Love Endlessly

Welcome. Writing, Art, Poetry, Thoughts they/them. Prompts are always open for all fandoms! Send me and ask, and I would probably love to write it! Currently into: Boku No Hero Academia and The Murderbot Diaries. AO3 Index

[darkelectron]

Prompts are open

Just thought I’d say that prompts are always open if people want me to write them things. Just drop an ask and I’ll give it a shot. If it’s a fandom I’ve interacted with even briefly, chances are I’ll write it.

Hope yall having a great day :)

[darkelectron]

as I'm rereading one of my favourite novels that nobody knows about link here i decided to make a chart of my relationship headcanons for class s. unfortunately I do not think su bei knows any of this is happening and nobody is telling him.

[aggregatefunctionzine]

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[torpublishinggroup]

Everyone’s favorite lethal SecUnit is back in Platform Decay, the latest installment of Martha Wells’s The Murderbot Diaries series.

Having someone else support your bad decision feels kind of good.

After volunteering to run a rescue mission, Murderbot realizes that it will have to spend significant time with a bunch of humans it doesn't know.

Including human children. Ugh.

This may well call for...eye contact!

(Emotion check: Oh, for f—)

We’ve included an excerpt from the first chapter below:

Chapter One

Space was okay to look at but not super fun when you were out in it. And Three and I were definitely in it, clamped on to the outside hull of a small in-system shuttle. It was just as uncomfortable as it sounds.

Obviously, to make this plan work, we had needed a suit. And considering this was the distraction part of the plan that would be taking the brunt of the attention, it was better if it was an armored suit. But it couldn’t be Three’s actual SecUnit armor, it had to look like the kind made for humans.

We had ended up with an armored suit designed to look like one that Wilken and Gerth had used back on Milu. Because someone (ART) thought this part could use some more verisimilitude. (Like someone might have researched that incident, and think I’d been hauling around one of those shitty sets of armor all this time, or hiding it in my secret rogue SecUnit lair. (Otherwise known as the Port Hotel on Preservation Station, or ART’s aft module resident cabin, depending on where I was at the time.))

(I’m not saying using that armor design is not a good idea; I mean, that is some quality paranoid overthinking right there, we all have to agree on that.)

Anyway, even in an armored suit, traveling via clamping on to the outside of a shuttle moving through space was so inherently disturbing it was a relief when the black hull loomed out of the dark. We were coming up on our target/destination, which was a gigantic space dock attached to an even more gigantic planetary torus. There were multiple docks along the torus’s outer hull, but this one was closest to our primary target, which was why we had to go in here. Literally because the thing was so big, and because multiple intel sources suggested it would be difficult to move around in. (Yes, that sounds like the opposite of super fun. There were a lot of other things I would rather be doing.)

A station that encircled an entire planet had to be huge. (And it was huge. From this vantage point you would have no idea there was a whole planet on the other side of this thing, over there somewhere.) It was also very old, not a point in its favor. In the few spotlights along this part of the hull, you could see the metal had scrapes or impact marks that had been repaired over time. But what gave the age away were the engraved numbers stretching across the plates next to the various hatch accesses in the dock area. They had been put there for human pilots, before bot-pilots and the feed were common, as a failsafe for automated approach beacons. The numbers were in three different—number systems? Languages— What do you call numbers in different languages, characters or—

Numerals, Three said.

That didn’t sound right, but whatever.

Our shuttle started its maneuvers into a parking sync orbit above the dock. The torus feed was just a dull roar even this close, and its Port Authority comm channel was all commands and info, no obtrusive ads. If I hadn’t been so angry I would have been really intimidated at this point. Okay, I was still a little intimidated. But mostly angry. Not at Three.

(Emotion check: Angry. It’s never a good idea to try to do complicated things when you’re angry. Like coding. Coding is complicated. Especially when people are shooting at you. But I do that all the time.)

Three said, Target Null+1 on approach, and included the direction vectors. I didn’t need any direction vectors, because Three had a visual on the cargo bot, so I had a visual on it. There were other bots moving on the torus hull some distance away, where big modular transports were connected to larger locks. On our shuttle’s sensor feed I could see the lines of powered cargo modules traveling on their set routes, though that was too far into the dark to pick up with our scan or visual. But Target Null+1 bot was passing nearly beneath us. (At least it looked that way from our position on our shuttle. It could have actually been sideways or up or whatever, because space.)

The cargo bot climbed along a seam between hull plates, shifting in and out of shadow, an inert cargo container clamped under one arm, while the other three limbs guided its body along. It was one of the larger models, maybe seven meters tall from its splayed grippy feet to the flat top of its head/processor. Cargo bots are weirdly graceful in zero gravity, it was kind of cool to watch. (Unlike certain stations I could name (Preservation) which lets them wander around inside the port wherever they want and their giant metal asses are in the fucking way all the time.) (Yes, I’m mostly talking about JollyBaby.)

Three released the magnetic grips that were keeping us attached to the shuttle’s hull and said, Initiate in 3–2–1.

It pushed off from the shuttle and we fell through the dark, with a little help from a set of removable EVAC suit-maneuvering thrusters. Three was good at following the instructions from the suit’s feed, and we landed lightly on the cargo bot’s back, our grips engaging again to keep us in place.

You can just talk, I told Three. I pinged the shuttle to let it know we were in place, then tapped the cargo bot’s internal feed and slipped past its wall. Before the bot finished querying me as to what the hell we were doing on its back, I removed its memory of the proximity alert and told it everything was fine, just keep following its schedule. We aren’t pretending to be a SecUnit, I added to Three, we’re pretending not to be a SecUnit.

The cargo bot hauled itself toward our next target, an entrance to the main cargo sorting port for this dock. Three hesitated for .02 seconds while it parsed what I’d said. It likes using logic. Which not that I don’t; it’s stupid not to use logic when you’re constructing flow charts and databases, etc. But it’s not particularly helpful for threat and risk assessment. Priorities reorder too fast in high-threat percentage situations, humans exist, and so on.

(Save-for-later: Check wonky risk assessment module for excessive logic statements. That would explain a lot.) Three finally said, We are pretending to be space debris.

It had a point. And what Three was pretending or not pretending to do wouldn’t much matter in the next ten-plus minutes.

The problem with the mission— Okay, the problem with the mission is the mission itself. Missions in general often suck, but extractions that can turn into hostage situations are the worst.

The other worst was that this dock and the section of the torus it serviced was owned by Barish-Estranza and contained one of their second-level headquarters installations. And there was a chance in the high 70s that they knew we were coming.

(Emotion check: Again? It’s been like two seconds.)

Obviously, I did not want to do this. But Three was shit at pretending to be human. (I know, I should have been working with it more, “mentoring it,” as the humans insist on saying. But we also needed to let Three do what it wanted for a while, and what it wanted was to watch science documentaries and listen to freakishly advanced machine intelligences pretending to be bot-pilots talk at it. (Mostly Holism, but a few of the others had got in on it after discovering that there was a SecUnit around that liked being lectured to.) So there wasn’t a lot of pretending-to-be-human training involved in that.) Our cargo bot reached its hatch just as it was cycling open. It climbed inside and Three’s dark-vision filter activated, so the airlock’s blue and green safety lights lit up more of the interior.

It was a lock designed for bots, so it was pretty utilitarian. There wasn’t even any active process to clean off the build-up around the vents. Our suit feed gave us stats

on the flush of station air and the pressure and gravity change, and we started picking up ambient audio. Then the inner hatch slid open.

This was a bad moment. We couldn’t risk a peek over our cargo bot’s shoulder and Three couldn’t deploy drones without setting off the dock’s interior alarms. Three admitted, This is not ideal.

By which it meant it was somewhat terrifying. I acknowledged but didn’t reply; I was waiting to grab the interior feed so we didn’t get killed.

(It turns out executing a deliberate, convincing distraction is a lot harder than being a distraction accidentally.)

The cargo bot stepped through the inner hatch and we slipped off its back. Its giant body continued on, even as a flotilla of hauler bots swerved to avoid it. Three had frozen into immobility as I pulled in the dock’s feed and started to work. We were in the shelter of the lock’s safety overhang, which was in a visual shadow because of the angle of the wall lights; it was also a tiny motion and audio sensor black-out zone. (Since my penetration-testing report on Preservation Station, they had installed individual sensors on all the hatches where that happens. Mihira and New Tideland’s stations and space docks were in the process of doing it now.)

