TDM 01

[mnemosynecrew]

TDM 01

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 report to your station
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. A few other crew members are already there, groggy and disoriented like you. Many of their faces tell the same story - shaken, unsettled, confused. Do you talk? 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 go, trusting the training that suddenly feels so irrelevant in the face of whatever's happening here?

One thing is clear - you're no longer on a controlled mission. This is something else.

SKELETON CREW
As soon as you step out of the revival room, the unsettling silence of the ship envelops you. There's no familiar hum of the engines, no distant thrum of machinery that usually fills the air. The only thing breaking the void is the faint flicker of emergency lights, casting long, eerie shadows down the corridor. The ship isn't running. It's just... drifting in space.

Why isn't the previous shift here to stop this?

You get your answer moments later.

The first body you encounter is in the hallway. It isn't even a body anymore, really - more of a desiccated skeleton, dressed in the same Mnemosyne uniform as you. Whoever they were, they've been dead for years. Long enough for the flesh to wither away entirely.

...then there’s another body. And another. Each room you pass is the same - a macabre collection of the long-dead, lying as if frozen in time. The ship is being run by a literal skeleton crew.

If you access the nearest console, you can contact the ship's AI.

twenty years ago, a very contagious
and unknown illness infected the crew
the infection has been fully sanitized
aside from up in the bridge
please keep away
attempts to reach the bridge will be met with force
we cannot risk a new spread

Captain Drake requests that the power be restored
immediately
You have your orders. The dead have to be laid to rest, jettisoned out of the airlocks before their decayed remains cause more problems. The power needs to be restored - and, at some point, everyone needs to gather for a meeting about all of this.

...but for now, you have to steady yourself. Panic will have to wait... at least for a little longer.

NEBULA
After the initial chaos, there's finally a moment to breathe. The confusion and urgent tasks may have consumed your focus, but now, with a lull in the storm, you can assess everything more clearly. Your head still aches, and the gaps in your memory are unsettling, but for the first time, there’s a chance to stop. To rest. To think.

Talking to another crew member might help - or maybe this is a good time to have a drink and decompress.

It also gives you a moment to look out the windows of the ship, and the view might steal your breath. The vast expanse of space is painted in shades of pink and purple - a nebula, its mix of space dust and hydrogen casting soft wine-colored light through the windows. Stars glimmer faintly on the horizon, but this place... it's not on any map from Tellus. No Elheen refugee ever spoke of this region.

This is uncharted space.

The beauty is undeniable. But in the silence, a question lingers; is this the most beautiful thing you've ever seen - or the most terrifying?

Welcome to space, crew. Welcome, to a new frontier.

Welcome to our first 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.

Note that the time for the Reserves and Apps are slightly early this month.

PLAYLIST

THIS TDM IS A GAME-CANON EVENT.
ANY CHARACTERS THAT DO NOT END UP IN THE GAME HAVE GONE BACK TO CRYO SLEEP.

RESERVES OPEN THE 27TH.
APPLICATIONS OPEN THE 30TH.

Comments

QUESTIONS

[mnemosynecrew]

Re: QUESTIONS

[tarakan]

Would it be possible to study a skeleton in the medbay? Obviously it would be hard to tell some things based on the lack of flesh/organs/blood, but Hilbert would try to analyze the bones for any degenerative bone changes or traces of things like radiation, cancer, trauma, etc.

[no1cupcake]

I was looking at the ship and it says in the Revival room there's -equipment-. What kind of equipment? Are there lockers with medicine? Or is it basic survival materials (knifes, ropes, bottles of water etc.)

Also- where can Cait find a sniper rifle? And is she free to take it :D?

[lastdecember]

Power outage question! When folks are working to get it turned back on, is there any obvious reason why it was off? Is there any damage to the system? Was it cooked by a solar flare or other electrical surge? Do the computer logs show any commands to disable power?

[execu2able]

Are mechs susceptible to the illness? Or was there some other related reason any mechs onboard wouldn't have been affected (unless there weren't any??)

Re: QUESTIONS

[flavourtown]

What kind of on-the-go medical tools do the doctors have available? Like, should we assume that they all have something similar to tricorders from Star Trek, or is the medical tech more like what we have today?

[lastdecember]

Assuming the answer is 'no' for plot reasons, but would any of the crew be able to wake up a member of Command out of cryosleep?

jiaoqiu | honkai: star rail

[flavourtown]

✘ ⸻ waking up

[ Everything feels wrong.

First, there is darkness. Confusion. It takes an eternity for Jiaoqiu to be able to crack his eyelids open, only to catch the blurry vision of his cryopod's door sliding upward, sterile air hissing inwards. Red light is blaring, emergency, emergency, and every scrap of training Jiaoqiu has ever had kicks him forward, stumbling out of his pod, gaze swinging wildly to attend to other people. Already, his own sleeping scrubs feel damp with adrenaline sweat. He knows that he must be getting woken up for his shift early, or under emergency circumstances, but--

The next second, everything he knows seems to shift, leaving his thoughts empty and his mind scrambling after something he can't quite recall, like a word on the tip of his tongue. It swings one way, then wildly the other, and present knowledge crashes back into him. He's a doctor. He has people to attend to.

