#they played too much subnautica and couldn’t find enough

[libartz]

So I got stardew valley. I was having the worst luck with birthday gifts so I took a glance at the wiki and quartz is highly controversial. The town is split down the middle on their opinion of it. Nobody is neutral, they either like it or hate it.

[pikkish]

@dwellerinroots videogame exchange list for you! A handful of my favorite open world/open world adjacent games.

Hollow Knight - 2D metroidvania platformer. Metroidvanias are like, basically open world games, right? right? It’s still centered on exploration, so I’m gonna say it counts. Anyway, Hollow Knight is a very special game in that it is one of two games where, partway through, I stopped and thought, “I did not pay nearly enough for this game.”  You play as a strange little bug creature known only as the knight or the little ghost, and explore the ruins of a forgotten underground city that long fell to a mysterious disease. Very little lore is directly given to you, and not much of that given to you makes sense until much later, but the game is an excellent example, and should be a role model, of “show, don’t tell” and environmental storytelling. Beautiful art, haunting soundtrack, compelling characters, a huge map to explore, tons of secrets to find, a lore rich story, and a fast and tight combat system. It does have a reputation for being very difficult, both for combat and platforming, but less “this is a poorly designed game” and more it just has a steep learning curve. Well worth the challenge, though; the game will rip out your heart in the best way possible. I cried about at least two of the endings.

Subnautica - probably one of the crown jewels of open world exploration, tbh. Your ship crashes on an aquatic planet, and you have to survive, find out what crashed your ship, and build a rocket to escape. The world is beautifully alien, vibrantly alive, and the entire thing being underwater lends map design a unique sense of verticality that most normal-landscape open world games don’t have. There are, iirc, two timed events that happen, but otherwise you are free to ignore everything plot-related and explore as you please. I’d recommend playing in a dark room with good headphones for the full atmospheric effect. *(Due note though that Subnautica is... a little broken in some places. Reviews say it’s partially a horror game, but the scariest thing that happened to me was when one of the giant fish that wants to eat you pulled a Bethesda on me and clipped straight through a mountain to come get me. It’s a bit unpolished in areas, some mechanics don’t work quite as well as they were intended, and I suspect some areas might’ve been a victim of scope creep. There’s apparently been an update recently that supposedly fixed a lot of these, but based on my experience, it doesn’t quite feel like a complete game, and I’d definitely wait for it to go on sale before buying.)

Dying Light - This one is a bit more populated and quest heavy, but it has neat maps and fun gameplay. There’s been an outbreak of a zombie virus, and you’re a secret agent dropped into the quarantine zone to find some research on a cure. You must work with the survivors set up in the quarantined city both to accomplish your goal, and just to stay alive. The core gameplay is parkouring across the city to escape the zombie hordes, some of which are just as good at climbing as you are. Said parkour mechanics are very fast and fluid, and running around the city, chased by zombies, on a quest, or just for fun, is downright exhilarating. I did have some stuttering issues I couldn’t quite figure out how to fix, which is... a little bit of a problem when the gameplay is all about how fast and smooth you can move, but otherwise a great experience.

Rain World - ‘nother metroidvania platformer. I actually didn’t get too far in this one on account of the controls being a bit more -heh- sluggish, but that’s more of a personal preference thing than an actual problem with gameplay. You play as a little creature known as a slugcat. Separated from your family and stuck within the decaying corpse of an ancient machine, you must scavenge food to fill your belly, avoid other creatures that very much want to fill their bellies with you, and seek shelter at the end of each cycle to avoid drowning in each night’s torrential downpours. Very large map, wonderfully designed environments, and an achingly melancholic feel to the entire thing. I know there’s some pretty deep lore from watching a friend who was far better at the game play it, but if my own experiences are anything to go by, you are entirely able to scurry around and do your own thing for hours without paying the slightest bit of attention to lore.

Noita - This one’s a roguelike, but I feel like it deserves an honorable mention as an open world game, just for how dang big it is, both in actual map size, and in how much content there is crammed into that map. It’s apparently very heavily based in Finnish folklore, but it doesn’t really tell you any of that, it just kinda goes “Here’s how you move, here’s how you shoot, ok have fun!! :)”  and then just throws you into the game. Its combat system centers about building your own magic wands with different spells on them, and combining spells in different ways can have wildly different results.For as deep as the wand mechanics are, though, the real selling point is the world simulation: every individual pixel is simulated, and everything interacts with everything else. You can burn things, break things, crumble things, shatter things, melt things, freeze things, and probably do a whole lot of other things I don’t even know about. Expect to die a lot, and expect to accidentally kill yourself a lot.

[robotslenderman]

For the 21 questions otp ask, Elisa/Lettow, 3, 6, 11 and 12. I hope that wasn’t too much for you 😊

:3!!!!

OTP ask box game.

3. What is your favourite AU/prompt idea/trope for your pairing?

Favourite AU is the one where Lettow didn’t lose track of Elisa and managed to adopt her.

It did... not work out well at first, lol. Lettow had severe depression and had never had a childe before and had no idea what to do with her. Elisa had gone absolutely feral after three months of surviving night-to-night and sleeping in burrows she’d dug herself.

Over those three months Elisa had slowly gone batshit insane. In canon, Lampago scraped her out of it and taught her some survival skills, but this takes place earlier, before Elisa could do anything more than solve intra-kindred issues with “run away or claw their face off.” So in this AU Elisa has gone from a kind, generous and loving vet nurse that loved animals... to this near-wight who actually killed a couple of kindred over territory disputes.

Basically, she couldn’t control her Beast and was getting awfully close to wighting herself. In canon this was reversed by her watching Lampago and fighting hard not to be like her -- in this AU she doesn’t have a bad example to warn her away from going down that path, so she keeps indulging the Beast’s impulses by killing her prey and anyone trying to claim her territory.

Eventually it got bad enough that Lettow intervened before the Prince could put a blood hunt on her head (or his).

At first Lettow had a hard problem just keeping her around -- Elisa kept running away because she’d be overwhelmed or pissed off enough. Each time Lettow would give her a few nights then reappear at her burrow and talk her into coming back, because if she stayed out on her own there was no way she wouldn’t wind up killing someone else and he was highkey really worried the Prince would have her executed.

(Dove thought this was hilarious and that Lettow reaped what he sowed. “You left her so she could learn to survive on her own. Well, now she’s trying to do what you wanted her to do!”)

Needless to say, Elisa developed a Reputation among the Kindred of Tucson for being Lettow’s feral, low-humanity brat.

It did reach a turning point. In canon Lettow wouldn’t give her Stellaluna for thirty years, but in this one he had the same idea and gifted her her own famulus -- that little vampire bat she named Stellaluna. A bit of Elisa’s old humanity came back enough at the gesture that he was able to get through to her, and bond with her through teaching her animalism. Her love for Stellaluna, and her being touched at Lettow’s gesture, was a counterbalance to the Beast.

Yep, that’s right, Elisa had an emotional support vampire bat.

He’d been so desperate he’d seriously considered blood binding her to him until they both got her out of it; a blood bond would have made her so attached to him and desperate to please him it would have given her positive emotions to help lift her out of it instead of primal instinct and impulse, and would have given her willpower to fight her Beast at his behest.

Years later, she’d mention to Lettow that she attributed this phase of her life to severe depression. And he’d be like, “no, you weren’t depressed, you were turning into a wight.”

6. Least favourite canon moment of them?

I honestly can’t think of any explicit moments. All that comes to mind are concepts (that Elisa couldn’t bitch at Lettow about the blood bag thing) or moments that aren’t their moment (Lettow’s bizarre response to Jasper’s torture of Modian and his callousness to Dove), or something that isn’t even a moment (lack of more Reremouse-like missions in-game where you get to work with him hands on!).

11. If they aren’t a canon pairing, how would you get them together?

Their relationship didn’t happen as it did in canon.

Basically, canon moved too fast for them. Elisa strongly resented Lettow at least until the midpoint where he offered her the final three jobs, and she was terrified of him for the whole game except the epilogue because she kept waiting for him to throw her under the bus (the first half) or execute her for Diablerie (the second half). Even after he confronted her about Aila, she was mostly convinced that him having her be the bait was his attempt at killing her without having to execute her.

(Years later he’d tell her that that was sincerely not the case -- that he had her be bait because he firmly believed she could survive anything.)

Needless to say, that’s... not a healthy base for a relationship, even though she was crushing damn hard by the end of the game and was genuinely upset that he didn’t even intend to say goodbye.

But they did get together. After Lettow returned from the Middle East Dove wanted Elisa to do some dangerous jobs and was like, “hey, why don’t we get mister fucking invincible to play bodyguard?”

Lettow was genuinely surprised at how emotional she was at his return -- she would’ve been brought to tears if she could cry. They bonded better this time around, as equals. They talked about Aila and laid that to rest -- it was harder for Elisa to talk about than Lettow. Elisa talked about how Aila was still around. Lettow talked about how he resented Aila for leaving him and letting herself get Diablerised. Elisa got to be turned on by watching him beat the crap out of people who tried to hurt her.

But it was a slow burn because, well. Elisa ate his wife so how could she, in good conscience, ever make a move on him? And on Lettow’s side -- he absolutely despised himself and thought he wasn’t good enough for Aila to stay awake or even alive, and if Aila hated him so fucking much she basically killed herself and put an (in his mind) innocent childe at risk to get away from him, how could he possibly make Elisa happy?

Cue months of mutual pining, and occasionally doing couple things like sharing a bed or cuddling without acknowledging them as couple things.

At one point Lettow bites off more than he can chew even by his standards, which Elisa was able to see plain as day at the time. Their usual tactics when overwhelmed was for Lettow to distract the attackers and for Elisa to run, but this time the opposition was so overwhelming that Elisa knew if she ran Lettow would get destroyed, so she refused to run, which only made things more dangerous for both of them. They had a huge argument about it -- Elisa accusing Lettow of trying to kill himself, Lettow accusing Elisa of being an idiot who didn’t trust him to do his job -- but the whole “oh my god the other person almost DIED” helped them realise that

hey

maybe they should stop letting the Aila thing get in the way and just... get together anyway.

Because they loved each other.

So they did.

And they’ve been together ever since.

12. If you had to take them and plunk them into another fandom, what fandom would that be? Why?

Ooof I really had to think about this one.

There’s no one fandom I’d put them in, but I went into a lot of detail with just one so here’s the one I did:

Subnautica -- Human AU. Elisa is a courier on the Aurora delivering classified governmental data, stuff too important to trust to the post or the internet (or extranet, as it would be). She becomes the only survivor of its crash on 4546B. She feels guilty about falling in love with the planet she’s on and genuinely enjoying much of her time there (when she’s not pissing herself in fear) while knowing at home she has a boyfriend/husband who must be absolutely frantic with worry. She keeps a video diary of her survival there and documents the world as best as she can, tries to find other survivors, and wonders if she’ll ever make it out alive and see Lettow and her parents again -- and if she’ll ever be able to come back if she does.

Meanwhile Lettow is losing his shit, alternating between thinking she’s dead and hoping she’s alive. His subplot is him getting in touch with the loved ones of other survivors and harassing Alterra into mounting a rescue; his hopes are shot down, quite literally, with the discovery of the orbital canon and the fate of the Sunbeam. Alterra is refusing to destroy the orbital canon because uhh we don’t want war with ALIENS??? WE’VE GOT NO DIPLOMATIC TIES WITH ANY ALIENS??? DESTROYING IT MIGHT GET US ALL KILLED???,

but they have a satellite in orbit, out of range of the canon, and it’s looking for evidence of survivors. And it’s been picking up activity -- somebody they can’t identify swimming around near a life pod, or moving on one of the islands, or moving around the Aurora. It’s only when she one day takes a nap on the beach near the orbital canon, her face up to the sky, that they’re able to identify the first survivor -- Elisa Mulgrew, government worker.

That picture of her sleeping face and wet hair makes headlines across multiple systems.

So Lettow finds out she’s alive -- but there’s nothing he can do to bring her home. Nothing. And he doesn’t know how long she’ll live for, or how long Alterra will keep up the expense of the satellite. Because over time it’s becoming clear that Alterra is sinking millions into these efforts and there’s no evidence of any other survivors. There’s only camera recordings of one vehicle moving at a time, one person moving at a time, and the only person they’ve ever managed to record always has the same reddish-brown hair as Elisa. Alterra are trying to stop the search because they see it as essentially wasting millions on one person, who’s “only” a courier, who they can’t even save.

The only reason they’ve been humouring people this long is because of the amount of anti-Alterra political sentiment being whipped up in the wake of the disaster and Alterra’s handling of it, and how many people even within Alterra are upset about the whole thing, and how many people are behind the families of the people who were on the Aurora. And with less and less evidence that anyone other than Elisa survived, even they are starting to lose interest.

Yeah Lettow really copes badly in this AU. “Barely gets out of bed each day” badly.

(When Elisa eventually gets home she leaks the “the usual” audio, which starts a whole new wave of people being mad at Alterra and the guy on it almost certainly getting fired so hard nobody will ever employ him again. Elisa actually feels kind of bad for him.)

[januaryisnotanartist]

Portram Aquarum

Fanfiction- Fandom: Subnautica, Game of Thrones (TV), Crossover Cast: Sansa Stark Word Count: 3,839

Warning:  Panic Attacks, offscreen implied deaths, mentions of Sansa’s (tv) canon story line

Summary:

A ship has crashed on 4546B and is leaking radiation into the environment, there are no survivors left to stop it before it’s too late. Sansa Stark would rather die than get married again. It’s not the perfect solution, but it’s what the Universe has. Hopefully it’s enough.

Part 1 of (I don’t know if it’ll ever get a part 2)

Sansa escapes her wedding and finds herself in... not a much better place.

-

The night is dark, but the torchlight is kept in by the canopy over head.

Sansa wouldn't say the light was reflecting off the branches, it wasn't that bright, but it felt like without the trees of the godswood, the light would flee into the night leaving her in darkness.

More darkness, she should say, a less metaphorical darkness.

The air is cold, Winter has finally come, but her wedding dress is warm despite it's snowy colour.

She wants to flee, to run, to scream, to fight.

She knows she'd be caught.

Not killed, not while she's useful, Sansa knows that well by now.

The wedding ceremony begins, her second, and she know this husband will not be as kind as her first.

Death would be better, she thinks, than what ever he has in store for me. She would be abandoning her people, she knows, but they'd abandoned her family over and over. She'd heard of the flow and shift of power, knew it had been carried on the tides of betrayal.

No one was coming to save her, didn't she have the right to save herself from the pain?

Her eyes roamed listlessly, he gaze travelled to the pool of deep dark water beneath the Weirwood tree.

Her dress was heavy, the water freezing even in summer.

Sansa hasn't prayed in earnest in a long, long time.

But tonight, she does.

Sansa takes a step back and turns slightly, she moves away from the pool, but it's a feint. She sees the men move to cut off her presumed direction, and picks up what she can of her skirts before dashing for the pool.

She hits the edge and drops her skirts so she can dive as her mother had taught her long, long ago – 'all the children of Riverrun can swim, and so shall you' – and takes a breath out of almost forgotten habit, though it is counter productive to her plan.

The ice of the water knocks it straight from her lungs, most of it, and the weight of her dress drags her down and down and down. She feels needles in her body turning numb from the cold, but she swims as best she can, down and down and down.

Please, please don't let him take me.

Her prayer is desperate, the first she's made in what feels like forever, and she doesn't know to whom she prays, simply casts her plea out into the universe with fear and what willpower she has left.

The last of the air escapes her and if there had been enough light to see her vision would have been turning dark, but she's too far down now.

She doesn't stop. She knows drowning victims can be breathed back to life.

She thinks she hears whispers at the corners of her mind, and the water around her feels warmer.

If she had the energy or mind left to spare for it, she would have supposed it was the effects of her body dying, too cold to feel things any more. She'd been taught as a child that people who froze to death experience a brief bout of warmth.

She doesn't think of those things though.

She breaches the surface, falling onto shallow ground, her body drags in warm air without her permission.

Nobody grabs her.

This is the first thing she realises isn't right as she coughs and splutters and breathes.

How had she gotten so turned around that she's swum up, is the second thing she questions.

Light glares needles into her eyes and it takes another moment to realise how bright it is.

Waves lap at her body, tugging on her dress and her hands try to find purchase in the sand beneath her. She scrambles up out of the water.

It takes some time for her breathing to settle and her vision to adjust to the light. But when it does she realises she's in a small cove, the walls surround it completely and are all but sheer, some even tilt in as they ascend. (She calls it small, but she thinks the far side might be forty metres away, though it's far narrower across.)

The sky is bright and blue and feels inexplicably more distant than she's used to in a way she can't articulate.

Sansa opens her mouth and says the only thing she feels appropriate in the circumstances.

“What the fuck?”

The water tastes briny on her tongue, and Sansa spent several far too long by the sea, she knows what it smells like, what it tastes like. She's far too far from Winterfell for this to make any kind of sense.

Sansa laughs, a small giggle at first dissolving into hysterical hiccups, a mockery of laughter.

She tries to calm herself as her dress becomes unbearable, sweltering and damp in the sun's heat. Reaching around, she manages to get the dress and its fur pauldrons off, dropping it onto the sand just out of the water's reach. She peels off the layers beneath, dropping them to the sand as well. Her shoes join them a few seconds later along with her thick stockings.

She's left standing in her bloomers and nothing else.

She doesn't know if there's anyone else around, doesn't know if she hopes there is or not, but she decides to cover up a bit just in case. There were several under layers to her dress, she takes one of the layers and washes of the sand, wrings out the fabric and grudgingly puts it back on.

The rock wall where she first climbed out goes up and an angle, outward rather than inward, but Sansa doesn't know if she could make the climb.

Under the dawning weight of how much trouble she might be in, Sansa looks around for another way out.