(This is why humans shouldn’t do their own security, or farm it out to automated sensor sweeps. Sensors can’t see what they can’t see, right? And while humans are shit at security, mostly because of the overreacting and some being assholes who just like using weapons to hurt each other, they are fantastic at getting into places where they aren’t supposed to be.)

(Apparently it’s genetic? Overse recommended a book on human evolution and it was even more fucking weird than anything I’d read about it before.)

I made it through the first three DockSys feed walls and got a view through the cameras. The dock was arranged in a cylindrical column, with multiple levels of platforms around a central pillar with lifts and ramps. We were on level 20. The walls were just bare metal, scarred by accidents, no decoration or holos or anything. (This was supposed to be a big deal Corporation Rim torus/ whatever, you’d think they could make an effort, even in here. But they never do anything fancy where it’s just indentured workers to see it. The only real color was the Barish-Estranza logos stamped on everything.)

Hauler bots sorted the cargo containers into pallets ready to be transported to modules or ships or for internal dispatch. Large shafts in the floors of the platforms accommodated cargo containers with their own propulsion systems or climbing cargo bots. There should be very few humans in here, since most of the supervision and oversight would be done via the dock’s inventory system. (Which was standard practice because

it was cheaper, obviously, but really, areas like these are dangerous for anybody squishier than a hauler bot to be wandering around in.) (The exception to this is mining cargo docks, which, surprise, have an insanely high casualty rate. Even company executives would leave notations on the mortality reports like What the shit are they doing in there.)

But with a little tweaking, my camera views found plenty of human activity, scattered at different sheltered points around each level. They were all in protective suits that looked bulky enough to hide security armor. Some of them were actually working, but most were just pretending to.

This is great, because it meant our distraction plan would work. Also not so great, because I would like Three to get out of here alive.

I sent Three the schematics highlighted where the potential security personnel were located; it replied with an acknowledgment sigil and an updated map projection. The cargo bot lumbered out of the potential fire zone and we eased forward. Ambient audio was low, just the hum of hauler bots and the clank of maneuvering modules on the level below us. The cameras spotted more human activity on a platform two levels above us, a scramble of workers (probably the real workers) trying to get to a lift tube and a few workers (the security humans pretending to be workers) holding them back. I’d hoped

we’d have a little more time. Fortunately, I was now in three different Sec and Safety systems and MotilityControl for all the lifts, including the central cargo lift. I already had my files queued up and loaded, I just needed to adjust the code for these individual systems.

There were a lot of things they could have done to slow me down, if they knew I (or something like me) was coming. (They couldn’t keep me out, not with what they had available, not without isolating their SecSystems from the feed and each other, and that’s not possible if you want them to do their jobs.) But they hadn’t done those things. Which meant (1) their intel was flawed;

(2) they didn’t know I was coming and this security was for something else.

I ran that through risk assessment and it produced the equivalent of a shrug sigil.

(Emotion check: Shrug sigil right back at you, you piece of shit.)

The kind of coding I did didn’t leave a lot of what ART liked to call forensic artifacts behind; if Barish-Estranza had good intel they might be familiar with the results of what I could do, but they would assume I’d just be bashing around in there destroying stuff with viral code, not redirecting process commands.

We couldn’t delay any more without making them suspicious. They obviously knew we/somebody was in here, even if they weren’t quite sure where/who yet, or the indentured workers they had dragged in as cover wouldn’t be panicking. I told Three, We’re go. Proceed.

Three started across the platform, staying in shadow and using the hauler bots as cover. I could have removed it from the cameras entirely but intel suggested they didn’t know I could do that, and I wanted to keep them from knowing it for as long as possible, since it was really important for the rest of the plan.

Three reached the cargo lift and used a magnetic grip to attach itself to the side of a powered cargo module moving upward. We drifted up with the module, so it would look like we were heading for an admin access three levels up. I glitched their security feed at random intervals, to keep their attention on it, while I was setting up on MotilitySys.

Systems like Motility are designed to keep things from running into each other; it’s hard to override that to cause crashes. It’s much easier to get the system to send things on increasingly chaotic routes that don’t crash, causing mass confusion instead. Humans always assume you’re going to kill them, which is one of the reasons they overreact to everything. (Ratthi says that’s genetic, too, but I think he was being sarcastic.) (Maybe he wasn’t.)

We reached our target level and I gave Three another go-ahead. It released its grip from the cargo container and dropped onto the supposedly unoccupied platform. It said, If TorusSecurity does not attack, should I engage them?

That isn’t going to be a factor, I told it, and added, feint aggressively toward that inventory kiosk, then drop and roll back toward the lift shaft.

Three charged the inventory kiosk where the armored human security guard was hiding. They overreacted (surprise), jerking up their heavy projectile weapon and firing. By that point Three was on the ground as instructed and the projectile passed over its head toward the lift shaft. I had already nudged the powered cargo module currently floating serenely upward into position. The projectile slammed into its side plating.

A powered module should be able to take a hit like that (they bump into each other all the time) but I had followed up the positioning nudge by cutting power to one of its stabilizers. So the force of the armor-piercing projectile knocked it into a spin and right out of the lift field. The module tumbled across the platform, startled cargo and hauler bots scattered, and every audible and feed proximity/safety alert in the whole dock went off. I kicked its stabilizer back on and MotilitySys engaged a temporary air barrier. The module stopped right in front of a transparent section of wall over an office, where human supervisors had been pretending not to watch us. Well, they had been doing that. Now they were belatedly screaming and flinging themselves away from the window.

Three was already up and sprinting and I engaged code haulerfight.file and cut off all access to the cameras.

So that worked great.

The hauler bots accelerated and charged at each other, then veered off at the last second. The patterns were complex and unpredictable and it was happening on every level of the dock. I’d put some of it together from code I’d used before, but changing the variables and adapting it for B-E’s specific code architecture on the fly was tricky. MotilitySys was helping everything along, obeying what it thought were my authorized instructions to “test” its tolerances. It was really going for it, too. It wasn’t going to last long, though, which was why Three needed to move fast now.

SafetySys had ordered the cargo bots to climb the walls or head for the nearest hatches, so they were all in the way, too. We were both scanning the updated map data but Three spotted the best route first, including a feint toward a maintenance access and faking a dive into one of the side lift tubes. I made a couple of adjustments and suggestions. Three said, I have it now. You should go. Right, so, I am not actually physically present with

Three.

I was tagging along with it via a new share-architecture code derived partly from ART’s ability to create iterations of itself and partly from the way we had built Murderbot 2.0. “Partly,” because the me who was with Three was not a full iteration; it was a partial download, but it was the parts I needed.

This wasn’t a full independent virus (or software baby, as Amena would say), it was just me going partially dormant while taking a temporary ride on Three’s hardware. We did have a secure feed link, but it was currently dormant, too, waiting until we needed it. We had to do it this way so B-E’s SecSystem couldn’t detect (or worse, break) our connection.

This was necessary because Three just doesn’t process as fast as I do, despite being a newer unit. I knew my processing stats had increased over the course of going to a lot of places and needing to write increasingly complex code at increasingly fast rates in order to get out of those places. Notwithstanding the time I nearly blew my brain out trying to process on a company gunship’s hardware. Three didn’t have that experience and sending it in here alone would have been basically murder.

This way was better. Three would cause a little more chaos, then exit the torus through a lock it had already identified and return to the shuttle. It would even get to ride inside this time.

Acknowledged, I said, and brought my secure feed link forward from backburner. Initiate upload.

[torpublishinggroup]

Everyone’s favorite lethal SecUnit is back in Platform Decay, the latest installment of Martha Wells’s The Murderbot Diaries series.

Having someone else support your bad decision feels kind of good.

After volunteering to run a rescue mission, Murderbot realizes that it will have to spend significant time with a bunch of humans it doesn't know.

Including human children. Ugh.

This may well call for...eye contact!

(Emotion check: Oh, for f—)

We’ve included an excerpt from the first chapter below:

Chapter One

Space was okay to look at but not super fun when you were out in it. And Three and I were definitely in it, clamped on to the outside hull of a small in-system shuttle. It was just as uncomfortable as it sounds.

