Aquatica (Subnautica RP, Closed)

While he had been expecting some sort of reaction from the girl at the taste of cooked fish, he hadn't been expecting the sheer degree to which she enjoyed the taste. He actually visibly jumped at the moan, since it was the first particularly loud sound she'd made this whole time, but quickly settled down and chuckled as he continued to share the cooked flesh with her. Sweet goodness, if he didn't know better he'd think that she'd never had meat before. He didn't know whether to think of it as funny, sad, erotic, or just downright silly. Still, he was happy to reward the alien for helping him out, even if it was just something as simple as providing a treat for her, and before long the two were sharing all of the fish, practically clambering over each other as they both devoured them, splitting pieces off to share. As it was, he thoroughly enjoyed all of it; he'd never been a big fish person, but none of it tasted all that fishy to begin with. He wasn't quite as vocal with his enjoyment as she was, but he was definitely very visibly enjoying himself and impressed with the local cuisine, so to speak.

Eventually they finished and he too was leaning back against the wall, kind of wishing he was wearing pants so he could unbuckle his belt. Probably wasn't the smartest idea to eat so heavily when he'd be swimming some more, but he wasn't exactly in a hurry right now. The big important things were taken care of, at least initially. He wasn't quite to the point of taking a nap, but he definitely felt a little lethargic. Still, he might as well entertain his oh-so-friendly guest. Looking over at her with a smile, he said slowly with gestures from himself, to the pod itself, then to her and the pod again, "Mi casa es su casa." Really, at this point, she'd earned herself a place if she wanted to stick around, though he wasn't about to force her or anything. She'd done all she needed to in order to keep him alive, but having her around would hardly be a bad thing. Though, he wondered if she had anyone nearby. She was probably not part of a proper full civilization; tribal or pre-tribal if he had to guess. Did she have a family or a tribe that she should be getting back to? Or was she alone? No real easy way to ask that right now, not with their conversation being so... minimalistic. Still, he should probably learn her name. "So, I am Gavin, he said, pointing to himself, and emphasizing, "Gavin. Gavin. You are...?"

(Kinda figured)

Gavin kind of figured that his alien companion would probably have some degree of difficulty figuring out his name; he had no idea how similar or different their speech systems were. Still, he was impressed by how quickly she figured it out, and when she got her last iteration done he smiled back at her, giving a thumbs up and nodding his approval. It wasn't a perfect pronunciation, but he wasn't about to demand perfection to begin with. Heck, the fact that they were able to get that sort of thing across so quickly was more than enough progress for him. And then, just as he had been wondering if she got his returned question, she began to introduce herself, or at least he assumed that was what she was doing. Her name wasn't too difficult, though he began slowly, "Feruh... Fairuh... Fairah?" When he received her clapping, he grinned with satisfaction, happy that he had managed to satisfactorily pronounce her name.

After that he relaxed a little, glad that he now knew his savior's name. If she passed out in the pod, he wasn't about to stop her; as it was he didn't exactly want cramps and he was fairly certain that if he wanted to get something other than food he could probably handle himself. When he went out there, the only thing in the immediate vicinity that looked remotely dangerous were those rabbitray things. And they seemed to ignore him. Eventually, he started toying with his PDA, doing some personal calculations. So, optimistic scenario: the government and companies knew immediately when the Aurora went belly up and start preparing a rescue team immediately. How long would that take? A couple weeks he'd wager, depending on how ready they were for such a catastrophe and how fast the ships were; best case scenario was about ten days if he had to guess. On the other hand, worst case scenario was they didn't know and they waited until they noticed a lack of transmissions to investigate, and even then probably only sent a scout ship to investigate before sending a proper rescue team, or if they think nobody's alive just a recovery and investigation team. In that case... it could be months before anyone even arrived, much less came looking for him. Better settle in for the long run then.

So... this pod would only do in the short term. Can't imagine living here for months on end and staying sane. So, he'd need a base of operations; a simple underwater system to work on. But that meant getting the fabricator to make a builder, which he would most likely have to program with underwater habitation modules (unless he was absurdly lucky and it came pre-programmed with them). But builders weren't the simplest things ever. He'd need silicon and either copper, silver, or gold for the computer chip... he'd need a battery, which meant finding acid... and he'd need titanium. Well, the titanium he wasn't worried about, just look around the ocean floor for chunks of the Aurora, but the rare metals and acid... that might be tricky. Actually, he'd need to be able to make batteries to begin with, for his repair tool for when it inevitably ran out of juice. Okay... so in order to hunt for metals, he'd need to be able to stay under water for more than thirty seconds, which meant an air tank... and probably flippers. Now THOSE he could make. Flippers were probably just silicon rubber, which was a walk in the park to get; just get some sand or quartz and away you went. According to the computer, a basic can and mask just needed some titanium and quartz (presumably for the tube and oxygen level display). Easy enough; may as well get those done quickly.

