TDM 02

[mnemosynecrew]

TDM 02

WAKING UP
WARNING
WARNING

cryo bay malfunction
cryo bed error

loading



emergency override accepted
It's nothing like it was in training, waking up from cryo sleep. The sterile, cold quiet you were conditioned to expect is shattered. Alarms blare violently, ricocheting off the walls of your pod as if they're trying to crawl into your skull. Red lights pulse like a failing heartbeat, and for a moment, your entire body refuses to obey you - can't breathe, can't move, can't think.

...and then, with an almost violent shudder, force rips through your diaphragm. A brutal jolt, like being kicked from the inside out. You cough, heaving for air as the cryo pod's systems drag you unwillingly out of torpor. There is no slow, gentle awakening - this is an emergency.

Your vision is blurred and swimming in the red strobes. Emergency. The word itself seems lodged in the air, floating around your fractured mind like some distorted mantra. Something's wrong. Very wrong.

When you stumble out of the pod, your muscles heavy with the dull ache of cryo-stasis. It takes more effort than it should to move; even in the low gravity of the massive cryo bay, it's like you're fighting against the weight of your own body. Your hands tremble as you grab the tether, using it to pull yourself forward, toward the revival room. Everything feels too slow. Every movement, every thought, is tangled in webs of lethargy and confusion. Your brain is... wrong. It feels like it's leaking memories - images flickering and fading, like you’re seeing through a sieve full of holes.

This is not the start of your 5-year shift. No, this is something far, far worse.

A voice comes through from a speaker, disturbingly calm, cutting through the chaos around you.

hello, [crew member]
there is an issue
please join your crewmates
L3TH3 sounds unbothered by the alarms that blare around you. The AI has likely been running diagnostics for hours, while your body and mind were frozen in time.

The doors to the revival room slide open with a soft hiss, revealing dim, sterile lighting and the harsh stench of disinfectant. What awaits you are not only crew members as confused and groggy as you are, but others also arrive at the room from outside, ready to greet you. Do you ask them what’s going on, if they feel the same gnawing wrongness clawing at their brains? Or do you just grab your gear and get ready to go, trusting the training that suddenly feels so irrelevant in the face of whatever's happening here?

One thing is clear - something's definitely off about this wakeup call.

A BIT OF TURBULENCE
Thanks to the combined efforts of the crew, the engine is back on! L3TH3 is quick to continue in the direction the navigators had planned - before they were sanitized. The Mnemosyne moves through space easily, barely a sound as the purple nebula and distant stars light up the unknown galaxy the ship has ended up in. It's eerie but beautiful, the cosmic canvas shifting and swirling with colors that seem almost alive.

The tranquility shatters on the day after the new crew wakes up - the ship enters an asteroid field. The shields power up with a pronounced whir as the hard-light protection activates, creating a shimmering barrier to block the floating space rocks. While it's strong enough to protect the hull from taking damage, there's now a lot of turbulence. Each collision of small asteroids against the shield sends vibrations rattling through the ship, making it feel as though the very bones of the Mnemosyne are protesting against the chaos outside.

Quickly, furniture is magnetized to not fly around and a notice flashes on the CL-10, urging everyone to secure any smaller loose objects. As the asteroid field closes in, the crew can see the rocks tumbling in the void, some as large as small moons, spinning through the dark with an unsettling grace. The ship lurches to the side, casting shadows that dance like specters against the walls.

Outside, the view is still breathtaking - asteroids whizzing by, some glittering with minerals, others shrouded in dust and shadow. In the midst of the chaos, the beauty of the galaxy remains.

FLOATING AWAY
As the Mnemosyne continues to brave the asteroid field, L3TH3 suggests that the crew move to the holodecks for their safety. The AI reasons that it'll minimize the risk of injury, and the gravity will be turned off in there to stop the turbulence from shaking people around. It will allow the crew to float weightlessly for a while, free from the jolts that have become their new unwelcome companions.

If the crew make their way to the holodecks, the air is different inside, tinged with the scent of fresh grass and ocean salt as holographic projections spring to life around them.