Obviously, to make this plan work, we had needed a suit. And considering this was the distraction part of the plan that would be taking the brunt of the attention, it was better if it was an armored suit. But it couldn’t be Three’s actual SecUnit armor, it had to look like the kind made for humans.

We had ended up with an armored suit designed to look like one that Wilken and Gerth had used back on Milu. Because someone (ART) thought this part could use some more verisimilitude. (Like someone might have researched that incident, and think I’d been hauling around one of those shitty sets of armor all this time, or hiding it in my secret rogue SecUnit lair. (Otherwise known as the Port Hotel on Preservation Station, or ART’s aft module resident cabin, depending on where I was at the time.))

(I’m not saying using that armor design is not a good idea; I mean, that is some quality paranoid overthinking right there, we all have to agree on that.)

Anyway, even in an armored suit, traveling via clamping on to the outside of a shuttle moving through space was so inherently disturbing it was a relief when the black hull loomed out of the dark. We were coming up on our target/destination, which was a gigantic space dock attached to an even more gigantic planetary torus. There were multiple docks along the torus’s outer hull, but this one was closest to our primary target, which was why we had to go in here. Literally because the thing was so big, and because multiple intel sources suggested it would be difficult to move around in. (Yes, that sounds like the opposite of super fun. There were a lot of other things I would rather be doing.)

A station that encircled an entire planet had to be huge. (And it was huge. From this vantage point you would have no idea there was a whole planet on the other side of this thing, over there somewhere.) It was also very old, not a point in its favor. In the few spotlights along this part of the hull, you could see the metal had scrapes or impact marks that had been repaired over time. But what gave the age away were the engraved numbers stretching across the plates next to the various hatch accesses in the dock area. They had been put there for human pilots, before bot-pilots and the feed were common, as a failsafe for automated approach beacons. The numbers were in three different—number systems? Languages— What do you call numbers in different languages, characters or—

Numerals, Three said.

That didn’t sound right, but whatever.

Our shuttle started its maneuvers into a parking sync orbit above the dock. The torus feed was just a dull roar even this close, and its Port Authority comm channel was all commands and info, no obtrusive ads. If I hadn’t been so angry I would have been really intimidated at this point. Okay, I was still a little intimidated. But mostly angry. Not at Three.

(Emotion check: Angry. It’s never a good idea to try to do complicated things when you’re angry. Like coding. Coding is complicated. Especially when people are shooting at you. But I do that all the time.)

Three said, Target Null+1 on approach, and included the direction vectors. I didn’t need any direction vectors, because Three had a visual on the cargo bot, so I had a visual on it. There were other bots moving on the torus hull some distance away, where big modular transports were connected to larger locks. On our shuttle’s sensor feed I could see the lines of powered cargo modules traveling on their set routes, though that was too far into the dark to pick up with our scan or visual. But Target Null+1 bot was passing nearly beneath us. (At least it looked that way from our position on our shuttle. It could have actually been sideways or up or whatever, because space.)

The cargo bot climbed along a seam between hull plates, shifting in and out of shadow, an inert cargo container clamped under one arm, while the other three limbs guided its body along. It was one of the larger models, maybe seven meters tall from its splayed grippy feet to the flat top of its head/processor. Cargo bots are weirdly graceful in zero gravity, it was kind of cool to watch. (Unlike certain stations I could name (Preservation) which lets them wander around inside the port wherever they want and their giant metal asses are in the fucking way all the time.) (Yes, I’m mostly talking about JollyBaby.)

Three released the magnetic grips that were keeping us attached to the shuttle’s hull and said, Initiate in 3–2–1.

It pushed off from the shuttle and we fell through the dark, with a little help from a set of removable EVAC suit-maneuvering thrusters. Three was good at following the instructions from the suit’s feed, and we landed lightly on the cargo bot’s back, our grips engaging again to keep us in place.

You can just talk, I told Three. I pinged the shuttle to let it know we were in place, then tapped the cargo bot’s internal feed and slipped past its wall. Before the bot finished querying me as to what the hell we were doing on its back, I removed its memory of the proximity alert and told it everything was fine, just keep following its schedule. We aren’t pretending to be a SecUnit, I added to Three, we’re pretending not to be a SecUnit.

The cargo bot hauled itself toward our next target, an entrance to the main cargo sorting port for this dock. Three hesitated for .02 seconds while it parsed what I’d said. It likes using logic. Which not that I don’t; it’s stupid not to use logic when you’re constructing flow charts and databases, etc. But it’s not particularly helpful for threat and risk assessment. Priorities reorder too fast in high-threat percentage situations, humans exist, and so on.

(Save-for-later: Check wonky risk assessment module for excessive logic statements. That would explain a lot.) Three finally said, We are pretending to be space debris.

It had a point. And what Three was pretending or not pretending to do wouldn’t much matter in the next ten-plus minutes.

The problem with the mission— Okay, the problem with the mission is the mission itself. Missions in general often suck, but extractions that can turn into hostage situations are the worst.

The other worst was that this dock and the section of the torus it serviced was owned by Barish-Estranza and contained one of their second-level headquarters installations. And there was a chance in the high 70s that they knew we were coming.

(Emotion check: Again? It’s been like two seconds.)

Obviously, I did not want to do this. But Three was shit at pretending to be human. (I know, I should have been working with it more, “mentoring it,” as the humans insist on saying. But we also needed to let Three do what it wanted for a while, and what it wanted was to watch science documentaries and listen to freakishly advanced machine intelligences pretending to be bot-pilots talk at it. (Mostly Holism, but a few of the others had got in on it after discovering that there was a SecUnit around that liked being lectured to.) So there wasn’t a lot of pretending-to-be-human training involved in that.) Our cargo bot reached its hatch just as it was cycling open. It climbed inside and Three’s dark-vision filter activated, so the airlock’s blue and green safety lights lit up more of the interior.

It was a lock designed for bots, so it was pretty utilitarian. There wasn’t even any active process to clean off the build-up around the vents. Our suit feed gave us stats

on the flush of station air and the pressure and gravity change, and we started picking up ambient audio. Then the inner hatch slid open.

This was a bad moment. We couldn’t risk a peek over our cargo bot’s shoulder and Three couldn’t deploy drones without setting off the dock’s interior alarms. Three admitted, This is not ideal.

By which it meant it was somewhat terrifying. I acknowledged but didn’t reply; I was waiting to grab the interior feed so we didn’t get killed.

(It turns out executing a deliberate, convincing distraction is a lot harder than being a distraction accidentally.)

The cargo bot stepped through the inner hatch and we slipped off its back. Its giant body continued on, even as a flotilla of hauler bots swerved to avoid it. Three had frozen into immobility as I pulled in the dock’s feed and started to work. We were in the shelter of the lock’s safety overhang, which was in a visual shadow because of the angle of the wall lights; it was also a tiny motion and audio sensor black-out zone. (Since my penetration-testing report on Preservation Station, they had installed individual sensors on all the hatches where that happens. Mihira and New Tideland’s stations and space docks were in the process of doing it now.)

(This is why humans shouldn’t do their own security, or farm it out to automated sensor sweeps. Sensors can’t see what they can’t see, right? And while humans are shit at security, mostly because of the overreacting and some being assholes who just like using weapons to hurt each other, they are fantastic at getting into places where they aren’t supposed to be.)

(Apparently it’s genetic? Overse recommended a book on human evolution and it was even more fucking weird than anything I’d read about it before.)

I made it through the first three DockSys feed walls and got a view through the cameras. The dock was arranged in a cylindrical column, with multiple levels of platforms around a central pillar with lifts and ramps. We were on level 20. The walls were just bare metal, scarred by accidents, no decoration or holos or anything. (This was supposed to be a big deal Corporation Rim torus/ whatever, you’d think they could make an effort, even in here. But they never do anything fancy where it’s just indentured workers to see it. The only real color was the Barish-Estranza logos stamped on everything.)

Hauler bots sorted the cargo containers into pallets ready to be transported to modules or ships or for internal dispatch. Large shafts in the floors of the platforms accommodated cargo containers with their own propulsion systems or climbing cargo bots. There should be very few humans in here, since most of the supervision and oversight would be done via the dock’s inventory system. (Which was standard practice because

it was cheaper, obviously, but really, areas like these are dangerous for anybody squishier than a hauler bot to be wandering around in.) (The exception to this is mining cargo docks, which, surprise, have an insanely high casualty rate. Even company executives would leave notations on the mortality reports like What the shit are they doing in there.)

