History Fanfic / Waterworld

''[[https://fanfiction.net/s/13419973/1/Waterworld Waterworld]]'' is a ongoing {{Pseudocanonical|Fic}} ''{{VideoGame/Subnautica}}'' LogFic by author [[https://m.fanfiction.net/u/6912772/ Crazy Minh]]. Retelling the story of ''Subnautica'' through the [[ApocalypticLog log entries]] of game protagonist Ryley Robinson, the story intends to expand on the lore and worldbuilding of Subnautica, while also trying to make the events of the game mildly more realistic.

* AIIsACrapshoot: Ryley’s PDA is constantly monitoring and logging his activities, which include crimes such as [[LoonyLaws illicit blueprint modification]], and- like in the game- [[spoiler: simply accruing debt by using resources that are the legal property of Alterra]]. Fortunately, the version of Ryley in this fic is a CrazyPrepared SmartGuy who paid to have [[InstantExpert large amounts of knowledge downloaded into his head]]. As such, he has plans to resolve this.

[[https://fanfiction.net/s/13419973/1/Waterworld Waterworld]] is a ongoing [[PseudocanonicalFic Pseudocanonical]] {{VideoGame/Subnautica}} LogFic by author [[https://m.fanfiction.net/u/6912772/ Crazy Minh]]. Retelling the story of Subnautica through the [[ApocalypticLog log entries]] of game protagonist Ryley Robinson, the story intends to expand on the lore and worldbuilding of Subnautica, while also trying to make the events of the game mildly more realistic. As of October 2021, the story sits in the top five most favourited Subnautica stories on Website/FanFictionDotNet, and is currently the third most followed story in the category.

* MiniMecha: As in the game, the Pressurised Re-Active Watertight Nanosuit (PRAWN) makes an appearance. For those unfamiliar, these humanoid vehicles are modular exoskeletons with inbuilt thrusters designed for manoeuvring in zero gravity environments, or in deep seas where buoyancy can mimic low-gravity environments enough for the thrusters to lift the suit. They’re so powerful that most of the training given to PRAWN jockeys is to ensure they don’t get careless with their enhanced strength.

* ArtisticLicenseEngineering: The [[CoolStarship Aurora]] is described as having two forms of transit between decks: a single staircase in the bow section, and a cargo elevator further sternwards. Not only would such a design be extremely impractical for everyday use (crew would either have to ride a slow and heavy elevator up and down the ship or climb a ridiculous number of stairs), but it would be a hinderance to crew in the event of an emergency (for example, if an critically injured crewmember needed to be transferred to the ship’s medical facilities from another deck in a expedient fashion; or, say, if the crew were required to abandon ship due to an imminent crash landing). As in the game, the Aurora is described as being 500 meters tall, not counting the conning tower on the top of the main hull, making the staircase a rather unusual design element. .
*** In addition, Ryley is able to create a functional water condenser from the remains of his [[EscapePod Lifepod’s]] “Water Reclaimer” (something that doesn’t exist in the actual game). His strategy is to connect a coil of copper wire directly to the craft’s power supply, and use it to boil the salt water to create drinking water via condensation. Not only is this plan dubious (the copper wire would have to be a good enough resistor to convert the electrical energy into heat energy), but it would also run the risk of shorting, and potentially damaging the lifepod. Admittedly, Riley does {{Lampshade}} this, although he seems to be purely worrying about shocking himself or shorting out the electronics; seemingly convinced this will work as intended.
** ArtisticLicenseMedicine: At one point [[spoiler:Ryley gets bitten by a [[ThreateningShark Stalker]] that punctures a hole in his leg.]]. Ryley’s response is to perform first aid on himself to [[spoiler:stop the bleeding]], but his immediate action after removing the object is to use his hand to apply pressure while simultaneously slipping a high-tech bandage under his leg. To begin with, while the location of the wound is not mentioned, it is unlikely a hole the diameter of the [[spoiler:Stalker teeth]] seen in-game would cause enough blood loss to warrant concern over “bleeding out”. Secondly, while Ryley did put pressure on the wound before applying the bandage- which is an appropriate step in treating a open wound- he never sterilised it, which could be a problem considering that he is on an alien world with potentially harmful bacteria that could easily cause his wound to become septic, futuristic bandage or not. Also, he carried out the procedure without checking the wound for any fragments of the foreign object (which in-universe are brittle, and could have easily splintered inside the would, increasing the chance of infection)
** ArtisticLicenseHistory: In chapter four or five, a PDA log reveals the day of the [[spoiler:Sunbeam’s destruction]] is October 14th 2195, around 174 years from the present day. Ryley talks in the first chapter about having grown up watching science fiction television programs of the 20th and 21st centuries, including several shows that have aired in the last ten years, or are still airing today. In Chapter 11, he describes his taste in media as being centred around “centuries old” sci-fi television. Of the shows he lists, only one franchise initially aired before 1995, that being Star Trek. Depending on which version of Battlestar Galactica Ryley was referring to, BSG could be considered the only other show that would be “centuries” old by 2195. The others all aired after September 1995, 200 years before the start of the fic in mid-to-late September.

