I’m in Murrells Inlet, so I’d consider PI to NMB.
Thanks.

Hi there! I'm trying to find a week long vacation rental for my extended family in the following areas: Emerald Isle, Folly Beach/ Isle of Pams, Sullivans Island, Oak Island, & Murrells Inlet. These places seem wonderful but finding a house large enough and on the beach seems difficult. Does anyone know of any property management companies for those areas? Thank you!

This is my first (personal) build, I have built low to medium end PCs for other people, and I finally am saving up for a good high-end PC that will last me for a couple years until I need to put in up-to-date parts, and just a PC that will still possibly be a high-end PC in 2, 3, or even 4 years. I am new to building high-end PCs, but I am very experienced at building budget PCs. Any comments? Thx! (Sorry that this is such a long post.)
Here is the PC Part Picker list: PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price

AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 4.2 GHz 8-Core Processor](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/3hyH99/amd-ryzen-7-7800x3d-42-ghz-8-core-processor-100-100000910wof) $344.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE WHITE ARGB 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler $36.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard Asus ROG STRIX B650-A GAMING WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard $226.50 @ Amazon
Memory Corsair Vengeance RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory $127.99 @ Amazon
Storage Samsung 980 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive $169.99 @ Amazon
Video Card Asus ROG STRIX GAMING OC GeForce RTX 4090 24 GB Video Card $1949.99 @ Amazon
Case NZXT H6 Flow ATX Mid Tower Case $109.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply Corsair RM850 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply $124.99 @ Amazon
Operating System Microsoft Windows 11 Home OEM - DVD 64-bit $109.99 @ Amazon
Headphones Logitech G733 Headset $138.56 @ Amazon
Controller Xbox Dream Vapor Special Edition Wireless Controller $60.00
Total $3399.98
(I usually use controllers for my normal games, like Skyrim, and Fallout. I know, it defeats the point of keyboard and mouse, but I am used to it, and quite frankly, do not care that ppl do not use controllers for PCs.)

This is my first (personal) build, I have built low to medium end PCs for other people, and I finally am saving up for a good high-end PC that will last me for a couple years until I need to put in up-to-date parts, and just a PC that will still possibly be a high-end PC in 2, 3, or even 4 years. I am new to building high-end PCs, but I am very experienced at building budget PCs. Any comments? Thx! (Sorry that this is such a long post.)
Here is the PC Part Picker list: PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price

AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 4.2 GHz 8-Core Processor](https://pcpartpicker.com/product/3hyH99/amd-ryzen-7-7800x3d-42-ghz-8-core-processor-100-100000910wof) $344.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE WHITE ARGB 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler $36.99 @ Amazon
Motherboard Asus ROG STRIX B650-A GAMING WIFI ATX AM5 Motherboard $226.50 @ Amazon
Memory Corsair Vengeance RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 Memory $127.99 @ Amazon
Storage Samsung 980 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive $169.99 @ Amazon
Video Card Asus ROG STRIX GAMING OC GeForce RTX 4090 24 GB Video Card $1949.99 @ Amazon
Case NZXT H6 Flow ATX Mid Tower Case $109.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply Corsair RM850 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply $124.99 @ Amazon
Operating System Microsoft Windows 11 Home OEM - DVD 64-bit $109.99 @ Amazon
Headphones Logitech G733 Headset $138.56 @ Amazon
Controller Xbox Dream Vapor Special Edition Wireless Controller $60.00 @ Amazon (yeah, this is a custom part. Look up a pic of it if u want…)
Total $3399.98
(I usually use controllers for my normal games, like Skyrim, and Fallout. I know, it defeats the point of keyboard and mouse, but I am used to it, and quite frankly, do not care that ppl do not use controllers for PCs.)

Chapter 4:
As the force of Jason’s corpse, meeting the ground, turned his body into a fine soup. The resulting damage overflow caused his soul to begin coming apart at the seams. The sheer suddenness of the impact had left him no time to think about activating any of his plethora of life-saving cheat skills, consuming any of his vast horde of damage preventing concoctions, nor really use any of the other myriad bullshit tools at his disposal; before having a very intimate face-to-face with the crust of this planet. The previously mentioned soup-ification of his limbs and internal organs did mean that even if he had thought to use such items, he was unable to reach for, much less consume, anything. This limitation was slightly mitigated by the fact that the meteoric collision had shattered/ shredded/ or otherwise pulverized all non-magically enhanced items that Jason had been carrying on his person. Further, because apparently this world just plain hated Jason’s particular brand of bullshit; even the extra dimensional nature of his storage solutions were not spared the calamitous effects of meeting the ground at approximately Mach 3.

For you see, as any “good” gamer does, Jason had been sure to run with max out stacks of potions, hi-potions, tonics, tinctures, ethers, and various other mundane healing concoctions. As to why he decided to have enough vials on his person to put a glass blowers' children through college, he operated under the mindset of “Why bother using your precious spell slots to heal, when you can just replace a literal gallon of your blood with healing potion?” Turns out that this issue was fixed around the same time as Jason picked up the passive [Regeneration] skill.)

In addition to his reservoir of the common mundane potions, Jason had never gotten around to using ANY of his built-up hoard of magical elixirs. He had always meant to use one... or twenty of them, but seriously, you never know when you might need those bad boys when you are facing down a particularly difficult big bad.... And phooey to anyone who points out that this usually just means you never actually use any of them.

One might argue that the only upside to Jason’s impromptu intimate associations with the ground, was that his healing items quite literally vaporized upon impact. And while terrible for him, the unique shape and depression of the unmarked crater grave allowed for the creation of a heretofore impossible oasis in the multiverse.

*Legend has it that the sheer volume of aerosolized revival drink that still lingers in that crater, has turned it into a mythical place of physical and mental healing. One reputable interdimensional tour book has even rated the area with its highly coveted 7.3 (star) ranking....

Seriously, who uses base 7? Much less base point anything. Like I understand base 5 or base 10, but 7.3?! Doesn’t that make calculating partial stars a nightmare?.... ANYWAY....

They claim that spending even a single night is enough to heal 30 (years) of bodily wear and tear. Yes!!! That DOES also means fixing such pesky problems as losing limbs, “curing” otherwise incurable/ fatal ailments, or reversing the effects of mana burnout.*


< Primary user deemed non-responsive. >
< Searching for approved work around >
< Searching… >
< Searching… >
< Responsive secondary user detected >
< Activating secondary user system >
< System online. >
< Secondary user has been approved to make existence sustaining choices for primary user. >

A soft pop can be heard within the stopped time, followed shortly thereafter, by a long drawn-out yawn. From the endless nothingness that exists between all things, there springs to life a small non-euclidean shaped.... thing. As is the case with most things that are born into the multiverse, she was... less than pleased, about the whole “existing” thing. Her displeasure was noted by the system, and a formal complaint would be submitted to the appropriate beings. But that was an issue to be dealt with at another time and place.

Once more she let out a big yawn and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. A surprising feat, considering that she did not, nor had she ever required or known sleep; coupled with the fact that her form lacked anything that could be considered, even by the most generous of terms, as “eyes”. But again, a problem logged for another place and another time. At this moment she had a job to do, and gosh darn it, she was going to do the absolute HECK out of it.

P.O.V: Personalized Utilitarian Lazarus Liquidation System. AKA: P.U.L.L.

After coming to terms with the unfortunate fact that she now existed, P.U.L.L. decided that her job would likely be far simpler if she possessed a form similar to that of the primary user’s. If she shared a form with the user, it stood to reason that she could better understand what had caused their lack of functioning, and how best to remedy it. And the sooner she remedied the issue, the sooner she could return to blissful nonexistence. As luck would have it for her, the ability to edit her being fell within the parameters of “existence sustaining choices” she was allowed to make. With a flick of her nonexistent finger, she tasked the system to use the Primary’s mana stores to craft her a form. She was aware that the system had produced a series of pop-ups in regards to her request. However due to her lack of visual sensory organs, she was unable to read any of the pop-ups, instead choosing to just spam the approval process for now. She couldn’t quite prove it, but she got the distinct feeling that the whole process took far longer than it had any right to.

Opening her newly actualized eyes, P.U.L.L. took in her surroundings. She discovered that she existed within, what could most accurately be described as either “a really big hole” or perhaps a bit more loosely defined as “a crater”. After a few moments, she decided that “crater” sounded more impressive, thus it would be how she would define it moving forward.

The crater looked to be recently formed, she could still make out some chunks of rubble suspended within the stopped time. She deduced that whatever had happened to the Primary, had likely also caused this crater. With nothing else to do, and with sweet, sweet, nonexistence waiting for her at the end of this task, P.U.L.L. began to search the crater for answers. She learned precious little in her exploration, other than the stopped time seemed to end at the crater's edges. After spending a considerably longer period of time than what she would like to admit to, searching for signs of life, P.U.L.L. was forced to admit a very troublesome fact. She could not for the life of her seem to find any sign of the Primary.

“System, can you hear me?”



“Cool, cool. I am having difficulty locating the primary user. Could you please highlight them for me.”



“Approved”



P.U.L.L. deeply regretted her previous choice in the whole “getting eyes” department, as the entire world around her suddenly flashed into a searing yellowish green color. Her brain screamed in displeasure, as she fumbled blindly with the personal system settings to lower the brightness. Eventually she found what she was looking for. A few moments later, still blinking spots out of her vision, P.U.L.L. surveyed the scene in front of her. It took her a little bit, but as she looked more closely, she started to see tiny areas where the sickly yellow/green color was not plastered across the entirety of her vision. As she parsed the new information, an uneasy feeling started to creep up in her gut.

“System?”



“Would I be correct in my assumption... That the entirety of THIS”, she gestures to the colored haze. “Is the remains of the primary?”



P.U.L.L.’s jaw hits the floor. “What in the world could have done this”, she wonders to herself. Another few moments pass as P.U.L.L. ponders the possibilities. Try as she might, her brain cannot think of any manner of beast nor magic that could cause this kind of devastation; at least none that would have left such a minimal amount of collateral damage to the area surrounding this crater.

“System. Please pull up the most recent Battle Logs and Memory Logs”







“Fuck. System, access primary’s items and use mana restoration items.”



