomamon: This way! THIS WAY!!!

XD Oh man, I am loving the dub's take on Scorpiomon. He's such a weenie. I adore the line "I'm not built for this" because in addition a weenie whine, it's factually correct. He's actually not!

What the hell is MetalSeadramon doing? Is he kicking back and watching Anomalocarimon flail? Taking notes for Anomalocarimon's next performance review? Dark Master MetalSeadramon coiled up in the sand watching both groups faint into the sand and sit there for however long, going, "...really?"

Meanwhile, six vulnerable Chosen Children are going unannihilated because MetalSeadramon is letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. If he can't kill all eight then he's not going to touch a single one!

Finally giving up on the foot chase, Anomalocarimon decides on a new approach. While the children take cover behind the rock, Anomalocarimon burrows into the ground.

Mimi, Jou, and their Partners catch their breath behind the safety of the rock.

Palmon: No more.... Jou: We have to fight.... Gomamon: You're right....

While Mimi and Palmon remain behind the rock, Jou and Gomamon emerge to confront Anomalocarimon. All they find is the hole left in the ground where they burrowed.

Mimi: What's wrong? Jou: Anomalocarimon is... gone.... Gomamon: They ran away! Mimi: (emerges) They could be hiding.... Palmon: If only we could evolve.... Gomamon: Yeah, but we're tired and starving so-- Oh! We can just scrounge for something!

The Digimon have gotten used to the human world, where food comes out of the refrigerator. That's only occasionally true on File Island.

Gomamon quickly digs up a pair of clams, while Palmon pulls some seaweed out of the ocean.

Gomamon: Looks tasty! Palmon: Found this!

Gomamon and Palmon eagerly fill their stomachs and restore their stamina.

In the dub, Scorpiomon remains hilariously pitiful.

Scorpiomon: Oh, forget it! (burrows) Joe: I can't... run anymore... we'll just have to... stand and fight.... Gomamon: Right! (Joe and Gomamon emerge) Gomamon: Huh? We may not have to.... Mimi: What happened? Joe: I don't know, but he's gone! Gomamon: Haha! What a lucky break! Mimi: Lucky for us, he doesn't work out. Palmon: Ugh, I'm getting my exercise right now. My roots are exhausted. Gomamon: And I am so hungry I could just about eat seaweed. Hey, wait! Lookit! (Gomamon and Palmon scrounge up food)

The lines at Scorpiomon's expense are great. Good casual dialogue.

The dub's take on the food search doesn't click, though. This is kind of an important moment, as we see the Digimon reacquaint themselves with scavenging the Digital World for food after being in the human world for a while.

The problem is posed: We can't evolve because we're hungry. Then the Digimon remember how to solve that problem their way, rather than being led astray by easy answers like the illusory beach house, which have so often been too good to be true.

This doesn't come across in the dub, where the vibe is simply, "Oh I'm hungry; Let's eat." We don't get to see the transformation of their way of thinking from human world comfort back to Digital World survivalism.

Down beneath the waves, Anomalocarimon notices one of Gomamon's carelessly discarded clamshells sinking beneath the water. Surprised, they poke their head back up to see what's up.

The other clamshell bops Anomalocarimon right in the joystick antennae thing that is not their eye but can easily be mistaken for it.

Anomalocarimon: Ow! ANOMALOCARIMON!!!

Anomalocarimon surges out of the ocean to attack Jou and Mimi. Evolving to protect them, Togemon and Ikkakumon counterattack, but to little effect. Anomalocarimon's stingers block Togemon's Chiku-Chiku Bang-Bang. Ikkakumon lands three direct hits of Harpoon Vulcan, but Anomalocarimon tanks all three missiles and remains unscathed.

In the dub, Scorpiomon mistakes Gomamon's meal for the clams he was paid earlier.

Gomamon: Not bad! Scorpiomon: Huh? GET YOUR MITTS OFF MY CLAMS!!!

While Togemon and Ikkakumon fight Anomalocarimon, Jou and Mimi put Taichi's earlier theory to the test.

It does not go well.

Jou: Since Togemon and Ikkakumon have grown, they shouldn't lose this.... Mimi: And since it's two against one, we should have up the upper hand!

Anomalocarimon proceeds to beat their Digimon like a drum. They swipe Ikkakumon away with their tail, then pick up Togemon and squeeze her between their two stingers, crushing her.

Togemon: IT HURTS!!! HELP ME!!!

Then they slam Togemon down on top of Ikkakumon for good measure.

Jou: (disappointed) ...they're losing. Mimi: It's too dangerous to keep this up! We'll be killed! Jou: Maybe they'd win if they evolve again!

Probably, yes. But it nonetheless makes for a solid counterargument against Taichi's theory.

In the dub:

Joe: If the Digimon really are getting stronger, they should be able to handle Scorpiomon, no problem! Mimi: I hope so, but it doesn't really look like they're doing too well! (Scorpiomon swats Ikakkumon, then picks up Togemon) Togemon: HEY, PUT ME DOWN YOU OVERGROWN CRAWDADDY BEFORE I GET REALLY ANGRY!!! (Scorpiomon smacks Ikkakumon with Togemon) Joe: Oh, boy. Mimi: WHY DON'T YOU COME OUT FROM BEHIND YOUR SHELL AND FIGHT LIKE A CLAM!?!? Joe: Uh, Mimi? Cool it! I don't think he thought that was very funny!

Mimi challenges Scorpiomon to a fistfight.

Bad. Ass.

And also tremendously inconsistent to both versions of her character. Mimi knows better. Her father doesn't know better, but Mimi knows better.

But badass.

Anomalocarimon tries to spray Mimi and Jou down with their Suna Shower, but the kids take cover behind the rocks again.

Anomalocarimon moves to follow. Ikkakumon and Togemon sprint up behind them.

Ikkakumon: HANG ON!!! We're the ones you're fighting!

Anomalocarimon responds with their signature Stinger Surprise. Ikkakumon and Togemon clear out before the shot hits. The explosion tears open the sand, revealing a treasure trove of tasty clams.

The dub gives Ikkakumon's line over to Togemon.

Togemon: Hey, squid breath! We're the ones you want!

They also change Scorpiomon's attack to Tail Blade, despite not involving his tail in any way.

Anomalocarimon is immediately distracted by all those tasty, tasty clams.

Anomalocarimon: Hey, this looks delicious! Jou: NOW, IKKAKUMON!!! Mimi: SUPER-EVOLVE, TOGEMON!!!

Their Digimon super-evolve into Zudomon and Lilimon. Followed by a hilariously dopey shot where a still image of Lilimon slowly flies in front of Jou and Mimi for no apparent reason.

In the dub:

Scorpiomon: Ooh! I just love clams! Joe: Hurry up! Now's your chance! Mimi: Get moving! Digivolve, Togemon!

Once they've Digivolved again, the dub gives Dopey Shot Lillymon a silence-breaker to at least lend some purpose to that moment.

Lillymon: Okay, Zudomon, let's GOOOOOOO!!!

And go, they do.

Zudomon pulls aggro, drawing Anomalocarimon's fire. Tucking down into a defensive position, Zudomon's hard shell tanks Anomalocarimon's Stinger Surprise.

While the enemy is distracted, Lilimon blindsides them with Flower Cannon. The shot seems to do little damage but pulls Anomalocarimon's attention away from Zudomon; A fatal mistake. Zudomon closes distance, calling Hammer Spark and slamming his Thor Hammer down directly between Anomalocarimon's antennae.

With a pitiful whimper, Anomalocarimon falls over on their back, defeated.

Inside the beach house, the children and their Digimon are starting to stir. MetalSeadramon's window of opportunity is closing.

Taichi: Hikari....

Outside, MetalSeadramon looms over the beach house, complaining about his tardy soldier.

MetalSeadramon: They're late. Anomalocarimon is late! What could they possibly be doing?

Meanwhile, Mimi and Jou ride Zudomon back towards the beach house. Lilimon flies nearby, while Zudomon drags Anomalocarimon's unconscious body along with them.

Jou: Faster, Zudomon! We have to hurry and save everyone!

In the dub:

Tai: Ugh... Kari.... (Outside) MetalSeadramon: Where is that fool with those other children!? I'm tired of waiting! (Zudomon on his way) Joe: Hurry! Faster! We gotta move, now! Did you really have to bring along a souvenir!?

Joe eases the tension by throwing down one of the funniest laugh lines in the dub thus far. Holy shit, that got me. XD

It hasn't been established what Zudomon intends to do with the unconscious Anomalocarimon, so Joe calling him out for that ambiguity lands hard. But it's also a joke that meshes and integrates with the tone, rather than disrupting it. A+

At the beach house, MetalSeadramon's decided that he's done waiting.

MetalSeadramon: I don't care about the other two Chosen Children anymore.

MetalSeadramon breathes fire into the air, intending to set the whole beach house ablaze. Jou, Mimi, and their Partners take cover behind the tree line.

Mimi: MetalSeadramon is planning to burn down the beach house with everyone inside! Lilimon: Come on! Hurry!

Lilimon, Mimi, and Jou race inside the beach house through a... somewhat unexplained hole in the beach house wall. Is that supposed to be the hole MetalSeadramon smashed earlier? Did he nervously pace around to the other side of the beach house afterwards? It sure looks a lot bigger than his head.

Lilimon goes for Taichi, while Mimi makes a beeline for Sora.

Lilimon: Taichi, pull yourself together. Taichi: Lilimon? Mimi: SORA-SAN!!! Jou: Yamato! Koushiro! Lilimon: (flies over the Digimon) Quickly, everyone! Tentomon: Huh, what's going on?

Out front, MetalSeadramon's finished testing his firebreath. He turns his gaze down on the house.

MetalSeadramon: FIRE!!!

He lets it rip, his flames engulfing the house in seconds.

In the dub:

MetalSeadramon: That does it! I'll worry about the other two children later. Mimi: Yikes! And I thought Shellmon's breath was gnarly! He'll toast them like marshmallows! Lillymon: This way! Hurry! Joe: HEY GUYS!!! NAPTIME'S OVER!!!

Joe yells at the top of his lungs while they're passing directly under MetalSeadramon's nose. Somehow, this doesn't give the game away.

Mimi's quip here is a little tonally inappropriate, but I do like the callback to her earlier barb at Shellmon. Mimi's getting a lot of fun lines in this episode.

