#Nonbinary John Crichton

[rjalker]

Words: 1,738

Summary:

Murderbot finds itself as the newest passenger of Moya after falling through a wormhole. John stops by its room to see if it's okay. It's not. It's hard to be okay when your wrist has never healed from an injury that was just reopened by diving in front of a crashing spaceship to save a stranger.

John uses neopronouns.

I wasn't planning on writing a mini crossover or even fanfiction at all but that's what happened. Slight spoilers for season two of Farscape, no spoilers for The Murderbot Diaries because I'm making it up because Martha Wells is ableist and refuses to let Murderbot become physically disabled and also refuses to do any world building for this series for some unfathomable reason.

if you really really like this you can feel free to copy and paste the text into a document and then convert it to an epub or PDF using convertio.co or freeconvert.com. If you have an android phone, the app "ReadEra" is an awesome free ebook app that you can customize a lot of stuff on. I highly recommend it.

= = = = =

“You know, stealing people's stuff isn't generally the best way to go about generating goodwill.”

(Archived read-more link)

[Read-More was here]

Startled, Murderbot jerked its head towards the door, the sudden movement causing it to drop the roll of bandaging it had been trying to maneuver with only the use of one hand. The bandages bounced off its shoe and rolled to an awkward stop in the middle of the floor, the tail end still pinned under Murderbot's hand.

Neither Moya nor Pilot were willing to let it hack any of the DRDs, or Moya's sensors, so Murderbot only had its own eyes and ears to keep track of its environment. Try as it might, it hadn't been able to figure out how to access any of Moya's systems, even superficially.

The door to “its” room was stuck in the open position, and no matter how many strings of code it threw at it, it didn't budge. The technology that made up Moya was as alien to Murderbot as well...all of the other aliens on this ship.

Crichton, one of the two humans onboard the alien ship, was standing in the hallway, leaning against the rounded edge of the door with a casual ease that did not actually help Murderbot's startled anxiety back down.

“What?” It asked. It wasn't that it hadn't heard what X had said, it just couldn't think of any appropriate response.

Crichton gestured to the roll of cloth now on the floor next to Murderbot's feet, the tail end still clutched in its numb fingers. “That used to be my shirt. You got it from my room. Next time, ask me first.”

There wasn't really any response Murderbot could think of to that, so it didn't say anything, just sat there on the side of the bed, staring.

The human's gaze visibly fell to Murderbot's wrist, the one that Murderbot had been trying all in vain to bandage. The seam was bleeding again, and so were the surrounding tissues.

Neon purple and blue blood was beading up on the surface of its skin as the mechanical parts on the inside ground together in the wrong way. Its pain dampeners were working at the moment, but that could stop at any moment, and it had wanted to get the wound bandaged before it would be in too much pain to even think about it.

Unfortunately, even though it wasn't able to actually feel the pain, that didn't mean it wasn't there. Trying to do something as simple as hold the end of the bandage roll was almost impossible. Its fingers didn't want to move, and when they did, they were either sluggish and heavy, or twitching uncontrollably.

It had taken ten solid minutes to get the roll of bandages positioned so that it could try wrapping them around its wrist with its other hand, and all that had been ruined when the human startled it.

It sighed aloud, unable to keep it internal only.

“That doesn't look good. You need any help with that?” Crichton's voice had changed tones, gentler now than it had been before.

This time Murderbot managed to keep its sigh internal. Yes, it needed help bandaging its wrist. No, it did not want the help. Especially not from a human it didn't know.

But it couldn't afford to lose any more blood than it already had. Moya was alien technology. Even if she wanted to, she wouldn't be able to help it generate the nutrients it needed to keep itself functioning.

“You can help if you promise not to touch me.” Murderbot said, agonizingly aware that its pain dampeners could switch off again any second. “I just need to bandage this to stop the bleeding.” It wasn't going to apologize for taking the bandages.

It tried to lift its injured arm off the hard surface of the table for emphasis, but couldn't actually manage to make it do anything except tingle warningly with pins and needles.

Crichton was moving forward briskly, as though X'd been waiting for just such an invitation, stooping to scoop the roll of bandages off the floor with an ease that Murderbot envied.

“What do you need me to do?” Crichton asked, winding the bandages back around the roll.

Murderbot tried to lift its injured arm again experimentally, but got the same result. It felt like its whole arm below the elbow had been physically disconnected.