“You have got to be kidding me...”



“Nooooo...” PULL frantically scans the primary’s profile page.



“No, no, no...” Her metaphysical heart is racing. She just needs something, ANYTHING, to put more mana into the tank.



“FUUUUUUUUUCK!!!” She knows she’s out of time.

As it turns out, with the acquisition of a physical form comes a certain kind of morality. And wouldn’t you know it, morality is the perfect breeding ground for all kinds of guilt. Guilts that are not at all conducive to the utilitarian choices that a P.U.L.L system, by its very nature, is generally forced to make. She mentally recorded another point in the ‘Pros of non-existence' column.

With a heavy heart, P.U.L.L. decides that she really has no choice, and does what her most base programming has been telling her to do since the beginning. She begins to frantically scroll through the primary’s profile, searching for various skills, abilities, and/or items to purge.

<10>

“System!”

<9>

“Authorize, emergency liquidation”

<8>

<7>

In a blind panic, she picks a random ability from the Skill screen. “Liquidate”

<6>



<5>



<4>



<3>

“APPROVED!”

<2>

The system replies in a sickeningly sweet voice.

P.U.L.L lets out a breath she didn’t even know she was holding. Her hands are shaking as she opens the screen to see how much mana that little gambit got her. The bar sits at a healthy 45%, a feeling of unbridled joy washes over her; followed closely by crushing sadness as she can already see the bar beginning to dip. She tries very hard not to think about what she just did. She knows she can’t liquidate anything TOO important, but...

“System. Moving forward, please disable all non-emergency warnings. Further, all orders are to be considered pre-approved until the primary user is revived. Now, what is the mana cost to maintain [Temporal Flux]?”





















P.U.L.L. was a bit shocked; was... was that a cheeky undertone she just heard? Was the System even capable of being “cheeky”? No, something deep within her programming told her that it wasn’t. The Master Interface and its myriad systems had been designed with function above all else. Up until this point, the system had had a personality about as interesting as, unflavored oatmeal or watching paint dry.

Nothing about this day was living up to her expectations. Deep within her sub systems, she let herself have a little tantrum (as a treat). She let herself piss and moan, throw metaphorical chairs across the room, stomp her feet and pout. She raged against the absurdity of all of this. She knew precious little about the wider multiverse, but even she could see that someone, or something, was fucking with her.

Bringing herself back to the here and now, she takes a deep breath and tries to center herself within the moment. While it might have felt good, that little tantrum had cost her precious moments, and likely would end up costing her user some hard won plunder. “With your reserves sated; System! Please pull up the recent Battle and Visual Logs.”



P.U.L.L. watched the data feeds. Watched as the user popped out of The Void and into the skies above this planet. She watched as he plummeted down, down, down. She took notes about the abnormal interactions with this realm’s equivalent of mana. How it seemed to fight back when the user called forth his own mana reserves. Something about the way it all played out taunted her, she knew she had seen this sort of reaction before; but couldn’t quite put her finger on what exactly it reminded her of.

She watched as the user’s hands and lips bubbled and blistered after each spell, saw the spike in damage; followed by an automated activation of regeneration skills. She watched as spell after spell fizzled out, half formed and fully useless. She watched as his final spell shattered, and reformed into something entirely new. She watched as gravity seemed to coalesce around the man and hurl him ever faster towards a rapidly rising ground. And finally, she watched as his super-heated body made contact with the planet. With a shaky hand she hovered over the damage logs.

[click]