Lillymon: Tai, you've gotta get out of here! Tai: Huh...? Mimi: Sora, get up! Joe: Matt! Izzy! Move or you're gonna be toast! I mean literally! Lillymon: (flies over the Digimon) Everybody on your feet! Hurry! Tentomon: W-What's going on!? (Outside, MetalSeadramon takes aim) MetalSeadramon: RRRRYAAAAAGH!!! (fires)

MetalSeadramon does not shout "Fire" when he shoots his fire. 0/10 Go to pun jail. For, uh, insufficient punning. For once.

As the beach house goes up in flames, the kids vacate through the big maybe-unexplained hole.

Taichi again takes responsibility for Takeru and Hikari, ushering them out of the building.

Taichi: Hikari! Takeru! Are you okay!? Hikari: Yeah....

Zudomon replaces the children with the unconscious Anomalocarimon. While the kids evacuate, he stands nearby. His shoulders vibrate to indicate that he is silently laughing hysterically to himself. Epic prank, bro.

MetalSeadramon: SIX OF THE CHOSEN CHILDREN AND THEIR DIGIMON ARE DEAD!!! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Anomalocarimon: (inside, wakes up on fire) EEEYAAAGH ATATAT!!! MetalSeadramon: ...uh?

Anomalocarimon explodes through the sand blocking the door, scurrying across the stand in flames. MetalSeadramon watches them go by in confused silence.

Anomalocarimon: HOT HOT HOT ANOMALOCARIMOOOOON!!!

Finally, when they reach the coastline, Anomalocarimon throws themself into the ocean to douse the flames.

In the dub:

Tai: Whoa! Hang on and keep moving; We're almost there! Mimi: Hurry up and let's get out of here! (Outside) MetalSeadramon: Ha! Farewell, DigiDestined! It was a rare pleasure knowing you! MEDIUM RARE!!! GYAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Scorpiomon: (inside, wakes up on fire) WHAAAAUGH HOT HOT HOT!!! MetalSeadramon: ...huh? (Scorpiomon explodes through the sand barrier and scurries for dear life) Scorpiomon: OW!!! Who's the hot-tempered foul-mouth who--Oh, it was you, boss. Okay. No problem.

MetalSeadramon's "medium rare" quip is great. XD This episode is bringing all the best laugh lines.

I do prefer the original version of Scorpiomon's fiery exit. The dub's sycophantic joke is pretty good too. Both versions put comedic focus in different places, with Scorpiomon's bit emphasizing what a tool he is.

The original, meanwhile, emphasizes MetalSeadramon. He's positioned in center frame so we can watch his head turn and follow Anomalocarimon. The emphasis is on his stunned WTF reaction. Reality is gaslighting him and he is at a loss for words.

Both work on their own, but I like the original better.

Once Anomalocarimon is doused in the ocean, MetalSeadramon finally finds the presence of mind to make sense of what's happened.

MetalSeadramon: The six Chosen Children and their Digimon are gone! Anomalocarimon, what is the meaning of this!? Anomalocarimon: MetalSeadramon-sama, uh... You see....

Unfortunately for him, Anomalocarimon has no better idea of what happened than MetalSeadramon does. They were unconscious the whole time.

MetalSeadramon furiously wraps his tail around Anomalocarimon, hoisting them high up into the air.

MetalSeadramon: SILENCE!!!

MetalSeadramon drops them from a great height, finishing them off. We don't see Anomalocarimon disintegrate into pixels, but they crash into the earth and kick up a huge sandstorm on impact, then are gone afterward - Leaving behind only a large imprint in the sand where they fell. The implication is fairly clear.

RIP Anomalocarimon. Recipient of a prank so epic it got them killed.

In the dub:

MetalSeadramon: Huh? No! NO!!! THEY'RE GONE!!! ALL OF THEM GONE!!! SCORPIOMOOOOOON!!! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN!?!? Scorpiomon: Uh, w-well, you see... That's a fair question... You see, it happens-- MetalSeadramon: SILENCE!!! (grapples Scorpiomon into the sky) You failed me and I will not forgive FAILURE!!! Scorpiomon: No, I didn't think that you w-OOOOULD!!! (dropped)

Scorpiomon remains a weenie to the end. XD

You know, I kind of expected them to add a line or two indicating that Scorpiomon survived that drop but I guess we're over that. A guy got stabbed in the chest last episode; This is going to be a hard arc to try and hand-wring about character death.

Once MetalSeadramon's gone, the kids emerge and discuss what Jou and Mimi learned.

Lilimon: MetalSeadramon seems to have left. Taichi: Everything's alright now. Mimi: Everything's not alright, actually. Taichi: Huh!? Jou: She's right. Taichi: What do you mean? What happened? Jou: Ikkakumon and Togemon weren't strong enough to defeat Anomalocarimon. They could only win after evolving into Zudomon and Lilimon. Our chances against MetalSeadramon still aren't very good right now. Taichi: So it's just like Piccolomon said. Even with the eight of us together, it's not enough to win. Could it be that the Digimon's evolutions still need improvement?

It was pretty foolish to assume we'd already done whatever Piccolomon thought we still needed to do. There's a long road ahead.

In the dub:

Sora: They're gone! Whew! That was a close one. Tai: But we came out of it okay. That's what counts. Mimi: I hate to tell you this: Everything's not okay! Tai: Huh!? Joe: Mimi's right. Tai: What are you guys talking about!? Did I miss something!? Joe: The Digimon still might not be strong enough. Both of ours had to Digivolve again before they could beat Scorpiomon and he was just a flunkie. Frankly, it's hard to see how they stand a chance against a fully Digivolved monster like MetalSeadramon. Tai: You could be right. Maybe Piximon meant something else when he said we were missing something. Whatever the secret is, we've got to find it if we ever hope to save the world.

Pretty faithful. We also see the return of the phrase "fully Digivolved" now in its new, more correct context. There are still technically Digimon beyond the Ultimate stage but those are basically one-off super-exceptions, not a whole category. When pressed, they often wind up classifying as... like... Ultimate but even more Ultimate-er.

It's pretty safe to call this stage "fully Digivolved".

Suddenly, Tentomon takes off into the air to get a better vantage.

Tentomon: What's that!?

Unfortunately, we will not get the moment to breathe that we thought we were getting. MetalSeadramon only fucked off to stage yet another ambush. Utterly relentless.

Taichi: METALSEADRAMON!!! Lilimon: I'll hold him here! The rest of you, escape on Zudomon's back! Mimi: LILIMON!?!?

Initially, MetalSeadramon takes the bait. Without another word, Lilimon flies out to meet him head-on, then flitters around him and takes off. MetalSeadramon gives chase while Zudomon ferries the children away.

It doesn't take him long to realize the ruse, however. MetalSeadramon abandons Lilimon when he notices Zudomon escaping.

MetalSeadramon: You're all idiots! You think you can escape from me BY SEA!?!?

MetalSeadramon pursues Zudomon, quickly closing distance.

Tentomon: WAUGH!!! METALSEADRAMON IS GAINING ON US!!! Taichi: Faster! Get us out of here, Zudomon! MetalSeadramon: NO CHANCE!!!

Lilimon follows behind MetalSeadramon. In one last desperate bid to pull his attention, she fires off her Flower Cannon. MetalSeadramon's Chrome Digizoid neck plating deflects her shot harmlessly.

MetalSeadramon turns, offering Lilimon only one more moment of his time. Lifting his tail out of the water behind her, he swats her out of the air for an instant KO.

Mimi: LILIMON!!!

Lilimon powers down into Palmon as she falls, tumbling into Mimi's arms.

Mimi: (catch) Palmon!

In the dub, Tentomon doesn't see anything; He reacts to Tai wanting to find the thing they're missing.

Tentomon: Yeah, so the sooner, the better! (MetalSeadramon emerges from the waves) Tai: It's MetalSeadramon again!

The dub puts a commercial break here. Good place for it. Solid cliffhanger. Then they add some extra dialogue to the chase sequence.

Lillymon: Alright, I'll draw him off! Zudomon, you get the others out of here. (Lillymon flies out to confront MetalSeadramon) Lillymon: Yoo-hoo, you big ugly--WHOA! (Lillymon swerves and changes course) Lillymon: Just my luck! He's fast too! (Zudomon tries to escape) Joe: Come on, Zudomon! Move it! Move it! (MetalSeadramon chases Lillymon, but then stops and notices Zudomon escaping) Mimi: Has he seen us? Tai: I don't know, and I don't want to find out! MetalSeadramon: Pathetic little fools! You think you can escape me BY SEA!?!? Tai: I think it's safe to say he's seen us! Tentomon: WAUGH!!! FASTER, ZUDOMON!!! WE NEED SPEED!!! Tai: Yeah, stop dog-paddling! MetalSeadramon: TONIGHT YOU SLEEP WITH THE FISHES!!!

Taichi's quip didn't land for me, but MetalSeadramon's did. Goddammit. XD

Glad they kept the "You think you can escape me by sea!?" bit.

Once Lilimon's out of the fight, MetalSeadramon turns his full attention to Zudomon. He sinks down beneath the waves, vanishing into the murky water.

The children are left in silent anticipation, watching the ocean waves to try and find where MetalSeadramon will emerge. Then, suddenly, his horn breaches the water.

Taichi: Here he comes! Jou: Zudomon!

MetalSeadramon charges at full speed, ramming Zudomon's side and sending the kids on his back tumbling into the ocean. While the kids flounder in the water, Zudomon turns and headbutts MetalSeadramon's serpentine body, knocking him back a bit.

MetalSeadramon follows up with Ultimate Stream, firing straight into the hard shell on Zudomon's back. Zudomon's shell offers no protection from MetalSeadramon's signature move. The shot obliterates what strength Zudomon had left, knocking him back and degenerating him into Gomamon.

Gomamon comically lands on Jou's face, pushing them both underwater.

Jou: AUGH GOMAMON Ablrblurbb.... MetalSeadramon: WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Even MetalSeadramon thought it was funny.

The dub, of course, gives the kids some dialogue while they wait for MetalSeadramon.

