subnauticmods: (Default)
subnauticmods ([personal profile] subnauticmods) wrote in [community profile] fishesoutofwater2016-02-13 02:56 pm
Entry tags:

Test Dive #1








≡U.R.S.U.L.A. NAVIGATION
TEST DIVE MEME


For information about the animals and locations, be sure to check out the BIOME and BASE pages!

A1: Go Fish
You! Yes, you! Your friendly neighbourhood AI has a task she would like to encourage YOU to do! After all, you can’t forget the most important fact: you’re here to make the planet habitable. Which means cataloguing, capturing and studying potential threats to anyone’s life. That includes a swarm of Stalkers that have been hanging around the waters awfully near the base, which presents a perfect research opportunity! At least, URSULA seems to think so.

Don’t go in willy-nilly waving your knife around, though. URSULA doesn’t want you to bring in tonight’s Sashimi Surprise™, she wants you to bring in a Stalker that’s still kicking. Which means you have to capture a live one. So hold back your crazy power or trigger-happy instincts!

How will you take one in alive without ending up dead yourself? You could go in the brute-force way, slamming its jaws shut and bagging it, though it’s pretty strong itself… or you could be a bit more cunning, taming it with bait or giving it shiny metal salvage to play with before luring it into a tank to bring it into the base. You might want to get a helping hand with this task, since it’s not exactly an easy one-man job.

A2: Go With Fish
So, now you’ve got a live and very disgruntled Stalker on your hands! Hopefully, said hands don’t have to be amputated (it’s okay if they have to though, URSULA will fix it. Try not to watch the nanites go). What do you do with it? You could keep it as a pet and observe its growth! You could dissect it and study its anatomy! Or you could… eat it. (After going through all the effort to bring it in alive?!)

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: It’s dangerous to go alone. Take them!
URSULA’s technology is breathtaking. With enough materials, she could make practically anything: weapons, vehicles, all those human comforts and entertainments she forgot to build... or perhaps she could expand the base to give everyone even more leg room. But there’s a catch: you need to get those materials to her in the first place, and scavenging can be a monumental task.

The planet Iniidae has a plethora of materials to provide, but you’ve got to go find them first. Some are easy enough to get, by plucking off the ground or breaking a rock. But some are a bit more challenging, such as Crash Powder, seeing that the Crash defending it will literally explode in your face if you get too close. And then there’s materials such as Blood Oil, only harvestable within the Blood Kelp Caves several hundred meters underwater in the pitch-black darkness… remember, you have to gather resources with your two bare hands. No such thing as driving around and conveniently collecting them within the somewhat-relative safety of an armored vehicle.

Since it’s so dangerous to go alone, URSULA will encourage you all to leave the base in pairs or groups if you’re going to try collecting some of the more precarious materials to harvest. She has heard that most lifeforms find being reconstituted from nanites traumatic, so try not to die in front of each other!

D: Hide and Seek Help
URSULA knows that everyone needs downtime, and no one can go salvaging or gathering specimens all the time. So what do you do for fun on an alien ocean planet when the AI who made your base forgot to make any kind of entertainment room?

Why, play hide-and-seek, of course! There’s a lot of places to hide away from others, and it’s challenging to find anyone. (Sometimes, too challenging to find them… ever… but that’s not the point.) The area around the base and submarine is relatively safe, so anyone can hide away in a coral structure or a cave, and telepathy makes it easy to taunt your seekers without revealing where you are.

Of course, you may encounter a Bone Shark or even a stray Stalker, and you won’t have time to get away or even scream as it attacks you, but hey. What other way to make hide-and-seek more thrilling than to turn it into hide-and-hope-you-get-found-as-you-shout-for-help-to-anyone-who-can-hear-your-telepathy?

E: Toilet Humor
Really, it was bound to happen eventually. Someone's in the bathroom observatory, doing their 'business', and someone is trying very hard to catch a fish for dinner outside. Your eyes meet. Someone has literally been caught with their pants down.

And in that moment your telepathy goes a little wonky, because it's good to have open communication about this incident.

