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


upcard: (✿ now i wish i didn't know)

[personal profile] upcard 2016-02-16 08:28 pm (UTC)(link)
[Thank goodness she found a kindly tentacle assassin honestly.]

No, I didn't... someone else did, and gave it to me and asked me [demanded, really] to take it to the aquaria so I really don't want to mess it up, but...!

[But a 7 foot fish creature is way too much for a delicate otome protag.]
upcard: (✿ my fairy companion disappeared)

[personal profile] upcard 2016-02-16 08:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Right... I'm coming too!

[Obviously, Mai.

There's still something incredibly terrifying about stepping out there, of course. She's not meant for this sort of exploration and deep sea adventuring, but she's going to do her absolute best; the only way to become better is...to practice, right?

Hopefully her practice doesn't get her killed.

Still, she can't help the question that escapes her.]


Um... if you don't mind me asking--how are you so calm?

[It doesn't seem to matter how long she's here; she just can't get used to it.]
upcard: (✿ can we talk this over first)

[personal profile] upcard 2016-02-16 08:30 pm (UTC)(link)
[Well that's... terrifying??? Yes, terrifying is a good word for this situation.

Especially when there's...that glare......

Oh...]


I... is something wrong...?
upcard: (✿ why do we serve something like that)

[personal profile] upcard 2016-02-16 08:31 pm (UTC)(link)
[Everything is wrong and nothing is okay--but she doesn't seem injured, at least, and between the two of them, they can get the fish off. It flops weakly around.]

Oh... um...

[She looks at the fish, wincing.]

I messed up...

[A beat, and she realizes that her savior is standing right there. Very suddenly, she turns and bows her head to the other girl.]

But--thank you very much for saving me...!
leftinme: ("i'll do all i can to assist you.")

[personal profile] leftinme 2016-02-16 08:58 pm (UTC)(link)
[...

He still doesn't want to do this, but it's not like the majority of people here aren't humans (by his world's standards, at least), so he supposes he doesn't have much of a choice.]


... Let's just get on with it. And don't stutter so much—it's bad for communication.

[Aren't you looking forward to working with him, Mai...]
arteless: (002.)

[personal profile] arteless 2016-02-16 09:13 pm (UTC)(link)
I was... gonna see if they were gonna give me a bonus for bringing it in, honestly. [ mercenary work. kind of a bad habit, and those modified memories make him think he took a job down here in ocean land to make bank. ]
octoroom: (pic#10006780)

[personal profile] octoroom 2016-02-16 09:15 pm (UTC)(link)
[What. What is that. What is this. What are compliments. HE JUST NODS in a thanks(???). Downward they go, Iona!]

In the morning, you should come out and familiarise yourself more with the landmarks. [Then less chance of getting lost in case of, you know, crazy things happening.]
upcard: (✿ 30% completion that's bullshit)

[personal profile] upcard 2016-02-16 09:30 pm (UTC)(link)
I... okay... I'll do my best.

[He's not wrong, after all, but it's a little hard for her to not stutter, and her voice is as soft as ever.]

I'm...ready.
leftinme: ("... captain's orders.")

[personal profile] leftinme 2016-02-16 09:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Speak up too. At least tell me that your thoughts aren't this quiet...

[If she can at least think clearly, then it shouldn't be a problem in the water when they're using telepathy, but he's not feeling optimistic (not that he usually is, but details).

He glances at the list.]


First is the Crash Powder, so let's start with that. We might as well go down the list.
showybusiness: (HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO)

[personal profile] showybusiness 2016-02-16 09:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Let's just call it magic and machinery, then! Don't worry about the details, darling.

[ This is a FAMILY FRIENDLY conversation. ]
discardia: (Dem hips?)

[personal profile] discardia 2016-02-16 09:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Savory and sweet? Do you mean the toppings?

[ ... but you only put butter and jam on toast, right-- ]
discardia: (... Men.)

[personal profile] discardia 2016-02-16 09:55 pm (UTC)(link)
[ And in she steps, blinking-- "normal"? Is she? ]

I think a lot of this is still very strange...
discardia: (Re. jec. ted.)

[personal profile] discardia 2016-02-16 10:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes, I do!

[ Aren't we going to go into the airlock now-- ]
discardia: Getting kidnapped by phantom thieves and all (This is kind of a first for me)

[personal profile] discardia 2016-02-16 10:03 pm (UTC)(link)
[ BUT SHE'S SO CURIOUS don't deprive her of knowledge, Mettaton!! ]

Machinery? Are you a-- oh, I'm sorry! I can help you carry that back.

[ AND THEN YOU CAN ANSWER ALL OF HER AMNESIAC OTOME PROTAG QUESTIONS ABOUT WHAT A MASOCHIST IS ]
leftinme: ("...")

[personal profile] leftinme 2016-02-16 10:16 pm (UTC)(link)
[Who needs actually going through doors or whatever?]

Put on your goggles and breathing apparatus.

[Assuming she does so: because Brett is a jerk who won't give a human heads-up, his shadows extend until one is touching Cardia's... and then this is where things get weird (for her, at least). Namely, the both of them are then swallowed up by the shadows, and it'll be as if her body has become incorporeal as it proceeds to, well, phase into the floor.

And through the floor, and walls, and whatever is needed until they pop out outside of the base in the water, as both of them reemerge from the shadows that go back to swirling around Brett.