Across the cove, she thinks she sees something glowing in the sand, a pale blue light in the shade.

Should she swim for it? The water of the cove had brought her here, what if it took her back? No, she'd rather not risk it.

Around the edges of the water, there seemed to be a small bank all the way along, just below the waterline. Perhaps if she hugs the wall...

Sansa moves her clothes further from the waterline and rolls up the end of her under dress so she can tie it about her waist, no sense in letting the wave pull at her if she could help it. The small eddy of the water pulls at her calves and thighs as she steps back into it, staying as close to the wall as she can the entire way she finally makes it to the relief of the shade.

The glowing thing looks like a small panel of glass, but there is some kind of... grip on one of the shorter edges. Sansa isn't sure how it was glowing.

Should she pick it up? She nudges it gently with her foot, taps at it with her toe when nothing happens and then stumbles back as a voice emerged from the... plate.

The first voice is female, Sansa thought:

“We have to board the Aurora, repair the long range comms, make contact with the other survivors. We can't be the only two that made it.”

The second voice was male, older:

“Those are not the orders the captain gave me, and they're not the orders I'm giving you.”

The woman: “This isn't chain of command, it's survival.”

The man: “My obligations as acting commander don't turn on their convenience. Get out of the water.”

The woman: “If I get in trouble I'll send you my coordinates.”

The man: “I can't let you go alone.”

The woman: “Then come with me.”

The man: “You don't leave me much choice.”

The next voice was female, but a different pitch to the first woman, something about this voice reminded Sansa of the strange way knights sounded when they spoke inside their helmets:

[Received emergency transmission from Second Officer Keen, two hours after last activity.]

It was the man again, sounding defeated: “Rendezvous was a failure. Intercepted a transmission from Alterra HQ, seems they sent a data package to the Aurora. We were intercepted by a leviathan class predator before we could reach the ship. Consider the CTO and I lost at sea. Be safe. Keen... out.”

The panel went silent again.

Sansa sat down with a slightly damp thump.

There had been people here, possibly not that long ago but... where were they now?

'Board' the Aurora, other survivors... had they been on some kind of ship? Had they crashed on the shores near the cove, surely this had to be some part of a coast somewhere, for a ship wreck of some kind to leave traces, even the cove water tasted of the ocean so, surely this was a coastal area.

Right?

But... what exactly was a 'ron-day-voo' though, Sansa hadn't heard the word before, could it be a foreign language, like Valyrian? Was rendezvous the mission to board the Aurora? At least she could work out that 'transmission' meant some kind of message.

More troubling though: 'leviathan class predator.'

Sansa knew what a predator was, but not 'leviathan class'. Could it be bigger than a Dire Wolf? And... the two people who's voices were trapped on the panel, they'd gone into the water so... did that mean it was a water borne predator?

Sansa shivered, both from the horror of the thought and because she was getting too cold in the shade.

She looked up, and froze.

There was a tunnel.

Two tunnels if her eyes weren't deceiving her.

One of them only metres from where she'd come ashore!

Sansa repressed her irritation for a few seconds before realising: she no longer needed to. She was free of the Boltons, the Lannisters, free from Petyr, who couldn't be trusted. There was no one here she had to play nice for, no one to appease or placate or win over.

Sansa still muffled her shriek into her thighs, curled up in a little ball just in case there was anyone, or anything nearby.

A few more moments to collect herself and she stood, looking back at the panel.

She debated internally for a few seconds before grabbing it by the grip-looking part and lifting it from the sand.

She didn't retrace her steps, the larger of the two caves was closer if she kept going the way she'd been going. The cavern was a tunnel and opened up at the other end.

But was it her best choice?

Sansa made her way further, completing her circuit of the cove.

The smaller tunnel was steeper, Sansa wasn't sure it was worth the extra effort to climb it when the other tunnel wasn't that far away.

She would have to find a way to take her clothes, in case it got cold or she met people. Or if she needed cloth and some fur for anything.

She felt dizzy, Sansa realised, letting herself fall to her knees in the entrance of the smaller, steeper tunnel.

Was she breathing? She thought she might not be breathing.

She forced herself to breathe in as deeply as she could, sucking air to the bottom of her lungs.

Again.

And again.

And again.

Until the breaths came more easily.

In her mind she embroidered a small wolf's head sigil, stitch by stitch, until it was complete and the screaming in her mind was silent again.

She felt drained of energy, and though she knew she couldn't rest, she gave herself a few moments more to stay in the tunnel entrance.

-

The rest left her feeling no more revitalised, but Sansa forced herself to get up, like she had forced herself to get up so many times since things had started to go wrong.

Parts of the clothing she'd left on the shoreline had dried in the heat of the direct sun, but the garments were still heavy. Sansa managed to layer and roll them all together, trapping the shoes and stockings in the centre with the strange glass panel, using the sleeves of the outer most layer pulled out she tide the clothing bundle around herself like a satchel.

Then she plunged back into the water, making the short trip around to the larger cave.

The water flowed up the tunnel a fair way, but it was relatively shallow. Despite that, Sansa stuck to the wall until her feet were on dry land.

There were small plants along the tunnel's sides, and Sansa could see more greenery at the top, past the exit.

Sansa stepped out of the tunnel's mouth and was hit almost immediately with a breeze, strong and brine scented, refreshing in a way the air of the cove hadn't been.

All around her were trees and small bushes. Some of the bushes had fine, thin leaves that looked like a few she'd seen on trees in King's landing, near the harbours.

Palms, she recalled.

Some of the trees looked more like normal ones from the forests and gardens... except for the blue glow coming from somewhere in their branches.

There were mushrooms on the ground, but their colours were not what Sansa would call inviting.

And there were trails on the ground.

Footpaths in the plants, but were they man made? Or were they made by some kind of animal?

Sansa didn't know, but they would make her journey easier, she just had to pick one.

The paths around her went off in three directions, one lead up a small hill to her left, into the trees, one lead roughly forwards, towards the edge of a cliff perhaps, the ground dropped away and beyond it she could see the ocean stretching out to the horizon. She thought she saw some kind of shadow above the water, an island maybe?

The path that lead right-

Sansa gasped, there, through the plants, she could see something, a structure clearly made by people. Excited she scrambled up the small incline, along the path, pushing the leaves aside.

She yelped and stumbled backwards when she realised he path to her to the edge of the ground.

A long drop awaited her, but not directly into the water, there was a beach below her, though she wasn't sure how she might get there safely.

But out in the water...

It was not a city, or not one like Sansa had ever seen.

It was large, she could tell, even from this distance. How far she couldn't say, the open water between herself and the structure left her devoid of any landmarks that could help her figure out how many kilometres stretched out.

The Structure felt impossibly huge, and alarmingly, it was on fire in places, smoke spiralling up and disappearing into the wind. It was oddly rounded, not at all like the castles and cities she knew, there were no walls straight up and down, instead it was like on oval that was lying on the side, but instead of rounded tips, there were these... appendages? They looked like tubes or tunnels, round at the end. There were four absolutely enormous ones at the ends, two on each side stacked one atop the other, though the lowest on the side to her left was mostly underwater. Through the smoke she thought she saw smaller circle-tube-things attached all across the side of the main structure that faced her.

There was a bump on the top of the structure, and another 'appendage' sprouting from it. At first she thought it was shaped like a T, but then the wind shifted the smoke away and she saw it was more like an upside-down L.

The whole structure had a sort of symmetry, except that one side was lower than the other.

'Sunken,' she realised. 'Or sinking?'

Sansa moved back along the path, trying to find a better view, but the structure was so massive – or perhaps so close – that it didn't seem to make much of a difference. She could make out a stretch of white, the side that moved away from her didn't seem to have any of the large tubey things, but it was difficult to make out anything useful through the smoke.

She sighed deeply, and realised she could taste the faintest hint of smoke in the air. How close did fire have to be for the smoke to reach? She didn't know.

What was the structure?! Was it a city? Who could have built a city so big? And why was it shaped so oddly? Was it a defensive... shell of some kind over an island? No, that was stupid.

But the thought reminded her of the horizon smudge she thought might have been an island. Sansa turned her gaze from the structure, looking for the smudge.

A small speck was in the water.

As her gaze travelled left to find the smudge, an object caught her attention.

It was minuscule, she'd almost missed it looking for the island, or maybe it was only dwarfed by the structure beside it. It looked white, maybe, certainly it was pale against the deep blue of the water and... Sansa thought it might have been closer to her than the end of the giant structure, but only barely. It was a fair distance away from the structure though. She glanced left, the maybe-island smudge was about as far away on the other side of the speck as the structure, but definitely further from Sansa.

Should she try swimming to it?

There was a beach below her, but no obvious way down. She could try jumping into the water but, if it was shallower than it looked, she would hurt herself and who knew what was down there in the water.

A chill of pure terror struck down her spine and she recalled the words from the panel.

“Leviathan Class Predator.”

The words of the conversation trickled through Sansa mind and she felt faint as a possibility came to her.

Was the structure in the distance... was it... The Aurora?

Was that what the two voices had been trying to repair?

But... but the Aurora was a ship?! Wasn't it? That's what the voices said wasn't it? They had to 'board' the Aurora, that's what one did with ships, not... not cities or hidden islands or...

Sansa felt faint again, and stumbled back from the ledge, into the shade of the trees where she sat down with a hard 'thump'.

Where was she? Where the Seven Hells was she!?

She felt the panic clawing its way out of her throat and tried to clamp down on it.

But there was no one here to take advantage of her distress, of her weakness, she realised, an almost hysterical giggle snuck out of her mouth before she could pull her clothing bundle around and press it to her face, using it to muffle the screams that followed.

-

It took a while for Sansa to calm down again, her mental embroidery of the Tully fish had only sparked more 'leviathan class predator' concerns. When she did calm down though, she felt even more exhausted than before, a headache was building in her skull, and her eyes felt gritty.

Her skin felt sticky with sweat and salt, her hair was damp and gross and she just wanted to sleep.

When was the last time she'd slept?

It was late in the day now, but it had been late evening when she'd run from her wedding.

Gods, had it really not been so long at all?

'Get up,' she thought to herself, then she said it out loud to herself, just to drive it home what she had to do.

Her limbs were heavy and trembling when she pushed herself to her feet, and the clothing felt heavy and too hot when she slung it back over her shoulders. She wanted to leave it behind, too much burden to carry, but the risk of regretting it later was too big, so she kept it.

In following the line of the cliff, she'd discovered two of the paths she'd thought were before her were dead ends, so when she finally began walking, she followed the final path, up a small slope it went then doubled back as it rose even further.

She lost the trail in the thick grass beneath the trees, but there were drops on most sides of the rise she found herself on so she looked for an easy way down that wasn't back.

She found one, and a new trail to follow.

But which way? Right, or Left?

The way Left curved around the mound she'd been on, then down into a split path leading off into more bush. In that direction she could see the Aurora through the trees.

She went right, down into a valley that ended not far from were she reached it, but there was a trail leading away.

There was also a trail leading up, and almost in the direction she had come from. She didn't have the energy for it, so she trudged on.

There were small bunches of almost glowing pink flowers which brought a smile to Sansa's face, right before it was almost torn off.

A creature of some kind leapt from the grass, a small 'gree' the only warning she got, thankfully it was enough for her to stumble out of the way.

The creature had a small disc like body roughly the size of Sansa's head, and four long thin limbs more like needles than legs. There were two pincers for a mouth she saw far too closely as the creature came after her again. Sansa scrambled back towards the only slightly more familiar area and hauled her clothing bundle from her back, swinging it at the creature with all her desperate might.

Her swing struck, casting the creature into the nearby rock walls with a crunch. It made one final sound and lay still, an awful green leaking from it. On it's top was a glowing circle, Sansa stared at it horrified as she realised it looked like a giant eye.

She looked at the path ahead, shivering in disgust as she turned her attention from the corpse to where the path opened up, and thought she saw more of the creatures.

Should she go back and try the other path?

Just because she hadn't seen these back up the hill was no guarantee they weren't there. She'd dodged the first one, perhaps she could dodge the others?

There was a noise from her clothing bundle, and Sansa retreated back into the valley and pulled the bundle apart.

Had she accidentally made the voices play again?

The panel had pictures on it and they were moving!

The metallic voice from the first conversation spoke:

“This PDA is rebooting with one directive, to keep you alive on an alien world.”

[voidendron]

Deep Blue Sea, Ch. 19

<<<Chapter 18 | Chapter 20>>> [wip]

Chapter 19: The Aurora Subnautica/JSE Egos Crossover

hiiii it’s been a while oops- I have a new hyperfixation, so working on Ego stuff has actually gotten pretty difficult, but I’ll do my best to update this whenever I’m motivated to do so!

Warnings: Swearing, Arguing, Knives Characters: Chase Brody, Marvin the Magnificent, Second Officer Keen, Jackieboy Man (briefly), Dr. Schneeplestein (briefly) POV: Chase Brody

“Warning: Local radiation readings suggest the Aurora’s drive core has reached critical state. Quantum detonation will occur within two hours.”

“…Hey, Chase. Remember what you said yesterday? That thing you were so confident about? What was it you said again?” Marvin asked as he glared down at his PDA. His diving mask was pushed up on his forehead while he treaded water with his free arm.

The repairman’s groan was muffled by his mouthpiece as he ducked his head under the surface to avoid his companion’s glare. That had to be literally one of the worst things to be wrong about.

A hand on his suit dragged him back above the surface, then moved to pull his mask off. “C’mon. What did you say?”

“…That the Aurora won’t blow up.”

“That the Aurora won’t blow up, right! And what’s about to happen?”

“…The Aurora’s gonna blow up?”

“The Aurora’s gonna blow up!” Marvin grumbled something under his breath, then with the flat of his palm smacked the water with a curse. “Just great! Wonderful! Let’s get back to the goddamn habitat.”

Both men pulled their masks back down over their faces and began the swim back with the materials they’d gathered to add to the growing collection. Chase could feel the dread in the pit of his stomach the whole way there, the worry, the “what ifs” lingering in the back of his mind. He was a repairman, not an engineer. Hopefully the damage wouldn’t be as severe as the warning made it sound…

When they entered the habitat, the drainage system seemed to take ages before they were finally able to push the bulkhead open. Both Seaglides were tucked out of the way along with the supplies, then Chase cast his eyes around the too-cramped room.

Jameson, already on his feet and moving to start putting the new materials away in their respective lockers. Henrik, tending to Jackie’s injury again while cussing him out over something. Keen, rubbing at his chin while he scowled down at his PDA’s cracked screen. It wasn’t long before his eyes shifted from the device, up toward Chase and Marvin. He pursed his lips, then, “Quantum detonation. We don’t know the shape that will leave the ship in.”

“And?” Marvin asked.

“And, for all we know, it could take out the computers that the data package was sent to.”

“Well…actually,” Chase interrupted, “detonation’s gonna be in the drive core, right? The drive core and some of the major computer systems are pretty damn far from each other. Multiple walls between ‘em—hell, they’re even on different levels, and the computers get their power from multiple places throughout the ship just in case one or more of its sources goes down. Long as the entire ship doesn’t decide, ‘Hey! Fuck this shit!’ then the package should be okay, even if I can’t repair the drive core.”

“Okay… How’re you so sure while Keen’s worried, thought?”

“Hey, no offense to Keen, but I’m the repairman. I’ve been on every level and in every room of that damn ship to fix shit no one else could be bothered with. He was one of the highest ranking officers there. Doubt you even set foot in the engine room or JJ’s cafe, like, ever, did ya?”

“…He’s right.” Keen nodded, tucking his PDA away. “Brody likely knows the layout of the ship better than anyone, save the engineers who built it. It you believe the main computers will be safe, I’ll take your word for it, then.”

One hour ticked by. He, Marvin, and Keen were now sticking close to the habitat as they gathered materials. Going inside during detonation would probably be the safest bet, right?

Fifteen more minutes. Marvin had already gone in to start getting more power cells and batteries crafted, leaving the officer and Chase to continue scavenging just a little while longer.

At half hour to detonation, they both made their way back into the habitat to join the others. Time seemed to stretch for ages as they sat around in tense silence—Jameson was chewing his nails, Marvin played with his hair, Chase couldn’t help the anxious tapping of his foot.

All six PDAs gave a warning beep that had Chase jumping even as he’d been expecting it. They echoed one another in an eerie monotone, each survivor moving away from the window as the words droned from their devices.

“Emergency: A quantum detonation has occurred in the Aurora’s drive core. The reactor will reach a super critical state in T-minus ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five—” Chase closed his eyes and scrunched his fists into the fabric of his dive suit, “—four, th-three-ee-ee, t-t-two-two…”

Even underwater, even inside the habitat, he could feel the shock wave from the explosion rip through the water around them: The way it threw sand up at the window, the habitat creaking, lights flickering, projectile shrapnel from the ship itself clanging as it hit the shallowly submerged habitat hard enough that in one spot off in the corner if even started a leak.

Then, it was over.

Just like that, everything went quiet as the survivors took a collective breath. So quiet, Chase grimaced when their PDAs chirped again with, “For your convenience, the radiation suit has been added to your blueprint database.”

Chase actually found it in himself to snort. “…At least one good thing comes outta that.”

“I’m almost scared to see the ship, now.” Jackie’s voice, through gritted teeth, as he winced with every step toward the window. Not like looking out of it would do any good. Not with the sand disturbed. It would be a while before the water was clear again in their shallows. “I mean, that had to be some explosion, right?”

“Doesn’t matter. I’ve gotta go and at least try to repair the drive core.”

“Well, I’m goin’ with you.”

“To hell you are!” Henrik scoffed. “You can barely stand and the water is no good for your injuries, Mann!”

Marvin shook his head even as he gathered up supplies from the lockers for the new blueprint. “Like hell am I going anywhere near the ship. I’m not dealin’ with a Reaper again.”