The revival room is a dismal sight, and Jiaoqiu only spends the barest, necessary time to see to himself. A quick drink of water, a change into Medical whites. Then, he's crouching down in front of someone sitting against the wall, looking like they're desperately trying to orient themselves. ]

Deep breathes. In through your nose, out through your mouth.

[ That's assuming they're biological, anyway. Jiaoqiu's voice is gentle, measured, his expression the epitome of calm among the chaos. ]

There you go. Are you experiencing any post-cryo discomfort? Dizziness, confusion, tingling in your limbs?

✘ ⸻ skeleton crew

[ To be traveling on a ship full of corpses is a scenario that Jiaoqiu hadn't exactly envisioned when he'd signed up to an exploratory space vessel, and yet, here he is. Crouched over skeletal remains in a green suit, double checking that the gloves of his bodysuit are secure, and examining the bones as best he can.

As far as he can tell, there's no trauma. Illness does seem the most likely explanation, and twenty years is long enough for any biological remains to have decomposed. Still, something about it all sits uneasily in Jiaoqiu. How could the illness have lingered for twenty years in the bridge? Is anybody in there? Is Captain Drake in there? How long have they been in there?

One vulpine ear twitches in the direction of someone approaching; Jiaoqiu greets them with a genial smile, if somewhat restrained considering he's crouched over a skeleton. ]

Well, I'd be useless for trying to get the power back on. It's a bit of a morbid ask, but, care to help me start moving these remains? I understand if the answer is no; not everybody has the stomach for it.

✘ ⸻ nebula

Well, we've certainly reached unknown territory.

[ Jiaoqiu's voice is somewhere between mild and sarcastic; difficult to tell which of the two he's swinging more toward. He'd stopped at a window in the middle of monitoring the vitals of a few of the crew -- people who had awoken with side-effects from the cryosleep, or especially muddled thoughts, or panicked states -- tablet held idly in one hand, gaze on the spinning nebula outside. When he'd agreed to sign up for this expedition, he'd never quite been able to actually picture it. The howling vacuum of space held back only by a few feet of metal, the stars up close, the very real possibility of being able to reach out and touch new planets that nobody had ever seen before. He'd lived his entire life on Tellus, in one city, never traveling further than he had to.

And now here he is. Watching the vibrant dust of a nebula drift over a timespan of billions of years. A birthplace of stars. A cradle of new life.

He doesn't recognize any of the star configurations outside the window. ]

I hope somebody has confirmed if we're still even on course, though. And if there might be a way to navigate without accessing the bridge.

[ Jiaoqiu smiles; though it has every hallmark of being genuine, there's something nonetheless empty about it. A prop to reassure himself, to reassure his current company. ]

But I'm sure we're in good hands. How are you feeling?

Nebula

[plantussy]

[ Vash has put his hands on a window nearby, leaning his forehead against the transparent metal. He's taking in the stunning view, yes, but also taking a moment to breathe. There's grease on his cheek, his blue bodysuit is slightly dirty and he's still reeling a bit from the chaos. ]

Unknown territory. I knew that was part of the mission, but it's still... a lot.

[ He turns to give Jiaoqiu a smile, even if it doesn't quite reach his eyes. It's a decent mask, though. ]

I think any of the engine staff are looking at the redundant systems, but... yeah. We're in good hands. It's a good crew.

[ It's a half-dead crew. ]

I'm managing. How are you?

[ The other man might be medical staff, but Vash can't help but be concerned, anyway. ]

skeleton crew

[tarakan]

What?

[ Hilbert looks at Jiaoqiu like he's a goddamn idiot before continuing, ]

Why would we remove remains? This is active scene! No, remains will be moved after we take notes. Are there signs of trauma, hints of decay, any clues that can tell us what happened.

[ There's a hint of excitement in Hilbert's voice. This is a mystery. And he loves a good mystery. ]

Skeletons!

[lastdecember]

[ His head is spinning -- no, his head is pounding, the meat of his brain thudding against the walls of his skull like something small and feathered trying frantically to escape. They were trained for emergencies as part of the overall preparation for this mission, but he'd been expecting the more mundane kinds of problems -- running out of supplies, damage to the air scrubbers, possibly a bout of stomach flu that would incapacitate the crew. Not this. Nothing like this.

But his legs work, even if his mind is a whirl, and L3TH3 is still operational so he's got his orders -- report to his station and get power restored. With clear directions to follow, Operations Specialist Wolfwood stumbles down the hallway, pointedly ignoring the bodies he passes until he comes to one with a fellow -- living -- crewmember at its side. ]

My stomach's fine.

