subnautica | each little clam here know how to jam here (OPEN MINGLE POST)

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each little clam here know how to jam here (OPEN MINGLE POST)

There's a very big, very important expedition happening - the base's first trip as a group to the Aurora to go salvage what's inside! Very big, very important, and happening... next month. They're not going anywhere until they've conducted some research on that downed ship and gathered a good base of intel on how they might take care of - and protect - themselves.

A: THE ACTUAL WRECK

Maybe you're a daredevil who's not afraid of a little bit of radiation/fire/falling debris/angry wildlife hiding in a burned-out chassis. Or maybe you're one of the lucky ones who's immune to the radiation and are doing your part for the team. Either way, the monstrous silhouette of the Aurora looms in the distant waters of the Safe Shallows. Available for use are three Seaglides and one Seamoth to get out there, if you desire - although you might have to compete for their use. If you're feeling athletic, maybe you can even swim out there.

The radiation leak has been plugged, but the radiation itself is still dissipating from the area, so you probably shouldn't spend too long out here if you don't want to get sick. The hull of the ship is pockmarked with holes and damage, but not all of them are fit to be used as entrances by the crewmembers. Some of them might even have already been claimed by Crashes mistaking the dark nooks for caves. If you do get inside, there are still fires burning within the ship. Be careful out there!

B: GRASSY PLATEAU

Gotta get out there and check that new biome for resources before our big adventure. The Grassy Plateau is still largely unexplored, with plenty of treasures (or, well, survival resources) to be found.

In search of food? Apparently, those sand shark eggs are good eating, if you're daring enough to go toe-to-toe with a mother predator. Or maybe you'd prefer more exotic cuisine. Has anyone tried eating a Mesmer yet?

Alternatively, the expansive caves of this area are chock full of vibrant and unusual plant life that might offer some tasty nutrition to the hungry diver. Or there might be some that are medicinal - or toxic. Finding metals is another goal set by Ursula this month, and there's ore hiding deep down in the cave systems.

C: PARKS AND WRECKS

The Aurora's explosion left plenty of scrap metal around, and although some of it was cannibalized to fix the radiation leak, there are still husks of ship parts lying around on the ocean floor. If you're out searching for food, weapons, or other resources in any region, it may be worth investigating them to see if anything useful survived. The life pods embedded in the sand seem like a good place to start.

D: OTHER

You don't have to go foraging in the Grassy Plateau. Feel free to assist in preparations by gathering things from any of the biomes! Or you can stay in the base working on making all that weird stuff everyone else is collecting into something edible/helpful/otherwise useful.

(ooc: this is an open post for everyone to participate in the mission, similar to fukami's mingle post earlier in the month!! post your own toplevels and do your thing.)

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I KNOW HOW TO COUNT!

[ Her mental voice is probably a bit too "loud", but it's not like she cares right now. Peridot grits her teeth and tries to focus, slowly counting her way around the swarm of creatures. It's not exactly easy, but she does have a good head for numbers. She starts to turn, muttering to herself mentally.

Why her? ]

I - think that's all of them-

[ Once there's a count, Ellana sends a short mental "acknowledgement" to Peridot, before following with: ]

I'm going to blow them all back when I release this barrier. As soon as I release, swim to our left and that hall out. If you can help bring down any debris to stall them behind us, do. If you can't, don't stop swimming.

[ So carefully she calls the power to her, aching in a way for that familiarity that's held at such a distance here. Even so, she calls what she can, collecting and letting the familiar tingle of mana gather and pool as she willed it to, pouring outward in a steady thrum that makes the barrier around them glow.

Then, with a violent cut of her hand through the water in front of her, all that carefully, painfully collected energy presses outward with a feeling of near shock, a boom they can hear without it needing to have sound.

Time to swim as all the bleeders are pushed back, many dying on the impact of the magical energy barrier exploding out through the water, but far fewer than she liked. Water slowed her down in this. She needs to work on recalculating. Lightning was easy enough to understand to manipulate, but she has to remember she's working with water, not air, and it gives and takes in different eddies, follows different yet similar rules of malleability.

But for now, they have their moment. ]

I really hope you know what you're doing...!

[ Magical powers aren't exactly alien to her, but it's still a bit of a shock when the one-armed human (elf) sends a blast of power rippling through the water around them. Since when could they do that? They were usually depressingly weak. Peridot doesn't have time to sit and stare, though. She shakes herself and immediately takes off swimming. She's not exactly the most elegant of swimmers, but she makes good progress. She pauses in the doorway, glancing back and trying to suppress her twinge of worry. ]

Hurry up! Before I leave you here!

[ She absolutely doesn't in specific, but in general? Surviving. It's a wonderful thing to know how to do, and often is best performed by the seat of one's figurative or literal pants.

Or wetsuit, as the case may be.

