subnautica | JELLY SHROOM CAVE BASE EXPLORATION

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JELLY SHROOM CAVE BASE EXPLORATION | ACTION

[In the early morning, just after breakfast is cleaned up, Sorey sends a telepathic broadcast to whoever is still currently hanging around the base:

Hey everyone! We found a strange cave way down deep in the tunnels a couple of weeks ago, and the fish down there told us there were humans living down there somehow! We’re going to check it out today. You’re welcome to come with, but bring some kind of shielding, all right? There’s a whole bunch of Tiger Plants on the route, and those spikes they shoot are no joke!

Mikleo chimes in: If you have swimming troubles, I should be able to take you around, though a couple of you might want to bring Seaglides as well. We mapped out a partial safe route, but keep in mind there’s some very large predators, and the water pressure’s going to be pretty intense if you move too far from us down there. Come prepared for that.

Should you as an intrepid explorer decide to venture down into the tunnels with them, there’s plenty to see. Glowing Jelly Shrooms are scattered across the caves, the only bit of light offered so far down in the dark. Sorey and Mikleo will lead the group in a careful circuit through them, not going too close. It’s easy to see why when a couple of Crabsnakes poke their heads out curiously.

The abandoned base the group will come across is small but has some useful items if you care to take a look. There’s also a dully glowing three-person Seamoth to be discovered not too far away, out of power, if any technologically-inclined people want to figure out how to get that back to base for use.

((OOC: Open mission post for Jelly Shroom Base Exploration! Sorey and Mikleo will tag whoever tags in, but feel free to jump other people as well and branch your explorations out separately if you’d like. There’s a lot to find!))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[That... would be the logical thing to assume it's about, but Dirk still feels like romance is off-limits in their conversations even though it really isn't ever and Dave has even introduced him to his boyfriend. Even so. Dirk goes silent briefly.

Eventually, there's a fraction of a shift in the angle of his head. A shrug, for him.]

We're... working on things. He doesn't want absolutely nothing to do with me, so that's certainly a strong start. We both have a lot of personal issues to work through, and I think acknowledging that has helped us both with respect to bringing those problems to our friendship.

[ honestly, it isn't the romance part dave's even concerned about. he goes silent for a minute or two (one minute, forty-two seconds) as he tries to figure out how to word it. it's not his usual route to say things straight up without a million layers of bullshit or a long time beating around the bush until dirk stares him down but he does occasionally try to be straight-up.

with dirk. everyone else still gets the usual bullshit, although rose has been able to deal with it for years. ]

I figured he was ignoring whatever bullshit you're doing re: not deserving interactions with people who give a fuck about you, but I just wanted to double-check.

[ so basically he was concerned about dirk's ridiculous emotional shit rather than dirk's romance. which was dumb, and he knows it, but maybe if he'd started trying to talk to people about their problems earlier, he'd have been able to say something to rose when she started drinking all the time instead of leaving it up to vriska.

how the hell would that have ended up without the spidertroll? dave knows he wasn't going to say a word to rose about it, because...

...well. because he didn't know how and that was frankly one of his biggest regrets for not knowing how to handle this kind of shit. rose isn't going to dissolve into an alcoholic mess again (he thinks?) but it'd be nice to have the emotional capacity to like, be there for her. for everyone. ugh this is difficult???? ]

I'm extremely terrible at comfort and helpin' shit but I guess just lemme know if you need to talk or whatnot? I will attempt to be less terrible. I'd like to not completely flunk brother school, again.

[ he means the shit with rose, this time, which dirk knows nothing about. ]

[It takes Dirk a little more time to process: Dave was worried about him? Dave was worried about him being upset, and cutting himself off from a friend, and...

That feels weird still.]

Jake and I had a conversation on the platform. We agreed to... try to be better people to each other, I guess? He's still seriously blaming himself for too much of that disaster but we're trying on working out our friendship again.

[Which is what it comes down to. Dirk could live with losing a boyfriend, he's pretty sure he'd get over that eventually. But he really, really missed Jake as his best friend.]

For what it's worth, I can't imagine you flunking brother school here. You've been really good to me.

You haven't let me yet.

[ flunk, he means. he's actually tried to abscond from several conversations when he hasn't had the know-how to deal with them, but for once can't abscond, bro wasn't used in a way that utterly sucked. ]

I haven't always been there for people when I should have been. When I, like, actually wanted to be?

[ and even now he still wouldn't know what to say to rose, if he turned back the clock. ]

But I've decided that even if I don't know what the fuck to say in these situations I want to say something rather than nothing. I'd rather be there for y'all in terrible technicolor than just not, I guess?