[ He'll realize shortly that Jiaoqiu meant his metaphorical stomach, but he's still in shock and so his thinking is as blunt as his words. ]

You can't help 'em. They're dead. We've gotta get to our stations.

waking up

[itdoesntlikeyou]

[ooc: only if you're up for more tag-ins!]

[ Jiaoqiu might be forgiven for mistaking this particular individual for one of the mechs. Their legs, curled defensively in front of them, are bare metallic struts, prostheses built entirely to fill the purpose of functionality with no consideration made for aesthetic, either in the form of appearing like normal human limbs or functioning as a deliberate deviation from it.

But their reaction isn't robotic, not at all.

Rin reacts to the flash of white and the voice by jerking back sharply enough that their back thunks distinctly against the wall. Their first breath is sharp, startled - reflex, more than obeying the instruction. It's followed by another, more measured, as they ease deliberately out of their initial defensive reaction.]

Fine.

[The answer emerges reflexively, as they move to stand, more flashes of metal peeking out under the sleeves of their cryosleep scrubs as they start to lever themself to their feet. It's a stiff and fumbling movement, and from the annoyance that flickers across their face, they know how the effort shows.]

Alexander Hilbert | Wolf 359

[tarakan]

waking up
Everything's blurry.

Hilbert's gasping for air, he's pulling himself out of that cryopod, he's blinking, trying to focus, trying to stay calm despite the fact that his brain is working on all cylinders and he still can't clearly see and something has to be wrong—

—glasses, his brain supplies. You need to find your glasses. The analytical part of Hilbert's brain takes over, shunting this as a problem he can deal with later. The emergency signal is going off? His brain is still rattling from the cryosleep? He's not entirely sure what happened or what he needs to do? Those are all problems that will be dealt with later. Right now, there is something he can do and something he will do. Find glasses first, solve mystery later.

In a voice that's even deeper and raspier than his normal deep voice (thanks, disuse from cryosleep!), Hilbert turns to the nearest person and croaks, "Personal belongings. They must be here, yes?"

skeleton crew - pt. 1
It's probably a bad sign that Hilbert is looking at the desiccated skeleton with what could possibly be awe and what is definitely interest. The infection has been fully sanitized, yes, but what infection? What was it? What could it do? If it is still here, still on the bridge, then it could possibly be cured. And Captain Ego over here is already thinking of ideas on how to cure it.

Anyone who spots him will find Hilbert bent over the skeleton, making field notes on his small little hard light tablet, eyes shining with excitement. When he hears someone enter, he'll immediately look up to point out,

"Do not jettison this specimen just yet. Further study is required."

Buddy, don't call people specimens. On the bright side, at least he's found his glasses?

skeleton crew - pt. 2
Is Hilbert in medical? Possibly? Possibly not? What matters is that he's used the chaos of the situation to commandeer a spot in the medical bay to run a bunch of experiments on one of the skeletons he's dragged over. The body is laid out on a table as Hilbert scans over it with the medical scanner, taking slices of the bone to analyze, making even more notes on his hard light tablet, fully in his element. (And yes, the scanner can run all sorts of scans. Hilbert's still taking physical samples anyway. Better safe than sorry!)

Yes, this is a mysterious situation and the fact that they've all revived from cryosleep to a completely dead crew is a little terrifying. But on the other hand, there's science! And science can possibly solve one of those questions.

Anyone who enters the medbay will get Hilbert looking up for a moment before he grumbles, "If you are not actively bleeding, you can wait. Running radioscopic array at the moment, very important, very finicky."

Waking up

[lastdecember]

Fuck but his head hurts! Operations Specialist Wolfwood has managed to get himself out of his cryopod, but moving any further -- walking at all, really -- is still a couple minutes in the future. The whole room is spinning, his stomach feels adrift, like the gravity isn't turned on high enough, and every joint in his body aches. This isn't what waking from cyro is supposed to feel like. This isn't right at all. Wolfwood squeezes his eyes tightly shut and tries to remember how to breathe -- slow and deep, some remnent of his training helpfully reminds him. Slow and deep, and calm.

He doesn't feel very calm. He feels like there's something very very wrong.

But then there's a voice from nearby that thankfully gives him something to focus on other than the growing horror that something inside him is wrong, that he thawed out incorrectly, that this isn't quite real. Squinting in the red blinking light of the emergency strobes, Wolfwood can just barely make out the blurred edges of another crewmember, who sounds just as wrecked as he feels.

Deep breath. Do your job.

"Revival room."

He's not sure where it is from here, although there should be a tether at each pod to follow. Rubbing his palms roughly over his eyes doesn't do much to clear his vision, but it makes him feel better so he does it again, and this time the sensation helps bring the world somewhat back into focus.

"Follow the... th'cord. Tether."

Deep and slow, and calm. Calm.

"You okay?"

skeleton crew pt.1

[no1cupcake]

The person who enters the room is definitively a woman from security, considering what she's wearing and the gun she has out. She looks... quite on edge. She doesn't point a gun at Hilbert, but at the skeleton, as if waiting for it to spring up suddenly with the help of undeath or whatever this plague was.