“I’m not goin’ alone! Someone’s gotta watch my—”

“I’ll go.” Keen was already at the fabricator that Marvin had put the supplies on, letting it read his PDA so it could get the sizing for the new suit correct. When Chase opened his mouth to protest, the older man simply put a hand up to stop him there. “I slept through the night and most of the morning—I’m rested and my injuries were minor. I’ll accompany you to the ship.”

The suits were heavier than their previous ones, but not n a way that hindered them as much as Chase had expected. The only downside was that the flippers were smaller—stiffer—but he supposed that would be good for when they got onto the actual ship and couldn’t take the flippers off unless they wanted radiation poisoning. Regular ones would have had them falling on their faces on dry land. The helmets also had a wider field of vision from the masks or rebreathers, and no mouthpiece so they could speak while keeping them on—another plus.

“One of you should take the Seamoth, and the other use a ‘Glide,” Marvin said as he handed both of them fully-charged Seaglides. “The ‘Moth’s a bigger target, but also a lot faster. If the Reaper goes after one of you, it’ll chase whoever’s in that, and it’ll have a better chance at escaping. Then the one with the ‘Glide can get past safely.”

“With any luck, we won’t run into one of these ‘Reapers’ at all.”

“Heh. Be nice if somethin’ goes our way for once, huh?”

A final nod to their companions, one last supply check (survival knives, extra batteries, laser cutter, scanners, first aid kit, repair tool—all accounted for), and they pulled the bulkhead open, waited for the teeny little corridor between it and the hatch to flood, then left the habitat.

Keen was the one to take the Seamoth, leaving Chase to trail behind. Smoke still rose from the ship as they approached, there were pieces of the hull that looked like they were barely held on by a few bolts, and the water was so murky from the disturbed sand that he couldn’t see his own hand in front of his face and could barely tell which way was up when completely submerged.

It made the knowledge that there was a massive creature, somewhere out there, all the more terrifying. It could be swimming inches away from them and they’d never even know it.

The first time Chase heard the Reaper’s cry, he could have sworn his blood turned to ice right then and there. His breath caught in his throat, even as he realized the sounds were from far off. So far, it seemed the last few hundred yards to the ship would go without incident.

That didn’t change the fact that it was the most terrifying sound he’d ever heard and didn’t dare duck his head under the surface.

Ahead of him, the Seamoth sped up slightly before falling back again (hesitantly) so he could actually keep up. Keen had heard it, too.

They hugged the side of the ship when they finally reached it, searching for any points of entry that may have been torn into it. It didn’t take long to find one: The entire front half of the Aurora had been ripped apart by the explosion, and Chase’s stomach twisted. He really hoped they wouldn’t find any bodies once they got on board.

“Warning: Ship’s structural integrity is low. Fire suppression equipment and laser cutters may be required. Exploration is conducted at your own risk.”

“Thanks, PDA…” Great. They’d forgotten fire extinguishers. At least they’d been plentiful on the ship—they had a good chance of stumbling across one in their time aboard.

Keen parked the Seamoth as shallowly as he dared on a sloped piece of metal that would have to act as their ramp into the ship. They both hauled their Seaglides up under one arm, survival knives in the other. There were Cave Crawlers everywhere… A part of Chase told him that human bodies would probably be nonexistent with those things on board, and it took everything he had not to gag at the thought.

“Don’t let them rip your suit,” the officer demanded as he used his Seaglide as a bludgeon on one that lunged at him. It fell stunned at his feet, only for him to kick it off into the water. Chase would have snorted if not for the unease that settled over him as he got a good look at the smoldering remains of the ship, at twisted metal, at collapsed floors that used to be rooms and command center.

The repairman swallowed, holding his knife close as they continued up the “ramp” that he was starting to recognize as the floor that should have led straight to command.

“What do you think we’ll find on board?”

“…I don’t know. Let’s just worry about the drive core first.”

“Right. Yeah, okay.”

It was easy to find, once they got past all the crabs and into the ship, once they helped each other clamor over too-heavy crates that had fallen in the way of one of the corridors. H eknew the ship’s layout from bow to stern, after all. Now…

Now Chase could only frown as he looked down into the water that had flooded the drive core room. There were…things in there. Swimming about, attacking one another…

He pulled his scanner from his hip when one came close enough to the platform—the scanner dubbed them “Bleeders”—and then glared at all the damage he could see from where he stood. They kind of reminded him of cuttlefish. It wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be—he even figured it should be fairly easy to repair from what he was seeing—but if those Bleeders tore his suit..?

When he turned to Keen, the older man had his hands on the railing, eyes fixed on one of the creatures as it circled near them, clearly trying to figure out how to get at them. “They’re like leaches,” he said without looking to Chase. “Had one attack me when I left my lifepod. Don’t let them latch on.”

“Think you can keep ‘em away from me while I repair?”

“I believe so.”

They set their Seaglides near the door to keep them out of the way of feet and tools and knives and Chase got to work on the damage he could reach from the platforms, first.

Without looking away from his work, Chase asked, “So… What’re we gonna do about that Sepse guy? Just…leave ‘im here when we leave?”

“I hate to say it, but yes. He’s been here alone for too long and attempting to get him on a ship off world would just put anyone involved in danger.”

“Fair enough.” One spot finished, he moved on to the next. He’d have to go in the water soon. “Got another question for ya: The rest of Sepse’s crew. The Mongolians? Any idea how they ended up here? Marv thinks they were looking for habitable planets.”

“Why they were here, no.” Chase could tell by the sound of his voice that Keen had his back turned to him to watch the Bleeders beneath their platform. “It… But it’s why we’re here.”

When he spun around to face the officer, he about caught his own finger with the repair tool. “…What do you mean by that?”

Careful with the knives, Keen crossed his arms with a sigh and shook his head. “The Degasi went missing a decade ago. To improve relations with the Mongolian settlement, Alterra gave the Aurora a secondary mission: To find out what happened to its crew. This system was its last known location, and we came close to the planet in an attempt to scan. That’s the only reason we were equipped with diving gear and appropriate vehicles.”

“So this…this…” Chase went to pinch his nose but only bumped the glass on his helmet. So instead, he threw his hands up, nearly catching Keen with his still-active tool. “Why didn’t the rest of us know about this?! Some…secret fucking mission could be what kills us all!”

“It was meant to be a simple scan. But something happened, Brody. And I have a feeling what happened to us is what also brought down the Degasi.”

“Doesn’t fucking change the fact the rest of the crew should’ve known. That Mongolian emissary—Khasar?—that’s why he was on board, wasn’t it? So you could figure out what the hell happened and he could tell his people. Why the fuck would that be kept from the rest of us, man?”

“Because nothing was expected to come of it! If something was discovered we would have sent people down while the Aurora continued on its course to set up the phasegate. This—” he gestured at the flooded room around them, “—was never supposed to happen.”

“Awesome. Good to know we’re stranded ‘cause someone was curious about a crew that went missing ten fuckin’ years ago.” He shouldered past Keen to move on to the next spot that needed repairing.

Curiosity killed the cat, Chase thought bitterly. He reached a hand up for the pendent at his throat, could feel it under the thick fabric of his suit. Someone else’s curiosity could be what never let him see his kids again, dammit.

“…Did Doc know? He keep this shit from us?”

“No. Schneeplestein was too new to the crew. He was one of the few ranking officers who wasn’t informed.”

Chase shook his head and muttered under his breath, checked the battery on his repair tool—

“Brody—”

“Can it.”

—and stepped off the platform into the water below. The nearby Bleeders immediately went after him but the super-heated end of the repair tool worked even better on them than he’d expected. It wasn’t long before Keen was there with the knives so Chase could use the tool as it was actually meant to be used, however. Just focus on the job at hand for now, he told himself. Repair the drive core so you don’t have to worry about the radiation.

It took a lot of time—a few hours, by Chase’s estimation—before he was finally positive every leak in the core was repaired. Or…“repaired” since it wasn’t like it would ever run again anyway. At least now the leak was stopped.

When they surfaced again, Chase was the one to take the leader after they’d snatched up their Seaglides.

“When we get back, you better fuckin’ tell the others about the secret little mission that killed over a hundred people. Got it?”

He didn’t give Keen a chance to answer, instead storming off for another part of the ship.

To the computers then, he thought. Let’s see what that package is.

[sam-lives-story]

#SamLives - Chapter 4

“Paranoia”

[Previous|Next]

Also find the latest chapters of this story on [Archive Of Our Own]

It was on Day 11 that Jack got a message from Robin that sent a chill down his spine. He’d been sitting on the couch at the time, watching some Rick and Morty with Sam curled up asleep in his lap. The little eyeball was as comfortable as could be with Jack gently petting his “head”...and that’s when his phone went off.

Robin: Hey Jack...did you have plans for the Egos that I didn’t know about? Lmao

Jack blinked, staring at the screen. He frowned and typed a message back.

Jack: No...? Only what we’ve talked about, but I thought that wasn’t until next month. Why? Robin: Nice job on the editing practice then. Looks like your Anti skills are improving.

And now Jack was very, very confused.

Jack: What are you talking about? Robin: That last recording you sent me, for Subnautica. It looked great!

Jack sat up straighter, making Sam stir from his sleep, but he barely noticed.

Jack: Robin, I didn’t edit that recording at all. I haven’t recorded anything for Anti in ages. Robin: What are you talking about it? I’m watching it right now. Jack: Send it to me?

A few minutes later, Jack was at his computer with Sam on his shoulder, watching the short clip that Robin had sent him, playing it on a loop. That...wasn’t possible. No. What the hell...?

“...heeeey Reefies!” On-screen Jack was saying. “Aww, I love you guys. Be back soon! Alright, heading to the Deep Down Dark Deep Down. Gotta visit my base, visit my lockers, ‘cause I’m a stupid who forgot all the valuable stuff and left it in a place that takes FUCKIN’ FOREVER TO GET TO! Fuuuuck it so muuuuuch! Heheh...” Video-Jack chuckled at his own reference to Simulacra, and it was at that moment that a shadow appeared, glitching, behind him on screen. Just over his shoulder, against the wall. A familiar face grinned from the shadows, and a high-pitched, distorted laugh played in the recording. The video itself glitched, Jack included. Then Video-Jack shivered, glancing over his shoulder, and the figure - Anti - was gone. It was so quick that he wouldn’t have caught it in his brief skim-through of the recorded footage before he sent it to Robin. And it looked just like all those hints he had dropped in his videos during October before Anti had first shown up in “Say Goodbye”.

Except...except Jack hadn’t recorded that. Jack hadn’t done that. Jack hadn’t...made that face, laughed that laugh. He hadn’t done that...and suddenly he felt very, very scared. Then rationality kicked in and he giggled hysterically, running a hand through his hair.

He was being stupid. He was being dramatic. Obviously Robin had edited this, and was making a joke of it. That bit with Anti...it had to be part of the unused footage from a previous project. It had to be. He shook his phone free from his hoodie pocket and tapped out a shaky text.

Jack: Haha, very funny. You got me! I was actually scared there for a second! Jack: You’re such a troll lol

But Robin’s next message didn’t make him feel any better.

Robin: Man I’m not trolling you. I thought you edited that?

Jack could barely keep his hands from shaking as he tried to respond. He swallowed thickly, a dull fear washing over him.

Jack: No, I didn’t. That...I never did that. Unless I’ve learned to edit in my sleep I have no idea how that got into the video

Unless...

“Belief. I’m talking about belief....and how it can do amazing, impossible things...”

The words Mark had spoken to him a few days prior were bouncing around in his head again, echoing and repeating and playing on loop. Mark had been about to tell him something, before the call had ended. Something about belief. Something about Sam, but kind of not. Something that he didn’t get to finish saying because...he swallowed, both hands clutching at his hair as he sank in his desk chair.

Because the call had started to flood with static, and then his phone had shocked him. Which he wasn’t even aware a smartphone could do, not when it was mostly unharmed like Jack’s was.

Another buzz from his phone alerted him to another message from Robin.

Robin: Wait, so you didn’t put that bit with Anti in the other video either?

Jack scrambled to pick up his phone, fumbling with it for a moment.

Jack: What video? Robin: The upload from this morning, the first one. The “Reading Your Comments” video. Robin: You were answering some question about the egos...? I thought you were just messing with the community so I left it in. Robin: But when I saw the second one in the Subnautica recording you sent me I thought I should ask.

Jack rapidly pulled up the video on his computer, scrubbing through it until he found the question Robin was talking about, because he already knew which one it was. He’d responded with something totally off-topic, something unrelated, just to be funny...and sure enough, as Video-Jack was reading the question aloud, there was a little visual distortion. Not much, but if you were looking for it, you’d see it. And way in the background, in the shadows in the corner...a silhouette. Brief. Barely there. A fraction of a second. A few frames, maybe. And it knocked all of Jack’s breath from him.

“Jack? Are you okay?”

Sam had bounced onto the desk, into Jack’s line of sight, and the little eyeball was eyeing him with a look of innocent concern. Jack took a breath. Then another. He forced a smile.

“Y-Yeah. Yeah, o’ course. Fine.”

“You’re scared.”

“...a little,” Jack admitted sheepishly. Sam could always read him, better than anyone. Having a mental link probably had something to do with it. “Sorry bud. I didn’t mean ta scare you.”

“Why are you scared?”

Jack had no answer for him, not really. He couldn’t think of a way to say it. So instead he thought it. He pictured Anti, pictured the videos he’d made with him. And he let his fear seep through...just a little. Enough for Sam to get the idea. And Sam...his pupil widened a little and he squeaked.

“He’s real too?”

“I dunno,” Jack shrugged, sinking further in his seat. He leaned forward, propping his elbow on the desk and burying his face in his hands, reverting to thinking from here on out. ‘I dunno. It sounds stupid, sounds impossible. But...I dunno how else he’s showing up in videos, unless Robin’s lying. And I don’t think he would. Not this far.’

Sam made a worried little noise and nudged Jack’s arm, nuzzling up against his hoodie sleeve. Trying to help. And it did, a little...because Jack managed to smile.

“C’mon, c’mon...” Jack was muttering at his phone and pacing, as though urging it on would somehow will the person on the other end to pick up the phone any faster. It was taking far too long. It was only as he finally heard someone on the line that it occurred to him what time it was in California.

“...h’lo?”

Jack winced, hearing the sleepiness in Mark’s voice, knowing he must have woken him up.

“Mark. Hi. God, sorry, I totally forgot what time it was over there...”

“Yeah, it’s...” There was a rustle of fabric, a muffled grumble. “...three in the fuckin’ morning.”

“Sorry. Shite. I didn’t think, I just called...I can...I can call back later...”

“Woah, wait, no, ‘s cool,” Mark mumbled. There was more movement on the other end, a light clicking on, a door opening and closing. A yawn. “Wassup?”

“...”

And now that he was actually talking to Mark, Jack began to realize how stupid he would sound the minute he opened his mouth.

“...Seán?”

“It’s...nothin’. Nevermind. I shouldn’t’ve called.” The words spilled out of him faster than he could think them, a hand dragging through his already-unkempt hair. Sam made a little noise of question from where he was sitting on the arm of the couch.

“Dude you sound like you saw a ghost.” Jack could hear the worried frown in his words. “Hold up, once sec...”

The call ended abruptly, but as soon as it had gone Jack’s phone was ringing again, this time for a Skype call. Jack sighed and answered it. His screen lit up with the rather sleepy-looking face of Mark, his hair a chaotic mess of bedhead and his mouth pulled down in a worried frown. Jack could only imagine how he looked himself. He’d been running his hands through his hair nonstop since he’d woken up, he’d had four cups of coffee, and he’d been jumping at shadows all morning. Mark blinked.

“Holy shit. You look like hell.”

Jack rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, thanks, I kinda figured that,” he grumbled, looking away for a moment.

“Are you okay? You seem...stressed. I’ve seen it in your videos too...”

Jack let a small, hysterical laugh bubble past his lips.

"I'm fine! Toootally great!” He said sarcastically. “I'm being held together by coffee and redbull and cookies and prayers! What could possibly be wrong?!"

“Jesus.” Mark stared at him like he was nuts. “The hell happened to you?”

And Jack just let out a slow breath, deflating.

“...just...a lot. Recently.”

“Is it Sam still?”

Jack didn’t even feel annoyed this time when Mark mentioned it, just sighing resignedly.

“...sort of. I mean that’s part of it, sure, but...” He trailed off, chewing his lip. Wondering if this was even a good idea in the first place.

“But what?” Mark asked. Jack looked at his screen again to see Mark sitting on a couch now, a soft light illuminating his tired features. Would Mark think he was fretting over nothing? Mark had his own dark persona on the internet, Darkiplier, and Jack was certain he was aware of Antisepticeye. But thinking that Anti was a real, living thing...or whatever Anti’s version of “living” would be...

“Jack?” Mark’s brow furrowed in concern.

“...I...eh...” Jack stared at his screen for another long moment. Then he sighed. “...I’m bein’ paranoid. That’s all.”

“Paranoid about what...?”

“Anti.”

A pause.

“...you mean, like, Evil-You? That Anti?”

“Yeah. That Anti. He...” Another pause, another sigh, a huff of frustration. Jack, running his hands through his hair for the umpteenth time. “...he’s shown up in a few o’ my videos, an’ I didn’t put ‘im there. I didn’t record stuff for it. I didn’t tell Robin to do it, an’ Robin claims he thought I was editing it like that. And I keep...I keep thinking he’s right behind me, right over my shoulder. And I started thinkin’ about what you were saying about “belief” before and I started to think it might be possible and I wanted to call you and ask and – you...probably think I’m absolutely off my rocker.” Jack flopped back onto the couch, his head thunking back against the wall behind it. He closed his eyes, expression strained. God, he sounded insane. Sam slipped off the armrest to snuggle up in Jack’s lap, out of sight of the camera. Trying to make him feel better.

