Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

U-73 leaned back in her chair as she hit the ‘Start Stream’ button. In just a few minutes, she would broadcast herself playing Subnautica to thousands of her viewers.

Suddenly, a certain grey-haired cruiser peeked her head round the corner.

“Hey, ‘73!” Denver quipped, “Whatcha up to?”

“I’m doing a halloween livestream,” U-73 responded, “Hopefully I won’t get too frightened!”

About 2 months ago, a section of the Ironblood submarine dorms collapsed. Thankfully no one was injured, and not a lot of stuff was damaged. However, with the possibility of something like this happening again, the commander had all the submarine girls relocate while the dorms underwent maintenance. U-73 and her sister, U-101 moved into the Eagle Union dorms with Denver.

A week ago, the raven-haired submarine was introduced to live streaming by Denver’s next-door neighbour: Long Island. She was the one who inspired U-73 to start doing her own livestreams, and even gave her the same halloween outfit as her since the Eagle Union girl had a spare lying around.

About a minute after she pressed the purple start button, the stream began. On her screen, a small window popped up in the bottom-right corner showing the video feed of her webcam. Above that was a taller rectangular window which served as the chat feed. Her viewer count remained at zero for a few seconds, before instantly reaching 500 and continuing to grow.

“What’s up, my gamers!” U-73 cheerfully greeted, waving at the camera. “Happy Halloween to you guys~ Make sure your doors are locked, otherwise I’ll sneak into your house and fuck your mom!”

The chat lit up with hilarious responses, mostly consisting of the typical pogchamp emote spam.

U-73 giggled at the responses before standing up, letting all her viewers admire her outfit.

“What do you think guys?” She asked, twirling around. Her cheerful smile immediately vanished when she saw the first response:

[Your dress looks like it hasn't been rendered in properly.]

“Wow, okay…” U-73 sighed, sitting back down on her chair. “Thanks for that, Grid22…”

After clearing her throat, she continued. “Since it’s Halloween, I’m gonna be playing the scariest game I know: Subnautica.”

After loading up the game, the raven-haired shipgirl started a new save in Survival mode. After the usual opening cutscene and putting out the fire in the lifepod, she immediately dove into the water.

“What’s my plan right now?” U-73 read out one of the chat messages, “The first thing I’m doing is saving up materials for the Radiation Suit, because after 4 in-game days the Aurora is gonna commit a Chernobyl and fucking explode.”

After 10 minutes of collecting resources, U-73 decides to go catch some soon-to-be food.

“Gotcha!” She yelled as she grabbed a Peeper swimming by. This caused a large variety of responses from the chat…

[NOOOOO NOT THE PEEPER!]

[Meat’s back on the menu bois!]

[LET GO OF THE POOR THING]

[Do a Japanese thing and eat it raw.]

After refilling both her hunger and thirst meter, U-73 decides to go exploring. An hour in, she has already found a Seaglide fragment. Using the scanner she recently crafted allowed her to unlock the blueprint for the Seaglide.

However, the 4th in-game day soon rolled around, and the moment she’d been dreading had come.

“Emergency: A quantum detonation has occurred in the Aurora's drive core.”

“Here we go, guys!” U-73 spoke, rubbing her hands together in anticipation.

“The reactor will reach a super critical state in T- 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…”

On “one”, an ear-shatteringly loud blast echoed throughout the game world as the Aurora exploded, flinging wreckage in all directions. Meanwhile, the chat ran wild with reactions.

[HOLY SHIT]

[Chernobyl reactor on 26th April 1986 colorized]

[MY EARS]

After admiring the explosion for a couple of minutes, the raven-haired shipgirl suddenly remembered what she needed to do. “Right, radiation suit.”

Once she crafted and equipped the radiation suit, she decided her next course of action would be to explore the Aurora and fix the drive core. However, that would have to wait thanks to a nagging feeling in her body..

“Hold on, I gotta go piss really badly!” U-73 squeaked. She then got up and attempted to walk away, only to be yanked back by her headphones. As usual, the chat took great delight in laughing at her slip-up.