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
Creole dangled that final favor over my head for a few weeks. He didn’t summon me or even contact me as if he was dragging out my final task until he truly felt like doing so. While it annoyed me, I eventually found it to be a blessing. It allowed me to process everything that had happened to me and recharge my batteries. I also did my best to avoid mirrors after my hotel ordeal with my corrupted reflection. Every time I even passed a mirror it felt like at any moment she burst through the mirror and rip me into pieces.
After almost 3 weeks of silence from Creole, I was sitting home alone, having agreed to help my parents fill out their taxes while they continued to work themselves to the bone. I didn’t exactly know what I was doing but I figured that no one ever really knows what they’re doing when they fill out a tax form. I was in the process of chewing the end of my eraser when our doorbell rang.
Now I’m usually the type of person who never answers the door when the doorbell rings. If I don’t know that you’re coming over beforehand then I ain’t answering the door. But something about this doorbell felt different. And after all, I wasn’t getting anywhere with my parent’s tax forms; other than the feeling of dread with how badly we were faring even with both of them working two jobs. So I stood up from the kitchen table and made my way over to the door.
“Jacob?” I asked with surprise and a bit of shock when I saw the bellboy standing at my door. He waved to me happily and then reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope, handing it to me. I took it from him and was greeted by the familiar handwriting that Creole’s notes carried. “Why didn’t he just call me?” I asked Jacob, forgetting that Creole’s bellboy was now a mute. He simply pointed at the envelope. I looked down at it, opened it, and began to read.
“Mace! So sorry that I’m not able to call you. I’m currently out of town on a business trip. But this is the perfect opportunity for your final favor! Jacob is here to lead you to the shop where I’ve left further instructions. And don’t worry about anyone seeing y’all. Not like anyone will believe ya if you told em. Best regards, K.C.”
That last sentence felt like a threat. It was something that existed constantly in the back of my mind. Especially after I found out that Creole had the police in his pocket. It was best to just grit my teeth, get this final favor done, and never have to think of Ol’ King Creole’s Half Priced Voodoo Store ever again.
“Just give me a minute to get my things,” I told Jacob. He nodded quickly and gave me a thumbs-up. He was such a different person now that it was scary. I hadn’t known Jacob well in high school but seeing him like this caused me to feel sorry for him. He certainly didn’t deserve this, it wasn’t his fault that I had gotten stabbed by one of his customers. And yet it was my fault that he was now a servant of the same monster that held my own life in his gloved hands.
I allowed Jacob into the house while I headed upstairs, followed by the thoughts that filled me with guilt over what had happened to him. I applied more of Creole’s ointment so that my scar and stitches would continue to be hidden. I gathered my lockpicking tools and my pepper spray and finally joined Jacob downstairs. He was busy looking at the pictures hung up on my wall and when he noticed me he quickly spun on his heels and gave me a salute, a cheery smile on his stitched-up mouth.
“Let’s just get this over with,” I told him, barely able to stand his overly cheery demeanor. He nodded and followed me outside. I locked the door and followed him as he led me toward the voodoo store. As I followed Jacob, I took the letter he had given me and started reading it again. Something was bothering me.
“Where the hell does he need to go to be on a business trip?” I asked Jacob, again as if the mute bellboy could answer me. He shrugged his shoulders as he continued down the sidewalk. I looked back down at the letter and suddenly got a terrible feeling about something. Were there other freaks like Creole? If one freak exists, it only makes sense that others also exist. This horrible line of thought was abruptly halted when I walked into Jacob. I was about to get pissed at him but then I realized that we’d arrived at the voodoo shop.
“Oh,” I said, my cheeks getting warm with embarrassment. I had been so absorbed in my thoughts that we’d arrived in record time. Jacob just smiled and opened the door for me, I mouthed a quick thanks and entered the shop hoping to leave my embarrassment outside. Every voodoo doll quickly turned to look at me as soon as I entered. I quickly held my hands up to show them that it was me, and Jacob entering the store behind me put them all at ease. I guessed that they were some sort of security system for when their boss was away.
Jacob led me to Creole’s office and as we passed the basement door whatever was down there quickly began pounding at the door. It surprised me so badly that I screamed and quickly rushed past Jacob toward the office, putting as much distance as I could from the creature in the basement. I entered Creole’s office and quickly sat myself down on the comfy chair where I had received my life-saving surgery from Creole. Jacob followed after me and closed the door behind us.
He went behind Creole’s desk and began searching for something. I meanwhile finally took full notice of Creole’s office, since the last time I had been there I had been on death’s door. His office was filled with photos with a grand majority of them being scratched out in some way. All except one on his desk. I reached out and grabbed the picture frame to look at it. It was an old black-and-white photo of a man and a woman.
“Is that…” I held the photo closer to my eyes to examine it. The man was tall with messy black hair. “Creole?” I whispered to myself as the figure in the picture was a dead-ringer for Creole. Of course minus the button eyes and stitches across his mouth and neck. Just as I was about to examine the woman, the photo was suddenly snatched from my hands. I just about had a heart attack thinking that Creole had somehow returned and taken it from me. But it was only Jacob with more of my directions.
“Right, sorry,” I told him as I accepted the couple of pieces of paper he handed to me. There were Creole’s usual doodles of what I had to retrieve though these were the strangest ones yet. Though thinking back now it certainly seemed hard to top a clock that caused you to decay and a mirror that creates a horror version of yourself.
Creole wanted me to steal some sort of file and a porcelain doll. The porcelain doll made sense, the wall of voodoo dolls was enough to prove Creole’s obsession with dolls. But the file was what interested me more. What exactly did he want that for? Was it some sort of haunted file or something? I looked at the next page which was another letter. Why he couldn’t have just told me everything in the first letter was lost to me.
“Mace! By now Jacob should’ve given you the target of my current desire. After you’ve finished reading this and are ready to begin your final favor he’ll take you to your target. And I’m sure you’re dying to know where it is. It’s in a lovely Massachusetts mansion! The owner rarely ever goes there anymore so it should be a walk in the park for you! Just this last favor and you can finally go free.” He didn’t bother signing this one, but I could care less. The third paper appeared to be completely blank, so I just shoved that into my pocket with everything else.
“Well, I guess I’m ready,” I told Jacob as I stood up. He nodded and reached into his pocket. He rummaged around in there for a moment before he pulled out a key. The bow of it was a skull, which probably meant that it was a skeleton key of some sort. I’m sure Creole had gotten a kick out of it for that reason. The bellboy inserted the key into Creole’s office door and turned it. Before my eyes and Jacob’s buttons, the door began to morph and change into a much more ornate and fancier one. The golden initials CS were stamped onto each door and Jacob swung the door open for me.
“Wish me luck,” I said as he handed to key to me. I assumed so I could make a quick escape if the situation called for it. He held a thumbs up and waved goodbye to me as I stepped through the doors.
I had to blink my eyes furiously after entering the mansion as I was blasted with natural lighting that blinded me when compared to the dimly lit voodoo shop. This place was massive, from a giant chandelier above my head, to massive windows that let in plenty of sunlight into the mansion. But even despite its grandeur it felt, cold. Both in temperature and in feeling. It was the beginning of fall but even so, there wasn’t any reason for it to be this cold. Cold enough to see my breath. I shivered as I took my few steps forward into the mansion.
Right at the entrance next to the grand staircase was a giant family portrait of who I at first assumed were the owners of this massive palace. But judging by the clothes the woman was wearing and the style of suit the older man was wearing I quickly judged that they must be some kind of ancestors. The woman and man both had their hands on the boy in front of them. The mother and I assumed her son both had blonde hair, while the father had thick brown hair with a giant mustache.
“Where would this file be?” I wondered to myself after a moment of staring at the giant portrait. I reached into my pocket to try and find something in Creole’s notes. And to my surprise, the previously blank sheet of paper had suddenly transformed into a map of the mansion. To my surprise the file wasn’t located upstairs but in a downstairs office. Armed with this knowledge, I started making my way towards it, checking the map every so often so that I wouldn’t become lost in the maze of hallways and rooms that this mansion possessed.
The cold started getting to me as I shivered uncontrollably and vapors of breath poured from my mouth. The quicker I got this over with the better, not only as my final favor but because I wasn’t about to have myself catch a cold over this. Finally, I made it to the correct door. I tried to turn the knob and found it locked. I half expected this to just be a snatch-and-go, but I supposed that there was a reason Creole sent me.
Getting on my knees and warming up my hands with my breath, I quickly went about trying to pick this lock. What immediately struck me was how old this lock was. Not like rusty and about to fall apart old but in design old. I’d never come across a lock like this and I had to figure out how to actually go about picking it. My shaking hands and body also added to my struggles and I dropped my tools on more than one occasion.
Finally, after ten minutes of fumbling, cursing, and giving up once, I finally managed to open the door. “Let’s fucking go!” I shouted in excitement. Covering my mouth quickly as my voice echoed throughout the mansion. I quickly entered the room and closed the door behind me. I was surprised to see that it wasn’t an office, but more like a storage room with a few boxes and filing cabinets. He really wasn’t going to make this easy on me, was he?
I opened a few of the filing cabinets and found many of them empty, which sped up the process of finding the file I needed. It was the second to last one that finally yielded results. The only problem was that this cabinet was full of files. Just as I was about to try and steal all of them, one of them caught my eye. I was flipping through them and cursing Creole with every file that I flicked past when one felt different from the others. Mostly because it had a paperclip attached to it and a photo. I pulled this file out and looked down at it. The picture was of a woman who looked exactly like the woman at the entrance of the mansion. Opening it I read through it a little.
Abigail A. Sinclair.
Fell into deep and uncontrollable hysteria after the death of her husband, Cornelius A. Sinclair, and the return of her son from the war. Her son has seen fit to place her under the care of the Boston Psychopathic Hospital. Her son has requested that he not be informed of her progress or if she passes away in our care.
“Jeez,” I said as I flipped through more of the file. The most striking were two photos, one was of Abigail when she was mentally well and the next was her locked in a straight jacket and completely a shell of her former elegant self. Her hair was wild and her face was twisted into a look of intense fear and sorrow. I reached into my pocket to consult my magic pages and found that the map had now turned into a simple phrase.
“That one,” was all it said now. I looked back down at the file and stared at the haunting eyes of Abigail. I felt horrible for her, and I could only wonder what Creole wanted this for. But it was better for me not to think about that. I closed the file and tucked it under my armpit. The paper now changed back to a map and was leading me back towards the main entrance. Walking down the hallways was quicker now that I had an idea of where I was going, and I was back at the main entrance in no time.
The paper now told me to head up the grand staircase upstairs into one of the bedrooms. I assumed to Abigail’s room since judging by her file and the massive portrait she didn’t have a daughter. So I started making my way up the stairs, each of my footsteps echoing throughout the halls. At the top of the stairs, I was greeted by a different portrait, one of a tired-looking man in a suit. He had deep bags under his eyes and perfectly combed blonde hair.
“This must be the son,” I said as I approached the portrait. His scowl was enough to send a chill up my spine. It felt like his angry hazel eyes were staring deep into my soul. I shivered hard and quickly moved past the portrait. I reached Abigail’s room and was happy to see that it was open. The room was pristine and perfect in every way. It felt like it had been deliberately kept this way and I was intruding on a museum piece.
There, sitting on the bed, was the doll. A small little porcelain one. I was going to have to be careful lest I end up accidentally dropping and shattering it. I walked to the bed and carefully picked her up. All I had to do now was make it back to the office and I would never have to deal with shit like this ever again.
I exited the bedroom and headed towards the stairs, passing the portrait of the son. Just as I did I was suddenly and violently grabbed by the throat. In my surprise and shock at being suddenly attacked, I dropped everything I was holding to grip the mystery hand that was choking me. I watched in terror as the porcelain doll began to fall to the floor. Instead of shattering into a million pieces though it was caught in midair by something.
“May I ask what you’re doing here?” A deep voice asked me. I looked up toward the portrait and stared at it as it seemed to come to life. The son stepped right out of the portrait and continued his death hold on me while the doll floated up next to him. I don’t exactly know how he expected me to answer him, but he gave me an opportunity after he dropped me to the floor.
“Wh-” I gasped as I tried to suck in air only to be met with a skeletal goopy form staring at me from the floor. I let out a croak that was supposed to be a scream before falling backward and almost falling down the giant staircase.
“That freak sent you here, didn’t he?” The man asked as he looked down at me on the floor. The strange goopy creature slithered around him like some kind of snake before perching itself on his shoulder and letting out strange gurgles from its bright white mouth. Two beady white eyes stared down at me along with the exhausted eyes of the man who had just stepped out of a painting.
“C-Creole?” I asked him, standing up and reaching into my pocket, rubbing my thumb across my pepper spray. I didn’t know if it would do anything to him, but I needed some sort of protection and this was all I had in that department.
“Yes, that bastard,” he said as he took the file from the creature as it lifted it towards him. He took it and the moment his eyes saw the picture of his mother I could tell he wanted to kill me right there. “Why the fuck would he want this?” he asked me, his creature slithering over to me and opening its giant white maw.
“I-I don’t know! He just told me to get these things!” I told the son, quickly holding my hand up and uncapping my pepper spray. The creature stopped just before it could eat me and then quickly slithered back over to its master. I lowered my hand and watched as the creature morphed into the shape of his shadow.
“Sending a woman to do his dirty work. I knew he was pathetic but not this pathetic,” he hissed and I could immediately tell that he saw me as less than a parasite. His tired eyes were burning with rage as stared at me. I figured he was trying to figure out what to do to me. And I wasn’t going to let him think that over. I pulled my pepper spray out and quickly sprayed him with it.
That caught him off guard and he let out a pained shout, quickly covering his eyes with his arm. That summoned his creature back from his shadow, in fact as I saw him emerge once again it was obvious that the thing was his shadow. I had gotten the spray’s fumes in my own eyes and they began to sting and tears started streaming from them. I took this opportunity to sprint down the stairs. It's some miracle that I didn’t fall and break my shit.
I made it to the main entrance and quickly fished in my pocket for the skeleton key. I shoved it into the keyhole and turned it. I watched and waited for the door to finish morphing and when it did I flung the door open and slammed it shut behind me. I panted and sniffled as now my nose began to run uncontrollably along with the tears in my eyes. I felt a pair of hands hold my face up and suddenly cold water being poured onto my face.
“Jacob?” I asked as the pain and tears began to subside. His pale smiling face was more comforting to me than anything else could’ve been. I shoved my face into his bright red uniform and hugged him tightly. The floodgates opened, I don’t know if it was from the pepper spray or my latest near-death experience but I began to cry uncontrollably into Jacob’s chest. He wrapped his arms around me and gave me a soft hug.
“Macedonia.” Creole’s voice broke this brief comfort session. I looked up from Jacob’s chest and whimpered softly upon seeing him there staring back at me. “I take it, that it didn’t go well?” Creole asked with a smile still on his face. I shook my head and gripped Jacob as if he was going to save me in some way.
“I-I’m sorry sir…he…he came out of the painting and..who was that?” I asked as my thoughts ran at a million miles an hour. Jacob produced a napkin from his pocket and offered it to me. I took it and wiped my eyes and blew my nose.
“That would be a lovely associate of mine. Constantine Sinclair. He doesn’t take too kindly to my antics I’m afraid. Unfortunate that you weren’t able to get those items. I would’ve loved to have that kind of information to hold over his stupid blonde hair.” Creole sighed as he sat down behind his desk.
“Where even were you?” I asked as Creole looked at me. He smiled at me and watched as Jacob continued to comfort me. He seemed to watch us for a moment as he digested the question that I had just asked him.
“I was at a lovely dinner with my other associates and Sinclair. It was going just about as well as it normally does when Sinclair suddenly stood up from the table and immediately headed towards the door. I take it you must have tripped some kind of alarm.” Creole said with a laugh as he began to drum his fingers on his desk.
I stared at him for a moment as I tried to figure out in my head where he could’ve possibly had some sort of alarm. Then I remembered the painting. Was there something about it that he could see through it? Was that how he had been able to see me inside his mansion?
Jacob helped me stand back up and bowed to the two of us before leaving the office. Creole stared at me with those giant buttons for what felt like an eternity. I was sure that he was going to do something horrible to me for this second failure to complete a task for him.
“Welp, a deal’s a deal, Mace.” He shrugged his shoulders as he leaned back in his chair. “You’re free to go.” He shooed me away as he looked down at his desk. I stood there in shock. Surely it wasn’t going to be this easy, was it? Just as I turned to leave though he stopped me.
“There is one more thing though.” The tone in which he said this sent a chill up my spine. He was giddy with excitement and also ominously followed by low chuckles. “Your daddy came to visit me the other day.”
I spun on my heels quickly and stared at him. He was resting his head on his hand and smiled at me. The smile was one of superiority over me.
“He begged me to help with his financial situation. And I’m inclined to help him. Of course, if he doesn’t think his wish over thoroughly. I’d hate to see a repeat of your friends and Jacob.” He threatened me as he drummed his fingers on his desk.
“Stay away from my family,” I warned him, even though I had nothing to back it up with. He giggled at that and stood up from his chair.
“Or what? You’ll call the police? You’ll kill me?” He hummed and shook his head. “How about a trade? I spare your father, and your mother for good measure. And you become my permanent errand girl.” His gross yellow smile sharpened into fangs as he stared at me.
I clenched my fists tightly. I had no choice. He had every good card in the deck. He had a royal flush and I had a one-of-a-kind. I wanted nothing more than to rip his head off. Maybe even go back and try and work for the blondie. But I was stuck here now in this moment.
“I want it in writing. I don’t want you changing the deal.” I demanded. He nodded quickly and reached behind his desk to produce a contract.
“Feel free to read it.” He slid it across the desk toward me. I walked over to it and looked down at it. It was everything he had told me beforehand without any fine print for me to read. He offered me a pen and twirled it around his fingers as I stared at it in thought.
“How long for?” I asked him as I took the pen from him.
“Until I get bored with you,” he said with a smile. I stared at him and then down at the paper. I love my mom and dad more than anything in this world. Including myself. So I signed the paper. I watched as my signature melted into the paper and turned into gold letters on the page.
“Wonderful! You’re free to go home. Don’t worry about Sinclair either. I’ll handle him.” He shooed me away as he rolled the paper up and caused it to disappear from his gloved fingers. I silently left his office in complete defeat. Jacob was waiting at the door for me and he opened it for me.
“Thanks…” I mumbled to him as I left the shop and started my way home. This was my life now. Stuck in a contract with a horrible voodoo monster with no possible way out until he got bored with me. I had no way of escaping this. All I had going for me was that for now, my family was safe. And really at the end of the day. That’s all I wanted.