In one holodeck, the program flickers to life, revealing a stunning landscape of lush green meadows dotted with vibrant wildflowers. The sun hangs low in a blue sky, casting a warm glow across the scenery. Gentle breezes rustle through the tall grass, creating a soft, soothing sound that is a stark contrast to the metallic whir of the ship. When the gravity turns off, it's like flying over the beautiful summer setting.

In the adjacent holodeck, another program unfolds - a breathtaking underwater scene. The crew members can see themselves swimming through the crystal-clear water, surrounded by colorful coral reefs teeming with life. Schools of fish dart between the corals, their scales shimmering in shades of blue, orange, and yellow. The tranquility of the ocean envelops everything, each breath a reminder of the freedom you can have within this artificial paradise.

For a moment, the crew can forget the peril of the asteroid field and the unpredictability of space travel. Here, in this floaty sanctuary, everyone can find a bit of solace.

Welcome to our TDM! Please direct any questions about the game to our FAQ and check out our AU WORKSHOP. If you have questions about the prompts, you can ask below.

PLAYLIST

THIS TDM IS A GAME-CANON EVENT, SO CURRENT CREW CAN TOPLEVEL AS WELL.
ANY CHARACTERS THAT DO NOT END UP IN THE GAME HAVE GONE BACK TO CRYO SLEEP.

RESERVES OPEN THE 1ST.
APPLICATIONS OPEN THE 3RD.

Comments

Madison Montgomery | American Horror Story: Coven/Apocalypse (CW: language & general crudeness)

[backtoretail]

WAKING UP

To say that Madison didn't take her sudden jolt back into awake and awareness gracefully would be the understatement of the millennia. She staggered out, trying to get her sense of balance back before she reported to her brand new life as a Security Officer.

Yeah, yeah, laugh at the Hollywood starlet turned Security crew. She could still judo flip men twice her size, so they wouldn't be laughing for long.

Humming "These Boots Were Made for Walking" under her breath, she started to suit up, glancing long enough to catch someone else's eyes and loudly complain, "Can you believe this shit? Something's fucked up. Dunno what, but it is and when I find out what it is, we're going to have a nice, long talk. Preferably after I kick their ass, but I can settle for before. What about you?"

A BIT OF TURBULENCE

So the good news was that the nerds managed to get the engine working.

The bad was that they were suddenly in the middle of a motherfucking asteroid field and who the hell had time for that bullshit? Sure, the view was gorgeous, but Madison figured that having signed up to be useful, she actually had to try to be useful. So she staggered out between hits to try and grab onto someone who seemed to be having an even worse time than she was.

"Hey. Hey! Keep it steady and don't you dare barf on me, got it?"

FLOATING AWAY

Given the choice of a cutesy Disney meadow or the ocean for a refuge, Madison picked the ocean. No way was she going to frolic in the fields like some stupid damsel in distress, no, if she was gonna float it was going to be on at least somewhat her own terms.

So, ocean it was! She only regretted that she had to be in her security uniform instead of a nice bikini to show off her figure but, well, the uniform was skin tight. Maybe she could pretend it was a wetsuit for the time being?

She was humming again, only this time it was the theme to "2001: A Space Odyssey." An ancient old film she'd been forced to watch because the director she was banging at the time kept going on and on about how it was the most perfect film ever made.

Perfect, hah! Perfect for taking a nap during, maybe.

Madison was so lost in her own private little world, she completely t-boned another crew member. She scowled at them and snapped, "Watch it! You're not the only person in here, you know!"

floating away

[itdoesntlikeyou]

Maybe Rin would recognize the humming - they might have anyway, but they're distracted by the need to physically recoil from the sudden and unexpected physical contact. They weren't even going anywhere, as much as one can even stop their momentum in open air, in a place like this, they'd done it - only to get rudely spun out.

They transferred the momentum with a clean flip around, snagging the CL-10 that had been knocked out of their hand during the collision. Time to establish some personal space bubbles - a good meter, at least. Maybe more if the drifting takes the two of them further apart, that's fine by Rin.

"Thought security needed good situational awareness," they snark, in their Science greens.

I am *so* sorry for her.

[backtoretail]

Madison did her best to hover in place, but her best wasn't good enough in zero G. Instead, she was floating back to the person who'd ran into her in the first place. Fine. She started trying to 'swim' closer.

