SAND SEALS

Waking of Friday, January 19, 2018 ~ 2

SAND SEALS

I guess that, some time ago, I had ventured into the arid regions just enough that my loading screen had decided it was time to start giving me tips about Sand Seals.

I never read these tips. I didn’t want to be spoiled.

But I gathered a Sand Seal was something that could help you travel.

I just guessed it was something you stood on, like a dais, out in the desert, maybe some mini-warpable network that could take you from place to place without making you trudge through the endless sands. But wasn’t that a little redundant....?

Mmm but I did like to comb all the spaces between the anchors....

Then, as I approached Gerudo Town in the growing dawn, I saw a sight that made everything so clear to me:

Large, grey-brown shapes, three of them, sitting or rolling around on the sand before a small pavilion beside the town’s entrance.

I scoped in.

The one facing me had tusks.

Like a walrus.

IN THE SAND.

“Sand Seals!” I gasped!

It was THAT kind of seal! 8D

Whaaaaaaat? >u<

Oh my gosh did I ride it? Like a horse? Or like on the back of Prince Sidon? Did they go fast? Would I get a saddle?

My mind spun in dizzy delight as I approached the walls of the town.

The place was alien, but most interesting; so many ruins and strange formations jutted from the sea of sand all around. One shape with towering banners winked at me from within a giant dust-cloud. The Southern Oasis?

I placed a marker and checked my map.

It was smack in Divine Beast territory.

Nope! Definitely something for another day. :)

I hurried toward the Sheikah Shrine at the corner of the town—the Daqo Chisay Shrine. But before I entered, I spoke with the man standing beside it. Benja was his name. And he was the caravan leader.

Though his feet didn’t move, his eyes beneath a shading hand seemed to be walking all up and down the front of the town.

“Are you spying?” I asked him, and he dodged the question with some words about his caravan and the research he was doing or something.

My only response to give to this was, once again, “Are you spying?” XD

“It’s research! RESEARCH!” he shouted. Or some such assertion. XD

I entered the shrine. I think it was the one David said he had solved by just laying a bunch of metal weapons on the floor to complete the electrical circuits. But I just did it the regular way. :3

Afterwards I headed toward the entrance to Gerudo Town.

Two tall Gerudo guards in gleaming, gold-trimmed armor stood on either side. Merina and Dorrah.

First I tried just.... slowly stepping forward. But they had their spears at my throat before I could cross the threshold, and were kind enough to remind me that no voe were allowed in the city.

“I’m sorry... ‘boe’?” I said. Uh, why was this an option?

“Voe! Voe! Bite your lower lip as you say it!”

AND THEN I JUST DIED as I remembered that Japan has no traditional character for V! XD

Oh my gosh this was precious. XD XD

Wait how did they even write it in Japanese??

WHO WROTE THIS? You are just way too much fun. XD XD XD Oh my gosh. Now I want to see screenshots of this exact exchange in the original Japanese. XD

Through with probing the town’s entrance, I turned to the only other NPC that seemed to be a permanent fixture of the location—beneath the canopy to my left stood Frelly.

She stood happily clapping and cooing and calling to the sand seals lolling around on the dune before her. And when I spoke to her, she sounded more perky and friendly than any Gerudo I had ever met. :3

Sadly, since I was a voe, Frelly said I couldn’t go into town to just rent a sand seal for twenty rupees. But she explained that the wild ones were easy enough to catch:

You had to sneak up reeeal quiet behind one, and then you just grab it with A, and steer it with the joystick. But she said really the best way to learn was just to jump right in and try it!

Heh, Frelly was so fun. ^_^

Oh, and she also said I had to have a shield equipped.

A shield? How would that work?

Well, I had one of my three trusty Knight’s Shields equipped already, so.... I snuck up behind one of the sand seals out by the canopy.... and grabbed it.

And surfed on my shield behind it like a CHARIOT! 8D

HA! I rode around and the sand seal burrowed through the sand ahead like a dolphin and I turrrned it this way and turrrned it that way—and it WAS fast! But I didn’t want to get too far away from the city, and so angled back toward Frelly’s canopy.... and let go with B. And off the sand seal went back into the dunes before popping out some distance away to loll on the surface again.

And oh dearie my, I jumped into my inventory to check....

AND MY SHIELD WAS STILL SPARKLY! 8D Riding it around hadn’t damaged it at all!

Well this was just a dandy way to travel! ^_^

From: Andrea

To: Vince, Lisa

2018-02-05 1:26p

Is there a “v” sound or

character in Japanese?

From: Vince

To: Andrea, Lisa

2018-02-05 1:28p

Only in more modern stuff, a

lot of Japanese people can’t

really pronounce it properly.

From: Vince

To: Andrea, Lisa

2018-02-05 1:29p

ヴ is how you write it.

Vince ->ヴィンス

From: Andrea

To: Vince, Lisa

2018-02-05 1:32p

Wow! How modern? And what

sound does that character

make without the hash marks?

And is that your name? ^_^

How does it go in Romaji? :D

Oh my gosh I need to calm

down.... X-)

From: Lisa

To: Andrea, Vince

2018-02-05 1:32p

^ ^I was just going to say that.

Katakana u with tenten.

From: Vince

To: Andrea, Lisa

2018-02-05 1:35p

As for how it sounds, try

making a “vvvvvv” noise, and

then shifting your lips forward

until it’s just about at an

“ooo.” It’s in the middle of

those two.

From: Vince

To: Andrea, Lisa

2018-02-05 1:35p

Without tentens, it’s just

“u” (like the oo in food)

From: Vince

To: Andrea, Lisa

2018-02-05 1:36p

Romaji would just be v

From: Andrea

To: Vince, Lisa

2018-02-05 1:36p

Tenten! That’s what they’re

called----they usually add

voicings to non-voiced

consonants?

From: Vince

To: Andrea, Lisa

2018-02-05 1:37p

Yeah, that’s the trick.

From: Andrea

To: Vince, Lisa

2018-02-05 1:38p

I just love you guys. XD