CivviHyral Station

SecUnit levels of autism Hiii here's my first fandom blog in like a decade lol. main is @civvi-the-civilian. See a blog with Civvi in the name? That’s probably me! I love Murderbot and I want to tentatively dip my feet into the fandom outside of my main blog. Because unlearning shame is hard! 29, they/it arospec ace

[veliseraptor]

i am terminally A Sucker for characters who have a towering and generally earned ego about their own ability and absolutely no self-worth about themselves as a person at all. intoxicating combo.

[mumblesplash]

it's such bs that the whole guilt-ridden stoic self-sacrificing martyr thing doesn't work outside of fiction. repressing all your emotions and neglecting your physical wellbeing should make you god's most tragically beautiful morally unassailable little soldier of righteousness but all it does is give you bad skin and gastrointestinal problems

[yet-another-heathen]

[securityunit-ese]

What if ART was an illegally modified trailbike with machine intelligence and they did stunts

[dogsandphilosophers]

Can anyone recommend some entry level behaviours? Thinking of getting into being

[orpheuslament]

lets out one truly pitiful little whimper & then goes back to doing fucking whatever

[meggettes]

HelpMe.file Excerpt 3 (Section from interview Bharadwaj-108257394)

"It's normal to feel conflict. You were part of something for a long time. You hate it, and it was a terrible thing. But it created you, and you were part of it."

:session redacted: (File detached from main narrative.)

—Network Effect by Martha Wells

[civvihyral-station]

Reblogging this again to my fandom blog cuz I just realized: it redacted the rest of the session here probably cuz it didn’t want to be too emotionally vulnerable but 2.0 thought this was one of the most important things Three could be told in the moment 🥺

It puts priority on making its humans sympathetic so Three will help, and informing it a little on what life without a governor module would be like, but it also includes this validation of complex feelings it probably thinks Three will also experience. That feels like it trying to set Three up for longterm emotional success. It also means that hearing this was important enough to MB to include it when making 2.0. Idk it’s just really sweet. I love them all ough.

[civvihyral-station]

Some old MB doodles from my little notebook I bring to work.

[ethantheannus]

tv mensahbot on the brain. specifically what do you mean mensah gets asked if she has feelings for it. hello.

[securityunit-ese]

They are weird QPR soulmates

They connected in ep 4 when they kept looking at each other in wonder and concern

mutually orbiting each other to the exclusion of all else. They have eyes for each other only.

[ethantheannus]

i have so many Thoughts especially about mensah bc being polyam myself, her and murderbot's relationship and her in general reminds me of myself. like. how do i word this.

it's not a "this partner is more important than the others" situation or anything. but it's very much "this person understands me in ways no one else, even my other partners, ever have", yknow??? everyone else in her life is still so important to her, but there's just that insane level of connection and understanding.

and then on the flip side you have murderbot whos just... never had that level of connection. with anyone. ever.

suffice to say i think they deserve to get even more co-dependent with it than ever.

[securityunit-ese]

YES she's poly, who's to say she wouldn't accept another person who comes along and just gets her. Someone she can confide in about the troubles she's having at home, someone who understands the stress and difficult decisions of being a leader (protector) of a group of people, someone who needs her as badly as she needs it, someone who when she looks at them she sees a person at their most vulnerable and she can't ignore how much it needs her help, how isolated and alone it is.

Mensah coming from a big family with multiple partners and a big community and multiple people having crushes on her contrasting to the SecUnit that has nothing, has never had anyone, not even itself, who has been chained up even in its own mind and when it breaks free it has no-one to go to so it turns to media.

She is its first conversation as a person. Its first joke. The first person it can confide in. Its first conflict and its first resolution. Its first bonding moment.

They are fast tracking the weird codependency of two parts of the one soul meeting and they're living in a world that would support that! If not for the fact that it is a secunit. They could crash and burn so hard.

and also yes omg the scene where she's asked if she has feelings

This scene cracks me up for so many reasons. First we have blatantly obvious hero-worship crush man going :< "Do you have feelings for it?"

Because the one thing worse than having no chance with her is the knowledge that she's interested in a piece of corporate rim equipment over him.

And she's stalling and thinking and he knows she's stalling and thinking with a very roll eyes of course SecUnit.

And she pauses, she thinks, she has her thinking face on, she can't tell him her thoughts. She doesn't confide in him that way, not like she has with SecUnit. She can't - she's his superior and she knows he's emotionally dependent on her and she's just that slightly closed off from him. She cares for him but not that way.

AND SHE AVOIDS THE QUESTION. REDIRECTS BACK TO HIS ILL HEALTH. She does it with concern and care but she AVOIDS THE QUESTION.

