subnautica | Let's go surfin' now, everybody's learning how, come on and safari with meeeee

a; open: gonna go for a swim

[ The base is comparatively quiet, comparatively dark. Except, perhaps, for the steady scrape of metal on metal.

Cheria is wearing her wetsuit, with her goggles and rebreather hung around her neck. She is dragging a seaglide. She is trying to drag it out into the water so she can go for a swim. Just a little one.

She has to take a break near one of the exits, gasping and coughing. She'll be fine once she's in the water. She just needs to make it that far.]

b; open: frandship

[ She might get caught leaving, but she can at least interact with one friend both inside and outside the base. It's the rabbitray she met in the dreamscape, the one that Jake shot. She doesn't know how she knows, but she does.

At the moment she's running alongside the rabbitray down one of the base's windowed corridors, reaching the far side, and then running back. She makes it half-way back before she gets dizzy, and almost all the way before she has to stop and try to catch her breath. The world seesaws, and she lays against the comfortable cool of the window.

The rabbitray swims in figure-eights outside, making her want to go out and join him. The water has to be cooler at least. She feels like she's about to sweat through her wetsuit.]

c; closed to dirk

[ She's following him. Whenever he's not watching her, almost. Watching around corners. Fleeing when he notices her. Following again, not very subtly, when he moves around the base.

When he goes outside, she feels a strange thrill of opportunity.

She puts on her gear and goes out into the water herself, feeling unspeakable relief at the pressure and the cold. She clings to the base, trying to figure out how to coordinate things properly to get out into deeper water.

The objective of following Dirk has been momentarily forgotten.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Setsuna's getting used to the idea of being encased like this, but it's not easy. She spends a lot of time just looking out the windows. Even though it's water, it feels limitless, the way the area around the door used to. When she's not investigating the laboratory she's started just walking idly around, taking in the view.

Today, however, the view inside is a little more interesting. She recognizes the girl from the dreamscape but she looks different here. She looks unwell. Setsuna approaches carefully, her voice gentle.]

Are you all right?

[ Cheria wipes her forehead, squinting over at the speaker. The voice is familiar -

Oh. Oh dear. She straightens up, tries to say something, and starts coughing instead. She needs to sit. It's sit or fall down, even though it feels incredibly improper to do in front of this woman. She's absolutely regal.

Cheria manages a weird sort of curtsey, even though she's not in a skirt, and sits down very carefully. ] Please excuse me. I'm very sorry.

[ Running was dumb. But she can't help remembering the way she ran in the dream, tireless, nothing holding her back, up and down the hills around Lhant.] I'm all right. I just... I did too much.

[She's wondering if she did the wrong thing when the coughing starts but it's pretty clear by the time she's settled that this is at the very least not new. The formality is still unexpected but to Setsuna it seems maybe she's just trying to protect herself as much as anything. If she's polite enough, maybe nobody will look too closely? Not likely.

Setsuna crouches next to Cheria, not quite ready to commit to sitting if she's not welcome but not willing to just walk away either.]

You didn't do anything wrong this time either. There's no need to apologize. At least, not to me.

[Setsuna watches her for a long moment but when she's sure she's not going to faint, she finally looks at the rabbitray outside the window.]

Who is your friend? He seems very concerned.

[makoto pokes his head out from one of the rooms into the hallway, unable to fully fall asleep and dragged out of his makeshift bed by the sound of metal on metal. it's easy to find the source, and his worries of some scary sea monster are laid to rest.]

Oh! Do you need help?

[here 2 help makoto tachibunyan]

[Cheria is allowed to swim around for a few moments. He lets her go for one, two minutes...

And then all of a sudden Dirk is behind her.]

Hey.

[Strider Ninjas.]

[Her surprise results in an explosion of bubbles from her rebreather, and a broadcast of psychic static that's more or less the equivalent of a yelp.

She's not getting enough air. She can't draw in enough air through the tiny machine. She shouldn't have come out here. She's going to drown.

No, she is, she's fine, it's fine, she's fine.

At least she still has a grip on the base. She looks past Dirk, toward the endless blue, wishing desperately that she knew how to reach it without help.

But there's Dirk, and he said hello. With his mind. Which is something she can do now, too.

It sounds as tentative as she feels.]

Hello.

[Oh shit. He fucked up, he killed a little girl, great job, Dirk—He's about to flashstep over to her but he realizes that she's okay and he is still as if he never moved. And she speaks.]

You shouldn't be going out there.

Let's go surfin' now, everybody's learning how, come on and safari with meeeee

b, assuming this is open?

it is!

Re: it is!

a...!

c

no subject

no subject