fishesoutofwater | TEST DIVE #3

Entry tags:

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

[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. ]

[Karkat, you're ridiculous. How are you even trying this? Is this why Dave and Karkat are a thing? Because neither of them know how to change the subject about being a thing?]

You probably shouldn't try distracting your pilot. It could go badly for everyone.

I'm not trying to distract you I just thought you would find the thing I just saw interesting. It's gone now so you missed your chance.

[ shut up this was totally smooth and no one will suspect a thing? ]

[Man. Dirk isn't going to wreck Karkat's life about it primarily because Karkat seems to still be so shy over it, so Dirk doesn't mind waiting for Dave and Karkat to just come out and admit it. In the meantime, the dramatic irony is going to be off the charts.]

You realize that's still distracting the pilot?

[Okay not really, Dirk is very good at splintering his attentions.]

Oh come on, we're all the way up in the air and everything on this awful planet is in that stupid puddle of water. What could possibly happen that'd take both of us by surprise?

[ says the guy who threw a fit over dirk not being cautious enough about exploring the aurora. pot, kettle, etc. ]

Do you know what happens if I drop you?

[Confrontational but also genuine. Karkat, do you know? Because you sure seem determined to flail out of his arms several times.]

[ karkat glances down towards the water below before shrugging. not like dirk can see the motion since he's still flung over the guy's shoulder but. ]

I've survived worse. It won't be that big of a deal, Strider, you can relax your unusually pointy hair.

[Maybe if Karkat is good he can be returned to a princess carry.]

I don't think your friend Dave would be happy with either of us if we got you home sporting multiple broken bones.

['Friend' isn't in verbal air quotes entirely because teasing Karkat about this would be counterproductive at the moment.]

[ somehow that does not seem like much of a reward. ]

Ok but consider this: We could not tell him that I have broken bones? He might not notice.

[ he would totally notice. ] I "tripped."

I know you don't think Dave is either that inattentive or that stupid.

[Dirk didn't alternate universe raise a blind fool! He.... alternate universe made many other errors in upbringing, but that was not one of them.]

[ it's good to know that beta bro apparently did one parental thing. ]

I could always just avoid him until I heal up. [ hm. ] Shit that really wouldn't work would it?

[Well. For a certain sense of parental.]

I'd be genuinely impressed if you could. Don't know why you'd go through all the trouble though. Experience has taught me it's easier to just not do things that'd upset him.

[LIKE FIGHTING REAPERS it's a learning process here.]

No, no, you just have to know where the line is. We upset each other all the time but it's in the acceptable bro range so it doesn't really count as upsetting each other.

[ however, avoiding dave after karkat breaks his limbs would cross that line, admittedly. but still. ]

It's a very subtle science that takes a lot of practice to understand.

I didn't know you had a PhD in Brostress. We the layman public look forward to reading your findings in a digestible form.

[Aaand Dirk is going lower to the water because they are increasingly reaching an area near the base.]

I'm not sure if you'll be able to handle how advance it is. Maybe if you invest in a dictionary you'll be able to consume my work, but I think it'll be easier if you just wait for me to write out the abridged version. It'll take me less time to finish that up for you to get through chapter one of the full edition.

[ actually... karkat considers actually writing about this.... ]

No way. I will not accept any abridged edition. I want all of your genius in its full and complete form, Karkat. I can't tolerate anything less than the total sum of all your knowledge on these higher sciences.

Also, hold your breath.

[Dirk dives into the water with Karkat. He's just going to bring Karkat right back to base!]

What. [ karkat actually almost does not hold his breath in time because. he really needs to work on his reaction time to shit.

once he is satisfied that he is not drowning, he switches to telepathy. ]

Are you sure about this because I will definitely quiz you on the subject matter and it will not be multiple choice.

[At this point, he could probably let go of Karkat and they could swim together but. Nah. This is just going to keep happening exactly as is.]

Quiz? Come on. Don't insult me.

Make this a written and oral exam.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject