Event

[mnemosynecrew]

EVENT

WARNING
WARNING

mnemosyne emergency

an unidentified mass has appeared
heading in our direction at 384,400 km per hour
approximately 3 standard miles in length

WARNING
shields deployed
weapons armed
all crew, brace for possible attack

The alarms are blaring again; a shrill, repetitive wail that's almost become a background hum with how often it seems to activate on the Mnemosyne. Unidentified mass? Like an asteroid? A ship? Space junk? Whatever it is, it's heading towards the ship - and once the imaging feed from outside opens up on the CL-10s, it's clear that it's not just a mass. It's a presence.

A single eye, the size of a shuttlecraft, flickers at the edge of the visual spectrum - a bright blue that catches the faint light of distant stars. No. Not just an eye. The entire creature - if 'creature' is even the right word - looks back at the ship. It's enormous, but strangely graceful, drifting in the vacuum of space with a fluidity that defies the laws of motion. It's not like a ship, nothing with defined angles or rigid shapes. No, the way it moves is mesmerizing, almost hypnotic - its form so alien, it defies any conventional language to describe it.


A rush of emotions - almost like a wave - slams into the crew. At first, there's a sense of greeting. It's not aggression, not even a threat, but a deep curiosity. Confusion follows, the weight of the creature's thoughts pressing against the minds on board the Mnemosyne, as if it’s trying to make sense of this new thing in front of it. It's not hostile, but it's so... large. The thoughts are like a flood of information too big to contain. Its mind is overwhelming. Its presence is overwhelming.

Then, almost immediately, there's an apology - soft, almost embarrassed, like a giant gently realizing it may have startled something much smaller, much more fragile. The mental touch it extends is almost a caress, hesitant, unsure. As though the being recognizes that its mind and the minds of the crew aren't compatible in scale.

Its presence diminishes just slightly, becoming less imposing; more delicate, respectful. Then there is a strange moment of stillness. The whole ship feels seen in ways it hasn't before. The crew can sense it - this creature doesn't want to hurt them. No. It just wants to understand.

As the seconds stretch into minutes, something even stranger begins to happen. The creature begins to mirror the movements of the ship. Not in a mechanical way, but in a fluid, almost playful fashion. It doesn't pursue but rather matches pace with the Mnemosyne. The way it shifts its limbs is with the grace and elegance of an ancient being who has mastered the art of subtlety.

A pulse of mental energy, like a heartbeat, radiates through the crew again. It's gentle, this time, like the creature is apologizing once more, sensing the crew's discomfort. The flood of emotion begins to soften, as though it's trying to find the right way to approach. Something about it is pure curiosity - deep, boundless curiosity. Not unlike how a child might marvel at a new toy.

Congratulations! The Mnemosyne has made its first new alien contact in this part of space.

---

Welcome to the first mid-month event! The alien is friendly, if a little too huge, and will only communicate via emotions rather than words. The ship will have its shields deployed the entire time - and if people read the data collected from the creature, it has the same unknown element to it as the traces left after the collision that shut off the power systems.

On the 19th, it will leave the Mnemosyne and open a strange portal to swim into and disappear - which also explains its sudden appearance and how L3TH3 couldn't find a source of the blast.

Comments

QUESTIONS

[mnemosynecrew]

Re: QUESTIONS

[itdoesntlikeyou]

I know the ship has viewing windows, but I'm guessing it also has outside scanners or something as well that could record data on this thing - where would those be accessed and who would have access to them?

[mnemosynecrew]

The long-range scanners are only available in the Bridge, but all crewmembers can get readings and record data of the alien once it's next to the ship (and up to a few miles).

ALIEN INTERACTIONS

[mnemosynecrew]

[itdoesntlikeyou]

[The first overwhelming wave of curiosity makes Rin freeze in their tracks. There's too much sensory input to even dare trying, and Rin's instincts scream at them: STOP MOVING.

When the wave passes, it feels a bit like someone's gone into their head and rattled everything around, so the way they react is more like an instinctive response, reaching for the mental connections they use to format their neural interface interactions with the CL-10. It's not a message they can 'send', but it's the only way they can think to respond to something 'looming' in their head like this.]

What do you want from us

[mnemosynecrew]

Curious

Curious

Happy

[itdoesntlikeyou]

[It's a weird feeling - for two reasons. First, it's a weird kind of deja-vu that strikes them, the feeling of some presence leaning over them. Secondly, because they're not expecting it to be this... positive. They still don't like it. ]

Don't get too close to the ship.