“...would you call me crazy if I said I believed you?”

And just like that, Jack’s eyes were glued to the screen again, where he could see Mark avoiding looking at the camera, rubbing a hand over his mouth. Looking concerned.

“You’re joking.”

“Not...not this time, no.”

There was a seriousness to his tone that Jack wasn’t used to, that made him think maybe Mark really did mean what he was saying.

“Why?”

“Why do I believe you?” Mark asked, finally looking up to the camera. “Because I think–”

There was an odd, glitched distortion on the screen, the lighting around Mark changing and shifting for a brief, almost unnoticeable moment....and judging by the slight widening of Mark’s eyes and the way Jack gasped softly, they both knew that the other had just seen the same thing.

“...I think...I can’t talk about it. Not now. Not...” Mark glanced over his shoulder, his eyes landing on something off-screen, something near the ground. “You alright? It’s okay, I promise. I’m right here.” The camera’s angle changed, going lopsided as Mark leaned over to reach toward whatever was on the floor. Jack assumed it was probably his dog, Chica. Poor pup. He smiled softly in sympathy. Then Mark was back in the frame, and he looked a little strained.

“Look. I can’t...talk about it over the phone. Obviously he doesn’t want you knowing. But I’ll be in Europe for a tour soon. A few weeks from now. Just...hold out ‘till then, and we can talk then. I’ll stop by, or we can meet up–”

“Wait, who?” Jack interrupted, frowning. A minute fear seemed to build in his chest, a tension there that hadn’t been there before, and he found himself glancing over his shoulder despite the fact that it was broad daylight and he was sitting against a wall. Sam made a quiet noise of distress and cuddled closer to him, looking up at him. Jack’s free, shaking hand fell to his lap to pet the little eyeball. “Who doesn’t want me to know what?”

“Later,” Mark insisted. “Not now. It’s not safe.”

“Why?!”

“Later!”

And Mark hung up. Jack tried, twice, to call him again - but both times Mark ignored him. He gritted his teeth and held Sam a little closer, suddenly scared to be alone.

[A/N] I swear, when I began this story, this was not the direction I was planning on taking it. It was going to be a cute little fluff-friendship piece with Sam thrown into the mix, then...the story took on a mind of its own. So even I don’t know where it’d headed...but I promise there will be cutes ahead as well. That, at the very least, is still a part of the plan. <3

Also find the latest chapters of this story on [Archive Of Our Own]

[Previous|Next]

[Chapter List]

[blessuswithblogs]

2018 Game of the Year Top Ten List I guess

2018 has been an interminable mire of exhausting miasma and quite frankly I feel like it has been longer than the entire stretch of 2010-2015 combined. I also didn't play many games released this year because, like last year, I'm still poor. I'll see what I can dig up.

10. Sunset Overdrive PC edition: It's a fun open world game by insomniac. The PC Port is actually balls but like. It's a good game with a unique emphasis on how you traverse the game world, where you can grind and bounce on just about anything and indeed to do so is the only way to not get totally chewed up by the hordes of mutants and scavengers and robots you have to fight. There's also some pretty fun and out there weapons to use, like a gun that shoots vinyl records or one that deploys little auto-turrets kept aloft with propellers or one that shoots out a bowling ball at terminal velocity. The base game didn't actually come out this year (I dont... think it did...?) but it was an XBone exclusive so I didn't play it then. It's got some weird problems with narrative tone and some kind of out of the blue racism but the M rated Nickolodeon toy commercial aesthetic is charming in a weird way. I guess.

9. The Forest: I think this got an official release this year? I don't know I can't fucking keep track. Speaking of a game with weird problems with racism, if you can look past the garbage "main quest" and really deeply uncomfortable racial politics where you murder and steal from cannibal mutants, The Forest is probably the best cool treefort building simulator I've ever played. This game has a love affair with lumber and I respect that. Shouldn't you be looking for Timmy, you ask me? Shouldn't you be shutting the fuck up before I put this airplane axe in your skullmeats? Gazebos are nice. I guess.

8. Spyro: reignited trilogy: haven't actually played this yet but let's be real the spyro games were fucking dope back in the day and giving them an HD coat of paint and packaging them all together is a real standup thing for insomniac to do in between slinging webs and making questionable pc ports. Also its like Dark Souls so it has to be good, right? Everything old is new again. I guess.

7. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: haven't played this one either but like. I know that I am a smash-enjoyer. I even liked Brawl. This is the biggest, smashiest one yet and it's also on the switch which means it could also be portable if I decided I never wanted to leave my bed again. I'm probably going to find some money to get it soon. Should be fun. I guess.

6. The Quiet Man: look no game that is THIS hysterical can be all bad alright? Didn't play it. Won't play it. It's awful. But it's so fucking funny like oh my god. Still better than Fallout 76. I guess.

5. Dark Souls Remastered: was this even a good remaster? I don't fucking know. It's Dark Souls. It's better than 90% of released games by default. I miss Solaire of Astora. I guess there's Shadows Die Twice to look forward to. I guess.

4. Subnautica: I wrote a lot about this actually. Subnautica is great. Just fantastic. A wonderful, visually stunning (mostly) (when it works) journey under an alien ocean to unravel an ancient mystery behind a deadly plague. Building seabases is so much fun (when it doesn't hard crash your computer) and the peaceful playstyle you adopt where you really only kill things for food until you can grow your own, much more efficient produce is a welcome change of pace from everything else. Leviathans are scary, especially now that your cyclops is mortal and not indestructible. This game actually Came Out this year so it deserves to be on the spot. I guess.

3. Dragon Ball Fighterz: Honestly I'm hell trash garbage at fighting games that aren't smash but this was a very well put together, visually impressive as all hell fast paced tag fighter where you can have 3 gokus on the same team fight 3 other gokus on the same team. Goku density alone makes this game worth recommending. The eSports scene that has popped up around it is fun too. I guess.

2. Dead Cells: Another game that gets to be on the list by virtue of it actually coming out this year. Wait, was this on last year's list? Let me check. Ok good it wasn't. Early access is a fucking trip. It's fun, stylish, challenging, has a great deal of variety in ways to play, might have erased my entire save because it became obsolete and I'm definitely not bitter, and it has that classic rogue-lite replay value to give you some bang for your buck. There was that one review plagiarism scandal. I guess.

1. Monster Hunter World: If you really want to know what I think of this game my previous piece on it is a good place to start. In addition to everything said there, MHW is just a fun game. The loop is satisfying and, later on, quite challenging. The combat system takes some genuine getting used to and some monsters like Nergigante actually literally cheat but for the most part the game's unique fighting style, spread across several unique weapon types, is rewarding to learn because it demands some effort be put into it and the dividends of fighting well are very cool, like just knocking a flying monster on its ass with a single mighty swing of the hammer. When a game is hard in any capacity games journalists get dollar signs in their eyes and start drooling uncontrollably because they can immediately declare that Farm Sim 2020 is the next Bloodborne because they somehow managed to roll their tractor into a ditch, but MHW is actually quite similar in style and execution to deliberate Souls combat, but the comparison is made in reverse. Dark Souls is quite similar to Monster Hunter, the first game of which was popular and a couple of years old before Demon's Souls was even a twinkle in Miyazaki's eye. There's a lot of parallels between fighting a big ol' rathalos in monhun and going for the toes against a dragon in Dark Souls, but I think MHW actually does that kind of fight better.  There are a lot of modern conveniences present in MHW that are a godsend to newer players, making the game pretty easy to get into if you're willing to try. It was my favorite game of the year that actually came out in 2018. I kind of wanted to put Warframe in this list but it's been out of early access for years now. I guess.

There were a lot of games this year that I wanted to play, but couldn't. I don't think 2018 was a weak year for video games. It wasn't as strong as 2017 but it had some hits, I just couldn't afford to play them all. Maybe next year I'll be able to give a better list. I think that the whole industry is in for some hard choices and major restructuring of how things get done and how they look at the end result. Stocks continue to trend downward - not just for Bethesda but for most mainstream, prominent AAA developers like EA and Take2. Given the well documented volatility of "The Shareholders", I imagine that they would be most displeased by downward trends even if they were still making a modest profit.

The situation has been likened to an economic bubble ripe for bursting. Games as a cultural institution have come a long way since the catastrophic days of Atari's warehouses of unsold copies of E.T., and I don't believe that we're in any danger of a complete collapse of the institution, but the fact absolutely remains That Something's Gotta Give. The increasingly predatory practices that game developers put in place as they pathologically attempt to Make Every Money Ever are intrinsically unsustainable. People are willing to forgive and overlook the now ubiquitous microtransaction if a game is good enough to overlook it, or if it's the game's only real way of actually making money. Warframe's microtransactions, for instance, are reasonably priced, platinum is often heavily discounted as a login bonus, and you can make large amounts of it without ever spending money thanks to the game's surprisingly robust trading economy. So. Yeah. They get a pass. Warframe is also good on its own merits, despite being free to play. They also listen to their community about pricing. Go check out Warframe. It's free. It's free!!! Warframe is my unofficial top spot.

Sorry I got a little bit distracted. So there's only really two instances where people will tolerate microtransactions and lootboxes in the contemporary sense: either a game is good enough and polished enough and the lootboxes are unobtrusive enough that you can just sort of shrug your shoulders and say "it sucks but what are you gonna do" or it genuinely relies on those microtransactions to support itself. When these tenets are violated, people WILL get mad. People raised absolute hell about Battlefront 2's scummy monetization schemes, enough to get EA to back off. Fallout 76 is getting lambasted in no small part due to its utterly overpriced "cosmetic" shop where you pay ten real dollars to get your power armor to look blue. You can buy fullfeatured, critically acclaimed games for half that price and you already dumped $60 on this lemon of a game. Destiny 2 got into hot water for being cagey about how its exp values were calculated and how the previously free and user-friendly shaders became one-time use items you could only get from rolling the dice. The public is getting positively irate about all of this nonsense, and if Fallout 76 (and evidently battlefield V?) is any indication, we are fast approaching a breaking point where shareholder demand for profit will outpace the consumer's ability to provide it and the developer's ability to skinner box it out of us.

Of course Nintendo continues to march on to the beat of its own drum seemingly unaffected by all of this garbage. Not out of any moral superiority, I imagine. More likely it's just a consequence of that company still being in the process of being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Maybe a few years down the line when everyboy else has abandoned microtransactions Nintendo will pick them up, put a cute Mario motif on it, and we'll be back to square one. Time will tell. We're in a volatile time for games and the timebomb keeps ticking. I just hope the explosion isn't too messy. I guess.

[onlyonecanbeking]

The Persuasion Show

Written by Yours Truly, ask-sadisticdark. I have promised a story at 1,000 followers, and here we are! I am ever so glad that you all decided to remain with me, a blubbering and rambling mess of a Figment. Without further ado, here we begin.

WARNING: This story details a stressful situation with mild (very mild, only mentions of blood), mocking, and vulgar. If this does not appeal to you, I urge you to not complete this story. Thank you.

The night never used to effect you.

For some points in your life, you never even noticed the change of the day. The computer screen blaring its blue light right into your eyes made it hard to realize that at some point, sunlight failed to gleam its way past your window curtains. But things change.

And your fears changed with them.

Darkiplier’s return hadn’t struck you much when it first occurred. You had been excited and enthralled by the momentum of it all, but there was no true fear. But as it was said... things change. And things changed very drastically on one particular blustering, lonely night.

You remember it vividly. It was dark, the wind was crashing like tidal waves against the panels of your house, but you paid almost no mind to it. It’s desperate warning howls against cold and bitter air never seemed to register its way into your head. You were busy, far too busy, to listen. Instead, your attentions were eagerly set upon one particular youtube channel, and to one particular youtuber, who’s smile and stubble always seemed to burn a piece of you even brighter. Every time his video started, your entire body always relaxed. Every time his voice rolled from the speakers of your computer, you were already fixated.

“Hello everybody, my name is Markiplier and welcome-”

Another horrible gurgling sound of the wind smacking against the tree branches almost drowned out the sounds of Mark speaking. But you were determined to listen, you were an avid lover of the Subnautica series, after all. It started as usual, Mark had his character standing out into the empty abyss of the sea, looking towards the horizon and blabbering his thoughts about his loneliness and plans to rebuild a base somewhere deep underwater. And you loved every second of it. You loved his goofy childish fear of the creatures bellowing from beyond. You loved his ambitions and truest, deepest, desire to learn more about the secrets hidden bellow ocean waves.

That is when everything went horribly wrong.

It was about ten minutes into the video. Mark had his Seamoth floating into the endless chasms of the trenches of the deep, darkness surrounding him, eery music screeching beneath his words. There was an abrupt beeping sound that sounded much like a computer error note, and the youtube video was cut off, glitched into place in the midst of Mark’s opening mouth.

The sudden file that abruptly popped up in the center of your screen made you jerk in your seat. Leaning back after realizing how closely you had been leaning, your eyes stared upon the digital manila envelope that sat right smack in the middle of the youtube video, innocent but very, very odd. In bold black letters beneath the folder, it read

“Read Me.”

Instead of feeling fear, you scowled in annoyance. Damn bots and their malware. You quickly clicked away from the envelope, and it brought you back to the youtube screen, where you were able to begin the video again. In just mere moments, you completely forgot all about that strange, random digital file.

Mark’s humorous statements, and the surprising calm of the wind battering the window pane, caused you to begin relaxing again. When the loud bling sound arrived for the second time, only about five minutes after deleting the first file, you almost gave a gasp in surprise. The file, in all its small digital glory, popped back up onto the midst of the computer screen, sitting patiently, quietly, unassuming. But the words bellow had changed. In that same bold font, rigid and black, it read;

“I Said Read Me.”

This one caused your attention. This one, you could feel, caused for your stomach to awkwardly flutter in a mixture of nervous curiosity. This was definitely no malware, no bot had ever sent another message after being declined with such demand. Your hand on the mouse, suddenly becoming slightly slick, slowly pulled the cursor over the file, highlighting it in preparation to click. But you hesitated.

What if this absolutely fucked up your computer? Implanted a virus or some type of device to stalk you while you slept. You had heard of the stories before, those horrible nightmarish instances where someone was kidnapped by a freak viewing them from their computer screen.... But this felt... different. Somehow, this felt... safe. You had no explanation as to why, and you rarely ever trusted your judgement. But without another pause, you tapped the file to beckon it open.

The file disappeared, and into another quick moment, a blank empty page took its place, only taking up about half of the screen in a small rectangular shape. The page, in same bolded black, only read a few words.

“Mind Or Body?”

And beneath those words were two empty boxes, one with an M beside it, and the other with a B. They were waiting to be checked.

At this point, you were beyond puzzled. What did the question even mean? Was this some sort of advertisement? It couldn’t have been, advertisements were never ones to be mysterious. They immediately wanted you to know their name and they motives. This was just... bizarre.

“Mind Or Body?”

You removed your hand from the mouse, and slowly rubbed the cold and sweating fingertips of yours across your cheeks, desperately trying to understand what it was initially asking. Was it based off attraction? Perhaps that was it... intelligence or beauty, perhaps, was the underlying cause. You had to assume so, because it certainly wasn’t giving any further clues.

Your tongue clicked against the roof of your mouth, scowling in an attempted concentration as a slow breath drew from you. On top of trying to discover where this file had come from, and why, you were also trying to choose between the two options.

What did it matter, really anyway? What type of strange poll was this, and how did it affect anything?

In a fit of “I don’t care”, you wiggled your cursor across the screen before randomly choosing one of the options. You think you ended up clicking on Body, but you weren’t completely sure.

The page disappeared in a silent blink, leaving the canvas of the youtube page up to its fullest colors. But despite the eagerly awaiting adventures that were going to occur in the deep, you failed to start the video again. You merely stared, blankly, unseeing of the bold red outline of the webpage. You were too intensely in thought, and too intent on finding out what that file had exactly done to the likes of your computer.

You ran a malware check, a virus check, and a few treatment diagnostics, almost certain some type of disruption surely had made its way to the database. But, the computer seemed certain that all was well, as certain as it was that it couldn’t find the source of that file, or the history of its appearance.

Satisfied, only partially, that all was well, you shrugged off the experience and assumed that whatever poll you had just taken was going to some sort of research facility, somewhere in the world. A strange, mysterious, unknown facility, but a facility nonetheless. Your hand fell upon the mouse again, and you moved your cursor across the screen in order to reopen your page again.

You only got about half way.

The entirety of your screen froze, or at least, that’s what you could determine. No matter how aggressively you swiped your mice across your desk, around in circles, back and forth, zigzagging and cursing under your breath, the white little cursor simply remained stuck right in the center of your computer screen.

“Dammit you stupid lagging piece of trash.” Your voice growled in disdain as you lifted the mouse in your hand, beginning to twist it to check and see if anything had blocked off the sensors down bellow. It was then that the familiar, horribly familiar, bling from the computer resounded in your ears again.

Your eyes lifted back towards the computer before you, and there, in the center of the computer, directly bellow the cursor with the same cream manila envelope, was another file.

“View Me.”

You were unable to move the cursor in order to hover over the words, the entirety of your screen had obviously completely crashed. So, in one last effort, you pressed your finger against your enter button. The file glitched into uneven shreds, ditching across the screen as a scratching noise, like fuzz and screeching nails, echoed in your ears for a moment or so, before all was quiet again. Calmly, a much larger rectangle assumed its place, but it was empty, and black, and a small play button sat in the center. It was a video. It began playing with you urging it to start.

The scene it faded into caused the depths of your chest to rise into your throat.

The dark concrete room was barren, lacking substantial light and seeming to be aged and worn. Deep cracks were in the floor and wall that connected together. Dark stains, mud or... blood... or whatever else... were randomly splattered against the surface. You could almost smell the musky scent it most certainly wafted.

