action; set during the first week of july post-intro;

[parodeity]

open: snoop observatory;

[ for the week or so following the arrival of the newbies, dave spends a lot of time dicking around slightly closer to base. yes, he can still be found at the farm a fair amount, but he figures he should be closer to hand until they all stop looking like a wreck or acting remotely off. of course, this doesn't mean he's willing to just sit around doing nothing, so he turns back to what has more or less become his pet project in subnautica: messing around with the Song. he's heard the Void Song now in addition to the Song and he now, thanks to dirk, has turntables.

the outcome of this is fairly obvious. dave decides why not and begins making mixes. he's way more familiar with the Song, which the reefbacks taught him to perfection, so that's what he can be found messing around with for the most part. anyone who goes into the observatory with magister snoop dogg might find dave mixing the Song. the music can be heard if you want or not heard if you don't. in the observatory maybe the more relevant thing would be magister snoop dogg fist bumping dave through the glass (literally every time dave walks by) and excitedly going up to the glass to do the same with you.

surely you would not leave this cutie hanging??? ]

Man, you can't leave him hanging, give him a bump.

open: safe shallows;

[ or maybe you are less interested in the magister (sacrilege) and more interested in the song experiments. dave has a few different versions so you can come across him in the safe shallows doing one or the other.

the happy mix will mean you come across dave playing his new jams with various seacreatures relaxing and becoming happier. even reapers will hesitate about being huge jerks when they hear it although HOPEFULLY WE DON'T SEE ANY OF THOSE?

the angry mix will...cause infighting among the sealife and dave will pretty immediately kill those tunes with a frown when he causes a rabbitray riot, glaring down at his wrist database. ]

Well, shit. Didn't want that to happen.

closed: strider dumbassery;

[ the remixes of the void song he hasn't played, though he's composed them. while this will turn out to be a terrible idea later, today (probably the 7th of july or so?) dave figures he will go out into the safe shallows to test his newest soundtracks on the sealife. the magister's reaction to most of them was still to be sleepy, although he'd puffed up at one (weirdly). dave doesn't really test a lot of shit on his precious baby alien fishspawn, though, so. shallows it is! stalkers are his pals.

after thinking about it, he'd figured that dirk might be into the thing, so he'd requested his brother meet up with him that morning to play around with some musical mayhem.

which, again. will probably end badly for them both. ]

Okay, so I kinda don't wanna play the angry remix since it made the poor dudes fight - the rabbitrays I mean - but I can play the happy one if you wanna see or we can start off with the new one off the bat.

[ this, of course, is the day dave decides dirk should come and spectate. of fucking course it is. ]

Comments

this was a bad idea dave

[splinten]

[Dirk slows his drift in the water. He's still wearing his shades, so it isn't the most visible thing, but he's just... hrm.]

You made a remix that made what are basically sea puppies aggressive.

If you're interested in explaining more about what you're doing, I've got a sudden impulse towards the attentive.

[Yeah, Dirk is approaching this with serious wariness. He may not be the older brother right now, but he feels like he should be.]

i mean, yes

[parodeity]

[ dirk will someday learn to trust that inner voice that says "maybe i should stop what is going down because this sounds dumb" at least in regards to dave. sometimes being controlling isn't a bad thing, when it comes to idiot younger brothers. for now, though, dave just nods. ]

Yeah, I think it has to do with what I felt while I was mixin' it and what I was goin' for? Like, I got a mix of the song - the one the reefbacks worked on with me, that one - and I was happy when I did that one and made it upbeat and it makes them all relaxed and shit. The other one which I am not gonna be doin' any longer made them, you know, not upbeat.

The new mixes I got involve a different song I've picked up, idk if that'll do anything or not.

[ this sounds terribly ill-advised but dave seems calm about it. ]

[splinten]

[....]

You've been remixing the magical song that put a number of people to sleep and interfered with their dreams, and which can apparently affect the moods of the animal life.

[He should have known? But this is so ill-advised. But then he probably would have tried it himself. But this is so ill-advised.]

What mood were you in when you mixed this new song?

[nonpareille]

[ Dirk has caught Cheria trying to leave the base twice in as many days. She wants to get out into the water, feel the sun through the ripples overhead, and swim until... Well, she hasn't thought that far. It doesn't matter that she can't swim either. That's what things like the Seaglide are for, if she can manage to get one outside.

