fishesoutofwater | TEST DIVE #2

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test dive

TEST DIVE #2

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

TEST DIVE MEME

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

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: 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: Almost, but not quite, Entirely Unlike Tea
The droids, URSULA promises, will do their best to make anything you want. Go on! Ask them anything! She’s excited. This seems like a great way to test out their capacities.

Of course, you need to be very careful what you wish for. Maybe you ask for Hamlet by William Shakespeare, and they do their best but only know so much, giving you a book with some… creative changes. Maybe you ask for a puzzle box, but you weren’t specific enough and things went awry.

Maybe you made the mistake of asking for tea..

No matter what, you were given something that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike what you asked for. Now what do you do with it?

E: CREATURE FEATURES (possible body horror)
As more data is collected on the creatures of the deep, DNA can also be gathered to allow URSULA to research how to integrate it into her crew members in useful and hopefully unintrusive ways, unless of course permission is given first for more obvious or exhausting additions.

Well, that's the idea, anyway.

Unfortunately, something malfunctioned while URSULA was researching. Her incomplete serum was injected into you through your devices while you slept (or maybe you were knocked unconscious by the sudden change to your body). Now maybe you have the temperament of a Stalker or the thirst of a Bleeder or Gasopod pods on your back that trigger when you're startled. How this genetic malfunction works and what it is can be up to you but while URSULA assures you it's only temporary, you're stuck like this for now.

Have fun?

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ She has very little idea what he's prattling on about in specifics (she even has a better idea of what Cole tends to ramble on about), but the gist of it boils down to a simple enough question: ]

I see. By any chance, you're not an author in your spare time, are you?

[ ... You know. The important questions in life. ]

[beat]

I do some creative work.

[ Beat. ]

Thought so. I have a friend who'd have loved to meet you, were they here.

[ Then with a clap of her hand against her thigh, she goes with: ]

What's your name?

[Dirk isn't entirely certain how to take this. He does think it might be cool to meet whoever this is, but even then, he's wary.]

Dirk.

[He should probably say, 'What is yours?' but doesn't get that far. His uncertainty has made him monosyllabic.]

[ Everyone should want to meet Varric. ... Or promptly get away from him. It's up in the air. ]

Nice to meet you, Dirk. Should I run into anyone with questions regarding your new protegee once they're up and moving on their own, I'll be sure to direct them your way.

[ Ah, said with a lopsided grin. She's not kidding, as it were, but she doesn't think it'll be necessary. Or if it is, getting tracked down over what one's misbehaving children have gotten up to is all part of the mutual learning curve. Probably. ]

Or if they're looking for, ah. "Sick rhymes?"

[ ... what did that really mean, though? ]

[He doesn't mind people tracking him down about a tiny little modded bot. It's not like he's going to turn any of them into the auto-responder. No, he's pretty sure that the droid series will just be nice, lowkey bots.

Who can and will rap constantly.

Which, on that subject:]

No rap in your world, then?

[Tragic. Absolutely tragic.]

[ A small shake of her head. ]

I suspect we don't when you ask like that. What is rap when it's not a physical action?

[ He didn't start designing boxing metal golems, did he. That's a terrible plan. ]

[...He didn't... start teaching these particular metal golems to box?

LOOK, ELLANA. HE HAD TO TRAIN WITH SOMEONE.]

It's a form of music. Specifically, it's a form of music that focuses on rhythm and rhyme as the primary vector for musicality. Melody takes a secondary role, if it's even present, to flow, which relies on cadence and rhyming to emphasize certain words in time with the accompanying beat.

[He doesn't feel it can be fully understood without a practical witness, but he respects that perhaps some lead-in would help.]

[ She'd have honestly been impressed to learn he built his own metal golems to hone physical skills! Just... less impressed if he built attack golems without informing everyone how to bypass their defenses. Or activation. ]

Sounds interesting. Would you be able to 'sing' me an example?