Personal space was for infants. Before Madison signed on, she'd been used to bicep clasp hugs, air kisses, casual touch to either disarm or threaten. She'd been doing that since she was a child, child stars were treated like anyone else was. Even the rules about schooling often went unenforced.

She glared at him. Science greens, so a nerd. She knew they were necessary, but that didn't mean they could get mouthy. "I'm sorry, I was busy adjusting to zero fucking G! What's your excuse?"

[itdoesntlikeyou]

"I wasn't fucking around."

They started glaring right back, eyes focused somewhere around the realm of Madison's ear, not her face. Facing their new fellow crew member head on, the last remnants of a black eye were visible on their face - a nerd who already got on the bad side of someone or something, it looked like.

They crossed their arms in front of them, tablet held loosely in their fingers as a colorful school of holographic fish darted by.

[backtoretail]

Madison's eyes widened in a feigned display of innocence. "Oh? What were you doing, then, that you didn't see me when I was right there?" They had a black eye, clearly they'd pissed off the wrong person at some point and it was easy to see how. At least in Madison's not so humble estimation.

"So? Are you going to apologize or what?" She tried to give the impression of impatience while floating in zero G. Maybe crossing her arms would help?

[itdoesntlikeyou]

Their attention dropped to Madison's crossed arms, for just a moment, and they didn't uncross theirs. They were doing it first, they got to look disgruntled about this, and they were doing a great job of it.

"No."

That's their stance and they're sticking to it, the tension in their posture only getting worse as Madison's floating carried her right back towards their personal space, but they didn't yet do anything that would so obviously take them out of her path.

she's the personification of 'well, that escalated quickly'

[backtoretail]

Well, she could look disgruntled even better! If there's one thing Madison isn't afraid of, it's standing up for herself. Someone had to.

She was outright scowling now and probably looked as threatening as a disgruntled puppy being only 5'2" and one hundred pounds dripping wet. However, she'd be the first to point out that it wasn't the size of the dog in the fight, it was the fight in the dog. Platitudes usually annoyed the piss out of her, but this one was okay.

With an absurdly perky grin, Madison said "Yes," her expression shifting into a grin with a hint of 'or are you gonna do something about it?'

they're going to bring out the worst in each other

[itdoesntlikeyou]

If anything, their expression - the flicker of deep annoyance, the tensing shift of their jaw - spoke to someone who was ready for this to turn into a confrontation, one way or another. They closed out the hard light screen on the CL-10 and clipped it back at their hip.

Despite the clear provocation of the smile, though, they didn't move or raise their voice. Instead they focused their blank but decidedly annoyed anyway gaze right over her head and said, "Is that an official request in your capacity as security?"

and it's going to be glorious!

[backtoretail]

Oh now it's on. Madison tensed up, just in case. In regular old gravity, she knew she was a force to be reckoned with, but she'd never tried in zero G before, obviously. Before she signed on to get away from her parents, she'd spent most of her time on movie sets, doing her own stunts.

That and zero G were incredibly different, but she was willing to give it a shot if she had to.

The blank stare wasn't bothering her one bit. In fact, it was its own kind of challenge, one she figured she could either disarm by being cute or goad on by being sarcastic. Option number two! "Absolutely. I mean, it's for the safety of others. You can't say that's a bad thing."

[itdoesntlikeyou]

Rin just scoffs, rolling their eyes. "No, it's not a matter of safety whether or not I fucking apologize to you," they retort, looking her over for signs of the hardlight guns they've seen on other security officers.

If she doesn't use that, if she tries to make a swing for them - they're shifting in the air. They can't- won't - look behind them, but there was an outcropping of the holographic coral two meters behind them, and a shove will propel them in that direction. They can probably twist, redirect their momentum to get away from her if they need to. Baiting security. Sure, they haven't made enough bad decisions in the past month.

"If you're going to enforce crew safety standards, then enforce them. Or you could be a petty tyrant to get an apology."

[backtoretail]

"Okay, maybe not safety," she conceded with a flip of her hair. "But general manners? Be a gentleperson." Was that a smile or a smirk? Could go either way.