A man sat directly in the center, head drooped lowly, the black raven tresses of his hair cascading over half of his face. The chair he sat in was large, awkwardly large, metallic and rigid and surely not comfortable. You could see that his eyes were closed, but it lacked anything that would describe that he was peaceful. His hands were stuck awkwardly behind his back, elbows protruding outward enough to make you believe his wrists were most likely bound.

“Mark...” The words barely left you, your voice was having a difficult time being used. What in the hell was this? Why were you being shown something like this? What did it mean?

You were desperately attempting to process the horrid display, when suddenly they entirety of the scene jostled and wiggled, blurring the figure in front of you. Someone was adjusting the camera pointed in Mark’s direction.

“Mmmmm....” There was a light growling sound in the depth of an unknown figure’s throat, whoever was behind the scene. Behind the camera. Behind all of this mayhem you were looking upon. There was a few more seconds of jostling and incoherent muttering, before there was a loud click, and a sound of praise.

“There we are.” The voice was rich, flowing and gentle, almost calming if any different situation was occurring. A man, burly and tall, surprisingly pale, strode into the view of the camera.

You suddenly realized just how thirsty you were. All you ever wanted, at that moment, was a tall glass of water.

Dark turned himself around in order to burn his gaze into the camera lens, staring directly into you with a smile that arched unnaturally. His arms that lay at his sides swung out, beckoning in a gesture of prideful welcome.

“Lovelies, ladies and gentleman, one... and all. I am most pleased to find you here with me. Welcome, all of you, to my first ever, official, Darkiplier episode.” Dark clapped his hands together and hugged them close to his chest, snickering and smiling in a giddy fashion.

“It took quite a bit of effort, I must admit. Days worth of planning, aggravation, sweat and tears and blood, quite literally, in order to make this possible. I set up the scene, of course, with the skills that I wield. But the final piece, the final push to truly... get this episode rolling, was something I required from you.”

Dark stood directly in front of Mark’s body, who remained unmoving, locked in some type of trance, or fretful sleep, looking like a long passed mannequin. Dark didn’t even seem to notice Mark’s existence, his entire attentions focused to the screen, and he continued talking.

“All of you received a poll, just minutes ago. The question, as I’m sure you all can recall, was ‘Mind or Body?’ Did any of you ponder what this may entail? Hmm? Did any of you suspect any ill will when you responded? Well, whatever curiosity you have faced in these last few moments, my friends, it will finally be quenched. Your responses determined the actions that will be bestowed upon my perfect little subject here with me, today. Some of you may know him from his video channel, some of you may have no recognition of him. I simply call him Mark.”

Dark stepped to the side only slightly, and twisted his shoulders to show off the shadowed figure of poor empty Mark, hanging in his seat.

“Perhaps ‘The Little Wench Who Ruined My Existence’ would suffice as a more suitable nickname, however. Don’t you agree, Mark?”

After another pause, he turned back, and jerked his hands against the hem of his vest, straining the fabric. He continued as if he hadn’t interacted with the unconscious man at all. As he did, his smile shifted, only slightly, something laying beneath his skin that grew darker, less friendly. He seemed to be staring directly into you, and you alone.

“Some of you may believe that this is for Mark alone. But you would assume incorrectly. Don’t you see? I tried to play nicely. I tried to be the wonderful, perfect Figment they all assumed me to be. But still... you doubted. Adoration turned into comfortableness. You all became fearless of me. You sought me out because you thought I was fUnnY, OR cuTE, or soMEtHING to brINg you AMUsemenT. You all believe that I am.... am incapable..... of what I KNOW.... I can do. You all believe that I am weak, pathetic, and that I am simply some... imagination. Some... tHinG. Well... I am here to remind you, Lovelies, that I am not some wandering decision. I am a concrete REALITY. And now... well... I will prove. What I. Am capable of.”

TO BE CONTINUED?

Oops! I may have not completely fulfilled my promise. Did I fail to mention I would only be providing HALF of the story at 1,000 followers? How disappointing. It must have slipped my mind.

Do you desire part two? Perhaps I will continue at 1,500. Or perhaps not. We’ll see where the wind takes me.

[weekegg2-blog]

Thirteen of Third Coast’s Favorite Scary Gaming Moments

As Halloween weekend comes to a close, you might be feeling a bit of sadness at the prospect of all the spooky fun fading. Don’t fret though, because Halloween isn’t over yet, and neither is all the scary fun. Here at Third Coast, we’ve compiled a list of the scariest moments we’ve had playing video games, and we’re here to share them with you. So grab some Halloween candy and explore our favorite frightening game moments. Then, if you dare, scout the Halloween sales on Playstation, Xbox and Steam’s Halloween sale (starting today) and spend some time reliving the horrifying moments we mentioned. Third Coast gamers Antal Bokor, Marielle Shaw, James Brod, Matthew Bucher and Allison Manley share their favorite scares below.

Screenshot: Penumbra: Overture (via igdb.com)

Penumbra: Overture

I came across Penumbra a few years after it came out, and I’m not sure exactly what drew me towards it. It immediately gave me an eerie, found footage sort of vibe, like I discovered something forbidden, or even cursed. Penumbra’s inherent jankiness really helped drive that impression home, but if you’re willing to suffer through some clunkiness you’ll find a truly unsettling, extremely atmospheric and compelling game about a man trying to find his long-presumed dead father in a remote underground facility in northern Greenland. Brave creatures, fight your deteriorating psyche, solve physics-based puzzles, and uncover horrific mysteries. Developed by Frictional games, known for Amnesia and Soma, Penumbra is a survival/psychological horror that will haunt you.

-Antal

Screenshot: Tomb Raider III

Tomb Raider (Series)

I may have already mentioned I was hooked on Tomb Raider from the very first game, but what needs mentioning in a list of scary games is that there are some truly terrifying moments in those first three Tomb Raider games. Some are by design—like the incredibly creepy last two levels of the original game, where the walls pulse and strange aliens abound—but others happened more organically. I remember being engrossed in a complicated puzzle in the midst of a lush jungle in Tomb Raider III only to nearly die of a heart attack when a tiger would suddenly ambush me, destroying my moment of quiet contemplation. Perhaps the scariest thing I remember happening in any Tomb Raider game I’ve played though was during Tomb Raider III, when a giant Shiva statue came to life in what had previously been a peaceful puzzle room. The legacy continues, too, as Shadow of the Tomb Raider turned out to have some very frightening foes in the depths of its cave systems. 

– Mariel

Screenshot: Subnautica

Subnautica

Not a conventional horror game, Subnautica is perhaps the game that scared me the most on this entire list. When I reviewed it last year (link to review) I mentioned its scarier moments, and even after putting about fifty more hours into that game since I reviewed it and even knowing all of its secrets, I still feel uneasy in its depths. There’s an extremely primal fear throughout as you are introduced to an underwater food chain that places you somewhere in the middle. Star Trek-like technology helps surviving under the oceans possible, but not necessarily easy as uncovering its mysteries puts you closer to some of Subnautica’s more terrifying creatures and environments.

-Antal

Screenshot: Layers of Fear

Layers of Fear

Layers of Fear is great because it’s a first-person psychological horror game featuring classic works of art mixed with grotesque uses for body parts… but it’s also got a LOT of great jump scares. Throughout the game (set in an artists’ manor), a lot of the paranoia comes in constantly-shifting hallways, many of which have words written on the walls and over the doorways. In one of those hallways, the wall above the door says “DON’T LOOK BACK.” When you see that, you just have to turn around, right? Let’s just say that if you play the game, you probably don’t want to. Unless you want to change your pants.

-Allison

Screenshot: Dead Space

Dead Space

I’d heard of the Dead Space games for years, and I’d always been interested. Resident Evil 4 in space, and gorier? Sign me up. Let me tell you, I was not disappointed. Dead Space is a horror game for people who don’t like feeling completely defenseless, without sacrificing the teeth-grinding anxiety that horror games give you in spades. It has plenty of satisfying weaponry, which is perfect when you’re going up against some of the most disturbingly scary creatures in any horror game I’ve played, because when every enemy you face looks like it was ripped right out of The Thing (which is a must watch for horror movie fans), you know you’re going to have a bad time. All of this is brought together with a setting that feels like Alien but scarier makes Dead Space a must play for fans of the horror genre.

– James

Screenshot: The Evil Within

The Evil Within

Legendary director and developer Shinji Mikami, best known for his work with Capcom and the Resident Evil Series, helped not only create the modern survival horror genre—but he also helped redefine it with Resident Evil 4 in 2002. When Evil Within came out, I think people were expecting another genre defining game. Instead, we got a mind fuck that is worthy of cult status. Gritty and rough around the edges, Evil Within is like playing through a horror hodgepodge. Taking cues from Silent Hill and the Resident Evil series, The Evil Within plays like the nightmare you would have after binge playing as many games in those series as possible. With a story that jumps from setting to setting without much explanation (until the end), increase the sense of hopelessness. And if that wasn’t bad enough, even on “Normal” difficulty The Evil Within can be pretty difficult, and checkpoints can be pretty sparse adding another layer fear in the form of lost progress. The sequel (see our review here) is a lot more conventional to modern horror standards, and while it never felt as gritty as the original, is also worth a look.

-Antal

Screenshot: The Forest

The Forest

I went into The Forest preparing to be scared. I knew it was a sort of Descent-esque survival game, but I wasn’t prepared for just how much horror would be involved. Try as I might to convince myself that the terrifying mutations that exist in the forests where my plane crashed weren’t real, the sounds they made, the way they hunt in packs, and the particular combination of twisted body parts they’re made up of had me legitimately terrified for almost the entire first half of the game. Adding to the fright factor, the monsters’ attack patterns are erratic—sometimes they’ll charge straight for you in groups, but sometimes they’ll fake you out, letting out a crazy sort of laughing sound as they do. Once you start exploring the caves, you’ll find newer and deeper horrors, with bloody limbs you’ll need to brush past, empty camps where things went terribly wrong, and the knowledge that just around the next bend you may encounter something you can’t get out of. While I eventually conquered my paralyzing fear of The Forest’s citizens and was better able to face off with them, I still can’t shake that uneasy feeling every time I load back into the game. 

– Mariel

Screenshot: Bloodborne

Bloodborne

Not strictly a horror game, its risk/reward mechanics can create some stressful moments—but more than that, Bloodborne is absolutely chock full of horror style. Werewolves, giant insects, and even eldritch horrors abound in a game that is just as horrifying as it is difficult. Arguably the best game in the Souls series, Bloodborne reinvents as much as refines the Souls series in a way that even Dark Souls 3 couldn’t completely match

– Antal

System Shock 2

When you think of evil video game AIs you might think of GLADoS, but the first think I think of is Shodan. While GLADoS had a sort of plucky wackiness to her evil, Shodan was ruthless and terrifying. Not satisfied with sending her zombified, mutated and cybernetically enhanced minions after you, Shodan also enjoys taunting you as you fight for your life, as seen in the above reveal rant from the original System Shock game. While the original System Shock is a cult classic that has been re-released over the years (with Nightdive Studios even working on a complete Unreal engine-based remake) I personally found System Shock 2 to be the scarier of the two, but they’re both great atmospheric games—and the spiritual predecessors to the Bioshock series.

-Antal

Screenshot: Bioshock

Bioshock

Going into Bioshock, I didn’t know what to expect. I’d picked up a PS3 a year or two after its initial release and was going back and trying to play the games I’d heard everyone raving about. I didn’t expect to be taken in by the game, but as soon as I emerged from that initial bathysphere ride into Rapture I was hooked. And scared. The lonely corridors paired with the cheerful 50’s dance classics set the mood perfectly, and it was all downhill from there, from the terrifying masks on the bunny splicers in their bloodied dresses to the Scripture quoting, hymn singing others gone mad and waiting to tear you apart. All this without even mentioning the terrifying stomping and hissing of Big Daddies lurking nearby, or the inherent scariness of the Little Sisters who accompanied them and their high-pitched shrieks. Bioshock had me so entirely immersed in its world that I still think of those frightening depths today. 

– Mariel

Screenshot: Raw Data

Raw Data

Raw Data is one of the few VR games that really manages to feel like a “full” game. It can also be really terrifying. Sure, we’ve seen a lot of horrible things in games, as evidenced by the stories you’ve read in this article so far alone. But when you’ve got the headset on and you’re in a dark laboratory corridor where there’s been a containment problem and robots in various stages of disrepair start attacking, it’s a whole new sort of fright. The worst ones for me were the ones that slowly slithered on the cold tile floor only to leap into your face at the last second. Even with weapons at the ready, I felt ill-prepared for their glowy red eyes and cold metallic skin so close to my face I could almost feel it.

-Mariel

Screenshot: Resident Evil 2

Resident Evil 2

One of the scariest moments I remember from a video game was in Resident Evil 2 for N64. One of the most memorable things about early Resident Evil games for me was simply opening doors. The creak of the door and the darkness inside served as a loading screen, but was also nerve wracking. Would something pop up? What was waiting for you in the next room? After playing through Resident Evil 1 and growing used to that loading screen, RE2 made it scary again. Opening doors was business as usual until one door opened to reveal a horde of zombies coming into your area.

– Matthew

Screenshot: Alien: Isolation

Alien: Isolation

When Alien: Isolation came out to rave reviews, I was super psyched to wash my mouth of the bitterness that was Aliens: Colonial Marines and finally embrace a truly good Alien game. And then it was so scary I couldn’t beat it. I played it for several hours, reveling in its retro-futurism and its recreation of a 1980s Alien world—one that believably sat between Alien and Aliens. But then I ran into that damned xenomorph, some primal childhood fear reared its head, and I was paralyzed. My mom used to warn me that watching the Alien franchise would scare me, but I certainly did not listen. After imagining there was a slickly oily, acid-blooded creature waiting to kill me with its razor claws and extending, stabby jaw for the majority of my life, facing a moving and thinking manifestation of my childhood fear was too much. I never beat Alien: Isolation—because it scared me too much. But I vow to return someday…just not today.

– Antal

We hope you’ve had fun with this list of our favorite scary game moments. If you’ve got your own favorite moments to add to this list, leave them in the comments!

Hi! If you made it down this far you must’ve liked what you’ve seen. If you did, consider donating to our Patreon. Your donations enable us to continue to provide this type of content and more. Check out our Patreon page at patreon.com/3CR. Thank you for your support!

Related

Categories: Game, Games & Tech, Round-Up

Tagged as: Alien: Isolation, Bioshock, Bloodborne, Dead Space, gaming, halloween, Layers of Fear, Penumbra: Overture, PlayStation, ps4, Raw Data, Resident Evil 2, scary gaming moments, shadow of the tomb raider, Steam, Subnautica, System Shock 2, The Evil Within, The Forest, Tomb Raider, Xbox, XBoxOne

Source: https://thirdcoastreview.com/2018/10/29/eleven-scary-gaming-moments/

[foursprout-blog]

25 Gamers On The Most Gruesome Story That Stuck With Them Long After They Finished Playing

New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/happiness/25-gamers-on-the-most-gruesome-story-that-stuck-with-them-long-after-they-finished-playing/

25 Gamers On The Most Gruesome Story That Stuck With Them Long After They Finished Playing

Unsplash / Nicolas Gras

1. S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl

“In S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl, there were several underground research labs full of all kind of spooky and paranormal badness and other sorts of anomalies. It was like exploring a haunted house except the ghosts were real and there’s a psychic force slowly driving you insane. Also it’s pitch black and you can get lost really easily.” — Innalibra

2. Outlast 

“Outlast and Alien Isolation gave me so much anxiety I had to stop playing them.

I managed to complete Outlast and Outlast 2, but I haven’t touched Alien in years. There’s no way I’m going through 20 hours of that shit.” — HearTheEkko

3. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem

“That game fucked with your head so much using the sanity meter. For those that haven’t played it here are some of things that would happen:

When entering a room, the character may turn into a Zombie, and ‘die’ a moment later or after going through some doors.

Attempting to cast Recover may cause the character’s torso to explode, resulting in a (fake) death of the character.

When entering a room, the character’s limbs may explode in a systematic order, going for the head, the arms and then the torso, resulting in a (fake) death of the character.

When entering a room, the character may shrink or grow while moving. This is most commonly seen in the strange curved corridors of the Forbidden City.

When entering a room and when holding a gun, the character can shoot at nothing at random times or turn around and shoot at the camera leaving a fake bullet hole in the screen. (Similiar to the Prologue of the James Bond movies, and in Resident Evil 2.)

When attempting to reload a gun, it may go off in the character’s stomach, resulting in a (fake) death of the character. This is most prominent in Max’s chapter, for he is the only one without a bigger gun than his flintlock pistols. Revolvers in other chapters have been known to cause this phenomenon to occur as well.

When entering a room, the character’s head falls off (but can be picked up), and levitates on screen reciting ‘HAMLET’.

The screen goes black, as if the TV went off.

Bugs may appear to be crawling on the TV screen.

The game will lower the gameplay volume while displaying a green volume bar, similar to real on-screen TV settings.

The screen goes black and changes to video mode, and you will hear your character getting eaten until they ‘die’. (Even without a ‘Break Free’ control stick, the unseen Zombie can still be pushed away)

A false sneak-preview of a sequel to the game, called ‘Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Redemption’ (the original planned sequel to ‘Sanity’s Requiem’) will appear.

Upon saving your game, a message will say, ‘Are you sure you want to delete all of your Saved Games?’ If you say yes or no, the saved files will be ‘deleted’.

A ‘Blue Screen of Death’ will appear.

You will see the image you see when you start up or reset the game, quoting Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Raven’ in Edward Roivas’ voice.

When the controller is left idle long enough, a still ‘screensaver’ shot of Pious will appear on the screen until a button is pressed.

When you open your inventory screen, all your inventory spaces appear empty.

When entering a room, the character may be unable to move or attack, and the player will get a fake system message telling that a controller isn’t plugged in, while the many zombies attack them.