Looking up at his companion, he noticed that she was sound asleep, apparently having gone into food coma mode. Smirking to himself, he slipped on his goggles, quietly opened the hatch, and slid back into the blue. Finding the quartz he needed didn't take long; there was some just growing out of the ocean floor. Later on he'd make a bucket he could fill with sand, but right now he just wanted to get things up and running. He usually just picked it up and brought it up to the pod and set it down on the floor before diving back in. After about thirty minutes of hunting for that, he spent some time fetching some more metal... and that took a while just because of his shoddy swimming skills. But eventually he had what he needed of that too and he went back up into the pod, going ahead and making what he needed on the fabricator. With that work done, he went ahead and sat down and finally started considering the idea of sleep. After checking with the computer that the water taken from the airsack fish thing was safe to drink (it was), he gulped some of that, and started peeling himself out of his wetsuit. Part of him felt a little awkward doing that in the presence of someone, especially of the opposite sex, but he quickly decided that it didn't particularly matter and she probably had never seen clothes before anyways. With that he laid down his suit as a sort of sleeping pad and conked out on the escape pod floor, glad to finally have some rest after this hellish day. During his sleep, he turned onto his side, baring his dragon tattoo for her to see; not intentionally of course.

While Gavin had stirred slightly when touched, he was so exhausted that at this point he actually slept only a half hour past when Fairah woke. Unfortunately, the waves decided to wake him up... or perhaps something else passing by. He groaned groggily as he awoke on the uncomfortable pod floor, blinking and rubbing his eyes as he looked around the unfamiliar area. It actually took him a few seconds to remember what all had happened, why he was in an escape pod, and why there was so much in the way of water around him. Of course, the realization hit him like a ton of bricks and for a brief moment he felt as if he had been gut-punched, tears not quite coming, but certainly not far from the surface. However, he quickly recovered and reminded himself that he had a hope to survive and would no doubt be able to get out if he was able to survive long enough for rescue to arrive. And... he had help. That was right.

Looking around himself, he noticed what could only be described as a bit of salad left on the pod floor. Heh... must've been his native friend getting him some veggies. Sitting down cross-legged, he picked up what looked to be a piece of seaweed and examined it thoughtfully. It... didn't look great, but hey, it was probably healthy. Biting into it was about what one would expect: it was like eating Earth seaweed, though a little less chewy. Simple enough. May as well have that... though he kind of wished that he could come up with something to do with it. No sense drying it out since he didn't have all that much salt. As he sat though, he realized kind of absent-mindedly that she had seen him naked. Again, that wasn't really something he was thrilled about, but figured would need to be gotten used to if he was stuck here. But then... she also must've seen his tattoos. Hrmm... he wondered what she thought of the dragon. Certainly didn't look friendly, if he remembered correctly. But... surely her people had war paint or something of the like; there were plenty of dyes on Earth, surely they had something to paint with. Especially with how vibrant the world was. Then again... maybe her people were too utilitarian to do that.

He took his time with the "salad" of sea weed, mostly just because of how bland it was, so she would no doubt return before he finished it.

While it was hardly the greatest meal ever, Gavin knew that learning the types of healthy vegetation would be important if he didn't want to wind up with some sort of vitamin deficiency. Here was hoping that these things actually had comparable vitamins. Still, he was pretty much finishing the 'salad,' as he kept thinking of it, when his mind went to where he was going to find the other things he would need for the various tools. Copper, silver, circuit board materials, maybe stuff for some rudimentary first aid kits, battery acid... finding all that seemed impossible. Still, the important parts were taken care of and it wasn't like he couldn't take his time in making it.