She's worried about her family, for one thing. For Asbel and her grandfather in particular, for Richard and Sophie, for Lady Lhant and even the Captain. Why weren't they rescued, too? Why doesn't anyone else seem to remember the crash?

It's hard for her to tell sometimes if she's awake. The song from her dreams seems like it's waiting every time she starts to drift, and drifting is so easy. At least she's used to feeling sick, if not this badly ill. Her grandpa always told her to mind her bad days, to not push, but she can't bear staying still in this place.

Which is why she's passing the snoopservatory when she hears a snatch of music and stops like she's been frozen in place.

Dreaming? Is she dreaming?

She tip-toes closer, focused on the music and not on the tapping on the glass. When the very Dirk-like person tells her to give someone a bump, her first reaction is confusion.

Which is when she sees Magister Snoop Dogg, and goes over to put her hand on the glass.] Like... this?

[parodeity]

Nearly, kiddo. But put your hand in a fist first. Like this.

[ he shifts his headphones to his neck, then takes them off entirely to go over to the glass, tapping it gently with his own fist at the magister taps the glass with his tentacles.

the cute fish does a few flips of joy in the water. ]

Fist bumps are an important part of interactin' with the Magister here.

[nonpareille]

[She very gently mimics the action, watching the creature on the other side with fascination.]

His name is Magister? I thought a Magister was a teacher or a scientist.

safe shallows!

[napstablook]

[ So Napstablook felt claustrophobic in the base, so they'd come out into the open. Their diving suit was totally superfluous, but they thought they had to wear it. Not wearing it would be great, but they'd rather not mess up. They were already unsure that they should even be out here, looking for the farm that was around.

Well, looking or not, they were here, and there was music playing. Interest piqued, they drifted over to the source of the happy tune. A few sea creatures seemed to be enchanted by the beat. Napstablook had to admit that it was pretty good.

So they were drifting there for now, just listening, not even trying to look for the source of the music. ]

[parodeity]

[ it's a good thing napstablook's wearing the diving suit, because otherwise dave might think they were some new variety of sealife. ...or not, since he'd managed to catch a glimpse of most of the newbies (there's only like, fifty odd people on base and he knew all the people who'd been there before the monolith) and might have recognized the...ghost? thing? but.

he's not actually sure what this dude's name is.

however, never let it be said that dave strider doesn't appreciate someone jamming out to his tunes, even if it's just relaxing. ]

What d'you think?

[ so he may as well ask for some feedback. ]

[napstablook]

[ Though Dave has no way of knowing it yet, he should be very flattered. The beat was so good that it took Napstablook out of their shell briefly. They didn't even get a bit startled that someone else was 'speaking', and instead gave their honest answer. ]

It's well balanced. The stereo's pretty good too... and I like the boosts you gave in that last minute too.

[ They turned around to face Dave. It was only then that they realised what they were doing. Their bobbing stopped suddenly. ]

Oh... I'm sorry... I didn't mean to be rude and walk in on you...

[alienates]

[ for the last few days karkat, like all the other new arrivals, has been acting. off. it can be kind of hard to tell, since he's normally pretty skittish in general. a lot of people would probably just assume he's being his usual dramatic and weird self, except dave would be able to tell that he's also not quite right like the others.

it's partly why karkat has tried very hard not to hang out with dave as much as he normally would. he's been using excuses such as wanting to spend time with the other kids or wanting to explore the area or just not wanting to get in the way of dave's undersea shenanigans. this has probably had mixed results; dave most likely keeps a pretty tight watch on karkat, but at the same time he can't always be babysitting him. it's just not feasible.

this is one of the times where he wasn't being watched. he was actually in the middle of attempting another break for the ocean, but karkat wanted to make sure dave was Occupied first so he wouldn't get caught after. he pokes his head in the observatory, witnesses the fist bump between human mom and fish son, and is about to keep moving on when dave speaks out to him. ]

I already fist bumped him earlier. You know that I don't just freely give those out, I am not a bump dispenser, Dave.

[parodeity]

Dude, fistbump the baby. You don't leave wigglers hangin', it's rude as fuck.

