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Thread Review (Newest First)

Posted by 1011686 - 05-09-2020, 01:08 AM

(Takes place shortly after Flynt gets his arm mods)

“I’m not saying aliens are responsible for all crop circles, but you must admit there’s a good chance they’re responsible for some of them, at the very least.”
“What if some folks just like driving through their fields?”
“Well, many of the observed patterns have multiple endpoints that aren’t connected, which means they couldn’t possibly be created by a vehicle traveling on the ground.” The dog gestured on the elevator wall with his hands, tracing out the shapes and lines. “Only an aircraft would be capable of the mobility needed to flatten plants like this.”

“Hm, I suppose that would work better, for the aliens’ leg-sprouts.”

“Oh my gosh I bring up the leg-sprout theory one time and this is what I get-”
The door chimed, interrupting the conversation. It had taken a while to travel this far down at the elevator's slow, rattly pace, but now the door slid open with a metallic clunk, revealing a brightly lit passage that opened out some ways ahead into a large cavernous space. Almost immediately, Flynt noticed that the air was moist, and cool, and smelt strongly of dirt and vegetation. He stretched to shake the looseness from his arms (he was still getting accustomed to them), and took a deep breath. It was a welcome change.
Philly took his hand and began leading him onwards.
“We’ll continue this later. Come on, let’s go get some lunch.”
“Didn’t think they had cafeterias this far down.”
“Oh, they don’t.” Flynt could tell there was more he wanted to say, but he didn’t.
They made it out of the corridor, and Flynt beheld the scene before them.
Only a few steps away from where he was standing, a tall railing separated the concrete floor from dirt, and then grass. Towards the center of the room, the ground began sloping inwards, ending in a large pond of murky water. From what Flynt could see, a fiery luminosity originated from some object underneath the surface, and around it swam little creatures. Sometimes one of them drifted too close to a pipe in the pond’s wall, and was either pushed away or sucked in. Plants grew in the nearby banks, blossoming in exotic flowers he didn’t recognise, and bugs skittered or flew between them. At points around the room he could see various scientific instruments set up, as well as a recess in the wall containing a proper lab building.
Flynt whistled. “Nice place.”
“Yup!” Philly’s smile widened, and his tail started wagging as he leaned over the railing. Flynt knew what Philly wanted to do, and only let him wait a few moments before asking.
“How’s it work?”
“Well, it’s basically a self-sustaining ecosystem, or at least an experimental attempt at one. The water, dirt used, the plants, even the fish were all carefully selected to work together, each making use of the others’ byproducts. However, even self-sustaining ecosystems still need some amount of energy to be injected into the system regularly, in order for life to take hold. On the surface, this energy is provided by a combination of the sun, which provides light and heat that organisms can make use of, and the stabilising influence of gods, which keeps it from dissipating into space. Down here, though, making use of the sun is incredibly difficult, buuuttttt there just so happens to be another source of energy, much closer by.”
“Horrors, right?”
“Yes! That’s how I found out about this place, actually, the researchers here used some of my notes about how to handle horror carefully in constructing it. Only the published ones, of course, but it was still quite an honor! The method they came up with is quite ingenious. All the life here is centralized around the pond, and more specifically around the light they’ve installed inside it, almost like an artificial sun. That light is the only part of the system that uses horror, everything else is natural. You could live off vegetables grown in the dirt here without ever getting sick, or developing mutations, or even noticing a funny taste!”
“Is that what we’re having for lunch?”
“Well, no. It’s still not real sunlight, so most vegetables aren’t actually suited for these conditions, though there are a few interesting plants that are.” Philly gestured to the delicately curved flowers growing in the bank. “But, the thing is, while the system was designed very precisely, not everything worked as planned…”
A karacel scientist with a backpack and boots came out of the lab building and ran over. She unlocked part of the railing and opened it for them, waving at Philly.
“Hi Ren, thanks again for letting us do this.”
Ren gave a thumbs up, dropped off the backpack and returned to the lab building.
“She seems nice.”
“Don’t let appearances fool you, she is an absolute beast when it comes to methodology evaluation. But as I was saying, they’ve got a little problem. The pond has its own food web, but recently one of the fish has been getting a bit numerous, and its tipping the system out of balance a little. They’re small and slippery, but not too difficult to catch if you’ve got some food they like, so…”
He reached down into the backpack and pulled out a pair of fishing rods.
“I also thought it’d be a good way to exercise your arms as well, test manual dexterity and all that.”
Flynt stared at the rods for a few moments, before breaking into a grin and taking one.
“Never gone fishing before. You any good?”