And that sounds chill. You should just do what you and I've done and call a truce on assigning blame, because I seriously doubt either of you is goin' to back down on who fucked up the worst, as someone who knows you pretty damn fuckin' well and someone who has been best friends with two Harleyberts since forever. They are stubborn little shits? So are we, but they're all, like, positive about it.

[He is pretty sure this is about Rose. He is also pretty sure this connects to an off-handed comment Dave once made about having to let spidertroll step in when he himself couldn't.

He pulls his brother in for a watery hug.]

You look great in technicolour.

[Becaus Striders are goodlooking assholes? Yes totally. Dave has Roxy's genes too, he's glorious in technicolour. (That isn't the point, he knows. But he thinks Dave knows what he really means.)]

That's more or less what we're trying. We had a good conversation about it while I was avoiding paying attention to Raimi's Spider-Man? We agreed to set aside blame for the sake of deciding what we did or didn't like about our relationship. Which I'm using in the broader sense.

It turns out that not depending entirely on defensive irony and deep denial to avoid unpleasantness actually facilitates human connection. [...Which didn't stop the irony in his tone but you will pry verbal irony from his cold dead lips.]

Don't let anyone else hear you say that.

[ about the irony? dirk can obviously tell anyone he likes that dave looks great in technicolor. but god forbid dave admit to anyone else that defensive irony and deep denial are not great coping mechanisms and that he's attempting to learn not to automatically use them when it's down to the wire and he wants to be there for people.

he doesn't even flinch at being pulled in for a hug, regardless of how fast or slow dirk reached out for him, and just hugs back. though he's. mildly disgruntled about the irony thing - mostly for show. ]

They would have a field day. All of them. Everyone. We have to take it to our graves.

[ ... ]

Why the fuck have we both seen so many terrible movies for no ironic purpose whatsoever.

Because most of the people we know have terrible taste.

[So many of them? It's awful. This is obviously the most important part of the conversation now.]

I have tried for years to get John's taste to not suck, to no avail. Why do I love that dude?

[ everyone he loves save like dirk needs new taste stat??????? ]

You're the only person I know with decent taste in anything.

[It is the true mystery of the love they feel for people with bad taste. Which is basically everyone but them.]

They can't help that we're just too fucking awesome.

Speaking of awesome I took a selfie with gramps?

[ gramps being jake in this context

as with many of dave's topic changes this isn't really an effort to change the topic away from something so much as the result of his meandering mind. ]

I'm beginning to doubt your brotherly capabilities when you say things like that yet didn't send me the selfies immediately.

[All Dave selfies are hilarious and stupid, so Dirk needs to see them all?]

Wow, that's not the way to convince me to share my awesome selfie?

[ dave raises an eyebrow. TRY AGAIN, I GUESS?

though really dave why did you bother to send dirk fifty pictures of stalkers in the past like week and not a selfie with his bff. no one wants to see that many pictures of stalkers? ]

I will underwater noogie you.

[In a monotone but really—

Okay he wants to see Jake making a dumb selfie with Dave because he wants Jake to be relaxed and happy, but also he really just likes every picture Dave takes. Including all the pictures of Stalkers.

Dirk is such a sucker for Dave.]

Ok, who told you threats were better than sayin' please?

[ dirk stop encouraging dave's instagram tendencies???? although at least this means he has someone to send pictures to who won't, like. get furious about it.

there is literally no way karkat enjoys getting pictures of dave's every meal so he's probably already been yelled at for that. while...laughing...

get new hobbies, dave strider. ]

With sugar on top, that makes it better.

[ he's waiting????????? ]

I taught my damn self.

[He warned Dave. Now he is going for the subaqueous noogie session.]

[ well, he can. try. dave is a cheater, though, and apparently he's choosing to give dirk a hard time about this one particular thing. because teasing is one of the varieties of affection dave is actually good with.

"cheating" in this scenario means when dirk goes in to get at dave's head a second pair of hands hauls him backwards to give dave exactly the time required to disappear and become himself getting behind dirk and then watching himself fuck with time in exactly the same way.

you could...start cheating at a lower level than that, dave.

like maybe a beginner's course? ]

That wasn't "please", dude.

[ also he's putting distance between them because just say please dirk ]

[Hands what the—Dirk turns around and he realizes what is happening.]

You are the highest caliber of shit that can be produced from the ecologically unbalanced gastrointestinal systems of a pure McDonalds diet.

[Now Dirk is determined. The picture is no longer important. He has to figure out how to outwit stable timeloops. Once he gets a hold on Dave's torso, he's pretty sure he can make it game over. He just has to get that far.

Dirk moves again. Except the obvious "Dirk" that goes for Dave is just an afterimage. So is the one that comes at Dave from the side.

