#murderbot diaries au

[sunshowersanddandelionwine]

YOU ASKED AND YOU SHALL RECIEVE

(this is going to be Long so prepare yourself XD)

Murderbot Diaries:

I have no idea if you've ever read the murderbot diaries books by martha wells (which, if you havent and have any sort of interest in science fiction PLEASE READ THEM THEYRE SO FUN) but the character of secunit is SO ghost coded its not even funny

for those unaware: secunit is short for security unit, which in the world of murderbot are partially artificial and partially human constructs created as cheap labor. secunits are considered property rather than people, despite being totally sentient. they are not, however, autonomous. secunits have a thing called a "governor module" that will essentially fry their brains if they do anything to go against the company/their client's orders. secunits can be repaired and reissued to new clients, so the whole thing is just super fucked up

anyway, back to the au. ghost, like murderbot, manages to disable his governor module somehow and is able to act completely autonomously. however, he's been so Fucked Up by you know... being a secunit, that he doesnt exactly know how to be autonomous or his own person, so he just. Doesnt. and he continues to protect clients as they come up, doing his best to hide the fact that hes able to act freely.

enter the 141 survey crew, who are his latest group of clients that hes been tasked with protecting. its a much smaller group than he's used to, only seven members compared to dozens and dozens, but that means he's the only secunit sent along which is for the better tbh. the members of the survey include laswell, price, gaz, soap, farah, alex, and roach.

for once in ghost's life, he's not treated as a looming threat or an inanimate object, but an actual person with thoughts and opinions of his own. and he Does Not Like This At All.

at least, not at first. but he finds his walls start getting eroded by these idiotic humans and their idiotic tendencies to make the worst possible choices. (especially a certain engineer with a taste for explosive materials, but thats neither here nor their)

of course, something has to go wrong, as it always does. there are two other survey teams on the planet - kortac and shadow company. and according to a message sent by one of them (not sure which yet lmao), something is hunting them.

and soon, the 141 is going to be hunted to

im trying not to directly copy the plot of all systems red (the first murderbot novella) so yeah!

Muzzled:

this is going under the read more because its getting too long lmao

cw for mild mouth trauma and general blood/violence

SO this one is fun.

ghost is still part of the 141, alongside gaz and price. he's a werewolf (obviously XD) and somehow, a mark gets the drop on him while he's shifted into his full wolf form

he wakes up in a tiny iron cage in a dank basement, with a burning pain across his snout, jaw, and neck. his captors managed to muzzle and collar him with pure silver, keeping him as weak and docile as possible. hes still fucking dangerous as shit, but this way they can at least handle him.

his captors, a group of hunter/poachers, have a shitton of other supernaturals trapped in the basement with him. they come down to gloat, and with them is a strange man. he doesnt talk smack like the others. he moreso tries to blend into the shadows and disappear. but ghost cant tear his eyes away from the bright blue eyes lurking in the darkness. or the thick iron band locked around his throat.

the man is clearly inhuman, but he cant - or wont - speak. hes tasked with taking care of the "feral wolf" (ghost) for the duration of his stay. from the precise wording of the orders, ghost knows exactly what the man in.

fair folk. something powerful, too, given the iron bands around his wrists as well.

days of ghost plotting his escape pass, and ghost and the fae start to come to some sort of wordless alliance. they take care of each other as best they can from their relative cages, finding solace in each other that they cant find anywhere else.

something happens later down the line, maybe gaz and price are getting to close to the operations, but the poachers decide that its time to cut their losses and skip town. they order the fae to "take care of the wolf". ghost's heart drops, because he knows that a fae cant disobey an order given by the keeper of their true name.

but in the poachers' haste to get things wrapped up, they made a mistake. they left the order unclear and open ended.

and the fair folk always take notice of loopholes.

