Aurelia Hammerlock fanclub president

A Creative Writing major with too much time on her hand and depression. Archive of Our Own: MidnightCitizen

[letmemendthepast]

rocky's steady little hands...

[sanctuaryrin]

this whole thing will never not make me insane

"yes but don't tell anyone." unfortunately I'm telling everyone.

[inkedinserendipity]

also, another detail from network effect that makes me go feral: while art was willing to risk the lives of murderbot's humans to save its crew, it did also die for them. like it did do that. the original art spent its last living moments jogging its guns to keep from killing murderbot's humans, probably knowing that targetcontrolsystem was going to find it and kill it.

so yeah, art is an asshole. but it was also willing to die for people it had never met. because they were murderbot's, and murderbot loved them, and for art that was enough.

[lyricwritesprose]

ART is such a wonderful character. It's an asshole, it's sarcastic, it's arrogant, it frightens people because it can, its favorite words in the universe are, "I told you so," but when it actually gets dangerous—when it flies straight down the line between asshole and actual supervillain—it's doing it because of pure love. It adores its people so much it hurts. And if you're Murderbot's people, then it will also throw itself into the line of fire to save you, because that means you're sort of its people too.

[inkedinserendipity]

i am absolutely obsessed with how you've described art here. 'its favorites words are "i told you so"' is so funny and somewhere out there murderbot is enthusiastically co-signing. and the bit about it going between being an asshole and a supervillain and doing so because it loves is just! you are so right and also your brain is so big! art is not cruel it is ruthless and there is a difference! you had just also better fucking hope you're on art's team when time runs out!

[waestlandbaby]

ART yelling at its crew to do their laundry because Murderbot's important person Dr Mensah is going to be onboard and it needs to make a good impression because it wants Mensah to approve of their 'relationship' and be okay with them 'moving in together', and then being so nice to Dr Mensah when it's been an overbearing, domineering, sarcastic nightmare the whole book is something that is so special to me

[asthedeathoflight]

Really badly need fic of ART in a human-form bot body (in some situation where there's reduced feed capacity so it can't just ride along with MB) and hanging off of MB physically the way it always does in the feed and neither of them really notice or think it's remarkable because like. Duh. They're always huddled up next to each other. But their humans are losing their minds because what do you MEAN ART-bot is just shoving into MB's space like that and it doesn't care at all. At some point Ratthi is like wow you two seem like youve gotten so much closer since that whole debacle with the target planet! And MB just stares at him blankly like what do you mean. ART ignoring my personal space so it can watch what I'm doing is normal. And so Ratthi just has to sit there vibrating and not saying anything while ART-bot physically drags MB around by the arm and MB inexplicably allows this to happen.

[asshole-readers-tower]

tags by @asthedeathoflight

[inkedinserendipity]

i'm starting a list of events in network effect that are heavily influenced (and made funnier/more wrenching on a reread) by murderbot being an unreliable narrator. starting from when art comes back online. first three:

the bit where thiago goes "we'd know more if someone had left any survivors" which is probably a shot at murderbot, but then art "apparently didn't take it well", i.e. art coming to murderbot's defense and murderbot completely missing it

when murderbot storms into the restroom and then refuses to come out after getting mad about art endangering its crew. something about painting art as dangerous and then immediately removing itself from being able to come from their defense - because, quote, "...with ART back online, [anyone screaming for help] was unlikely." something something being angry but also trusting your mutual administrative assistant with the lives of your crew, who you are notoriously protective over. the girls are besties even when they're fightinggggg <3

and my personal favorite, which is murderbot reporting that "one of ART's long-sleeved crew T-shirts had fallen out of the recycler at one point", which is the funniest use of passive voice in the entire book. oh look! the crew t-shirt just fell out of the recycler! this is totally happenstance and definitely not an overture of peace/friendship/something by art! murderbot, you little idiot!

[asshole-readers-tower]

op your tags are delightful 🤍

[asshole-readers-tower]

tags by @asthedeathoflight

[ace-and-ranty]

Do we ever stop to think that ART saved its whole entire self behind a password. And the password was the name it calls Murderbot. Do we ever think Murderbot needed its own name to save ART's life. Its whole entire self. Protected by Murderbot's name.

Do you ever cry.

[asthedeathoflight]

I do think about this. Constantly. Because like.... What if MB had failed? If Holism had shown up as backup and defeated the Targets eventually. Even if it figures out the password is a feed address, it has no way of knowing what it is. If the Targets had killed MB I don't think there would have been a way to retrieve its feed address, and even then why tf would they assume this random dead secunit is the password? And sure, I think ART may have excluded MB failing from its decision tree the same way it excluded its crew having been spaced, but it also makes me crazy that to some degree ART was saying "if you're not there to wake me up, I don't want to wake up. If you go, I go."