F: The Caverns of Dream
The ocean calls you. Of course, it's much easier to dismiss it as nightmares. You'll probably think that's all it is after you have them. Flashes of screaming sea creatures writhing in agony, pleading for help, but these creatures can't ask for help, can they? Something huge, beyond the scope of imagination, moves in the ocean of your dreams and calls out to you to go deeper into the darkness. It pleads and begs but not with a voice you can hear or words you can understand.

You wake up in a sweat with the unrelenting desire to take a swim, even though it's late and everyone is asleep. Or maybe someone else just had the same nightmare as you? Are you willing to take a swim and try to understand the dream?


BASED ON CODE BY TESSISAMESS AND SUPERSUITS


fallingangel: (You think you like fairies until)

[personal profile] fallingangel 2016-02-15 05:06 am (UTC)(link)
Follow me! It's just a little ways this way.

[She sets off in a slow swim over to the stone archways. It's plain to see that she's still getting used to swimming with all of the equipment, but she makes it over to the arches without destroying any ocean flora or fauna. And sure enough there are rabbitrays half hidden around the area.]

They were all playing earlier, and that's how I noticed them.
pseudoll: (20。 a thought)

[personal profile] pseudoll 2016-02-15 05:06 am (UTC)(link)
... We have to be. [Once they complete it, they'll be allowed to return home, right? There's no other option in her mind. She wants to go home.]
oneandmikleonly: (don't forget me.)

[personal profile] oneandmikleonly 2016-02-15 05:09 am (UTC)(link)
[A name? Mikleo lifts his shoulders, the slightest of shrugs. It seems a little odd to name a fish to him for some reason. Maybe because he's not a big pet person?]

You can name it if you'd like. As for the observation rooms -- yes, I was up in one for a little bit earlier.

[He'd needed a moment, after navigating the crush in the base, and getting confronted with far more people who could see and hear him than normal. It had been kind of a gratifying experience . . . but also exhausting.]
oneandmikleonly: (oh; poor Atlas.)

[personal profile] oneandmikleonly 2016-02-15 05:16 am (UTC)(link)
[He'll settle down next to one of the archways, kicking up another slow cloud of sand for Colette to place him.]

Strange little things...I wonder why they don't just swim away. Maybe we just don't register as dangerous to them?
ruffledup: (pic#8939881)

[personal profile] ruffledup 2016-02-15 05:20 am (UTC)(link)
[She nods slowly. Yes, he... definitely has a point.]

I cannot say for certain. I would almost think some kind of magic was involved, if not for...

[A pause.] Did you have a strange dream as well?
little_lost_dragon: (Default)

B

[personal profile] little_lost_dragon 2016-02-15 05:37 am (UTC)(link)
Less lost, more stuck. I'll confess my dead reckoning's not as good as I'd like, but I'm more concerned about leaving this out here to get lost.

[Xiaolung's thoughts come overlaid with additional information - a momentary sensation of a mental map containing the base and their current location, a glimpse of a dead control panel, a memory of URSULA warning about the pulses.]

Also, I don't trust myself not to get eaten on the way back. So I'll wait for the universal technical solution [a mental image of turning something off and then back on again and hoping for the best] to work, or at least for the sun to come up.
sunsetundersea: (03)

[personal profile] sunsetundersea 2016-02-15 05:39 am (UTC)(link)
Ibtisam has a rebreather herself, but only really needs it when working hard. This world isn't home, but it's close enough to survive on. Mon Calamari and Quarren would colonize it readily if not for the disruptive pulses. Instead she makes sure a hank of light waterproof rope is still coiled at her belt. It might be that at some point she'll have to tie herself to him.

"Yessir." She has to stand on Wedge's flippers to fit in the airlock. They're both small people, but it's really only designed for one person at a time. This isn't comfortable. The inner door seals, and after a moment the pressure in the tiny chamber changes and water starts to fill it. It's still tropical, but the water now is cool enough to need a moment to get used to the temperature.
infusion: (pic#9290039)

[personal profile] infusion 2016-02-15 05:40 am (UTC)(link)
You don't know!?

[Crap, she doesn't either, they're going to have a fishcorpse on their hands soon...!]

Uh, when in doubt, head right!