the fae unlocks ghost's cage and releases him from the silver. ghost, rather than just go up and slaughter the entire organization himself, decides to be extra and lets loose every single other creature trapped down there with him. they all go and massacre the ring, but ghost doesnt. because the fae collapsed on the floor of the basement, dropping his glamour in the process. and the sight is grisly.

he's skin and bones, barely any muscle or fat on him at all. the iron ring around his neck and the iron bands around his wrists hang loose, showing the thick rings of scar tissue on pale skin. but the worst is his mouth.

coarse, rough thread seals his mouth shut, the wounds red and angry and irritated. locking the fae's strongest weapon away, keeping him firmly under the whims of his captors. he may have had the freedom of movement that ghost lacked, but he was as much a prisoner here as the rest.

ghost somehow manages to get them all out safe, and he finally gets the fae's name. his true name. not the silly little nickname he gave him in his head while watching him clean the basement day in and day out (soap).

for the first time in months, simon and johnny speak to one another.

there you go, hope you enjoyed! @bl-nk-sp-ce

[riseandfallofsecunit]

AU where SecUnit was created by the Pansystem University as a necessary component of ART’s creation.

Research transports cannot read humans or media in the same way that other humans do (see ART trying to understand World Hoppers), so they needed to pair it with a bot/human construct that does experience the world in at least some of the ways humans do, to properly facilitate its experience of the world and allow it to fully interact and integrate with its team. SecUnit can also act as a liaison for ART when talking to corporates out of necessity, since they cannot give away their extremely powerful research transport intelligence secret (it is, after all, proprietary).

SecUnit would be different, having not gone through all the shit The Company put it through. But considering how it’s weird even compared to other SecUnits, I think it would still very much be the same person. And it might even be happy.

[charlie-artlie]

the besties from network effect <3

[crabs-brencil]

tmbd ideal blunt rotation ft. pin-lee, ratthi, murderbot 2.0, three, and art

[thieves-never-say-die]

I am incapable of reading/watching media without relating it to Leverage so consider: a Leverage Murderbot AU

Eliot as Murderbot, a SecUnit who recently hacked his governor module because his former owner (Moreau) wanted him to kill a bunch of people. When asked, Eliot frames it vaguely enough that you think he hacked himself so he wouldn’t have to kill those people, but when pressed he admits he only figured out how to do it after and feels guilty he couldn’t do it earlier

Hardison as ART, a scary smart research transport who is sarcastic and provides a home for his crew and has A Lot Of Opinions on shows and can’t wait to talk about them with people (I did consider Nate as ART as he’s really the only one who can fulfill the Asshole quota of ARTs name but ultimately Hardison the nester being a literal home for the rest of the crew was too powerful)

I can’t decide if Parker would also be a bot/construct that hacked herself free, or a normal human who Eliot thinks is a bot/construct because she acts weird but it turns out it’s just Parker being Parker

Idk how the others fit in tho (Breanna as a smaller research vessel that Hardison thinks of as a younger sister? Harry as a lawyer for the GrayCris analog who realized the company was fucked and turned on them?) but I’d love to hear other ideas

[hazeleks]

Murderbot mermay speedpaint 🧜‍♂️

[chelshiart]

Is it weird to say that I'm lowkey delighted by the MB casting? Because seeing that actor reminds me that back when my siblings and I were kids, one time we were refueling the car and WHAM started playing on the radio, so we started miming the entirety of the gas station scene from Zoolander. I got to be Brint and blow everyone up in slow motion, and it was GREAT. 

Also it gave me the idea to draw this, so hereyougo :D 

Anyway, I'm happily in the 'wait-and-see' camp, and looking forward to see how they adapt the story to the visual medium! 