Tai: Uh-oh. Joe: Is he gone? Mimi: I don't think so! Sora: I can't stand this waiting! Matt: I bet he's right below us! Tai: Shh! Knock it off! (MetalSeadramon emerges on a collision course) Tai: WHOA!!! HE'S RAMMING US!!! Agumon: Hang on! (MetalSeadramon rams Zudomon. They fight; MetalSeadramon obliterates Zudomon.) MetalSeadramon: Never send a Rookie to do a Mega's work! Narrator: Stuck in the middle of the ocean, the DigiDestined are at MetalSeadramon's mercy. What will happen on the next Digimon: Digital Monsters?

Uh, you sent an Ultimate to do a Mega's work earlier, but I get the sentiment.

The dub ends the episode here, presumably to make up screentime they had to spend on the end of last episode. But there's one more scene to go. A great shadow passes beneath the Chosen Children.

MetalSeadramon: Huh? Taichi: WHAMON!!!

Whamon explodes from the water, throwing themself full-speed into MetalSeadramon and body slamming them into the ocean. Then, before MetalSeadramon, Whamon scoops the children up in their mouth.

Taichi: WE'RE SAVED!!! WHAMON WILL PROTECT US WITH HIS BODY!!!

MetalSeadramon recovers in time to catch Whamon's departure. Whamon swims deep into the ocean, escaping from the Dark Master.

MetalSeadramon: Chosen Children and your Digimon.... YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE!!!

The Japanese version leaves off there, on a promise of pursuit by a furious and relentless sea dragon.

Assessment: MetalSeadramon is my favorite of the Dark Masters. There's something about a sinister sea dragon that's so unlike everything else they've fought before. The same can be said of Mugendramon and Pinochimon too, but MetalSeadramon also has that unique aquatic aesthetic going for him.

This episode serves as our proper introduction for the kind of villain MetalSeadramon is: A relentless pursuer hammering the children with an unyielding onslaught of attacks. He's basically doing what Etemon was trying to do, and it's working. He's had them on the backfoot for the entire episode, despite some setbacks.

When he screams "You won't escape" at them at the end, I believe it.

The dub made some questionable choices at the start of this one. Cohesive storytelling is, as usual, their weak point. But their quipping game was superb. Once the action started, the dub was nailing zingers left and right

And since a large chunk of this episode was action, the dub came home with a lot more W's than L's this time around despite its bizarre narrative choices.

[8one6]

Ever since I was in high school (in the before times, in the long, long ago) I had dreamed of taking road trip. Just me, my car (in high school it was a Cadillac Hearse that got absolutely awful gas mileage and high school me used to bitch about gas when it went over a $1 a gallon), and the open road, but I never managed to do it. Sometimes it was money, sometimes it was lack of opportunity, sometimes it was just the fear of doing something new.

In my mid-30s I finally did it and let me tell you it was one of the best experiences of my life.

A few years ago (2022 to be exact) my boss made me take a vacation in the spring (mostly because I had two years of pto from not using it during the lockdown years, but also because he was legitimately concerned with my stress levels, but anyway) and that year I decided to take two weeks to see all three Meow Wolf locations in one big trip. (Convergence Station is the coolest one btw, with Omega-Mart a close second.)

I70 through Kansas is a zen experience if you make the drive at night. Endless fields of stars and farmland, accompanied by whatever podcast you queued up for the drive.

Visited family in Denver, spent a day at Convergence Station, and the drive to Santa Fe was like driving through a postcard!

The House of Eternal Return was neat (IMO it relies a little too much on backstory you can only really get from sitting down and reading a lot of the SCP-style documents lying around the house, but unless you rented the entire place for the day you're competing with dozens of other people who are also trying to read the same thing.), I stayed at this cool, fully restored Route 66 vintage motel called the El Rey Court (A++, would stay again), and then I was off to Las Vegas.

There's a trick i40 plays on you. You'll be driving through some incredibly beautiful but still harsh desert wasteland (I passed more than one husk of an abandoned building on that stretch of highway) and then all of a sudden you're in a lush green forest. It was seriously as close to passing from one Minecraft biome to another as you can get in real life. (I also stopped at Meteor Crater National Landmark. It was cool.)

Just outside of Vegas I got two incredibly singular experiences. The first was seeing a tumbleweed in real life for the first time. I swear, I was alone in my car and I said out loud "Holy shit they're real!!!" The second was driving through an actual sand storm. In hindsight I should have pulled over and let it pass, but no one else on the road was doing it, so I just crawled through it at 30mph.

I spent a few nights in Las Vegas. Visited Omega-Mart (super cool, I recommend it), watched Blue Man Group (also very cool, also highly recommend), got to see a Penn & Teller show live (a fucking dream of mine since I was a little kid!!!), and had the best meal of my life.

Honestly, before that trip if you told me there was a difference between a $20 steak from Longhorn and a $100 steak from an actual steak restaurant I'd have called bullshit. I was in Las Vegas, I figured "This is likely the last time I'll take a trip like this, fuck it, why not splurge."

Oh my sweet raptor christ! The $100 steak was worth every cent!

What followed was a day of driving through beautiful parts of Nevada, Utah, and Colorado, including the most nerve-wracking stretch of highway through the mountains (literally through them in one spot. The Eisenhower tunnel is a little more than a mile and a half of tunnel bored straight through the spine of the Americas). A brief stop to sleep, and then 14 hours straight on home.

It was a fantastic trip. Two weeks away from home, from work, from any responsibility, the first time off since 2019. Two weeks of moving to my own schedule and crossing things off of the bucket list.

[erstwhilesparrow]

i've been thinking about maps and how they're inherently tricky little liars. you know that story about the emperor who wanted a 1:1 scale map of his entire kingdom, but creating that map required them to perfectly replicate the entire kingdom, at the exact same size as the kingdom? you see how that's kind of useless and how maps kind of have to leave things out for us to get any of the usual navigational help out of them? someone has to make decisions about what gets left out. what's important enough to be included. how things and places get represented. modern day maps loooove to promise objectivity and accuracy, but maps have stories and beliefs and historical contexts embedded in them no matter how hard you try to get away from those things. but this also means you can use them to tell interesting stories! how a thing is depicted on a map tells you things about the person / people responsible for its production!

due to being who i am, i think about this a lot in relation to empires smp. the kinds of maps that could be produced as the landscape of the world changes. the way that the in-game maps allow for a kind of instantaneous transfer of information over literally any distance via map copies. the extremely fixed and limited point of view provided by the in-game maps. the biases and interests of the cartographers of any given empire.

some (many) scattered thoughts in list format under the cut:

the particular idea that spurred this post: topographical maps of the regions surrounding the cod empire and mythland -- the way intensity of colour / shading and the choice of scale could be used to emphasize or gloss over the ravine separating them -- the ravine like a scar on the page, deep and dark, or the ravine like a neat line bracketed by the two other neat lines of the empires' respective walls. there are easy enough to guess reasons for who would want to create each type of map and why; tells you something about how each empire responded to the separation and war.

maps of pixandria from above -- i think a lot about how fwhip took copies of maps that the other empires had on display and put them up in his base so he would be able to see immediately if any of them start building something new. i think a lot about how when i was looking at minecraft maps of pixandria, big chunks of it just blended into the desert sand because pix was building with sandstone and i wasn't at all used to seeing pixandria from anything but ground-level. i think a lot about how this could add an extra element to how pixandria is supposed to have a bustling city under the anthill, and how fwhip's secret base is also underground, and how yeah, that's just A Cool Thing People Do Sometimes, but if it's so dangerously simple to get information about the surface of the world... how might people respond to that? consider spycraft in the empires. consider clever tricks and countermeasures. (consider s2, katherine's kingdom is falling apart, and her response, among other things, is to collect maps of her neighbours' territories. what's she worried about?)

itinerary maps -- maps have not always been bird's-eye view and carefully made to scale! itinerary maps were designed for travellers, and interested in accurately displaying the relative length of one's journey from one place to another, as well as the landmarks that one might see along the way (take a look at the Tabula Peutingeriana -- are you aware it's showing you italy?) -- in the context of empires, what types of journeys are so common that there might be demand for itinerary maps? who makes them, who uses them, what's considered a major landmark in this area and also does every mapmaker in this region consider that thing to be a major landmark? can you make something a major landmark by representing it on a map? (consider the turn of phrase about putting oneself on the map. who might want this, or not want this? the conspicuous absences in a map can also be telling. huh. i wonder how often that raid farm impulse built shows up on an empire's map in season 2.)

the usefulness of a given perspective -- kind of related to itinerary maps, i wonder how much more use you can get out of an in-game map when you have elytra? the emperors pretty much all have elytra, and the emperors often keep in-game maps of their empires. is there something there? what might it suggest about the expected use of those in-game maps?

self-aggrandizement -- another anecdote i think about all the time (and this one might be anecdotal sorry take it with a grain of salt) is the one where jesuit missionaries went to china and managed to convince some chinese nobles to trust them more after showing them a world map in the ortelian style, because chinese maps at that point mostly showed china as disproportionately large and at the center of the map, with europe (and the threat of barbarian invasion) dangerously close, and this map... didn't do that! consider how maps can create a nation or empire's sense of itself. the cod empire and mythland, always so fucking careful about the clarity of their borders. mezalea that looks massive on one map and is shoved off to the side in another. pixandrian maps that are cross-sections and not views from above. maps from the crystal cliffs that emphasize the mountain ranges like a jagged warning.

shape of the map -- hey did you know medieval european maps were often circular, with jerusalem in the center and the rest of the world split into asia, africa, and europe? you know maps can be different shapes, and this can tell you about what the creator thought was important (i don't remember exactly how circles are important to christianity but it was something about the perfection of god, maybe?) and how they understood the world? you think it could tell you something about where the map was meant to be used (a big circular map was probably meant to go on display!) and who was meant to see it? (ha, if you live in minecraft, what shape do you think the world is?)

questions and answers -- stuff like "who made this? to what end? under what influences?" are questions i have been specifically taught to ask about maps that i am presented with. in the context of empires worldbuilding, there's a really fun inversion where you do not have to work from the map to the context, but from the context to the map that might result from it. you can do cool things with this!! i am sure of it!!

[mothfishing]

and the truth is..............