But with a little tweaking, my camera views found plenty of human activity, scattered at different sheltered points around each level. They were all in protective suits that looked bulky enough to hide security armor. Some of them were actually working, but most were just pretending to.

This is great, because it meant our distraction plan would work. Also not so great, because I would like Three to get out of here alive.

I sent Three the schematics highlighted where the potential security personnel were located; it replied with an acknowledgment sigil and an updated map projection. The cargo bot lumbered out of the potential fire zone and we eased forward. Ambient audio was low, just the hum of hauler bots and the clank of maneuvering modules on the level below us. The cameras spotted more human activity on a platform two levels above us, a scramble of workers (probably the real workers) trying to get to a lift tube and a few workers (the security humans pretending to be workers) holding them back. I’d hoped

we’d have a little more time. Fortunately, I was now in three different Sec and Safety systems and MotilityControl for all the lifts, including the central cargo lift. I already had my files queued up and loaded, I just needed to adjust the code for these individual systems.

There were a lot of things they could have done to slow me down, if they knew I (or something like me) was coming. (They couldn’t keep me out, not with what they had available, not without isolating their SecSystems from the feed and each other, and that’s not possible if you want them to do their jobs.) But they hadn’t done those things. Which meant (1) their intel was flawed;

(2) they didn’t know I was coming and this security was for something else.

I ran that through risk assessment and it produced the equivalent of a shrug sigil.

(Emotion check: Shrug sigil right back at you, you piece of shit.)

The kind of coding I did didn’t leave a lot of what ART liked to call forensic artifacts behind; if Barish-Estranza had good intel they might be familiar with the results of what I could do, but they would assume I’d just be bashing around in there destroying stuff with viral code, not redirecting process commands.

We couldn’t delay any more without making them suspicious. They obviously knew we/somebody was in here, even if they weren’t quite sure where/who yet, or the indentured workers they had dragged in as cover wouldn’t be panicking. I told Three, We’re go. Proceed.

Three started across the platform, staying in shadow and using the hauler bots as cover. I could have removed it from the cameras entirely but intel suggested they didn’t know I could do that, and I wanted to keep them from knowing it for as long as possible, since it was really important for the rest of the plan.

Three reached the cargo lift and used a magnetic grip to attach itself to the side of a powered cargo module moving upward. We drifted up with the module, so it would look like we were heading for an admin access three levels up. I glitched their security feed at random intervals, to keep their attention on it, while I was setting up on MotilitySys.

Systems like Motility are designed to keep things from running into each other; it’s hard to override that to cause crashes. It’s much easier to get the system to send things on increasingly chaotic routes that don’t crash, causing mass confusion instead. Humans always assume you’re going to kill them, which is one of the reasons they overreact to everything. (Ratthi says that’s genetic, too, but I think he was being sarcastic.) (Maybe he wasn’t.)

We reached our target level and I gave Three another go-ahead. It released its grip from the cargo container and dropped onto the supposedly unoccupied platform. It said, If TorusSecurity does not attack, should I engage them?

That isn’t going to be a factor, I told it, and added, feint aggressively toward that inventory kiosk, then drop and roll back toward the lift shaft.

Three charged the inventory kiosk where the armored human security guard was hiding. They overreacted (surprise), jerking up their heavy projectile weapon and firing. By that point Three was on the ground as instructed and the projectile passed over its head toward the lift shaft. I had already nudged the powered cargo module currently floating serenely upward into position. The projectile slammed into its side plating.

A powered module should be able to take a hit like that (they bump into each other all the time) but I had followed up the positioning nudge by cutting power to one of its stabilizers. So the force of the armor-piercing projectile knocked it into a spin and right out of the lift field. The module tumbled across the platform, startled cargo and hauler bots scattered, and every audible and feed proximity/safety alert in the whole dock went off. I kicked its stabilizer back on and MotilitySys engaged a temporary air barrier. The module stopped right in front of a transparent section of wall over an office, where human supervisors had been pretending not to watch us. Well, they had been doing that. Now they were belatedly screaming and flinging themselves away from the window.

Three was already up and sprinting and I engaged code haulerfight.file and cut off all access to the cameras.

So that worked great.

The hauler bots accelerated and charged at each other, then veered off at the last second. The patterns were complex and unpredictable and it was happening on every level of the dock. I’d put some of it together from code I’d used before, but changing the variables and adapting it for B-E’s specific code architecture on the fly was tricky. MotilitySys was helping everything along, obeying what it thought were my authorized instructions to “test” its tolerances. It was really going for it, too. It wasn’t going to last long, though, which was why Three needed to move fast now.

SafetySys had ordered the cargo bots to climb the walls or head for the nearest hatches, so they were all in the way, too. We were both scanning the updated map data but Three spotted the best route first, including a feint toward a maintenance access and faking a dive into one of the side lift tubes. I made a couple of adjustments and suggestions. Three said, I have it now. You should go. Right, so, I am not actually physically present with

Three.

I was tagging along with it via a new share-architecture code derived partly from ART’s ability to create iterations of itself and partly from the way we had built Murderbot 2.0. “Partly,” because the me who was with Three was not a full iteration; it was a partial download, but it was the parts I needed.

This wasn’t a full independent virus (or software baby, as Amena would say), it was just me going partially dormant while taking a temporary ride on Three’s hardware. We did have a secure feed link, but it was currently dormant, too, waiting until we needed it. We had to do it this way so B-E’s SecSystem couldn’t detect (or worse, break) our connection.

This was necessary because Three just doesn’t process as fast as I do, despite being a newer unit. I knew my processing stats had increased over the course of going to a lot of places and needing to write increasingly complex code at increasingly fast rates in order to get out of those places. Notwithstanding the time I nearly blew my brain out trying to process on a company gunship’s hardware. Three didn’t have that experience and sending it in here alone would have been basically murder.

This way was better. Three would cause a little more chaos, then exit the torus through a lock it had already identified and return to the shuttle. It would even get to ride inside this time.

Acknowledged, I said, and brought my secure feed link forward from backburner. Initiate upload.

[aggregatefunctionzine]

About ⚡ Rules ⚡ FAQ ⚡ Schedule

Applications are now open for the Aggregate Function Murderbot fanzine!

If you are interested in participating in the zine as a writer, artist, or beta reader, please fill out our Google form. At the end of the signup period, we will run a random lottery to select participants from the applicant pool. All skill levels are welcome!

Applications will run for 2 weeks and close on May 8th, 2026. You will be notified via email by May 11th if you were selected (or not) for the zine.

Click here for the zine signup form!

[aggregatefunctionzine]

About ⚡ Rules ⚡ FAQ ⚡ Schedule

Signup applications for our Murderbot fanzine will open in one week! We'll be posting a Google form that will be open for two weeks, from April 24th, 2026 to May 8th, 2026.

You will need an email address and a Discord account to participate. Much of the communication and organization for this zine will happen in our Discord server.

We had a large response to our interest check! However, this means we likely will not be able to fit everyone who wants to participate.

Therefore, after the signups close, we will run a random lottery to select participants. There is no skill or portfolio requirement to join the zine; all skill levels are welcome! There is also no bonus way to improve your odds of entry. We will be running a flat random number generator to make the selection.

If you are selected in the lottery, you will receive email confirmation by May 11th. If you are not selected, you will also be notified by email.

See you at signups!

[aggregatefunctionzine]

Aggregate Function: connection, community, fandom, friendship.

We're a fanzine organized and created by fans of the Murderbot Diaries.

About ⚡ Rules ⚡ FAQ ⚡ Schedule ⚡Dreamwidth ⚡AO3

Zine Team:

Mods: • Bless (@flipspring) - Social media and communications mod • Fabu (@tinybowties) - Beta reading and communications mod • Roki (@thoughtfulraven) - Head mod and spot artist Design Team: • Haze (@hazeleks) - Artist mod. Zine layout, social media banners • Monty (@suckunit) - Logo and icons • Ranger (@darkelectron) - Fanbinding layout, Tumblr color design • Rex (@rextrinsic) - Graphic assets

Zine Release:

Aggregate Function will be publicly released for free download in pdf format. We will have an "OSHA-compliant" (safe for work) pdf and an "OSHA-noncompliant" (not safe for work) pdf. Shippy works will be in their own section of each zine, and fanworks will be easy to reference for ships and major content warnings in the table of contents. The zine will be created with home fanbinders in mind, and you are welcome to print out a copy for personal use. You may not sell copies of the zine.