[ dave...hasn't actually been spending as much time with karkat as he would have on the meteor, either. it isn't like he doesn't frequently track the troll down, but a lot of his time has other claims, too. john and rose are around (and kanaya isn't, so rose actually is free more than she would have been) and roxy, too. the friends he's made around the base. the magister. and more than any of those, dirk, who never seems to get sick of dave's following him around or bothering him.

which isn't to say he wouldn't have asked dirk to have wiz keep an eye on karkat with the newbies acting off, because haha no the family drone will keep you on base if dave can't, karkat.

he moves the headphones from his ears to his neck, raising an eyebrow at his boyfriend. ]

[alienates]

[ ugh he should have just sped on by without looking inside. karkat debates on absconding or not, but in the end the magister wins out and karkat shuffles into the room and towards the tank.

he fistbumps back. he has done his fatherly duties of the day.

Ok well, I gotta go now bye. [ karkat is about to run out but pauses after he takes a few steps. ] Wait, what are you doing? A remix?

observatory.

[overachiefer]

[You know... she's just been exploring the base, getting a better feel for everything and learning what she can while having just arrived, but when magister snoop dog suddenly is there to say hello....

She's not really going to hesitate.

FIST BUMPING FOR GREAT JUSTICE.]

There...!

[parodeity]

[ this is the absolute best circumstance to meet dave strider in because being willing to fishbump his BEAUTIFUL ALIEN FISH SON is the best way to win a slot on his good side.

not that getting on his good side is hard. but still. ]

Good job, man. [ ...lady. whatever. the magister does some overjoyed flips in the tank... ] He gets sad when people don't say hello properly, y'know?

[overachiefer]

[It's cute... Look at those flips!!]

I can imagine... it's only polite, anyway.

[Even if the magister is just a fish.]

Is he a good friend of yours?

snoooooop

[discardia]

... [ Okay. Okay, she's got this. Dirk has imparted upon her the nature of the fist bump and the gravity of such a gesture, so of course...

SHE'S GONNA FIST BUMP. ]

the only prompt that matters tbh...i swore i'd do it

[parodeity]

[ THE MAGISTER DOES LIKE THREE FLIPS IN JOY AFTER THE FIST BUMP IS SECURED.

and dave gives cardia a little half-grin as he pauses on his music mixing. ]

I'm thinkin' you picked that up from someone else around here.

the best prompt!!

[discardia]

[ Cardia smiles in return, more than a little pleased that she's pulled it off with enough aplomb that the fish is ecstatically flipping over it. ]

Dirk taught me-- as well as the high and low five.

[ SHE WAS A GOOD STUDENT. ]

how do you expect me not to tag the magister

[hopefragment]

...?

[Hajime has yet to bump the fish. Instead, he seems to be trying to put some pieces together in his head, which while not always his strongest suit, usually he's a bit better at it. Then again, he usually does get at least ten whole minutes to put the pieces of a case together, and he's not usually feeling as out of it as he has been this week.]

Is... there a reason these fish are in an aquarium separate from the ones in the lab?

[It seems kind of weird to him to have two aquariums for what are presumably all ocean fish?]

[parodeity]

Dude, you're doin' the leavin' him hangin' thing. If you make my son sad I will have to end you a little bit?

[ and. there's the reason this is separate... ]

And yeah. The Magister ain't for studyin' or eatin', he's imprinted on me and I am raising him to perfection.

snoop boop

[oneandmikleonly]

[it's the music that attracted him, actually; he's (unfortunately) memorized the whole Void Song but never actually heard a full play of any version of the Song before. he pauses in the observatory entrance, though, giving Dave, then the admittedly adorable Magister a confused look.]

Do you mean...bump the glass? That won't upset him?

[parodeity]

Just do it lightly. And nah, if anythin' he'll be more upset by you not fistbumpin' him.

[ because dave has raised his fish child weirdly. ]

[splasher]

[...and fistbump]

Did you teach him that?

[and magister snoop dogg spins backwards, apparently excited.]

[that doesn't seem right, but then again... anything goes in this place, it seems. don't mind makoto; he's just wandering around the base, getting familiarised with it, and perhaps the sound of the song led him here. it's cool.]

[parodeity]

Haha, def did. When you get an alien fishbaby who imprints on you, you gotta teach him the basics?

[ dave

dave why are you allowed to raise a child ]

please pretend this isn't two weeks late | observatory

[59]

What the fuck, [ flatly, because Gokudera's patience for stupid shit is at -1000 and his energy level isn't much higher. He hasn't been able to rest well since he arrived, nor has he been able to smoke regularly, so his nerves feel shot. The last thing he wanted to stumble into was annoyingly omnipresent music, let alone that and a stupid, expectant, cheerful fish.

Damn it. He was just trying to find something to do... ]

You're kidding me.