Gamebird's Tumblr

50+, female, live in Oklahoma. Into Murderbot, Old Guard, Heroes and Star Wars, along with some other fandom stuff. This is often NSFW. I write fanfic.

[gamebird]

Murderbot Diaries resources

This is my current hyperfixation.

THE SHORT STORIES

There are five short stories connected to the Murderbot Diaries universe, all of which can be found for free online.

Compulsory — published 2018, by Wired.com as part of "The Future of Work" collection. Takes place prior to All Systems Red, sometime after Murderbot has hacked its governor module. There is a revised version of this released summer 2023 with an extra 500 words, purchasable.

Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory — originally given free with preorders of Network Effect. Takes place after Exit Strategy, from Mensah's point of view, as she grapples with post-traumatic stress and Murderbot's refugee status on Preservation.

Obsolescence - not officially part of TMBD canon, but by the same author, referenced in Exit Strategy, and appears to be in the same universe. Page 164 in the Take Us To A Better Place zine, page 84 in the pdf.

Rapport - published summer of 2025, set after Artificial Condition and before Network Effect, involves ART and crew.

Data Ghost - published summer of 2025 in the Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology, Storyteller. Confirmed by Martha Wells to be set in the same universe as TMBD, just a different stage in history.

THE DISCORD

There are multiple TMBD discords, but the one I know of with an open invite is New Tideland.

THE COMMUNITY

I'm the admin of the Tumblr community for The Murderbot Diaries. DM me or reply for an invite if you would like to join!

MY TMBD FANFICTION

My TMBD Fanfiction divided by AU, in chronological order, with suggested reading order.

The Locked Tomb short stories: As Yet Unsent The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex The Unwanted Guest

[tsunflowers]

reading a historical romance novel and reflecting on the way these stories often present woke nobility for the contemporary reader. a big thing is servants. you can’t not have servants in those times but many modern readers think “but I would never have servants. it would be so weird to have servants” and in order to make the protagonists of the story more relatable they are actually friends with the servants. but flip your perspective and think of it from the side of the servants. wouldn’t it be so awful if your boss was always trying to be friends with you. a really common thing you’ll see is the woke baronet having tea in the kitchen with the servants bc he’s not like other baronets. but what if your boss wanted to hang out and talk during your lunch break every day. not so charming when you think about it that way

[gamebird]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Murderbot (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Dr. Gurathin (Murderbot Diaries), Dr. Mensah (Murderbot Diaries), Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries) Additional Tags: Discord: New Tideland Writing Workshop (Murderbot Diaries) Series: Part 25 of New Tideland Writing Workshop Summary:

Gurathin and Murderbot aren't the only killers whom people have tried to have target Mensah. They aren't the only ones she's willing to try to save, either.

Roughly set after the attempted assassination in Network Effect, but imagine it happens in the tv-verse, after season 2 (AC/RP/ES) and at the beginning of season 3, or between a hypothetical season 2 and 3.

Written for the New Tideland writing workshop prompt, 'Out of my mind'.

[antigonick]

Revolutionaries in Africa understood that the question of African liberation was not just a question of race, that even if they managed to get rid of the white colonialists, if they didn’t rid themselves of the capitalistic economic structure, the white colonialists would simply be replaced by Black neocolonialists. There was not a single liberation movement in Africa that was not fighting for socialism. In fact, there was not a single liberation movement in the whole world that was fighting for capitalism. The whole thing boiled down to a simple equation: anything that has any kind of value is made, mined, grown, produced, and processed by working people. So why shouldn’t working people collectively own that wealth? Why shouldn’t working people own and control their own resources? Capitalism meant that rich businessmen owned the wealth, while socialism meant that the people who made the wealth owned it.

—Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography

[hellyeahscarleteen]

At Scarleteen, we don’t treat abortion like something that needs to be whispered about or wrapped in shame.

Everyone deserves accurate, compassionate, nonjudgemental information about their own bodies, their options, and their care. 

That means being direct about what abortion is, why people need it, and why access to safe abortions is important and matters in our world. Being honest about abortion isn’t optional for us. It’s part of providing real sex education and real support to folks, especially for folks who may not have another trusted place to turn to. 

Too often, abortion care information is censored, stigmatized, or intentionally hard to find. That leaves people with no useful information about how to access care, what their options are, how to stay safe or what to do if they live somewhere abortion is restricted, criminalized, or illegal.

As a whole, we’ve been fed the idea that abortion isn’t something we’re supposed to talk about honestly and openly. That silence leaves people isolated. It makes it harder to ask questions, hard to support friends or loved ones, and harder to recognize abortion as a common part of healthcare and life. 