It ended up having to use its other arm to awkwardly drag its hand closer to the edge so that it would be able to wrap the bandages around its wrist without the table getting in the way. Its wrist hung limply in the grasp of gravity like something dead. That was not doing anything to make Murderbot feel any better about the situation. “I'll put the bandage on, you just...” It felt like its brain was being fried. Its performance reliability was taking a nosedive. “Hold it for me.”

If it didn't get this over with soon, it was probably going to crash. And crashing in front of a strange human was the last thing on its 'Things I want to do at any point in my life' list.

With another pair of hands to hold the roll of bandages and guide them while it worked with its free hand, the process didn't take long at all. When the bandages were on as tightly as Murderbot could get them, already soaking up the mixtures of blood, Crichton used the small utility knife Murderbot had also stolen from X room to cut off the end, letting Murderbot pull it away to tuck under the edges.

“My name's John, by the way, since we haven't been properly introduced.” Crichton said, once they were done with the first aid, “My pronouns are ze/xir/xirself. I'm a human, the only one you'll find in this part of the galaxy. I breathe in oxygen, and exhale carbon dioxide. I've got a friend in here--” ze tapped xir head-- “Named Harvey. His pronouns are he/him/his/himself. The rest of the details will come up when they're important. What about you?”

Murderbot stared, bewildered by almost all parts of the statement, and the best response it could come up with was, “I thought your name was Crichton.”

Crichton—John? Smiled. “It is, Crichton is my family name. Both work fine, but I do prefer being called John. So, what should I call you? No one really got a chance to ask earlier, what with the whole hostage situation. Thanks for saving our butts, by the way.”

Murderbot wanted to think fast, but the impending systems shut down prevented that. “My pronouns are it/its/itself. My name is private but this hurts too much to think of a good alias right now.”

Its pain dampeners were starting to fail, one section at a time. The suspense was almost worse than if they'd just failed all at once.

“Fair enough. Is there anything we can do to ease the pain? Any chemicals you could use as medicine? If we don't have it we might be able to synthesize it if you're lucky. Are you hungry? I can't say we've got good food, but it's at least...half way edible. We hope.”

This was one of the many shitty things about being a construct. No one had ever given enough shits about what they felt to care about making painkillers that would work on them. “No.”

“No there's no pain medicines we could scrounge up, or no you're not hungry?”

Murderbot no longer had enough energy to uphold an entire end of a conversation. “No.”

“Alright.” John didn't seem angry at its curt reply. “I can take a hint, I'll leave you be. Is there anything I can do to help before I go, though? I mean, you did get thrown through a wall for me.” Yes, that's why Murderbot's wrist was currently trying to murder it. Being thrown through a wall, it turns out, was not a good idea if you had an unhealed injury that liked to burst into pain whenever it wanted.

But the expression on John Crichton's face was so sincere it was doing weird things to Murderbot's insides, and not just because it was about to collapse.

Why did so many humans have to care about it? This one was a complete stranger. Yes, Murderbot had shoved xir out of the way of the crashing spaceship and taken the hit itself, but that didn't mean ze needed to look at it like that. They weren't friends just because Murderbot had saved xir life.

But there was one thing ze could help with.

Murderbot summoned up its remaining strength to ask, “How do I shut the door?”

John looked over at the doorway, then back at Murderbot, then stood and strode over, pressing xir hand against a raised spot on the wall that Murderbot hadn't noticed. “You just have to press this, or ask Pilot or Moya if it doesn't work. There's one on the outside too. The lock on this door's disconnected right now because it was designed to lock from the outside, but if you want to stick around, we can get it to lock from the inside.” Ze pressed xir hand against the button, and two sections of wall slide across to close the door. Ze pressed it again, and the sections slid back into the wall again. Ze turned to smile back at Murderbot. “See? Easy peasy lemon squeazy.”

It turned out Murderbot had enough energy to roll its eyes.

John stepped out into the corridor, and reached out to the wall on that side. The door began to shut again. Right before it was closed completely, John called, “Goodnight, sunshine.”

Murderbot had no idea how to respond to that, so instead of trying to think of one, it let gravity take control and fell back against the bed. It was soft and warm and a perfect contrast to the slightest chill in the air, like it was made specifically to be comfortable.

It was part of the alien ship. Part of Moya. Probably an organic part of Moya. That was creepy. Murderbot should probably be worried about that.

