You maniacs! You blue it up!

"Gotta love learning about these things through people."  Orion mused as he paddled along Bee.

The two had opted for some fun in the sun after all of the dreary business in a spooky blood-soaked cave.  And given all the things that hung so heavy on his own heart, a little brevity of the beach seemed to bee the ticket out of the moody blues and instead a headfirst dip into the deep blue instead.  If nothing else, every dip into this bay had always left him changed in some way.

For better or for worse.

"Like I wonder how much of the game is just...someone wandering around and the system deciding to create an event for them dynamically.  Then the rumor is planted, someone tells someone else about what happened, someone else goes out to that spot trying to mimic enough variables.  The die align and the event spawns again, maybe they don't and it whiffs.  Get enough rolls of the die to pop off and suddenly what was once a one off is now a repeatable phenomenon.  It winds it way onto reddit, it appears in videos talking about the game.  Suddenly guides have opinions on whether or not the bayside treasure cave is meta daily event rotation.  All started from just someone bumping into something organically and telling their buddy about the cool fish they caught."

Orion dug deeper into the water as he paddled, if nothing else he was at least going to get an electronic workout, which while it didn't make his muscles get any bigger when he "woke up" from the game, it sure as fuck made them pop a little more as if he'd just gone for a pump.  Weird how the mind affected the matter so.  

"What's the over under of seamonsters by the by?  I don't have Thalassophobia and I would like to keep it that way, thank you."

"I imagine a lot of them might be instanced to some degree.  Like the challenge towers!"  

Splish splash, Orion kept up a steady serene pace as he matched his buddy's pace through the serene blue.  He basked in the golden light of the afternoon free from the fear of pesky things like Sunburn, or skin cancer, or actually going outside.  The ocean was a five hour drive away, and this was the closest thing he was going to be able to afford to a vacation unless he bit an unpleasent bullet and took his Grandfather's job offer.  Before he had time to ponder that unpleasant train of thought he was jumpscared by the resident sea monster.

"JESUS FUCKING-" Orion practically leapt off his board.  "GOD DAMNIT SUPES!"  Orion took a moment to regain his composure as he settled back down on his board.  "Warn a bro before you go free willying a motherfucker into cardiac arrest."

He'd clearly been watching too many subnautica lets plays, or perhaps he was watching too many sea monster documentaries before logging in.  Either way he was ever so erroneously twitchy about the whole thing.  Maybe he just needed to relax and enjoy the sun. 

Nothing bad could possibly ever happen in UNOVR, no sir, illegal.

That's why Orion simply chuckled when he felt something brush against his feet. "Ha ha," he droned.  "Very funny, fool me once shame on you, fool me twi-"  The same thing that had brushed against his foot snapped around it and sharply tugged downward, dragging him and his board beneath the bay like they'd suddenly just weighed some sort of titanic anchor.  The only noise escaping was a muffled yelp and the BLOOP of rapidly displaced water.