Signups:

Follow this blog and check back with us on April 24th, 2026 for signups. Signups will be open for 2 weeks through a Google form, closing on May 8th, 2026. You will need an email address and a discord account to sign up and join our zine discord server. Because we had a large response to our interest check, at the end of the 2 week signup period we will run a lottery to randomly select participants. All skill levels are welcome!

Questions?

If you have questions about our zine, check out our info docs: About, Rules, FAQ, Schedule. You can also send us an ask here on our tumblr, or reach out to us by email: [email protected]

Follow us for updates, and tune in next week for signups!

[aggregatefunctionzine]

Introducing the Murderbot Fanzine: Aggregate Function

Hello Murderbot fans! Remember the interest check for a zine? And remember the poll to name it?

The results of the poll are out: the title of our Murderbot zine is "Aggregate Function" 🎉

Layout & Graphic Design Artist Signups

To get this zine project started, we're putting out a call for layout and graphic design artists. Click here for the layout & graphic design signup form.

This signup is for those who are interested in formatting zine layout, as well as creating graphic elements for the zine (and this blog). The graphics we're looking for help creating include: a logo, icons, Tumblr header, artist/writer spotlight templates, and announcement graphic templates.

Stay tuned and follow this blog for artist and writer signups coming soon, as well as further zine updates!

[darkelectron]

Chapter 365

This is my ML translated chapter of C365 of A Guide for Background Characters to Survive in a Manga from jjwxc. This is the only chapter not translated on Fenrirealm, and I wanted to read it, so I bought it direct and here it is. It's quite sweet, but not what I expected as the final chapter.

Also I have become slightly obsessed with this book for the last week and everyone should read it. Let's get this fandom tag canonised!

"Hello, we are from 'Can I Go to Your House?', do you know this program?" On the street of the commercial street, the exquisitely dressed host raised the microphone to a couple of passers-by, followed by several camera operators.

The girl in the couple nodded in surprise: "I know, I know! I love watching your show!"

"Can I Go to Your House?" is a popular variety show. The program team randomly selects passers-by, and after obtaining their consent and paying for transportation or some necessary expenses, they go to the other party's home to visit and interview, broadcasting the real and interesting daily life of ordinary people to everyone.

It seems like they met a fan, the host felt relieved and subconsciously thought the mission was promising. Because it was a fan, there was no need for pleasantries, she directly asked with a smile that classic line: "Can we go to your house?"

"Sorry, no." Before the fan could answer, her boyfriend took the lead in rejecting the host's request, and then reminded her by nudging the girl's arm.

The girl then recovered from her excitement and shook her head apologetically and regretfully, sweetly holding the boy's arm: "Sorry, our parents are coming to discuss the wedding today, it's really inconvenient to invite you."

"It's okay, it's okay." The host shook her head very considerately, and then sincerely sent her blessings, wishing them a happy marriage.

After saying goodbye to the young couple, the host smiled bitterly with a bit of frustration: "It seems like today's luck isn't very good, we've been rejected by four people in a row."

As a host, she has good control over her emotions. She only briefly used the disappointment to create a bit of program effect, and then readjusted her emotions and said optimistically: "But perhaps this is the test of the god of fate, the next blind box will definitely be very interesting!"

As soon as she finished speaking, her eyes suddenly lit up, and she walked quickly in one direction in her high heels. The camera followed her direction and truthfully recorded the blond young man in the distance.

In the live broadcast room of the program, celebrity guests also saw this scene through the camera. Guest 3 said in surprise: "Did we really get a hidden character? Just looking at this profile, you can tell he's someone with a story."

What he really wanted to say was that just looking at this profile, you can tell he's a handsome guy. If a passer-by has this level of looks, the ratings for this episode are guaranteed.

Obviously, the host thought so too. She quickly came to the blond boy, looked up at him, and smiled appropriately: "Hello, we are from the 'Can I Go to Your House?' program team, can we interview you?"

Getting closer, she was stunned. The fleeting glimpse just now was indeed not wrong, this guy is so handsome he could go into the entertainment industry.

Moreover, not only is he good-looking, but his figure is also very superior. He looks almost 1.9 meters tall, and she, who is 1.7 meters tall, has to look up.

The young man nodded readily, "My name is Su Bei, what do you want to interview?"

"Okay."

The host looked around and quickly found a topic: "Mr. Su Bei, seeing you buying so many toiletries and food, did you just move into a new home?"

"No, I just came back from traveling and I'm restocking." Su Bei shrugged, "And I'm also having a gathering with friends."

As everyone knows, birds of a feather flock together. There is a high probability that the friends of good-looking people are also good-looking people. The host's eyes lit up, and she finally got to the point: "Can we go to your house and take a look? Our program team can help reimburse these things and today's travel expenses, we just hope you can take us to your house for a visit."

Su Bei obviously hadn't seen this program, and was stunned for a moment before answering: "Please wait a moment."

He took out his phone and searched for "Can I Go to Your House?". After quickly browsing the program's general introduction, he sent the program introduction to the class group.

[Southeast West: Shared "Can I Go to Your House?"]

[Southeast West: I met the people from this program team on the road and received an invitation. I think it's a bit interesting, do you guys mind?]

Everyone was pretty free on their day off, and someone quickly replied.

[This Princess: I don't mind, but I want a filter!]

[Social Anxiety Attribute: Must have…]

Seeing that everyone had no objections, Su Bei looked up: "Okay, but some of my friends need filters, and the first version that is edited needs to be reviewed by us before it can be released."

"No problem." These are common requests, and the host agreed immediately.

But she quickly realized a problem and asked hesitantly: "Does the filter refer to beauty filters or mosaics?"

Thinking of those two people's attributes, a hint of a smile appeared in Su Bei's eyes, and he answered without hesitation: "Both."

Arriving in the car, the host and a camera operator sat in the back seat, and Su Bei drove. He drove very steadily, and the two people in the back, who were originally a little worried, relaxed.

Suddenly thinking of something, Su Bei turned the steering wheel and reminded: "Oh right, although I live alone, there should already be some friends at home now."

"Are they close friends who have each other's house keys?" The host looked envious and said with emotion, "It's so nice to have a few friends like that."

Actually, his house has a combination lock, and he changes the code every time he leaves. He only told Jiang Tianming and the others the new code when they helped him move. Facing the host's yearning expression, Su Bei showed a gentle rather than perfunctory smile, and kindly concealed the truth.

The host didn't ask much along the way, not because she ran out of topics to ask, but because she quickly realized that Su Bei was driving steadily, but the speed was not slow at all. From the scenery quickly receding outside the window, it could be seen that the speed was more than a little fast.

Driving a tricycle at high speed and driving a sports car at high speed are two different concepts. Drowning is a skill that people who know how to swim are prone to. Everyone is just strangers who met by chance, and it's really difficult for the host to fully trust Su Bei's skills.

"Um... this car of ours... is quite fast, huh?" She asked with a smile, trying to remind Su Bei in a subtle way that he was driving too fast.

Unfortunately, Su Bei misunderstood her meaning and smiled heartily: "Don't worry, my car has been modified, the speed is no problem."

Isn't that even more worrying!

After a nervous journey, fortunately, Su Bei didn't crash and safely brought them to their destination.

Stopping the car and arriving at the door of the house, the reporter showed a somewhat surprised expression. Because Su Bei's car was relatively ordinary, she thought the other party was just an ordinary office worker. But looking at this three-story Western-style building located in the city center, the facts were obviously not the case.

Whether this Mr. Su Bei is rich because of his family or because he is rich himself, it is enough to show that their program team really hit the jackpot!

Where can you find a guy who's handsome, rich, and loves life? This episode is bound to be a hit when it airs!

Behind the scenes, the director was already thinking about how to explain if viewers questioned whether the encounter with Su and the invitation to the show were staged for effect.

Standing at the door, the host, after hesitating for a long time and being urged by the director in her earpiece, gritted her teeth and asked directly: "Can I ask what your profession is?"

Actually, this question should have been asked during or after dinner, but they were so focused on Su's appearance that they didn't pay attention to other issues. After getting in the car, they were too worried about his driving skills to ask. Only now, after realizing there was something interesting to dig up, did they focus on this question.