But it would rather shut itself down now, voluntarily, before it had an involuntary shutdown or its pain dampeners stopped working, so it sighed out another breath, and embraced the oblivion of a voluntary shutdown.

[the---hermit]

final 2023 reading challenges update

Not too long ago I posted this after a few months of being terrible at posting regular updates. The 2023 genre bingo and the Jumbo reading challenges are the two challenges I have not completed and I will be archiving them as is, because I do not have any books on my tbr that fit either of the prompts I am missing. As usual I am keeping my branding of almost finishing challenges and archiving them when only one or two prompts are missing.

Since I won't be posting anymore on these two challenges under the cut I have written a big wrap up of what I read for both and I have linked the individual book reviews I have posted.

Jumbo reading challenge:

nonbinary author: Genderqueer by Maia Kobabe

poc mc: Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

#ownvoices: My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness by Kabi Nagata

poc author: The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang

trans mc: Deadendia Broken Halo by Hamish Steele

mythology inspired: The Sandman vol.9 - The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman

one word title: Scheletri by Zerocalcare

title starting with the first letter of your name: 100 Hugs by Chris Riddell

non-fiction or poetry: Monsters by Christopher Dell

urban fantasy or space opera: Gideon The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

horror or thriller: Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

magical realism or high fantasy: The Priory Of The Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

intimidating book: Cain's Jawbone by Torquemada

name of a place in the title: The Sandaman volume 8 by Neil Gaiman

pun in the title: She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker Chan

released this year: Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baldree and Il Satiro Scientifico: Riprodursi Male curated by Barbascura X (I didn't realize I had put both of these books in my storygraph so I am including both here)

minimalistic cover: Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

ugly cover: The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe by Dougles Adams

very bright colours on the cover: Niente Di Nuovo Sul Fronte Di Rebibbia by Zerocalcare

heart or clock on the cover: Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White

black and white cover: The Black Corsair by Emilio Salgari

water in the title: The House In The Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune

rivals to lovers

a book recommended by a friend: Il Segreto Del Bosco Vecchio by Dino Buzzati

clever cover: Through The Woods by Emily Carroll

2023 genre bingo:

fantasy: The Tower Of Swallows by Andrzej Sapkowski

new adult

thriller: What Lies In The Woods by Kate Alice Marshall

contemporary fic: heartstopper vol5

non fiction: How We Read Now by Naomi S. Baron

horror: The Lottery and other stories by Shirley Jackson

urban fantasy: Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

classics: Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

lgbtq+: Harrow The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

historical fiction: The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell

romance: Fangs by Sarah Andersen

graphic novel: The Sandman volume 7 by Neil Gaiman

short story: Hilda and The Troll by Luke Pearson

mystery: Cain's Jawbone by Torquemada

children's or middle grade: The House At Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne

science fiction: Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell

[afieldofheather]

prompts

a book that's published in 2020 | Wild at Heart by KA Tucker

a book by a trans or nonbinary author | Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg 

a book with a great first line | The Wild Girl by Kate Forsyth

a book about a book club | The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams

a book set in a city that has hosted the olympics | The Toymakers by Robert Dinsdale

a bildungsroman | The Wolf in the Whale by Jordana Max Brodsky

the first book you touch on a shelf with your eyes closed | Dead End by Chris Wraight

a book with an upside-down image on the cover | Third Girl by Agatha Christie

a book with a map | Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie

a book recommended by your favorite blog, vlog, podcast, or online book club | Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline

an anthology | Murder in the Mews by Agatha Christie

a book that passes the bechdel test | The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

a book with the same title as a movie or tv show but is unrelated to it | The Hollow by Agatha Christie

a book by an author with flora or fauna in their name | Sunrise by JF Crane

a book about or involving social media | The Last Post by Renee Carlino

a book that has a book on the cover | Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie

a medical thriller | The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton 

a book with a made-up language | Babylon’s Ashes by James SA Corey

a book set in a country beginning with "c" | Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery

a book you picked because the title caught your attention | Valhalla by Tim Waggoner

a book published the month of your birthday | Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie

a book about or by a woman in stem | The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon

a book that won an award in 2019 | Crimson Lake by Candice Fox

a book on a subject you know nothing about | The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean

a book with only words on the cover, no images or graphics | Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

a book with a pun in the title | Bad Axe County by John Galligan

a book featuring one of the seven deadly sins | If We Were Villains by ML Rio

a book with a robot, cyborg, or AI character | The AI Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole

