Rick_e_morty_s03e02 -

Rick stepped through, leaving the wasteland behind, the silence finally settling over the dust.

The giant sat down in the dirt. "My father left when the sky turned red. I spent ten years hunting the man who killed my mother. I found him. He was a cobbler. I realized then: the wasteland isn't out there. It’s the silence after the screaming stops." Rick_e_morty_s03e02

Rick took a long swig from a flask that smelled like burnt ozone. "That’s the point, Morty. You think people live in a desert-hellscape because the real estate is cheap? No, they do it because when a guy with a chainsaw for a hand is trying to graft your skin onto a kite, you don’t have time to wonder why your dad is living in a motel eating cold beans." Rick stepped through, leaving the wasteland behind, the

With a flick of his wrist, Rick opened the portal. Summer hesitated, looking at her throne of bones, then stepped through. Morty followed, dropping the scrap metal. I spent ten years hunting the man who killed my mother

"We’re just visiting," Morty chirped nervously. "It’s like... a theme park for trauma."

Rick paused his soldering. "Deep. Real deep, Bucket-Head. Morty, don't listen to him. He’s just a background NPC with a tragic backstory meant to provide atmosphere."

The orange dust of the Blood Ridge wasteland didn't just get into Morty’s lungs; it got into his head. Rick had just finished installing a "Isotope-321" battery into a jagged, rusted war-rig, ignoring the screams of the scavengers Summer was currently leading into battle over a bucket of dirty water.