Question for the cabinet makers out there. I am planning on making cabinets for a new home I am having built next year. I would like to start making them now and just put them in storage so they are ready when we get to the installation stage. My question is whether or not it would be safe to store them in a basement for about a year. My plan was to lay down a heavy Vapor barrier then lay down 2x4s with the cabinets resting on top of those to eliminate any moisture wicking up from the concrete floor. Humidity in the basement would be kept at a constant 50% with a dehumidifier. Is this a feasible way to store cabinets long term or a disaster waiting to happen? All input is appreciated.

Hello, I hope you have a good day.
These days, I have been turning over an idea in my mind, which I have been thinking about a lot and which has ended up giving rise to this idea of a magic system, which I have named Tulmaterium. I like to know our opinions about this idea :D
Mechanisc
The idea of this magic system is that some people that they born with the ability of access to this magic, called Thulmatists, have the power to create, with their energy magic(called Essence), a material that dont exist in the nature. Because they are materials that should not exist, they disintegrate over time (the speed of the process depends on how much mass of this substance has been created), unless they are supplied with essence in a good quantity or continuously.
This materials are unnatural because they have stranges properties to their phisical state or dont obey the natural laws of the element that they are associating(Every imaginary material have asocciate a natural element, like air, dust, water, among others.) In addition, each material can generate a different magic effect, that only manifests if the user add some magic energy to the material with the intention to use this power(not in all cases, but it applies in most of the materials.
Furthermore, all users of said magic are recognizable by certain traits in their being that can be associated with the element to which they were born associated. For example, those who can create the material of air may have hair that moves as if there is always wind blowing it or their way of walking is as if they are light as the wind.
Powers
In this systems, exists only 8 elements, with one imaginary material associates. This elements are:
Air: This element allows their users to create a gas similar to a dense mist, pink in color with orange touches like the sunset. It behaves the same as fog but, if exposed to a source of ultraviolet rays, such as direct sunlight, it undergoes an almost instantaneous and very violent expansion (in open areas it is harmless except for the change in pressure, but in closed places can be as strong as an explosion).
the magical power allows the user to alter the light that passes through the fog, creating visual illusions, making whoever enters invisible or altering the shape of the gas so that it acts as a lens that concentrates or disperses the light (in the first case creating a similar but more powerful effect of the reflection of light in the mirror)
Dust:
The material of this element are a type of dark sand, like the one present on volcanic beaches, but with a strange metallic shine when it spreads or forms sheets.
Its only strange property is that, with enough magic and time, it can be used to create black crystals that do not disappear over time, but lose their ability to use their magic power. Of course, when reacting with magic, they emit an iridescent and flowing glow, like the shine of tar, but more powerful and long-lasting.
The magical power are the ability to manipulate the sand to alter its consistency, making it denser or more fluid, or act as a filter or insulator for one element or another through the structures that you can use to manipulate it.
Water:
The substance is similar to water in aspect, except for it have a intense light blue color and more viscosity. The strange property that It has is that it is a very reactive substance, even being capable of damaging glass and slightly some metals that support chemical reactions, such as platinum. Of course, other imaginary materials and living beings, due to their essence, are more resistant to this effect, although not immune.
The magic power that it grants is the ability, by mixing the appropriate components inside, the user can use the liquid to alter said components, obtaining the molecule or alloy that the user desires from them. Of course, the process completely consumes the imaginary substance.
Oil:
The substance is a type of biofuel in aspect and properties, but with a remarkable purple color. And, like the fuels, are very flammable(similar to gasoline) and produce, in contact with the aire, a strange slag layer made of solidified air components (like O2, CO2, water vapor, among others) as a gelatinous mass.
the magic power is the ability to increase the power of the magic powers of other users that they are sprinkled with that oil and the user of the oil has applied his power to them.
Rock:
This material can be created in form of small balls of gold rocks with cracks through which a reddish glow is emitted, like a broken and lit coal in a fireplace. Despite their appearance, the heat they emit is only a couple of degrees higher than that of the human body.
The magic power of this material only activate when someone eat one of this balls, causing, upon reaching his stomach, the material to begin to emit controlled heat and cause a temporary alteration of his body in the user, who develops small rocky patterns on his skin and his eyes become intense as fathoms. This transformation consumes the essence that the living being possesses by virtue of being a living being and multiplies it, turning it into an improvement in its physical and mental capabilities.
Of course, consuming more spheres does not give you more power, but rather it lengthens the time that the ability remains active (although the effects later are worse when they are exhausted, since more than three or four continuous spheres can leave someone on the brink of death. a normal human)
Metal:
This material is a liquid metal, like the mercury, but less poisonous, more cohesive and a deep red color, like intense fire. The magic power are the ability to generate magnetic fields, both inside the metal (to alter its shape at will) and outside the metal (used to push other nearby metals or levitate the metallic substance).
Vegetable material:
This material is a strange green substance, contained in a wooden shell of white, brown and red colors, as well as covered with several spikes.
Its magical power allows, through an infinitely replicable process, to store and extract essence from the greenish substance, which acts as a portable warehouse for it. The curious thing is that, if the essence reserve is left full, but nothing is extracted for several days, the material will consume said energy to grow in size and change to resemble a growing tree.
If this process is repeated several times, in a few years you can have trees of this substance almost ten meters high and several meters long. In this state, touching the leaves of said plant allows energy to be transferred or extracted, its storage now being equivalent to that of the magical energy of tens of thousands of people or thousands of users.
Animal material:
This substance is similar to a white gelatin, inside which an incredible amount of amoeba-like microorganisms is stored. These are harmless to living beings, although they require nutrients and magical energy to stay alive.
Its magical ability allows the user to generate, from the available nutrients, any biological component (biotoxins, hormones, proteins, fats and so on) that the user desires, as long as the user knows its exact chemical composition and can maintain contact and the organisms that produce it are well nourished.
These same microorganisms can also be applied to a wound or in a sterilized space to cause them to undergo a conversion, going from their original form to becoming cells of the chosen living being. With this, wounds can be sealed or even organs can be created from scratch, as long as the user knows what their structure is like and the cells that should form it and in what order they should be placed.
And this is the whole system, I'm sorry it's been so long. I hope to know what you think about this and I would like to hear any suggestions or ideas :D
I hope you have a good day

I need some help. I’m on a ship and the refrigeration for the food storage has the same inlet and outlet. They both connect to one pipe. Wtf is going on.

https://preview.redd.it/3mk8opd2pu0d1.jpg?width=1536&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=005e7e74a8ca90537b9a5b4331b8214c3bfdfd04
Before you read my way-too-long write up. Note that if you find any glaring/obvious mistakes I've made that this is my first custom PC build since I built a dual-Celeron 300A system using socket to slot adapters and overclocking to 454Mhz in 1999 to play Quake 2 in Windows NT! So I'm a little rusty ;)

Parts:

• MB: MSI B760M Project Zero
• CPU: i7-14700K
• RAM: 64GB G.Skill DDR5 5600 CL28
• GPU: MSI RTX 4080 Super Gaming X Slim (IMPORTANT: See "Important Notes" and "Why I'm returning" sections)
• Cooler: TT TH360 V2 RGB AIO (See "Important Notes" section for details on when I tried a TH420 v2)
• Power Supply: MSI A1000G PCIe5
• Fans: SWAFAN EX14 ARGB (1 bottom, 2 top), I relocated one of the included fans to the rear. SWAFAN EX12 ARGB x3 on AIO Radiator
• SSD: 4TB Samsung 990 Pro
• Accessories: TT LCD (returned, see "The Bad" section)

The Good:

• Easy to work on: The tool-less design and ease access to everything in this case is great.
• Cable Management: The side channels and clips on the back are great and it was easy to access them multiple times when I had to make changes. Between this and the Project Zero stuff being on the back, cable management was a breeze!
• Ease of access: The tool-less design is fantastic and it's really easy to get any of the panels out. This case really is super easy to work on.
• Ventilation: Bottom, Top, Both Sides, all have large amounts of ventilation with dust filters. Even the areas below the glass are vented. More than enough to get good airflow.
• Dust Filters: All are easily accessible and great.
• Looks awesome
• Great use of space, especially when it comes to a longer GPU and the 420mm Radiator support.