Today we’re offering some of our resources on why we need abortion and abortion access, how to support someone having an abortion, how to protect your privacy and prioritize safety, and what each of us can do to help destigmatize abortion and support everyone’s right to it:

How to Access a Safe, Self-Managed Medical Abortion

A Guide to Accessing Abortion Care – Even When It Looks Hard

Abortion and Digital Privacy: How To Protect Ourselves

How to Support a Friend Through an Abortion

[drawerbread]

don't turn around (please turn around)

[miseducatedmelanicmuse]

[gamebird]

This is a very good moment.

I am inside with air conditioning

My clothes are comfortable

I am not hungry or thirsty

No one is bothering me

I am not sick

I do not have cancer pain or brain fog

I have enough money

My future income is reasonably secure

My emergency fund is, too

I have many good things in my life

I have finished my rough draft :D

Tonight, I will watch more Stargate

[revacholianrobot]

In hindsight it's very insulting to be told that flunking out of college due to adhd is actually "quite common"

[revacholianrobot]

just like, if there's a history at your institution of disabled kids not being able to make it you realise that's your fault right. like why don't you fucking do something about it. i guess they tried to do something about it with me and it failed so they let me go. crazy. nice work. why should we try to do any better.

[yourheartinyourmouth]

only 5% of people with adhd who go to college finish a degree. FUCKING. FIVE!!! PERCENT!!!!!!!!!!!

that should disgust and enrage you.

if any other demographic of students had a 95% failure rate, we would be demanding reform and studies to understand why that’s happening

when i was at my first university, trying to get accommodations for my ADHD, they just kept asking me what accommodations i wanted, and refused to answer when i would ask what was available to me. how the Hell am i supposed to know what i can have? what’s available???? also, i don’t know!!!! i’m an adhd sufferer, not a fucking disability expert for the fucking college, unlike you, DISABILITY EXPERT WHO WORKS FOR THE COLLEGE.

but because the us is OBSESSED with making sure no one gets anything “”for free””, she literally would not tell me what my options were until i broke down in tears and asked her why she was refusing to help me. and then she did a big sigh, like i was fucking up her entire career by *checks notes* asking the disability center in my university to help me, a disabled student

at the second uni i went to, i tried to explain to a dean that i was literally two gen eds that had nothing to do with my degree away from graduating and that i was burnt out and broke and exhausted and suicidal and i just needed to be able to finish my degree without the gen eds. and this. fucking. guy. looked me right in my face and said in the most patronizing tone he could muster “if you can’t handle it, then maybe college just isn’t for you.” keep in mind that up until that semester, i had been an honor student who made Dean’s List every semester and didn’t get below Bs. if it hadn’t been for my mental breakdown, i would have graduated cum laude, maybe even summa cum laude.

but this dean of students looked a disabled person right in the face and said well i guess you just can’t do it, short bus

[jecook]

Pulled these from a couple articles really quick but yeah the statistics are not kind. I remember writing a scathing essay about my issues with ADHD and college as part of an assignment for academic probation. I got back an email calling me entitled and lazy. Somehow, this thread helps me feel a lot better. I still have about a semester of school unfinished that I’m unsure if I’ll finish but… yeah. Makes me feel better to know it’s not just me.

[lady-harrowhark]

PSA: The Job Accommodation Network maintains a searchable database of accommodation suggestions for a wide variety of disabilities.

The full database can be accessed here and the ADHD page is here. The full database can be filtered by disability, by limitation, by work-related function, by topic, and by accommodation. Many of these accommodations are applicable to academic settings as well as the workplace.

Here are the section headers for ADHD accommodations ideas to give an overview of what the page contains - this post would become Do You Love the Color of the Accommodation if I attempted to list them all here

The ADHD page linked above also includes case examples and strategies for determining what sort of accommodations might be necessary. More broadly, the JAN website as a whole is a treasure trove of information related to the Americans with Disabilities Act and resources for both individuals and employers.

[trambrosia]

Oh fuck that's really nice, I will read it

Also just heard a podcast interview with a software developer who had good suggestions

Being a developer with ADHD

Do you feel like ADHD is holding you back? Maybe you don't personally have ADHD but you work with folks who do and you'd like to support the

[dandelionsresilience]

The head of disability accommodations at my college just kept ablesplaining to me that “accommodations are to level the playing field, not give you an advantage,” and that her job is to “protect the school’s rights” rather than help disabled students. The only accommodations they would offer me were 1. extra time on tests, and 2. an alternative test-taking location - neither of which I needed. I ended up getting (most of) what I actually needed by unofficially asking the individual professors, but it should have been legally protected.