[drum roll]

the right answer was desert ants will build tall structures along foraging paths to use as landmarks! to my knowledge, ants do not do this. i said "desert ants" which is very vague - there's lots of deserts out there with lots of ants! - but i wanted to narrow the even wider domain of "all ants" even if only a little bit, just in case i'm missing some tropical or temperate or etc ant that DOES do this

in particular i was thinking of cataglyphis ants of north africa and south europe, which use quite a number of navigational tricks to find their way home. they're a type of ant most active at midday, highly unusual for a desert dwelling species - a nickname for them in greek is "englishmen" as a joke about who would be out and about at that time lol

being out at midday means they can prey on heat-stressed insects, as well as avoid most predators. a pitfall of this is, 1) they need to be extremely good at tolerating heat, since the temperature on the ground can get up to 60C (hence the silvery appearance many of them have - it's to reflect heat back off them), 2) they need to be able to find their way home FAST, so they can cool off before they die from the heat

thus navigation being so important for them. they're also the subject of the polarized light option, which is true! and other navigational tricks they use involve counting their steps, plus using landmarks if any are present. if landmarks are in limited supply - perhaps they made their home in a salt flat - they will instead build their nests very tall to use as landmarks

notice how "building landmarks along foraging trails" isn't among these! it is, to my knowledge, not the case for any other desert species either, but the wide variety of cataglyphis navigational tricks made me think it would be fun to slip a false one in there

source 1 - source 2 - source 3

[photo credit: ayaayad on inaturalist]

now for the rest of the options...

here i was thinking of conomyrma bicolor, which is a type of ant that competes with a species of honeypot ant for food. since they both go after the same resources, and because honeypot ants make it difficult for them to feed from the same food resource if they get there first, c. bicolor responds by, well, making sure the honeypot ants are out of the picture...it's actually theorized that this is one evolutionary pressure that lead honeypot ants to evolve their characteristic honeypots! [source]

this is an option i regret phrasing the way i did - for one, it describes an ant behavior observed experimentally, and thus uses non-natural objects like sponges (which the researchers gave the ants), as well as gives ants access to honey that they don't normally have. this confused a lot of people, hence why it won the poll! and for another, on reflection i'm not sure if "assembly line" is the best way to phrase "there are ants sitting around the sponges and leaves tearing them into small pieces, which are then passed to ants who go soak them in honey to take back to the nest". anyway, this is about aphaenogaster subterranea, an ant species which doesn't have the same capacity to store food in a social stomach that most other ants have. thus, while most ants can just eat a lot and then regurgitate the food to feed their colonymates (particularly colonymates that don't leave the nest, like the queen and larvae/pupae), this ant species engages in tool use and tool manufacture (much rarer!) to help them get food home [source]

ding ding ding! this one's wrong! see above. this one got a decent number of votes, but it seems most were from people who thought ants couldn't use sight to navigate at all - that isn't true, their vision is poor but sight is still a significant sense for them! you can contrast that to termites, whose workers spend their whole lives underground and don't have eyes at all.

this one is true as well! tandem running is a behavior in ants where a more experienced one will show a less experienced ant the way between the nest and a food source. the inexperienced ant will thus learn how to get to that food source on its own. now, i said "show around the nest" - this was in reference to a study where researchers destroyed an ant nest and the ants scrambled to protect the queen & eggs and then build a new one. in this study, they observed this same teaching behavior with the ants teaching other ants about where to find the nest and how to navigate its tunnels. sadly i can't find the study i read this in =( so here's a link to a different paper more generally discussing tandem running: [source]

this behavior was probably the most shocking one for me to learn about - this is about ocymyrmex barbiger, a species of ant from southern africa. they have ergatoid queens (ergatoid literally meaning "worker-like"), which means their princesses (unmated queens) don't have wings. this isn't particularly unusual, a lot of ant species are like this, but what makes ocymyrmex unique is princesses will actually participate in work before they leave to start colonies. between 4 and 20% of a colony's working ants can be princesses, some of which never leave at all! as for the source - i read about this in "Desert Navigator: The Journey of an Ant" by rüdiger wehner, and sadly i couldn't find an easy link to an article discussing the same thing. interesting fact as well - like cataglyphis ants, ocymyrmex ants have a similar extreme heat tolerance and midday foraging behavior!

this is another one where i was struggling really badly with the character limit - basically there's a type of caterpillar which tricks myrmica schencki ants into treating it as one of their ant larvae, after which it proceeds to start eating real ant larvae. it's also protected from predators because it's safe and guarded in the ant hive. that's where the parasitoid wasp comes in. it can ONLY lay its eggs inside this one butterfly species, so what it does is it releases pheromones that causes myrmica schencki ants to start attacking each other, so it can find those caterpillars and lay their eggs in em! [source] [source 2]

this one's true too, and it's so cool. essentially, certain arboreal ants will make little galleries and place a "mat" over them with ants inside. if, say, a wasp, or any other insect they can eat, lands on the mat, the hidden ants grab it and drag it down into the gallery, while releasing alert pheromones to tell their nestmates to come help them kill their prey! [source]

this one is so funny to me, but basically some researchers figured out how to keep some ant pupae alive without any workers, and the pupae started secreting so much liquid they were drowning in it. so the researchers then injected dye into the pupae and put them back with their colonies so they could see where the liquid was going, and it was being fed to workers, who then fed milk to the larvae! (they could tell bc an ant's gaster partially lets you see what they've eaten). [source]

yup, this one's true! already discussed it above when talking about cataglyphis navigation. i noticed a lot of people saying that ants don't see well enough to navigate by the stars, and while ants do have bad vision compared to humans, that doesn't mean they don't navigate by sight at all. there was an interesting study where researchers blinded some ants and tested their ability to get home, and they absolutely do use landmarks in tandem with other methods like step counting. also, polarized light isn't stars! it refers to essentially patterns of polarization in the sky that are invisible to humans, but which certain ant species (cataglyphis for sure, possibly others too) have receptors to detect. lots of birds use it for navigation too!

many people pointed out this one's actually a tree behavior - you're right, i regret phrasing it like this. in my head i was thinking about various symbiotic relationships between ants and trees, the most well-known being acacia ants and acacia trees, with azteca ants and cecropia trees being another example. here's a very cute ant picture so you will forgive me:

[photo credit: emmabittacus on inaturalist]

[denimbex1986]

'Christopher Nolan is no stranger to blowing things up. From Inception’s snowy alpine fortress to Tenet’s airport collision, he’s always been one to create as many thrilling moments as possible through in-camera effects. But no one explosion could ever be as crucial to a Nolan film as Oppenheimer’s landmark Trinity Test - a faithful recreation of the world’s first-ever successful atomic bomb detonation.

But, for a director with a long-held passion for practical effects, it was actually one of the rare occasions from his previous films where he embraced CGI methods that made it clear to him that Oppenheimer’s cinematic centrepiece would have to be created without the use of computer graphics.

“At the end of Dark Knight Rises, there's a nuclear explosion, the point of which is very, very different from the explosion we knew we had to portray in the real-life Trinity test”, says Nolan. “So we used computer graphics to do the explosion in Dark Knight Rises. But, strange to say, in that sequence, it was the release of tension. It was actually put further away and made to feel safe.”

“But when I came to Oppenheimer and I thought, okay, how do we portray the Trinity test? That first atomic device being detonated. That's not going to work because computer graphics, they're extremely versatile, and the detail that can be achieved and the variety of imagery that can be achieved is obviously unparalleled. But the results tend to feel a little anodyne, a little safe. It's very difficult to have computer graphics convey threat, which is why they have to be used very carefully in horror movies, for example. It's difficult to make CG threatening.”

“So I first showed the script to Andrew Jackson, my visual effects supervisor, and said, I don't think that tool's going to work for us. So let's see if we can produce all of these effects using analog methods, from the very first imaginings that Oppenheimer has of the quantum world, of atoms, and how they would be interacting with strong force between them. Waves, particles, the duality of that.”

It's difficult to make CG threatening. “ The scene set prior to the detonation in the vast New Mexico desert is one filled with tension. Each member of the cast is on top of their game displaying a range of excitement, fear, and dread. It’s a breadth of emotion that needed to be carefully balanced by Nolan and reflected in the blast itself. So many of his previous stunts and set pieces were designed in order to thrill and entertain the audience, turning their world upside down like a semi-truck flipping over in downtown Gotham.

Oppenheimer called for a different type of effect. One more akin to a moment of tragedy from something like There Will Be Blood than the heroic action of Top Gun: Maverick. It’s meant to be a horrifying moment that leaves theatres solemnly quiet as opposed to whooping with glee.

“Well, it's useful that you use the word horrific in the same breath as entertainment, which seems contradictory”, Nolan explains. “And of course, it's a little uncomfortable talking about the word entertainment in regard to something so serious. But horror is a valid genre in cinema, the same way as drama, romance, comedy, or anything else. Movies can be anything. And when we speak of entertainment in movies, we're not necessarily talking about fun, laughter, and happy things. We're talking about engagement. We're talking about being riveted by a very tense and dramatic story. And possibly appalled, possibly horrified.”

“That's engagement and that is the stuff of entertainment”, states Nolan. “And so for me, everything about Oppenheimer's story was about engagement. Everything is about being in his head and using the IMAX format, which we've used for action in the past, we knew it would give us the vast desert, the weather coming in, the storms, the Trinity test itself, with its beauty and horror in equal measure. That contradictory impulse. And it's there in the story structure as well, the build and the Trinity test, and then what comes after. This is a film about consequences. And we want it to be unsettling.”

The Manhattan Project was one of great secrecy at the height of World War Two. It’s surprising, then, that so much archival footage of the events exists. This was a luxury that Nolan happily took advantage of, pouring over the available films to grasp an accurate sense of what Los Alamos looked like at its bustling peak.

Being true to life is one thing, however, and something Nolan values highly, but that also needs to be balanced with making sure it's still a cinematic spectacle to behold."

"It was incumbent on us to be guided by, and not contradict, the documented reality, but to be expressive of it in our own way. “ “It's a tricky balance with something as well documented as the Trinity test”, says Nolan. “It's very inside baseball as they say, but for filmmakers to look at the cameras they developed, the way they shot those tests. It's really remarkable, brilliant stuff. Shooting at frame rates far beyond what we can do now. All kinds of incredible technology, but archival footage is inherently distancing. We needed to be in the texture of the film with all of the imagery we created. So it was incumbent on us to be guided by, and not contradict, the documented reality, but to be expressive of it in our own way.”