Madison generally didn't start fights, but she did tend to finish them. Nobody expected the Hollywood starlet to have security but be able to take care of herself should she have to. And here, she was security. One of life's little ironies.

"Why can't I have both," she asked flippantly.

[itdoesntlikeyou]

Rin was tagging that as a smirk, regardless of intent.

But despite the standoffish... everything, and the generally provocative attitude, Rin seemed at least uninclined to start something so drastic as launching themself at Madison. Not that it did anything for the verbal standoff the two found themselves in - just the suggestion of this being about manners, of all things, had Rin scoffing again.

"No thanks."

[backtoretail]

Fine, fine. It was a smirk. Time to go back to method acting.

What was her motivation this time? Oh yeah, annoyance. But that was the kind of motive that either got her her way or ruined everything. so she'd have to at least attempt to prove that it wasn't that.

"But I'm new. And I've never been in space before. Doesn't that mean anything? Surely you've got to be used to this by now, but I'm not."

Waking Up

[anesthetic_rage]

So. When there was word of new stiffs waking up, Zaeed made it a point to be there to help out in case they needed it. he wasn't a cheerful face, but he was at least a face. When he saw the new arrival show up and grab one of the security uniforms, he inwardly sighed. They needed engineers, but he wasn't saying no to backup. His last task had definitely been meant more for a standard security agent, not spec ops.

"Easy there. One step at a time. You're going to feel like pureed shit for about a half hour at least. Head's probably ringing too." His was.

[backtoretail]

Unfortunately for Madison's pride, she needed it. It was like the worst hangover ever coupled with what she assumed being hit by a very large, very heavy object was like. Not fun. But she told herself that it was better than being home, letting her parents soak up her cash. Conservatorships were bullshit.

"Yeah, understatement. I need about a million aspirin and I need them now. Or is there something better than aspirin?" No thank you in sight. At least not so far.

[anesthetic_rage]

He just laughed and went rifling for something, anything. "Here. This might help, but it goes away after a bit." He offered her some aspirin and water. "Don't worry. The ship's not going to explode..."

Thrum, shudder. That one was a little close. He grunted and laughed. "Probably. We're probably not about to all die."

[backtoretail]

Madison took the aspirin and water as quickly as she could. Still no thank you in sight, she'd been far too used to being waited on hand and foot by one fawning intern or assistant or another. This whole doing things completely of her own choice thing was going to take some getting used to.

At the thrum, Madison exclaimed "Oh for fuck's--this happens a lot? The whole being bombarded by fuck knows what thing?" No, Madison wasn't going to die young. She still had too much to live for.

[anesthetic_rage]

"What, the asteroids? Nah, that shit's new." He barked out an ugly laugh. "Up until last week, the engines were off line. We were dead in space, not going anywhere, and when you read the reports, we'd been that way for a long time. Should clear the debris field eventually and be on our merry way."

Shudder. That one was smaller. "I'm trying not to think about it too much. Not something I can control."

[backtoretail]

"Great. Of course I get woken up on asteroid day. Or is it going to be days because someone's gonna need a lot of Dramamine and it's not me. But someone." Madison was paranoid about others getting sick. She was awful around sick people, she never knew what to do to make things any better, which made her mad.

Which usually made the situation worse, but details!

"Okay. I'm telling myself that this is better than letting my mom sponge off of me for the rest of her natural life and even if I do die, my money's going to some cat charity. Just to piss her off." Dysfunctional? Madison? She'd never admit it out loud, admitting weakness was for other people.

cw mention of death

[anesthetic_rage]

"It could be a lot god-damned worse, trust me. First shift had to do some serious cleanup, and needed a hell of a lot more than some nausea meds for that." Yeah, they had to clean up the bodies of the last crew, so he was happy to take asteroids over that any day. His head shook and he laughed a dark, gallows laugh.

"This is better than just about any alternatives. Fresh synthetic slop, air to breathe and a ship that's held together by twine and one blasted engineer. You'll have a blast. Either way, we're leagues away from anyone's mother." And hell if he had any clue where his paycheck was.

cw mention of death

[backtoretail]

"Like actual cleaning? Cleaning-cleaning," she asked in disbelief. She was supposed to be a Security officer, not Sanitation! Madison was not about to push around a--a--a whatever people used to polish floors!

