fishesoutofwater | TEST DIVE #3

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test dive

TEST DIVE #3

PREMISE & NAVIGATION ✦ RULES ✦ MOD CONTACT
TAKEN ✦ RESERVES ✦ APPLICATIONS ✦ HIATUS & DROPS
FAQ ✦ BASE ✦ BIOMES ✦ URSULA ✦ URSULA CONTACT

TEST DIVE MEME

Reserves open on the 17th
Applications open on the 24th
Check out our ATP/Enable Me meme!

NOTE REGARDING THIS APPLICATION CYCLE

For information about the animals and locations, be sure to check out the BIOME and BASE pages! Note that TDM threads can be used for game canon and several prompts are based on crew contributions to the base that are being worked on this month!

A: There’s a Storm on the Horizon
A brainstorm. On advice about the ingenuity of multi person parties, and from admitted lack of understanding of many needs of organics, URSULA has selected you and a partner (or partners) to go to one of the observatories with food, beds, and recording devices to have a jam session for ideas about missions.

You are not to leave the room until you have some good ones. So get cracking! Start suggesting to one another what the base needs to do.

Or get horribly, horribly sidetracked and possibly a little crazy at being locked up together with the ocean staring at you. Judging.

B: The Abysmal Sea
You’re stranded.

One of the planet’s troublesome signal-interfering pulses has just made your communication devices 100% nonfunctional. No matter how you try to call URSULA for help, she isn’t able to respond. The database strapped to your wrist is just a useless chunk of metal now, leaving you without a useful library of knowledge to survive off. If you were driving any underwater vehicle prior to this point, it’s broken down. And unless you’re a mechanic, it’ll be pretty hard to get it jumpstarted again.

Don’t fret! The communication systems always come online eventually, so if you stay put, it’ll boot back up and give you directions straight back to base so you can finally get home. But can you really afford to stay put? The sunlight’s slowly streaming out of the sky, leaving the waters darker and darker with each passing second. Soon, you won’t be able to see five feet in front of you, and the only warning you’ll get of any approaching threat is through sound, if they even make any.

You have a few choices: take a daring risk and try swimming back to base, but on the off-chance you don’t remember the directions correctly from before you were cut off, you’re going to get even more lost, in the darkness of the night no less. Or, you could huddle in, with any friends if they were unfortunate enough to be with you, and start focusing on getting warm. Because spending the night out here in the vast oceans with the entire world against you is becoming a very, very real possibility.

C: Test Drive Test Dives
The Robotics section of the laboratory needs your help! Whether you were a poor sap who got dragged into it or love working on robots, this is your time to shine!

A few suits need testing to get the kinks out of them. And you know, figure out how they work in general. So be a dear and get in one so the others can watch you flail around and discover how it works.

If you're not into being a crash test dummy, you can help do repair work, analyze blueprints of various underwater vehicles, bring in scrap metal to work with or maybe just try painting the Seamoth neon pink.

D: Camping Trip
Floater Island is the only real land around so even if it's a longer trip, it's nice to volunteer for an overnight mission there sometimes. Who doesn't want to camp out under the stars when you've been living under the sea this whole time? Attempt to make s'mores out of plants and that chocolate bar you have left! Play with Birdogs! Go for a swim in the lake! Try very hard to get some sort of emotional response from a Light Frog!

Well, sure, you're here on a mission but it's okay to goof off and enjoy yourselves with some campfire stories and freshly cooked Chomper kebobs sometimes. Just grab a few samples from the abandoned farm at least so it looks like you actually worked.

E: THE AURORA
Quiet except for the creaks and rumbles as the ship settles and shifts, the sound of Reapers screaming in the distance every so often, the Aurora is a creepy place to visit for a mission. The remains of those crew members not buried, and the belongings of many others, still litter the ship's halls. It might be nice to remove any skeletons you find.

Of course, their misfortune is your opportunity to catch up on some reading, browse whatever video games they left, get medical supplies and enjoy the comforts they no longer need.

But is it possible the Aurora is haunted? Surely not. Except sometimes you might hear voices from far away. It might just be the people you came on board with, unless they're with you. Or it might be a Cave Crawler knocking over some recording device. You're not too scared to check, right?

