#murderbot headcanons

[murderbot-moodboard]

Three learning to be more assertive like Murderbot... sort of.

[ineedlelittlespace]

Not strictly a Murderbot thing, but I went to a symphony concert in the park last night, and the final piece they did was Ode to Joy.

BUT they had advertised ahead of time that anyone who plays an instrument was welcome to join them on that last piece. They even provided sheet music and added vocals for the third repetition to let any audience members who wanted to sing about "community and raising their voices in unity" join in.

This meant that for the last song of the concert, people in the audience were pulling out their own violins and cellos and tubas(!), and the music was coming from every square foot of that park. Music teachers from the local schools volunteered to spread out through the crowd and help conduct. It was the coolest collective performance I've ever seen, and it gave me all the Preservation vibes after the fact. It feels like exactly the kind of thing that would be sponsored by FirstLanding university, that any or all of PresAux would attend, and that Murderbot would have Emotions about.

[minervas-hand]

Right to fear, wrong to believe

Just had a horrible realization and needed to meta it out.

How different they were before Edinburgh, when Crowley was sucked down into Hell.

Look at this flirty babygirl in the Bastille:

I mean could he climb that tree any faster?

(This is why I really like fics that place a more physical relationship here, pre-Bastille or just post-Bastille, because c'mon look at them. )

In S1 the next thing is 1862 and Crowley asking for insurance (with a cane ffs). And Aziraphale freaking out with his "fraternizing" BS. It's jarring, until we get 1827 filled in for us in S2.

@takeme-totheworld notes in this post:

Crowley sure went from "our respective head offices don't actually care how things get done" and "nobody ever has to know" to "walls have ears" FAST after Edinburgh. And Aziraphale went from looking at Crowley with hearts in his eyes to "I've been FrAtErNiZiNg" just as quickly. I'm more convinced than ever that Edinburgh was the first time Crowley ever actually got caught and punished for fucking around with Aziraphale/doing good deeds/whatever it was they yanked him back down to Hell for, and it scared the absolute shit out of both of them and changed the whole tone of their relationship after that.

Yes! - it's clear to me as well that the Edinburgh graveyard was a very bad turning point, where they both saw that Hell was listening and would intervene. And it did change their relationship drastically, for over a century and a half (really, until looming Armageddon loosened up the stakes for them).

But what about Heaven?

See the thing is, we know Azi's been worried about Heaven watching him for the past 6000 years.

But they haven't.

[GIFs posted by starrose17]

All this time, and Heaven had not seen them together. Hadn't noticed. Had not even LOOKED.

I want to mention what @starrose17 says about this here in this post:

What I love about this is her choice of words, “went back through the Earth Observation files.” This implies that these photos were already filed somewhere meaning somebody had to have been watching them which meant somewhere in the depths of the bureaucratic heaven there’s an underpaid angel clerk tasked with watching angels on Earth, and he’s been hording photos of his favourite Angel/Demon couple not reporting them to Michael because he wants to see what happens.

And that's exactly what this fic covers!: Spying Omens by @ednav

(Give this a read, it's fabulous.)

While I am here for this being exactly how that happens, the other scenario is colder and worse - there's no one watching, at all. It's just filing automatically and never seen until some Scrivener is called to pull a file.

From @fuckyeahisawthatat's comment here :

I found this scene to be quite chilling, actually. Not only is the idea of Heaven as a surveillance state brilliant (way to make “God is always watching” sound way more ominous) but this is exactly how modern surveillance states work. They don’t actively watch everybody all the time. That’s not physically possible for humans, and even if it is metaphysically possible for Heaven, it’s not a very efficient use of resources. Surveillance states watch people they deem “suspicious.” And once you’ve been put in the category of “suspicious,” they have massive amounts of data that they can comb through to collect a lot of information about you–to retroactively build a case justifying why you’re suspicious, to collect information about where you go and who you associate with, etc.

Yes.

So we either have secret collusion in the rank and file, or we have a surveillance state that is constantly reinforced to its subjects for fear's sake, for control.

(Well, it obviously could be both.)

BUT my point is… Up until Edinburgh, Hell has not been watching (or caring at least). And up until near the end of Armageddon't, neither has Heaven.

Oh, my poor Angel. Thousands of years, of denying yourself, of pushing Crowley away, of carrying around a tension that is it's own constellation.

After 1827 you might have reason, but for the 5000+ years before that?

Thousands of years and Heaven was not watching nor cared.

You were right to fear. And you were wrong to believe.

And that just breaks my heart.

[riseandfallofsecunit]

Murderbot waking up in ART’s MedSystem + Art showing Iris and Seth images of it

[murderbot-moodboard]

Ratthi is definitely that bird person

every friend group needs at least 1 bird person I'm not even joking you need somebody where you can just take a picture of the most blurry feathered beast on the sidewalk and go "hey amanda do you know her?" and you get the most enthusiastic detailed reply about how wonderful and precious and dear this bird is followed by "and they sometimes stab other birds' eggs for fun :)"

[crabs-brencil]

mb-art interactions featuring ratthi (with a surprise appearance of the electrical gloves lol)

[thepringlesofblood]

important question: does murderbot (the murderbot diaries) wear socks?

we know socks exist in murderbot world (it describes human living spaces as smelling like dirty socks).

we know that mb's feet are inorganic and don't look like human feet or augmented human feet.