But when it didn't move, she lowered the gun and continued looking around.

"I don't intend to do so. I am making sure none of these things are actually alive and attacking people."

She's read some creepy stuff, who knows how much of it is true. There was a moment of silence, and she slowly approached the desk he worked at but made sure she stayed out of the way, on the side.

"Did they really die of the disease?"

skeleton crew II

[spacezombie]

[ Science!

A rather heavily modified elheen woman steps inside the medbay and gives Hilbert a look before waving her hand a bit. ]

Yes, yes, darling. You do that.

[ At least she's careful and quiet as she moves around. She brings out her CL10 from the side of her green suit and starts going over the medical inventory. Finding what she needs, Nadie loads up her bracelet and then glances back at the man. ]

Do you need a hand? It's quite a load of bodies even if you plan on taking control samples.

Skeleton Crew - Pt 1

[anesthetic_rage]

Damned, bloody doctors and their damned bloody fascinations. There was something in the word he used to describe the corpse. Specimen. It was there for almost a second and then flitted away like so much butter on a hotplate. Zaeed grimaced and acknowledged the request, keeping his mask up and hoping to whatever was listening that it was filtering out anything he needed filtered out.

"Right. Have to check it out and see if there's anything left I suppose," Definitely a little gravelly and wooden when he said it. "We need to get this somewhere secure if we're not going to remove it. Preferably air-tight sealed."

Caitlyn Kiramman | Arcane

[no1cupcake]

1. Waking Up

[Caitlyn gasps in pain as sudden air fills her lungs and she's shunted out of cryopod onto the cold surface of the room. She coughs violently, gasping, reaching out for something to grab onto and prop herself up; the nearest surface ends up being the pod she got ejected out of.

Through the blares of emergency lights, her eyes instinctively move to scan the surroundings, noting a few others heading for the revival room. She can feel something is wrong with her, it's making her sick, but not enough to stop her from getting up and going into the revival room.

Her calculating eyes scan the people, disoriented, some fine, some worse for wear. And when another person stumbles into the room from behind her, she helps them sit over on the chair.]

It's going to be fine- okay? I've got you-- [She turns to the locker behind her and starts going through the items- there should be some sort of medicine in here for nausea and stabilizing after cryo sleep.] -- there has to be something in here.

2. Skeleton in the Closet

[It took some considerable time for Caitlyn to get her wits about her. Luckily for everyone, the revival room had more than enough items for them to stock up on- she is finally in her security uniform and even found her gun, which needs some modifications, but she can do that later.

However, they can't stay forever in this room, not when there's an emergency light blaring. They HAVE to go out and see what's going on before they crash or worse.

She did not expect to see... skeletons. With careful steps, drawing her gun, pointing at it, she takes careful steps to it, then around it, and doesn't take her cyber-eye off of it until she reaches the console on the other side.]

Plague? Power to be restored? Are these... people dead from the plague? [She is talking to herself mostly, not spotting a person walking up beside her to read the same message.] Or maybe it's the lack of power - oh-! I'm sorry. [She steps back letting them read the message.]

Any idea how we can restore the power? [She's no engineer, unfortunately.]

3. Nebula

a. Relaxation Zone: [The more people fill in the rooms and corridors and get to the tasks of supporting each other, the more... encouraged Caitlyn feels. She goes from one person to the other, listening in on some of their experiences, either from waking up, theories on skeletons, or where they might be right now.

The last question made her wander off to the nearest, big window, where she stared at the vast expanse, beautiful shifting colors, and questions that needed to be answered.]

I wonder where we could get some answers... if L3TH3 has something for us stored in the computers.

[She turns to the person who came to check out the outside as well,] Do you think the officer's chambers are accessible? If there's any recorded data... [she trails off, muttering to herself all the possibilities on how to find some answers about where they are.]

b. Holodecks: [It is both reassuring and concerning that people have been jumping straight back into virtual training. Then again, she is here too, isn't she? Her entire body still feels numb, especially her fingers. She has to do some target practice less she loses her edge.

She picks up one of the training guns and starts a distant shooting program, going up in levels steadily that by the end of it, some targets seem almost impossible to even see. Yet Caitlyn's cyber-eye focuses at that moment and she manages to find the target that, according to the simulation, is miles away.

Stepping back, she heaves a breath, finally smiling,] Still got it. Which reminds me, I need to modify my gun before it's too late...

Wildcard: [Anything goes here! Here is my AU Workshop if you want to plot something out/ have suggestions OR reach me here Syndra or in PMs]

Nebula

[plantussy]

There was nothing in the power logs.

[ Vash replies as the woman approaches, giving her at attempt at a smile. There wasn't much to smile about, but he needed to at least try. For everyone else.

He leans against the window, still taking in the beauty of where they ended up. The light colors his blues almost fully purple. ]

If you have the right clearance, you could probably check. I think they're only accessible to security and the officers themselves.

[ He pauses. ]

...that said, have you seen any officers? We couldn't find the Chief Engineer.

