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Bad Travelling

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Bad Travelling (❌💀❌) is the second episode of the third volume, and the overall twenty-eighth episode of LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS.

3 Symbols:

  1. Cross
  2. Skull
  3. Cross

Episode Synopsis[]

Release the Thanapod! A a ship's crew member sailing an alien ocean strikes a deal with a ravenous monster of the deep.

Plot[]

The episode opens with a textual preface describing sailors of antiquity traversing alien oceans and hunting jable sharks. It was common for ships to be lost at sea during these voyages, whereupon they would be said to have had a "bad travelling".

One such vessel navigates choppy waves during a storm and is suddenly attacked by a murderous crab-like creature known as a Thanapod. After killing three sailors, including the captain and helmsman, it drags and kills the sailor Turk below deck and takes refuge there. The remaining crew draw straws, with youngest sailor Cert going first, to decide who should confront the monster, and the most physically imposing of them, a man named Jorvan, picks the shortest straw. However, he intimidates his fellow sailors into turning against the ship's second-in-command, Torrin.

As Torrin heads below deck, the Thanapod uses the human corpse of Turk to communicate with him, asking to be taken to the populous Phaiden Island to satisfy its hunger. Torrin strikes a deal with the beast, securing his own safety and recovering the key to the captain's lockbox from the Thanapod's vomit. Emerging from the bowels of the ship, he arms himself with a gun from the captain's lockbox and explains his agreement with the monster to his fellow sailors. To satisfy the Thanapod's hunger for the time being, Jorvan suggests that they sacrifice Calis, a crew member injured in the attack. His protective brother Melis defends him, and Torrin states that they are in this together. Crew member Chantre states that this puts them back where they started, and Torrin says they face a tough decision. Jorvan is thrown to the beast himself under Torrin's orders, presumably for suggesting another man be sacrificed.

Unwilling to unleash the monster upon the inhabitants of Phaiden Island, Torrin proposes that they head for a deserted island a greater distance away but with a greater risk to their lives. The decision is put to a vote, with each sailor marking a ballot and putting it into a box. Later, Torrin reveals that he gave each ballot distinct marks, letting him know that there were cowards amongst them. Maril asks what he said, and Cert confirms that he said there are cowards. Torrin states there are two crew members voted to fulfill the creature's wish. It initially appears that he will kill Cert, but executes Calis and Melis instead with one bullet, and feeds them to the Thanapod.

Later, while Torrin scans the horizon in the crow's nest, a crew member named Deacon makes an attempt on his life. Torrin catches him in the act, whereupon the assassin drops the knife from his mouth, which lands next to Paln while he is carrying barrels, and he defends himself by claiming he was pressured into it by the others. The monster calls Torrin below deck to express its impatience, and numerous offspring likely born or hatched on the ship emerge.

At the bow of the ship, Torrin talks with his crew, dismissing what happened as an expression of low morale. Crew member Suparin refers to the Thanapod as Torrin's "friend", and Torrin responds sternly for the man to maintain course. He assures the group that their predicament is nearing its end. Yet with morale at an all-time low, five of the six sailors sneak into the captain's cabin and ambush Torrin in his bed that night, only to fall for a decoy. Torrin, who had anticipated the attack, easily kills his aggressors: he shoots Chantre through the back of her head before they realized he was there; chops Paln in the side of his neck with an axe; shoots Maril through the throat; Suparin in the torso; and Cert through the throat as he flees the room. He discovers Deacon in a chest; Deacon claims he refused to participate. He thanks Deacon, and the two toss the bodies of the crew down to the Thanapod. However, Torrin reveals that he did not need to mark the ballots as every single sailor voted to sail to Phaiden Island, and he pushes Deacon down to join his deceased crew members.

Near the island, Torrin, sole-surviving crew member, stops his ship. He meets with the Thanapod to explain that the hide and meat of the jable sharks they hunt are useless. As he hacks into barrels, spilling oil throughout the hold, he explains that they hunt them for the oil. He raises his pistol, and the Thanapod derisively reminds him that, "Shell protects." Torrin replies that it is not intended for it, and fires at a lantern, which releases flames down to the oil and sets the vessel ablaze. The beast and its offspring are unable to escape the burning ship, and it tries to catch Torrin but fails. Torrin leaps from the blazing vessel to a rowboat he had prepared, and rows away to safety at Phaiden Island.

Cast[]

Notes and Trivia[]

  • Contrary to popular belief, Torrin was likely the ship's first mate, not captain, as he had to retrieve the captain's key to the gun box from the Thanapod. Thus it was the helmsman who was the captain that was eaten in the initial attack, and Torrin retrieved the key when the Thanapod vomited the captain's remains.
  • Concept art released later confirmed the identities of all of the named sailors in the episode, although it omits the 2 unnamed sailors killed in the opening, and features an alternate captain model. One of the unnamed sailors is shown in great detail in concept art, though unnamed, being a tall man with vaguely asian features and facial and body tattoos. This seems to be the sailor that is thrown overboard by the Thanapod.
  • Two crewmembers were merely wounded in the initial attack, Suparin and Calis, while four were killed, including the captain and Turk.
  • The map used by the crew is marked as being made in 3056, with the artist's notes stating it to have a several years of weather.
  • After the vote, Cert's lack of protest when it appears Torrin is about to shoot him and the flinching when he believes it to be coming foreshadows the reveal of his own vote to sail to Phaiden Island.
  • Torrin uses all 6 shots of the revolver throughout the episode, explaining why he only used one to shoot both Melis and Calis, and why he killed Deacon by pushing him down to the Thanapod directly..
  • The revolver used in the episode is a Colt 1851 Navy Revolver, a cap and ball revolver that was introduced as the name suggests in 1851. The name comes from the fact that the gun usually had it's cylinder engraved with the scene from the battle of Campeche between the second Texas Navy and Mexico (the gun in the episode lacks this engraving). It remained in production up until 1873 when it became obselete, as revolvers with cartridge rounds were mass produced.
  • The total number of crewmembers on the ship was originally 14, with four dying in the initial attack, and all except Torrin dying by the end of the episode..
  • Roles of most of the crew are not given directly, though some can be assumed based on their duties or by referencing the original short story. (Capitalized roles are confirmed in the short story, not capitalized are assumptions based on duties)

Gallery[]

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