* DarkerAndEdgier: In Subnautica, injuries are quickly healed with nothing more than packs of bandages, your zippy submersible and [[MiniMecha powered exoskeleton]] can have critical damage fixed in the blink of an eye, and there are no traces of your dead crewmates other than their ApocalypticLog entries, some abandoned PDAs, and their wrecked lifepods. In Waterworld, Riley regularly spends multiple days recovering from serious injuries, his Seamoth requires constant maintenance to remain functional, and [[spoiler:Ryley is unfortunate enough to discover the decomposed (but recognisable) corpse of his bunkmate and best friend]].

* ApocalypticLog: The FramingDevice for the story. At the start, Ryley has just survived a crash landing on 4546B, and records his first entry with the intent of providing s record of his survival attempts should he [[TragicDeath die before he reaches home]]. As the story goes on, things get marginally better for Ryley, and he establishes a firm foothold. This results in his log entries becoming more of a coping method for his isolation, as evidenced by his use of the log to document his mental state as well as the events of each day. Reaches a tipping point at the start of chapter eleven when [[spoiler:Ryley finds his best friend’s corpse]] and suffers a emotional meltdown while drinking heavily.

* ArtisticLicense
** ArtisticLicenseChemistry: The vodka Ryley produces would certainly be unrefined, which would make it unsafe for human consumption. However, Ryley goes through six or seven bottles of it in one sitting during one chapter, and only suffers a hangover and some minor dehydration the next day.
** ArtisticLicenseEngineering: The [[CoolStarship Aurora]] is described as having two forms of transit between decks: a single staircase in the bow section, and a cargo elevator further sternwards. Not only would such a design be extremely impractical for everyday use (crew would either have to ride a slow and heavy elevator up and down the ship or climb a ridiculous number of stairs), but it would be a hinderance to crew in the event of an emergency (for example, if an critically injured crewmember needed to be transferred to the ship’s medical facilities from another deck in a expedient fashion; or, say, if the crew were required to abandon ship due to an imminent crash landing). As in the game, the Aurora is described as being 500 meters tall, not counting the conning tower on the top of the main hull, making the staircase a rather unusual design element. .

[[https://fanfiction.net/s/13419973/1/Waterworld Waterworld]] is a ongoing {{VideoGame/Subnautica}} fanfic by author [[https://m.fanfiction.net/u/6912772/ Crazy Minh]]. Retelling the story of Subnautica through the [[ApocalypticLog log entries]] of game protagonist Ryley Robinson, the story intends to expand on the lore and worldbuilding of Subnautica, while also trying to make the events of the game mildly more realistic. As of October 2021, the story sits in the top five most favourited Subnautica stories on Website/FanFictionDotNet, and is currently the third most followed story in the category.

** ArtisticLicenseEngineering: The [[CoolStarship Aurora]] is described as having two forms of transit between decks: a single staircase in the bow section, and a cargo elevator further sternwards. Not only would such a design be extremely impractical for everyday use (crew would either have to ride a slow and heavy elevator up and down the ship or climb a ridiculous number of stairs), but it would be a hinderance to crew in the event of an emergency (for example, if an critically injured crewmember needed to be transferred to the ship’s medical facilities from another deck in a expedient fashion; or, say, if the crew were required to abandon ship due to an imminent crash landing). As in the game, the Aurora is described as being 500 meters tall, not counting the conning tower on the top of the main hull.

* DeadpanSnarker: Ryley, whose reaction to most disasters is to crack a joke, or make a snarky comment.

** ArtisticLicenseEngineering: The [[CoolStarship Aurora]] is described as having two forms of transit between decks: a single staircase in the bow section, and a cargo elevator further sternwards. Not only would such a design be extremely impractical for everyday use (crew would either have to ride a slow and heavy elevator up and down the ship or climb a ridiculous number of stairs). As in the game, the Aurora is described as being 500 meters tall, not counting the conning tower on the top of the main hull.

* LighterAndSofter: In Subnautica, your player character has no access to their personal files on their PDA thanks to a software lockout. They also have no access to any recreational materials, be it drinking alcohol or other forms of entertainment. While you can find decorations for your seabase, these are limited in number, and don’t contain many luxury items. There’s also no toilet. In Waterworld, Ryley gains access to his personal files relatively early on, he creates potato vodka in large amounts with surplus food, by chapter 11, he has retrieved pretty much every luxury item he’s ever want to have, and he even has a functional toilet as well as two-ply toilet paper.