when mb gets new clothes, which it does several times throughout the series, it never mentions socks (at least not to my knowledge, and I have these books practically memorized at this point). the most we get is that some shoes are described as "soft".

when in armor, mb mentions its "suitskin", which seems to be an all-over bodysuit sort of deal that could cover feet as well, thus negating the need for socks. for most of the series, though, mb is not in armor and not wearing suitskin.

considerations/potential points

mb might hate the smell and/or human connotations of socks enough to go sockless

mb mentions its shoes being soft bc it doesn't need to wear socks with them

suitskin = no socks for secunits, but mb got some post-All Systems Red to when it had to start wearing human shoes

maybe human socks don't work with secunit feet, or aren't necessary for them (although shoes work, so i feel like socks would work too)

if mb mentions getting shoes, perhaps it can be assumed that it's also buying socks, and just didn't mention it bc it doesn't deem them important.

thoughts?

[murderbot-moodboard]

Ratthi, the Field Biologist: What do you mean, terrifying? New bugs are the best! :)

Murderbot: *put-upon sigh* *drops a chart of how many venomous insects PresAux has encountered into the feed*

Ratthi: *reads for a few moments* This goes way back. Long before we even met you.

Murderbot: I needed complete data for an accurate threat assessment.

Ratthi: I feel so much safer now that you do our security.

Murderbot: Argh! How did you completely miss the point of this chart? Bugs. Venom. Danger. Do not touch without taking proper precautions!

Ratthi: :) I'll do my best to keep taking proper precautions, SecUnit.

Murderbot: *long sigh*

Ratthi: :)

[ur-fav-is-autistic]

(if you havent done this already) secunit/murderbot from the murderbot diaries is autistic !!

Murderbot from the Murderbot Diaries is Autistic!

[trashmancer]

In celebration of new Murderbot news, I redrew PreservationAux yesterday!

[shannoneichorn]

I adore all the Murderbot fanart, but I'm getting hung up on gender presentation. (Thanks, in part, to my own biases, I'm sure.)

When we read Network Effect for my MFA program, we found out that folks who read paper/ebook perceived Murderbot differently from the folks who did the audiobook. The audio listeners perceived Murderbot as masculine, whereas others were mixed or noted that no gender was provided.

So, as I'm on team Androgynous Murderbot, most of the art strikes me as overly masculine.

[murderbot-moodboard]

Murderbot would probably have a fit because its threat assessment would keep spiking until it added some programming to ignore the fake tripping hazard. But then it would feel anxious about keeping watch manually for any real tripping hazards. And it would have a whole (scathing yet entertaining) rant about it.

[m00nymonster]

Tasteless

Prompt: taste

When Gurathin saw Ratthi wander in he winced.

"Must you wear that to the festival?"

"You have no taste," Ratthi said with a dramatic sniff. "This is fashionable."

"A magenta crop top and green harem pants is fashionable," Gurathin deadpanned.

"Don't forget the shoes!"

Gurathin stared at the patchwork leather bowling shoes on Ratthi's feet. "I wish I could."

SecUnit walked in, dressed in its usual dark blue hoodie and black cargo pants, and gave Ratthi a sardonic look that it must have learned from Mensah.

"Are you really going to wear that?"

"Neither of you know anything about fashion."

Gurathin sighed. "Ratthi, I don't care if you are straight off the runway. Change."

"Fiiiiine," Ratthi pouted. He disappeared into his room. After ten minutes, he reappeared, dressed in an open blue vest and form fitting green jeans with neon orange shoes. A long gold chain hung off his neck. The infuriating thing was Ratthi somehow pulled it off.

"No taste, at all," Gurathin repeated. Ratthi glared.

"Same to you, Mister Always Wears Black."

"It's a classy look! You look like a child's drawing."

SecUnit rolled its eyes. "Are we going or what?"

"We're going," Gurathin sighed. "Diety help us, we're going."

[murderbot-moodboard]

Murderbot's reaction: "Gross, why do humans have to make everything about sex? Just let the printer do its job." *deletes text from its memory*

Three's reaction: *puts hands under chin* "Ooh, this is interesting. Tell me more."

ART's reaction: "While a printer unfortunately lacks the capacity for emotions such as arousal, a highly advanced artificial intelligence such as myself is amply equipped for processing and experiencing such complex, nuance-rich reactions to appropriate stimulation." *flickers overhead lights suggestively*

the work printer cries out, "no stop, that's too much! youre gonna make me jam!" as i load a full ream into her tray, but it's too late. "see, you can take it. you're doing such a good job for me." i coo into her feeding tray as i begin printing the morning reports. her warning lights turn red as she moans in i assume ecstacy

[willowbird]

murderbot is like hi I'm a construct and my love language is designing a content filter so that my ultimate ship (get it?! ultimate SHIP!!) can seamlessly explore the thing I love the most without being triggered or distressed, thus inviting it into my sarcastic but nurturing little soul

[griseldagimpel]

Murderbot Diaries Headcanons

Given that ART is a fully recognized member of the crew, that likely means that Murderbot signing on means that it's going to have to start paying taxes.

Gonna write a fan fic where ART convinces Murderbot to marry it so that they can file their taxes jointly, and then ART dumps all of the tax work on Murderbot.

I'll believe ART pays taxes, but I refuse to believe that it does the work itself.