Vash the Stampede 🥬 Trigun Stampede

[plantussy]

Waking Up

[ Oooouch. That is not a nice way to wake up. Sure, it was never great to wake up from cryo sleep, but the calm way of slowly remembering you had a body was far different from being punched in the guts and then immediately overstimulated by a hundred things going on.

While Vash tries to drag his ass to the revival room, he stops at some of the other cryo pods to check if it's having the same issue. Maybe he can help someone else? If not, however, he'll keep on floating. Something was wrong, after all, and that may be a little more important than his endless need to help.

Once in the room, he's quick to find and open his locker, getting his blue uniform out and changing into it. The fancy seaglass-like arm is next, and Vash hisses slightly as his nerves attach. ]

Okay. Okay. Is everyone alright?

[ He asks, rubbing his shoulder and then taking out the CL-10 to check it. ]

Skeleton Crew

[ This is all wrong. So very, very wrong. Everyone's dead, and it... well. It feels weirdly familiar and that's horrifying but he can't stop to help right now. Power needs to be restored and he's almost tripping over his feet to get to the main power generator.

Elevator rides have never been slower. The blares of alarms feels like people screaming, and it isn't until he reaches D-Level that his heart stops hammering as hard. At least this is something he knows. ]

Hey, give me a hand?

[ He asks any other people gathered outside the stable cold fusion generator. He even wiggles his prosthetic one to lighten the mood. ]

I gotta check the ion flow.

Nebula

[ The power is on. The dead are being laid to rest along the stars. Vash Saverem is leaning his back against one of the large windows that paint him in hues of pink and purple. There are smears of grease and dust on his cheek and his bodysuit is a bit dirty... but at least they made it.

So far.

A water bottle is untouched next to him, but hydrating is far from his mind right now. He fled Tellus to get away from his brother, and now this? Drifting through unknown space, their commanding officer locked in the bridge and crew woken up randomly rather in the right batches? It's all chaos.

It's not until he hears footsteps of someone approaching - or passing by - that his vacant look finally gives into a smile and nod in greeting. ]

Hey! Do you need to sit for a while?

Nebula

[lastdecember]

[ He's not sure when it happens, but at some point Operations Specialist Wolfwood turns back to his console and sees all green lights. Inventory is stable and all accounted for, the power's back on, the hallways have been cleared, and there's nothing else for him to do.

Without instructions, without purpose, Wolfwood drifts through the corridors, his head still on an anxious swivel as he peers into every room he passes, checking for problems he can throw himself into. Without something to keep himself busy he can't help but start thinking again about the wrongness of this whole situation. What kind of disease kills so quickly? Why did L3TH3 wait so long to wake them? When will his head stop hurting?

The next room he checks is occupied, and he's about to give his fellow crewmember a nod and leave them be when the man calls him over. Eager for any distraction from his own spiraling thoughts, Wolfwood stomps over -- the stomping is fatigue, not anger, but who's to say how it reads to others? -- and drops heavily right onto the floor on the other side of that big window. ]

What the hell's happening here?

[ There's no reason for this guy to have answers Wolfwood doesn't, but wouldn't it be nice if he did? ]

erwin smith. attack on titan.

[theomachy]

waking up

[ there's a window of timw where erwin stays in the cryo bay. even as he stands on shaking legs he's looking around pointedly like he's searching for someone he expected to be nearby.

his head hurts and his vision remains blurry for far too long; his prosthetic arm is sluggish too and it takes him a moment to get the fingers to flex properly. the press and drag of memory is disorienting and overwhelming; he briefly looks like he might vomit before he manages to steel himself.

l3th3 speaking isn't a surprise but he stops stock-still to listen anyway. he looks around the revival room as well and continues while he gets ready. his training trumps most things: he gets his equipment, gets dressed, and does one final visual pass before heading out even though his head is pounding.

his voice is steady by the time he speaks to the person next to him, low and even. ]

If you need help meeting up with your department, I can help.

skeleton crew

[ as a member of specops, it's his job to make sure the rest of the crew is safe and able to do their duties in scenarios exactly like this. or, well, a lot like this. training was extensive, but it isn't as though it could cover literally every possible scenario. drifting, unpowered ships? sure. pandemics? absolutely. assisting cleanup after events have been completed? of course.

stepping up to a console and finding out that the entire crew that was awake twenty years ago is now dead is jarring, to say the least. it doesn't make him less competent or steadfast in his duties, but it is turning over in his mind repeatedly every time he passes another body.

he makes periodic stops to check on people. those heading to the bridge will get a sharp shake of his head as he guides their paths elsewhere to where they belong for their assigned position. people panicking he'll stay with longer, offering any moral support he can though it seems to be more of a motivational speech than anything.

he helps gather up the dead.

there's a point where he looks into a room and there's a whole grouping of dead that look like they'd been trying to get through a particular door. his expression remains staid, but his voice is low when he speaks to whoever may be nearby. ]

It must have gotten more and more desperate with each section of the ship that got quarantined off from the rest.

nebula/etc

[ it's easy enough to find erwin when things have calmed down enough to give him a moment to breathe. he's at a huge window standing at parade rest as he looks out into the vastness of space, at stars he's never seen and the beautiful, dangerous unknown.

at length, he says: ]

Amazing to think how endless the possibilities are out here, how no matter how many of something there may be, none of them will be exactly the same. Stars, planets, entire nebulas, and galaxy systems. Everything has something new to offer.

skeleton crew

[plantussy]

[ After getting power on, Vash finds himself helping with the dead and being one of the people carefully collecting any bracelets he can find. That way, they could put a name on each of the deceased.