Of course, just as he was thinking that he noticed movement from the window and turned to see Fairah... with what looked to be a random assortment of goodies in her arms. What was she doing? Still, it was clear that she wanted to come in with all that so he smiled and quickly opened up the hatch, gesturing for her to come on in. Once she was in the opening, he helped her get all of the various goodies into the pod and couldn't help but be a little surprised when he saw the wide variety of things she'd found. While it was obvious that she seemed quite happy with her work, he actually needed to take a moment to absorb all that she had brought in. Okay, so, first things first, there was some quartz much like the stuff he had nabbed, and that would no doubt be quite handy. He couldn't help but smile upon seeing it; it was like she somehow knew it would be useful. The salt was a bit of a minor surprise, though he'd find a use for it eventually; salt was good for all kinds of chemistry, and he'd rather avoid killing the pod's filters and bleach supply. The coral was peculiar, and he'd have to get the fabricator to examine them, though one of them had a really interesting texture to it, and he found himself looking it over and holding it up to the light, stroking his chin thoughtfully as he wondered what was giving it those peculiar lines. The normal coral... well... maybe he'd find a use. The plant leaves he wasn't certain if it was just food or something else, though he had the impression she thought it could be used for something.  The mushrooms didn't mean much to him, though he was fairly certain that if she didn't bring it with the food and the fact that it was so brightly colored sure meant that it wasn't edible.  There was this funky-looking golden orb thing that outright confused him, but when he went to hold it he almost immediately saw a use for it in that it damn near slipped out of his hands. Whatever it was, it was a source of oil; whether it would be edible or used for something else was up for debate. After washing his hands real quick in the hatch, he went to the rocks. Some of them were just rocks, which wasn't a problem or anything, but he couldn't think of anything to do with them--except maybe harpoon head tips if he came up with some sort of harpoon gun. Not that he wanted to do that, but it was a possibility. But then he got onto the metals. Some of it was just titanium, which made him smile, though he couldn't help but chuckle at the irony. Under any other circumstance, this would've been more valuable than gold out here, but with the bits of Aurora probably still raining down it was kind of redundant. Still nice to have some. Then his eyes landed on the bit of copper, and his expression immediately lit up. The piece looked perfectly intact, like it hadn't corroded in the slightest. He very quickly went about drying it off with his swimsuit before examining it properly, holding it up to the light to confirm it was what he thought it was. There was a fair amount of copper here too, over a kilogram, and the fact that she was able to find some without a trained eye for such things told him enough about its presence in the area. On top of that, there was a tiny little nugget of some other grey looking metal. He wasn't entirely certain what it was--geology wasn't his specialty--but judging by the weight he'd have to guess either lead or silver. Either way, this amount he couldn't do much with, though he definitely made sure to keep it away from the other stuff in case it was lead and washed his hands after handling it. That all said though, he couldn't have been happier about her work.

Before he went any further, he scooted over to his alien friend and said, "I could kiss you!" before giving her a big hug for her help. He was kind of grateful that she didn't understand, because after he said it he realized just how silly it was. This was just what he needed to get started, and his slick, pink, aquatic companion had probably just saved him several hours of swimming, and given him hope that he really would be able to survive this.

While Fairah might not have understood it, Gavin knew that she had more or less saved his life... again. Once they broke their hug, he went ahead and started checking what all he could do with the biological aspects of what she had hauled in and checking that the metals were indeed what he thought they were. The metals were simple enough; the copper-like stuff was indeed copper, the titanium was titanium, the darker silver stuff was in fact silver (something which excited him incredibly). He legitimately had no idea how she managed to find it, but he definitely wanted more of it. Copper would work as a wiring system, but he'd have to gut whatever he was using pretty regularly just due to corrosion. Silver would be much better for what he needed. Okay, so this planet was mineral rich so he'd be able to find all he needed. Heck, if he was lucky he'd find gold... though that was something he'd keep as a secondary hope in hell. Okay, on to the organics.

The seaweed wasn't anything special; it was seaweed. Though, the computer seemed to think it could make a sort of rudimentary fabric out of it and that it had some medicinal properties. It was going to run some possibilities for uses, though first aid kits seemed the most likely... odd but okay. The seed pods were just what he expected, and the machine just outright asked "Do you want me to put this lubricant in a bottle?" Who was he to say no? So soon he had a piss yellow bottle of what the computer claimed was industrial-grade lubricant. The basic, green-ish coral the computer could only come up with the idea of using it with salt to help make more bleach, so he went ahead and made some of that, which the computer then went and asked if he wanted to use it with the seaweed to make into a first aid kit. Sounded like a real simplistic thing, but he supposed it'd work well enough. Soon enough he had a bright red thin box with a white cross on it and laid it off to the side. Then came the mushrooms... and immediately he found to his delight that the computer found them to be highly acidic, well beyond the tolerances of human ingestion... but they would be perfect for low-grade batteries. Hell, it could've said that it was one step up from a potato and he would've been fine with that. Taking the copper, he used what mushrooms he had to make some batteries, testing one of them in his welder to make sure that they fit and functioned properly. On seeing the little flame come up, he let out an excited whoop and grinned broadly at Fairah.