And he knows that's what she's doing, but he also doesn't call her out because it is some kind of attention and care from her even though it's not what he wants!

And then SecUnit returns and Mensah IMMEDIATELY TURNS AROUND and ducks her head and SMILES like she's hiding a joke. Maybe she is, because she immediately makes a joke for SecUnit before getting into their mutual jobs of keeping everyone alive.

[civvihyral-station]

That bit about being poly makes me think of aometbong. Ya know I bet that’s also part of why people don’t tend to care for shipping them.

Okay *gets up on my soapbox*

People are taught by society at large that your romantic parter should be your Everything. They are the most important person who meets all of your needs. A lot of poly is the idea that you can have different partners who meet different needs. Like maybe theoretically my partner has another partner that they match up with better when it comes to physical activity so they could have someone to go on romantic hikes with while I prefer to stay home or do chill walks. This idea is like totally foreign to a lot of monogamous people, because they meet those needs with platonic relationships, or not at all, if their partner does not meet them.

Obv we see the same thing happen in Mensah’s life. I think maybe can be hard for people to accept with ship-brain that their ship doesn’t meet all the needs in someone’s life. MB meets emotional intimacy needs because of the way Mensah can confide in it about things she doesn’t feel comfortable talking about with her marital partners. But OBVIOUSLY it cannot be the only person in her life! She’s a family gal and that’s a need it doesn’t want to and won’t meet.

And I think this makes their dynamic even more interesting but I can see how a lot of people who get very. Intense. About this kinda stuff would not be drawn to that (skill issue /LH)

*falls off my soapbox* It’s 3am and I’m gonna be late to work. Am I making sense lmao

[xavantina]

Murderbot + text posts [200/∞]

[ethantheannus]

finally watching the murderbot show. this is SO good

[ethantheannus]

okay yeah so im only barely into network effect (like only three chapters in) but watching the show im like oh okay so i am officially in the realm of Deranged about murderbot and mensah. like its not even funny anymore. i need to read these books FASTER!!!! every time they're on screen together i'm like hooting and hollering. when she's like holding onto his arm to drag him through the habitat,,, waugh. blows up.

[taropilled]

explodes . pretend screencaps from my fake murderbot movie

[king-of-kaoss]

Visit Original Link

Visit Original Link

Requested by @@elamarth-calmagol on the post of all of murderbot's vocal dialogue in ASR

[fullbodycringe]

One of the ways The Murderbot Diaries breaks from sci-fi tradition the most is in how it treats aliens. As in, no one gives a shit.

In pretty much any other sci-fi, in one way or another, aliens are the most important thing to happen to the human race. Encountering aliens might be a near spiritual experience. Just learning that they exist and "we are not alone" is a pivotal moment of great awe (or a moment of great horror and fear that this stellar ocean is much deeper and darker than we thought). Other times aliens represent a reckoning, as we face our own weaknesses and undertake a great battle again the Other (in the literal sense) or against our inner darkness (metaphorically).

In The Murderbot Diaries we totally found aliens! Or at least ruins of alien civilizations... But tell Capt. Picard to put away the flute and the archaeology books- we euphemistically call them "strange synthetics," and instead of revealing deep truths about what it is to be alive, they'll probably just infect you with a bizarre disease that turns you half alien.

*sad flute sounds*

Only idiots mess with that stuff. Even in the Corporation Rim where money is king, mining those ruins for their oh-so-tempting advanced technology is a big no-no, practically the only law that corporations (usually) won't break.

Oh yeah, and there are (probably unintelligent, but it's not really investigated) alien creatures just running around on planets. We aren't studying them for their unique biology and learning how to gene hack ourselves or invent new medicine, they're mostly annoyances who try to eat us (see: literally the first thing that happens in the book and TV series).

Even in learning-and-human-betterment-driven Preservation, there's no evidence of alien archaeologists or xeno-whateverists. No evidence of cultists worshipping aliens or trying to contact them. We just have a bunch of people going about their human (and construct (and bot)) business despite, you know, aliens!

Granted, we're seeing all this through Murderbot's perspective, who clearly has, um, other priorities. But I feel like it would have at least mentioned those people as some kind of extra special idiot.

This isn't a criticism, it's just interesting to me, and I realized a part of me kept waiting for someone to care about the aliens. It certainly has historical context- some cultures met and established trade and mutual exchange, while others were, well, like the conquistadors meeting native flora, fauna, and people in new lands... that stuff was mostly in their way. And given that it's "just" ruins, there are certainly many, many cases where we've built whole cities on top of old ones without a second thought for history (yes, the opposite is also true again... Humans are complicated).