The Bad:

• Project Zero: Accessing the headers on the right side (when looking at the back) is VERY tricky. See "Tips and Tricks" for how I got around this. Not really "bad" I guess, but just a little tricky. Personally, I think it was worth it.
• Top of Case/MB I/O Access: I do worry about the clips for the top of the case breaking after years of use. I kind of wince every time I had to open it although it works great. Also, having to to remove the top fans to get access to the motherboard rear I/O get's old very quick. Granted, my use case meant that this would be rare so it didn't matter too much for me specifically. Note that I mostly left the top fan assembly in place, removed the front glass, and fed the cable through the gap at the top to my other hand that was reached through the front to plug stuff in.
• PoweStorage LEDs: This may be a little nitpicky but I found the case LEDs to be way too bright. In addition to being bright in a dark room, they also reflect off the white interior of the top and back into the case a bit. I was able to get around that mostly by 3D printing little "tubes" to go around the LEDs so that they were just shining forward only. Electrical tape would have probably worked fine too.
• TT LCD: Not the fault of the Tower 300 case since it's an additional accessory and it's AWESOME that the case comes with a spare front panel to fit this LCD. However, the TT LCD itself absolutely sucks. The bezel is large and only comes in black (I had planned on designing and 3D printing a replacement white enclosure). But the real reason it sucks is the terrible software. While I didn't run into connection issues like others did, the software is painfully limited and the designs for showing data are ugly. Also, you can't show more than one piece of data at a time unless you cycle them on a timer. I just wanted to display CPU Temp and GPU Temp at the same time! It works great if you just want to display GIFs though.

Important Notes:

• My GPU: Not really the fault of the case but the biggest issue I ran into was my specific GPU running 20C+ hotter when mounted in this position despite me specifically looking for a GPU that didn't use a vapor chamber.
• TH420 AIO: While I was able to get the 420mm radiator installed fine, I was only able to get it mounted with the tubes on the top which caused an annoying sound. Weirdly, Amazon had sent me the Ultra version by accident and the LCD was crap and kept disconnecting so instead of returning it for the correct version I returned it for the TH360 version instead which I was able to mount with the tubes on the bottom (see "Tips and Tricks" section).
• EDIT: Now that I think about it, I'm wondering if I could have got it to fit by leaving the top screws out and shifting it up by 2-3mm... It only interfered with the bottom tabs by that much and since it fit the other way around. Sadly I don't still have the TH420 to test it before returning the case.

Tips and Tricks:

Project Zero motherboard right side (when looking at the back) header access: I don't know if this was a good or bad idea but I basically put only the 3 motherboard screws in place on the right side (when looking from the front) then positioned the case vertically. I then loosened those 3 screws just enough that I could swing the left side of the motherboard (when looking from the front) about 1 inch or so away from the case like opening a door slightly. That gave me enough room to access the headers using two hands by positioning myself on that side of the case and reaching from the rear with my left hand and reaching through the side with my right hand. This actually made it pretty easy to hook up those headers although it might not be the safest setup for the motherboard. I did this before hooking up anything else to the motherboard.
TT TH360 V2 AIO: I was able to mount this with the tubes at the bottom but it was tricky. I backed my power supply out a few inches, put the bottom of the radiator assembly in place, with the top leaning back out of the case while I routed the tubes carefully towards the front of the case (see pics). I then screwed the radiator bracket into place and slid my power supply back in and secured it.

Why I'm returning my Tower 300:

Unfortunately, I could not get my GPU to run lower than 76C at 100% fans when the case was vertical (slower fans made it thermal throttle at 84C). I put a digital thermometer in the case and it was 26C while the room was 22C. Even having every panel on the case off helped very little. When I tipped the case on it's side so that the GPU was oriented like it would be in a normal case (I propped it up at each end on 2 boxes to not block the air intake) the temps dropped down to 55C at 50% fans and that was without adjusting the airflow in the case to make it better horizontally so the case was actually hotter at 32C. Working with MSI support we determined that heat from other components on the card was likely migrating to the chip while in this position :(. I could have got the horizontal stand but the case just doesn't fit my desk setup in that orientation. So, my choices were to either return my GPU and try to find one that works in this case or replace the case. I didn't want to risk having to try and return a bunch of cards so sadly I'm returning the case and getting a Corsair 6500x. However, if you have a way to test or confirm that a GPU works in this vertical orientation, I do recommend the Tower 300 case. I will miss it.

In my opinion, the biggest "clue" into why she went out of her way to Mullins is the connection to Wayne Miller. Since he only lives 13 minutes away from that gas station. I've seen Wayne and JP don't always get along. But one thing Wayne has always done, is kept secrets (remember all his criminal acts). I'm thinking he offered her to come out to his house to "give dirt on JP" so she could have a speedy divorce (look up laws in sc regarding divorce if you don't understand this). Things were getting worse with JP's abuse towards Mica. So she trusted him. Even though she served him divorce papers a few days prior, he could've promised something huge. What if HE gave her the money for the gun? He knew JP had been tracking her and didn't want her purchasing a firearm. So to pretend he's on Mica's side, gave her the money. JP knew she was going to the gun store and was in on that part of the plan, and it's perfect for him because now he doesn't think he would be named a suspect since he didn't own the weapon used to kill her. JP most likely told his Dad Mica was putting all the pieces together regarding their tax crimes & more with the church, and Wayne offered to "help". This could be why she packed a sandwich and was in work clothes. She thought her day was consisting of driving to Mullins after Dick's Pawn, getting what she "needed" from Wayne, and drive straight to work in Murrells Inlet. That would've been a bit of a drive, so she wanted a snack in the car.
I think something big went down right at the gas station, or right when she pulled out to leave to continue to Waynes. Remember the boaters the witnesses pointed out? He changed his story from 2 people to 3. Either:
JP, Wayne, and Tom
JP, Tom, and Suzi.
But I think Suzi was most likely driving his truck in Charleston for the “alibi”. JP’s cell phone could’ve been left with Suzi if this was the case, and Wayne could’ve left his at home.
I'm probably reaching, but it's a start.

Closed on a house less than a month ago. Inspection turned out great, except for the 17 year old hot water tank. Had some earthy smells in the hot water, so had that removed yesterday.
I also asked the plumber to exchange my indoor main water shutoff from a gate valve to a ball valve. Reason being, as gate valves age and get older, they're prone to leaking and or failing.
However, he couldn't turn my water off at the curb. Called city water out, they couldn't either and determined the curb stop is damaged.
In some districts (including mine unfortunately), the home owner's responsibility starts at where the city main connects to the pipe leading to the house. So I'm responsible from everything from the start of the inlet to the sewer outlet.
Bonus point is when the plumber turned my indoor whole house main on, he said it had a very minor leak but he patched it. Warned me on using it and saying the more I used it the more likely it would be to leak.
Currently looking at around 7.5k in repairs. Obviously getting multiple quotes, but with the rest of the house in good shape, this should be the last major repair for the next 3 years. And it turns out since the city water knows about the issue since they got called out, they are going to send me a letter of "non-compliance" meaning I have 30 days to fix it :)

A reminder that QS’s CTO will be speaking at the Advanced Automotive Battery Conference in Strasbourg , France this Thursday. He has only 20 minutes and his “ talk will highlight the scientific and engineering challenges in developing and scaling production of an anode-free solid-state battery”. I am guessing it will be a boilerplate presentation but it would be nice if QS posted a recording.
Li-Free Anode Battery Development and Scaling at Quantumscape
Tim Holme, PhD, CTO, QuantumScape Battery Corporation
"QuantumScape is developing a solid-state battery with a lithium-metal anode to enable long-range, faster charging, low-cost EVs. The technology features an anode that is lithium-free as manufactured, with the lithium being delivered entirely from the cathode material. The lithium-free approach offers a significant cost savings relative to approaches that utilize an excess lithium foil or vapor deposition process. This talk will highlight the scientific and engineering challenges in developing and scaling production of an anode-free solid-state battery. QuantumScape was founded in 2010 with a mission to revolutionize energy storage to enable a sustainable future” https://www.advancedautobat.com/aabc-europe/battery-chemistry-part-2#TimHolme25478