[metrop_lois]

[It's the feeling of wanting to understand that really hooks Lois. The initial pressure isn't pleasant by any means and it's guilt after is decidedly familiar but that feeling of wanting to understand ... well, it's sort of like deja vu all over again.

She does go over to one of the port windows to peep out to whatever it might be and boy is what she can see of it alien alright. It's just in time to feel the curiosity too and she outright grins at it.]

Well hey there, big guy ... [she pauses a moment and then laughs a little] or girl? Sorry.

[No, wait, there's no way it can hear her. It's communicating with raw emotions right? Maybe? Like any good field researcher Lois tests by trying to think of how it feels to greet someone warmly. Her mind flickers to the friends she had in training but frankly she feels more warmth thinking of the cloudy figures she can only sort of remember.

She thinks of them then and the warmth of seeing them again.]

[mnemosynecrew]

Curious

Warm
Happy

Adore
Adore

[metrop_lois]

[Okay, that's adorable. Lois grins a little stupidly maybe but she's more than happy to have something new to explore. It's not attacking and seems to ... adore them? Maybe? She wants to ask what exactly it adores but it's only giving out feelings here so.

Her curiosity pushes through over anything else. She's curious and calm, more interested in the big creature than tentative or scared. Heck she'll stand here exchanging curious and happy emotions with the big guy (or girl) for a good while if it wants!]

[lastdecember]

[ In his cell, there's nothing Wolfwood can do about the blaring alarms other than pounding on the hard light barrier and calling out increasingly frantic demands to be released. All the noise stops in an instant when that giant mind reaches out, striking the ship hard with a wave of curiosity. Wolfwood freezes right where he's at, mid-strike, as every instinct screams at him to be silent, to be small, to go unmoving before something so big in the hopes that it doesn't see him.

He doesn't say a word, doesn't make a sound, but running through his head is a steady stream of go away go away don't hurt us don't hurt the ship, just go away

What the fuck is out there?! ]

[mnemosynecrew]

Curious
Curious

Cute
Like

Happy

[lastdecember]

[ Wait. Wait just one goddamn second, did whatever's out there just mentally coo at them? Like they're ducklings?! ]

Hello?

[ There's no way it can hear him -- that's ridiculous -- but if it wants to communicate then by fuck he's gonna communicate with it! After all, it's already seen them -- there's no point in trying to keep hiding. Best they can hope for is to make friends, and with any luck they won't end up in a cage back in this thing's house to be cooed at until they run out of air. ]

We, uh. We come in peace?

[ He's still terrified -- his mind was not designed to handle feeling anyone else's feeling, especially not at that scale! -- but it's okay, he thinks, if it knows he's afraid. It can't think they're a threat, and shouldn't know that they're not working at full capacity -- injured cute things get eaten, out in the world. ]

[tarakan]

[ There's something about this, about making first contact with an unknown species that seems weirdly familiar to Hilbert. He tries to push it back, but it lingers in his head for the next few days.

Though he keeps up a stony outside, Hilbert's mind is a maelstrom of emotions that he's unintentionally directing at the creature. The top three sent the alien's way are suspicion, hesitancy, and deja vu. ]

[mnemosynecrew]

[ What Hilbert gets back is comforting, kind and happy. ]

Curious
Safe
Safe
Warm

Cute

[anesthetic_rage]

[He was on his way to the ship's guns when he doubled over from the weight of it all. The pressure. His mind roiled and he gripped the side of a portal, looking out into the void of space. There was a primal emotion as he scrambled, trying to understand what he saw, what was touching his mind. For the barest moment he almost thought... why was this familiar to him, but no it was gone like that. he didn't remember. He had no clue what he was looking at.

But it wasn't often that he experienced the emotion he did, and it was making his adrenaline spike. Zaeed... was afraid.]