a book with a bird on the cover | The Familiars by Stacy Halls

a fiction or nonfiction book about a world leader | Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

a book with "gold," "silver," or "bronze" in the title | Golden State by Ben H. Winters

a book by a woman of color | An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole

a book with at least a four-star rating on Goodreads | Persepolis Rising by James SA Corey

a book you meant to read in 2019 | Tiamat’s Wrath by James SA Corey

a book with a three-word title | Casualties of War by Elizabeth Christensen

a book with a pink cover | Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

a western | The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson

a book by or about a journalist | The Broken Girls by Simone St. James

read a banned book during banned books week | The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

your favorite prompt from a past popsugar reading challenge | Entanglement by Martha Wells

advanced

a book written by an author in their 20s | Do You Dream of Terra-Two? by Temi Oh

a book with "20" or "twenty" in the title | 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

a book with a character with a vision impairment or enhancement (a nod to 20/20 vision) | The Barque of Heaven by Suzanne Wood

a book set in the 1920s | The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie

a book set in japan, host of the 2020 olympics | Malice by Keigo Higashino

a book by an author who has written more than 20 books | The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman

a book with more than 20 letters in its title | A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon

a book published in the 20th century | A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton

a book from a series with more than 20 books | Death Game by Jo Graham

a book with a main character in their 20s | Say You Still Love Me by KA Tucker

completed | July 15, 2020

[ao3feed-invaders]

Parenthesis

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2x7JYP1

by mitochondrials

Captain Steve Rogers is tasked with hosting Namor, The Prince of Atlantis, while trying to be stealth in early 1800s America. Throughout the time they spend together, Steve fails to realize that Namor has fallen in love with him until Namor unexpectedly proposes. It takes him just as long to realize he loves Namor back.

Words: 11013, Chapters: 5/5, Language: English

Fandoms: Captain America (Comics), Namor the Sub-Mariner (Comics), Invaders (Marvel), Marvel (Comics)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M, Other

Characters: Steve Rogers, Namor the Sub-Mariner, James "Bucky" Barnes, Sharon Carter (Marvel), James Montgomery Falsworth, Jacqueline Falsworth-Crichton, John Falsworth

Relationships: Namor the Sub-Mariner/Steve Rogers

Additional Tags: Early 1800s AU, Regency Romance, but not, Trans Steve Rogers, Nonbinary Steve Rogers, Gender Dysphoria, Misgendering, Non-Consensual Gender Reveal, Namor the Sub-Mariner & Bucky Barnes Friendship

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2x7JYP1

[rjalker]

Interacting with The Murderbot Diaries fandom moodboard

[Plain text: "Interacting with The Murderbot Diaries fandom moodboard". End plain text.]

[ID: Sixteen memes, described in order from left to right and top to bottom:

First: The Bugs Bunny in a tuxedo meme, now edited to say, " I wish people who misgender Murderbot a very shut the fuck up forever.

Second: A screenshot from the show Mako Mermaids, showing David grinning adoringly towards Nixie with his face propped up on his hands. David is labeled, "The Murderbot Diaries fandom", and Nixie is labeled "Exorsexism, transmisia, athiktomisia, ableism, racism, whitewashing, aroacemisia, abuse apologism,"

Third: A stick figure drawing of a werewolf with red eyes and sharp bloody teeth, sanding over a pool of blood labeled, "people who misgender Murderbot".

Fourth: A screenshot from the show iCarly, showing Gibby, labeled "Me", about to hit Spencer, labeled, "people who misgender Murderbot" over the head with a stop sigh.

Fifth: The "is this a pigeon?" meme, edited so the person is labeled, "The Murderbot Diaries fandom", saying, "Are we a safe and welcoming space for nonbinary people, touch averse people, nonpartnering aroace people, and people of color?" While pointing at, "The most oppressively exorsexist, ableist, amisic, and racist fandom I've ever had the misfortune of being in".

Sixth: The meme of an anime character saying, "oh so it was a joke", now edited so they are saying, "Oh, so you're purposefully and knowingly misgendering Murderbot because you think people who use it/its pronouns don't deserve to respect", followed by a closeup of their hand holding a rock, captioned, "Saying this, it aggressively picked up a large rock with killing intent written in its every movement."