"I think it was fortunate for us that the bulk of the documentation of the Trinity Test is in black and white. So at the very least, by bringing color to it, we're being forced to make it our own. And a lot of what we did, in both the shooting, and then, in particular, in the editing of the sequence is really based on firsthand accounts. It's more about what people said about it than what the photographs or the film of it said.”

One thing that couldn’t be legitimately reproduced was, obviously, the atomic blast itself. Multiple techniques were experimented with by Nolan’s special effects team led by Scott Fisher and Andrew Jackson to recreate the sparking flashes and fiery flurries of the explosion. Ping-pong balls were smashed together, paint was hurled across walls, and luminous magnesium solutions were developed.

By filming these events super-close up at variable frame rates they combined with Director of Photography Hoyte Van Hoytema’s sweeping IMAX cinematography to create in-camera effects that fill the screen with a power that such a monumental event demands.

“Some of what we were shooting was main unit. Some of it was being shot with Andrew Jackson, our visual effects unit”, explains Nolan. “And so we were seeing it in pieces. And I do remember one particular set of dailies that we watched that these guys had shot, that really captured a feeling of immensity.”

"We try and grow that thread to its ultimate release, this kind of vibrating energy that follows through the whole film. “ “Scott Fisher's work on the special effects, combining magnesium flares with gasoline, and black powder explosions, and things. There were some extraordinary things to look at just to eye. But watching the dailies, you were seeing it develop with my editing brain on, and then with Jen Lame, the editor in the edit suite, you just start visualizing combinations, and experimenting with combinations of imagery to give the feeling of what this must have felt like to watch this. And what that gave me in the edit suite was this thread, this connecting set of analog techniques that confuse scale, from the particle world of quantum mechanics, to the vast universe, astrophysics, et cetera, and all the points in between.”

“We try and grow that thread to its ultimate release, this kind of vibrating energy that follows through the whole film, to its ultimate release in this incredibly destructive event”, Nolan continues. “And so some of what they did was absolutely tiny and magnified, sort of miniature, as it were, or even beyond that really, microscopic. And some of it was absolutely vast and required intense concentration on set.”

“We were out there in the desert of New Mexico, just like the scientists of the Manhattan Project. We built the bunkers, we built the tower. We're out there at night preparing for these very large-scale explosive events that have to be conducted safely and with great care. So there's a tension, there's an anticipation in what we are doing as filmmakers that I think helps the actors, helps everybody understand, gain some small understanding of what must it have been like to be there that night, that early morning at the Trinity test.”

The end results are there for all to see. The moment the Trinity Test explosion lights up the screen is a stunning example of practical effects work. A worthy rendering of one of history’s most pivotal events, the scene never once forgets to take its eyes off of the people responsible for it - with Cillian Murphy’s face one that mirrors most who’ll watch it, one of awe, in the very literal definition of the word.

“There was a definite feeling of what we are seeing is both beautiful and dangerous, in equal measure”, states Nolan. “And that's what we had asked for. So we always knew that the sequence would be a collage rather than one iconic shot. If there is an iconic shot, I think it's the profile of Oppenheimer seeing it.”

“And I think part of the unsettling quality of the film is due to, you do feel engaged, you do feel you understand Oppenheimer, you're on that journey with him. You're not judging him. And so when you're then made to feel differently about things or question things you've already seen, it is a little uncomfortable. It's a little unsettling. And I'm hoping that the film leaves people with sort of an uneasy feeling.”

Oppenheimer will be released in cinemas from July 21st.'

[theelrics]

Perhaps we could simply…. Make our own lore….

Power to the people or something idk ill go first: I like to think there was a legend not totally unlike Icarus (you KNOW we love that binch), but instead of it being framed as the consequences of hubris, it is a legend of a boy using his few resources to pull himself from the earth and, for a few precious moments, seeing what lies beyond the sky. When he fell to the ground he spread the word of his adventure, and so children of Xerxes are raised with stories of hope: if they use what little they might have, they can fly among the stars regardless of the echelon they were born into (thinking about how slaves can become scholars, so social mobility was achievable).

I know there are plenty of amazing fanworks that explore Xerxes lore and they all make me go absolutely feral but I am having Thoughts on this Tuesday and I wanted to share them with you please forgive me <3

(Also what if they also had the ‘wow cats are great’ thing that the ancient Egyptians had?)

Oh my gosh YES I love that!!! Icarus, my projectable beloved.....

ok what really gets me about the Xerxians is that, not only do we get little to no information about them, but neither do Ed and Al! I would love for them to learn about the lost traditions and culture Xerxes held: what dishes were made, what holidays celebrated, what gods worshipped (even if they probably wouldn't believe in them lol). What remnants of Xerxian culture are still around, influencing Amestris today?

Maybe this is why I also adore the Ishvalan Ed and Al AUs! The idea of them reconnecting with something that is irrevocably a part of them really just picks at my brain.

Another thing I think about is, while Xerxes is extinct, surely not all Xerxians were in Xerxes when the circle was activated?? Do you think that Ed or Al have ever locked eyes with someone on the street and been shocked to see their same golden color staring back at them?

And what about the language? One of my favorite headcanons is that Ed and Al learned how to read Xerxian when they were young because their main source of reading material was from Hoho's library— and how were they supposed to know that wasn't Amestrian??? Self-conscious explores this concept in really fun way!

while I'm reccing fics lmao I've also been meaning to read My Master Ed which I think Rain suggested a little bit ago. The fic i untie my hair (it unleashes the day) is also a really cute one-shot of Hohenheim teaching Ed how to take care of his hair!

also the xerxians totally loved cats and you can't convince me otherwise

[jpriest85-blog]

Still obsessing over @foxofsunholt so I came up with a family tree for my Fey-fox Zahia and concept portraits of her family, including a younger version of Uncle Yalik.

I tried to give Zahia and her older sister, Nora, a mix of their families features. While they both got the redhead genes, Zahia's hair is a darker shade of red like her Uncle Yalik when he was younger, and while she shares most of her mothers features, she inherited her father's hazel green eyes and taller stature like both her dad and uncle. Meanwhile Nora's hair is a lighter ginger shade like their dad and she inherented his freckles as well, but she's got her mother's golden eyes and more petite build, and a cleftchin like their uncle's.

I've come up with additional headcanons for Zahia and her family, though some of them might change once the full game is released:

The family is a mix of Fey-fox species Zahia and her mother, Imani, both appear as Fennec foxes, while the rest of the family look like  Red foxes.

Feliks often painted portraits of his family even if he was commissioned to do other types of work. Someone commissions him to do a landscape painting, oh look a little family of foxes are frolicking in the trees. Why are there a couple of small desert foxes when they're not native to this setting? It's called artistic whimsy! You want accuracy commision a cartographer!

Imani was originally from a desert country, she had a love of music and eventually joined a traveling performers group where she played the Oud, sang, and danced. 

Feliks first met Imani when the tavern that hired Imani's music troupe to perform refused to rent rooms for the Fey entainers to stay. Wanting to de-escalate the situation Feliks invited the Fey troupe to join him and his brother at an inn that's more welcoming and safe for Fey-folk. In thanks for his help and hospitality the musicians offered free admissions for Feliks and Yalik to watch their performance later. 

Feliks was instantly captivated by Imani when he first saw her perform. After the show when the head of the performance troupe was introducing Feliks and Yalik to the musicians, poor Feliks was so flustered and love struck when meeting Imani instead of just greeting her like a normal person, he asked her to marry him.

Thankfully Yalik made up the excuse that Feliks often "jokingly" proposes marriage whenever he meets a beautiful woman (he doesn't but Yalik loves his brother enough to want to protect him from embarrassing himself). Imani laughed it off assuming it's just some funny cultural misunderstanding. 

After performing and getting to know Feliks and his brother for several weeks Imani's Oud gets broken after a drunken jerk tries to pick a fight with her music troupe. Since it's an unfamiliar instrument for the local crafts guild the repairs for her Oud is more expensive than anything Imani can afford. Feliks calls in some favors with other Fey artisans he knows to help him craft a new Oud for her. He even decorates the instrument by hand painting little foxes dancing along the neck, and an elaborate landscape on the back of the Oud depicting landmarks she misses from her home country. When he gives the new instrument to her, Imani proposes to Feliks this time, by asking him and Yalik to join her Troupe as her husband and new brother.  

Yalik initially refused traveling with Feliks and Imani, claiming he didn't want to intrude on their life as newlyweds. In reality he had also fallen in love with Imani but never acted on his feelings because he didn't want to hurt his brother, and it would be harder for him to keep his one sided love to himself if they traveled together. So he kept his distance from his brother, outside of the occasional visit, until the birth of his nieces. Yalik never spoke about his feelings for Imani, even years after her death. Although Yoon figured it out shortly after Zahia started working with them. Yalik forces Yoon to keep what he learned to himself, 4-tails or not Yalik refuses to hurt his family because of his shameful feelings, so they're both taking that secret to their graves. 

Like most siblings there was some jealousy between Nora and Zahia growing up. Usually typical childhood bickering over toys, or their parents' attention. Nora claims she's gotten over them as an adult, but it's still a sore spot that her "little sister" Zahia grew up to be 6ft. (182.88cms) while she's stuck being 5ft3in. (160.02cms.). At least Nora is still bigger than Zahia in their Fey-fox forms.

The first time Zahia turned into her Fey-fox form as a toddler, Nora mistakenly thought her baby sister was replaced by a rabbit because Fennec cubs have such large ears. When Nora asked her parents if she could keep the new rabbit as a pet, they were so confused until they saw what happened and explained to their eldest daughter that the "rabbit" is still her little sister, Zahia just has a Fennec Fox form like mommy. Little Nora was very disappointed. Like most 5 year old children she'd rather have a pet bunny than a stinky baby sister that cries all night and takes up most of mom's time and attention. 

Imani shared her love of music with her daughters when they were both little and even taught them different types of music and dances from the various places she visited and performed over the years. While both girls inherit their mother's captivating singing, Nora tended to be the more graceful dancer, and Zahia was better at improvising music when playing a lute or Oud. They even had a childhood dream of being a sister act duo! Until their mother was killed, and they were separated from their father and uncle. 

