Artemis

""Since we're in space, is it possible to literally scream into the void?""

- Artemis Artemis is the twin brother of Apollo. They are both former Special Projects of Goddard Futuristics. They were sent to the USS Hephaestus to perform repairs and do some basic charting prior to Dr. Pryce and Mr. Cutter's arrival.

Her twitter is @ArteHitOrMiss.

Bio
Very little is known about Artemis's life pre-Goddard.

Their parents died when they were young, and ever since then Artemis and Apollo mostly looked after themselves. An accident at the age of 16 led to the twins being proclaimed dead and somehow falling into the hands of Goddard Futuristics.

While at Goddard, Artemis became Project 517-A, or just A for ease. Alongside her brother, who was now Project 517-B, or B, she was used as a test dummy for whatever Goddard needed human testing for and couldn't get clearance to do openly, or wanted to remain secret.

The biggest projects were hyper-realistic prosthetic limbs, trying to create a more 'perfect' version of the human body, less susceptible to injury and old age than regular biology, and the process of mind-control through chipping, trying to see how far they could rewrite a person.

Artemis ended up with an entire prosthetic leg, arm, one eye (a prototype of the kind Dr. Pryce uses now), and various other metal plates throughout her body to substitute for bones. She also had 2 microchips, one in the back of herneck attached to the Spinal Cord, and one in the Hippocampus of her brain.

As with most Goddard Assets who are chipped, she ended up with a series of command codes that could make her do anything from just sit down to erase her memory.

After 5 years at Goddard, Artemis and her brother were sent to the USS Hephaestus as Jane and John Doe, to start on repairs and basic charting in anticipation for a visit from Dr. Pryce and Mr. Cutter and a new crew, as the original crew was presumed dead.

This turned out not to be the case, as Artemis and Apollo were bombarded with messages (and threats) as soon as they were within comms distance.

After confirming that no one was going to kill them for simp;y being there, and agreeing to follow the 'no contacting command' rule, they commandeered a room of their own in the station, trying to figure out what to do next.

After getting to know the crew, namely Charlie, Rowan, Atalanta, and Eiffel, Artemis started to have doubts about command's intentions, and what their mission actually was. Every time she had these thoughts, however, she'd experience an intense headache, try to sleep it off, and wake up with no memory of the incident, a side effect of the chips trying to keep her under Goddard's control.

it got so bad that eventually she barely remembered any interactions with the crew at all.

When Apollo was having his chips removed, and Artemis was helping EIffel with some repairs (a diversion tactic), she started experiencing a a headache worse than any she'd had before--her memories were being rewritten while she was still awake to feel it. She begged to be taken to Apollo to try and make sense of what was happening.

He recognized her as his sister, not as a fellow Project, and called her Artemis, not Jane or John.

But 'Artemis' was a command code, and she immediately collapsed, the chips beginning a full reset of any memories causing her doubt--and to try and write Apollo out, since he was no longer chipped.

However, while she was out, Charlie removed her chips as well, which interrupted the reset and rewrite cycle.

Artemis ended up with multiple versions of what happened at Goddard in her memories, and each one feels just as real as the other.

One version is the real one, which is described above.

Another version is similar to the first, except Apollo is not a fellow asset. He's her handler, of sorts. He's the one who puts her through the tests. He hurts her. She knows that that can't be right, but it feels real, and it has her terrified of Apollo at times.

There is also information that Goddard programmed into her that she doesn't remember learning otherwise. She also remembers her childhood with Apollo.

Ever since her chips were removed, Artemis has suffered from short-term memory issues, and has been in a near-constant state of identity crisis, not sure who she actually is, and unable to tell what's real and what's just been put in there. There are times where she questions whether the Hephaestus and everyone there with her is real.

During this crisis she covered herself in sharpie to try and keep track of everything, cut her hair (which turned out less than ideal), and has refused to sleep for fear of forgetting again or suddenly remembering more things that aren't real.

Apollo tried helping her fix her hair, but due to the fake memories she panicked, thinking he was going to hurt her, and stabbed him with the scissors before bolting, finding a corner to hideaway in and have a panic attack. Eiffel managed to talk her down, but she couldn't bring herself to go apologize to her brother.

When she finally did apologize, he claimed he didn't remember her hurting him, and that he did it to himself. This triggered another minor panic, but Eiffel assured her that what she remembered was real, and that they had proof.

Later she decided she wanted to just get rid of all of her prosthetics because she thought that would help her feel like herself again, but Rowan managed to convince her not to. They helped install a new eye for Artemis, and promised to start working on other parts for her too.