"Great days and glorious victory! My name is Spifflemonk and welcome to my Letsplay! Today I am back from my medically mandated break from playing human videogames after a rather... cathartic experience with a game called Teardown. Subnautica, even among humans, is labeled as a notorious experience with... mixed reception for its sequel. A survival crafting game apparently. I have experience with those so presumably the gameplay loop should be predictable enough. So... Let's go in!"
Spiffle starts the game, going for standard Survival Mode, with aspects of food and water mechanics alongside health and oxygen. The game loads very, very fast with Spiffles overpowered computer, and the introduction sequence begins. The camera pans to the panicked sight of the payer character moving down a ladder followed by a sight of a starship above exploding.
"Oh dear... oh dear! They weren't kidding about survival! Do I even survive this or am I a ghost or something..."
The pod rattles, the screen shakes, a fire extinguisher falls from its mounting. Velocity causes the pod to dislodge a panel from a wall and it flies around the cabin. The panel flies into the player's screen, making it go black.
"Oh... well okay then. I uh... well."
Spiffles' character awakens and panics at the buttons securing him to the seat. Spiffle quickly figures out that fire in this game is in fact bad, and grabs the fire extinguisher, putting the fire out. The game's introduction plays, showing his PDA, the game's inventory UI.
"Oh! I have seen these things in real life when visiting human stations! Do all humans have these?"
Spiffle starts exploring the escape pod, noting all of the damage to the radio beacon and the wiring panel.
"Hmm... craft the repair tool... Well... For later I suppose. Now how do i-AH, the ladder!"
Spiffle clicks on the ladder and goes through the animation. The character exits and dramatically stands. Spiffle looks around. His face visibly pales as he looks in every direction, finding the only thing nearby that looks 'safe’ or like 'land' is the destroyed ship in the distance.
"Water... it's... water... everywhere! How big is this game's map!? Structural hull failure... zero human lifesigns detected. That's.. not nice. Well... Here we go!"
Spiffle jumps into the water. His mood changes, the underwater environment significantly different than above ground. The water is absolutely teeming with life and color, as Spiff swims towards a reef to stare at some coral. Spiff gets distracted and starts chasing a fish, specifically a Peeper, and grabs it.
"Oh! Good god! THAT'S how humans catch fish!? That's very... inefficient! What is this thing? Can I eat it? I know I'm supposed to take care of my food and water, so how do I eat it?"
Spiffle wanders about for a while, gathering resources and exploring his general location, eventually getting back to the pod. He had gathered up a decent amount of stuff while he was swimming around and accessed the Fabricator to see what was available.
"Ah! I see, the fabricator cooks things too. Uhm... cooked fish thing and... these transparent fish give me water bottles? Okay then! Well. Sorted for food anyway. Let's see. Copper wire, batteries. A Scanner? Does that mean I can like, scan things and tell what they are? And... Oxygen tank? Oh hell yes. I'll build that then."
Spiffle goes through the process of building a few things, checking out how the game's crafting system works, and spending more time collecting resources. He quickly realizes how much work he has to do and finally finishes making a Scanner.
"Okay then well... I can see how much time is going to be spent collecting resources so i'm going to edit all of that out and keep you all in the loop on all the fun parts instead."
Spiffle continues playing, inserting a creative, albeit mildly annoying fanciful scene transition in between resource loops. He comes to a cave looking for salt to make more equipment, when he encounters the first hostile enemy of the game: The Crashfish. He does not notice it at first, the strange sloppy noise it makes as its pod opens, the beast makes a terrible gurgly noise and charges straight at him.
"What is that noi-AH! OY! OI! OIIII what are you what are-!"
Spiffle is cut off as the fish explodes, causing him to lose half his health. He quickly surfaces and takes a breath.
"Okay then... OKAY... THAT... makes absolutely no sense from an evolutionary perspective... but okay then. Avoid those. What even was that? I can't even scan it because it was moving so fast! Gods... exploding fish."
Spiffle shakes his head and resumes his hunt for resources, eventually finding enough for a repair tool. He makes the repair of the pods' broken wiring and looks around a bit more, noting some of the details in the game.
"Hard to believe these games are over eight hundred years old! I keep getting requests to play 'them gud ol' gamez' instead of any new releases. Maybe I'll get to those eventually. I have quite the backlog though."
Spiffle quickly tabs out and shows the huge list of human made games on his list that he has been gifted or purchased himself. The list includes Space Marine, Starship Troopers, Spyro Trilogy, Crash Bandicoot, and so... so many more.
"I am also told about this thing called 'anime', whatever that is. Maybe I should look into that. Anyway..."
Spiffle shrugs for now and resumes playing, swimming around for a bit before finally deciding to use his scanner. He gets the first scan - the Acid Mushroom - and painstakingly reads the supplied article. He then goes on a scanning frenzy, scanning each thing he can find, comically chasing after various fish and objects, trying to scan them then taking an irritatingly long time to read the article aloud.
He gets to the point where he encounters his first real hostile enemy and tries to scan it. The stalker, of course, doesn't appreciate that, and attacks.
"Oooh what's this thing? Oh lovely, it's a big one. Can I scan it? The... Stalker? Oh okay is it friend-OW! NONONONO go away!"
Spiffle panics and scans it while running away from it, trying to swim backwards. He's so focused on scanning it he can't run far enough away that he gets ambushed by another Stalker nearby and manages to scan it just as he gets hit with his first Death in the game.
"Oh.... o...kay. Well... it seems things aren't as friendly as expected. I'm going to guess there's more things like that around. So... I'm just going to finish working on repairs and equipment then I'll take those things on."
Spiffle reads the article on the Stalker he scanned and spends more time collecting resources, scanning local entities and building the rest of the gear he has. Fins, high capacity O2 tank, rebreather and some more food and water which he stores in floating containers for later. He starts to explore a bit farther in search of fragments to scan and finds a Sand Shark, as well as a biome resembling a desert-like area. He encounters his first piece of the wrecked ship here.
"Oh! Hello! Pieces of wreckage! What are these for now do you suppose? Can I disassemble these for resources or-Oh! Is that a door? Oh! I'm supposed to go in here and look for things? How do I get in? Oh I can't. I need a laser cutter. Is one of those here? Need more fragments I guess..."
Spiffle gives up trying to enter and goes up for air, then returns to the floor to hunt for fragments. He eventually unlocks the Bioreactor, pieces of the Scanner room, a couple fragments of the Seaglide and Seamoth. He comes across the first cave entrance to the Mushroom Caves Biome.
"Oh... oh my. That's... deep. Good thing I unlocked the Seamoth thing. Its a miniature submarine I think. I can use that. But that's... kinda scary. I can't see the bottom. I kinda see just... purple. Mostly purple. But it scares me that I can't see the bottom."
Spiffle hangs around the cave entrance for a bit before a call for Oxygen forces him to the surface. He swims back down to the cave entrance and then hangs around a bit longer before once again resurfacing, heading for some new things to scan. It is however at this point that Spiffles exploration is cut short.
"EMERGENCY - SEISMIC READINGS SUGGEST A QUANTUM DETONATION HAS OCCURRED IN THE AURORA'S DRIVE CORE. THE CENTRAL DARK MATTER REACTOR WILL REACH A SUPERCRITICAL STATE IN -"
The computer aboard the PDA shakes Spiff out of his daze and he quickly rushes to the surface and looks at the ship.
"Wait wait wait what's that!? What's going on!? I see the ship? The Aurora! That's what its name is? Whats a Dark Matter reactor and wha-"
The computer continues its countdown muffled by Spiffs panicked squealing and he has a front-row seat to one of the most spectacular explosions in the history of gaming - the Aurora's Reactor Detonation.
It happens. The world goes dead silent for a short moment, and one can see Spiffles heart visibly stop beating. Then explosion as the Aurora lets out its magnificent blast. As the shockwave expands outwards, Spiffs skin visibly turns a paler shade of blue, and his eyes go wide. The sound of a geiger counter follows, leaving him breathless and pale as the world suddenly goes dead quiet again. The sound of the geiger counter ominously leaving him shaken even more than he already is.
"FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE - THE RADIATION SUIT HAS BEEN ADDED TO YOUR BLUEPRINTS."
Spiffle stays completely silent, bobbing in the water for a solid few minutes, staring in shocked wonder at what he just witnessed. He regains his composure for a few short moments and returns to his scanning venture, but one can easily see he isn't in the right mind after that. He returns to the seabed, at the entrance to the mushroom caves and dives again. He does this several more times, popping up to the surface, looking at the shipwreck, then diving at the entrance again. Finally, after much hesitation, he dives one last time.
"Screw it. it's just a game right?"
He smiles at the camera with a shrug and swims far below the surface, into one of the caves. As he enters the cavern his jaw drops at the sight of a massive underwater cavern filled with gigantic glowing pink mushrooms. The Mushroom caves as they are known. He spots something in the distance, entranced, forgetting his oxygen situation. He cant get far however and a terrifying shriek of some unknown entity shakes him out of his stupor.
"What in the red dawn was that noise!?"
Spiff can't finish asking his invisible audience what's going on as he strays too close to a mushroom, occupied by a Crab Snake, a gigantic sea worm. He is grabbed from behind, spun around and he visibly panics as the giant worm digs its enormous tusks into Spiffles character. Spiffle immediately freaks out, a combination of both the terrifying shriek emitted by the creature and the shock of being attacked makes poor Spiffle jump out of his seat and duck under the table.
"GOWAYGOWAYGOWAGOWAYGOWAY!!!"
The worm comes back and finishes Spiff off before his oxygen runs out. Spiff's character respawns but the footage continues, a slight whimper can be heard in the background as Spiff hides under the desk. This carries on for a few minutes, and his head very slowly appears above the desk. He gingerly puts himself back in his seat and breathes heavily for a bit. When he finally gains control, he tabs out of the game and takes a look at the wiki for Subnautica. He returns a few moments later and stares at the camera in that strange haunting glare he's become so famous for.
"WHY DO YOU STUPID DEVELOPERS NOT PUT GUNS IN THE GAME IF YOU HAVE SHIT LIKE THAT!? ARE YOU INSANE!?"
He grabs the camera and shakes it violently as he rants at it, questioning why there are guns in every other human game he has played and not THIS specific game, especially considering how there are 'giant water snake monsters that eat your face' in a game with no guns. He rants for a good minute or two then plays his outro.
TOP COMMENT: "Are you absolutely sure after Teardown, Factorio and Project ZOMBOID, you should be playing Subnautica? I mean seriously, try something less... psychologically terrifying. It's known as Thalassophobia Simulator for a reason."
