Subnautical Naughtiness (Ocfos)

[Mashugana]

"Negative, no signs of intelligent life in the immediate area. Nearest online pod is...calculating... 9.65606 kilometers to the south, and has three occupants." the AI answers. "They appear to be chef Naoki Kukara, crewman Grigori Feishpatter, and abbot Ti'lesh Quiodlo. Would you like to open communications with them?"

So there were other survivors thankfully, though these were fairly far away. You might need to gather resources and possibly find a faster way to get there to be efficient about meeting them, especially if they're injured.

[Ocfos]

"Communications? Yes!" Nellie says aloud to herself, almost shouting the last bit. Tapping around, Nellie settles on the call feature,

"This is Engineer Nellie Tatiana Samotara from a pod about 10km away; Are you three okay?" She sends them.


I was afraid I'd lost my mind for a minute... At least I'm actually not alone in this supermassive bathtub... She thinks to herself, as she waits for their comms to open with a reply.

Right about now she doesn't care much over the fact she's naked on the comms. Hell, it's probably a boon to be naked, when she can just dive right in where she wants without fearing soggy clothes.

She pauses momentarily, looking around, "AI; Do you have an emergency wrist-pod that is waterproof in the pod somewhere?"

[Mashugana]

There's some static at first, and for a heart stopping moment it seems that the communications will fail, but you get a crackling male voice on the other end of the line.

"Crewman Grigori Feishpatter. We're alive, but we're all wounded as well. the chef Naoki Kukara and I are still able to move and such for the most part, but Ti'lesh Quidolo looks like he took a bad hit to the head, he's just babbling to himself now."

You can hear someone muttering and moaning in the background, that must be the abbot.

"Are you alright? Is anyone else with you?" Feishpatter asks in response. "Things are tight, but we've still got a bit of disinfectant and the like."

"It appears that this pod is indeed equipped with such a band, however, it is located on the seabed below us, roughly six meters deep and one hundred meters to the east." the AI responds. "The container it is in should also have a knife and water purifier tablets."

[Ocfos]

"I could have sworn I barely escaped with my engineering partner Tessa, but she just kind of...Vanished?" Nellie shakes her head, grunting in annoyance whilst holding back more sobbing,

"Everything about this crash is just so...wrong...nothing makes sense about what happened. I'm all alone.. Begrudgingly."

Listening to the AI reply, Nellie sighs once again, "Don't know if the AI could be heard on your end, but it looks like I'm going swimming for a minute. Thank fuck I'm from an aquatic planet; For once it's a boon."

She takes a moment to recollect herself, "I should be about 9.6 kilometers North, but I can't detect any other pods around here, aside from yours. I might be able to get closer to you, if I can get the right gear from around here. Need to fetch my pod, so I'll be gone a minute or two if you're all fine on info for now."

[Mashugana]

"Vanished?" the crewman asks, sounding as confused as you are. "No body or anything? That can't be right... but yeah, be careful then. Any ocean with enough life in it's bound to have predators. It seems like we're in a relatively shallow area, but still, watch for anything that looks big and has some sharp teeth."

With that, it's just you and the water.

It's fairly clear, you can see all the way to the sea floor, with it's sand and rocks, strands of seaweed and occasional skittering bottom feeder. Fish of varying sizes swim here and there and dart amongst the rocks and plant life, as if playing with each other. It looks like it should be fairly calm and safe.

[Ocfos]

"Pod says I was the only one here at all, don't get it either. Seat was even strapped in next to me and everything." She shrugs, "I'm a Shrelling; This planet is my bitch." She says with confidence at the last bit, before setting the comms on standby, in case they need to leave a message for her.

Once she's down in the water, she grins as she feels so refreshed from the cramped spaceship she just had to flee. It reminds her of home, which she idly thinks about as she dives around for where she was told the cache would be around.

She's really wanting that wrist-pod out of that box, so she can find her way around here easier, and maybe pick up others on the go...Hopefully alive ones.

