murderbot sideblog

saw the show, currently working my way through the 5th novella. (he/him), 20s. writer. interacts from @kaos-academic. 🔞

[foxish-draws]

After reading Platform Decay I was suddenly struck with the intense urge to draw Murderbot in a grandma sweater just having The Worst™ time.

[ladypetricour]

Not sure what I was expecting out of Platform Decay, but confirming jollybaby has a huge dumptruck was not on my bingo card

[yearofdoodles]

Murderbot vs. captcha 🔫

Full view for better quality!

- Based on this post by @peri-hellion with comment by @brawltogethernow

[sadpterodactyl]

See, my usual day at work goes like this 'oh fcuk, I have no idea what I'm doing. I hope no one will notice.' three hours later 'oh, that actually worked out fine' So I've decided to paint myself a little guy to keep me company. Paints for ceramics, white mug, some silliness

[cjbee]

Free will means I can draw my favorite sci-fi duos interacting.

[loving-jack-kelly]

murderbot: i'm always winning the idgaf war. i care about nothing. whatever.

also murderbot: damn i guess i have to die for them. no i just have to. like i can't let them die, obviously. not because i care about them. i just have to. they have to live. no matter what they have to live.

[world-enough-and-timerogue]

my fav relationship ship dynamic is where it doesn't matter if you call it platonic or romantic or queerplatonic because they always act the same in every type of relationship. and the way they act? fucking weird.

[notquiteaghost]

okay caveat i have not read very much tv murderathin fic yet but what i have read has basically all been very Consent Focused and Careful in a way i can see the appeal in but. well. gestures at when murderbot blinded gurathin just to be a dick. i am here for different reasons

[notquiteaghost]

like i get it i do being treated as A Person With Autonomy That Is Respected is a new and novel experience. however they do both canonically react like feral cats about it. and obviously being hissed at does not mean you stop offering the feral cats a gentle touch!! but they should get to retreat to a dark enclosed space and bite the shit out of each other

[notquiteaghost]

murderbot & gurathin with the rest of presaux is the repeated reassurances, careful specificity, slow big movements to draw attention to the boundaries and how they're being intentionally navigated

murderbot & gurathin with each other, post-reunion, is a bone-deep certainty they do not ever need to discuss. gurathin put murderbot in his brain; murderbot came back; they do not need to put the trust into words. murderbot subconsciously infers 90% of gurathin's tragic backstory and bridges the last 10% with the mind melds. gurathin reads murderbot's message (separate post pending to point out how show did not have murderbot address it to mensah specifically) (however even if it was not explicitly for him. gurathin reads it.) and the only real important piece of missing context he gets there is the governor module is a torture device, which is something he also instinctively inferred once he realised murderbot is a person

murderbot turns up at gurathin's unannounced and lets itself in and does his chores. gurathin has permanent access to all its drones and habitually keeps feed from one active. murderbot will force more on him when it's pissed off with him. gurathin will pin it to the floor – this works not because he can physically overpower it but because he is Touching It On Purpose. when both of them get overwhelmed they're genuinely likely to bite the other. this is the only reason secunits even have teeth so murderbot almost always draws blood, and is then really normal about antiseptic and bandages and potential contaminants. gurathin threatens to hack it and delete random media episodes if it gets out the industrial strength cleaning solution again. and that is a threat gurathin has made good on. if they're arguing gurathin may turn its vocal chords off. murderbot retaliates with augment malware. sometimes if one of them is freaking out in circumstances they don't want to leave entirely (social events, combat situations) the other will assume a handler/controller role and they will commit. presaux-unprecedented levels of unnegotiated domestic discipline. sometimes one of them starts a verbal sentence and it is very clear that it was the other who finished it. this happens when they're being self-deprecating and also when they're having incorrect opinions about media. they hardwire while gurathin sleeps so murderbot can kill his nightmares. when murderbot sees ART again it has an extensive plan on mimicking vitiligo through code so they'll match

[therearesomewhocallmemari]

Per quick discussion in comments, here is a rec list of fics where they are a little more feral cat in relationship to each other! I'm doing both Murderbot & Gurathin and Murderbot/Gurathin and I'll give a quick note about each one but like. Read the tags and the summaries.

The Methods Series by Trisshawkeye: https://archiveofourown.org/series/5042446

Gurathin and Murderbot stumble into a non-sexual kink situation, managing to not discuss what they're actually doing right up until Mensah makes them. Rated T.

Pain Tolerance by Gamebird: https://archiveofourown.org/works/73189306

Gurathin thinks he can take the pain of a govmod correction. Murderbot is happy to let him find out. Rated M.

Leave all your love and your longing behind by Aylwyn228: https://archiveofourown.org/works/77906256/chapters/204123836

This is a little different, a longer action-adventure story where things go wrong and Murderbot has to try to keep Gurathin alive. It's a little less intensely about the relationship, but I think that aspect is there enough to put it on this list. And if you like the whump, Aylwyn has plenty more for you. Rated M.

And I long for this mirrored perspective by trinityofone: https://archiveofourown.org/works/67489981

Murderbot is having some of Gurathin's memories, and it is a bit of a dick about it. Rated M.