[dryeraseslime]

#if doing this to murderbot kills it I deserve to stay dead. fuck (via asthedeathoflight)

OW

[thekalpar]

Read a New Murderbot Story for Free, Right After the Season Finale - Reactor

The new novelette will be released on Reactor immediately following the final episode of AppleTV+’s Murderbot

I AM GNAWING ON THE BARS OF MY ENCLOSURE!

[berenshand]

underrated funny part of system collapse is murderbot repeatedly being like 'no one knows wtf three wants to do ever because three doesn't know how to want things yet' but most of three's narration in network effect was 'i want to rescue murderbot. i want to do a good job rescuing murderbot. i hope i get a good grade in rescuing murderbot. i want to rescue murderbot so bad that im going to attempt to talk a terrifying murderous spaceship out of its plan for a planetary bombardment' mb just consistently says the most blatantly wrong shit about everyone it's ever met lmao

[achillbeing]

@ineedlelittlespace YOUR TAGS ARE STAYING HERE

[thekalpar]

Further evidence of Murderbot being an unreliable narrator:

Murderbot: Well, I guess I'll use these crappy drones that the cheap-ass company paid the lowest bidder for. I wish I had better drones.

ART, watching over MB's shoulder: Those drones are so cool. I want drones like that. Dads, can I have drones like that? Can we get new drones on the way home?

ART's family: Peri, where did you schematics for state-of-the-art, highly secret, corporate military tech?

ART: Oh. You know. Lying around.

[shadowmap]

Ok but for real, have you worked with state of the art proprietary tech? It's garbage built by the lowest bidder. I'm with Murderbot, gimme the refurbished reliable over new and shiny every time.

[thekalpar]

I think this is a case of both things being true. It is possible that the drones Murderbot has are cheap, use crappy proprietary software, and probably would play ads if the company thought there was any money in it. Grunts and government workers the world over complain about having to work with tools made by the lowest bidder, and there are probably better, more optimized drones that exist but these get the job done so that's what the company buys.

HOWEVER, as cheap and crappy as these drones are, they are still light years above what's available on the civilian market which is why they're such a shock to Peri's crew. Murderbot's just used to the drones so the capabilities of the drones aren't a surprise to it.

[sanctuaryrin]

love love love the added perspective of MB and ART's relationship we get from rapport because now we know ART was definitely sitting there when it was taken over in network effect like "oh no! I have become a damsel transport in distress! surely my darling secunit in shining armor will rescue me from my tower and whisk me away on its noble steed!" and then murderbot effectively shows up, rescues it, and immediately dumps it off the back of the steed and says "bitch walk home."

[cutthroatlichen-blog]

[cc-videos]

First Chef: I just see chef Dean grabbing tons of savory items. He looks like he’s never made a corn muffin in his entire life.

Chef Dean: I’ve never made a corn muffin in my entire life. 

[unparalleledbore]

an interview with secunit, post-ep4

[shrubfriend]

I keep trying to make a post about the parallel between Murderbot in Network Effect convincing ART to help it make a Murderbot copy so they can kill it (and how MB is confused that the idea upsets everyone) and Murderbot in System Collapse treating the copy ART makes of itself with as much care and respect as it does ART Prime (and not being suprised when ART's crew do the same because of coarse they would, its still ART)...but I'm not articulate enough.

Something something Network Effect and System Collapse are Murderbot having to reckon with it's poor self worth and self-destructive tendencies and how that affects everyone around it.

[shrubfriend]

This scene in Network Effect gets funnier the more I think about it.

Sorry, is ART not your cute pet name for it?

[tinderbox210]

Kay and ND-5 + role playing

[cruelfeline]

A Pirate's Fortune is so interesting to play through from the point of view of Kay and ND's relationship.

It feels like their first "big" endeavor post-main game, and it shows in that they each have this sense of uncertainty in where they stand with one another.

ND-5 is adjusting to life as a free droid, but one gets the sense that he's still not sure he has that life. His conflict with Kay feels like he's testing what he perceives to be boundaries: does she really mean that he can choose? Even if he doesn't choose what she wants? Or were her previous claims just pretty words to entice him to work with her?

Kay is adjusting to life with a partner outside of Nix, and one gets the sense that she's not quite settled into it yet. She trusts ND, but deep down, she still has doubts. Will he really stay with her, given the choice to leave? Can she really count on him to have her back, even when she does something admittedly stupid? Is he really a part of her new family, or will he leave her when things don't go well, or when she makes a mistake, or when he gets cross with her?

Ultimately, each of them has their fears put to rest. ND learns that, yes: Kay really means that he can choose to do whatever he wants... even if that means disagreeing with her and going his own way. Kay learns that ND will always be there for her, always support and care for her even if he doesn't support her decisions.

The end is essentially a combination of "yes, you really are free, and you can choose" and "yes, I do choose you because I genuinely want to." And that's really, really satisfying.

Even if I had to endure the obnoxious presence of Hondo Ohnaka to see it.