"My profession..." Su Bei thought for a moment. Although the existence of ability users wasn't as tightly guarded as it was when they were in school, it still wasn't something he could casually reveal on television.

So he paused slightly and changed his wording: "You might not believe it, but I'm actually a fortune teller on the overpass." He answered the question after some thought, with a serious expression.

The host twitched her lips, suspecting that he was insulting her intelligence: "I really don't believe it."

How much money can you make as a fortune teller on the overpass? If you could really buy such a large three-bedroom apartment in this bustling area with that profession, then the overpass would be overflowing with people!

"How about this?" Su Bei took out a pair of black, round-framed sunglasses from his pocket. "Does this look more like it?"

"No, I still wouldn't believe it even if you put on sunglasses." Although he looked a bit mysterious in that getup, he looked more like a special agent or some big shot, not a fortune teller.

In the live broadcast room, Guest A said something honest: "With his figure, temperament, and looks, even if he pulled out an erhu, it wouldn't be convincing!"

It's like Tang 〇 Duck saying he's the protagonist of a drama, the style just doesn't match!

"Actually, if he pulled out an erhu, it would be a little more believable..." Guest B said softly.

Guest A gave him a loving look: "I'll buy you health products when you grow up."

Guest B: "..."

In the shot, the conversation continued. The white-haired youth, who had come out of the door at some point, had a complex expression after hearing Su's nonsense.

As expected, handsome guys are friends with other handsome guys. The host's eyes lit up when she saw him. Noticing his hair color, she immediately asked: "You must be Mr. Su Bei's friend, is what he's saying true?"

The white-haired handsome guy hesitated, stopping and starting several times, before finally nodding in compromise: "He's not lying."

Several other people were drawn out by the noise from the doorway. The gentle and refined pink-haired handsome guy couldn't help but chuckle, then nodded seriously: "I can vouch for him, I'm a city management officer."

The host was completely stunned. She looked at the other person's hair color: "Is your relationship so complicated?"

"This is the legendary collusion between officials and businessmen!" A sweet female voice accurately voiced the complaint the host wanted to say but didn't dare to.

What a great retort! The host turned her head in appreciation and saw a quiet-looking blue-haired beauty giving her an embarrassed smile before quickly hiding behind Su.

Su blocked her from the camera, opened the door, and turned around with a smile: "Welcome to my home."

As soon as they walked in, a red-haired boy who looked full of youthful energy pounced on him like a cannonball: "Brother Bei, why are you only back now?"

Su Bei turned his head helplessly to look at Mo Xiaotian, who had fallen to the ground: "Didn't I tell you not to do this? Don't tell me you've lost your memory again, it's not like you've changed species."

That's right, Mo Xiaotian was still alive and had lost his memory.

They found him again in the same place where he had disappeared. A spatial rift suddenly appeared, and Mo Xiaotian was spat out, unable to move.

But that location was constantly guarded by ability users. As soon as Mo Xiaotian appeared, he was immediately discovered and those in the know were notified.

Mo Xiaotian definitely made mistakes in the past, but in reality, there weren't any unforgivable mistakes, he hadn't even killed anyone, let alone done any experiments.

Therefore, after he returned this time and it was confirmed that he really had lost his memory, the ability government didn't pursue the matter too much and simply sentenced him to "supervised freedom," which meant that Su Bei had to watch over Mo Xiaotian and ensure that he was always by their side and didn't cause any problems.

Of course, part of the reason they could make this judgment was because Su Bei and his friends now had considerable reputations in the ability world, and the ability government was very willing to do them a favor. But anyway, the ending was a happy one, so everyone accepted the favor.

The decision of the 5th class was to take turns watching over Mo Xiaotian. It just so happened that it was Su Bei's turn recently, which was one of the reasons he returned to the country.

Missing his target, Mo Xiaotian wasn't angry at all. He nimbly supported himself with one hand, preventing himself from falling, and then turned around happily: "Where are we going to play next?"

Going to work with the others meant studying common sense in their workplace, but being with the unemployed Su Bei meant going out to play, so Mo Xiaotian naturally preferred being supervised by Su Bei.

"Don't even think about it, I came back this time to work." Putting on a fake smile, Su Bei said mercilessly.

He belonged to the "Disciplinary Service Flying Eagle Three Miscellaneous" category, which had ability insurance. He used his savings to buy a small apartment and planned to live a simple life.

This time, Mo Xiaotian definitely couldn't go to school, he could only follow Su Bei into the rift.

But Mo Xiaotian obviously didn't think this was a tragic thing. He jumped up excitedly: "Great! Then which... which place are we going to?"

Hearing him say this, Su Bei felt a strange sense of emotion. A small part was because Mo Xiaotian hadn't forgotten his original intention and still wanted to see some action. But the majority was because this guy had finally learned his lesson!

After their repeated emphasis, just like how information about ability users was now relatively common, they shouldn't casually reveal that they were ability users in front of ordinary people. Mo Xiaotian finally didn't blurt out related terms and changed his words in time.

Before Su Bei could answer, the others also gathered around.

Qi Huang crossed her arms, looking very unhappy: "Tell me which one you're going to? I remember you rejected my invitation last time, right?"

"Speaking of which, I was also rejected." Li Shu still had the aura of a good student, just like when he was a student. But the words he said didn't sound like a good student at all, but rather were full of subtle sarcasm: "I wonder who is so lucky to be with Su Bei."

Since they could become friends, naturally none of them were easy to deal with. Everyone chimed in. Ai Baozhu raised her voice in a sarcastic tone: "Yeah~ who is it?"

Si Zhaohua's action was the same as Qi Huang's, crossing her arms: "Anyway, it's not me." Zhou Renjie certainly wouldn't miss this opportunity to kick someone when they were down.

"Everyone becoming friends naturally means no one is a pushover." Everyone echoed in agreement. Ai Baozhu raised her eyebrows and said in a strange tone, "Oh yeah~ Who could it be?"

Si Zhaohua's actions mirrored Qi Huang's perfectly, arms crossed: "Definitely not me."

"Not me either." Zhou Renjie certainly wouldn't miss such an opportunity to kick someone when they're down.

He no longer felt like Si Zhaohua's appendage. Feeling equal to the other party, their relationship had actually grown closer.

Zhao Xiaoyu, Ling You, and Wu Jin exchanged glances, briefly communicating with their eyes. Then, Zhao Xiaoyu spoke on behalf of the three of them. She said with a smile, "I think I know who it is. Su Bei, confess and be treated leniently, resist and be punished severely!"

Even the most honest Mu Tieren came out of the kitchen to join the fun, nodding seriously: "My invitation was also rejected."

"You invited me to be a teacher, how could I agree?" Seeing their united front, Su Bei chuckled. He didn't give Feng Lan a chance to speak, otherwise the answer would be too obvious.

He subtly glanced at Jiang Tianming and the other two, his eyes filled with a strong warning. It was as if to say, "If you don't help me out of this, don't blame me for exposing you!"

That's right, the last time he came back, he accepted their invitation.

Although "King of Abilities" was now completely popular, Jiang Tianming and the others' troublemaking nature hadn't disappeared. Every time they went out, there was bound to be fun.

Unlike his student days, Su Bei didn't want trouble back then, because he lacked both the strength and the guts. But now it was different.

The current Su Bei was the undisputed powerhouse of the ability world, free to roam wherever he pleased. Compared to serious exploration, he naturally preferred to have fun.

Receiving his eye signal, Wu Mingbai took the lead in coughing: "Why do I smell something burning? Is something burning in the kitchen?"

Hearing this, Mu Tieren, Mo Xiaotian, and Zhao Xiaoyu immediately rushed back to the kitchen. They couldn't let the dinner they had worked so hard to prepare go to waste.

Then, Lan Subing also stepped up. Facing her classmates of three years, she was quite the social butterfly. She grabbed Ling You and Ai Baozhu's hands, and urged Qi Huang: "Quick, sit down, aren't you tired of standing?"

Finally, there was Jiang Tianming. He directly poured a glass of water for the silent host who had been watching the show, increasing the other's sense of presence. Then, he smiled gently and politely, "Sorry, these guys are all crazy when they get together. Weren't you going to do an interview? Let's start now."

The host had been enjoying the show, but was reminded of their duty and quickly perked up, putting on a professional smile: "It's obvious that you all have a great relationship. It's truly enviable to still have so many good friends as adults. Mr. Su Bei, can you tell us about the most memorable thing about your friends?"

