subnautica | an arrival

1 | Farm

[Jade isn't sure what she was expecting from the new universe, but pumpkins were not it. The underwater dome is also kind of a shock. What's bothering her more than any of that, though, is that she appears to be alone. Again.

Jade extracts herself from the pumpkin patch and begins to poke around. Things feel weird here - she can't feel out everything with her space powers like she used to, or at least not the to same extent. She can feel out most of the farm area, but beyond that... nothing. Is this what it means to be out of the Medium, finally? She begins to float around idly, taking everything in. There's a lot of different kinds of plants here, so at least she doesn't need to worry about starving. But who set all of this up?

Jade cups her hands around her mouth and calls out:]

Hello? Is anybody here? I like your plants!

2 | Base

[Eventually, Jade finds her way to the base through use of the underground tunnel and a little bit of teleportation along the way. She's a little tired after all of that, but her curiosity far outweighs any exhaustion.

Anybody who happens across her will find a teenage girl with fluffy white dog ears floating a couple of inches above the ground, her "Fun Survival Pack" clutched to her chest, mumbling and unended stream of questions to herself as she takes everything in. She may not be entirely paying attention to where she's going.]

How did all of this end up in the new universe? Is this just Sburb trying to give us a headstart in colonizing the new world? Why is there all this water here? And what happened to- oof!

[Guess who just floated into a wall. Maybe offer the new girl some help?]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You're missin' out on a chance for Attack on Strider, but sure. I'll grab one of Roxy's pumpkins.

[He just ducks into the nearest room and grabs a pumpkin because there have been so many pumpkins, Jade. So many. Roxy just keeps making them appear. And then he tucks it into his sylladex.]

I can lead you to it. It's probably best you have a spotter for testing your powers out anyway.

[These are rules that he had to enforce with Dave, and then Dave enforced them back at him. Now Jade has to pay the price.]

[Yet another pumpkin. It's still strange to Jade that the pumpkins here seem to stay in place. (At least so far.)]

A spotter sounds like a very good idea! Plus, if it turns out my powers are safe for inanimate objects, I can jump right into human testing.

[She sounds maybe a little too cheerful saying the words "human testing."]

Okay, Dirk! Lead the way!

[It isn't like Dirk is objecting. Who was he supposed to experiment on alone in the ocean? Lil Cal? Have some human decency.

But he gestures for Jade to follow him and quickly zips out over to the hatch and out into the ocean. He has learned how to use Godtier flight in the ocean (the method: just do it) so he doesn't bother swimming to the surface, instead just jetting up with the power of oceanflight.

Once they break the surface, he points her towards the island in the distance.]

That's Floater Island. It's supposed to move around but we set it in place with magnets.

[A pause, because he doesn't know if he should say this. But it doesn't seem like a big deal? He knows how much Jade means to Jake.]

Jake fixed up the observatory to stay there sometimes. For when the base gets too much. I usually peel off to the Aurora's wreckage instead. It's a crashed ship from this era so there's a lot of robotics to play around with there.

[And Roxy hits up the Void. They all really need to work on their socialization skills, but a crowded base is a lot to deal with for kids who grew up in total isolation.]

[Jade has yet to do much exploration of the ocean, but it isn't like she's scared of the water. She follows Dirk out, though she uses quick bursts of teleportation rather than god tier flight in order to reach the surface. She shields her face with her hand as she looks out over the water at the island, squinting a bit.]

How long would it take to swim there from here? [Beat.] Or fly there. That would probably be faster.

[She also considers his comments about the observatory and the ship. She decides not to pry about Jake - she can ask him in person if she needs to know - but the ship sounds cool.]

And the ship sounds neat! What kind of robots are there?

It's about thirty minutes by air. I don't swim there often. Forty minutes, maybe.

[He doesn't know. Flight is faster and easier, and also it means less bumping into Stalkers who all believe that Dirk owes them fish in return for pieces of shiny. Dirk knows Dave loves those things, but he only has so many fish on him.]

As for the robots, we've taken most of them back or stripped them for parts. Mostly I look through the systems left there.

If you're interested in robotics, we can head to the tech lab when we get back.

[For all that he speaks in his standard inexpressive monotone, he's a little excited. Jade may not be the Jade English, but he is pretty sure she's still a genius. The idea of working on projects with her is amazing.]

Thirty minutes isn't that bad! If it turns out that it's safe to teleport people, then I bet I can get us back even quicker.

[It goes without saying that she's not going to try and teleport over until she's sure it's safe for both of them. A death in the name of science could very well count as heroic! Instead, Jade starts flying off in that direction, turning back to make sure that Dirk is following her.]

I am! I am not as much of a whiz at robots as my Grandpa was, but I had to fix my dreambots a couple of times, and I know my way around a welding iron!

Also, a tech lab sounds really cool! Do you only work with robots there, or do you do all kinds of techs?

[He follows with her easily.]

If you're like your Grandpa then you probably also understate your own abilities.

[He has had too much experience with Jake downplaying his skills with pretty much everything, particularly scientific matters. He isn't surprised to hear a mild statement on skills from Jade.]

I do a variety of work. Robots are just what I'm best at.

That's really cool! Do you do any work with nuclear physics? That is my scientific specialty.

[Of course, she hasn't really tinkered with nuclear materials in a while, but she can change that! Hopefully it will be easier to get things done when there are other people around to bounce ideas off of.]

And what about the plants? Is anybody crossbreeding them or doing any bio-engineering?

Not too much. I've used a bit in other projects but I'm pretty sure Jake has more experience on that end.

[It's comfortable soaring through the sky, and Jade is easy to talk to. She doesn't remind him too much of Jake or Jane either way (too excitable for Jane, simply not enough Jakeisms for Jake) but it's a natural rhythm. Maybe it's the synthetic process.]

Roxy's been playing around with the genetic elements in some plants she found. One of the people from this universe, Naoko, has also engaged in a few projects, but we haven't gone near them. [beat] Mostly. [so apparently roxy stole one on accident whoops]

[Jade feels content as she flies along: even if she's only been in this new world for a few hours now, it doesn't seem so bad. There are people here that she can talk to, including her friends, and plenty of opportunity for scientific exploration and gardening. What's not to like?]

Mostly? Why haven't you gone near them? Are they dangerous or something?

Edited 2016-09-29 18:22 (UTC)

[Dirk honestly feels the same. When he first arrived, it was a punch to the gut: Waterworld again and the detritus of human civilization. But he's had half a year with his family, months repairing his friendships with Roxy and Jake, and plenty of time to meet new people and do knew things. He hates the way people vanish; he hates that Jane and others from their group aren't here. But he would be content to make this is home. It is much better than living alone.]

It's less that they might be dangerous and more that it would probably piss Naoko off. She's a survivor from the Aurora spaceship native to this world. She isn't likely to appreciate supply theft.

On the other hand, I'm fairly confident Roxy accidentally void-stole one of her creations already.

The Aurora is the same shipwreck you mentioned earlier, right? So there were survivors?

[That's good to hear, at least. Usually the word "wreckage" didn't bode well for survivors.]

Why wouldn't she want to share her creations with everybody else, though? They're plants - once you have a few seeds, there should be enough to go around!

an arrival | action

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