Ellana has adapted a swimming style that primarily uses her legs to propel her around, her good arm something of a point to guide her through the water or to catch on and hold and help her change direction or anchor on as she wishes. Right now, she's pulling on energy reserves to swim after Peridot, glancing at the doorway as she swims up to (and by) Peridot. ]

Let's focus on not leaving anyone anywhere? We need to get back to the halls we took in, we don't want to end up getting lost and cornered in the bowels of this ship.

[ Nice thought, but really, right now she's just swimming to get out of easy swarm range of the remaining, heavily distracted bleeders. ]

Don't remind me...!

[ The idea of being stuck down here in the wreckage and low visibility is a bit of a nightmare. She'll pass, thanks. She grabs onto a railing hanging off the wall and pushes off after Ellana, glancing over her shoulder. So far the bleeders aren't chasing them, but that will probably change soon. She tries to slow herself down as the pair find a fork up ahead. ]

Wait, right or left?

[ Stress sucks. ]

Left.

[ Ellana is perhaps too used to operating under these kinds of stresses. She communicates the direction, along with a strong push that way, as if her mind could somehow communicate that as well. ]

Are you sure?

[ She definitely sounds sure to Peridot, but it never hurts to check. She's being pushed though, so Peridot just starts to swim, pulling herself along using the buckled, twisted wall. It's faster than trying to swim. Her gem-light flicks on and it illuminates the gloomy water in front of them as she maneuvers through the wreck. ]

This place is a death-trap... Who had the bright idea of coming down here?

Both of us. There are resources here we've barely begun to —

[ The gem light registered, but more as... well, Ellana presumed it wasn't attached to Peridot's forehead. Only when she glances toward the smaller woman, that's exactly what it looks like is happening.

Will things cease to get stranger and stranger?

She kicks off the wall, bringing her legs up under her and repeating the process to springboard back down the tunnel-hall. ]

— begun to explore. Which we'll need, to move past survival into thriving and finding answers to our questions about our roles here. Even if we believe this is exactly where we're supposed to be, as you do. Watch out!

[ A slow trickle of debris falling through the water overhead is part of the hall resettling, small crab-like creatures skittering out of the way as Ellana clings and flattens herself against one side of the hall. ]

Edited 2016-04-29 03:05 (UTC)

[ Yeah, about that, Ellana. Things are about to get pretty darn strange. She throws a glance back toward Ellana (probably flashing her right in the eyes as she does). ]

Resources? Sure! But there has to be an easier way to-

[ Her train of thought is interrupted by the trickle of debris and Ellana's mental shout. She has a moment to glance up, just in time to see a section of the hull buckle and fall straight for her. ]

Oh my stars-!

[ Peridot tries to scramble back out of the way, but she's not quite quick enough. A piece of debris catches her on the way down and there's a puff of green... smoke? Underwater it's hard to tell. More like a flash of color and as the dust settles, there's a glinting gemstone sitting among the dust and debris. ]

Edited 2016-04-29 03:12 (UTC)

[ There's a light, then there is no light. Ellana twists around, turning to look back to where Peridot had just been. Debris has resettled, sending up silt that Ellana squints her eyes against even as she pushes off the wall to jet on over. ]

Peridot!

[ There's nothing of the woman to be seen, only... an accessory, some stone that catches Ellana's eye. She settles near the stone, barely glancing at it; Peridot has to be caught under the section of metal and framework. ]

Hold on! I'll get this off you!

[ Cursing at her own ineptitude in determining where it'd fall, she calls on that tenuous connection to the Fade, making herself go calm, pooling energy until she can jerk her hand up, the metal shifting up and hovering with ease in the water before her. She moves it further, a flick of her fingers and a twist of her wrist placing it in the hall behind her, the direction they'd been swimming from. Soon there's a jammed barrier in place, but there's no sign of Peridot.

Ellana lets her connection to the Fade turn passive, letting go of the panel she moved. The stone glitters darkly by her feet as she crouches, calling out, looking through the silty waters for a sign of the small green woman: ]

Peridot! Where are you? Did you fall through to another room!

[ There is, alas, no reply. Just a small stone sitting amongst the refuse. It glints in the dim light.

Shiny. ]

[ This is a comedy of errors that Ellana doesn't know is a comedy of errors. It takes time for her to comb the area over, picking up the green stone and tucking it into one of her pouches while she tries to figure out where in the world Peridot could have gone. There's no hole to another area, there's no side hall, there's no response to repeated mental calls. It's as if Peridot has simply disappeared.

(It's what she privately wonders might have happened to others, before.)

In the dangers of the area still not being safe, she ultimately decides she needs to move; marking the location before she leaves to be able to identify it again later. She can see if heading back out will find her any answers, or if she'll need to get back to base to learn what it is that's happened to Peridot.

Or else explain yet one more person has gone missing, and this time, at least be a witness to the process. ]

[ It takes a few minutes for something else of note to happen. During that time Ellana, might have made it outside of the ship or maybe she's still poking around inside. Either way, about ten minutes later, she might notice that the pouch at her side is... glowing. Or at least there's light doing its best to shine through the material. There's also an insistent nudge or pressure as something tries to find space to grow into. In fact, that's probably what gets her attention in the first place - the steady, growing feeling of something pushing.