F: Farmville
Time to tend to the crops! That's right, the underwater farm needs your help. Some trees and plants rest on the seabed under protective covers that allow them to grow their leaves and fruits while the roots firmly keep them in the sand. Harvest some apples, more apples, oranges, strawberries and other delicious produce that sounds much, much better than a regular diet of fish.

And once you've helped get a basket full of crops for the base, it's time to cook them! But what are you going to make? Apple stuffed fish? Orange stuffed fish? Nah, get creative with what you have! Everyone is counting on you for dinner!

BASED ON CODE BY TESSISAMESS AND SUPERSUITS

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ what the fuck is a disney world

he's about to say as much, but then dirk mentions flying and karkat just groans. god, he hates being god tier carried. it is such bullshit that he can't fly just because he never got around to dying on a rocky bed somewhere. ]

Sure, I love being carried around like a useless princess who keeps getting kidnapped the second you set her down. It's my favorite thing to do, so let's buckle up and do this, Strider.

[Well. Dirk was going to give Karkat a piggyback ride. Between Loki and Dave, Dirk has gotten very good at them.

But Karkat is like his own one-man misery generator? Dirk shouldn't find this so funny given his own experiences with misery-generation but he makes a quick calculation and

yeah he's pretty sure Dave will not object to trolling Karkat, he is actually pretty sure he can make some extrapolations about Dave and Karkat's hang time. So.]

Sounds good to me.

[Are you ready to be swept off your goddamned feet, Karkat? Because the Strider is a particularly obnoxious brand of human and this one is going for it.]

Edited (i know how to make a past tense ok!!) 2016-06-16 17:30 (UTC)

[ karkat's life would be... so much easier if he learned how to stop talking... alas. today is not the day that happens.

karkat actually yelps when dirk picks him up and he is going to deny ever making that sound until the day he dies. he crosses his arms in front of his chest because this is stupid even though he's the one who gave dirk the idea. not that he knows that but. ]

I am starting to believe that your family was put in this universe specifically to mock me.

[ says the guy who. technically created their universe. ]

I can't speak for Paradox Space's intentions, so I can neither confirm or deny that possibility. I'll just have to do my best to live up to this potential life purpose.

[You fucked up when you made humanity, Karkat. You fucked up harder than you know.

Also Dirk is easily just zooming through the various damaged shafts and hallways. He has by now basically memorized the best route out of here, so he's doing the whole route almost totally on reflex, with just a fraction of his attention devoted to staying alert for new variables.]

Wait no you don't have to do that? Make a new life purpose. Pull a Rose and go off the rails and make your own destiny. Aren't you guys all about that shit?

[ pls he can only be princess carried so many times before he throws a tantrum? again. he's definitely thrown tantrums over this before already but do we really need another one. ]

You can't fight fate, dude. You know our spatiotemporal framework is merciless towards those who defy the Alpha timeline. It's probably for the best if I just give in to the demands of the universe and fulfill my destiny.

[Casually—]

It'll be easier on you if you put your arms around my neck.

[It... really won't make a difference, Dirk has enough upper body strength for Karkat easily. But he is fulfilling the prophecy.]

[ no. no?? nooooooo?? that's an awful idea. ]

Ok that is toeing the line in what I am willing to subject myself to. There is only a certain amount of embarrassment I am willing to dip into on any given day and we have passed that threshold like four hallways ago.

[ and at that moment, another reaper screams and karkat immediately wraps his arms around dirk's neck because jegus that sounded close and it startled him

#smooth ]

[Good fucking job, Karkat. On the plus side, Dirk actually isn't going to fuck with Karkat about it (immediately) because he is immediately changing his pathway so that they can come up through the roof of the Aurora, where the Reaper would have the hardest time getting near them.]

Okay. Since that Reaper sounds like it wants a fight and Dave's still got that veto'd, I'm gonna fly us back to a safe area and come back to the Seamoth later. Is that acceptable to you?

[Dirk has been making serious efforts on the communication front here.]

[ he's going to pretend he meant to do that tbh. ]

I'm good with any plan that means we won't have to wrestle with fucking aquatic terrors. There is a reason I never went to the ocean back home and this is it.