Then came the piece de resistance: the sparkling bits of coral with all those intricate details. At first he had no idea what it would be good for, and the computer took its sweet time looking at it. In fact, it took so long that he actually started looking at what all he'd need to survive... and everything seemed to hinge on one thing: being able to make computer chips. And it turned out that, while not ideal, these bits of coral would make perfectly adequate platforms to build computer chips for other machinery. On that discovery his eyes went wide and he very quickly went to double-check the computer's calculations on his PDA, an excited smile spreading across his face as he found that, indeed, if used properly, these bits of animal would be perfect. However... he didn't have enough silver.

Damn.

Alright, not the end of the world. Grabbing his flippers, he started putting them on and said to Fairah, an excited look in his eye, "So, I need more silver." Of course, after he realized that she probably would've had about as much idea of what he said if he had said it in Swahili. Finishing with his flippers, he grabbed the hunk of silver and said slowly, "Silver. Need more silver. Silver very important." Strapping on his air tank and putting on his goggles, he made sure that everything was secure before opening the hatch again and jumping in, hopefully with his alien friend to guide him along.

Really, Gavin wasn't trying to specifically get Fairah to say the stuff in his language so much as just impress that he needed more of it; and to his relief she not only got a close enough approximation of the word and understood his intent. After giving her an approving nod, he gestured for her to follow him down the proverbial rabbit hole. In the water, he was glad to see that the fins seemed to help a lot with his slower speed as compared to the natives of this world, though he had never actually gone scuba diving so the weight of the tank was a little weird at first. Still, it was something he'd need to get used to, and being able to breathe more regularly was a massive godsend. To his lack of surprise, he was still slower than Fairah, but at least he wasn't holding her up too badly and they were actually making decent speed for once.

Soon enough they reached what could only be described as a forest made of some sort of local seaweed or kelp analogue, incredibly huge and spanning dozens of meters in height. He'd joke that it took his breath away, but doing so might have jinxed himself; not that he wasn't already huffing and puffing a little from the swim as it was. However, as they were getting ready to head into the depths of the magic forest of wonder and kelp, Fairah stopped and, after some searching, pointed something out to him. It actually took him a moment to spot what she was looking at, but before long he saw something that looked like barracuda had gotten frisky with a crocodile. Even without her follow-up expression he got the distinct impression that it was something he wanted to keep at an arm's length. After making a mouth gesture with his arms to show that he understood what she was getting at, they soon headed into the forest. His friend's sudden nervous mannerisms had him a little on edge, and while the fact that she was willingly going in here told him it wasn't mortal danger to enter this area, he should definitely keep his eyes peeled.

Thankfully, they soon reached their target area, where he was able to find more silver nuggets. Gradually he went about pocketing them, slipping them into pouches in his wetsuit and looking around himself for more of those nasty 'cuda sharks as he went. Strangely, they didn't seem to be all that interested in him, or at least couldn't see him too well. He also noticed another potential threat hanging from one of the overhangs lower down, and while he didn't know what it was, the big pink tentacles looked enough like a jellyfish that he decided to not go anywhere in the same post code as them. However, as he was following the outcropping and picking up what pieces of silver he could find, he soon discovered a much more present danger. At first he didn't notice it, just a big black rock mixed into the cave, so of course he started heading that direction. But then, as he swam towards the cave, the plant flared open and revealed some kind of fish inside. Of course, Gavin had some momentum going forward, enough that it got the fish to start growling/gargling at him, but the moment he saw that he turned right the fuck around. He was fluent in four languages: English, Spanish, Japanese, and FUCK-OFF. He didn't need to be a linguist to know that this thing wasn't exactly handing out Girl Scout cookies. Fortunately, the creature saw that he got the message and the petals folded back over, the big white eye of the fish still looking out of a hole in the "rock" squarely at him.

After catching his breath and silently thanking the powers that be that even if he did piss himself it wouldn't matter in the water, he went back to hunting for silver, much more cautious now that he knew what to watch out for. Unfortunately, little did he know that the sound attracted another threat... one of the fish was now headed their way, investigating the source of the disturbance in its domain.