Logically speaking, they should follow the script, but seeing how popular Su Bei was, the host asked a more interesting question. Anyway, it could be edited later, so there was no need to worry about any problems.

"The most memorable thing..." Su Bei stroked his chin thoughtfully.

The others also quieted down, exchanging glances. Undoubtedly, they were also curious about Su Bei's answer to this question.

"Probably... the first time I met Jiang Tianming?" Su Bei said uncertainly. But he quickly nodded again, affirming his answer.

They had experienced a lot together. A comic needed ups and downs to become popular. Therefore, it would be reasonable to say that any event was memorable.

But for Su Bei, the most memorable thing was indeed his first meeting with Jiang Tianming. Jiang Tianming sitting in the classroom confirmed the protagonist image he had seen in the comic, and finally made him realize that he was actually a comic character.

The feeling of breaking the dimensional wall was still fresh in his memory.

"Eh?" This answer was obviously a bit unexpected, and everyone exclaimed in unison.

Those who were in Class 1 immediately activated their brains to recall. Almost in the next second, Jiang Tianming smiled knowingly and speechlessly: "My bad luck left such a deep impression on you?"

"What do you think?" Su Bei glared at him coolly.

Seeing their expressions, the host realized that they had dug up something important and asked curiously, "So what happened when you first met?"

"Simply put, I discovered that there was someone in our class who was very good at causing trouble." Not wanting to reveal his identity as an ability user, Su Bei answered vaguely.

Hearing this, the people who understood what he meant laughed. Jiang Tianming wasn't just good at causing trouble, he was practically the Greek god of bad luck!

If it wasn't obvious that everyone often experienced bad luck together before graduation, then Jiang Tianming's bad luck became obvious after graduation.

As long as he went down a space rift, seven out of ten times there would be unexpected situations. In a sense, he could be considered a great tool for monitoring space rift anomalies.

But the problem was that everyone always had a feeling. It wasn't that he happened to go to a space rift that had a problem, but that whichever space rift he went to, that space rift would have a problem.

Seeing that everyone had knowing expressions, the host realized that this might be a secret among these friends, so they wisely didn't ask further, but continued the process: "What is the most memorable thing about Mr. Su Bei for you?"

This time the interview object was Su Bei, and the theme should revolve around him.

After thinking about it, probably feeling that this question would take up too much time, the host quickly changed their mind: "How about talking about your first impressions? First impressions are always the most profound."

Zhao Xiaoyu, who came out of the kitchen first, said: "This guy seems to have something, um, that's what I thought when I first saw him."

At that time, Su Bei "went all out" against Jiang Tianming at once, and anyone with a little sensitivity wouldn't think he was just an ordinary person. But according to Zhao Xiaoyu, there were very few people in their class who had this sensitivity at the time. Most people didn't seem to have any questions about Su Bei's actions.

"Add one!" Lan Subing's true nature was exposed for a second, and then she became a quiet and gentle lady again.

"He really has something," Jiang Tianming nodded affirmatively, "But often not very... um."

Amidst a burst of laughter, Su Bei crossed his arms: "No personal attacks, I'm a good person."

"You really dare to say that." Qi Huang rolled her eyes, but then coughed as if remembering something, "Cough, okay, he is indeed a good person sometimes, but the two are not mutually exclusive."

Wu Mingbai stroked his chin: "Um... mysterious."

Because he didn't personally experience Su Bei saying that Jiang Tianming was unlucky, but only heard about it from two friends, he subconsciously thought that Su Bei was being mysterious at the time.

"A strange guy." This was Jiang Tianming. He was inexplicably given the title of "the unluckiest unlucky ghost", and it was difficult for him to have any other first impression.

Mu Tieren poked his head out of the kitchen: "A dazzling person."

The sunlight shone on Su Bei's head, and his golden hair was so dazzling that it was almost impossible to hear what he was saying. When Mu Tieren recalled the scene at that time, he only had this impression.

Waiting for Su Bei to catch Feng Ban's eye. "Everyone else has had their say, it's his turn now."

Receiving his gaze, Feng Ban pondered for a moment: "Someone who could become a friend."

Su Bei blinked, vaguely asking: "Because of your information?"

More accurately, because of that premonition he had before the start of the school year.

"Yeah." Feng Ban nodded. Initially, he didn't reject Su Bei's approach because of that premonition, but almost immediately, perhaps because the two were truly compatible, although he hadn't yet figured out if Su Bei was the person in the premonition, Feng Ban still became good friends with him.

Seeing that their conversation was clearly hinting at their being ability users, Zhou Renjie interjected: "A commoner who got involved with Feng Ban."

That was his first impression of Su Bei, because at the time he didn't know the other's strength, so he only had a slight impression because of Feng Ban.

Ai Baozhu coughed and nodded in agreement, clearly thinking the same thing. She and Zhou Renjie were friends, especially since they had received similar educations as children, so their values were naturally very similar.

The different one among the three was Si Zhaohua, who shrugged: "Someone who might be worth getting to know."

"As expected of Young Master Si, such a grand perspective," Zhao Xiaoyu gave a very flattering thumbs up. But looking at her smiling face, the compliment was probably discounted.

Seeing that the previous few seemed to be speaking in chronological order of when they met Su Bei, Qi Huang naturally continued: "An annoying guy, can't he just honestly be defeated by me?"

As soon as these words came out, everyone immediately thought of the joint monthly exam and laughed in unison. They were all top students in the same grade or even the entire academy, and the exams had left them with mostly good memories.

Ling You thought for a moment, rarely saying more than necessary: "Someone with a somewhat bad impression during the monthly exam."

Su Bei first met her during the second class division, but Ling You clearly didn't see it that way. Su Bei was the third-place finisher, and anyone who paid attention to the monthly exam would have noticed him.

In Ling You's eyes, his every move was cheap and annoying. He could have directly killed his opponent, but he insisted on playing around with them, like a cat playing with a mouse, truly deserving of the name.

Hearing this, Su Bei felt wronged in his heart. Where was he annoying? He clearly had to pretend! With his almost non-existent abilities at the time, he couldn't have won without taking a different approach.

But if you look at his current abilities, the operations at that time did seem like he was teasing others on the surface. So although Su Bei knew he was wronged, he could only swallow the explanation with tears.

"Feels like we'd have a lot in common to talk about," Li Shu smiled gently. But given that he first met Su Bei during the monthly exam, his "a lot in common to talk about" was very revealing of his true nature.

The only one who didn't have a say on this issue was Mo Xiaotian, who had lost all his previous memories and didn't know what their first meeting was like.

At this time, he was aroused by the host's question and kept asking everyone when they first met him and what their impression was.

Seeing that everyone else was being pestered, the host, as usual, smiled and summarized a few sentences before starting a new topic: "I just took a look, your house should be a three-bedroom, one-living room apartment. Can you take me on a tour of the rooms?"

"Of course." Su Bei nodded casually. Although this was the house he lived in most often, Su Bei, who had been wandering around for many years, didn't have much of a concept of "home." To him, the house was just a temporary resting place, and naturally there were no secrets that couldn't be seen.

The host deeply understood this during the tour. The master bedroom was completely like a model room, with a simple black and white color scheme, neatly folded sheets and quilts, and no decorations in the room. Was this really a place where someone lived for a long time?

On the other hand, the adjacent secondary bedroom was full of "human flavor," with snack bags opened and placed on the desk, posters of the most popular anime characters recently posted on the head of the bed, clothes piled in the corner, and the quilt in a mess...

This was what a common boy's room should look like, the host breathed a sigh of relief: "This is Mr. Su Bei's room, right? Then who is the master bedroom for?"

"This is my room!" Mo Xiaotian raised his hand with a grin, not feeling ashamed at all that his room was being seen by others.

Su Bei put his hands in his pockets and calmly replied: "The master bedroom is my room."

A hot post quietly rose in the most popular film and television variety forum on the Internet.

《Has anyone watched the latest episode of "Can I Go to Your House"? Are there new boy groups and girl groups about to debut, so they're creating momentum in advance?》

【No.0: The poster is a loyal fan of "Can I Go to Your House," never missing an episode. I watched the new episode as soon as it came out, and I was completely shocked - the guests in this episode are too good-looking!