[ Sing meant in the loosest sense, but singing takes many forms. The control and use of the voice is capable of a great many things; melody can be secondary to the cadence of the voice in music she's heard before. She's totally got this. (No she doesn't.) ]

[Well, considering he was the only other living being... (Let's not talk about brobot.)

Just visible above the edge of his sunglasses, his eyebrows raise up.]

Okay. Do you wanna throw me a topic?

[ With zero hesitation: ]

Land.

[ Anything not underwater. Is it a good topic? No, no, it isn't. But it is heartfelt. ]

[A pause.

He reaches down into the innards of the droid he has been modifying. With a couple of adjustments, he gets a nice rap beat going to underline it.

And then he drops those rhymes.]

You ever looked out to sea?
Miles to see, miles of me,
Blue turned blacker eventually
Never known the feel of a growing tree.
Wonder what it's like beyond,
Does the earth sing a song? A song that keeps going on?
Wonder if I'll ever learn to sing along?
Or if I tried I'd sing it wrong.
Spring blooms; fall loss;
Flower buds and spreading moss,
Kelp forests underneath the soaring albatross
The grass is always greener when you can't get across.
I'm saying I will; I'm saying I'd kill,
I'm saying I'd lose my head just to have the thrill,
Of walking bare feet in the grassy earth.
But when I make land, I'm feelin' dead dirt.

[ It's different, but... it's an interesting kind of different. So once Dirk is done, Ellana finds herself quirking her lips up at the corner and clapping her good hand against her thigh for a version of applause. That sense of rhythm and the beat has a cadence she appreciates. Not really like the poetry or singing she's heard in Orlais, or heard out of Tevinter. Not like the songs she learned growing up with her clan, though the rhyming, that's similar. Almost nostalgic. She thinks she might like hearing more of this "rap." ]

Interesting note to end on. [ More to a point: ] Impressive! All that was off the top of your head?

[Embrace the sickwicked joys of ill rhymes, Ellana.

Dirk offers a brief nod of his head.] You can't really call yourself a rapper if you're unable to drop some freestyle rhymes. That was particularly true in the 1980s, where rap battle culture was a prominent part of the style. Even with the increase of commercial recordings over the rest of the 20th century, the freestyle rap remains an important marker of a true MC from the big label-manufactured imitators.

[...And so he just glides from verse right into academic nerdiness about one of his hobbies. He has a problem. It's a nerd problem.]

[ Nerds are good people, or can be. She knows a few herself, and in some respects, can be one, on different topics. Most of what Dirk says doesn't mean much of anything to Ellana, but the gist of it is enough that she can follow along with a general idea of what he means. She can tell it means something to him, which is more than enough, in its way. ]

Ah. And this freestyle rap is what I should expect from your modified metal golem?

Exactly. Wiz can drop some verse when an order is given. I've worked on programming him so that both his rhyme and his ability to give you what you actually want will improve over time based on correction.

[He gives the little droid a pat.]

Even if he never gets it absolutely right, we'll just keep pushing the curve closer and closer to that limit of true accuracy.

So it's Wiz now?

[ He has a name. He's evolving! Partial joke aside, it's a concept she understands and agrees with; from where she stands, people all try learning in similar ways. Even if they never hit "true accuracy," and even if those things they're attempting to reach aren't ones anyone really should. ]

It sounds like an honourable goal, on the surface. Yet what limits are there to him understanding what he's trying to give? People aren't always logical. The things we might ask for may not be things he knows how to give, or knows not to give.

My bro—[wait should he even be calling Dave that. fuck it just roll with it]—wanted him to have a name that will be easy to work into raps.

[And so a nice, single-syllable name that can be rhymed with lots of things. The perfect designation.]

We're already in that situation with the droids as they stand. They misinterpret our requests, and they don't seem to think about the potential danger. By responding to what we tell him, he'll learn how to handle illogical requests over time. Further, he's programmed to avoid enabling harm. There are ways to sidestep that, but I'd need to program him with a significantly more advanced mindset for him to know how to counter that any further. And that is not something I'm willing to do.