[ also because sea dwellers can be a little douchey with the whole being high bloods thing. who would want to accidentally run into eridan. ]

[Dirk's ocean had a lot of terrible things in it, but at least it didn't have Eridan.]

You're missing out. You can get into some pretty impressive scrums with ocean life.

[There are like way too many layers of irony packed into that one sentence and Dirk expects Karkat to miss all of them so he just flies out through the crack in the Aurora's hull and

yeah, that sure is a Reaper winding near the edge of the Aurora. And it has definitely spotted them. Holy shit, does Dirk want to fight it. He can tell it's his Reaper, the one with a scar from Sanson's guillotine. His Moby Dick. He wants to Strife it so bad.

Can't. Dave would be upset if Dirk let his boyfriend get exposed to dangerous monsters. He flies up higher to be out of the Reaper's breaching range.]

[ yeah that is sailing way over his head, but at this point karkat is so used to certain people rambling about things while giving zero context that he doesn't even blink. fucking striders.

also dave would probably be upset even if karkat wasn't around?? he banned dirk from strifing with reapers for a reason??? chill out, captain ahab. ]

Jegus fuck those that thing is huge. And you were attacked by a swarm of them? No wonder you got your asses kicked.

Edited 2016-06-16 23:31 (UTC)

[Call Dave Ishmael cause DIRK WILL GET THAT DICK ONE DAY

But alas. Once he feels he has reached a height out of the Reaper's range (a greater height than he usually takes to avoid them, for Karkat's sake) he flies horizontal. Between Floater Island and the Aurora, it's relatively easy to triangulate the base. The map from the lab that he copied to his shades helps.]

They've got an asshole attitude that's approximately the same size as they are. [He isn't responding to the 'got your asses kicked' thing because, well. He got Dave concussed like five times over? So even though he still believes he could have kept going, he considers letting Dave get that badly hurt a serious failure.] Fortunately, they seem to keep to the Aurora and the Void underneath it.

[ ok yeah maybe don't bring up the whole dave getting really injured thing to karkat?? he probably won't take it that well and the last thing they need right now is karkat screaming at dirk while being princess carried by dirk. so. ]

Which would be great except it seems like you go to the Aurora a lot? You knew the way out of there pretty damn well, Dirk. A little too well.

[Let's try to avoid that?

Emphasis on try. Dirk's going to be taking a really cavalier attitude to the accusation being made.]

That would be because I do. The Aurora has the best salvage for anything robotic.

[Just owning it 'cause it's no big deal.]

[ if karkat's arms weren't around dirk, this would be where he'd dramatically facepalm, just so dirk's aware of how dumb karkat thinks he is. they literally just got finished beating a game with outrageously strong enemies? and karkat can understand fighting the reapers when they don't have any other choice, or if they really need to go back to the aurora to grab some supplies but also.

dirk knew how to get out of there really. really well. karkat had been on that meteor for over three years and he still took wrong turns. ]

Ok but do you get off on getting into potentially dangerous situations? Who did you go with the last few times because I already know your sylladex can't carry that much, we've established this.

[And so, instead of facepalming, Karkat is stuck still being the princess, who is now definitely not in the right castle. Congratulations. Because Dirk is basically immune to this lecturing.]

I did a group salvage a few months back. I've gone alone since.

[He's ignoring the bit about 'getting off' because he suspects that both confirming and denying it will send Karkat into a fit about Dirk sharing any information of that kind and he doesn't want to drop Karkat from a fatal height into an Reaper territory.]

[ it doesn't matter if dirk is immune to it or not because karkat will just keep on lecturing! his hobbies include getting involved in business that has nothing to do with him and throwing his two cents in every five minutes.

which dirk can probably relate to, actually. ]

Alright Dirk, I'll be honest. I am not your human mom or whatever, so I know that you have no obligation to listen to me even though I am completely right about this. But maybe you should slow down the potentially deadly missions to search the potentially haunted ship of death? The waffle canes aren't going anywhere.

[He can relate, although actually... Karkat is being a little bit calmer about this than expected. Dirk almost expected to get shouted at. It occurs to him that if it were Dave's suggestion, he would back off immediately, and reconsider his actions. And it also occurs to him that maybe, he should extend that courtesy to more than just the brother he's terrified of failing.