Seventh: A Screenshot from the Beauty and the Beast show from 1987, showing someone holding a newspaper whose headline now reads, "Local nonbinary werewolf loses its shit, mauls five exorsexists", with smaller text beneath continuing, "Strange Mauling in the Park Puzzle Police".

Eighth: A digital drawing of Murderbot, edited so it is holding a gun pointed at the camera, now with glowing red eyes from under its helmet, and a filter of red noise and static, reading in all caps, "use it/its pronouns for me or stop pretending you care about me".

Ninth: Two screnshots from The Good Place, showing Shawn now saying, "I have heard no statements nor seen any evidence to suggets…oh misgenders Murderbot? Yeah, they all definitely belong in the Bad Place.".

Tenth: Three screenshots from The Good Place, showing Eleanor and Chidi talking. Eleanor says, "I'm proud to misgender Murderbot because I refuse to respect people's pronouns if they use it/its." Chidi responds, "Okay, but that's blatant exorsexism. Tell me you understand how exorsexist you are being."

Eleventh: A screenshot from the 1974 short film, "A Political Cartoon", showing Peter President standing at the podium, now edited so he is holding a baseball bat, captioned, "[violence against exorsexists commences]".

Twelfth: A screenshot from the show Farscape, showing John Crichton sitting on the floor, holding a blue mask in one hand, staring towards the camera, looking distressed. Text above and below reads, "When The Murderbot Diaries fandom promises they respect and love nonbinary people…while they're right in the middle of misgendering Murderbot and demanding that no one is allowed to be upset with them for this.".

Thirteenth: The meme of an uno card, then someone holding a massive handful of cards. The card now reads "Don't misgender Murderbor or draw 25". The person who has drawn 25 cards is labeled, "The Murderbot Diaries fandom".

Fourteenth: A screenshot from the Muppets, showing one of the characters speaking, edited to now say, "Insult of your choice, we all know that Murderbot is not a human. Your pathetic attempts to justify your transmisia and exorsexism in misgendering it by claiming it/its pronouns are 'dehumanizing' shows you do not actually give a single shit about Murderbot, or real people who use it/its pronouns, and furthermore that you have literally zero understanding of this character or the themes of this series even though it's not fucking subtle. Shut the fuck up or just admit you hate nonbinary people. Literally everyone can already tell.".

Fifteenth: A photo of a prop for a movie of a quadrupedal werewolf snarling with its mouth wide open, labeled, "Me @ people who misgender Murderbot".

Sixteenth: A digital drawing of Murderbot against a pale blue background, that reads, "Murderbot would hate every single one of you fucking bigots".

End ID.]

No, there is literally zero excuse for you to call Murderbot anything other than it/its pronouns. There are no excuses. There is no justification.

Any fucking argument you try to use to justify misgendering Murderbot is an argument that has been used to justify misgendering me.

If you think you're literally incapable of calling someone by it/its pronouns even when those are literally the person's pronouns, leave this fucking fandom and don't come back until you can treat nonbinary people with the bare minimum of respect.

If you are so distressed by people going by it/its pronouns, you have no fucking buisness being in a fandom for books where the protagonist and many other character use it/its pronouns.

There is no fucking excuse for misgender Murderbot or any other person who uses it/its pronouns. Murderbot is a fictional character, but you are perpetuating real bigotry when you misgender it.

[Plain text: "There is no fucking excuse for misgender Murderbot or any other person who uses it/its pronouns. Murderbot is a fictional character, but you are perpetuating real bigotry when you misgender it." End plain text.]

[rjalker]

clearly the way to figure out a character’s gender identity is to make memes

[rjalker]

John: *gets body-swapped with Aeryn*

John: O: :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D 

John: THIS IS THE SORT OF THING MEN DREAM ABOUT!!!!!!

Me: I’m pretty sure cis men do not, in fact, dream about having breasts, John.

[rjalker]

see I can’t figure out if I want John to be a trans woman. Maybe nonbinary? I’m not sure. All I know is cis men do not “dream of having breasts” like bro? no? Maybe they dream of touching breasts (I don’t fucking know) but they don’t dream of having them.

So like, John Crichton is not cis. 

And now he’s been permanently body-swapped with Aeryn Sun.

but like, no one really assumes his gender either way because like,,,,,,,species like Staanz’s exists and also everyone is an alien and there are too many damn species interacting with eachother for them to go around assuming everyone’s sexual dimorphism (if their species even has it) matches their own.

Not sure what I want to do with it.