"One engineer? One? Jesus fucking Christ, what happened to the rest of them?" Even on ancient tv shows, there was more than one engineer. It wasn't exactly a fly solo kind of job, or at least it hadn't seemed that way to her. But, being honest, what did she know outside of a movie set and kicking ass?

Re: cw mention of death

[anesthetic_rage]

Yeah, it was about time to rip the bandaid off, before she got the wrong idea. Zaeed grunted and answered the question as simply as possible. "Dead, or still in cryo. You weren't scheduled for shift. Something went wrong with your pod. Same for us. We had to give the last crew a proper burial." He grunted and growled to himself. "Situation's FUBAR, fucked up beyond recognition. They died of some damned plague and the ship sat there on auto-pilot until the engines stopped working, and when some cryo pods went bad... well, guess it's our shift now."

He snorted. "Welcome to the shit show, kid. When I'm not patrolling, that engineer's got me doing spot welds to save him some time. Least the engine works again."

cw mention of death, arrest, therapist mentioned

[backtoretail]

Oh no, she doesn't have the wrong idea. She has the 'looks like I really stepped in it this time' look, the same she was wearing in her mug holo for drunk and disorderly. It's half resignation to misery, half rage.

Control. Control her breathing. What was it her anger management therapist also said, count to ten?

Yeah, that wasn't happening.

Madison released a sound that was the closest a plain old human could get to a cat's growl of wrath. "You're not kidding, are you? Fuck me. Of course! Of course this happens! You're gonna have to tell him, though, I don't know shit about mechanical repairs." She squeezed her eyes shut briefly. "Okay. Okay. Could be worse! At least I'm not actually having to deal with squishy corpses!"

Yet. The nasty feeling in her mind said yet.

Re: cw mention of death, arrest, therapist mentioned

[anesthetic_rage]

The look she got wasn't exactly unsympathetic. It was just kind of blase, very 'I've seen some shit and done some things.' He nodded just the once. Nope, not kidding. Shit was fucked. "yeah, and something's not right with us, but none of us can quite put a finger on the 'what.'" He'd just been getting weird flashes, but he was fully keeping that on the shelf.

(And probably at least one or two times a little red button appeared on screen for him to press to do the absolute worst possible thing in a situation. Never the blue 'goody goody' one, though. Go figure.)

"Don't worry. We'll have you on security checks, patrols and the like. Need more of us doing that. They woke up three spec-ops team members at once. We're not exactly trained in civilian detail." The grin he flashed was not the healthiest. He might have already shot a couple crew members. Non-lethal ordinance of course. "Plague's supposed to be fully cleaned out, and no signs of it now, but the bridge is locked and sealed. Captain's there. What's left of him. He got the one cure and ... whatever it did to the poor bastard, he's not himself anymore. stay away from the bridge."

"At the moment, we just need to make sure none of the crew go nuts and do something stupid, keep the ship nice and orderly and get everything in working order before we reach a planet and find out if the locals are hostile."

cw mention of death, arrest, therapist mentioned

[backtoretail]

Madison returned the look, though hers was tinged more with 'I've spent most of my life dealing with fuckwits and it seems that trend will continue!' She really should've known better, but at least she was away from a system that used and discarded young women like her as though they were tissues.

"Oh, good. For a second there, I was scared I'd have to pass someone wrenches or something. I don't even know what people mean when they say there are two kinds of screwdrivers, fuck asking me for anything more detailed. But if there's an ass which needs kicking, I'll be more than happy to do so." Maybe she was looking forward to that part too much.

She knew she had anger management problems, she'd been given all kinds of tricks and advice for how to handle it but none of them seemed to work the way going at a heavy bag for an hour seemed to.

"Yeah, gotta say that if the luck everyone seems to be having holds up, they're gonna be like something out of 'Alien.'" She couldn't help smirking a little, now that would be a challenge. "But, plague? There's a plague here, too? Jesus, did someone fall out of the bad luck tree and nail every single branch on the way down?"

"How stupid are we talking about here? On a scale of one to we're fucked?"