[Mashugana]

The waters of this planet do indeed remind you of home, but the pictures of videos you'd seen of it didn't do it justice. The oceans felt almost impossibly clean as you swam through the water, with strange fish curiously darting around you, taking a glance at the strange new creature that had entered their home before disappearing behind coral and limestone, or camouflaging themselves among the seaweed that hung about in clumps. At the sea floor a couple meters below you, you could see the telltale skitter of crustaceans, their shells almost indistinguishable from regular coral at a glance. The fish were strange and wonderful, some were fat and see through, resembling something like a small clear plastic bag with eyes and fins, while others had much larger wings in proportion to their bodies, with fast and aggressive movements that caused them to look like they were flying through the water rather than swimming in it. As you swam towards your goal, you found the sea floor dropping down a slope, and your vision was beginning to be intercepted by now ever increasing numbers and density of the sea weed, and before long, your vision only extends to what's a few feet around you.

What's worse is that you can see a shape moving through the seaweed at times, largely off to your right, and it looks bigger than the fish you've encountered before, who were mostly around the size of your hand to your elbow.

[Ocfos]

Nellie looks around at the sea life in awe, taking a minute to try and approach the fish peacefully as she herself is filled with intrigue.
She feels so at home underwater, compared to being sealed in a metal box in space.

She chuckles at the small fish darting about, letting herself relax for a minute or two to try and calm down from what's actually going on around here.

As she sees the sea floor curve down, she attempts to keep hugging the seafloor as much as she can, knowing her prize should be here somewhere.

Though she definitely doesn't feel alone in the seaweed, and attempts to keep her ears sharp as she dives deeper.

[Mashugana]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Search check: 2vs8, fail!

You search through the area where your prize was located, but to your frustration, it appears that you can't find it, and your scanner seems to be going on the fritz for some reason. Of all the times for it to go to pot, why now!?

It's as you're searching around futilely that you feel a tingling on the back of your neck. Whether it's a leftover sense from an ancient ancestor from prehistory or a developed skill from your past experiences, you've become keenly aware of the shape creeping towards you, and lunge to the side to avoid a large creature colliding with you, multiple limbs stretched wide like a net as strange constantly shifting eyes peak out at you from within the mass of tendrils, and you feel yourself almost go into a trance from the small amount of eye contact you've had.

You're not sure what this thing is, but at the end of the day, a predator on this planet's no different from any other, and this one probably thinks you're it's meal!

[Ocfos]

Nellie curses to herself as she can't find the box anywhere, kicking up the sand with her hands as she digs to find the box, in the off chance the currents pushed sand over it.

Suddenly, she feels a very strange sensation, one which she didn't even know existed inside her. Primal danger.

She darts off to the side, narrowly avoiding being hit by the creature slamming into the sand. "Gah! What in the fuck?!" She blurts out, before she catches its eyes for only a moment.
After the brief eye contact, Nellie shakes her head, and quickly begins to dart into the dense forest of seaweed, in an attempt to lose the strange mass of tentacles.
She assumes it is a sort of aquatic ancestor to her own species, though, definitely with more tentacles.

[Mashugana]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Evasion attempt, 5 vs 7, fail!

You push through the seaweed as fast as you can, but unfortunately this is your attacker's domain, and you see it slithering through the plants after you almost like a snake as it stares at you with pale eyes, lashing out with two of it's longer tendrils to snare your legs! The beast's grip is strong, and more of it's limbs grab onto your waist and arm, pulling you towards it! Your thoughts turn sluggish every time you glance at it's eyes! You've still got one good arm left, but you'll have to use it fast!

[Ocfos]

Finding herself more and more tied up by tendrils, unable to even look the creature in the eye, she does the only thing she can even think of right now.

She closes her eyes, then lunges forward with the pull to try and punch the hostile creature in the eyeball.

[Mashugana]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

6vs5. Success!

Balling up the last of your strength both physically and mentally, you throw out your fist, hoping to close that eerie, glowing eye and force it to let you go! Your will and intent are strong, but the water slows down your strike, and your awkward positioning in it's grasp isn't helping as you simply strike away at the creature's head, getting a rubbery, dull thunk of a noise for your trouble as it wastes little time ot snatching your last free limb.

At least, that's how it would've played if you didn't happen to be at least a little bit gooey.

The tendril moves to crush your arm, seeking to break bones or cartilage, but your physiology causes your arm to simply be squished, the fist popping out like the last bit of toothpaste from it's container and projecting into the beast's gills! Not wasting any time, you dig your fingers into them, guessing that doing so would be... well it'd probably be about as pleasant as someone jamming their fingers into your mouth or nose, or perhaps more appropriately, into the entrance of a more land based life form's lungs. The creature's eye goes wide, and your otherwise dulled thoughts come back in a rush as it lets loose what could best be described as a distorted howl of pain and flinches away, allowing you to struggle and free yourself!