So, I guess, thanks for the new perspective

[so-many-ocs]

hey, don't cry. fictional character in dire & perilous situations. ok?

[roguebots]

Random SecUnits meeting Murderbot and immediately clocking the 2cm height difference:

[m00nymonster]

Promise Me

Prompt: anticipation

TRIGGER WARNING: character death, cancer

I paced outside the hallway of Mensah's bedroom, inside of which her children and partners were gathered. I couldn't handle the crowd, even with drones. The few I had brought with me flew around my head in a defensive pattern.

Out of all the ways for Mensah to die, I'd have never anticipated this. I had expected old age to take her. And frankly, I hadn't expected to see her die at all. The chances of me dying before her were statistically higher, with my job. But it would have been old age, for sure. A very long time from now.

No one expected pancreatic cancer.

By the time she'd complained of stomach pain, it was too late. Most cancers could be treated. It wasn't easy, but it was managable. If you caught it before stage four, anyway.

I kept pacing. I couldn't meet anyone's eyes. Ratthi and Gurathin were waiting outside with me, sitting on chairs dragged in from the living room for this purpose. Arada and Overse were murmuring to each other as they gripped hands, and Pin-Lee stared at the floor. I didn't care.

I wanted to fight something. I want to tear something's spine out. But you can't rip out cancer's lungs. You can just wait and watch as your favorite human leaves the hospital because the treatments didn't work, watch as she went home, watch as she climbed into her bed like it was a mountain and lay down to be comfortable. You can't rip cancer limb from limb as you watch your favorite human die by inches.

Farai and the rest slowly filtered out of the room.

"Not long now," she murmured. Ratthi ran a hand over his face. Gurathin stared holes into the carpet. Overse and Arada stopped whispering, and Pin-Lee finally looked up, tears in her eyes. They started to get up. Farai raised a hand.

"She wants SecUnit," she said. "You can go in after."

I stopped pacing. Farai waved at me, but I couldn't move.

"SecUnit? We don't have much time."

I stared at the door. It was rectangular, made of a smooth brown wood with a golden knob. No entryway had scared me more.

"Me?" I whispered. Farai nodded. I took a deep, shuddering breath and forced myself to open the door and step inside. The door shut behind me.

Mensah lay on the bed, surrounded by pillows, propped up to be as comfortable as possible. Her children had left little stuffed animals around her, and the tables were covered with flowers. She was pale, sickly, but her eyes still had the determined sheen I'd seen when she'd killed a SecUnit with a mining drill to protect me.

"SecUnit."

"Murderbot," I corrected. She smiled and nodded weakly.

"Murderbot. Sit down."

I sat in a chair next to her bed.

"Can I....?" She raised her hand. I hesitated, then gripped it tightly. She sighed.

"I remember the last time you held my hand."

I said nothing, just stared. She smiled at me and continued.

"I had no hope when they held me. Then you were there, and--and I knew there was a chance. You fought so hard to save me, and you almost died. Several times. You risked everything to protect me. And when you went on that survey with Amena...you did everything you could for her, too. When I learned about that, you have no idea how...upset I was. That you'd almost died." She coughed. I tightened my grip. "I want you to promise me something," she said.

"Anything."

"Take care of yourself."

I hadn't expected that.

"You throw yourself into danger, all the time. You don't care if you die. I do." She coughed again. "I want you to live a long, happy life. Understand?" She cocked her head, then gently lifted her free hand and brushed it against my face. It was wet.

"That's too hard," I whispered.

She nodded. "You're tough. You'll figure it out."

"I don't want to. I don't want you to die."

"We don't always get what we want, Murderbot." She sighed. "I wanted more time, too." She winced. "Promise me, Murderbot."

I was quiet for a whole four minutes and thirty seven seconds. "Okay," I said finally. "I promise."

She gave a relieved sigh. "Send in the others," she said. She smiled and released my hand. "And don't forget your promise. Live. For me."

I nodded, and quietly slipped away.

"She wants you," I said thickly at my humans outside, jerking my head as I closed the door. Ratthi jumped up. He stared at me, his expression soft.

"SecUnit..."

"I'll be downstairs," I said, and fled.

[m00nymonster]

Reblogging this because it's one of my favorites and @securityunit-ese will like it lol

[candyskiez]

I love when a character wants to be someone's dog so so bad. Dont mean it in a sexual way (although that can also be a part of it) I mean like. Let me be your loyal companion let me stay by your side give me a purpose in exchange for endless unconditional love let me stop being a person love me like it's my only use. Love me like that's the only thing I was made for. As you can tell. I'm normal.