[And rushing down the right hallway!]
sunsetundersea: (03)

[personal profile] sunsetundersea 2016-02-15 05:44 am (UTC)(link)
The world wasn't as friendly as this one, or not to me. But a number of people were trapped on it, in an encampment, and there was a place in the forest which called out to us.
timexposure: (pic#9865355)

[personal profile] timexposure 2016-02-15 05:48 am (UTC)(link)
[She hums under her breath, considering that.]

Sorry, little monster. No friends for you yet. [She makes a face, staring straight a the fish.] Or ever if you're just gonna eat 'em all. That's so not how we make friends here.

[Max looks up again, smiling.] I guess it's just gonna have to be a loner now.
timexposure: (pic#9858393)

[personal profile] timexposure 2016-02-15 05:51 am (UTC)(link)
[Whoa, whoa, okay! She totally backs up a little.]

Wowser! [She manages to laugh after a moment, shaking her head.] Is that how they say hi in his part of the ocean city? Cause I dunno how any of 'em make friends there if it is.
civilserpent: (8)

[personal profile] civilserpent 2016-02-15 05:58 am (UTC)(link)
[It takes some staggering by the end, but they manage to shove the stalker into an airlock that seals, fills up with water, and opens to let it into a sizeable aquarium. It squiggles around, jaws snapping, the hairs and lint it picked up on the floor floating away.

Sasasul tries to wipe off more fish slime, with little success.]


It is done.
sunsetundersea: (10)

[personal profile] sunsetundersea 2016-02-15 06:04 am (UTC)(link)
Maybe! If it's captive here we should find out how intelligent it is. Look how often it makes eye contact.

[Her culture at home holds the eye as able to convey the truth of someone. The stalker does seem to know it's contained.]

We're not the Empire, so we need to try to understand the natives of this world.
stagecrafts: (and i don't want to be alone)

[personal profile] stagecrafts 2016-02-15 06:44 am (UTC)(link)
I guess you're right.

[ a sigh. ]

It's a little sad, knowing that we'll put in all this work to make great colonies for people to live in, but we won't get to stay to see our handiwork. But I have to get back home, no matter what.
forsage: (015. • does he know the way.)

[personal profile] forsage 2016-02-15 07:00 am (UTC)(link)
[ if he's managed to live long enough to write down a good enough biography of himself, why did i buy that? will be a title he'll use in big blazing words across the cover.

you've got to be kidding me is also a good contender. ]


You've got to be kidding me. Unless that's nicotine flavour, I'm sure as hell ain't jumpin' in for a stick of gum.

[ because seriously. he hasn't hit rock bottom yet. (though he would have said yes if it was nicotine flavour. he's done to his last pack right now.) ]

But if this plan of yours is great, I'll let the gum offence slide. What do you have in mind, mister? [ there's a little pause because here's where roderic and manners come to an awkward end. ] …I can call you 'mister', I reckon?
spidermouth: ([Default])

[personal profile] spidermouth 2016-02-15 07:48 am (UTC)(link)
Set them all off first?

[He says, the voice coming from his throat mimicking Feferi's own, curious at her proposition.

Honestly, he's hesitant to try such a tactic - he's a decent swimmer, but his body was intended more for navigating and maneuvering debris in rivers than it is zipping across the open waters of an ocean like this one. Speed isn't really his strong suit. That, combined with the fact that he makes a larger target, makes this idea sound like a mistake to him.

Then again, maybe if he isn't the one at risk it might seem like a better idea...
]

...Maybe. How fast d'you swim?
pseudoll: (05。 an understanding)

[personal profile] pseudoll 2016-02-15 08:03 am (UTC)(link)
[She nods. While she wasn't too invested in seeing just how people would live here once the colonies were complete, it certainly was... Interesting, to put it simply. The idea of making an entire planet inhabitable from underwater. Yin might not be good with recognizing her emotions, but she can tell she's at least curious.

But the enormity of the task is exactly what worries her.]


How long do you think it'll take?
dipan: (pic#10013818)

[personal profile] dipan 2016-02-15 09:03 am (UTC)(link)
Before you were sleeping.

[Corgis are the best. Alicia places her hand to her chest while her shoulders tense up.]

