subnautica | March Intro: Head First

March Intro: Head First

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Arrival!

It was supposed to be a routine mission. Maybe you think you’ve been here for a bit or maybe you just arrived. Either way, you know there was supposed to be a completely normal underwater mission, probably just gathering resources, unless you just arrived, in which case welcome!

Unfortunately, somehow you’ve been dumped somewhere you shouldn’t be. A woman’s voice can be heard, robotic in tone with hints of emotion. That emotion mostly seems to be mild surprise.

"Life signs detected. Life forms are non-native to this planet. They... oh. Oh dear, I wasn’t prepared after all. Please refrain from dying for a moment. Your things are incoming."

Your eyes open underwater. At least you're near the surface. But the moment you break through you'll notice one thing: the ocean, stretching out for miles around you in all directions with no end in sight and only a very distant gleaming metal structure in the far distance. You're not alone but this surely isn't what you expected. In fact, you really can't understand how you managed to get from where you were to underwater so fast.

None of your belongings are with you save the clothing on your body. And the depths below you offer no comfort, the light engulfed before it can reach wherever the sea bottom is.

Somewhere, you hear a sound shaking through the water, like something between a whale and a foghorn.

No turning back now.

Prompts!

A: WHALE OF A TALE
As it turns out, there is hope for those who can't swim or get help from someone who can. Something emerges from the depths, a massive bed of coral that makes that strange sound, allowing people to climb on top of it. Of course, that bed of coral is actually the back of a massive creature that moves how it pleases and occasionally dives back down underwater.

There is a pod of them around the area calling to each other. They're friendly, or at least they don't seem to mind any poking or hangers on. But one of their long tendrils may still give you a good whack on accident.

If you’re really lucky you can probably ride one all the way back to the base. Wouldn’t that be a fantastic entrance?

B: HELP ARRIVES
At least, some assistance arrives. Strange little robots on propellers arrive fifteen or so minutes later, rushing to the scene carrying a floating bin of some sort. They drop it into the ocean and buzz excitedly around it in the hopes of luring people over.

Inside the bin are goggles, breathing devices and knives enough for the new arrivals. The knives have a compass on the hilt that has a marker for the direction of the base. One robot will play a helpful recording from the robotic woman for those getting their gear:

"Please deposit any articles of clothing getting in the way of swimming in the bin. We will be sure they arrive safely at the base. Do not try to swim in anything that will bog you down."

A pause.

"Swimming nude is not recommended. There can be... unpleasant issues. For future reference, please consult me before going on missions like this."

C: UNDER THE SEA
Of course, there's no reason to rush right to the base. This place is certainly beautiful in its own right and has a few caves to explore - watch those stingers hanging from the ceilings - with an abundance of strange and wonderful fish eager to either play with you or dart away as fast as possible. Of course there's plenty of Reefbacks still calling to each other and a large amount of floating rocks with Floaters attached.

D: MATING SEASON
On second thought, maybe heading to the base is a good idea. Occasionally you might see plumes of dust near the ocean floor. Exploring these is a very bad idea. The moment you get close, a Sand Shark will explode out of the sand, ready to attack. They range from five to eight feet in length and will pursue you without mercy. At least they give up if you get near the surface or hide in the right caves.

Unfortunately, it's mating season. That means dozens of them can appear at any time trying to court a female with acts of aggression and skill. And you really don't want to be in the middle of that.

E: HOME SWEET HOME
You did it! You made it to the base. You are probably dead tired by now having swam quite a long distance—or somehow riding a Reefback all the way here—and the sun is beginning to set. Upon arrival, URSULA will welcome you and give you a quick rundown of the lockers (where your personal items can be found, as safe as if you stored them there yourself) and the base's layout if you’re new. She will also recommend that you put on your communication device and settling in. She will then just as quickly apologise by saying that she must finish preparing the base for the others.

"Please give me a few days to finish retooling the base. Oh, I'm so excited. We're going to make a great team, I promise. And don't go back to that biome yet until mating season is over. Sand Sharks are... troublesome."

F: WILDCARD
The ocean is yours to explore! Maybe your characters will find places to take breaks. Maybe they'll start gathering things. Maybe they'll murder fish! Or maybe they'll get lost in the dark and take a rather long time to find the base. Or just crash the kitchen for some of that delicious fish, more fish and seaweed! It's all up to you!