A Kinder Knife by parthagenon: https://archiveofourown.org/works/68528296

Another take on non-sexual kink, for a Gurathin who has a history of cutting. Rated M. (archive locked)

that never fades by chameleonchanging: https://archiveofourown.org/works/73337496

Soulmark AU but more horror than fluff. I can't really describe this well in one sentence, but it's great. Rated T. (archive locked)

And Other Hidden Places by Sholio: https://archiveofourown.org/works/73779736

Gurathin is hiring people to hurt him. Murderbot finds this objectionable. Rated M.

Improper Use of Data Ports by GroveDaan: https://archiveofourown.org/works/67554296

Murderbot thinks Gurathin's data port is dangerously exposed, and then it starts messing with it. They might not call what happens next sex, but I kinda would. Rated E.

Data Cleanse by all-systems-dead: https://archiveofourown.org/works/72440616/chapters/188633506

Gurathin wants Murderbot to do some maintenance on his ports. They do not discuss boundaries here, and Gurathin worries about it. Rated E.

Privacy Breach by all-systems-dead: https://archiveofourown.org/works/69340741

Murderbot gets curious about something Gurathin is doing with his augments in his alone time. It is very pushy about satisfying that curiosity. Rated E.

reach out from the inside by the_moonmoth: https://archiveofourown.org/works/78659141

Murderbot does not ask for permission. At one point Bharadwaj awkwardly clears the room. I loved it. Rated E. (archive locked)

Why Can't You Love Me Back? by the_moonmoth: https://archiveofourown.org/works/67138186

Gurathin confesses his gross human desires, and Murderbot lets him act on them. They have zero healthy adult conversations about what they are doing; it's great. Rated E. (archive locked)

Halt and Catch Fire by aros_66: https://archiveofourown.org/works/76973681

This is an established relationship story and part of the story includes ground rules, but it might still hit your wanting them to be more feral buttons. Rated E.

Cavity Search by lawfulchaotic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/80304956/chapters/210844486

This is either a fantasy or an AU, and involves Three in the last chapter, so may not be what you're looking for. But it might also be exactly what you're looking for, in terms of wanting no discussion whatsoever and boundaries being not so much ignored as irrelevant. Rated E.

Paradoxical Comfort by periapte: https://archiveofourown.org/works/72501096

This one is a tiny fic out of a much longer (and excellent) series, and I'm including it here for what seems like a moment of unnegotiated discipline (ish) but isn't, quite. I think you might like it, and if you do, you should check out the rest of the story. Rated T.

Finally I'll link one of my own fics, Alien Remnants Made Them Do It: https://archiveofourown.org/works/74819916

I don't know if this will be what you're looking for, because they're trying to do the consenting thing even in a situation where it's not quite possible, which is I think what you are not interested in seeing more of. However, they are jackasses to each other, so there's that. Rated M.

Anyway, I hope you - and anyone else looking for similar levels of (apparent) dysfunction - enjoy some of these!

[annabelle--cane]

I've said this before but Why do people position "themes and analysis" and "shipping" as mutually exclusive opposites. maybe I find two characters thematically interesting and want them to analytically fuck about it.

[rustystars]

i say this probably once a month but mensah & murderbot's friendship is just soooo good. like mensah as the first to ever recognize mb as a person & mb as one of the first to really immediately get her. mb always dedicating a couple cameras to watching her because they make each other feel safe. mensah trusting mb more than anyone in the system. that scene where mensah's ranting about work & mb's just sitting on her desk swinging its legs. how mb is touch repulsed because it associates contact with violence & yet it's constantly hugging & holding her hand. how it realizes it wants to stay with ART & all it can say to mensah is "i don't want to not see you again" because the emotion is just too overwhelming. of course it can live without her but it never wants to. "do you love her" "not in the way you think" because it isn't about devotion it isn't about gratefulness & it isn't about pity it's about how at the end of the world they understood each other & they've never stopped. LIKE IT'S SOOOOOO GOOD

[transcarcinization]

[bambimydear45]

[annabelle--cane]

you all don't deserve the pillow sniffing scene smh 😤

[birdypng]

back on pushing my Ratthi Murderbot best friends agenda

[sabriel-writes]

Obv Three hasn't gone thru all of its character development yet, but the current fandom take on it is that Three is a sociable softie who loves nature and learning.

Which is very adorable, and as textually supported as anything can be. But I propose:

--Three canonically tries to get SecUnit to wear its armor by pointing at it for two minutes without saying a word

--SecUnit canonically pulls a lot of things it says directly from Sanctuary Moon, which it has watched thousands of hours of, and Three hasn't

--Three is into documentaries and nonfiction

--Three is used to working with other SecUnits

Thus,

Three rarely speaks, but when it does, it's basically *David Attenborough voice*. When Three and SecUnit are working together and SecUnit forgets to tell the humans what it's doing, Three (who hasn't said a word in the past six hours) suddenly says, "Your SecUnit is currently attempting a hack on nearby drones. This has a high probability of success, but there is always the chance that these drones have had their security features altered. ...and there, these drones are now under our control. Our path forward is clear, but we will continue to use caution," like it's narrating Blue Planet

[fictionallesbian]

Comic I saw in a dream

[madplanetz]

murderbot | hidden place, bjork (capcut)

horribly unfamiliar with using this app i assume its quite obvious </3 ANYWAYS the idea for this came to me mid essay and it wouldnt leave me Alone so heres a thing.