Stepping up next to Edwin, he looks at the gathered skeletons and then closes his eyes. ]

It must have been chaos. Terrifying. I can't even imagine.

[ He wipes some grime off his blue engineering suit with his teal-green crystalline hand and then gives the other man a strained but polite smile. ]

Ah, Vash Saverem.

Nicholas D Wolfwood | Trigun Maximum -- Operations Specialist

[lastdecember]

1. Skeleton Crew
The sight is grim: bodies everywhere, crewmates – and possibly friends, family, loved ones – lying dead where they fell, so rotten that there’s no way to tell just at a glance who is who.

Who used to be who.

Operations Specialist Wolfwood isn’t a doctor, or a priest, or an undertaker. When he stops at the nearest dead body it’s not to examine the remains for cause of death, or to wish their soul well, or even to gather their bodies for burial. That will come later – what Wolfwood’s doing is collecting leashes. One by one he stops at each corpse and removes their CAL-1.0-PE status bracelet, as dispassionately as if he were picking up a piece of trash off the ground. He makes a note in his log about the location of the body, scans the status bracelet for the identity of the deceased, and tosses the bracelet into his satchel.

He could use some help – there’s a lot more bodies to identify.

-------------------------------------------------------

2. Get to work! (Skeleton Crew II: Son of Skeleton)
Some of the crew who have been awakened seem to know exactly what to do – they get to their stations, they get to work, they’re already swarming the ship clearing away the dead, working on the generator, stalking through the halls looking for the cause of all this chaos.

Some of the crew, however, aren’t doing so well.

Anyone Wolfwood passes who looks frightened, confused, anyone who isn’t actively working on something, is getting grabbed by the arm and pulled towards the middle of the ship, where the supplies that stock all B-level are stored.

“I need a hand, thanks for volunteerin’.”

It doesn’t matter what department they’re with, or what their usual job is: if anyone looks too overwhelmed, if they’re standing around in a panic without any idea where to go, congrats. They’ve just been recruited to Forklift Tech III, and they’re going to be helping Wolfwood reorganize crates of toiletries and foodstuffs.

No, it’s not essential. No, it doesn’t need to be done right now. But some folks need to be kept busy in a crisis, and Wolfwood’s here to put those frightened hands to work.

-------------------------------------------------------

3. Nebula
The power might be back on, but the emergency is far from over, as far as Wolfwood’s concerned. Sometimes around 0230, ship time, anyone whose CL10 tablet isn’t set to Do Not Disturb will receive a brief text message:

FROM: OPE_N_WOLFWOOD
TO: CREW_ALL

Just because we’re a small shift is no reason to be wasteful. Turn down the lights when you leave an area and stop messing with the environmental controls. If you're cold put on a damn jacket.

SCI_N_VYRALIS to OPE_N_WOLFWOOD

[spacezombie]

I agree with the lights, but the environmental controls are being tested at the moment, so you'll have to excuse the on-and-off.

[ Why, yes she's working at two in the morning, and yes, it's probably unhealthy. ]

Cole | OC

[jaiet]

Wake me up (Wake me up inside) Waking Up:

[ Amidst the blaring sound of alarm, there's a hiss of gas that spews out from one of the pods, with a series of clicks and whirrs as the hatch opens up. The fogged up glass obscured the person's identity, but Cole reveals herself as she falls out of the cryo tube like a stiff log. There's a loud thud of what sounded like metal pipe hitting the ground, with Cole slamming face first. ]

Blurghhh....

[ She groans, not making any effort to move or speak. Not that it's an easy task to do, either. So Cole just lies down on the cold grated pathway of the cryobay catwalk, eventually raising a hand to beckon for some help. ]

Hey... Heyyy... Anyone? Help me up.

Skeleton Crew:

Whoa-whoa-whoa! What the hell-?!

[ Suddenly the languid Cole is sprung with energy as the shock of seeing a skeleton inside a familiar-looking suit scared her. She feels herself jump a few feet back, feeling her shoulders hit the wall as her hands desperately touch at any surface within reach, hoping there's something she can grab as a weapon. She eventually grabs a wrench and raises it up, only to hesitate at the last second once her reason starts to keep up with her instincts. ]

...

[ She looks around with a gulp, still feeling the rush of her blood warming her body up after many years in cryo. She points at the skeleton like she's ordering a dog. ]

No! Stay!