Personality
Before going to Goddard, Artemis was a strong-willed, but soft-spoken teen. She was fiercely protective of her twin brother and her own independence, even more so after their parents passed, but very rarely did she show that same energy for anything else. She was passionate about music, and loved to sit and play the piano or sing.

Becoming a test dummy for Goddard changed that. Mr. Cutter took control of rewriting her personality, deciding to let her keep her fiercenss to keep things 'interesting.' But without any real sense of self left, along with the painful punishments for disobeying, that passion just made her work that much harder to be better, do better--please Dr. Pryce and Mr. Cutter so that she won't have to be put down like so many other projects. But as soon as they were out from under their watchful eye, it made her want to take in everything they missed--movies, music, books, astrology. It started to overload her chip, and gave her a near constant mild headache, so she also worked extra hard to be personable and friendly while on the Hephaestus so that maybe the pain would stop because she wasn't doing anything wrong. She was still being good and doing her job.

Now that she's been de-chipped, she's...somewhere in-between everything. Some days she's doing really well, and she's cheerful and bubbly. Others she's a timid mess on the verge of a panic attack, or a soft-spoken girl stuck in a sense of nostalgia and hopelessness--or, rarely, hopefulness.

She tries to hide it all, though. She tries to not show her fear or panic until it's too much to hide. Because above all else, now she has to be strong for her brother.

Apollo
Apollo is Artemis's twin brother. He is the only family she has left in the world, and she loves him fiercely. She'd do anything to protect him--even if that's just staying away from him, which is what she's been doing since the chip removal. She doesn't want him to remember what they went through at Goddard, because it's made her miserable and she doesn't want that for him. She's also scared she'll hurt him again after the haircutting incident. But he's the most important person in her life. Nothing could change that.

Atalanta
Atalanta was the first person to call Artemis their friend on the station, which made them Artemis's first friend since before being taken by Goddard. They first met while the Blessed Eternal was still causing chaos, and Atalanta tried to convince her of the truth about Goddard. Then they chatted about astrology, and Atalanta's apparent prejudice against geminis, and Artemis (Jane at the time) talked to her about some musicals. Despite Atalanta accidentally using some of their command codes, Artemis still enjoyed their conversation and was very happy to call her a friend. She can't remember most of their conversations now, but...she remembers the happy feelings they gave her.


 * Artemis is the only Gemini Atalanta likes

Eiffel
Eiffel was the second person on the Hephaestus to reach out to her as a friend, introducing her to the others and answering any questions she had. He also introduced her to the stations numerous pets, and gave her her first hug since she'd started working for Goddard. He insisted she was a person even she didn't believe it, and tried to help her overcome Goddard's conditioning in ways that wouldn't hurt her. He also forces her to talk about her ongoing existential crisis from time to time, and helps her try and keep track of what's real. He also tries to get her to sleep, though that doesn't always work out. But, he cares about her more than anyone else ever has, aside from Apollo, and she's very happy to be able to call him a friend.


 * Eiffel calls her 'moonlight' since traditional pet names were command triggers for them
 * They're planning a station halloween event together

Rowan
Artemis has a big ol' crush on Rowan Langford. She's starting to think Rowan might even reciprocate. Rowan was one of the first people to threaten Artemis and Apollo when they arrived at the station, but since the initial paranoia wore off they've been nothing but kind to Artemis. When they expressed interest in Artemis's robotic prosthetics she was more than happy to let them take a look, pretty used to being examined like that, and she was...very surprised at how gentle Rowan was the entire time. A few days later Artemis tweeted "'So. Just remembered Rowan exists. Mmmm. Hot.'"which was seen by Rowan and led to them complimenting each other back and forth for a bit, and ending with Rowan inviting Artemis to visit their lab at any time. Artemis did visit their lab after that to look into replacing her prosthetics, during which time Rowan kissed her on the cheek a bunch and they hugged for a while. Shortly after that, Rowan and Artemis ran into each other late one night, each going to check on the other because they couldn't sleep. They ended up cuddling and if she wasn't before, Artemis is certainly head over heels for them now.

Trivia

 * Artemis has 4 official names and 5 nicknames (and counting)
 * Artemis is not her legal name (not that it matters anymore, since legally she's dead)
 * She loves physical affection more than anything and if you hug her for too long she will probably fall asleep on you
 * She has all the knowledge of an Aerospace Engineering degree without ever having gone to school
 * She technically didn't graduate high school