When Fairah returned, Gavin was still trying to collect himself after his close call. He looked up at his friend as she approached, his mind in no direction to really blame her for what happened with the angry fish, though apparently she seemed a little flustered about it. She said something to him, which sounded weird in the underwater world, but he got the impression that she was happy to see he was alright. He wished he could smile at her (what with the mask on), so he settled for nodding quickly before picking up and pocketing the bits of silver she handed over. God, if things had gone better, anyone who set up shop here would make a killing on precious metals alone. However, before he could make any more comment, he noticed her stiffen and, instinctively, he too went on alert, knowing that if she saw something that it was trouble. Then, to his shock, she pushed him away, and while he was reluctant, he got the message to get swimming and started heading back the way they came at full speed. However, as he went, he looked behind him and found his breath catch as one of the slender fish from earlier lunged at her... Fairah only being saved by quick movements as she darted by it and pulled on its tail like someone might yank on the tail of a tiger. He wanted to run back and help her, but as the two darted off together and out of sight, he knew that he would never be able to keep up and headed for the edge of the kelp forest, his heart palpitating and nearly every three meters punctuated by a fervent glance over his shoulder for his savior.

For about four minutes Gavin waited at the edge of the forest, his eyes glued to the seascape of towering plants and glowing creatures, the occasional fish swimming by him oblivious to his thoughts. He wanted nothing more than to see that she was alright, guilt eating away at him at the possibility that he had gotten her killed. Thankfully, his worried proved to be unfounded as a small patch of pink appeared on the horizon and he was relieved to see his friend swim out victorious, something in her hands as she approached. Despite the fact that they were underwater, she could probably no doubt see that he was relieved to see her. Had he been on the surface he would have sighed with relief. As it was though, he just hugged her quickly once she got close enough. At this rate she was going to emasculate him so hard that he grew ovaries. Then, once he released her, he was surprised when she gave him what appeared to be a tooth from the creature. A... very big tooth. Dang... thank goodness that hadn't gotten at one of them. He actually didn't know if she meant it as a simple gift or something he could use, but he nodded his thanks regardless.

With the panic situation over, he mentally took stock of all the silver they had, patting his suit's pockets. They probably had enough to work with for now. Waving for her to follow, he started heading back towards the pod, eager to get their work back underway. Along the way, he found himself looking over at his friend, so grateful to have her looking after him out here. He had the distinct impression that his time here would be a lot harder without her; or at the very least he would be stuck in the pod permanently. While he didn't directly believe in some divine power, he had a feeling that something was looking after him, even if it was just the pendulum of fate finally starting to swing the other direction. Eventually they got back to the pod, though Gavin found himself having a little difficulty climbing back in, mostly just the weight of the tank and being a little worn out... and his hands still shaking from the rock fish and the sharkacuda. Once inside, he was more than happy to help his friend in, but once that was done he went straight to getting his mask and tank off, eager to get shed the extra weight. The second those were gone, he flopped down onto the floor with a tired gasp. Then, he looked over at the tooth, which had been laid on the floor, and he startled chuckling, laughing at how stressful just one day's worth of scavenging had turned into... and it wasn't even done. "Ahahaha, aaahhh... thanks for the help, Fairah."

Jeeze what a mess. As he started unpacking all the silver they'd recovered, he looked up at his friend, a weary smile still on his face as he started recounting what all they had encountered. One thing that still bothered him was the rock-flower fish. Everything else seemed a pretty normal danger, but that thing bothered him. Hrmm... maybe he could ask. Eh, he'd worry about it later, maybe once they were out in the water and were just swimming around he could point one out. They'd have to go hunting soon enough anyways. After catching his breath, he got back to his feet and gathered up the supplies he'd need, grabbing a chunk of silver, some titanium, a piece of that coral, and some quartz. Once he set them on the fabricator, double-checked that it indeed had the schematics of a builder (as he required), and told it what to do, Fairah was treated to quite the show. The first thing done was that the pieces of coral were organized and molded into a more usable shape. Then, the fabricator made small incisions to improve the already-present veins within the organism and make room for the rest. Then, it started taking the quartz and laying it down as a silicon base, following those pieces with silver, making those oh-so-familiar (to Gavin) patterns of computer chips that he knew, occasionally taking some more quartz for resistors and such. Eventually the chip was done, then some more wiring, silicon, and quartz lenses were laid down, connecting the chip to the mechanism of the builder... then finally a titanium shell to contain it all.

In the end, he had a nice, standard-issue builder, the sort that he had used dozens of times before in the past. While the machine was doing that, he started looking at the pod's programs for the device, trying to figure out how he was going to make what he needed: namely a home. As the builder was born, he started experimenting with the computer, trying to figure out an appropriate shape and design for an undersea home.