(Also bonus Ratthi speaking truth bombs: )

[ineedlelittlespace]

(bonus besties/worsties, in honor of that post you made comparing them: ART and Temeraire)

I love you for giving me an excuse to talk about this because the way these two entirely disparate series overlap has taken over my entire brain this week. 🥰

Listen, I love them both with my whole heart, but they would be the worst of worsties. It's ART and Holism all over again. It's Temeraire and Iskierka bickering, but MEANER. They're both so accustomed to being The Main Character, to being the most interesting, the most special, the most unique aka they're both spoiled rotten by their respective parents and we love them for it, and neither of them is very good at handling the presence of other very special individuals.

The first time ART says something snarky to him, Temeraire would be Offended™. Forever. Jail for Perihelion. Jail for Perihelion for 1,000 years. Meanwhile, the sheer amount of attention Temeraire would be getting from ART's crew as a beautiful and charming dragon with a pretty 18th century speech pattern would be driving it up the wall.

They would probably eventually join forces over something since they're both boundlessly confident in their abilities and would appreciate someone who isn't trying to talk them out of bombing any colonies/committing any treason because obviously they can do it just fine, Laurence. 🙄 But they would always be some level of worsties, in my opinion.

Thank you for asking! 😊

[happy-go-iris]

I've been listening to both the AFTG and TMD audiobooks while traveling recently. Some wires got crossed and an AU has been consuming my every waking thought.

For the other three and a half people that are also fans of both series, I present: an AFTG Murderbot Diaries AU

Hear me out- Andrew as Murderbot

When Aaron is a kid, Tilda sells his DNA to the Company without telling him in order to make a couple extra credits

In this AU, the company doesn't do memory wipes as often, so Andrew does in fact remember Everything

Everyone views SecUnit Andrew as this horrible violent killing machine that's barely under control, but he could honestly care less. What's important to him is protection, and keeping his humans safe.

Instead of being on meds, it's his Governor Module that's in control of him. When he hacks it, he still has to pretend to be under control or else he'll be killed. You see the vision

He gets loaned out on contracts with cruel clients, dumb clients, a rare few clients that treat him kindly (Cass?) and plenty more clients that treat him less than stellar

(Drake is a rouge CombatUnit) WHO SAID THAT

I'm an Andrew-likes-to-read truther, so after hacking his Governor module he spends hundreds of hours downloading trashy romance novels and watching the space equivalent of the great British bake off.

Eventually he's put on contract with the Monsters!

Aaron, Kevin, and Nicky work as surveyors for the Foxhole Alliance underneath Wymack. Kevin is a historian, Aaron is the medic, and Nicky runs communications.

They're surveying an uninhibited planet for alien remnants, to either be researched or marked as hazardous

Nicky almost gets eaten by local animals, but Andrew saves him at the last second

The faceplate on his helmet gets cracked, forcing him to reveal his face for the first time

Cue Aaron reenacting the spiderman pointing meme

Neil as ART

His AI was originally developed by the Moriyamas in the Corporation Rim to be a new kind of advanced spyware (his sentience was an accident)

He manages to download himself onto a passing cargo ship and starts his brief life on the run: hopping from station to station and piggybacking on people's feeds.

He ends up inhibiting a university deep space research vessel, and pretending to be a simple navigation bot

Official Designation: Deep Space Research Vessel #10-N31L (his crew calls him Neil)

When Andrew tries to hitch a ride with Neil on an unmanned cargo trip, Neil only let's him on board to make sure he wasn't involved with the Moriyamas

They play their truth game, and Andrew let's Neil piggyback on his feed. Neil loves watching exy, but Andrew can only tolerate so many games in a row. They compromise with cheesy zombie movies so Neil can rile Andrew up about the choices all the characters make (Andrew would never let his humans put themselves in that much danger, ok?!)