_______________________________________________________________
"Great days and glorious victory! My name is Spifflemonk and I still don't understand why we have giant worm monsters but we have no guns!"
Spiffle stares at the camera with an expression that can only be summarized as 'Seriously bruh?' and resumes his last playthrough. He becomes confused at the lack of stuff in his inventory.
"Why is my... Why do I not ha-Oh right... I was eaten. When you die your inventory is wiped... I need to build more tools then."
Spiffle starts some silly music, an alien version of Benny Hill to a montage of him collecting resources, occasionally ranting at various oddities and questioning game logic. He restores all of his tools then goes hunting for a Vehicle Bay fragment so he can build the Seamoth. He continues to scan what he can, developing something of an obsession with the task, then painstakingly reading every word about it to try and understand it. It is at this point Spiffle, during his explorations finds another derelict chunk of ship near the desert region, encountering his first Sand Shark.
"What... What is this? Oh... careful Spiff. This one looks angrier than the last one you found. Wh-What in oblivion!?"
Spiffles attention is once again diverted by the appearance of a Reefback Leviathan and its signature low drone. This one appears to be a fully grown adult.
"You-you... You've got to be... You gotta be fucking kidding me. A Juhara Eelfish!? WHAT IS THAT DOING IN A HUMAN VIDEOGAME!!!??"
Spiffle squeaks in shock as he sees a creature that is an absolute spitting image of a large oceanic dwelling sea creature, which is both the games and his native homeworlds version of a Whale. The Reefback has some dissimilarities, but its close enough to the real thing that Spiffle is genuinely shocked. He quickly pauses the game, opening various wikipedia articles, then displays a full picture of both Subnautica in game Reefback, and the Juhara-Kal-Rehar, colloquially known as a Juhara Eelfish, a shockingly similar creature that lives in his homeworlds oceans.
The only difference between them is the color of the exterior chitin shell. The Reefback has a blue/purple shell, the Juhara Eelfish's chitin has a red/green shell.
"WHEN was this game made!?"
Spiff checks, the current Earth-date is the year 2886. Humanity only entered the galactic community in 2752. Subnautica was released in 2018.
"HOW.... How is that even possible!? You didn't even know the galaxy existed until only a few decades ago, yet you almost PERFECTLY matched the appearance of one of our homeworlds native species! How is this even possible!? Okay. If the name matches then I have to call bullshit."
Spiffle approaches and scans it, then reads the data article.
"A... Reefback Leviathan? Oh thank God... Now let's see... A herbivorous creature that... that likely got so large due to the fact that its predators went extinct. Well... that's... okay... A hard chitinous shell of multiple layers, a microcosm of different creatures and flora growing from its back, hence the name. Hmmm..."
Spiffle gets that cold, empty stare on his face and glares menacingly at the camera. The screen goes black, then returns, seeing Spiffle nursing a beverage of some kind while wrapped in a blanket.
"I realized something... Call it a message from the Ancestors or a Divine revelation. But I have a funny feeling this isn't going to be the last time I see a creature from the galaxy represented in human media. I hope to the Gods that doesn't happen... the concept of this situation is nothing short of terrifying. In any case, I'm sorry about that. Lets.... let's continue."
Spiffle resumes where he left off, doing his usual routine of scanning, then obsessively reading. Eventually he unlocks the Vehicle Bay, and returns home to his pod where the situation with resources is growing obscene with at least fifty floating resource containers hovering around the area.
"Alright... A Vehicle Bay... This means I can build things like the Seamoth now. This will be nice. Right, I shall for the sake of my audience skip the resource collection mechanic that's here and focus on the actual result. I shan't waste my time either though. MONTAGE!"
Spiff yells excitedly and a montage to that same odd Benny Hill type music plays out, with him collecting the resources he needs to build both machines. Most of it is already in the floating containers strewn about. With a few visits to the fabricator, he compiles the Power Cell, Titanium Ingot and Lubricant he needs to make the Vehicle Bay. He deploys it and chases it to the surface just away from the pod in the deeper end of the shallows.
"Right... Not too hard. Let's see then, how do-Ah. Get on it and... The Seamoth. Cost of two glass, one titanium ingot, a powercell, lead and lubricant. Right."
He quickly gathers and makes everything he needs for the Seamoth, then stands on the platform ready to go. He chooses the Seamoths recipe and the sequence starts. His eyes light up as drones start flying around the platform, then begin assembling atom by atom, the small, adorable minisub known as the Seamoth. It finishes the process and flops into the water with a splash.
"My gods look at this thing! It's so cute!"
Spiffle explores the sub for a little while and hops inside it, testing the controls and playing around with it a bit to see what it can do.
"Hm... Maximum Depth, 200 meters? So if I go below that does it implode or something? I need to be careful of that. OH dammit I remember! I have to make that Radiation Suit don't I? I shall do so now!"
Spiffle seems to have found a new resolve, quickly gathering resources together and making both a Seaglide and radiation suit in short order.
"Does this thing have any weapons? How do I repair-Oh... Repair tool? That makes it easier I suppose. Now... Where do I go now? Is there anything I can do?"
Spiffle stumbles about in the blind for a few minutes, trying to figure out his next course of action beyond simply wandering aimlessly while scanning things. He gets back in the pod and fixes the radio beacon. His face visibly contorts into an expression of irritation when he hears his rescue is in 9999 hours. He resolves to come back every now and then to check the radio. He decides to gather more resources to make up for building the seamoth and comes back a bit later. He finds a radio transmission when he returns.
"RADIO: ▀▖┗▛Nine new biological subjects designated. Mode ▄▖▜▚┣: hunting/analyzing.
Sharing subject locations with other agents."
"What... in the Nine Hells was THAT!? Why was it in such an odd voice? What was that language? What were those letters!? Somethings going on here... SO now what? I have the radiation suit. i guess... go into the Aurora? Oh no, I'm not going in there unprepared! Lemme make some tools and spare batteries, then i'll go in. I need... Oh... I need more fragments is what I need."
Spiffle resumes his fragment hunt, looking around for fragments of various tools. He uses the Seamoth to traverse around.
"WHEEE!!!"
Spiff seems more than just a bit happy as he trundles around in the Seamoth, using his speed to launch himself out of the water. He splashes about a bit, testing the limits of the craft and trying to see what holes he can squeeze himself into or out of and how deep he can go.
"Okay okay. time to get to serious work. Now... I need to find... A Laser Cutter and a... STASIS RIFLE?! Wait... rifle? That means GUN! I NEED A GUN!!"
Spiffle charges forward towards the desert biome where he found the Reefback and resumes his search for things to scan. It is now he comes across a Reginald.
"What... IS this fish? Wait, let me just..."
He gets out of the Seamoth and scans it.
"Huh... Reginald. That's a... fish? It's so cute! Wait, come back friend!"
Spiffle spends an unreasonable amount of time trying to catch a Reginald. When he finally catches one he gets back in the Seamoth and heads towards the aurora, new friend in tow. He trundles over to the side of the crashed ship and scans some random stuff here and there, finding fragments to a few small items, including a few he needs such as a Powercell Charger for the Seamoth’s battery. He gets close to the front of the ship and the haunting, evil noise of Subnautica's most iconic killer suddenly echoes through the gloomy water.
"What... Was that? Is it another worm thing? Please don't let it be one of those..."
Spiffle wanders around the side for a bit longer. An ominous shadow looms in the background, catching his eye. He ignores it for the moment and simply carries on, eventually arriving at the entrance to the ship. Through the mangled steel and fire he squeezes into the front of the ship and looks around. The environment ominously rattles and his screen shakes as the ships structure isn't exactly stable. The howl of the creature in the shadows makes Spiff even more uncomfortable.
"I... Do NOT like this. I really dont."
Spiff parks the Seamoth where he can see a ramp leading up, and gets out. He is immediately accosted by Cave Crawlers and uses his knife to defend himself, poorly, but he gets rid of the three or four around him.
"WARNING: SCANS SHOW THE DIGESTIVE TRACTS OF INDIGENOUS LIFE FORMS CONTAIN HUMAN TISSUE."
Spiffs face turns an even paler shade of blue and he swallows visibly as if he's trying not to vomit.
"Yeuch... I can scan this thing and read it later. I don't want to be here any longer than I have to."
Spiff scans and follows the path to the interior, uses his fire extinguisher to put out some fires in the area and gets inside. The ship rumbles as he wanders around and gets into one of the rooms. He finds the poster of the P.R.A.W.N. Suit.
"Ooh! A poster thing? Can I take it or? I can! PRAWN Suit eh? Can I actually use that thing?"
Spiff takes the poster, scans some furniture and collects a PDA. Spiff continues down the corridor and retrieves his Propulsion Cannon from his inventory and uses it to pick up some furniture in the way.
"I am SO glad I got this thing from scanning the area before I came here. This is super useful! I wonder if it has other uses..."
He gets to the door and looks at his databank.
"Hmm... Here it is! Code for the door is 1454. Right."
Spiff moves through, repairing a door to get the Seamoth Depth Upgrade Module. He continues and clears a fire to enter the main reactor. His inner loot goblin shines through and grabs the Cyclops engine efficiency module before he starts work on repairs, scanning the breach and starting work. It doesn't take him long, but he gets issues with a Bleeder that lives in the waters. He scans one then finishes repairs. Foolishly, he uses the propulsion cannon and shoots the bleeder at one of the reactors, undoing his work. He looks at the damage he caused and repairs it.
"Well... what was I expecting... Why did I do that? It's a CANNON... why did I aim it at the reactor exactly? So stupid..."
Spiff finishes and heads to the PRAWN Bay, and looks around at the damage. He spots the prawn suits and starts scanning, grabbing a storage module upgrade from a console and starts extinguishing flames so he can scan. He runs out of fire extinguisher juice though.
"Blast! Can I still scan these if they're on fire?"
Spiff walks around, finding cheeky angles he can use and scans the debris, finding all four fragments he needs. He heads upstairs and goes through the rooms and everything he can find. He gets into the Galley and sees the Kitty in a Space Helmet Poster.
"What the- 'Keep Calm'? What in the blue balls is this? It's.... cute! What is this creature!? Can I keep this? I can!"
Spiffle excitedly grabs the poster and moves on. He goes through cabins, picks up PDAs and collects the Natural Selection 2 poster, the Prawn suit in the sea poster and the collectible arcade toy in the locked cabin. Lacking the code to the Captain's cabin, he returns to the prawn bay and tries swimming around, eventually finding a passage in the hull debris to the rest of the ship. He moves through in silence, recovers the black box data and exits the ship. He removes debris, grabs the local wildlife with the cannon and tosses them into fires or the water with glee.
"BEGONE BEAST!!! Ha! Right... uhh... where did i park? Oh, there it is. Should I go home? I wonder if there are any fragments I can use around here?"