Sisi?
tyrian: (you gotta run from your end)

[personal profile] tyrian 2016-02-15 09:34 am (UTC)(link)
Pretty fast! [Feferi doesn't seem averse to taking on the risk herself, at least. She's pretty good at zipping across open waters!] I wonder how quickly the fish come back to the plants. [It's no good if she sets them off and then they just turn right around.]
atlanteanson: (tell me more)

[personal profile] atlanteanson 2016-02-15 11:31 am (UTC)(link)
[Well, hopefully he's got enough air to last, because Arthur doesn't really want to do mouth-to-mouth part of the way back. It's technically possible, but unpleasant.

While he's doing that, Arthur is... not. In fact, did he even bring his breathing gear? He starts to turn the hatch door open.]


The dark won't be an issue. I can see fine.
atlanteanson: (small smile)

[personal profile] atlanteanson 2016-02-15 11:36 am (UTC)(link)
[It's really no weirder than talking to giant squids, or dolphins, or fish. It's actually even a breath of fresh air, so to speak, from humans.]

I can see fine in the dark. I'll lead, you can stay close to me. [Atlanteans, after all, are adapted to live on the seafloor, and to function in waters where the light can't penetrate. And he's been keeping track of the route they've taken so far, not entirely trusting the pile of metal they call a sea-craft.]
pseudoll: (05。 an understanding)

f.

[personal profile] pseudoll 2016-02-15 11:48 am (UTC)(link)
[??? Yin's not sure what's more confusing, suddenly being dragged off to go swimming or that whirlwind of talking. Even Kiko isn't that chatty, and that's saying something. But ultimately, Yin had been planning on going out anyways, although not for a full swim. So after all that talking, her only reply is a flat and short:]

Okay.
youscared: things are shit (think- about that...)

[personal profile] youscared 2016-02-15 12:10 pm (UTC)(link)
[YEAH, AS IF. Still, Yin looks like a pretty young girl, or at least, from whatever Tenryuu can see in these murky depths. She sounds a bit like one too, if a little more monotone than the usual. And Tenryuu isn't the kind to leave someone alone, especially when she seems so adamant on swimming out.]

Are... are you sure? You're gonna run into real trouble if you're not right, you know!

[But, if Yin swims out, Tenryuu quickly swims to catch up with her. Swords and guns aren't too viable underwater, so a simple stabbing knife is all Tenryuu's got on her, but it's better than nothing.]

alreadyhuman: (♪ so all you'd ever know)

[personal profile] alreadyhuman 2016-02-15 12:18 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Even in a wetsuit, Vivi still manages to be kind of bulky, reminiscent of the form he has while wearing his normal clothes. It's kind of odd, but maybe it's just what he's comfortable with. ]

Um...I think so. [ He nods. Garnet's being brave, so he has to as well.

One swims close enough to their current hiding spot that he squeaks a bit, before gathering his courage. He pushes off and kicks into the water, heading for it.
] Um, here I go!

[ Not the most inspiring battle cry ever, but it'll do. He just has to get close enough to be able to tap it with his staff...He's never cast underwater before.

Of course, Vivi is focused on catching up with this big fish, so he doesn't notice another one starting to follow him around...
]
youscared: tatsuna stop dragging your blade through the floorboards (sweat- jesus fuckin christ)

[personal profile] youscared 2016-02-15 12:20 pm (UTC)(link)
[Yes, protect Tenryuu's innocence. There is nothing weird about the cute conqueror girl.]

Silly?! [HUFFS. Anyway, she turns to the fish, nodding every so often... until she almost chokes and holds a hand up in the air.] Wait, wait, wait, please don't wrestle it in the base! [URSULA helpfully chimes in to remind the two that in case of any injury, her nanobots will fix any wound.

Which is useful, but FUCK OFF URSULA. NOW'S NOT THE TIME.]


And why would we throw it back if it becomes something even worse? [We don't need to speed up the evolution rate of this planet!!] Let's do the first part of the plan. Just... feed it. Peeperfish and everything. Then maybe we can actually tame it, for real! And we'll have an awesome pet shark!

[1. it's not a shark 2. it's gnashing its teeth at the both of them rn. definitely not domesticated.]

Page 18 of 41