#Breq Mianaai

[riseandfallofsecunit]

One of my favorite scenes from my favorite book :-)

[the-anchorless-moon]

Ok ok ok coffee shop au though. Seivarden is on like month four clean and set up with a stupid job on a stupid station selling stupid bitter bean tea to stupid uncivilized hicks who wouldn't know real tea if it bit them on their stupid ungloved hands and she is this close to saying "fuck it" and spending the total savings from her minimum wage earnings on a raging bender but also she doesn't because of Mysterious Asshole Stranger. MAS is an arrogant jackass. She calls Seivarden her personal name straight off her nametag like they know each other or something but also has yet to introduce herself. MAS hums constantly in a voice like she's been gargling rocks for the last thousand years and Seivarden has a lot of time to listen to it because MAS is a regular who comes in every morning and does Amaat-knows-what on her handheld for literal hours but also Seivarden literally does not care because MAS speaks fluent Radchaai in an entirely understandable accent and Seivarden is desperate to figure out what the entire fuck her deal is. She doesn't even wear gloves. Is she Radchaai and doing the equivalent of vacationing at a topless resort? Is she just weirdly good at languages? One time MAS watched Seivarden struggle to get the stupid automated cart with the shitty-tea-bean delivery to work for twenty minutes before standing up, picking up a 40 kilogram bag under each arm like it was nothing, and walking into the back with them. She was singing a song about horses the whole time. What is her deal.

Meanwhile Breq has long since passed "why is Seivarden here and alive" and moved on to enjoying making Seivarden bring her tea while using Space Google to figure out whither next on the hunt for the Fuck Anaander Gun

[the-bot-marg0t]

Do y'all think that, Arilesperas Strigan, after giving 'Breq' the gun and she heads back home thinking it's safer for her to do so, is just sitting in her office minding her own damn business only to see that the radch is now falling apart, anaander mianaai is divided, and AI are a new species. Only to find out that that crazy fucking Lady and her stray dog god damned did it???

[snakeslide]

Breq staring at the 17 yr old Tisarwat boarding Mercy of Kalr:

[shychick-52]

Imagine one of Breq's Mercy of Kalr lieutenants singing her signature song 'My heart is a fish / Hiding in the water-grass'. And Translator Zeiat's like "Goodness, is it really?? May I see?"

Breq: It's only a song, Translator. Besides, you've already eaten a whole platter of fish-shaped cakes and a bottle of fish sauce. And it is not considered proper to eat anyone's heart.

Zeiat: *pouts*

@annleckie

[foundfamilyhq]

[thesummerstorms]

I really want to somehow make it so that Breq from Ancillary Justice gets her hands on the soundtrack from The Prince of Egypt. Especially the choir heavy tracks like Deliver Us.

[beansoup3000]

Things I liked in the first murderbot book:

• This Killing Machine Fast Forwards Through Sex Scenes

• This Killing Machine is Reeeaaally Half Assing It At Work

• This Killing Machine Would Rather Cease To Exist Than Have Anyone Acknowledge That It Has Feelings

• This Killing Machine Has Friends Now (Not Optional)

• This Killing Machine Named Itself Murderbot

• This Killing Machine Has A Fucked Up Sense of Self Worth That Will Probably Come Up Again

[winter-wise]

Reading Ancillary Mercy rn and Seivarden has really been on the journey of all time. In a coma. Woke up. Whole family dead. Only person who recognises her is her former company car, who's decided to go and shoot the president. Not kill, just shoot. The car shoots the president several times. The president gives the company car her own company car. Seivarden can come along. Seivarden is in love with her former company car. The company car never liked her. Her company car is now in love with another company car. The company cars are openly discussing this in front of her, including Seivarden's own feelings for one of the company cars. Sequence of events of all time.

[a-side-character]

I am once again thinking about Breq and Mercy of Kalr.

Specifically, I'm thinking about how and why their relationship is so different from any other relationship in this series, and what that means for them as characters.

I'm thinking about Breq's response to being told by other people, often people she likes or respects, that they don't see her as an ancillary. Because they (for the most part) mean it as a compliment, a way of validating her and expressing that they care about or think highly of her. But she never takes it as such, and is always made uncomfortable by it.

Because she IS an ancillary, and by using "I don't think anyone here sees you as an ancillary" as a compliment, or as a reason why her life matters and she deserves to be taken care of, only furthers her belief that what she IS is wrong, is inherently less deserving.

I'm thinking about how the only time people use it/its pronouns - the identity she used for 2,000 years and continues to use to refer to her cousins and fellow AI - to refer to her is when they're trying to disrespect or demean her. How her crew looks at her, horrified, and says "sir, none of us would ever call you it" while continuing to use those same pronouns to refer to their own ship. It shows her that the only reason people think they care about her is because they're too caught up in the version of her she pretends to be (human, Radchaai, she), however wrong that viewpoint may be.

I'm thinking about how, in Ancillary Mercy when Breq breaks down and repeats the line "ships don't love other ships", Mercy of Kalr responds with "ships love people who could be captains." It doesn't say 'well that's okay, because I don't see you as a ship', it doesn't treat her as some exception to the supposed rule that ships and ancillaries aren't people worthy of love, it tells her 'you, Breq, Justice of Toren, One Esk Nineteen, YOU are my captain, and I can't help but love you.'

I'm just. thinking

[the-anchorless-moon]

Itran icon of the saint Seven-Brilliant-Truths-Shine-Like-Suns.

[ID: a drawing of a standing person with four arms outstretched wearing a pair of short pants and a wreath of jeweled white flowers. One arm is holding a ball, one is holding a knife, one is wearing an armguard, and one is holding a human head. Both the standing figure and the head are smiling calmly. /end ID]

[the-bot-marg0t]

I like to think that when Breq does the "gesture of tossing the omens" she's actually just doing the jerk-off motion. Half contemptuous half thats sorta the way the tossing of the omens works

[laatmaar]

"If that's what you're willing to do for someone you hate, what would you do for someone you loved?"

Again black and white version under the cut as well as some sketches I made of the characters in preperation for this piece!

[homosekularnost]

ancillary mercy (i stole the joke from here)

[shychick-52]

Anyone wonder how Murderbot and Breq Mianaai would get along?

@artificial-condition