A fake screen message will appear, congratulating the player for finishing the demo of the game.

The camera begins leaning as the Sanity Meter lowers.” — -eDgAR-

4. Doki Doki

“My old roommate was playing this game and I thought it was some dating sim game. So, I left and went to play some game and I hear him yell ‘JESUS FUCKING CHRIST NO!!!’ and was like ‘yo, wtf dude you alright?’

I kid you not he was white as a fucking sheet and literally shut his computer (gaming laptop) and proceeded to go outside. I’ve known the dude for two years and worked with him for one. He hates going outside… But, not after Doki Doki. That shit made him contemplate life.

I’m scared to even buy the game if it did that to an anti-social recluse.” — xItz_Anthonyx34

5. Bloodborne

“Everything about Bloodborne is disturbing and eerie, the atmosphere, the monsters the unpredictability of the world itself, by far the most tense I felt playing a video game.” — Novasex 

6. Until Dawn

“Until Dawn was pretty fucking well done. At times it was like they were trying to hard, but over all one of the best horror anything I’ve played/watched/read.” — murderousbudgie

7. Amnesia

“I got a cracked version of Amnesia from a friend.

Loaded it, stepped into the main hall, heard scary noises. Have never played again.” — iKILLcarrots

8. Condemned: Criminal Origins

“There is no game that has filled me with a worse sense of dread than Condemned: Criminal Origins.

Yes, the graphics aren’t great and there are a few things that aren’t great, such as the story or a couple levels, but still. I have yet to play a game that has such a good sense of suspense, dread, and fear of the unknown.

It has such good enemy reveals, such as the mannequins in the department store. Or the starving corrupted beings in the sewer.

It uses audio and visuals perfectly, and has very good foreshadowing, such as how you can sometimes look behind you and catch a glimpse of the late game enemies, or how it purposefully misleads you for things such as the locker jumpscare, or how SKX isn’t The Match Maker.

Overall, C:CO is a phenomenal game and I highly suggest everyone to play it if they want a great psychological horror game.” — PhReAkOuTz 

9. Subnautica

“I’ve played a ton of horror games – my roommate and I went on a kick where we’d stream ourselves playing every horror game we could find, from big names like Outlast/Outlast 2 and RE7 to lesser known indie games.

Subnautica has honestly scared me way more than pretty much every one of those. It’s just that feeling that there’s something out there, especially when you’re diving into new areas. I’ve literally jumpscared myself by accidentally driving the Seamoth into a tiny fish without noticing – there’s just way more chances to run into something unexpected that won’t be given away by the soundtrack or something else (most horror games really give away their jump scares).

Love that game.” — blay12

10. The 11th Hour

“I always remember the 7th Guest & 11th Hour creeping me out. The way the games gradually descended into the eerie parts made it more disturbing than games that start right out with the horror and jump scares.” — wj333

11. Silent Hill 

“They might not hold up as well now but I remember being scared shitless playing the first Fatal Frame and Silent Hill games as a kid sitting in the dark down in my basement.” — TheLastSpoonBender

12. Dying Light

“Playing Dying Light at like 1 in the morning. Especially when you got to the point when the running zombies were introduced.” — PM_ME_UR_BOOBSICLES

13. Gone Home

“Gone Home. I was so sure my dead sister’s corpse was going to suddenly tap me on the shoulder. Especially down in that stupid basement. I sprinted to all those lamps immediately.” — olive1112

14. Doom 3

“Probably Doom 3, especially in that dark corridor where the babies were crying.” — DejectedHead

15. Riven

“I remember playing this game as a kid and being absolutely terrified when the wahrk swims up to the window. I could never figure out why everything about the game made me feel so creeped out and uncomfortable but I think [the] emptiness and isolation was what did it.” — JosefGordonLightfoot

16. Dead Space

“The Dead Space series, especially the first game. That game made me jump so many damn times. I loved it!” — nope_noperstein

17. Parasite EVE 

“Parasite EVE for PS1.

Playing it as a kid probably has something to do with why it was so scary to me, but seeing people infected with a sentient parasite and grotesquely mutating was pretty intense.” — Serukaizen

18. Manhunt

“Manhunt, that shit was pretty intense when it first came out… Using things like piano wire to not only choke people to death, but to actually saw the guys head off…

Also came with classic lines such as ‘I can smell the shit in your pants’ whilst being hunted.” — Jee187

19. Penumbra: Overture

“Penumbra: Overture is scary shit, and has a terrific story as well. The entire series is great, although Requiem is more like added content than anything.

The SCP games were super low fi but actually pretty terrifying, too.” — ZeusAmmon

20. SCP Containment Breach

“SCP Containment Breach. I am not trying to sound like a manly badass but there are few horror games that can scare me in the same way as SCP Containment Breach. I always quit the game early because I get scared of the sculpture and don’t feel like playing after that.” — Edgyfaggot6969666

21. Half Life

“I couldn’t play Half Life. Never even saw the first enemy. The sounds and suspense stressed me out too much. Dead Space got me too. I’ve played plenty of horror games but couldn’t do those. I’m sure there were a couple others between those two I’m forgetting. Just some of em strike me the right (wrong?) way.” — rectalstresses

22. First Encounter Assault Recon

“I enjoyed the creepy darkness and sounds/jumpscares in the F.E.A.R Series.” — Uppgrade

23. SOMA

“Have y’all played SOMA? It was good but everything freaked me out even days after I finished it.” — Shiruet

24. Resident Evil 

“Resident Evil 7 is so disturbing and graphic. I had to look away so many times.” — ccr3ds

25. Spooky’s House Of Jump Scares

“Spooky’s House Of Jump Scares.

It starts off cartoony with the cardboard cutouts.

But it goes downhill fast.

And they keep doing the cardboard cutouts to keep you on your toes.” — Pasta-hobo 

[charginggeoffrey]

Survival

Survival is a genre that is pretty much a joke now-a-days. It was a really neat concept when it first started coming around then started becoming very poorly done. It went from stressful moments of wondering if you’d have food for your character the next day, to the eventual payoff of having a great system that meant you never had to worry about food and it felt good until it became boring being prepared. Where my personal issues come into play is a lot of games realize that eventually people will have their system down and it is no longer enough to survive and how they handle those further moments is what makes or breaks the survival game. There are a lot of games that can handle it, with games ranging from survival-adventure, to survival-strategy. Minecraft - Simply surviving is quite easy really, and it just serves as a reason to go back to the surface rather than any real stressful moments and it rests on one end of the spectrum where survival mechanics are mostly just tacked on to give the game a sense of depth it doesn’t have. It is at its core a game about exploring randomly generated caves, and building. The fact that they added survival mechanics that reward exploration, instead of making more interesting mechanics having to do with building, that mods add, means that I have to judge the game on a survival basis, and not on a base building basis. My favorite times with minecraft were with all the factory mods, and the mods where I built airships and windmills. Otherwise it’s really basic lego with a neat semi-programming thing with redstone dust. It just emphasized survival elements in its core game and worked on that too much and came out poorer for it. Subnautica - Much like Minecraft, the core concept of the game is about exploration, with food and the like being a main reason to stop exploring for a bit. However in Subnautica it really makes sense. You’re stranded on an alien planet that is really different from your own, and a lot of the game comes down to resource management. I think that when the game is complete it’ll be an example of how to do the world exploring, resource gathering, base building type game perfectly if its basic bugs are cleaned up and it becomes less of a resource hog. Reason it does this well is that the game while it can become automated (build base, store fish, you can survive guaranteed based on the gathering of those fish, and filtered water if you have the energy) the goal isn’t just survival and building. The main story is you being stranded on a planet and wanting off. I think when it fleshes out other goals, like the mention of the Aurora wiping out the eco system creating the rush to get there before all the food dies to poisoning from the ship and the like it will become a perfect example of what makes survival games good. It’s the mirror to minecraft’s meandering side where you have a ‘The Martian’ moment where you set about goals based on your immediate needs and make the jump from survival, to exploration, with your survival abilities directly tied to your exploration abilities making them key to how far you can go. Exploration unlocks technology which makes leaving the planet and being able to survive its threats easier as you go along. Vehicles, anti-radiation suits, ways to build up your base and survive without jumping out of a cramped pod right in view of the radiation death machine that is the aurora, to swim around and desperately catch fish, way better at surviving the ocean than you and etc. all makes sense and feels great. If you explore it’s because you became curious after building up everything you really need. Perfect example of a survival-adventure. I just hope the game is eventually in a solid, finished place so I don’t end up with a foot in my mouth and all this promise is squandered and the events that feel like they can end the world do just end up silly dialogue quips that appear that don’t actually give you pressing, survival related timed goals. Don’t Starve - As the name states, a lot of it has to do with well, not starving and at first it can be a challenge. The world is outright murderous at first, and it feels great to automate that survival to the point where you’re going about and gathering your day-to-day supplies and eeking out a living. It’s really quite great because of the inclusion of seasons, so you need to change how you gather your survival needs. When you are fully automated to the max, you get into what I consider the worst part, it’s when everything goes into fetch quest territory which feels great when it’s for survival, not when it’s for the sake of progression, though the end result of ‘take as much as you can to the next area with new challenges’ does feel good meaning I consider the game ultimately great as a survival game because of how survival ties in with the rest of the game. The goal is ultimately to escape from these death islands by jumping through portals and surviving as long as you can. It’s oddly enough a hybrid between survival adventure and survival strategy. Fallout New Vegas - As much as I love FO:NV, I feel its survival elements are also tacked on, granted they aren’t a recommended core of the game. They’re functional enough, but unlike some games that do it poorly, it isn’t urgent enough in FONV. Honestly it just becomes a reason to occasionally open the inventory and eat a sandwich or drink some water. I think that my next playthrough I’m going to find a mod to make food/water/sleep a bit more important. On the flip side, fuck FO4 and its attempts at what FONV did. FO:NV wasn’t great at its attempts in a survival element, but FO4 tying it specifically to a bullet-sponge difficulty. At least FONV’s was optional and was independent from combat difficulty. It’s a survival adventure, but really lacking emphasis on adventure. Though at least it doesn’t feel non-conductive to what you do and feels like a natural part of the order. Oxygen Not Included/Rimworld - ONI and Rimworld are examples where you aren’t trying to ensure the survival of one person in an effort to gather food to stave off starvation for the night, but instead are trying to make civilization survive past a breaking point where you can’t minmax anymore. These games have roots like Dwarf Fortress where the inept can barely keep 6 people alive and stuggle with it, where others can maintain 100 person colonies that become more and more difficult to manage. It’s the core concept that 1+1 doesn’t always equal 2, and makes you think in lines of ‘this person is useless’ as you think about the efficiency of people, and you silently wish that Jobe the Priest wasn’t so reluctant to work fields and mine rocks because his ability to preach isn’t putting food on the table or even assisting with it. These two are some perfect examples of survival-strategy games. Rest of the Garbage - Now there are other games that handle survival poorly, not just because its tacked on, but because they make it far too urgent. There’s countless of these cheap games and they all miss the fundamentals of survival. Games where you are annoyed you’re getting hungry are bad. A lot of games have a system where you’ll consume 90% of your body weight in food, and then be hungry moments later. Not ‘you’re feeling capable of eating again’ but ‘you’re going to die in T minus 5 seconds if you don’t eat’ the last version of We Happy Few did this terribly and it felt like you couldn’t walk from one end of the room to another without your character starving. It’s not tense having to eat every 5 seconds when you’re supposedly in a tense situation. It’s just plain annoying, and boring.

[voidendron]

Deep Blue Sea: Ch. 17

Chapter 17: Just Like Them Subnautica/JSE Egos Crossover

Warnings:  Swearing, Mild Violence, Knives, Character Injury, Drowning Characters: Jackieboy Man, Chase Brody, Second Officer Keen, Antisepticeye POV: Jackieboy Man

They’d hiked back off the beach and toward the edge of the island to watch the ocean beyond. It was only when they saw their three comrades making their way away, back toward their own habitat, that Jackie and Chase glanced at each other, then headed off to find a way up to the third abandoned habitat.

When they found the stone bridge over the bay right in the island’s center, Jackie paused to look down at the island below.

“Hey…” he said, bare feet scraping through the dirt to copy the marks he already found there. A footprint—a footprint that dragged through the dirt. “Think I found where Keen threw his PDA from.”

“Holy shit…” Chase shook his head and leaned over the edge. “Y’know if he’d missed the beach, it would’ve sunk, right? I don’t know how deep the water under this place goes, but I do know I couldn’t see the bottom when we were under the island. It probably would’ve been lost forever.”

“Yeah. And taking that risk tells us he really wanted us outta here.”

“How bad could it be? All we’ve seen so far are those crab thingies.”

“Speaking of…” Jackie raised his “spear” when one of them lunged at him.

Both men were left gagging as he got it straight through the eye. Okay… Let’s not spear one of those things ever again. Yuck.

Chase had pulled out his scanner, and Jackie was left cringing away when he ran a scan over the thing’s mutilated eye that seemed to second as its body. “Cave Crawler,” he snorted. “Ever-creative with your names, huh scanner?”

“Oh, come on.” He grabbed Chase by the arm and dragged him onward.

Up, up, up the mountain. Around and round it, and then they paused, lunged across where the overgrown path had collapsed away, and continued their upward climb. This one was steeper than the other, Jackie noted. He could feel rocks tearing at the soles of his feet every time he slipped in the slightest, and they were both huffing by the time they got to the top.

There it was. The third habitat. What new horrific data would they find in there..?

A shake of the head. No. Don’t think that way.

Glancing at each other, they approached. The bulkhead was hanging off its hinges, and Jackie jumped when he tried to push it open farther, only for the heavy door to crash to the ground and nearly land on his toes. Well. That would’ve hurt.

They snooped around, gave the indoor garden a strange look. Weren’t those same things growing all over? Why keep them inside, too? Found another data log that Chase put into his PDA but didn’t press play on as he scanned the ground for any more.

They heard a thud, then Jackie felt himself pushed away from the ladder that would have taken them to the second story of the habitat.

Whatever shoved him had shouted, but the cry died in his throat as he lowered the branch he’d very nearly been ready to crack over the security guard’s head.

Jackie’s eyes widened and he could practically hear Chase’s grin in his giddy little shout of, “Keen!”

The second officer was battered, beaten, and the look in his eyes could only be described as “terrified.” But he was alive.

“…Did you find my PDA?” His voice was small and eyes kept darting toward the door.

Chase stepped up to Jackie’s side. “Yeah! We figured you needed hel—”

“I said to leave the island.” The sudden change in his tone startled Jackie. It had hardened, almost furious. “He’ll kill us as he killed the CTO.”

Jackie swallowed. “Yu’s dead..?”

“He?” Chase added. “Not—not it, or they, but he?! Who the hell would—?”

Another survivor? Had they had a fucking…murderer on board or something?!

Keen’s head snapped toward the door. He ducked low, branch held like it was a baseball bat. “He knows we’re here.”

“What?!”

“He heard us!”

Jackie tightened his grip on his spear. “Do I want to know what he did to Yu?”

A shake of the head—Keen wouldn’t tear his gaze away from the opening. “He slit her throat and threw her body in the water.”

“Why would he—”

Footsteps. They dragged over the dirt outside, slow and quiet. Heavy breathing was muffled—behind a mask? The figure was pacing.

Watching.

Waiting.

“Couldn’t we reason with him?” Chase hissed.

Another shake of the head. “That man has lost any and all humanity. The CTO attempted ot speak with him and died for it. We won’t make that same mistake.”

Baring his teeth and hefting his spear up, Jackie tucked himself beside the opening. He gave the other two a look, throwing his head toward it. “Well? Get running!” Before either could answer, he was bolting out and shoving the shaft of his spear against the killer’s chest, pushing him toward the cliff.

The first thing he noticed was that the man was in a weird suit. Ahh…hazmat diving suit, that’s what it was, right? The next was his voice—when he shouted something and pushed back against the weapon forcing him backward, it wasn’t English. Mongolian. Marvin had said…the survivors from ten years before them…were Mongolian…

The faded name badge at the man’s chest was barely legible. Bleached by the sun, scraped away with time, but there it was.

SEPSE.

Jackie hesitated, staring the name down, just long enough for one hard shove to send him sprawling on his back. He could hear the other two bolting down the mountain’s overgrown path, and when he looked up he could see the glint of a survival knife. In the slowly subsiding fog, it was almost eerie to look up and see the knife, to see the man’s eyes behind his mask. The blade was chipped and small from years of resharpening it as it grew dull again. It was stained green with the blood of the planet’s creatures.

Keen was right. There was no humanity left in those eyes. Just a wild light, confused, feral.

Furious.

He rolled away, heart thundering when the blade came down right where his neck had been a moment ago, and scrambled toward the path. He looked down the path, then down the mountain; he’d never make it going the way they’d come up and that side of the mountain was steep, but not deathly so.

He could hear Sepse behind him. He went for it, feeling the blade graze his shoulder as he started sliding. Down, down, down, he felt the ground tear into his thigh, his feet, his hands, heard his dive suit rip, felt sticks and stones stabbing him, scraping, shredding.

He hit the bottom and rolled, could hear Sepse growling something he couldn’t understand from the top. Jackie couldn’t see the other two, but they were calling for him from…somewhere. From the bridge. They were already at the bridge.

Footsteps. Sepse was…running down the path, despite Chase and Jackie’s trouble getting up there he was surefooted with every step like he’d taken that same path a thousand times. Maybe he had. Who was Jackie to know for sure?

Wincing, hissing between his teeth, Jackie dragged himself to his feet, grabbed his spear that he’d managed not to stab himself with on the way down that wonderful slide, and ran.

Shocks of pain shot through his feet, his leg as he ran. Every step hurt. Every step aggravated the wounds torn into his flesh from stones, the dirt made them sting even more.