Andrew calls Neil Junkie because of how often he bugs Andrew to watch exy

The Upperclassmen

They're Neil's crew, they work for Palmetto University. Officially, they conduct research. Unofficially, they conduct anti-corporation missions

Dan is the captain of the ship

Matt is the mechanical engineer, Seth the electrical engineer

Renee poses as the onboard spiritual counselor, but she spearheads the majority of their anti-corporation work

Miscellaneous bonus stuff

Allison is a badass lawyer that can speak circles around anyone from the Corporation Rim that tries to mess with them (she grew up as the heir to her family's Corporation, so she knows all the tricks)

Betsy fills the role of Dr. Bharadjwa - she uses the "totally-not-therapy" sessions with Andrew to introduce him to new sweets

Nicky unintentionally started a huge debate when they found out Andrew was constructed with Aaron's DNA ("Does that mean Aaron is his dad?!?" "Ew, no Nicky..... I don't think so???")

The entirety of Network Effect is basically if the Baltimore scene was its own novel, change my mind

Jean is also a SecUnit in this AU

Andrew met Tilda while still under contract with Aaron's team. There was an emergency, and Andrew actively chose not to save Tilda despite Aaron ordering him to (this is how they find out he's rouge)

When Andrew gets the medical procedures done to appear more human and hide that he's a SecUnit, he also actively chooses to keep looking like his brother Aaron

Andrew still has his armbands on this AU; he uses them to cover the seams of the gun ports in his arms

Andrew picks up smoking as a way to appear more human

I may write more for this or expand on certain things in another post. Feel free to come yap with me about this AU, it's completely taken over my brain lol

[theash0]

after working on this diligently for almost half a year now.. and redoing the first 40 chapters, I'd like to present what is right now already my longest fic (!).

An au of all systems red, where PresAux gets out of bringing a SecUnit.

but of course nothing goes right anyway.

Planet's haunted.

please give it a try! and leave a comment. redoing the rest is hard work. I can use the encouragement!

[goops-art]

LERNING HOW TO BECOME FRIENDS 101

1- Get a bunch of seriels

Thats it

[legowerewolf]

Fantasy Murderbot AU ideas

@ddpej said:

I am so tired of gods and spirits and whatnot that require ~savagery to be ~appeased.  give me a Chosen who isn't beloved because they follow the Old Ways, but because they don't.  a Chosen whose patron said "it was never about the knife the blood the killing, it was about the respect the gratitude the sacrifice" and it's not meaningful now to buy a goat at the market when you're not giving up anything that matters to you, when money and food and resources are no obstacle, when it's just a checkmark on the to-do list.  give me a deity who asks for time or art or something built, thank yous sung in joy, conversations or explanations of silly little human minutia.  a deity who says "i don't need you to kill for me I can do that just fine, i appreciated the gift of sustenance and the invitation to sit at your fire when that was all you had to offer but let's try something new now"

and I immediately had thoughts.

What if a god picks a champion because they're lonely? Maybe they can't wander far from their shrine (or one of them, at least), so they can't see much of the world without riding along in a champion's head? What if they just want a friend, someone to help and talk to and experience things with?

Wait a minute. That sounds kinda like what MB and Peri have. Especially the experiencing-things-together part - remember why Peri likes watching stuff with Murderbot?

Alright. AU time:

Gods and magic are a thing.

Magically-enforced slavery, complete with the ability to compel actions, is a thing. Sorry, Ember, but being the unwilling implement used to carry out a massacre is Kinda Important To Your Character.

Divine champions can't be controlled like that.

Peri is a lonely, nearly forgotten god (maybe the god of the fires that heat and light places of learning)

Ember is a person in desperate search of a god to be champion for.

Maybe they can solve each other's problem.

[bubblegumbeech]

Modern AU for the Murderbot Diaries except everyone still calls it SecUnit.

When asked by anyone they say it’s an inside joke cause it works as a Security Guard. And when pressed for its real name the PresAux crew are just like: “what are you a cop?”

[charlie-artlie]

[crabs-brencil]

on my bs again

[zeenovosdrawings]

With the unnamed cover inspo of the Latvian edition of Artificial Condition added, here’s me trying to figure out a design for a mech version of ART. If anyone else is drawing mech!ART please show me I wish to admire