I'm not kidding, the guest and his friends are really a bunch of handsome men and beautiful women, and they all have different styles. If they're not a boy group or girl group about to debut, then I'm really going to be envious. Female gods, can you not be so biased? Why can ordinary people have such high looks?

And what I'm especially envious of is the atmosphere between them, the atmosphere that only good friends have. They're classmates who can tease each other without restraint and have memories to reminisce about... Usually, having one or two such friends is lucky enough, but they actually have fifteen!

God, I'll never call you God again, you don't treat me like your own granddaughter at all!】

【No.1: Poster, is this post also part of the momentum creation? I have to say, it successfully aroused my interest. If the guest in this episode doesn't look good, you'll be facing my anger】

【No.2: How good-looking are the guests? I'm going to go take a look】

【No.3: It can be seen that the poster is very excited, but I'm skeptical of the poster's aesthetics. Don't just call any slightly handsome or beautiful person a boy group or girl group, okay?】

【No.4 (Poster) Reply to No.1:

I'm really not a shill! If I'm a shill, let me fail math every day!】

【No.5 (Poster) Reply to No.3:

Go see for yourself, my aesthetics are definitely not a problem】

【No.6: Ahhhhh I also watched this episode! Really amazing looks!!! Everyone go watch it! I don't believe you won't be moved!】

【No.7: A very high-quality episode, I could watch three episodes just listening to them chat!】

【No.52: I'm back after watching it, indeed high looks. If they're really a newly debuted boy group or girl group, I should follow them #Although creating momentum in advance on the show is a bit cliché, the super high looks make up for it】

【No.53: Shocked, the poster actually didn't lie】

【No.54: If they're really ordinary people, in three minutes, I want their contact information】

【No.55: A petition in blood to beg for a debut! With just these faces, I can accept them even if they're just wooden beauties! I can't stand the ugly people in ancient idol dramas anymore!】

【No.139: My favorite is that blonde guest Su Bei, he has such a handsome, bad, and mysterious feeling!】

【No.140 Reply to No.139:

White hair is the best! That silver hair is also good, if they form a group I should become a dual fan】

【No.141: I feel like their relationship is very good, if they really form a group, the fans will definitely be bloody, will it affect their internal relationship?】

【No.142 Reply to No.141:

A relationship that can be affected isn't as good as it looks】

【No.143: Can the people upstairs stop speculating about group formation?】

【No.144: If those five girls form a group, I will become a group fan】

【No.145: According to this configuration, it feels more like they're deliberately hyping up couples, but I really can't see any couple direction】

【No.146 Reply to No.145:

I feel like there are several love triangles. Is it okay to say this?]

[No.147 Reply to No.145:

But if you add BL (Boys' Love) CP, I've found several pairings that I ship!]

[.....]

[No.201: Has anyone else noticed that the guests in this episode are strange? They're vague about their professions, and their past experiences also feel very different.]

[No.202 Reply to No.201:

Indeed, I feel like they're either really going to debut, or their professions are very special.]

[No.203: Hahahaha, it would be interesting if they caught a bunch of people involved in legal issues.]

[No.204 Reply to No.203:

Aren't people involved in legal issues usually very rich? Although they seem rich, they live in such ordinary buildings. They don't seem like bad people. Shouldn't people involved in legal issues live in magnificent villas?]

[No.205 Reply to No.204:

.....I also have that stereotype of people involved in legal issues.]

[No.206: Wait a minute? How did the topic start going in this dangerous direction? Can you guys hope for the best for people?]

[......] @Infinite Good Articles, all in Jinjiang Literature City

[No.353: Ah, it's them. Then you don't need to think about it. They can't debut.]

[No.354 Reply to No.353:

What's the gossip? Quick report!]

[No.355 Reply to No.353:

Ears perked up.]

[No.356 Reply to No.353:

Why why why? It's an injustice to heaven that such good-looking people don't appear on the big screen!]

[No.357: I can't say the specifics, but I can only say that they have their own legitimate professions, and they earn more money than celebrities.]

[No.358 Reply to No.357:

??? What kind of profession? Professional rich second generation?]

[No.359 Reply to No.357:

Could they all be CEOs? What kind of school did they go to? CEO Training Academy?]

[No.360 Reply to No.357:

There should be a limit to bragging. If they really form a group and debut, will you eat your words?]

[No.361 Reply to No.360:

Impossible, there's absolutely no way they can debut. I'll say it again, their main job is very lucrative. Although it's dangerous, it's also easy. I won't say more, conflict of interest, going anonymous.]

[No.362 Reply to No.361:

Damn, it sounds even more like they're involved in legal issues.]

[.....]

[sunwhispers]

a little sparrow

[nacyto]

chue-san chue-san! 🎊🐦

[clownowo]

Miss Chue, Miss Chue!

[justshipsandstuff]

Started reading the light novels for the Jinmao, but stayed for the shenanigans (volume 10-11 were Great!)

I pray for the day we know your name, Lahan’s brother. Your ordinary swag and your expert farming knowledge have captured the heart of regular peasants

[suexine]

MISS CHUE!! i love her so so much

i always hear dahyun’s part from the twice song every time i look at her. bc of this one knh edit,,,,

[murderbotseptember]

Prompts and rules!

Ahem. So. Time ran away with me. But it's still the 1st so I'm counting it as a win. AO3 collection will be up very shortly.

Some of the prompts are book- or TV-show only, but since there's three prompts for each day plus alts there should be enough whether you've read/watched both or not. Also I tried not to duplicate last year's prompts (except Three's quote which I adore) but that does mean some characters are kinda obscure so feel to ask if you've forgotten who (or what) they are!

Rules and alt text below the cut:

Prompts

Farai | family | epistolary

Leebeebee | corporate takeovers | red

Martyn | company mergers | apocalyptic

Tech Tural | investigations | news clippings

Dr Mensah | Glaw and Ji-Min historical play | orange

Specialist Rajpreet | FirstLanding | meta

Overse | Preservation festival | prose

Arada | trauma | yellow

Gerth | relationships | canon

Iris | Mihira and New Tideland | blackout poetry

Perihelion | transports | green

Murderbot | drones | comic

Combatunit | weaponry | diary

Ratthi | Preservation responder | blue

Trinh | Adamantine documentary | space opera

Gurathin | ex-corporate | social feed

Maro | Umro | indigo

Hirune | grief | dialogue

Karime | UplandGateway one | 5+1

Dr Sunara | Starkwether Shipping Alliance | purple

Bellagaia | Faction One | silence

Sum Total | machine intelligences | poetry

Lutran | people smuggling | pink

Corian | libraries and archives | cyberpunk

Bharadwaj | Makeba Central Medical | found footage

Ras | alien contamination | grey

Landers | drugs | white

Pin-lee | law | outsider pov

Matteo | undercover | black

AdaCol1 | pre-corporation rim structures | military

Alternatives

"There is a lot about what is going on here that I do not understand but I am participating anyway."

"You haven't spoken to me that way in weeks. I've missed it."

"I still didn't know what I wanted. But maybe I had a place to be while I figured it out."

"Fuck you."

"The only choice they are ever offered is obedience or pain and death."

"Human words, there's too many of them."

Rules

Runs September 1-30.

Any kind of media is acceptable (and any length).

There are three prompts per day. You can use one, two, or all three.

Alternative prompts can be used to replace any of the days.

You can complete the prompts in any order.

The prompts can be used as separate chapters in one fic (or equivalent in other media).

You are a completionist if you fill thirty days worth of prompts.

You can combine prompts, but to be a completionist you must create thirty fills.

You do not have to fill all of the prompts.

A Google Form link will be posted at the end of the month. Please fill it in if you participate. You will receive a badge and be added to the hall of fame.

You can use the prompts in conjunction with any other event.

You can post anywhere.

There will be an AO3 collection: Murderbot September 2025, or MBS25.

For Tumblr fills to be reposted use the tags #mbs25, #mbs25day_ or #mbsalt_, and appropriate content tags (eg #mbs25, #mbs25day1, #nsfw, #gore).

[art-of-a-space-duck]

My completed piece for the @murderbotreversebigbang.

Go check out Aphelocoma_californica's fic code switch and DarkElectron's fic a poem for a blueprint, both based on these images. And please take a look at the rest of the collection. All the artwork is gorgeous, and I'm excited to see what creativity they sparked in the writers.