Searching Far and Wide

[intricate_engineer]

Glen was creating a prototype for a new gate design. It was meant to be affordable and provide quick transport between individual homes. She tests several objects and a rat and everything seems to be working.

She steps through. Instead of finding herself in the room next door, she finds herself standing on a sidewalk in an empty city. The buildings are tall and perfect, colorless with doorways far too tall for any human. The roads have no straight lines and twist in on themselves. There is no life or sound.
Glen tries to stay calm. She begins to walk along the road, randomly opening doors and exploring buildings that are as silent as the rest of the world.

She opens a door that she hopes will lead onto a roof and is instead met with warmth, and soft noise, and color.

Comments

[intricate_engineer]

"There's a scuba diving one with several worlds' oceans. There's a similar one that focuses on tourist locations. I have one for the Organization's headquarters. There's a few interactive movies. There's, a puzzle game in a virtual environment, a combat game, and one where you explore space and meet aliens."

[the_very_best]

"I wanna try the scuba one to start."

[intricate_engineer]

"Sure."
Glen hands over her earbuds.
"There's some narration if you want. You can select various animals to learn more about them. You can't interact with anything."

[the_very_best]

"Ooh, animals."

Earbuds! Scuba!

[intricate_engineer]

"Where do you want to start? There's Earth, which is a very common planet. It has a lot of life, mostly in the medium size range. There's Subnautica which has a lot of beautiful lifeforms, again mostly medium sized. There's a planet with a lot of old ruins, not human ones. There's the Deeps, its an unusual world in that there is almost no land. There's too much water so everything is covered. All the life lives a long way from the sun. Most of the life there is small. Then there's Expanse. It's a huge world and has proportionately sized lifeforms."

[the_very_best]

"What would you recommend?"

[intricate_engineer]

"Expanse is the most impressive, but also has the least to see. The ruins are fascinating, but mostly empty. I'd say Subnautica might be a good place to start? I've heard it can be a little frightening when you're first starting out, so you might not want to start with the Deeps."

[the_very_best]

"Subnautica it is!"

[intricate_engineer]

"Tell me if you have any problems."
Glen starts the program and goes over to start building the portal.

[the_very_best]

"Will do."

[intricate_engineer]

The program provides brief instructions on how to navigate the world. Then the world opens.

Bella is underwater. In front of her is a vast expanse of sands, marked with stone outcroppings. Small patches of color cover the landscape and small colorful fish dart through the water. Off to her left is an expanse of green.
If Bella turns, the world does not turn with her. Instead, when she turns, more of the world is revealed, as if she was actually present under the water. She can look up to see the sun shining through the water or move forward to inspect a fish. The is no sound but the quiet rush of water.

[the_very_best]

Oooh. Bella revolves slowly on the spot and then goes to have a look at the fish. They're like Pokémon, but not quite!

[intricate_engineer]

The first fish is palm sized. When Bella moves to inspect it, it freezes in the water. It is light pink. It has a narrow body. Two large sacks made of a lighter, translucent membrane extend from it's sides.

[the_very_best]

Weeeeeeeird.

[intricate_engineer]

White letters appear below the fish.
Turn on narration?

[the_very_best]

Yes!

[intricate_engineer]

A soft, pleasant voice says, "This fish, commonly referred to as an Airsack, is a slow moving omnivore. It remains in the shallows and filters the water for small microorganisms. It's airsacks enable it to float and pop when in the stomach of predators. This causes slight indigestion and prevents most predators from pursuing it."

[the_very_best]

Huh. Predation may be more common among animals than 'mon.

[intricate_engineer]

The fish begins to swim again.

[intricate_engineer]

A while later, Glen taps her on the shoulder and says, "Bella? I'm done."

[the_very_best]

"Okay." Bella hand-signals her way out of the scuba program.

[intricate_engineer]

"What did you think?"

[the_very_best]

"Animals are weird! Were they actual size? They seemed really little."

[intricate_engineer]

"I'm not sure what you saw, but there are animals the size of a fingernail."

[the_very_best]

"That's teeny!"