“Son of a bitch…” The Ironblood shipgirl cursed under her breath, before taking off her headphones and running off to the restroom.

After a few minutes, she returned and put her headphones back on.

“You guys are mean, do you know that?” U-73 scolded her viewers after reading all the comments laughing at her falling over.

Regardless, she continued with the gameplay, occasionally making some small talk to keep her viewers entertained.

That was until a viewer gave a large donation with a relatively strange request…

“U-73, can you sing Super Idol?” The girl in question read from her donor, “Well Kawakon1337, I guess it’s worth a shot~”

Pausing her game, she opened up YouTube and searched for a suitable video.

“Ah, here we go!” U-73 clicked on the most popular video, “Let’s do this.”

Taking in a deep breath, she began to (attempt to) sing.

“Super Idol de xiaorong dou mei ni de tian ba yue zhengwu de yangguang dou mei ni yaoyan, re’ai 105 °C de ni di di qingchun de zhengliushui…”

The Ironblood shipgirl then ran out of breath, forcing her to inhale and causing her to cough a little before continuing.

“Ni bu zhidao ni you duo ke’ai diedao hou hui shaxiaozhe zai zhan qilai, ni conglai dou bu yeeeeeeeah I can’t understand anymore…”

After her little musical number, her chat lit up with a plethora of positive messages, helping her feel better about herself.

[That was amazing!]

[Your voice was lovely!]

[I would listen to that all day if I could!]

U-73 then yawned. It has already been 4 hours after all, and judging by the fact that she already had a Seamoth and a small base, she’d made quite the amount of progress.

“Go to the Crash Zone and fix the drive core…” She read one of her viewers’ comments, “No.”

The chat’s behaviour was to be expected, doing a complete 180 from their positiveness a moment ago…

[PUSSY!]

[PUSSY!]

[PUSSY!]

After being called a pussy for the 80th time, the raven-haired shipgirl gave in.

“Alright, fine!” U-73 reluctantly agreed, slamming her free hand on the desk. “I’ll do it, but if I get jumped and piss my pants then it’s your goddamn fault!”

With that, she hopped into her Seamoth and began the long journey. Due to the time it would take her, she resorted to asking the chat to send her memes or tell her some of their stories to pass the time.

About halfway there, U-73 suddenly heard a girlish scream. It came from Long Island’s room, but the Ironblood girl didn’t know that…

She hit the pause button and took off her headphones. After confirming that the screaming was definitely NOT coming from the game, she got up to ask her roommate.

“Denver?” U-73 called, “Did you hear screaming?”

“Yeah,” The Eagle Union girl replied. “Probably Long Island doing one of her streams again…”

“Oh…” U-73 simply responded, her cheeks burning pink. Although she’d never walked in on Long Island, she knew what kind of streams the Eagle Union carrier did and was often kept up at night thanks to her ‘escapades’.

Returning to her game, the submarine shipgirl resumed her journey to the Aurora. She made it about four-fifths of the way before hearing a muffled roar in the distance...

Fuck.

Every Subnautica player, regardless of experience, gender or age has heard that roar at least once. And every Subnautica player knows that if you hear that roar, you should run (or swim) as fast as you fucking can in the opposite direction

“Nope, nope, nope!” U-73 repeated while making her way back to her base as fast as the Seamoth would allow her. “I’m not dealing with that motherfucker!”

After miraculously making it back in one piece, the Ironblood shipgirl decided it was a good time to save her game and end the stream.

“Ahhh, guess I should end the stream now.” U-73 exhaled, stretching her arms above her head. “It’s already getting late and I need to get up early tomorrow…”

Thankfully, the chat seemed to agree, with several hundred messages bidding her farewell and wishing her a goodnight’s rest.

“Thanks guys!” The Ironblood submarine girl waved goodbye, “I’ll see you another day!”

After ending the stream, U-73 got up and changed out of her costume, replacing it with her fluffy pyjamas.