So, instead of an immediate response, Dirk considers the point.]

I genuinely appreciate your concern. But I think you're overestimating the amount of danger here. The main threat is the Reapers, and I can get away from them easily with flight. That makes them a non-issue. Inside, it's just structural instability and cave crawlers, neither of which pose a threat to me. And I'm reasonably confident that the Aurora isn't haunted.

Frankly, the ship isn't that much different from the ruins I've been salvaging since I was a kid, except that most of the Aurora isn't at the bottom of the ocean floor, and far fewer creatures around it are aggressively interested in snacking on me. This is the safest and most secure I've been on a day-to-day basis since my meteor dropped me in the middle of the ocean on a planet wrecked by an alien tyrant.

Thanks, though. Non-ironically. I can see what Dave likes about you.

[ those are all excellent points, and karkat is totally prepared to counter them. if there is one thing he learned from his time playing sgrub (sburb. whatever.) it's that you cannot underestimate shit. you never know when something you thought was safe is going to actually be a plot twist, ready to murder the fuck out of you.

and alright, admittedly most of karkat's concern here is dave related, because karkat knows dave would be super upset if something happened to his bro? so karkat would rather skip over that whole process. there is literally no way this won't end badly in some shape or form.

he does not get to say any of this, however, because dirk says that last fucking sentence. karkat's face immediately reddens and he just. pushes dirk away from him while yelling because NO??????? WHO SAID DAVE LIKES HIM????

which is probably a bad idea but. whatever. ]

[Dirk saw that coming. So he shifts grip so that he can carry Karkat over his shoulder, thereby preventing him from falling to his death.]

I'm going to ask you to calm down before I have to explain your untimely death to everyone.

[ THIS IS EVEN WORSE THAN BEING PRINCESS CARRIED WHAT THE FUCK

karkat flails for a couple of seconds but once he realizes that isn't doing anything he just goes limp. ]

I would rather fall to my untimely death than listen to you say that ever again! Fucking hell, what if someone had heard you?

[ they are literally in the sky with no one around for miles. who would have heard. ]

Sorry, man. I didn't know your friendship was such a secret.

[The really awful thing about Dirk's lack of tonal variation is how it helps him deliver total bullshit like this in the same way as he says things honestly.]

[ wait, shit, does dirk not know?

obviously he doesn't know. why would he know? no one knows. alright, karkat can still save this. he can just talk his way out of this so what just happened won't seem as awkward as it really is. that'll be easy, karkat is charismatic as fuck. ]

Ha ha of course it isn't. Why would we hide our friendship, that is totally a thing. Our strictly platonic brohood is something that everyone is completely aware of because there is literally no reason to pretend that isn't a thing? I love my best bro Dave and would never hide that fact. I mean, love as in friendship love and not some other type of love that exists. Actually I am pretty sure the only type of love that's a thing is towards your buddies who you are very vocal about? Or I guess whatever the fuck you guys are each other. Familial? I don't fucking know, but the point is that Dave and I are such good friends and are staying that way now til paradox space implodes on itself!

[ oh god, just let the reapers kill him please. it'll be better than this. ]

Agápe, eros, philia, and storge are the four Classical types of love that are a thing.

[He has decided to fill Karkat in on that fact, even as he starts lowering himself nearer to sea level. They're out of Reaper territory, and while he isn't planning on putting Karkat down, he'd prefer there to be less of a fall. Just in case Karkat somehow manages to break free of his grip in a flail of self-defeating ridiculousness.]

I'm delighted to hear that such a powerful expression of philia exists between the two of you. Especially with how much he's clearly been missing your company.

Philia is the one for the kind of love you described, by the way. It's a little similar to the concept of moirallegiance. But obviously Dave isn't filling any of your quadrants.

He missed me?

[ the question is automatic and it sounds a little too surprised, all things considered. karkat then slowly drags his hands down his face, mentally shouting at himself and really hoping that something extreme happens in the next twenty seconds to dave him from this fate. ]

Anyway! Yeah that is definitely us. He is as far from the quadrant zone as possible. Oh my fuck, what is that thing right over there? Dirk, check that out, it's so weird and needs your complete and full attention right now. Look!

[ karkat is just pointing at a random spot in the ocean. this is a good distraction. ]

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