Wanderers
The Wanderers[1] are a recurring type of entity who appear in Dream BBQ.
Appearance
Wanderers have a blue octahedron as their midpoint, which is surrounded by other bits. Red and blue vein-like ribbons wrap around part of it and flutter behind it as it moves. These ribbons can be used like arms. A yellow ribcage is also present on the octahedron. They have two heads, a hippo and a cobra, on opposite sides of the shape. A bloodshot green eye hovers around the Wanderer.
Overview
Wanderers appear throughout the Uncanny Streets. One is noted to have stolen the Taxi Driver's heads and hidden them underground. One can be found tugging on a building, and several others can be seen flying around in the distance. If Ena climbs on top of the building the Wanderer is attached to, she can pet it for the "Weird Dog" achievement.
As the Wanderers fly around, they emit a text-to-speech broadcast that can be heard when standing under or close to them (save for one of the Wanderers tugging at a building, which roars instead).
Radio Transcript
Below is a transcript of the radio noises that can be heard when in proximity to a flying Wanderer. Words in parenthesis are words that are less clear due to distortion.
Report, Report, (Repeat), vital signs are continuing to experience intermittent data flow interruptions.
Fifty-two.
Person ninety-five is experiencing outside influences.
Do you hear us?
Forty- Forty-two, can you tell us how it feels?
Fourty-four.
Give a signal.
We are sending reports every minus 1.1 miles per hour.
We have a issued the time of death at 2:04pm.
Do you hear us?
A severe brain signal capable of producing [heavy distortion] was located.
A new phenomenon has been discovered.
Receiving signal.
Encoding signal.
Translating signal.
The enormous egg that holds us all (as in) mother's womb.
Contact has been successful.
Message receiveeeee-
Radar indicates a (similar signal) 9 miles away.
3 miles away.
Hello?
9 miles away.
Signals are located everywhere.
Hello?
What do you see?
How is the other side?
Can you hear us? Hello? Can you hear us? Hello?
Gallery
A Wanderer tugging on a building.
Trivia
- Wanderers emit the sound of radio noise, consisting of static and garbled fragments of broadcast speech. The Wanderer in the initial cutscene is of the NOAA Weather Radio's "Tom" text-to-speech voice, originally created as part of the Voice Improvement Program in 2003, and was used frequently by the National Weather Service to read messages aloud during its broadcasts. The Wanderer that roams around the level uses the Alex system voice from macOS; two versions of "Tom" are also options on systems.
Cultural references and inspirations
- The Wanderer's line "The enormous egg that holds us all (as in) mother's womb" may be a reference to the song "Rap Phenomena" by Yellow Magic Orchestra, which has the lyric "The enormous egg that holds us all in like mother's womb".
References
- ↑ Game asset files relating to this character, such as textures and audio clips, are named "Wanderer". They are also referred to as such in the Supporter edition.