Since Nora had to take the role of caretaker very young, the stress of trying to support, protect and raise Zahia while  Nora was still a kid herself made things difficult for both of them. Nora would often snap at Zahia (both figuratively and literally if she lost her temper in her Fey-fox form), and could be overly critical and strict. Likewise Zahia would often act out when she felt Nora was being too controlling. Things got even more strained between them when Zahia got older and started going through her rebellious teen phase. 

Sadly when Uncle Yalik tried to reconnect with his surviving family after finding his nieces again he unintentionally wound up driving a bigger wedge between them. While Nora was relieved he's still alive, she was very suspicious of Yalik being so vague about how managed to survive so far, and mistrustful of some of the shady people she noticed him talking to. Which is why when Nora tried to warn Zahia about never spending time with Uncle Yalik without her, or to not accept gifts or money from him, it escalated into another fight. Uncle Yalik's the only other family they have left, why can't they accept his help or even talk to him in private?! Especially when Nora refuses to give Zahia a clear reason, because how can she tell her sister that their only remaining family is probably involved in something dangerous that could get them all killed even just by association? Even if Yalik has the best of intentions, Nora's the eldest sister, it’s her job to keep Zahia safe!

Unfortunately since Nora won't give her any clear answers, Zahia winds up sneaking out to talk with Uncle Yalik. After a few private heart to heart talks Zahia winds up working for Yalik, she keeps it a secret from Nora claiming she's got a new job, which is true…she just never said whom she is working for. At first Nora is so proud of Zahia, finally taking some initiative, being all responsible and helping with the bills. At least until she learns Zahia was deceiving her because a lie by omission is still a lie.

[blazehedgehog]

So how do you feel about the Fortnite: Chapter 3 map so far?

It doesn't trigger immediate revulsion like Primal did, but I'm starting to lean on the side of not liking it.

Everything is too flat, and too spread out. A common abbreviation for Fortnite is a "POI", which stands for "Point of Interest." Generally, if it's named on the map, it's a POI. There are also many smaller POIs, and they have names too, but they don't show up until you approach them on foot (i.e. they aren't listed on the map).

Anyway, Chapter 2 had these really defined POIs. You had the Weeping Woods forest. You had Slurpy (Sludgy) Swamp. You had the beach and boardwalk of Sweaty Sands (Believer Beach). Locke's Lighthouse. The Farmer's Market. The Christmas tree farm. The power plant, Steamy Stacks. They were tightly packed and strongly themed. Retail Row is where all the shops were. Pleasant Park was almost entirely residential homes. Lazy Lake was... well, it was next to the biggest lake on the map, obviously, and was where the richer, bigger, more high-tech homes were. Misty Meadows was a quaint mountain village with a ski resort.

Chapter 3 feels like it has way, way fewer of those. There were 16 POIs in Chapter 2 and there's only 12 (about to be 13) in Chapter 3. And like, Chapter 2 had so many POIs that there were technically more than 16: Stealthy Stronghold, the walled-off jungle near the top of the C2 map, started as a named POI and stopped getting named in future updates. Risky Reels, the drive-in theater, also was a named POI for a time. That actually bumps things up to at least 18 for Chapter 2. I'm sure Camp Cod probably qualifies as big enough and detailed enough to be a named POI, too (19, then).

Whereas Chapter 3 has less POIs, that are smaller in size, and are more spread out. I just said that Risky Reels got demoted from being a named POI? Its Chapter 3 successor, Rocky Reels, gets a name on the map, which makes it feel a little like they're scraping for names.

It doesn't help that all the names are clustered to the right hand side of the map, and that almost a third of the entire map is taken up by The Seven's huge settlement. Sure, they have "Sanctuary" as the main base, but everything east of Coney Crossroads feels like one big conglomerate of The Jungle Where The Seven Live. And it's not just that, homogeneity is a real problem in the map right now. It's very hard to tell what region of the map you're in.

There's also less elevation changes. Chapter 2 had a lot of big hills and valleys, big landmarks, and even an entire mountain range to break up the horizon, whereas Chapter 3 is a lot more empty, open plains. When it does play with elevation, it's the plateaus in the desert, which aren't very satisfying either.

That's because this whole thing is "FORTNITE CHAPTER 3: FLIPPED," something people on the development team took literally. I've complained about Epic's love of shotguns and how OP the Pump Shotgun was, but part of the "FLIPPED" gimmick this season is the gun meta is backwards now. Shotguns have been nerfed in to oblivion -- the original Pump Shotgun did 170 damage? The new Pump does 110. There is also now nearly a whole, full second between racking the stock on the new Pump to take your next shot, which is a death sentence. Even more insane, it takes something like six entire seconds to reload the Automatic Shotgun from empty to full.

As somebody who hated the Pump Shotgun always and forever, on one level it's very gratifying! But it also means that the "FLIPPED" gimmick has juiced up all the new SMGs and rifles. A single, controlled burst from a Stinger SMG is pretty much all it takes to kill someone now. And the real star is the new MK-7 Assault Rifle, which actually puts you in to first-person view when you aim down sights. A basic, green, low-tier MK-7 assault rifle does the same amount of damage as the strongest gold high-tier SCAR Assault Rifle did in Chapter 2. It also has less bullet spread than pretty much any non-sniper rifle in the game, making it shockingly easy to laser people out of existence with it.

It makes me imagine that this is what Call of Duty must feel like, where you get peppered by a rifle from behind and you drop dead before you can turn to see who it was or how far away they even were.

Which is to say nothing of the actual sniper rifle in the game right now. The map being so flat and so empty really makes it feel like it was designed for a sniper rifle. Forget being peppered by a smaller gun, sometimes you get blown out because somebody 200 meters away spotted you through a scope. There's not a lot you can do to defend against that, because unless you're scoped back at them, you'll never see that they're there until after you've been popped, and by then it's too late.

For a Battle Royale where I can lose 12+ minutes to a single lucky snipe, and then have to stew for 20-40+ seconds while it loads me in to my next match, it's... more than a little mean, let's say. And with the map being way less interesting and more spread out, it's not as fun to explore on its own merits, either. There's nothing out there worth looking at.

I know things will change in the future, but this is kind of a bad first impression for a new chapter. It doesn't help that they launched this chapter with 75% of the map covered in snow for the winter event, either. And it doesn't even touch on how they nerfed EXP gains and spread all that out, either. It's all just so... thin, after what felt like a feast.

I'm growing more cold on it as the season progresses. And it's going to be a long season.

[cpaton-601-11]

First drafts, quantity over quality and image-making

10.05.22

This was one of the very first drafts created on a 30-minute time constraint in class. I quickly used images I found on the internet and played around with the title for some what of what I wanted to do.

This is not my final idea. Definitely not. My first ideas might've been a combining of desert and other deserty-landmarks like the pyramids, but my ideas have definitely come further and this is absolutely not the style I am going for.

I would really like to digitally draw the objects in particular that I want on the publication, like the pyramids and a shisha pipe that my mum mentioned. This means that I won't have to worry about copyright or trying to find the right angled image online, and that my drawings can all have the same style. This also means that I won't be able to use the multiply and photomontage layer effect like I did with the pyramids in the above draft.

Digitally-drawn image-making

Using ideas from the interview, I drew objects my interviewee mentioned a lot and objects that may have significance to the story told. She mentioned seeing lots of people smoking shisha pipes and riding camels. I also drew the pyramids and palm trees for atmosphere in the publication.

My original plans used the orange and blue as the colour scheme, but making the objects these colours and changing them up a little so they're more vibrant really helps to bring in the weirdness of the story being told visually. I really liked how these colours turned out.

[jdmainman123]

And once again the hills are too tall and I'm really impressed with you 3/4 you built every landmark site and all miniature stuff it shows how you guys quit and this site

I seen the Jacksonville Greyhound bus station I seen the AT&t building

MORE IMPORTANTLY FOR YOU TO BUILD BEACH AFTER BEACH is something you guys are going to have to deal with yourselves just because I'm here doesn't mean you can get on to my beach do you know my beach is like center stage front row seats

But more importantly what do I say to my brother I knew this was going to happen I know what the minute I saw it what do I say to my brother once again

And due to the streets being filled with n****** I think they're falling in love with me again AND WHY I'M HERE BECAUSE THE FIRST VICTIM WAS A WHITE HAIR WHITE SKIN BOY AND IT HAD THE ENTIRE CITY TURNED AGAINST HIM FOR THE WORD DAUGHTER

So your sites are your streets here are two common with other sunlight cities 3/4 and more important you're talking to me 24/7 as I'm walking so I won't remember my way around AND AND AGAIN THERE'S TOO MANY N****** HERE TO BE FOR ME TO BE INVOLVED WITH A LITTLE GIRL WHEN YOU GUYS JUST WANT TO SEE ME HURT

And this is what happened with your dead n***** daughter family they hated white hair white skin boys and this is the results of it

The problem is that the Alabama I see Tennessee I see sunlight City now it's not that hard for you guys to recreate all the beaches like the inner city THE PROBLEM IS YOU GUYS CONTINUE TO BRING UP I SWITCH SATELLITES I WAS NEVER ON A HOLE WITH WATER IN IT

And I think a little boy's life is worth more

And then a bunch of f****** rogue f****** black hair white sons from desert City Latin and family wanted to hurt only one white hair white skin boys and if fist fight face to face

You know for this inside wink AND WE'RE LOOKING AT WHITE SKIN BLACK HAIR AND AN ENTIRE ARMY FULL OF BLACK SKIN BOYS AND HOW THE WORLD MANAGED TO SEPARATE ITSELF FROM YOU GUYS WE SHOULD BE VERY THANKFUL MORE IMPORTANTLY MORE ANY ACT then just calling inside a baby killing Pacific you guys are still hooked on the satellite trick men are good

And again satellite make a roaches blog they're starting to go too far and use too many things like we all own a beach now yeah I get that but the problem is what do I say to my brother

These men are too gone that's what I'm trying to tell you these men have no Street sense and they have no repairing

And if you're good having n****** chase me all around the streets and I'm good with the results you guys are going to have to suffer one dead daughter because they ran away from you the other family and you continue to build 3/4 site after 3/4 site

And you keep grabbing my f****** eyes just to make sure I don't know where I'm at but it's very obvious we're in another small building City

And just for you not letting the kids grow up I think it's is torture enough

IN THE HILLS THE HILLS ARE VERY HIGH AND TOO MUCH FOR ME TO WALK I'M GOING TO HAVE TO SEARCH A LITTLE BIT AND FIND A GOOD PLACE TO HANG OUT IN FRONT OF A LIQUOR STORE