The glint of something eappears in the corner of your eye, a box, partially buried in the sand, with a recognizable symbol for emergency supplies on the top!

[Ocfos]

Seeing her hand bump out in a way she's definitely not used to, Nellie digs in deep, half-screaming at the beast out of primal instinct.

Feeling as if her brain just turned back on, Nellie has to take a moment to look at what's going on.
Spotting her chance, Nellie attempts to make the creature submit, by half-mounting the back of it as she reaches around to grab for the gills on the other side as well.

"Alright, you piece of shit! Behave or I'll jam my entire fist into your damn throat through here!" She attempts to threaten, even if she has no idea about the beast's capacity to understand her.

She spots the box she was looking for, but figures she'll get it once her current 'predicament' has been solved.

I can't catch a break today, can I? Nellie thinks to herself, still somewhat confused over the odd effect the beast had on her mere moments ago.

[Mashugana]

Like an underwater rodeo bull and his rider, the monster thrashes violently, battering you against the sea floor in a desperate attempt to force you off and causing sand and other debris to cloud around the two of you, with clumps of seaweed sticking to both of you like the limbs of some even greater cephalopodic monstrosity from the deep. After an agonizing and incredibly disorienting and violent few seconds, it finally manages to smash you into the sea floor and knock the air out of you, but rather than attack, it jets away as fast it can, coming to a stop only once it's partially within the foliage, dark, thick purple looking blood slowly leaking from it's gills as it's unnaturally bright eyes blink and glance about wildly, it's limbs now raised in defense rather than attack.

The box is now just a couple meters away from you, to your right, while your opponent is further in front. The beast appears to be contemplating fleeing rather than continuing the fight, you must've rattled him!

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

15vs15 on the grapple, so I thought this'd work as an outcome, the impact didn't do much damage other than stunning her enough to let go.

[Ocfos]

Getting thrashed and battered against the sand, Nellie grunts and eventually gets herself hit hard enough that she loses her grip on the beast.

Dazed, Nellie starts removing the clumps of seaweed from herself, while making her way to the box she wanted in the first place.
She does peek over at her shoulder, but does her best not to stare it in the eyes again, having learnt that's a bad idea.

Once she has the box, she starts to swim towards the surface with it carried in her tentacles. A little unorthodox of a solution, but she figures it'll give her some more agility in the water to have her arms freed.

[Mashugana]

Grabbing the box, you note that it's a bit heavier than it looks, but you're still able to lift it well enough, though it's a touch wobbly. Your hypnotic friend is still lurking in the weeds, even moving around, trying to get behind you as you turn slightly whilst ascending to the surface, keeping him in your sights. He stretches his own tendrils around him, as if getting a feel for the currents while eyeballing you, his beak moving and making low clicking noises.

You notice the seaweed forest seems to shift and be disturbed in places, and are getting the feeling that he's communicating with something, or some things.

As the wise sages of the planet Mi'bari say atop the great green canopies they call home: It might be a good idea to make like a tree and get the hell outta there.

[Ocfos]

Nellie lifts off with the box, narrowing her eyes at the beast whilst ascending towards her goal.
She has no intention of digging through the seaweed herself, as she never knows what lurks in there, that wouldn't rely on sight or sound to spot its prey.

She attempts to pick up the pace, though gives a threatening, defensive hiss in the direction of the creature she wrestled with mere moments ago.

She has no intention of having to wrestle it again - or worse.

[Mashugana]

You brace for the worst as several other, similar creatures come out of the seaweed forest to confer with the wounded one, chortling and communicating amongst each other as they watch after you, glowing eyes unblinking and beaks clicking. The wounded one seems to be the smallest of the lot, with a duller hide than they are, and his body isn't as... crusty looking. However, as the one you wounded watches you go, it slowly closes one of it's eyes, then reopens it, before slowly trailing back into the underwater forest behind it, it's kinfolk following after it lazily.

You get your prize, but what could happen in the future?

[Ocfos]

Claiming her bounty, Nellie starts back to the dryness of the pod. She keeps the box in her arms, as she escapes the ominous seaweed forests.
She isn't exactly willing to stick around, having seen what lurks down there.

"At least I won't have to bother with those fuckers anymore... Urgh. If I had a damn gun, those things would be chum..." runs through her head, as she keeps an eye out for anything preventing her safe route back.