However, Subnautica truly lives up to its name as a survival horror game. Needless to say, U-73 didn’t get much sleep that night...

Chapter Text

“Ahh, time for another stream!” U-73 announced as she stretched her arms.

Although Halloween was over and it was already the 6th of November, she was still wearing the Halloween costume that Long Island gave her. Mostly for the cuteness factor.

This time, she would be playing Minecraft with her viewers, meaning that she would now be able to directly interact with them in the game world. Because of this, there was now a line of text in the top-corner of the stream displaying the server’s IP address.

U-73 started the stream, and her viewer count rapidly rose to 750 in just 2 seconds, and only getting larger.

“Hey guys~” She greeted her viewers, cheerfully waving at the camera. “Welcome back!”

The chat responded with their usual greetings, before one viewer asked the obvious question:

[Why are you still wearing your Halloween costume?]

“I just think it’s cute!” U-73 giggled, twirling around like she did in her last stream.

“Let’s get started!” She announced, clapping her hands. “It’s all about hosting competitions in Minecraft and that’s exactly what I’m gonna do today.”

Hopping into the server, the raven-haired shipgirl flew to an open space where she began to construct a large bedrock box.

“I’ve heard of this minigame on Habbo Hotel; it’s called Falling Furni.” U-73 explained, “Basically a bunch of people are put in a room and you drop chairs, and the last person sitting on a chair gets fucking banned. Fucking dies! It’s time for you guys to suffer!”

After that short explanation, she continued building the arena. However, some of her viewers had joined the server and began causing chaos…

“Get the fuck out of the way!” U-73 shouted, shooing one of her viewers who was blocking her path.

Aside from that, the building process was largely uninterrupted, and the Ironblood girl began engaging in some small talk with her viewers.

“I wanted to upload a video the day after Halloween, but my shit got stolen!” U-73 recalled, before asking her viewers. “Have any of you guys had anything precious stolen from you?”

[My virginity]

“Okay…” U-73 recoiled slightly in shock at the first response.

Half an hour, and 3000 blocks later, the arena was finally built. Now all that was left to do was get her viewers into the box.

“If you have a username, and you're on the server, give me that username so I can teleport you guys in!” The raven-haired shipgirl instructed.

The chat then ran wild with people repeatedly sending in their Minecraft usernames, scrolling way too fast for U-73 to read them.

[Grid22]

[Kisaragi_Nana]

[Kawako1337]

[Alba_Tuna69]

[IHateL3mons]

[MommyLongIsland]

“Stop spamming, chat!” She yelled in an attempt to get the chat to slow down, “Stop spam- OH MY GOD!”

After managing to get everyone into the arena, the minigame began. However, U-73 would need a substitute for chairs since chairs didn’t exist in Minecraft yet.

“What about beds?” She wondered, placing down a bed in a corner of the arena. “Someone try and sleep on this bed.”

A player then approached the bed and slept in it, only for it to be broken by another player within a few seconds.

“What the fuck?!” U-73 exclaimed, “Why’d you break it?!”

Regardless, she now knew that beds would work as a substitute for chairs, and now the games could begin.

“Alright, let’s get started my gamers!” The raven-haired girl clapped her hands once more.

With the first round now underway, U-73 began placing down beds for her viewers.

“Remember,” She informed, “Last one without a bed fucking dies, gets banned, loses!”

As everyone frantically scrambled to get in a bed, U-73 flies up to get a bird’s eye view of the arena.

“This looks like an IKEA lobby!” She laughed.

About 5 seconds later, she spots a group of players hiding in the corner trying to not get banned.

“What are you guys doing?!” U-73 exclaimed, “Pussies! Why are you in the fucking corner like that?!”

After banning everyone not already on a bed, she flies back up to the roof of the arena and admires the scene in front of her.

“Woah,” The raven-haired shipgirl awed, “Look at this beautiful IKEA lobby!”

Once the first round ended, she broke all of the beds so that everyone was on a fair playing field before the second round started.

“Let’s get a clap in chat for the winners!” She applauded.