See the Biomes page for the currently accessible areas or details on current wildlife and the Base page for all your base needs. Direct any questions and plotting to the OOC post and have fun!

BASED ON CODE BY TESSISAMESS AND SUPERSUITS

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[She stares wildly at him out of one gigantic lidless eye. This is not the time for handshakes! What else could he want?

Give her a few minutes to recover, she was literally just way over her head.]

I see. And these different species coexist? [He can't mean those animals as she knows them, she thinks. It's interesting.]

But there must be dry spaces. This is a human effort. Humans like water, but cannot swim indefinitely.

[Well, at least Mai is?! Fukami's tensed up, a couple of his tentacles closer to the surface, coiled in the case he needs to smack something out of the air and strangle it a little.

But apparently they're just dropping off shit. And by that I mean a bin.

It bobs close to the two of them and Fukami narrows his eyes at it. Okay. He'll just stretch out a tentacle or two and carefully feel inside of said bin, careful in case it'd close like a steel trap. Nope. No trap.] Hm.

[And then the robots play their recording. Huh.]

Yes.

[There's a religious association with angels among the other species of human in her world, but it's very mild. An old angel meditating on a mountaintop, keeping themselves warm with their small soft wings, is a cultural image she's well aware of.]

The default is tetrapodal. [Tongue-flick. Yep, that really is the part of the statement that strikes her as most noteworthy.] I see...

[...Huh.

She peers inside the bin, picking out the goggles and breathing device slowly. Does... she know how to use this??? Goggles, yes, breathing device... still up in the air, honestly.

She's fiddling, hang on.

But you're crazy if you think she's taking off her dress, robots!!!!]

A new city...?

[Hm...]

Just for humans, though? I mean... you're here too, so it should be for you too, right?

[Down the hall they go! Mai is not going to argue that, honestly; it seems as good a way to go as any, and she feels both better and safer for the company.]

It all seems really mysterious, doesn't it? I've never been...anywhere like this. [Obviously.]

It's amazing to be in the ocean like this.

I've never been anywhere like this either. The technology is completely different from what I'm used to.

[Pausing briefly before they take another turn to look up and around them, at all of the water and sea life outside of the base.]

Living underwater is different too. Maybe we can find a beach nearby, so we can go up every once in a while.

I understand, of course. Even if it is only a game, it still will not do for them to be on their own in a place like this...

[She frowns a little.] I do hope they are looking for you as well. It would make everything much easier for... all of you.

[ Oh... oh that thing she can do with her eyes is weird. Ellana catches herself staring, making herself look away. She knows she's being rude. It's difficult to check that impulse when faced with someone alien and not bent on killing her.

It's probably a thought she should look at more closely, though she sets it aside for now. ]

When you say stripped, is that as bad as I'm imagining? Killing off what lives here now to claim resources without respecting the lands that produced them? ... Or the seas, as the case may be.

Well, unless you're confessing to being thousands of years old, then you're still younger than some of those I've met.

[ Can a mental voice be jaunty? There's a lighter lilt to it; she's in her thirties, and she's loved someone who was, for most intents and purposes, at one time immortal. Not unkillable, but extraordinarily long lived, before he destroyed what allowed that existence in favour of freeing people from their overlords. Age feels so relative after that... and knowledge as vast and deep as a world's worth of unknown ocean.

Strangely grounding, for all she's far from dry land. ]

Which means you have time yet to learn about this place, too. If that's what you want.

[ She dearly hopes they're not here for long enough to rival whatever lifespan he's already lived. ]

As for me, I'm going to focus on swimming that direction.

[ With a gesture, she indicates the way he'd shown from earlier. ]

Familiarity will be important for all of us, but... speaking as someone whose fingers and toes protest constant submersion, so does some time drying off. I'll see you around?

[ Is he planning on living out in the open waters? She wouldn't judge that, honestly, but knowing where one of those here plans to live is information she figures she should be keeping track of as she goes along. ]

Pretty much. Most miners go after dead rocks, asteroids and so on. Usually it doesn't matter what you do to those, and it's easier than mining a living world. Still. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen sometimes.

[She turns her head, and trades which eye is looking at Ellana and which isn't.]

Your people haven't gone into space, have you?