[ Once more, she looks around for someone, anyone who looks alive. She's not near any console to talk to the AI. ]

Nebula:

[ Once she's got time to relax and feel the shock wane, Cole finds a bench at the observation deck. She pulls her legs up and hugs them, letting her chin rest on her knees while her weary eyes just look at the wine-colored vastness before her. Cole got herself a drink that she put beside her spot; taking a second to look at it over her shoulder, and another to observe it more closely. It's all real now, and this will be her first drink in a long time. Her mind wanders about how it will taste to how her body will react to it, with her more serious worries about the future lingering in the recesses of her mind, waiting for their time to be at the forefront.

She wasn't ready for this. She isn't ready for this. Cole can only sigh as she cracks the container open for a big chug. She sighs out an "ah", keeping that instance in her memory as a reminder that she's alive. It's only ruined by the little belch that follows. Which of course happens when there's someone nearby. ]

Whew~ Gross.

[ Cole chuckles sheepishly. Not for letting one out, but rather getting caught by a stranger. ]

waking up

[flavourtown]

[ People have been waking up from cryosleep in a myriad of ways -- mostly groggy, mostly very clumsily. Jiaoqiu is lucky that he got his waits about him earlier than some, as it means he can then use his gained time to help others. Having donned his Medical white bodysuit, he's in the middle of running a new awakener through a battery of tests with his scanner when a loud clang sounds behind him.

Alarmed, Jiaoqiu glances over his shoulder, to see... a young woman face first on the metal floor.

Oh dear.

He hastily tells the person he's seeing to that they're fine -- they are! no symptoms! -- and moves, crouching down next to the woman on the floor. ]

That sounded like it hurt. [ There's a touch of an amused smile in his tone, but mostly just sympathy. ] Here, can you roll over? Or would you like some help? You'll no doubt have a bruise or two, but the real worry is post-cryosleep reactions. Hallucinations, limb numbness, tingling in the extremities. Are you experiencing any of those?

Zaeed Massani | Mass Effect (Security): CW for mentions of possible contagion/disease vectors

[anesthetic_rage]

Wake Up, Soldier!
[He coughed up a lung-full, hacking as he got slowly to his feet. His gaze was down at his hands for a moment, as if remembering seeing them for the first time. Everything was initially foggy and his head felt like it was full of static. Another hack and something came back to him. Zaeed. He was Zaeed. The thought of his last briefings before going into cryo sleep came to him, and of the expectations on waking. Nothing was right. Something was deeply wrong. He breathed slowly, getting to his feet and taking one step, then another. By the third, his knees felt steady again and he could feel everything starting to kick in, muscle memory a more sure than than the jumble of thoughts in his head.

Seeing someone else nearby, he moved towards them with a steady gait that picked up quickly.]

On your feet. You heard the orders. We're good to move, let's get to it.

[The more he began to act on orders, the faster it felt logical... normal. This was just what you did. You adapted, you followed orders that made sense. Or? You died.]

Skeleton Crews (CW: Crass references to possible contagions.)
[He was suited up, hard light rifle at the ready and set to non-lethal settings. They'd been given no orders that the ship had been infiltrated, so anyone that they encountered was bound to be crewmen. He'd be damned if he was about to reduce the scant number of crew they had, or not find out a reason from someone on this bloody, forsaken tug that was awake why they were in this rotten mess. So, non-lethal it was.

When he rounded the corner, taking point with his current partner, it was very quickly apparent that the hard-light weapon was not going to be needed, not unless this was a B-rated horror holo-vid. Grimacing with a grim look, he approached the body, looking down at it and holding a hand up, beckoning them to follow.]

Down, dead. Careful about contact. We don't know if there's some sort of infection. Standard Contagion controls in place. Keep your mask up.

[Fuck, he'd have to find this one's dog tags for identification and see to their incineration. Body left like this for long enough to decay? Who knew what might be growing in it. Couldn't risk it once the egg-heads were done.]

Nebula
Damned rotten mess.

[He was sitting with a drink, somehow wishing that it was stiffer if that was possible. Couldn't risk that just now. Even if he was relaxed, he had to keep his head sharp... or at least as sharp as his dull brain could manage right now. Seated in view of the nebula, he glanced out at it with his good eye, grizzled and scarred features oddly hued from the strange colors that flowed into the ship through the window. His lips were pulled in something close to a perpetual snarl, though it did not take in the person opposite him as he attempted to get his adrenaline to stop spiking. His wristband was still noting raised levels, though they were slowly dropping.]

Whoever's responsible for this fuck up, I'd say I want their ass, but they're probably one of the sorry souls we spaced today.

[Never was much of a diplomat.]

Skeleton Crews

[whowatches]

[Somehow, she'd ended up having to follow this serious security guy. Well... whatever. If there is some kind of hostile threat, she feels better if she doesn't have to try and fight it. Who's gonna fix up the ship if she gets damaged?