Sepse was nearing the bottom. He was still shouting. What was he saying?!

The bridge! There it was. The question was, would he make it? He could hear the other man tearing through the brush—he was so much faster than Jackie, who was left limping.

He made it to the bridge. Sepse was right behind him—!

Jackie jumped.

The panic didn’t set in until he was already hitting the water. It stung, like a slap, and the salt burned the cuts and scrapes, his eyes stung, which way was up? He floundered for the surface, swallowed water, spluttered when there were arms around him to drag his head back above water.

They were saying something, but their voices were muffled by the water slowly draining from his ears.

“—need to go! Now!” Chase’s voice. He felt his oxygen tank and mask strapped on, grabbed blindly when one of the Seaglides was shoved into his hands. Chase mentioned that he’d go without one, that Keen needed it more since he’d lost his tank somewhere on the island, and Jackie felt a hand on his write to guide him under the island as he blinked the blurriness away.

When he could see clearly again, he realized it was Keen’s hand; the second officer was managing to keep his own Seaglide steady while also guiding Jackie’s. Chase was a short ways behind them when they finally broke the surface.

No sign of Sepse following them. Maybe he’d disappeared back to wherever he’d been hiding when they first arrived.

“Well, that was… Something?” Chase offered, pushing his mask up on his forehead.

“You disobeyed a direct order.”

“And you’re still alive ‘cause of it, aren’t you? Sorry man, but ranks are the last thing I’m gonna worry about out here. Priority One’s surviving.” Chase then gestured wildly at Jackie, grinning as he ignored the officer’s disgruntled scowl. “And you, holy shit, dude! You just… You rushed that guy head-on! And…you’re in pretty rough shape.” He chuckled, “What, fall off the mountain or somethin’?”

“Somethin’ like that.” Jackie coughed, spitting up the last of the water he’d swallowed, then shook his head. “That was the guy from the last recording we heard. The Antony guy.”

“Dude. That recording’s like, ten years old.”

“He’s right.” Keen’s eyes tracked back to the island—god, the poor guy looked exhausted. “Antony Sepse. He was a microbiologist for Torgal Corp. I’m…not sure how he’s survived so long.” He gestured to Chase, then. “You picked up a data log from that habitat. Have you listened yet?”

“Well, no. Soon as I had it, you tried to club Jackie, so haven’t really had the time. …Right. Playin’ it now.”

Jackie kept one hand on his Seaglide, the other reaching for his own PDA. He grimaced when he noticed that it was cracked. Probably from his impromptu not-so-slip-’n’-slide. It still worked when he checked for the voice logs, thankfully. There was a new one: The one Chase had grabbed. He didn’t bother listening and instead went straight for the text version.

ANTONY SEPSE: I buried Bart this morning. He didn’t make it. It’s a nice little spot, under all the trees he liked.

A harsh laugh that was really more a bard came from Chase’s PDA as he played the actual audio. It startled Jackie into nearly dropping his own device to the abyss below.

Now I’m alone. They’re all dead. What the hell were we thinking?

And…that was all there was. Jackie glared down at the text. Keen’s expression about matched.

He no longer had a PDA and had only listened to Chase’s audio.

…Did that mean he understood Sepse?

“Uh, hey, Keen?” Jackie closed out the file and clipped his PDA back to his hip. “You understood that?”

“Yes?”

“Then do you know what Sepse was shouting at us?”

Another glance toward the island. His brows furrowed. “He was saying we would poison him. He called us ‘diseased, just like them.’”

“That’s it?”

“He…kept repeating it, yes. Like a mantra.”

[voidendron]

Deep Blue Sea: Ch. 16

Chapter 16: Abandoned Subnautica/JSE Egos Crossover

(( note: I haven’t played/watched gameplay for Below Zero yet, so please don’t spoil anything for me! Things from this fic might retcon stuff that happens in it, and I apologize if they do, but I don’t want to spoil any more of the game for myself than what already has been ‘til I can play the whole thing through myself ))

Warnings: Swearing Characters: Marvin the Magnificent, Jameson Jackson, Dr. Schneeplestein, Chase Brody, Jackieboy Man POV: Marvin the Magnificent

Silence.

Pale Faces.

Keen’s words hung in the air between them.

“…We need to help him.” Jackie’s voice startled the rest of them from their shocked trance.

Marvin swallowed. Shook his head. Oh, hell no. “Are you insane?!” He ran his hands through his hair with a shaky breath. “There’s somethin’ here! We need to get off this island!”

“I am not putting my life on the line for someone else,” the doctor growled.

Jameson signed something—Marvin had no idea what it was, but his frantic nodding had him figuring that the chef agreed with them.

“He’s in danger!” the security guard insisted. “The recording was recent—he could still be alive!”

“Jackie’s right.”

Marvin’s head whipped toward Chase when he agreed. “No. No, no, no. He’d been so damn calm in his other messages, and how he’s panicking! You really want to run into whatever made Keen panic?!”

Chase frowned. “It’s a small island. How bad could it be?”

Their three-against-two changed when Jameson ducked his head, then offered an agreeing nod. He was signing again—Marvin would really need to learn those, wouldn’t he?—and the other two so…hellbent on saving Keen sagged with relief.

“Really no other way to change your minds?” the entertainer asked.

“We’ve gotta find Keen,” Jackie repeated, “and hopefully Yu, too. There were only two of ‘em, there’s five of us.”

“Yeah!” Chase was tucking his flippers and Seaglide near some…ferns? was that what they were?

“And if something does come after us?” Marvin challenged, gesturing harshly first at the doctor, then Jameson. “Doc’s ankle is fuckin’ shredded and James’s got broken ribs. They’d be picked off easy.”

“Anything attacks either of them—any of us—” Jackie hoisted up his broken flare in threat; he didn’t have to say any more than that.

Marvin and Henrik glanced at each other. For once, it seemed like they were both on the same page: They did not want to meet whatever had gone after Keen. Did the other three just not understand self-preservation? God…

He tossed his flippers near where the others were putting theirs. His air tank and Seaglide followed, but he was far more careful not to throw those down.

Seeing Henrik’s flippers actually laying with everyone else’s made him double-take. Marvin had always thought he had big feet. Definitely made sense why both of them had needed more materials than the original dive suit blueprint had called for.

Deep breath. The others were leaving the beach, leaving the two of them behind. Well, Marvin would much rather stick with the group than be left alone on the island.

“Come on,” he grumbled. He really wished they’d brought survival knives. He’d feel a little better if he could at least defend himself. “So!” he called ahead—both Chase and Jackie glanced back at him. “Any plan for what we’re gonna do if we find whatever went after them?”

“Depends on what it is, I guess.” Chase shrugged; he was walking backwards now.

Marvin just frowned and shook his head, watched the path ahead of them.

Wait.

…Path?

Henrik was eyeing it, too.

“Please tell me you’re thinking the same thing.”

“Something has traveled this same route for a long while, yes.”

They were following the path, and Marvin couldn’t help the unease settling into his gut. The feeling only amplified when they came across an old habitat and its overgrown garden.

Glances cast around, and Jackie was the first to approach the settlement.

It looked abandoned. Falling apart. Broken windows.

It had been there a long time.

“…I don’t think we’re the first to get stranded here,” Jackie said, voice soft.

Then, he was suddenly yelping; Marvin and the others jumped and scrambled away. From the way Marvin saw it, he was acting solely on instinct when he swung his flare and the little ankle-biter of a creature went flying.

When he blinked at it, Marvin actually found it in himself to snort. Was that thing some kind of…crab?

“Scared the hell outta me,” Jackie muttered, “but there’s no way that’s what had Keen panicked.”

“Unless he got swarmed?” Marvin suggested.

“Maybe..? I’m don’t know…”

Chase cleared his throat, pointing to the habitat. “They had to have made it off the planet, right?” Chase was inching forward, toward the multipurpose room’s shattered window. It looked like a mudslide had caused it. “I mean, it’s clearly been abandoned a long time.”

Marvin’s eyes were scanning the old habitat. He didn’t like this.

“Yo, check this thing out!”

When Chase tried bolting in through the broken window, Marvin grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him back. “That window’s broken. You really want to step on glass with bare feet?”

“But look!”

Marvin’s gaze followed his pointing finger. There was…something, in the room. Glowing. It didn’t look like anything he’d ever seen before. “What is that thing..?”

“I mean. It looks like the mud’s covered all the glass?”

When Marvin’s grip slackened, he must have taken that as a go-ahead and ran into the room. He was careful while climbing through the window not to cut himself on any of the glass that still remained, and when he came back he had something in each hand.

“There was a data log, too. Also, this thing’s surprisingly light? Like…what is it?”

He gave the data log to Jackie to put in his PDA, then set the glowing whatever-it-was on the ground between all of them.

“Is like a tablet,” Henrik said.

“Yeah,” Chase agreed, “but it doesn’t look human.”

It seemed Marvin and Henrik had the same idea when they both reached for their scanners. Marvin’s scan finished first, and everyone’s PDAs chirped as the data was transmitted to all of them. When he read the information, he only shook his head.

“I really doubt it’s human. Estimated to being abandoned here hundreds-to-thousands of years ago? Yeah, definitely not ours.”

“Alien technology?” Henrik winced as he knelt down to pick it up, ran his fingers over the glowing purple symbol. “What were these people doing with it?”

“Well, from the sounds of it,” Jackie said—another chirp as the data log transferred from his device to the rest of theirs, “—they found it, and also had no idea what it was.”

“They? How many?”

“I count four people in the recording. Three men and a woman, but I’m relying on the PDA translating for me ‘cause they’re definitely not speaking English.”

Marvin opened the new file on his own device, listened for a moment, then shut it off to read over the translation instead. “Sounds like they were from a Mongolian settlement. I don’t speak it, but I’ve performed for one a few times.”

Four people had lived in this now-abandoned habitat: Two Torgals (probably related, he figured), Sepse, Maida. Where had they gone..?

When Chase and Jackie explored the rest of the habitat and came back with a few more data logs, it looked like where they’d gone was deeper. Much, much, deeper.

Apparently they were part of Torgal Corporation—no wonder the names were familiar. Paul was the head of the company and had gone missing about ten years ago. It hadn’t been the same since.

…Ten years ago. God. They’d never made it off the planet, had they? Would that be their fate, too? He could feel his stomach twisting.

Bart was Paul’s son and heir to the company, Marguerit Maid a hired mercenary, and Antony Sepse a microbiologist.

He could see it in the pale faces of his comrades they all feared the same fate, and it was Chase to break their silence.

“I…I kinda doubt we’re in the mood now, but I see two more habitats.” He outstretched an arm, pointing. “There, and there.” Perched oh so precariously at the tops of two mountain peaks were, sure enough, two more habitats clear even through the fog that seemed to have lifted some. “C’mon. We can still try findin’ Keen and Yu. Who knows. Maybe we’ll have better luck than that group did.”

Marvin closed his eyes and took a slow, steadying breath. They’d find a way off the planet. They had to. But…did that really mean rescue never came for that group..? No, don’t think about it, he scolded himself. Instead, he offered a hand to help Henrik back to his feet, and the five of them started for one of the habitats.

What they found didn’t lift their spirits any. A PDA, not a data log, met them. Bart and Antony—the other two were dead?—regretting going down so far. Bart was ill in the recording. With the scientist’s help, they were trying to find a cure, but failing. One of them mentioned that Antony was wearing a special suit—some sort of hazmat diving suit—that had kept him from catching the same illness, and now left him needing to be extremely careful not to touch Bart with his bare hands.

Then it was over. Nothing more to the recording; just a dying man and one of his crew members trying to save him.

“I’m really startin’ to hate this planet,” Chase growled. “What do you think he had?”

Instead of an answer, Henrik pulled his scanner from his hip and ran a scan on himself. The answer had Marvin furrowing his brow.

“Performing self-scan. Vital signs normal. Detecting trace amounts of foreign bacteria. Continuing to monitor.”

He aimed it at Jameson. Same answer. Jackie: Same. Every one of them ended up with the same results. “Trace amounts of foreign bacteria” just kept looping in Marvin’s head. That couldn’t be good. Right? How the hell would they even have it? They didn’t even know that it was the same thing Bart had, but a part of Marvin very much was suspecting that it was.

“Could just be…I dunno, some sorta alien flu?” Chase shook his head and stood a little straighter. “We’ll keep an eye on it, okay? Don’t let it get to you, though. We’ll worry about it if we need to.”

If we need to, Marvin’s thoughts parroted. As if they hadn’t just listened to a man dying in a recording.

“…Do we really want to check that last habitat?” Marvin leaned out the door to peer across at it. “Things are just getting fuckin’ worse and worse on this island.”

Keen and Yu attacked by something. Survivors from ten years before who’d probably died long before rescue could even hope to find them. Some weird alien artifact that Henrik and Jameson were taking turns carrying. An alien sickness.

“Whatever is there can only be the cherry on top, yes?” Henrik grumbled. He was leaning against the wall, foot held off the ground.  Jameson was sitting on the floor near him, eyes squeezed shut and hand pressed to his chest.

“Besides,” Marvin added, “those two clearly need a rest, and I am not resting on this island. Far as we know, whatever went after Keen and Yu could be, oh I don’t know, watching us?!”

Chase grimaced and gave Jackie a look.

“We, ah…” He ran a hand through his bleached hair, fingers catching the tangled curls. “What if we have them head back to the habitat? And…you can join ‘em?”

Jackie started nodding. “We can’t just abandon those two if they’re still alive. I’m not doin’ it.”

“And splitting up is probably the worst thing we can do,” Marvin muttered.

“We either split up, or all go to the next habitat together. I’m not leavin’ this damn island until we at least know what happened to them.” Chase crossed his arms, closing himself off for further debate. He’d made up his mind and there was no way Marvin was going to change it.

“Fine.” Marvin pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fine. I want them alive just as much as you do, but I’m not risking my life for them.”

Chase shouldered past him. “Then let’s get back to the damn beach so you can leave. Fuckin’ hell.”

Did Marvin feel guilty for it? Sure. Did he feel awful leaving just the two of them on the island while he took their injured comrades back to their habitat? Sure.

Was he going to risk his life for someone who sounded like they probably dead anyway? Hell no. Marvin knew his priorities, and that definitely wasn’t one of them. He felt bad for Keen and Yu, holped that whatever killed them hadn’t let them suffer, or that they had, by some miracle, survived—but he wasn’t going to stick his neck out for them.

He’d had enough near-death experiences these last few days to last a lifetime, thank you very much.

Flippers back on, air tanks attached to their masks, Jameson helped into the Seamoth, and they were off.

His only thoughts were “good luck” when he glanced over his shoulder, saw Chase and Jackie at the edge of the island now, watching for them to make sure they made it a safe distance away. Then the two of them disappeared into the brush.

Good luck, he thought. You’re gonna need it.

[voidendron]

Deep Blue Sea: Ch. 15

Chapter 15: Floating Island Subnautica/JSE Egos Crossover

nudity warning is a just-in-case thing, but they're just just changing!

Warnings: Swearing, Non-Explicit Nudity Characters: Chase Brody, Jackieboy Man, Marvin the Magnificent, Jameson Jackson, Dr. Schneeplestein POV: Chase Brody

Night had fallen by the time Jackie got back to the habitat.

Chase couldn’t help the massive grin to cross his face when all of their PDAs beeped, the coordinates automatically transferring from Jackie’s to theirs.

“Dry land,” he breathed. “Holy shit.”

“What about Keen?” Jameson asked, brows furrowed.

Jackie shrugged. Chase wasn’t sure he liked that shrug. “He wasn’t there, but left a message to get to the landmass ASAP. Also a scolding for going to the pod instead’a straight there.”

“Well?” Henrik threw an impatient hand toward the bulkhead. “Are we going or not? I am fucking sick of the water.”

Chase had to bite his tongue to keep from saying something snarky. Instead, he just crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. “Dude. You really want to swim there at night? These coords are like, a kilometer from here, and we don’t know what kinda shit’s in the water between here and there. We’ll wait for morning, make sure we’ve all got working Seaglides and batteries, and then we’ll head out.”

“One question.” Marvin ran a hand through his mess of hair. “If it’s only a kilometer away, how is it we can’t see it from here?”

They all exchanged glances. That…was a good question…

They learned that, even after not resting the previous night, sleep was a fitful thing.

No beds left them on the hard floor of their habitat and trying not to elbow or kick each other. There was a point that Henrik woke up yelping as someone stretched, shoving a foot into his injured ankle, while Jackie’s snoring would occasionally splutter to startle most awake. And, many times, something would bump against the habitat from outside and anyone unlucky enough to be awoken by it would be left bolting upright and throwing wild looks through the cramped room and at each other.

It was cold, it was uncomfortable, they were stripped down to their underwear because their dive suits were wet and it was beyond awkward, and they were all lucky to get any more than a few hours of sleep before sunlight filtered in through the room’s single window.

Chase yawned and rubbed at his burning eyes. When he sat up, he couldn’t help but grimace. God, his whole body ached. Going straight from nonstop swimming to sleeping on a hard floor couldn’t be good for his muscles.

Jameson looked like the only one with any semblance of energy as he pulled himself to his feet and went straight for one of the lockers. From it, he grabbed his hearing aid.

Well. That would explain it. The noises they all heard throughout the night wouldn’t have bothered James at all.

Chase just shook his head. “Lucky bastard,” he chuckled.

All he got in response was a smug, toothy grin. The chef had a little bounce to his step as he grabbed what they had for food and water to pass around to the rest of them, though he was being careful with how he moved his arms.

“Aren’t you sore, man?”

“A tad bit, yes,” he replied once his hands were free to sign. “But I didn’t do nearly as much swimming as the rest of you.”

“Fair enough.”