“I have no idea!”
“Well, let’s give it our best shot.”
~~~
They started out pretty awful. It was about five minutes until Philly remembered you were supposed to put bait on the string, and another couple minutes while they worked out how to do that without it falling off. But once they had worked out the basics, the fish started biting by the dozens. Each one was mostly black, with a yellow stripe around the middle that felt porous to touch, and there were indeed a lot of them in the pond. The two sat up the bank from the pond a little and settled into a comfortable pattern, reeling in the fishing strings whenever they felt a tug, depositing the fish into a bucket before putting on new bait and casting out again. The space between catches was filled by casual chatter and banter, about aliens, about horrors, about work and play.
Along with the rods and bait, a small gas-stove had been in the backpack, along with a picnic cloth. Once they’d caught enough fish, they took turns cooking it, before unrolling the blanket to sit on while they ate together. Flynt had gotten hungry in the time since his last meal, and Philly was more than happy to give him most of the catches. Sometimes, by launching them into his mouth from a distance.
“If I ever need to lay a trap for you, I think I know what to use as a lure.” said Philly, as Flynt snapped another fish out of midair.
“Don’ thin’ I’d ‘o for jus’ any ol’ fish. Woul’ nee’ do be pre’y high quali’y.” Flynt finished chewing and swallowed.
“Oh, I’d definitely go to all expenses for a catch like you!”

Flynt paused for a moment, then bared his mouth in a sharp grin.
“Careful, I’m a bit of a biter.”
“I don’t know, I think we’d get on swimmingly.”
“Well, when you put it like that, I’m hooked.”
“Umm I’d love to sea the reel you?”
“Hopefully I’m up to scale.”.
“How are you so good at this?”
“Now you’re just fishing for compliments.”
“Oh my god I hate this so much.”
“I’m not rising to that bait.”
By this point Philly was laughing too hard to be able to respond. He slid over to Flynt’s side and rested his head on the corvice’s shoulder, as the fits of giggling slowly subsided. Flynt put one of his long arms around Philly and held him closely, grasping one of his hands with the other and giving it a squeeze.
“Thanks for doing this, Philly.”

“You liked it?”

“I did.”
They stayed like that for a while, content to just rest in this little oasis, listening to the buzzing of insects and trickling of water, and smelling air that despite the distance from the surface, seemed to them to be more fresh than any they’d breathed in years.
“...really, though, how did you come up with all those puns? I thought you said you’d never been fishing.”
“I don’t know. Guess you could say-”

Flynt paused. For some reason, he felt a sudden disappointment at not currently having a pair of cool sunglasses in his possession. It was a strange feeling, but he quickly shrugged it off and continued.
“-it was a little fishy.”
“Oh my goooooooddddddddd-
~~~
Eventually, they left the little ecosystem and made their way back to the elevator. Philly pressed the button for the lift, and it gave a dry click, sliding only partway out of its recess. The panel above the door stayed dim. He frowned, and pressed it again. This time it stayed pressed.
“Hhhggg, it’s jammed. And it’s so many floors too. Why does this place have to be so far down, I can already feel my legs aching...”
Flynt put a hand on Philly’s shoulder. “Hey, don’t fret now, this is a great opportunity.”
“For what?”
“You wanted to test out my new arms, right?”
Philly stared uncomprehendingly at the aforementioned limbs.
“I can carry you up the stairs.”
Philly started blushing a lot.
“Oh, well I mean, that would be a rather inexact measurement-”
“I could do it multiple times, increase the sample size.”
“I suppose that could work, but,” Philly’s gaze unfocused as he did some rough calculations in his head, unwilling to let the internal yelling decide his actions without at least considering the scientific implications. “I’d need a lot of results to get an accurate estimation.”
“Well, I guess that means we’ll have to come down here more often, since the elevator will probably be fixed up before too long.”
“Unfortunately.”
This wasn’t the first time Flynt had carried Philly, though it would be the first test over such a long distance, so they didn’t waste any time with sorting out the details. Flynt stepped close to Philly, who put his arms around the corvice’s neck as he was gently cradled into Flynt’s embrace, as if Philly were a particularly large cat he was carrying. He nudged open the door to the stairs with his foot and began the long trek upwards, one step at a time.

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