[ Those eyes... she shakes her head, answering the question while also shaking herself out of her preoccupation. ]

No. Unless space is another word for the Fade, I don't believe we've ventured into whatever that is.

[ Space isn't even an intuitive word for the stars in the sky, from where she stands. Space is what one takes up, is what an object requires, what one needs for a building or a campsite or any number of things, but "space" is not much of a location. ]

"There'll always be time for that in the future. Accidents happen, for one, and for another, tempers flare. Keeping active and not cooped up in here is one way to help with the latter." With a nod of her head to the sea beyond the glass, she breathes out in a quiet sigh.

"So tell me, Jamie, where were you before all of this?"

I'm more of a... runner than a fighter, miss.

[ that's the closest way he could say, 'i'm utter crap in fighting.' without, you know, embarrassing himself in front of someone who clearly is an expert in the field.

still. nice to hear someone's experience in training was pleasant. rare to hear from where was from but she seemed sincere. it was... nice. so he tried his best to be nice back, while also trying to sound impressive in font of someone who can use both a sword and the elements in a fight. ]

I focus more on brainy stuff, ya know? Makin' stuff. And things. For the others to use 'cause it'll be of more use to them than me.

[ that is not helping. this is not helping.

please help.

trying to find a way to push them away without touching them while he looks at fukami with an almost desperate look on his face. he points at one of the creatures and makes a shooing motion with his arms. some scatter but more simply take their place as the frightened ones opt to go to fukami instead, as if thinking well maybe he won't do that to them. ]

Oh, that would be so lovely!

[Beach episode, beach episode.]

I think it's beautiful down here, but... I think I'd miss the sun a little if we were down here forever...

More or less. Different animals will interact differently, however.

[The predators do still eat fish sometimes, though they usually don't eat the ones that are more people-shaped--

But Fukami merely lifts his shoulders in a small shrug.] A ship, perhaps.

...Do you know what this is?

[He knows what goggles are, even if he doesn't need them himself, so a free tentacle is pointing at the breathing device.

No clue whatsoever what that device is, nope.]

[Fukami shakes his head. Not thousands, no. Hundreds, certainly, though it does pique his interest slightly that she knows someone who has lived for as long as that. It's not unheard of where he's from either, of course, but even he hasn't had an opportunity to meet many like those.]

Yes.

... I will return before nightfall, most likely. [Just to be on the safe side. Hey, Fukami's used to living in a house as well. Albeit an underwater one.]

[There's no help for you, sea creature whisperer.

Fukami glances down briefly as those who've been shooed come to him instead and he thinks about the possibilities. Perhaps if they had something that they liked to eat... All right. He moves, looking in this area and that, collecting kelp, some much smaller fish in the coils of a couple of his tentacles, to test out to see what they might like.]

[ Elves, man. Her understanding of her own race and their collective history has changed far too quickly in the last handful of years.

What he says seems to be enough for her, Ellana inclining her head to him once more as she heads out. ]

Safe travels to you.

[ A simple statement before she heads out of the caves and considers her options in heading back toward the base. Safe travels for us all. ]

[ they are very capable young assassins, but he agrees nonetheless. All he can do is hope they have a better idea of what's going on than he does - because he sure is confused. And he's not confused often. ]

Yes, it would. [ they're probably looking for him either way. ] Are you on your own in a place like this, Miss Montilyet?

They mean something to those groups.

[ how is he going to explain ethnicity to a small alien lady?? he's going to need a better lesson plan. ]

It's part of their heritage. Surely even you belong to a specific clan or family just because of how you were born, no?

[ ... ironically, he himself doesn't, but he's an outlier and will not count himself ]

[ thank you for preventing his manga from coming to an anticlimactic end so soon, Fukami... His first instinct is to flee as soon as he feels himself being grabbed, but the water impedes his speed so much that he can't. Which is a good thing, in this situation, since it means he doesn't sink to the bottom of the ocean like an idiot. Fortunately for Fukami, he doesn't weigh much, anyway. ]

Nyu... [ how embarrassing... he sits there somewhat stiffly in Fukami's tentacles, somewhere between ashamed and wary. ] S-sorry. But this is a very exciting discovery for my planet! Friendly alien life...!

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March Intro: Head First

lemme one-up you on that

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sorry for the late! i caught the flu

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