But to have me here with this playbook of me not allowed to run around the city and find a place this place what happens is Newark and LAX to 4th brought me to the opposite airport with blood and s*** everywhere the problem is with these this place

You guys may have cleaned up with the buildings are all abandoned and disgusting and gross

And once again there's nowhere to sit or f****** lay down

And then you got your dream black mass Justice and dead daughter is declared cuz you built the city with the sunlight and anybody who chooses to go outside will bleed AND YOU NEED A 16 AND 24 AND 36 BEDROOM HOUSES TO OBTAIN THIS POWER OF AUTHORITY AND DO THESE THINGS

Not just some failed f****** n***** looking for another loophole 24/7 you guys talk to me looking for another loophole AND AGAIN WE CAN'T HELP NOTICE THAT YOU GUYS HAVE MY PHONE AND MY TABLET AND YOU GUYS JUST WANT ME HERE TO REPEAT THIS STUPID F****** STATEMENT AND MIND YOU WHY 3/4 BLACK MATCH JUSTICE WAS CALLED BECAUSE OF THE GOOGLE VOICE LISTENERS THERE'S NOTHING MORE WE CAN UNDERSTAND THAN A F****** LOSE F****** CITY OF BOYS

That can't be satellite makers in a girls can't be satellite makers but listen to everything we say outside and to make it infinity and be forced around these cities to talk to your dead n***** daughter family without satellite I'm going to warn you what happened 5 years of seeing 500 million of your men after it's all said and done AND IT COME BACK TO THIS TINY BUILDING CITIES LISTEN I'M HAPPY YOU GUYS GOT YOUR FIRST TRADE RIDE TO RUSSIA GOT KICKED OUT OF THE BEACH WHEN I LEFT BUT THIS CITY IS A MIRROR AND A DEMONSTRATION IF THIS IS YOUR NUMBER ONE SITE THEN YOU DESERVE WHATEVER YOU WHATEVER CAME TO YOU

Architecture doesn't lie but you guys are continuing to talk like you have a big city a big downtown and you guys are ignoring all the facts just to push a lie on a satellite

I already told you your daughter is dead because your satellite program here has went completely boring and completely tired

It just feels like I'm a black skin man walking around the streets calling myself an accident at this point in time line and I want these girls eyes removed for this action cuz I know it's that dead n***** daughter watching me and me to force to go around and call everything an accident and feel bad for myself for me to look like I'm fearing once again first drop of blood for him to look like he's fearing

Then again I'm tired of dealing with your f****** suicide if I haven't noticed the 15 f****** years that n***** doesn't have a f****** daughter because he's too f****** stupid four f****** cities my major cities and your n****** can't learn one f****** command stay the f*** away from me

And for us to have acknowledged the genocide and it taking place all blackskin cities full of men to replace the white skin boy

Then I don't f****** know I already told you the world would have came to White hair white skin men and all black skin boys and white skinned girls

I just don't know why you're dead n***** daughter's family can't let the f****** truth go we reach the truth or we can all live with it but you're f****** dead n***** daughter family 3/4 wants to continue hearing me talk I threw it I threw it

And I can't stand you dumb f****** n****** you guys are just little kids at the end of the day I'm tired of talking to a satellite maker who depends on another family and does nothing but sit home and talks to little f****** kids

[habits-white-rabbit]

I posted 23,389 times in 2021

291 posts created (1%)

23098 posts reblogged (99%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 79.4 posts.

I added 7,308 tags in 2021

#hazy - 1669 posts

#oc and rp stuff - 1019 posts

#:o - 877 posts

#lol aesthetic - 800 posts

#for the nerd lmao - 585 posts

#fuck yeah mcr - 560 posts

#lol stim - 485 posts

#c l e a n - 440 posts

#reality breaks - 440 posts

#fma au - 433 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#this is how i felt when i found an old russell tringham rp twitter and tried to go to the formspring link out of curiosity only to find that

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Crazy Noisy Bizarre Town

There's a church on every street corner. We have to make up for all the sin in the 80s and 90s.

The only cemetery in town has no fence around it. Them on the inside can't get out and those on the outside aren't in any hurry to get in.

Crows. Crows. Crows everywhere. Black menaces getting into your trash and stealing your holiness with their Satanic gazes.

Steer clear of Sacred Heart. Their holy water was tainted by The Devil. The things wearing robes and rosaries aren't priests.

The Jesus statue has no hands. I wonder why.

Sometimes you hear a train coming through town. Rattling of the freight cars on trusses and blaring of the horn. The tracks were ripped up years ago.

The train stations around town have been abandoned for decades. They can't be demolished on account of being historical landmarks. So then why do you see faces in their broken windows on some days?

There's a girl in all black who wanders the town. Some days it's a little dress and stockings. Some days it's a peacoat and jeans. Some days it's a riding cloak and umbrella. She stops at the gas station every Saturday and purchases a can of peach tea. She never says anything to anyone and leaves. 

The hospital at night is ghostly. The empty parking lot and flickering streetlights don't help. Sometimes the shadows remain longer than they're supposed to.

There's a woman who drives a hearse. No one knows her name. She is feared and respected. God help you if you get on her bad side.

The corn knows what you've done. You can hear it whispering in the fall right before the harvest. If you attempt to apprehend it, it'll cut you.

There's an old Delaware Native man who sells dreamcatchers, palo santo, sage, and jewelry from a tent during fair week. No one knows his name or how old he is. He's never aged in all the time he's been there. If you ask him about the clay flutes on display, he'll charge you ten dollars with a smile and wink. You have no idea what you're bringing home, do you?

It's a religious experience to be amongst the rides and the lights and the noise from open to close. It's a feeling of fulfillment that sits in your soul long into the night after you've left. You can hardly remember it though. Only bits and pieces of blur and color come to you when you try to recall. Who was that girl with the spiked collar and clown paint? 

There's a rundown maintenance shed on the edge of a left-to-rot golf course. Graffiti on the walls welcome you to The Devil's Toy Box. They also proclaim the return of someone unknown with the date 5-25-18.

Your friend found a rabbit corpse on the train tracks. There was no sign of injury on it. It was gone within twenty minutes. Just vanished into thin air. The thing in the trees has been appeased.

The bluejays scream in the woods. They're nowhere to be heard in town but their feathers are found everywhere.

Deer.

The snow is almost suffocating in the winter. It brings an unsettling and hungry aura. Something ancient awakens in December and doesn't sleep again until March. 

In the summer, you can smell someone barbecuing. Wood smoke and Sweet Baby Ray's fill the air. You never know where it's coming from.

The bowling alley is always deserted. You and your friends are always the only ones in there.

Nuns aren't real, he said. You ain't see shit, he said. Then who was that woman at the bottom of the hill? 

There are elderly people you see once in passing and then never see again. You don't know if they're still alive or if they've been taken. Only the corn knows and it's certainly not telling its secrets.

Hotel California by The Eagles plays gently from down the street. You can't pinpoint which house it's coming from.

Why are you still here? You can leave any time you'd like. So then why have you stayed?

81 notes • Posted 2021-05-14 22:13:27 GMT

#4

So. Friend in Discord did this. Auh?

Credit to @skittelli, who photoshopped these.

(Reblog or fuck off, Meadow didn't spend two hours each photoshopping these to get a like and nothing else uwu)

84 notes • Posted 2021-02-08 03:51:23 GMT

#3

why are you unlovable? ( based on things my exes told me )

you're a ghost

you have fallen from everything you've loved, they still love you, but you are so unrecognizable these days they don't even know what to do. let the sun warm you again, it's not all bad.

107 notes • Posted 2021-02-24 02:40:11 GMT

#2

See the full post

139 notes • Posted 2021-03-30 02:33:18 GMT

#1

Behold, my religious trauma playlist

Crucified // Army of Lovers

Take Me to Church // Hozier

Saint Bernard // Lincoln

Arsonist's Lullabye // Hozier

Foreigner's God // Hozier

Our Lady of Sorrows // My Chemical Romance

House of Wolves // My Chemical Romance

Vampires Will Never Hurt You // My Chemical Romance

Call Me By Your Name // Lil Nas X

Saint Veronika // Billy Talent

Lent // Autoheart

The Cult of Dionysus // The Orion Experience

Church // Fall Out Boy

God Syndrome // Madame Macabre

Oh Ana // Mother Mother

Southern Gothic // Tyminski

Hellfire // Jonathan Young

Soldier, Poet, King // The Oh Hellos

Bedroom Hymns // Florence + The Machine

From Eden // Hozier

Traumacore Blogs Do Not Reblog

146 notes • Posted 2021-09-28 12:11:52 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[vvyrmwood]

aaaahh dlenejqvsvvocl I loove the world/s you created!! Can you tell me more about arc 1/the happenings in Ausdrear please :0 I love your stories, they're so strange and eerie and fascinating !!! qoq

Yes I would absolutely love to!!!!

Arc 1- And your Teeth; This arc of The Aberration Theatric includes 4 major stories (Pretty Rotting Proxy (aka Weird Things), the desert witch,the nowhere boy, and Drowning,1956) which all take place outside the city of Havnen, Maine, instead each story offers a different perspective of what lies in the walls of the City and provides rules and introductory elements that are to be carried into Arc 2-And your Eyes!

Arc 1 functions as that first part of a movie establishing rules and how to watch the rest of the movie, or in this case, how to read and absorb the story itself. Arc 1 is weird as hell, but it’s tame in comparison to the Arcs it’s preparing you for/that follow it.

Each story in Arc 1 has a tie back to Ausdrear, Maine, Havnen’s much smaller, very dead neighbour in New England.Every protagonist is a resident of Ausdrear, whether it be they were born there or come to live there. (Harper Floyd, Rasputin Cyne, Moira and Penn were all born in Ausdrear, Ripley Rouge is someone who comes to live there ect) Ausdrear is sort of that outsider looking directly into the walls of Havnen, and despite the numerous oddities apparent in Ausdrear... most of the residents fail to really see any of it strange in comparison to the monster that is Havnen. 

The little town shares a quiet a it of lore and ‘rules’ with the big city, some of that includes:

The Cutwitch Legend

Ausdrear’s rumored twin; Drowning, a little town lost somewhere deep in the woods and rumored to have it’s population wiped clean overnight (It probably doesn’t exist.)

