For those who aren't too fond of the fan-service-y aspects of this fanfic, I apologize and will try to keep the fan-service to a minimum, as I'm not into fan-service anyway especially when it comes to anthropomorphic characters.
Data Entry 11: Purpose in Society
Upon reaching Floating Island's main beach, Marie changed into the diving suit she always wore underneath her purple shirt and black sweatpants while Rea stripped down to her red two-piece bikini. Meanwhile, Peeps and Wanda stood side-by-side with the former being significantly shorter than the latter height-wise. Once Marie and Rea finished changing, they immediately dove into the water which forced Alice to immediately begin the stopwatch on the PDA.
"So if I'm understanding you correctly, the Caste System is similar to the Food Chain because certain groups of people are considered superior or inferior to each other depending on their roles in society," Rabb recalled after Ryan finished explaining the Caste System to him.
"Exactly," Ryan nodded. "While the upper Caste members had more privileges, the lower Caste members didn't. Of course, I'm not sure what roles Subnauticans have in general. I mean, I know Empra Levi is the ruler of all the Subnauticans. Yet Rea is assigned as a protector of sorts, despite being from the same Class as Empra Levi."
"Leviathans serve two functions in the Food Chain. They not only keep the other predatory Subnauticans in line, but they also protect whatever creatures are in their territory."
"I see. But what do the other Classes do? Because it seems the Shark Class members are just mean, while Fish Class members like Peeps get pushed around."
"Well, before the humans showed up, the Shark Class members would eat the Fish Class members in order to keep their populations under control. But now, they're not allowed to eat fish because you humans have deemed it morally wrong due to how human we look even though we're not."
Ryan thought about Marie's words regarding how Subnauticans were nothing but animals to her, and said, "Is that why Stalk was particularly aggressive towards me?"
"Partially, though his kind are naturally aggressive. Same goes with San."
"Do you know why they wanted to know more about the canon on Mountain Island?"
Shrugging, Rabb said, "Curiosity, I suppose. I mean, that canon hasn't fired in centuries."
Just then, Marie emerged from the water along with Rea. Thus, Alice declared their swimming race a tie much to their annoyance. From there, Ryan and the others made their way into the heart of Floating Island. Here, several white buildings with glass windows were stacked on top of each other and surrounding a square-based area that had scattered tables and umbrellas over them. While most of the occupants were human, a few Subnauticans were present though many of them stared at Ryan and his group.
Ignoring the stares they were getting, Ryan and Rabb went to one of the buildings which advertised male clothes while Alice, Peeps, Rea and Marie walked over to a different building that showed female clothes. Wanda attempted to follow Ryan and Rabb, but she was dragged away by Marie and Rea with their combined strength. The two glared at each other momentarily, but they continued to drag Wanda with them. Sometime later, the divided groups came together carrying bags of clothes with Wanda now wearing a purple blazer with a gray skirt and purple stockings with black shoes.
"Hey, you look actually pretty cute in that outfit," Rabb said to Wanda.
Not reacting, Wanda responded, "Thank you, Subject Rabb."
"It's nice that us students were given enough credit to pay for things like clothes," Alice remarked. "Although Rea and Marie competed over which clothes would best fit Wanda, we were able to come to a compromise. Right, girls?"
Folding their arms, Marie and Rea looked away from each other.
"Don't go calling me a 'girl,' human," Rea insisted. "I'm a Subnautican, and proud of it."
"Though being a Subnautican doesn't make you an expert on human clothing," Marie claimed.
Just as Rea bared her teeth, Peeps surprised everyone by squeezing between Marie and Rea.
"Please don't fight," Peeps said, staring up at Rea with her big yellow eyes. "That's not why we came here."
"Yes, Peeps is right," Alice agreed. "Now let's get something to eat."
At a nearby garden, Alice explained to Ryan that they could pick whatever vegetables they wanted and then either cook them using complimentary Thermoblades or eat them raw. So while the others were doing this, a crab-like creature with an eye in the center of its body suddenly leaped out from the cover of the vegetables' leaves. Rea immediately caught the crab-like creature midair and bit down on it with her sharp teeth, causing its shell to be crushed instantly.
"What was that?" Ryan asked.
"A Cave Crawler," Marie said while Rea continued eating the crab-like creature. "They're another non-evolved species like the Reefbacks, only these ones are considered pests and one of the few living prey that carnivorous Subnauticans can eat."
"One problem, though," Rea said through a full mouth. "There's not enough meat in them."
Unable to come up with a response, Ryan and the others continued gathering vegetables for themselves while Wanda watched all of them. After using the Thermoblades to fry the vegetables, which consisted of potatoes and melons, they ate in silence.
"Do Warpers eat anything?" Rea asked while finishing off the remains of the Cave Crawler.
"We do not require sustenance since we are not really alive," Wanda responded. "All we require is maintenance to keep our mainframes intact, and updates to our programs."
"Yet you have organic parts and can reproduce like living things," Rabb pointed out.
"Only because we were built that way originally," Wanda insisted.
"Kind of makes you envy the capabilities of the Precursors," Marie interjected. "Sure, we humans are capable of achieving great things and have built many useful technologies. But the Precursors did all of that centuries ago, and able to create artificial life which we have yet to accomplish. Yet what ended up wiping them all out was a simple disease they found the cure for too late. I just hope we humans don't make the same mistake they did."
To be continued…