** ArtisticLicenseChemistry: The vodka Ryley produces would certainly
Be unrefined, which would make it unsafe for human consumption. However, Ryley goes through six or seven bottles of it in one sitting during one chapter, and only suffers a hangover and some minor dehydration the next day.

[[https://fanfiction.net/s/13419973/1/Waterworld Waterworld]] is a ongoing {{VideoGame/Subnautica}} fanfic by author [[https://m.fanfiction.net/u/6912772/ Crazy Minh]]. Retelling the story of Subnautica through the [[ApocalypticLog log entries]] of game protagonist Ryley Robinson, the story intends to expand on the lore and worldbuilding of Subnautica, while also trying to make the events of the game mildly more realistic. As of October 2021, the story sits in the top five most favourited Subnautica stories, and is currently the third most followed story in the category.

[[https://fanfiction.net/s/13419973/1/Waterworld Waterworld]] is a ongoing ‘’{{VideoGame/Subnautica}}’’ fanfic by author [[https://m.fanfiction.net/u/6912772/ Crazy Minh]]. Retelling the story of Subnautica through the [[ApocalypticLog log entries]] of game protagonist Ryley Robinson, the story intends to expand on the lore and worldbuilding of Subnautica, while also trying to make the events of the game mildly more realistic. As of October 2021, the story sits in the top five most favourited Subnautica stories, and is currently the third most followed story in the category.

* FramingDevice: The fic is presented as the log entries of Non-Essential Systems Maintenance Chief Ryley Robinson, the player character of {{VideoGame/Subnautica}}. All of his entries are him narrating the events of a day on 4546B to a recording device, usually his PDA. Occasionally, the audio logs are interspersed with data logs generated by his PDA, usually to provide additional context to a situation, or to spice up the fic.

->’’”I have a lot of work to do in the days to come, and I can't give up hope. I have a duty to all of my fallen friends to survive, and to get back home. Whatever I have to do, wherever I have to go, and however deep I have to descend, I will see the twin stars of Alterra Prime again.”’’
—->—-‘’’Ryley Robinson’’’, ‘’Chapter 11’’

* ApocalypticLog: The FramingDevice for the story. At the start, Ryley has just survived a crash landing on 4546B, and records his first entry with the intent of providing s record of his survival attempts should he [[TragicDeath die before he reaches home]]. As the story goes on, things get marginally better for Ryley, and he establishes a firm foothold. This results in his log entries becoming more of a coping method for his isolation, as evidenced by his use of the log to document his mental state as well as the events of each day. Reaches a tipping point at the start of chspter eleven when [[spoiler:Ryley finds his best friend’s corpse]] and suffers a emotional meltdown while drinking heavily.
* ArtificialBrilliance: [[spoiler:Number Five, the sole remaining janitorial robot from Ryley’s team of similar units. It managed to stay alive in the wreckage of the aurora for nearly two months before Ryley found it and brought it to his seabase to help maintain his underwater abode. It is described as being unusually intelligent post-crash, and is implied to have developed a degree of sentience during its period of isolation]]

** ArtisticLicenseHistory: In chapter four or five, a PDA log reveals the day of the [[spoiler:Sunbeam’s destruction]] is October 14th 2195, around 174 years from the present day. Ryley talks in the first chapter about having grown up watching science fiction television programs of the 20th and 21st centuries, including several shows that have aired in the last ten years, or are still airing today. In Chapter 11, he describes his taste in media as being centred around “centuries old” sci-fi television. Of the shows he lists, only one franchise initially aired before 1995, that being Star Trek. Depending on which version of Battlestar Galactica Ryley was referring to, BSG could be considered the only other show that would be “centuries” old by 2195. The others all aired after September 1995, 200 years before the start of the fic in mid-to-late September.

* AlmightyJanitor: Ryley fits this trope to a ‘T’. After his [[ParentalAbandonment mother and father’s death]] in a midair shuttle collision some time before the start of the story, Ryley used his inheritance to undergo extensive [[InstantExpert “digitraining”]], which makes him a [[JackOfAllTrades]]. However, his training didn’t match the extent of knowledge to which Alterran starship crews were meant to possess, and as such he was only sble to land a job as the [[DeadEndJob ship’s non-essential maintenance chief]], essentially making him the janitor. When the Aurora crashed, he became the sole surviving member of the crew, finally giving him a chance to use his hard-earned skills.

* AIIsACrapshoot: Ryley’s PDA is constantly monitoring and logging his activities, which include crimes such as [[LoonyLaws illicit blueprint modification]], and- like in the game- [[spoiler: simply accruing debt by using resources that are the legal property of Alterra]]. Fortunately, the version of Ryley in this fic is a CrazyPrepared SmartGuy who paid to have large amounts of knowledge downloaded into his head. As such, he has plans to resolve this.