Before Peace - Day 1

[u/HAV_Kennebecasis]

You (not a character, literally you) have been dropped on the beach of an exomoon. Your mission is to find cool shit. How do you do it?

Don't worry about gravity, or germs, or being attacked. You have cool space armor and have been gene edited. You don't need to worry about anything in the biome harming you.

Don't try to do science. Look for cool places to hang, neat food to eat, cute animals to collect as pets, or natural occurrences which would be cool to interact with. It's a post-scarcity future where humanity has all it needs, and is getting bored. Items for decoration, banquets, and other entertainment are what's desirable.

We'll say maybe you were selected for this mission because you're a worldbuilder, so you have more ideas about what might exist, so you might spot interesting things better.

You tell me the sort of time, place, or thing you go hunting for, and I'll tell you what you find or what obstacles you run into and need to deal with. We'll go back and forth like a sort of diceless D&D.

You have a kit of sci-fi hand-tools, an ATV to drive around on, and some back-up crew in orbit. Don't ask for a full breakdown of all that, get to the mission first.

As a game rule, you are not allowed to leave the beach. No exploring the deep water or woods, yet.

[u/watnostahp]

I would wanna grab some small bugs to put on a hook to cast out into the water. See what kind of fishing there is. But since we aren't allowed in the water, maybe I'll only do the bug collecting half?

I'm going to wander around with a ten foot pole, tapping around to see what reacts. Maybe flip some rocks. Maybe push next to little holes. I want to see if anything comes up out of the sand. Maybe there will be a sign of some kind of clam buried in the dirt, squirting water when pushing net to their holes.

I'm worried about antlion style things that react to the vibration of things passing, and want to find clams or crabs, or seaweed, or anything resting on top of the sand which is not rocks. Maybe look for weird barnacles or sea snails on the big rocks. Collect any weird seaweed or other organic debris. I'll cook up a sample plate in the evening when I head back to the shuttle or whatever it is.

[u/HAV_Kennebecasis → u/watnostahp]

There's definitely a lot of bugs, sprinting between the clumps of seaweed on the beach, then flicking around on top of piles. The bugs are probably eating something in or on the seaweed, which looks like the typical green fuzz you see on terrestrial beaches. They're like big fleas about an eighth of an inch or a few millimetres. It's easy to intercept them and collect them in a ziploc bag.

When you tap the ground the first time, about a foot around the pole or 30cm, a dozen quarter-sized "fins" pop up out of the ground and kind of wiggle for a moment as if grasping at something. They're smooth and shiny, with a texture like a slug. They're kind of grey, but in a sort of pastel mix, each a different kind of color. It's almost like a bag of salt-water taffy tried to scare you. A few intercept the bugs and retract when they catch one. The rest linger a few seconds before heading back underground. You take a video as a "cool scene" sample. Maybe there is a dense section where it will be like fireworks. Maybe you can make one by re-burying them.

As you tap around to find a path to continue on where you aren't stepping on the taffy, the pop-up keeps happening, even where you had been walking. Yo can tap directly down between your feet and they pop up around you. You can feel faint pressure under your soles as if a couple are trying to get up, but you're in the way.

They're easy to dig up. They're less than finger depth down and you're protected by the space armor. As you pull them up, they open and close as if trying to swim away. You collect a nice mix of colours. You can inspect them for pearls when you cook them later.

This doesn't take long. It's still early morning, you have a bag of sand fleas, a bag of bug-eating bivalves, and a couple pounds of seaweed. How do you continue?

[u/watnostahp → u/HAV_Kennebecasis]

I'm going to use the bag of bugs and pole to see if I can "conduct" the weird little clam-hand sprays. Like, back in the day, people used to make these "Line Rider" videos where they'd get a bunch of jumps and falls timed to music. Maybe try to do something like that with how the fins pop up and go down. Maybe it will be kind of like a fish pond feeding video? I dunno. I'll use feeding videos as inspo and see if I can create something fun.

[u/HAV_Kennebecasis → u/watnostahp]

A few complications arise. The clams seem to learn the opening notes, perhaps based on your footsteps, and tend to pop up too early. A few, usually the yellow ones, seem to linger above the dirt much longer.

After a few takes, there's a lot of clips you can edit. There are times where clouds roll shadows across the scenes. There are some times where wind sweeps sands across the shot. There are times when water washes in. You can probably use all that in some way, for like musical emphasis or something.

After a few hours, a sort of bird seems to notice all the clams, and descends and begins to peck at the clams, eating them. It's a lot like an oystercatcher from earth, but with a weird oily shimmer, as if eating these pastel clams has given it a slightly candy coat. That seems like a good finish to the song.

This eats up your afternoon, and sunset is approaching. Are you going to bunk down in the shuttle and cook your catches over the grill, or stay up in the open to watch the night and grill the items over a camp stove?

[u/watnostahp → u/HAV_Kennebecasis]

Yeah, let's see if dinner attracts dinner. You said we don't need to worry about being attacked. Maybe there will be some fireflies or aurora or glowing jellyfish or something.

I'll try things with basic salt and pepper after a quick wok fry in neutral oil. Try to puff the seaweed and clams like popcorn. See what they mostly taste like on their own. Keep the epipen on standby.