Chase…really wasn’t looking forward to going back in the water. His body felt like it would scream at him if he did. But! They had things to do and dry land to get to! That thought alone was enough for him to push through the deep ache and pull himself to his feet while nibbling on the nutrient bar he’d been given.

Eesh, they tasted like cardboard. Really, Alterra? That’s the best you could do?

The others were moving about as slow as him as they struggled to get up. Marvin’s long limbs nearly tripped him as he stifled a yawn during his attempt to stand, while Henrik used the wall for support. He was barely letting his injured leg touch the ground, and was it bleeding again? There were little specks of blood soaked through the bandages. When he was kicked last night it must have broken some of the stitches. Ouch.

“Okay—” Chase yawned; the others couldn’t help themselves from doing the same, “—Jackie and Marv, you two wanna craft us one more Seaglide and some more batteries? I’m gonna check over the ‘Glides we already have to make sure they’re safe for the trip. And…James, could we have you check Doc’s leg while we’re doing that?”

“Uh. Sure?” Jackie shrugged. “But why do ya want to check them? They’re working fine.”

Chase’s mouth twitched. “We haven’t tried ‘em for this sort of distance before, and considerin’ my crew was killed when theirs blew up? You’re nuts if you think I’m lettin’ that happen again.”

“I—oh, god.” Jackie’s eyed were wide. “I didn’t know—I—”

“I think we all lost friends, man. Let’s just get off his damn planet.”

“Right. Yeah.”

Pulling their wetsuits on was even more of a struggle than Chase had imagined. They’d turned their backs to each other and stripped completely to pull their suits on, but they could all still hear each other grimacing and hissing as sore muscles rebelled against the tight fabric.

“This sucks,” he grumbled.

Even Henrik made a sound of agreement.

When most of them had finally managed to pull the zippers up to their throats, Jameson was still struggling. He had one arm in a sleeve, but was struggling with the other, gritting his teeth, pressing a hand to his chest. Chase had about forgotten about the man’s fractured ribs and grimaced sympathetically.

“Here. Let me help.”

He got a relieved sigh and nod, with Jameson squeezing his eyes shut when Chase took hold of his arm to gently position it into the sleeve. Yeah, James was definitely going to be the one taking the Seamoth.

“Hey… I thought you needed glasses?”

The chef looked up at him and blinked, then gestured for his work clothes laying in a messy pile near everyone else’s. “They might be in the pocket of my jeans.” His shoulders shook in a silent chuckle. “So much going on I’d forgotten to put them on!”

“That why you ran into a locker while Jackie was gone yesterday?” Chase laughed when the man’s ears turned red; Jackie snorted and gave a “wait, really?” sort of look their way. “Lemme grab ‘em.”

Sure enough, the circle-framed glasses were there. Their case had a big crack in it, but the glasses themselves looked all right.

With that done, everyone set to work.

It didn’t take them long—Chase made a few little tweaks to one of their Seaglides that looked like it had been dropped, while they already had most of the supplies for batteries and another Seaglide stored in lockers—and they were left waiting for Jameson and Henrik.

“It’s still inflamed.” His signs were clumsy with a needle in one hand. “But I’ve re-stitched where they broke, and I think the wrap will hold.”

“Okay. I guess we should head out, then.”

Four with Seaglides, Jameson helped into the Seamoth, and they took off as soon as he had the controls figured out.

Chase squinted into the distance. Low-hanging clouds created a fog. He hadn’t really noticed it before, but that fog had to be hiding the landmass. He ducked under the surface, swimming alongside the Seamoth that would occasionally zip ahead of them before Jameson let back on the touchy controls enough to keep to their slower pace.

Eventually, the two glanced at each other when they saw the shadows in the distance. Shadows that weren’t moving. Shadows, illuminated by…something. Chase poked his head above the surface—land!—ducked back under, tried to process what he was seeing.

With one hand, the sign messy but more or less understandable, he asked, “Is this island floating?!”

Jameson did the same: Raised the Seamoth up enough to see the land looming ahead of them, then right back down to look at what should have been a mountainside. Instead, it was jutting pillars of stone that pointed down into the pitch-black waters below, glowing pink… Oh! Whoa… He’d seen those things, only much, much smaller versions of them floating rocks in the shallows. How were they this big?! Were they the reason the island was floating? Incredible…

They were both staring with wide eyes, their companions above oblivious to the sight just below.

As they drew nearer the island, Chase could make out sunlight slicing right into the center of it. There was a hole there. Maybe a way to get on the island, too; he couldn’t see any beaches low enough for them to reach along the exterior so worth a shot, right?

He went back up, pushed his mask up on his forehead to he could call to the others. “Hey! Dive under, I think there’s a way on the island down there!”

Glances cast around, then they followed him down.

The other three froze when they saw the sight that had greeting him and Jameson. He could see their thoughts clear as day on their faces: “Holy shit.”

His hunch was right, too. Right smack-dab in the middle of the island was a bay, and in that bay, a beach.

On the beach, two sets of footprints.

As soon as they were on land, they all fought to get their flippers off, then bolted after the footprints. Marvin and Jameson, however, lagged behind. When Chase glanced back, he noticed they were looking at…something.

“Uh, guys? Why don’t we go find the other survivors?”

“There’s a PDA,” the performer said, reaching down to snatch it up. “It looks like it was thrown.”

“Thrown?” Jackie arched a brow.

“Look at the marks in the sand around it, and the screen’s cracked to hell. It was thrown.”

“Well…does it have anything on it?” Chase asked, leaning in a little.

“Uh… Yeah. Single recording.”

Jackie tilted his head. “That’s not right. Should have other stuff, right?”

“Yeah…” Chase answered. “Unless the user needed a single message prioritized and everything else is just locked, or the user died, so the PDA…recorded the last moments…” He rubbed at his beard and glared. “…I don’t like this. Play the recording. Could be important.”

CTO Yu and Keen started speaking; she wanted to board the ship, attempt to repair it. She was ready to go alone, but Keen chose—unwillingly, from the sounds of it—to accompany her.

Chase about opened his mouth—it seemed like a normal recording—but clamped it shut again when the damaged PDA crackled out, “Final recording from Second Officer Keen, two hours after last activity.”

Keen’s voice—out of breath, terrified—cut through the silence to fall over the group. He was breathing heavily, like he was running from something. “Rendezvous was a failure,” he gasped out. “Intercepted a transmission from Alterra HQ; seems they sent a data package to the Aurora. We attempted to leave the island and were intercepted. Something’s here. It’s hunting us. Get off the island—consider the CTO and I dead.” He paused. When he spoke again, he’d lowered his voice to but a whisper. “Be safe. Keen… Out.”

[voidendron]

Deep Blue Sea: Ch 7

Chapter 7: Three Subnautica/JSE Egos Crossover

(( ow... I’m sorry- ))

Warnings: Animal Death (for food), Minor Blood/Injury, Swearing, Minor Character Death Characters: Chase Brody POV: Chase Brody

Chase wasn’t sure he liked the concept of getting drinkable water on this planet. He’d figured it out, sure. That part had been easy after he (finally) got a scanner built and went to town figuring out all the little fish in his area.

They were all edible. That’s what he’d been hoping for, if he was totally honest. But the one…

He hadn’t even wanted to touch the thing. A shallow-water fish shouldn’t be see-through. That was a trait that should be reserved for only the most freaky deep water fishes. Not the little thing he could almost call cute. Almost.

A fish also shouldn’t be the only damn way to get fresh water. He needed to figure out if there were other alternatives.

“Seek fluid intake immediately,” his PDA warned once again. It was reading his vitals, could tell he was dehydrated. He could have sworn the beep had taken on an irritated tone. Just drink the damn water, it said. Suck it up, Brody.

The bottle felt funny in his hands. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know how the fabricator had created it from the once-living creature.

Suck it up, dude. With a grimace, he plugged his nose and downed as much as he dared in one go, tried not to gag. He wasn’t sure if it actually tasted bad or if he’d just convinced himself that it did. Either way, he had to force himself to drink the rest.

One bottle wouldn’t be nearly enough, but it would do for now. Besides, he was pretty sure he’d drank a little too fast; his stomach felt about ready to rebel. He swallowed past it.

Okay. Okay. Now what?

Coordinates to other pods had been sent to his PDA. Now that it wasn’t nagging him, that should go next. Right. Which was closest?

Seventeen was…close-ish? But he didn’t dare make the swim without a Seaglide. Nineteen (wasn’t that the one Keen had taken?) was way too far and way too deep. Not a chance without some sort of submersible. Thirteen wasn’t super far, but it mentioned remains? Chase shuddered at the thought. That meant the pod never even made it to landing; a part of him hoped whatever was left of Khasar had been eaten. He felt bad for thinking it, but he…really didn’t want to come across whatever might have been left of the man.

Through the list, one-by-one, then he stopped. Three! Lifepod Three, it was close, so close! His maintenance crew!

Chase couldn’t help but grin. Mason and Romero—he could reach them. It would be easy! He’d even gone in their direction in a search for supplies already.

It hadn’t been long. Only a few hours since the crash. The only confirmed death was Khasar and those who hadn’t made it off the ship at all. The other survivors could still be out there. His team could still be; maybe they were having more luck than him. Back in the water he went.

He held his PDA up; watched the point on its screen. Well. Points. All of the signals had started popping up. Could he…ah! Yeah, he could turn off the ones he didn’t want. Good. For the time being, he’d leave Five and Three’s visible.

Shifting the device around until he found the point for Three again, he swam for it while keeping his head near the surface.

As he got closer, he couldn’t help but slow. Kelp? Is that what that was? Oh, god, were the shadows it cast terrifying.

He was close to Three, now. It must be in that…forest. Yeah, he’d call it a forest.

Maybe it wasn’t as easy as he thought. How would he know what lurked in the kelp?

Chase swallowed.

As he neared the forest, his PDA startled him; he clutched his chest and glared down at it.

“Life on this planet grows in distinct and diverse ecological biomes,” it chirped cheerily. “Further study recommended”

…You’re insane, he thought. Like hell was he going to explore any more than strictly necessary. Especially if there were more places different from what he’d already seen. Yeah, no thanks. He’d stick to what he knew.

A shake of the head. Whatever, just. Find your team.

He didn’t like that the coordinates weren’t at the surface. The pod shouldn’t have sunk. Had more of them? They had to have, judging by the coordinates he’d been given. God. There were more problems with them than he’d thought. He actually felt a little guilty for ending up with one of the only ones that floated. That entertainer had gotten the other.

Chase breached the surface to let his tank refill, then dived. Straight down into the forest.

From the corners of his eyes he could swear he kept seeing creatures as the kelp—creepvine, the scanner said when he ran a quick one at its questioning beep—moved through the calm waters. He didn’t like it. It made chills creep up his arms every time he jerked his head to look only to see nothing there.

He bit down maybe a little too hard on the mouthpiece when he heard something, held his PDA maybe a little too tightly as he moved through the water searching. Scanning the seafloor. He was near the lifepod, now. Where was it? Where—

The air was forced from his lungs as something hit him from behind. It bumped its nose against his air tank, nipped his shoulder when it couldn’t grab the device.

Chase kicked away from the creature, his cry muffled behind the mask and mouthpiece, grabbed at his shoulder with his free hand. His eyes widened when he got a good look at it.

Shark, shark, shark.

It didn’t look like any shark Earth used to have, nor any he’d seen in aquariums. He wasn’t sure why that’s what he expected, to be honest.

It rushed him again.

He floundered for a direction before deciding on just straight down. Seafloor. Caves, he could see them. They were small. That’s exactly what he needed. Go.

Almost—

It grabbed the leg of his uniform and hauled him backward.

He tried kicking at its snout, tried grabbing for a handhold to pull himself free. The material tore slightly. Not enough.

Chase bit down on the mouthpiece. Reached for something—anything. His hands finally found metal, probably broken away from the ship. Uneven edges bit into his hands. When he swung, it sliced through the water with ease.

It released—thank god, it released him—when the scrap hit it in the snout.

He swallowed as the shark gave him a long look. Then it wrenched the metal from his hands and took off with it.

Wincing when he noticed the scrapes and cuts the metal left on his palms and fingers, he did his best to wipe them off on his uniform. The salt water stung. Honestly, he thought the metal had messed up his hands worse than when the thing nipped his shoulder. Neither were bad, at least. Wrap ‘em with gauze (or even just clean them) when you get back to Five and you’re golden, he thought. The leg of his suit had taken a beating, and his shin might bruise, but no broken skin there.

He laughed nervously. He’d come out of that loads better than he would have expected.

Did those fuckers like metal? It had gone after his air tank, then the scrap metal. Okay… Noted.

He took a slow breath, took his PDA off his hip. Okay. Three. Where was Lifepod Three?

There.

Two more of the sharks were near it. One was chasing a little eye-fish (Peeper, his scanner had called them. How fitting) in circles with jaws snapping. The other tore a loose panel from the pod’s exterior.

Chase’s eyes widened. No, no, stop that!

He snatched up another piece of metal—it was everywhere down there!—and waved it. The shark dropped its scrap into a nearby pile, set its eyes on him.

Come on, bastard, he thought even as his heart started pounding. Leave ‘em alone.

Flinching as it darted right at him, Chase held the metal out and squeezed his eyes shut.

It was taken right from his hands and the shark swam away.

…They did like metal. Huh.

He mumbled a curse around the mouthpiece when he checked his oxygen. He’d need to go back up for air soon. Just…get Mason and Romero and get back to Five.

Keeping his head on a swivel, he swam for Three. His team. They were right there. Right—

His stomach dropped.

A massive hole had been torn into the side of the pod.

Chase swallowed and scrambled for the lifepod. No, no, where are they?!

He tore open the storage compartment. Water and nutrient bars hadn’t been touched. Swam up to the top hatch. It was still locked. They’d never left through it. The bottom hatch was pinned beneath the pod.

There! Mason’s PDA. Chase’s grabbed greedily for it, ignoring the cracks ruining the once-smooth screen.

A message. No. Please not this. They were supposed to record the last moments if their owner—

Mason wasn’t dead. And Romero, where was she?

Play the damn recording, Brody.

He blinked away tears. The hole in the pod looked like it had been created from the inside. Mason—he’d done something to their Seaglide.

Chase’s stomach twisted. Had it blown up before they even got a chance to leave the pod? He cast his eyes to the still-locked hatch, to the hole ripped into it.

Oh, god…

His team. Please tell me this is a joke? he begged. They’re not! They can’t be!

His team couldn’t be gone. It couldn’t be that easy.

Shock was all that kept the tears from falling.

[voidendron]

Deep Blue Sea: Ch 5

Chapter 5: Breathe Whumptober Day 20: Trembling Subnautica/JSE Egos Crossover

(( sorry these first ones are short! they'll get more to my usual length once the Septics meet up ))

Warnings: Blood, Character Injury, Needles, Panic Attacks Characters: Dr. Schneeplestein POV: Dr. Schneeplestein

The medical officer couldn’t help but jump at every sound.

He could feel bruises blossoming across his chest from where the seat harness had dug into it, glasses still crooked on his nose. It was a wonder they had stayed on at all.

He was shivering. Not from cold, but fear. Would anyone find him? Did anyone know the Aurora had even gone down?

It was dark there. The only light was the bioluminescence of the bulb-shaped…plants? and the fish he could see outside the pod. Far above him, much too far, were weak rays of sunlight that tried their best to pierce the depths.

Fish of different sizes and species swam around him, massive eel-like creatures with electricity coursing over their bodies danced around each other as they hunted. He could hear occasional rumbling, then his pod would shake as a…was it a geyser next to him? went off.

He couldn’t stay down there. He had an oxygen tank. A half-charged Seaglide. He could make it to the surface. Maybe there were other survivors.

A torrent of water when he opened the top hatch forced it shut again, but not before a few little fish made it in. He scrambled onto the storage compartment at the creatures flopped in the few inches of water that had made it into the pod.

The one with the big eyes caught his stare first. Possibly literally. He crouched to get a better look at it. It was covered in blisters; blisters he couldn’t see on the others of the species through the pane in the hatch. Were his eyes playing tricks, or were the blisters…glowing?

It was when he inched a bit closer, forgetting about the other one, that the red fish sank its teeth into his ankle. He fell with a gasp and a splash; kicked the piranha-like creature to forcefully tear it away. It hit the other side of the pod with a wet thud.

Tears in his eyes, the doctor clamored back on the storage; cradled his ankle with a hiss. God, he hoped that thing wasn’t venomous.

He fumbled for the medical kid, stared into the box numbly. His hands wouldn’t stop trembling. He nearly lost the contents of the kit to the shallow water beneath him. It had gone pink with his own blood.

No robots to do this for him.

Did he even…remember how to do it?

Needles, thread, bandages. Clean the wound first. Easy. Just do it. Go on, Henrik.

His hands were shaking too badly. He couldn’t hold the needle steady enough. It hurt.

Something large crashed into the side of the pod; one of the eels. Two had gone after the same fish. One had crashed into the pod when it missed. It wasn’t trying to get in. He was okay. Even so, his trembling worsened. Stop shaking, dammit.

He’d signed up to be a doctor on a high-profile ship. Not stitch his own goddamn leg shut.

His breathing was uneven, throat felt constricted. When he tried to use the needle, he jammed it into the wrong spot on his leg, dropped it to the water beneath after pulling it out with shaky hands and tears in his eyes. The rest of the medical kit followed after it. When had his hands started sweating?

Just breathe. Breathe.

He curled against the side of the lifepod. He couldn’t breathe. His heart felt like it was lunging into his throat; was that what was choking him? Trembling so bad he felt like he was shivering. All he needed was for his teeth to start chattering.

Oh, god—he was going to die down there.

The sick fish kept flopping. The red one barely moved save for the occasional twitch. The sounds around him were terrifying: Screeching, thudding as creature bumped against his pod, the geyser, his own heartbeat thundering in his ears.

All Henrik could do was cover his head and try to breathe.