Spiff exits, finding Liefpod 4 floating upside down on the surface of the water. He collects the PDA data and a new blueprint. Then, as he gets in the seamoth, the horrifying roar of the Reaper Leviathan suddenly sounds. Spiff is thrown into a panic, screams in terror and tries desperately to get away. The beast appears with jaw chomping and claws clawing at the poor Seamoth. The entire time Spiffle is screeching like a bird with a broken leg, his entire body now an almost ghostly white out of absolute terror.
"GOWAYGOWAYGOWAYGOWAYGODNONNONOGOWAYGOWAY!!!"
Spiffle manages to get out of its grip and in a panic charges away towards his lifepod and continues to scream, breathing hard between screams. He gets to the pod and then hides under his desk, continuing to scream. His channel outro plays.
TOP COMMENT: (This has been translated from Eridani) "I am starting to believe this whole sojourn was a very BAD idea. Do you humans have those kinds of beasts on your homeworld? How did you ever survive them?!"
RESPONSE: LOL no we never had Reapers. The only Leviathan Class creatures we have on our planet are Whales. And they're mostly peaceful plankton eaters. Mostly.
RESPONSE: (Translated from Eridani) "Seriously? I think I find it more terrifying that these creatures are made up in your minds. What kind of nightmares do you people have to be able to create this level of fiction!?"
RESPONSE: Do. Not. Ask. This is only Subnautica - we have FAR worse.
Spiffles response: "You're going to make me play these 'far worse', aren't you?"
RESPONSE: "Damn right we are! :)"
________________________________________________________
"Great days and glorious victory! My name is Spifflemnonk and welcome back to Subnautica!"
Spiffle looks visibly stronger, his usual lanky appearance now looking like he's been working out like a Gym Bro. One can see muscles on muscles and Spiff seems to have an abnormal amount of energy.
"I am now relaxed. It is now time to get eaten by giant scary sea monsters. And yes, before you ask, I have successfully finished fully soundproofing my office. And also yes, I am indeed expecting a new addition to the brood... THANKS DAMN HUMANS! You and your damn musical magic nonsense..."
Spiffle starts the game and is swimming outside the pod next to the Seamoth. The first thing he does is repair the seamoth from the damage incurred by the Reaper, and recounts what hes been up to, checking inventory and equipment. He heads to the radio and gets a new transmission.
RADIO - "This is Avery Quinn of trading ship Sunbeam. Aurora, do you read? Over.'
'Nothing but vacuum. These Alterra ships. They run low on engine grease, they send an SOS; you offer to help, they don't pick up.'
'Aurora, we're out on the far side of the system, it's going to take more than a week to reach your position, do you still need our assistance? Over.'
'I'll try them again tomorrow. Damn charter's going to have us wasting our profit margin running errands for Alterra.'
'See what the long-range scanner picks up in the meantime."
"Oh? Oh lovely! There ARE people in this game! I wonder when they will be here? Meh, I have things to build, so I'll keep an eye."
Spiffle resolves himself to start building a base, trying to find a good spot. He finds the Mushroom Forest Biome and starts gathering resources to ferry them around. He installs the Depth Module and the Storage module to the Seamoth, then builds the Moon Pool. The Mushroom Biome becomes one of his favorite spots and a close encounter with a JellyRay cements it.
"Those creatures are beautiful! Look! JellyRay! Its glowing blue and pretty! I love that! Oh... I have a new radio message. I need to listen to that then."
Spiff returns to the pod and listens to the message.
RADIO - "Aurora, this is Sunbeam again. We just picked up a massive debris field at your location.'
'I didn't know how bad... How many of you... I didn't know.'
'We are now en route to your location. We're going to bring you home. Sunbeam out.'
'What else can I say? The only time I parked a rig this big on a rock that small was in VR, and I blew it'
'Oh, it's a bad option alright, but so are all the others."
Spiff smiles and carries on working, parking the Seamoth inside after powering everything up.
"So lovely! But... Is that a win condition? I know human games by now I have played enough of them. Is that a win condition? Get rescued? I dunno..."
Spiffle carries on building for a little and gets a storage system up, spending a few in-game days transporting resources to his new base. He returned to the pod and played a new radio message, again from the Sunbeam.
RADIO - "This is Sunbeam. Y'know, Aurora, we're from a little trans-gov on the far side of Andromeda, and we have a saying there.'
'There's no bad without the good, no good without the bad.'
'Sounds like you tasted a bunch of the former, but that only means you're overdue a whole lot of the latter.'
'Might just be we're it.'
'We're scanning for somewhere to park, we'll be in touch when we find it. Sunbeam out."
"Ohh... That... that's a lovely saying! What was that uh... There's no bad without the good, no good without the bad. I like that! I think i'll have that framed on my wall! Now lets see.. i ca- I CAN GIVE THE SEAMOTH A NAME? OOHHHhh okay, okay.. I can customize the color too! I think I'll just do this..."
Spiff leaves the name as 'Seamoth' for now, changing the color to a mix of purple for the main, and blue for the trim and name color. His two favorite colors. Spiffle does a little more work, acquiring the last fragments for the Cyclops and starts gathering together the resources necessary to build it.
"Hmmm.. Cyclops... Personal large scale submarine capable of carrying other vehicles! Ooohhh I want to build that! I need to fetch the Vehicle Bay though. Im almost done moving house!"
Spiff returns and packs up the last of his resources, then gets another radio message.
RADIO - "Aurora, we're approaching the planet now, and we have a landing site for you that's... well, it's better than the alternatives.'
'We've sent you the coordinates.'
'It'll take us a couple of days to align our orbit, we should be able to establish direct contact with you during that time, then we're coming in to get you.'
'Cross your fingers the weather holds, and don't leave us waiting. Sunbeam out."
Spiffle gets a new beacon on his HUD. Sunbeam Landing Site.
"What!? Is this game over If I'm there!? Okay... well. At least it's no longer terrifying! I'll get the Seamoth and go for the beacon then. I hope it's okay... Strange... this... doesn't feel like the end, you know? But if it is then it is."
Spiff heads home, deploys the Vehicle Bay and deposits his gear and resources. He heads towards the location, occasionally squealing 'WHEEE!!' as he uses the Seamoth to jump out of the water like a dolphin. However, he miscalculates and the Seamoth jumps up, out and sustains a bit of damage as it hits a rock formation close to the surface. He gets out, repairs it and looks at the camera.
"Why no I didn't just damage my Seamoth by having too much fun. I don't know what you are talking about. Hehe."
Spiffle smirks at the camera with a glare and carries on. Eventually, he encounters the largest of the Islands in the world.
"Wh... WHAT. This has been here the whole time!? Is this an island? Who cares! LAND! Sweet land!"
Spiffle now notices the timer and hops onto the island from his Seamoth. He walks up to the landing zone and stops dead in his tracks at the sight of the massive al;ien structure known as the Quarantine Enforcement Platform. In essence, a giant alien cannon.
"What... the *beep* is THAT?"
Spiffles' editing has gotten better, his editor learning how to censor Spiffles foul language, in both English AND Eridani. He moves closer to the building, scanning the broken tablet and the Forcefield Controls.
"What is this? I mean it's clearly alien... What do the codex entries say... 'possible to reconstruct the device' Oh... hmm.. I can make more of these then. 'Matches no known technologies... functions like a lock'. Okay then so... Standard video game logic I guess. That's nice! So A purple tablet will unlock the gate there. What are those?"
Spiff moves towards the Cairns marking the way into the island, pathways leading up the mountainside. He follows them, finding a Purple Tablet in the process on one of the pathways.
"Oh! Lovely! That saves me resources and a trip I guess. This pathway keeps going though. hmm... Welp, we still have thirty minutes, so let's go."
Spiff explores the pathway, getting lost a bit before finally figuring that following the large cables is a good idea. He comes across the Teleportation Arch and scans it, in between dodging the Cave Crawlers.
"Right, let's see... Alien Arch... not much to speak of here. Maybe this thing will be useful later I guess. Likely.... Hmmm..."
Spiffle continues exploring and eventually finds himself back at the forcefield with another twenty minutes to go.
"Screw it, let's go."
Spiff activates the forcefield platform and the animation of the key being placed plays out. He moves into the building, activating both data platforms and acquiring two Ion Cubes for later, scanning everything he thinks he can scan. He enters the Moonpool in the bay and gets two more Ion Cubes, plus data on a rifle and a Doomsday Device. He ignores it for now, acquiring one more purple tablet and accessing the control room.
"Right... what's in here? Hmm... Energy Core, right. I shall scan that and... press button?"
Spiff presses the button. An animation plays where a device locks his characters hand in place, viciously stabs it with a pointy metal bit and then releases it.
"OH GODS what the hell! Why is that?! That's just nasty!"
"THE TERMINAL IS BROADCASTING A MESSAGE. TRANSLATION READS: 'Warning, infected individuals may not disable the weapon. This planet is under quarantine.'"
"Quarantine! What? Infected? I-Hold on...."
Spiffle gets his scanner out and performs a self-scan. It is only now he notices something very bad has happened.
"I-infected!? Wait, what!?"
"SELF-SCAN COMPLETE - DETECTING STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT BACTERIAL LEVELS. NO ADVERSE EFFECTS DETECTED. BE VIGILANT FOR SYMPTOMS."
"Oh brilliant! Does that mean I can't leave? I KNEW IT! Wait... weapon!? This is a weapon!?"
Spiffle panics and runs out of the facility as fast as he can and waits the last few minutes for the Sunbeam to arrive. Sure enough, it does. In the last 30 seconds, the Sunbeam plays a message.
RADIO - "Survivor, we see you!
'Man, I don't know how you held out down there.'
The sunbeams message plays, and Spiffle gasps in terror from the sound of the gun platform starting up and starting to move around.
RADIO - "We've broken atmosphere and we're descending towards the landing site.'
'Is that a building down there?! What do you mean you can't identify it?"
The weapon powers up and turns, aiming itself high at the sky.
RADIO - "Hold on, no turning back now.'
'Positions everyone, touching down in 10, 9, 8-'
The weapon charges up and a loud vicious hum can be heard echoing through the valley.
RADIO - "It's coming from the building?! Change course, set thrusters to (full)-"
The radio goes to static, the weapon fires and the Sunbeam is vaporized instantly by a massive blast of bright green light. The sunbeam disappears, its hull structure completely disintegrated. Spiffle sits in stunned silence as the platform returns to a stable position, shuts down, and everything goes quiet.
"Well... Okay then... That was... horrifying. I guess thats all we have time for! Hehe! Oh dear..."
Spiffle looks a bit defeated as he sits back in his seat.
"S-see you next time! I guess... Holy shit..."
Channel Outro plays.
TOP COMMENT: "Are you okay? You seem a little bit too disturbed by that. Its fine though, compared to what happens in the Rise Of The Ancients Mod, this is tame! Lol! I love that mod!"
Spiffles Response: "Please don't make me play that mod..."
((Authors note - due to how bastardingly huge Subnautica is, this will be a multi part series. Other Spiff stories will come inbetween. Hope you enjoy!))