For the second round, a new element has been introduced to make the game slightly more challenging:

“Whoever sleeps on a black bed gets fucking kicked!” U-73 explained.

As if on cue, one of her viewers hopped into the black-colored bed she had just placed.

“Alright, Kawako1337!” She called, typing their name in the chat to kick them from the server. “Goodbye!”

After that little demonstration, she was ready to begin the game.

“Remember, black bed equals an instant kick!” U-73 reminded.

Suddenly, the entire floor of the arena disappeared, causing a majority of the players to fall to their deaths. The only survivors were those with armor and U-73 herself, as she was in creative mode. Needless to say, the chat wasn’t very happy with what happened…

[What the fuck]

[Who tf deleted the fucking floor]

[Mom come pick me up I’m scared]

[U-73 fix this NOW]

[Bruh]

“Wha- Th-that wasn’t me!” The raven-haired shipgirl stammered, trying to explain herself. “It was one of the admins!”

After refilling the floor and banning the admin who caused all the chaos, U-73 decided it was time to make it up to some of the chat.

“First 20 people to get in get to play again!” She announced.

Once the 20 players had all returned to the arena, U-73 then closed it off, preventing anyone else from entering and hijacking the game.

“Alright, let’s try something new…” She suggested, placing down 2 rows of beds. “I’m gonna put down a line of blue beds and a line of green beds, then I’m gonna spin a wheel and I’ll kill the people on the beds of whatever color the wheel lands on.”

The Ironblood shipgirl went off-camera for a moment, before returning with a spinner which was just a circular board attached to a pivot. One half was colored green, while the other half was colored blue.

“On the count of three, I’m going to spin the wheel!” U-73 announced, “Are you ready, chat?”

Her viewers responded with resounding positivity, eager to see the results.

“Alright…” The raven-haired girl placed her hand on the wheel.

“In three…”

“Two…

“One…”

“And...go!”

U-73 whipped her hand downwards, causing the wheel to spin freely. The green and blue sides briefly blurred together before the wheel started slowing down, landing on the green side.

With the people on the green beds now eliminated, only a handful of players remained.

“That’s a W for blue!” U-73 congratulated, “That’s a W for the cyan color!”

She then unexpectedly received a donation from a user named Grid22, who had a little idea for her…

“‘Hey U-73, it’s Gridley. You should try doing Four Corners. Basically everyone goes to the corners and you place 2 beds in the middle. One bed is good, the other one gets the person banned.’” The Ironblood submarine girl read out, “Thanks for the suggestion, Gridley! Let’s do that now.”

Once she ushered the remaining players into each of the four corners, she placed a grey bed and a yellow bed in the middle. Should a player sleep in the “piss bed”, they would get instantly kicked.

“Alright, grey beds are good, piss-color beds will get you kicked!” U-73 announced, “Let’s go!”

Within 5 seconds, the grey bed is occupied by one of the players, leaving only the yellow bed free.

“Whoever sleeps on that bed dies ‘cause it’s full of piss…” U-73 spoke, looking at the yellow bed.

Immediately after she said that, one of her viewers by the name of Kawako1337 slept in the ‘piss bed’.

“KAWAKO!” U-73 cried, “Why’d you sleep on that bed Kawako, noooooo!”

Despite that, the raven-haired streamer continued placing down beds. After placing down all the beds, she noticed that the player Kisaragi_Nana was offset from their bed, making it seem like they were floating on thin air.

“Kisaragi, why are you lying on the fucking air?!” She laughed, before seeing that one of the players still hasn’t been kicked. “WHY IS KAWAKO STILL IN THE FUCKING ARENA?!?!”

After placing down more beds, there were still 2 people left who didn’t have a bed. U-73 placed down a pair of grey beds, but she had a devious plan in mind for one of the players…

“There’s two more beds!” She called. Immediately, the one on the left was occupied by Grid22, while a player with the name Alba_Tuna69 attempted to get to the remaining bed.