[mnemosynecrew]

[ Fear was something it frets a bit about, as if it realizes it's too big for these adorable creatures. ]

Love
Warm
Safe

Curious
Curious
Cute

[theomachy]

[ erwin, meanwhile, is also one of the ones poring over readings. he's not a scientist, sure, but as a member of security he knows how much the ship can take should even an accidental bump occur. he has a burning curiosity about the thing in general, of course, but his first priority has to be everyone's safety and as such, concern and a little frustration are leaking into his emotional pool as well.

he stands, eventually, in one of the viewing decks, looking out into the vastness of space and also at the creature itself. ]

[mnemosynecrew]

Safe
Safe
Gentle

Curious

[action]

[itdoesntlikeyou]

First Contact

[Of course there's another alarm. Why the fuck wouldn't there be another alarm? They live alarm to alarm at this point. If there weren't any Rin would start to wonder if there's something wrong with L3TH3.

Still, an emergency is actually an emergency, so Rin reacts immediately, disentangling themselves from the computer guts they've been steadily working through to leave the Science corridors at a genuine run towards D-level engineering and the redundant systems. Their expression goes flat at the phrase 'unidentified mass'. They take a quarter of a second to process it, still running, and suppress an extremely frustrated sound.]

Ops better not be right about being fucking attacked.

[The last thing they need is for that idiot's paranoia being proven right. They're still picking up the pace, just in case. Hope no one is right around the corner. Hopefully no one's about to experience any strange and overwhelming forms of alien communication!]

The plural of data is data

[Throughout the next two days, Rin is never found without their Cl-10, no matter where on the ship they are. They're not always looking at it, but there's always the live feed of the ship's visitor up next to them, another few screens running next to it with a bunch of numbers constantly running. Every few minutes Rin turns their attention back to the screen, poking through the various windows. More than a few times they forget what they're doing in the mess in favor of staring at their CL-10 - hope there wasn't anyone who wanted to get past them for food, or anything.

Mostly they're holed up in Sciences, buried in sensor feeds where they can actually steal a few extra terminals for the various numbers they're collecting. They're very determined about it.

... Ignore that leash beep, they sure are. Never mind that it aligned with a gentle wave of curiosity rolling over the ship again.]

data

[tarakan]

[ This really isn't the sort of situation where Medical can do much. Sure, if the giant space alien smashed the ship or fried someone's brain, then Hilbert could help. But he knows he's not going to be the sort of person to help work through mental quandaries like 'the extraterrestrial is powerful enough to beam it's emotions directly into my mind' or 'the extraterrestrial thought I was cute.' That's Makima's line of work.

So instead, he makes his way to Science division. As he spots Rin, Hilbert clears his throat. Hey buddy, someone else is here. ]

I find myself with not much to do at the moment. What help do you need running tests, interpreting data, finding materials, et cetera?

[ aka give him something to do. ]

[itdoesntlikeyou]

[Rin doesn't look up from where they've slumped down in their chair, arms folded across their chest as they watch the numbers streaming across the screen. They've been here a while and clearly made themself comfortable, though there's none of the usual collections of mugs or food packaging that people usually acquire when they're buckling down to work for too many hours. They've also acquired a grey hoodie from somewhere, with a single small sciences division logo on the shoulder.

Nor do they seem inclined to be chatty. They gesture towards a spare terminal, where the screen is filled with scanner data and images of their new visitor.]

Xenobiology. The algorithm I dug out can't separate this thing from the nebula background and it keeps trying to make an ID as octopus.

Zaeed Massani | Mass Effect (Security): Action (OTA)

[anesthetic_rage]

[Ok, this was officially an "Oh fucking shit, it's go time" moment. Zaeed was storming down the hallways, gun at the ready for any hull breach as he made his way towards the ship's guns. Only, there wasn't a hull breach. There wasn't a collision, and about the time that he reached the ladder, he doubled over, threatening to heave.

Whatever hit him, it hit him like he'd just been slammed by a ... by a... the words were on the tip of his tongue. The concept was there so close that he almost felt like he had a frame of reference for it. But, how could he possibly.

He almost puked and got up shakily, staring out at the ... thing that was out there. It wasn't attacking. What the hell was this thing? Hearing footsteps, he gestured for them to stay back from the window, not that he expected obedience.]

What the goddamned blasted hell of a Leviathan is that thing?

[plantussy]

[ Vash is surprisingly obedient, stopping when Zaeed gestured at him. ]

I have no idea, but it's amazing.

[anesthetic_rage]

Terrifying too.

[He steadied himself, resting against the wall for support as he looked out at a creature that was bigger than the ship, three times bigger than the ship. It was incredible to see a beast that probably was closer to a city in size. Nothing like it on earth.]

Of course we knew there were alien species, but that definitely... puts us in perspective.