Deep dread and superstition surrounding the 19th of October

Each town has a sort of wall around it, Havnen’s is much bigger, ever growing and very noticeable (Havnen’s wall is one of the identifying landmarks of the city!); but Ausdrear’s is little more then ruined remains of what looks to be a little brick fencing far out in the woods around the city. (Drowning is also rumoured to have a wall,)

[jdmainman123]

What was wrong with Minnesota I'm in I'm in Minnesota and I gave him the malls of America as a landmark site because we couldn't find any other building that looked like something

And it satellite makers on a train he unbuckles his pants and he said you'll never be sexy again

IS THAT ANOTHER TRAIN JOKE MY MONEY'S ON MINNESOTA'S TRAIN TO HAVE BEEN HIT THE HARDEST like they're trained may have been shorter and and that's where they showed me the holograms like you know how you meant to stand outside walks walking waiting for the train to pass to hold signs

HE SHOWED US THE HOLOGRAM SHOW WHERE THERE COULD BE PRETENDING PEOPLE ON THE TRAINS and and you people would think someone's looking out at the window at you outside on the side of the road

Train Jason doesn't exist listen you n****** are going to have to fight bus station City Jason's sunrises and let me tell you something about these ones here THE LAST TIME THEY GOT INTO A FIGHT WITH ANOTHER TRAIN CITY JASON THERE WAS NO SURVIVORS IN IN THE TRAIN CITY

Because LET'S JUST SAY THEY SAID EVERY EVERY TRAIN CITY AND AND FOR THIS TO HAVE COME TRUE FILLS UP A BLACK SKIN PEOPLE HANGING OUT ON TRAIN TRACKS WAITING FOR TRAINS TO PASS BY almost like made the car worth like $40,000 that you can get for $20,000

Right and it increase the value of a car significantly and remember I offered you guys an entire fleet of brand new Bentleys or brand new BMWs for that train here in Phoenix

It's worth more than the entire city I promise you

Before you guys to have him bring him here you have built all these 3/4 facilities with mine still at number one life after yachtfish STILL BEING ABOUT MY MY SUNRISE BEING THE GREATEST SUNRISE CONSECUTIVELY LIFE AFTER DEATH

Because we've been in the car fight and desert city for 20 years over a car which one gets a car mommy or daddy

BUT LISTEN IT TURNS OUT YOU GUYS OFFERING THE WHITE HAIR WHITE SKIN MAN IN SNOW A CHANCE TO TERMINATE ALL WHITE SKIN BOYS ONLY LASTED HERE WITH WITH MY BELIEF IS 3/4 MY BELIEVE WITHOUT 3/4 THERE WOULD BE NO TRAIN yeah so I would Bond the s*** out of them the news called me out CNN and MSNBC and LAX 34th I tricked a girl into marrying me because I said she said I was a hero for not wanting her to suffer anymore and I said as soon as I get elected I will bomb the s*** out of this place to make sure no other 2 foot 3 inch or 1 foot 4 in boys or girls are hurt innocently

So turns out so turns out you guys may be the only cities promote and killing white skin boys in the entire world and some people said you guys make them sick it was reported on CNN and MSNBC coronavirus was declared here by you guys Kamikaze and boys kicked out of their City at such an old age IT'S A LITTLE DEFINITION OF IF YOU SEND A PLANE FULL OF PEOPLE TO MY AIRPORT I WILL SIREN A WARPLANE AND BOMB YOUR CITY IN A WARNING no if if they both got war plans you're going to want to bomb first

It's what the Tupac song said bomb first NO I DIDN'T SAY ATTACK PEOPLE OUTSIDE FOR NO REASON

Can you imagine all those kids were caught saying exactly what I predicted they would be saying YOU DON'T DO THAT TO PEOPLE

[jdmainman123]

Most importantly? Call Boston and ask them was the data breach or their prank call to 911. Coronavirus.

Would be in the end and here we are again in another sunlight City and it's weird for me to have found where the black hair white skin girl I can almost identify the place where she's dead. It seems like California or on the beach.

Kind of f****** weird it's not that she's dead it's just I know the location of the little dead one

WAS THE DAY TO REACH CUZ HERE'S MY PROBLEM CNN AND MSNBC THE LITTLE BLACK BOY IN THE LITTLE WHITE SKIN BOY FOR SOME WEIRD F****** REASON HONESTLY BELIEVE I OWN EVERY GIRL IN THE WORLD and constantly have that jealous attitude that hater that snapback that smart ass remark. Trying to say I'm better than you or you don't own every McDonald's SOCIALISM YOU GUYS WERE BUILDING 3/4 FOR SOCIALISM AFTER SOCIALISM. AND WE CAN'T HELP IMAGINE THESE BOYS AND GOSSIP AND TRYING TO PRETEND THEY'RE ON THE NEWS ARGUING DEBATING

#Report to talk about houses

Here we go you guys said it was illegal I don't think it was illegal I think it's the right if you're on your way out your right set of mine when you step in to landmark sunlight City like I told you I found where the blacks black hair whites and girl would be pronounced dead in California and on the beach and and desert City Las Vegas NO I DIDN'T SAY SHE'S DEAD I SAID THIS ONE IS DEFINITELY DEAD I don't know they're all the same Phoenix and South Carolina and Tennessee it's all the same f****** 3/4 houses

BACK TO MY POINT SINCE THESE BOYS IN AND THE TWO-WAY INTEGRATION HAS ME DEALING WITH F****** BOYS AND THEY'RE INTEGRATE CHANGING THE ENTIRE QUESTION 24/7 would it be there their whole attack on me is talking about houses

And enter ammunition would be we're never going to be able to go to his beach. And then the black skin girl comes around the corner and throws the hardest punch and the hardest kick I've ever felt

SO WHAT IS BECAUSE I REMEMBER THE INCIDENT VERY WELL THEY SAID WE DO NOT LIKE HIM BECAUSE HE'S FROM THE HOUSES. AND THEN SOMEONE THREW A PAIR OF UNDERWEAR AT ME.

So would it be the aggression of these tours as of lately. I know for a fact you told them I own every house. And I didn't have the courage to say every white hair white skin girl in those 3/4 houses are murdered violently BUT I DID WRITE IT I SAID I NEED TO GET THIS OFF MY CHEST I NEED TO SCREAM IT IN THE AIR AND I NEED TO POST IT JUST IN CASE SOMEONE SAYS I'M NOT BEING HONEST

But we believe you're f****** failure here this tiny f****** this is the problem. It's a rip off it's a knockoff of Las Vegas it's a strip strip mall two sides of the road downtowns and there's no box there's no box of buildings at the end

And for you to take up aim in arms against me living in a house telling all these boys CNN and msnbc. How did you tell him I own every girl? Never mind.

What's the debate 24/7 and pretend they have a right cuz you guys don't have a right to talk to me. ABOUT HOUSES #HOUSES

Some downtowns is what we've noticed don't have the right to be born some downtowns do not have the right to claim power SO EITHER APPRECIATE IF YOU'RE FAILED MASK OVER MOUTH SMELLY SKIN CAN'T TALK FACE TO FACE. FAKE SOCIALISM. Would stop calling out a higher power than 14 buildings on the side of a road. With no real downtown insight. STOP LOOKING FOOLISH AND STOP MAKING US FEEL FOOLISH BY YOU CALLING OUT HOUSES OF AN OPEN WINDOW AND YOU'RE JEALOUSY BECAUSE 75% OF YOUR PEOPLE AND THOSE BUILDINGS WE KNOW WANT A HOUSE and then we called it a long time ago the house doesn't want an apartment. Sorry to tell you guys

[jdmainman123]

Fort Worth dear Fort Worth I thought I'd entered your airport last night. Heard the satellite take a picture after picture I thought I was the president in the middle of the White House and you know how they take pictures 24/7 every single face you made no that's not it

I'm going over Las Vegas and we don't need any of the other ones right not for Texas Dallas okay we'll give you desert city too.

Oh The landmark buildings oh we did a lot of Broward county now I don't have to say their name yeah I plantation West Palm Beach now I'm playing hard to get OH WHY YOU GUYS ARE TAKING PICTURES ISN'T THAT FOR OUR JOB BE ABLE TO TAKE PICTURES OF EVERYTHING SO WE KNOW HOW TO GET BACK TO THE HOTEL IF YOU GUYS ARE TRYING TO CHECK THEM IF I BRING ME SOME OTHER CITY AT WORK I BLACKED OUT IN DALLAS DIDN'T DIDN'T CARE KANSAS I BLACKED OUT ON THE BUS I FELL ASLEEP DIDN'T CARE THAT THEY TOOK ME TO ANOTHER CITY I SAID IT'S BETTER FOR ME NOT TO PROMOTE YOU GUYS HAVE TWO CITIES THEN REMEMBER IN LOS ANGELES I GAVE HIM FOUR DIFFERENT CITIES Las Vegas only one puto City

Colorado I think we gave him like five different cities

I get on the train I'd end up in a new city but here's the problem I liked it I mean the point

Are you guys are trying to bring back only to White hair girl's ass for sex outside one of them asked me my dick size. I told her 26 in and she says never mind I can't

Askseedent no you can't beat me with the ass because satellite maker asked me to suck his dick I followed him outside the train I took a rock and smashed his head in and I said I heard you and I saw you move your lips you went right up to me and said it

It's a technical violation how about we just say they're all transgender and you keep the black ones away from me YES IT IS BY LAW EVERY BLACK SKIN BOY OR GIRL OUTSIDE IS CALLED TRANSGENDER IT'S OUR NATIONAL SECURITY

Yeah we just took a left this train I'm going to love this tiny train for one reason all I need to remember is that one road in and I know where every store is

You know a lot of the cities Boston and Utah and New York and Los Angeles they were all Apple cities they were very easy almost what is a square or what is a grid with roads in the middle that intersect on the top and bottom they are very easy almost to be easy to remember

I WILL CALL YOU don't call me remember last time your sister showed up and she was murdered let me call you this time please don't call me let me call you this time I don't want anything to happen to any more of your girls. God forbid this guy's trying to break my heart he's really just making my dick hard

No you guys said I was getting off of them killing little girls fresh steak the old lady she's an accident she should she should have never got back up I'm sorry she said I never grown up