Better hope it's not going to explode. ]

[ Still in the ship, she feels something moving at her side. Suffice to say, her response is to brush at it. Yet it's insistent: she looks down, and she has no idea what's happening, but she pulls that pouch off and throws it away from her, erecting a shield around herself in spite of her exhaustion.

She'll eat plenty well tonight. ]

[ The pouch rolls through the water and finally impacts against the wall and slowly rolls to the floor, settling in the water. The pressure from inside finally pops the pouch open and the white glow of light spills out into the corridor. Somewhere inside the light there's a rather familiar shape starting to form - and then as the metaphorical dust clears, Peridot is sitting on the ground, blinking owlishly, with the pouch perched on the top of her head like some sort of miniature, odd hat. ]

-that's always so uncomfortable! And inefficient!

[ ... ]

You don't want to know how close I was to electrocuting you just now, Peridot. What happened to you? How did you get here?

[ Ellana drops her barrier, not without narrowing her eyes and feeling only slightly less tense than before. ]

You're uninjured?

I'm not cracked am I-?

[ Peridot reaches up to touch the gemstone set in her forehead with a frown and then glances down at herself, as if she's making sure all of her limbs are where they should be. ]

To answer your question - I'm fine. I temporarily had to abandon my physical form due to impending bodily harm.

Of course. That's the only logical thing for a person to do.

[ She does not mean that at all and it "shows" in her mental tone of voice. ]

Next time you go out exploring with someone unfamiliar with your race, might I suggest you inform them of the changeable nature of your physical form?

[ She doesn't tell her about the energy she wasted in trying to find her, or the concern-slash-irritation at Peridot cropping up again like this, or even how silly her pouch looks on Peridot's head. Ellana simply swims closer, reaches out, and snatches the pouch away. She doesn't like these kinds of surprises. What if she'd left the — the stone? Peridot's stone back in the halls behind? They couldn't afford to keep losing crew members, particularly since she had no idea in the world what they were going to do if they came down to having just a handful left! ]

I wasn't exactly expecting to have a whole spaceship fall on my head!

[ Peridot's mental "tone" is sharp and irritated. Why is Ellana complaining? She's not the one that got a bunch of heavy metal bits dropped on her. It's not her fault that Ellana never asked. And it's definitely not her fault that she didn't clarify. She frowns, squinting at Ellana through the water and then tries to float a bit higher. ]

It's not like it matters, anyway. I'm fine.

[ Mutually assured of their own self-righteous irritation, Ellana merely turns and keeps swimming. She'll keep in mind to ask people "what strange but useful abilities do you possess that I'd have no reasonable means of asking about in particular that I should, in fact, know about before we go adventuring? even if you think it's common place and wouldn't bother stating it even right now because of course everyone knows."

Yes, sounds like just the way to screen absolutely everyone from now on. ]

Ah.

[ ... that's the sum total of her response as she decides to just focus on swimming and screw worrying about Peridot! ]

[ Peridot stares after Ellana and doesn't bother to try and compartmentalize her irritation. Instead she lets it run riot and after a moment of silent fuming, goes chasing after her. Number one, she's not getting left behind. Number two, and probably more importantly, she needs to get the last word. ]

What are you so upset about? It's not like you're hurt!

[ Still ignoring her in the interest of fending off a few crab-creatures that take an interest in her passage. She'd prefer to be out in the open water, not because she likes it better, but because being in the Aurora right now is more chancy, more frightening.

Thus it's when she's outside that she answers the question posed back within the Aurora. ]

When we rely on each other to survive, being forthright about what we assume should be obvious is a better practice than continuing to assume that what you know, everyone knows. What if I'd left your stone trapped back under the metal in the halls? What happens then?

[ Peridot keeps stewing in her own irritation until they're outside. She's ready to give Ellana a piece of her mind (a very large piece, really) but Ellana gets the first word in and Peridot just stares at her for a moment as she processes the words.

She has the sinking feeling that Ellana's right about that part. Her gaze drops and she finds a fascinating bit of seaweed to stare at. If she was trapped under debris, there'd be no way that she'd be able to reform. She needs space to do that. She could've been down there for eons. For forever, really. ]

That... would probably have not been ideal.

[ Ellana watches her for a few seconds. Eventually she breathes out in a sigh, the bubbles filtering out of her breathing apparatus in a large rush. ]

No. It wouldn't. And now that I know it's something you do as a way of keeping yourself safe, I know to look for your stone. I suggest you inform the rest of anyone you go with when you scout. As for us, shall we head back?

[ Peridot is aware that this is a peace offering and it's one she's sort of extended herself. She could get bitey again or she could just let it be. She suppresses the urge to turn this into a fight (because she's right, she's right, she has to be right) and instead swallows her pride. For once. ]

Agreed. I don't think staying here is going to be conducive to our long-term health...

(no subject)

maserannas - 2016-05-03 19:34 (UTC) - Expand

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