The real Dirk goes for Dave's feet to try to yank him downwards and into his arms.]

Not my fault you weren't prepped for that shit.

[ dave doesn't seem remotely as determined because he's almost casually giving dirk a hard time here about...apparently playing keep-away? sure. that seems fun. he makes his plans on the fly, always, but it's occurred to him more than a few times that even if he can't do unstable loops (wouldn't for this lowkey shit anyway, dead daves are the enemy) there are some very interesting ways to abuse stable timeloops here.

like.

even more so than at home.

because here? dave can talk to himself without anyone else tuning in. there's no need to be in his own line of sight to use hand signals or body language to clue himself in on shit. he can talk directly into his own mind and no one else will ever know.

so the dave who is stationed out of his own eyesight and out of attack range but who is specifically there to give him a full view of the battlefield (himself, after this is done) simply says Below and dave reacts to the actual dirk. he hadn't flinched at the afterimages though he'd tensed up - not in the sense that he was upset, but in the sense that he was trying to figure out where the attack was going to come from so he could avoid it.

he's probably not very upset since dave is just.

laughing...as he uses a one-dave-army advantage to dodge and tap dirk's arm before jetting off. he's going to keep using his own future intel here? so you're going to have to out cheat the worst human-kid cheater here, or figure out a way to stop dave cheating to start with.

or just like

get him to stop dicking around, that is also an option ]

Tag, you're it.

[ considering the amount of amused taunting dave just loaded that with, dirk is probably not going to call it quits though. ]

[Holy. Fucking. Shit. Dirk doesn't even know how Dave managed to cheat that time and it's fucking him up. Dirk stays still in the water, floating there. His hair undulates with the jelly shrooms, catching the purple glow as he jets away.

For a long time, Dirk stays very still. He doesn't move, not to follow, not to plan anything at all. He just stays in the water, silent.

And then:]

Good choice on the shades. The selfie wouldn't work if you'd kept them on.

[You know what Dirk remembered while he was hovering in the water trying to work out how to defeat the world's worst cheater?

He has wireless access to all of Dave's tech.]

[ rude. dave rarely ever even thinks about the fact he's handed over anything technological to dirk at one point or another, for upgrades or waterproofing or just because dirk asked and dave didn't really give a fuck. there's very little on his devices he cares about other people finding. if he doesn't want dirk or roxy to get into something it's not like locking it or password protecting it would do much so he just kind of labels it along the lines of "yo leave this alone" and calls them out in the filename?

he'd only titled the selfie "saveforjade". there is actually a lot of shit along those lines. dave's filing system is sort of haphazard but it works?

he snorts. ]

So you're admittin' you'd lose this game of tag, I'll take the win.

[ losing has never bothered dave overmuch but he's pretty sure forcing dirk to choose the worst cheating option means he won, somehow. ]

Bromrade, it ain't losing if you get what you were going for.

[Yeah Dirk isn't that bothered by this. He assessed his opponent's skillset, acknowledged where he was outplayed, and pursued the path that played to his talents. He is in fact pretty pleased with himself for ignoring his own pride and cutting through the bullshit by operating on another plane. He is getting better at cheating every day!

Thanks, Dave.]

Yeah, don't do that to other people, though.

[ THEY'D BE MORE FURIOUS? dave can't work up the actual antagonism to be anything above "mildly irked" though. ]

But it's def losin' since you couldn't tag me back, duh. What do you have against asking me nicely for something, anyway?

[There is a shades-hidden eyeroll. 'Don't hack other people.' Yes, Dave, he fucking knows.]

Other people don't abuse time travel to cheat. We weren't playing tag, dude. We were playing keep-away.

[And Dave is a dirty cheater and must be stopped at all costs. Honestly. Dave should be worried about the bad things that Dirk is learning from him?]

I don't have anything against it in theory. In practice, I eventually concluded that I wouldn't ask you nicely for the well-reasoned conclusion that I didn't want to.

[ ok but do you really know, dirk, sometimes dave is pretty sure you're worse at boundaries than he is!!! and dave would worry if he...didn't think surviving was more important than playing fair? but as it is he has never seen the benefit of playing fair.

you only get beat down by playing fair. ]

I was playin' tag, I even said tag. But that figures. I don't think you've ever said please to me once. Karkat never does either.

[ everyone he knows is a rude fuck -

no, dave pauses. ]

Scratch that. You have said please before.

I say 'please' with appropriate frequency.

[He is actually usually not too badly mannered? Verbally, at least. He generally asks for things indirectly which is why it isn't always obvious but he really has no problem with 'please' and 'thank you.' He is pretty sure he has said both to most of his friends.]

I'd estimate with reasonable certainty that I say it more frequently than you do.

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