Voila.]
Edited 2016-02-16 22:18 (UTC)
showybusiness: (help i'm gay)

[personal profile] showybusiness 2016-02-16 10:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, would you? You're the sweetest, gorgeous, doing me a favor. Or rather, yourself a favor, because now you get to hang around me a little longer! Everyone wins!

[ His looping mass of metal arms begins to almost spool itself back into his shoulders, untangling the strangled, subdued fish. It's not dead, just... in distress. ]
infusion: (Good things to arrive)

[personal profile] infusion 2016-02-16 10:32 pm (UTC)(link)
[Toast is the next frontier of topping possibilities!!]

Yup! Apples and chocolate spread, peanut butter and bananas, and we can have a nice puffy cheese toast. Any of that sound good to you?
infusion: (Default)

[personal profile] infusion 2016-02-16 10:40 pm (UTC)(link)
[Sinking down, down, down... Also, yes, she's someone who piles on the compliments and uplifts people where they belong. It's just part of her nature.]

So, like a morning swim? I don't know if I want to handle that much water in the morning...
discardia: Don't question it (Dramatic windblown... post-train jump)

[personal profile] discardia 2016-02-16 10:42 pm (UTC)(link)
[ ... Okay, so maybe there's more than a trace of Impey in this person. No one else has called her so many pet names in the matter of minutes, even though that last line was more like Lupin's charming confidence (in himself).

It's interesting, nonetheless, and she swims closer to help get a grip on this poor, poor fish. ]


I suppose that's one way of looking at it. Thank you for your company?
scatterbrains: (pic#10006021)

[personal profile] scatterbrains 2016-02-16 10:43 pm (UTC)(link)
I want to remember them.

[well, at least she's honest.]

But I don't think being upset about it will help me remember any faster, either. Even if I never get them back, I have all the things I remember from after that point.
spidermouth: (Say AHHH)

[personal profile] spidermouth 2016-02-16 10:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Cheap shots aren't my style AT ALL.

[He repeats back in her own voice. Sorry, Undyne, that's going to be a thing he does.

He watches the display with wide eyes as Undyne does a series of acrobatic flips in her demonstration of skill. That's something far beyond Ygno's ability - both because of an inability to perform such aeronautic maneuvers, and because there's hardly enough room in here for someone as large as him to attempt them.

Instead, he shows a... different sort of strength. Ygnodentus opens his jaws wide, revealing this hellish mess of spider-like appendages coming from his mouth , all moveing unsettlingly before he snaps his mouth shut again, grinning.

He thrashes his tail around a bit, the blunt end of his hooked tail slams into the floor on either side of him, before whipping forward toward Undyne, hooking around the spear in her hand, and pulling as hard as he can manage, hoping to snatch it from the fishy warrior.

If it's successful, he'll bring it into his strong jaws and snap the spear in half. If not, well... Then they've got a tug of war on their hands.
]

exitiosus: (004)

c!

[personal profile] exitiosus 2016-02-16 10:55 pm (UTC)(link)
( Damian looked up knowingly as the man glanced over, arching a brow in return. He looks distinctly unimpressed with the man's lack of gear or how quickly he seemed to be ready. He pushes his foot irritably into his flipper as he answers. )

Why else would I be wasting my time with any of this? ( A sharp motion of one small hand to the flippers and then the goggles, perched on his forehead and ready to use. He doesn't draw attention to the golden belt fastened around his waist or the gloves (and brass knuckles) that he'd taken the time to put on before he'd even bothered with the items from his survival pack.

Holding his breathing apparatus in one hand, he rolls soundlessly onto his feet, staring up at the tall blond. Or rather, at the trident in his hands. There's a small hint of curiosity there, but mostly envy. A small hint of frustration and, perhaps, childish anger. He wishes he had access to more of his weapons - especially about to go out for something like this. He doesn't think he'll necessarily need them, but there's a brief thought that they could be useful down the line.
)

Let's go. ( Damian doesn't wait. He's already moving for the exit. )
upcard: (✿ can we talk this over first)

[personal profile] upcard 2016-02-16 11:10 pm (UTC)(link)
[They definitely are that quiet.]

... Right. I think... I remember how to harvest it, so that should be okay...

[Maybe.

Never underestimate an otome protag's ability to fuck things up.]
logdate: (8)

[personal profile] logdate 2016-02-16 11:10 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm aware.

[ Peridot's reply is flat and unamused. She doesn't have her limb enhancers - hasn't had them in a long time, in fact. She's very aware that she's not the most physically imposing gem. At least the topic is moving onto something else. She harumphs and squints through her visor. ]

That depends entirely on what we'd like to do with them. Toxins? Some sort of organic compound? Fuel?
little_lost_dragon: (Default)

[personal profile] little_lost_dragon 2016-02-16 11:10 pm (UTC)(link)
What's there to panic about?

[ Xiaolung closes the airlock, and after making sure Mai has her breather in place, starts it cycling. ]

Is being stuck here my ideal way to be spending time right now? No. But wasting cycles worrying about that doesn't do anything more than burn time I could be using for more immediate concerns, like how to harvest what we need from kamikaze carp without getting exploded.

[ With the airlock now full of water, the outer door opens, and Xiaolung kicks out into the ocean. He checks the surroundings with the practice of ounce used to working in three-dimensional navigation, then turns back towards Mia with a thumbs up gesture.

All clear out here.

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