A split second before they managed to get on the bed, U-73 broke it and quickly replaced it with one of the piss-colored beds. With no time to react, the unfortunate player fell right into her trap…

“OHHHH!” The raven-haired girl screamed, standing up and pointing at the camera. “That’s an L, that’s an L!”

After that moment, it was time for the final round with the remaining 3 players. For this round, U-73 replaced the bedrock floor with Blue Ice and built 3 pens for each of the players.

“Alright, for this last round you’re all gonna have a nice little boat race.” She informed.

However, as she was opening up the lanes for each of the players, one player by the name of IHateL3mons shot past and almost flew to the other side on their boat.

“IHateL3mons, come back!” U-73 ordered the rogue player. “COME THE FUCK BACK!”

After herding IHateL3mons back to their place, she tried to finish setting up the racetrack.

“Don’t move!” She instructed, “Don’t go yet!”

Unfortunately, Grid22 either wasn’t listening or didn’t care, as they zoomed forwards, reaching the other side of the arena by the time U-73 caught them.

“Oh my-” The Ironblood shipgirl seethed, before taking a deep breath to prevent herself from punching the wall.

After ‘calmly’ herding the players back to their places, the race could finally begin.

“When this goes off, you will race to the end.” U-73 spoke, firework rocket in hand. “The first two people who get there win!”

“Three… two… one… go!”

Within seconds, Grid22 flew across the arena and finished in first place, with MommyLongIsland in close second and IHateL3mons in dead last.

“Oh shit!” U-73 commented, almost dying of laughter. “Grid22 fucking went turbo-mode!”

Since IHateL3mons was in last place, they would get killed which would automatically kick them from the server.

“I’m so sorry, okay…” U-73 cried, burning IHateL3mons with lava. “I don’t wanna do this but I have to…”

Once that was taken care of, she made some adjustments to the racetrack. Now instead of a drag-race, the players would now have to navigate around obstacles. This could prove difficult, as Blue Ice is more slippery than both regular ice and Packed Ice.

“In three… two… one… go!” 

Unlike last time, Grid22 was lagging behind as they were having trouble with navigating the twists and turns. Meanwhile, MommyLongIsland expertly weaved their way around the obstacles, allowing them to beat their opponent to the finish.

“And it looks like we have a winner!” U-73 announced, before going over to Grid22 with a bucket of lava.

“I’m sorry Gridley, but I know you know what has to be done…” She spoke apologetically. However, Grid22 had a trick up their sleeve.

Before U-73 could even begin to place down the lava, Grid22 ate a Chorus Fruit causing them to teleport to a random place. Meanwhile, the Ironblood shipgirl stared at the empty box for a moment, before completely losing her shit.

“YOU SON OF A BITCH!” She yelled, the chat laughing at what just transpired. “They fucking dipped!”

Regardless, she approached the victor of the competition to congratulate them and bestow their reward.

“Congratulations to MommyLongIsland for winning!” U-73 cheered, giving the player in question a set of full enchanted diamond gear. “Nice username, by the way!”

Just before she ended the stream though, Grid22 reappeared in the arena. U-73 took notice of this instantly, and let’s just say her reaction was to be expected…

“Gridley you son of a bitch!” She swore, creating a pool of lava in front of Grid22. “Jump right in, you better jump into that lava right the fuck now!”

Thankfully, Grid22 was rather compliant and hopped into the lava with no hesitation.

“Looks like it’s time for me to say goodbye for now.” U-73 bid farewell to her viewers, “Thank you all for supporting me, and I hope to see you guys next time!”

With that, she ended the stream. Just as she walked out of her room, she caught Gridley standing outside with a large grin on her face, snapping photos of the Ironblood shipgirl dressed in her Halloween costume in the middle of November.

“Hey!” U-73 shrieked, “Stop!”

“You gotta catch me first!” The Eagle Union destroyer taunted, before bolting down the hallway.

“Get back here you little shit!” U-73 shouted back before taking off in pursuit.

In the living room, Denver had seen the whole thing. She sighed to herself, knowing that this type of occurrence is about to become much more common...