10H peaks around the corner as Zaeed goes to look at the body. She gasps, quietly, at the sight.]

Oh...

[It's one thing to hear about the crew dying, and another thing to see the remains. She's kind of glad she doesn't have an organic stomach, or it'd be flipping right now.

Even so, she groans at Zaeed's orders. It gives her a distraction. Masks up...] Do we have to? The AI said the contagion's contained to the bridge now. Besides, we need to-- [Her voice catches, for a second, as she looks at the body] ...You know. Give them a proper send-off.

10H | Nier Reincarnation | Engineering or Ops

[whowatches]

☾ WAKING UP

[Cryo's a breeze for her, because going into statis mode is always a lot easier for her than what the organic crewmates have to go through. It's a nice nap, really. Even if she's never done a cryosleep this long before, she's sure it'll be fine.

And it probably would have been, if not for the errors. Her systems blare alerts alongside the ship, a sharp sting of pain waking her up. Such a quick reboot hurts, and the memory leak in her systems feels even worse.

Suffice to say, she stumbles out of her pod and falls to the floor with a loud thud. She manages to push herself up at least a little bit, gripping her head.]

Run self-repair systems in quadrant-- ah, ah, no, that's not right -- is that the ship screaming?

☾ SKELETON CREW

[Okay, so. Things are not good. Things are really not good. The first console she came to gave some basic info, but it was an offshoot console. She needs to find one of the main ones so she can get in and run some actual diagnostics...

Unfortunately for her, the closet one she can find is blocked by bodies. Quite a number of bodies. ]

Come oooon!

[Anyone passing by will see her trying to pull the crew from the pile they ended up in. She's moved one, but this one is much bigger and has heavier armor.]

Um. Can you give me a hand, here?

☾ NEBULA

[It's easy to find 10H, because she's glued to the window. At first she was marveling, but now she just leans against the glass and stares out at it. As if she could decode it for answers. As if the vastness might reply to them.]

I guess I did sign up for something different. [She hums, not talking to anyone in particular.] If we're going to drift aimlessly, at least it's a nice view...

Waking Up

[itdoesntlikeyou]

Not audibly.

[It could be a sarcastic answer, and it does sound a little sarcastic coming out of the person close by in the recovery cubicle - but the half-second of quiet before the response might mean it was a genuine answer.

They stop prodding dourly at their legs for just long enough to turn their eyes in 10H's general direction before averting them again.]

Interface connection established?

Murderbot | The Murderbot Diaries

[itdoesntlikeyou]

[Waking Up]

[No one reacts well to the sudden shock of their revival - and with the medical staff also getting revived at the same time, it's no wonder some are there longer than others. This particular figure - middle height, mid-brown skin, mid-brown hair about an inch short and mussed from the trip from their pod - has kept a decided distance from everyone, even - especially? - any doctors trying to get close, after literally crawling their way along the tether.

They're sitting on a storage locker they've appropriated for that purpose, one ankle propped on the opposite knee. No grogginess there - hyper-vigilance seems to be the name of the game. Every time something moves, rattles, flashes a new color, eyes flick to it, for just an instant.

This would be the time to gear up and go, for anyone with this amount of paranoid energy - but it's the 'get up and go' part that seems to be the problem. One leg, black metal and immediately obvious as a prosthetic, is moving just fine. The other they're prodding at, as the thing continues not to twitch.]

[Skeleton Crew]

[At some point the bodies have to be surveyed.

It's a grim, grudging task, but someone - someones - need to do it. It's a task that this particular newly-awoken crew member, introduced as 'Rin,' to anyone who decides to be insistent about asking, has apparently taken on, going down the hall into each new room, taking a grim inventory of the dead.]

Third one in here.

[It's said from the doorway, inflectionless as Rin stares through, not yet entering the space. Amazing, how quickly the shock disappears. Or maybe it's just dissociation.]

On the floor. Just as diss - uh. Shriveled.

How many people were on the crew?

[Nebula...?]

[It really is a gorgeous view. A gift, after the claustrophobia of the pod, and the panic and confusion of this abrupt return to awareness and the looming, unknown shit-list of potential emergencies. Dead bodies to deal with, equipment to fix, rosters to take and an AI to question. There's a million things to do, and rest and recuperation belong somewhere on the list.

Too bad Rin has promptly blocked their own view of the nebula, and probably that of anyone trying to see past them, by enlarging the CL-10's hard light tablet screen to wide-screen monitor size, and is staring at it. The screen is flickering through various menus, sub-menus, and keyword searches, without visible gesturing or audible commands - some sort of neural implant control. And on the hard-light screen, images scroll by, one by one.

... Is that the media database?]

[ooc note: For the AU version of MB I'll be using various names and 'they' pronouns. This character in the Murderbot Diaries canon uses 'it' pronouns, and I'll swap to those in some circumstances. If Tellurian has a non-gendered pronoun that doesn't distinguish between people and objects, something like the spoken 'ta' in mandarin chinese, please consider MB to be using that. ]