[The AR was enough. He is not making that mistake again.]

[ She listens, then nods at the end of what he's saying. Programmed might not be the word she'd have used when left to her own devices, but it was the one that everyone more familiar with these technologies used. She didn't doubt it was the right one. He's taking steps and precautions, thinking about what he's asking for the droid to do, and what he's allowing in the same sense. It's good to hear, instead of presumptions that everything would be fine. ]

You've thought about it. That's a comfort to know.

[ With a glance toward the droid: ]

I should probably leave you to your work, shouldn't I?

It would be incredibly goddamned shitty to bring anything into this world without thinking it through. Even a rudimentary rapbot AI.

[No offence, Wiz. He loves you.

He gives a little shrug of his shoulders. Honestly, after spending his entire life working alone, it's kinda nice to have people dropping by while he works. They're better company than the AR or Squarewave.] Whatever suits you.

People are shitty.

[ Uplifting comment of the day. It's not even dismissive in how she says it. Acknowledging something she's found true, yes, but not dismissing... people. She can't, really. She likes them in spite of themselves. ]

Not always because they intend to be. What we all do to correct mistakes, to make the world a better place... I would say that counts more, but it really comes back down to will, execution, and perspective.

[ She breathes out in a soft scoff; evil is a matter of perspective, and sometimes "fact" when the majority can label something as an act of evil. Yet that evil believes what it is doing is the greater right, regardless of how an objective is achieved. And evil acts can be committed by people whose hearts aren't evil.

... People are complicated and it's worth fighting for the right for them to exist and not be shitty, even dealing with the shitty along the way. This is a mental divergence she needs to stop exploring. ]

Mm. Mind if I come back by in a little while with an attempt at a meal? I'm getting better at this whole "preparing sea foods" thing.

[ Her food's pretty okay, just not, you know, anything to write home about. ]

[No argument from him. People are shitty. Humans enabled the Condesce's own takeover of their people; humans enacted great violences against themselves long before she stepped in. And at least her methods had some grace to them. Even if they were completely abominable.

As to the rest... Maybe he doesn't have a place to comment on that. He told Dave that trying not to be evil and feeling bad about it was a pretty low bar to set. But he can't exactly criticized that kind of tempered optimism. It might even be what he believes, at least on better days.

Instead, he focuses on the actual question. It's the easiest part to reply to.]

Yeah, sure. If you're interested, I can give you a few pointers.

[Nothing but sea life and non-perishables for the postapocalypse ocean child.]

[ Ellana needs some form of optimism. Being realistic and pragmatic are parts of her personality as well, but the dire pessimism isn't something she can embrace. Not if her world is going to have a chance. Not if her old god-not-god lover is going to possibly be convinced not to end the world to bring back an age that he'd partly ended the world to stop in the first place.

... if only she knew how strange Dirk's life was.

Either way, if he has pointers on the seafood deal, she's all ears! It's an opportunity to learn. ]

Why not? My clan traded with one of the coastal city-states in the Free Marches, but preparing seafood was never all that common for us. I'd appreciate any pointers you have to offer.

[Ow. Ow. Romancing Solas. Truly, there are people in the world with even more painful romantic experiences than Dirk.

Don't let Dirk tell you about Homestuck.]

No problem.

I don't believe I ever got your name.

[He knows how to ask about names. He understands this human emotion called greetings.]

[ She makes great choices in everything minus all the terrible decisions she's made.

... and asking Dirk to explain Homestuck might be one of the terrible ones, if she ever does. ]

I don't believe you did. It's Ellana.

[ Making it an announcement paired with a small wave of her hand, fingers splaying. As she turns to head toward the kitchen, inclining her head in that direction as an invitation of sorts, she adds: ]

Formerly of Clan Lavellan.

[ Since she'd just mentioned her clan anyway. Not much of a secret; just not what she asked people to call her around here. ]

TEST DIVE #2

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