[sarroth]

Job Accommodation Network?! Filters to find what might actually help? Shit that organization rocks.

Helping people is certainly @wholesomepostarchive right?! This makes my day.

[wholesomepostarchive]

1/30/2026

[gamebird]

Dang. I feel better about spending 9 years knocking about college. Admittedly, I emerged with many degrees instead of just one, but the one I needed for later work life was the one that I struggled to get.

[xavantina]

Murderbot + text posts [198/∞]

[herpsandbirds]

your blog is so amazing and i'm glad it exists as someone who loves sooo many animals. so since ive been having parrots on the brain lately i humbly request underrated parrot faves. some parrots that you think are really cool and interesting or have really unique patterns/coloration but you feel like not enough people know about or appreciate properly for whatever reason.

Thank you so much boo boo. I have some parrots right here that I think you will like...

Brown-hooded Parrot (Pyrilia haematotis), family Psittacidae, order Psittaciformes, Costa Rica

Photograph by Pieter-Jan D'Hondt

Bald Parrot (Pyrilia aurantiocephala), family Psittacidae, order Psittaciformes, Brazil

photograph by Source

Red-breasted Pygmy Parrot (Micropsitta bruijnii), male, family Psittaculidae, order Psittaciformes, New Guinea

These tiny parrots are only 8 cm (3 in) in length. (This measurement does not include the tail feathers).

photographs by Lev Frid

Maroon Shining Parrot (Prosopeia tabuensis), family Psittaculidae, order Psittaciformes, endemic to Fiji

photograph by Lars Peteersson

Ultramarine Lorikeets (Vini ultramarina), family Psittaculidae, endemic to the Marquesas Islands (South Pacific)

ENDANGERED.

photograph by peterodekerken

Night Parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis), family Psittaculidae, order Psittaciformes, found at various sites in arid regions of Australia

CRITICALLY ENDANGERED.

Once considered to be extinct, as there were no sightings of the bird between 1912 and 1979, since then the bird has only been seen very rarely.

The causes for the assumed decline of this bird are unknown.

Mainly terrestrial, nocturnal, feeds mostly on the seeds of Spinifex grasses.

photographs: John Young (QLD, 2013), Steve Murphy

[herpsandbirds]

could i ask for pigeons? just any/all variety of pigeons you want to post

Oh oh oh, here are a few favorites...

Nilgiri Wood Pigeon (Columba elphinstonii), family Columbidae, found along the Western Ghats and in the Nilgiri Hills in SW India

photograph by Sawat Mishra

Ashy Wood Pigeon (Columba pulchricollis), family Columbidae, Nepal

photograph by Rita Rossi

Common Wood Pigeon (Columba palumbus), family Columbidae, Italy

photograph by Lorenzo Galeotti

Snow Pigeon (Columba leuconota), family Columbidae, order Columbiformes, Sela, Arunachal Pradesh, India

photograph by Raj Kimar

Band-tailed Pigeon (Patagioenas fasciata), family Columbidae, order Columbiformes, CA, USA

photograph by Paul Fenwick

[radishnt]

“but what if my friend gets offended and hates me and refuses to speak to me after i set a boundary” easy peasy! that is not your friend. hope this helps

[prokopetz]

You'd think "don't use a fictional creature as an allegory for oppressed minorities and as a horde of vile automatons that it's always okay to kill in the same work at the same time" would be a no brainer, but roughly 70% of all works featuring goblins and/or robots demonstrate otherwise.

[bicokun]

Star Wars using this exact formula with droids blows my mind to this day. Like, they really can’t decide whether they’re actually an oppressed group or genuinely mindless automatons whose inner lives we don’t need to worry about.

[prokopetz]

Given that Solo: A Star Wars Story features a droid liberation activist who's very obviously characterised as a mean-spirited parody of a women's rights activist and whose concerns are consistently treated as misguided and laughable (before they blow her up and use her brain to repair a spaceship), I'm not sure it's that the writers can't decide so much as it that they don't want to say what they really think out loud.

[gamebird]

I tried so hard to look the other direction but then in Rise of Skywalker, we had an army of brainwashed children recruited from across the galaxy, and who do the 'good guys' mobilize to oppose this army? Their parents and loved ones! Who shoot down their kids. All across the galaxy.

When the first movie had shown us irrefutably through Finn that the brainwashing was reversible/escapable.

The oppressed minority ... will be brainwashed into vile automatons ... and then killed by their relatives, who are part of the oppressed minority.

I can't think of any atrocity on Earth where people's relatives have, at scale, been required to kill their own.

[olderthannetfic]

So I'm trying to get a foothold and establish myself in a still relatively new fandom (less than two years old kind of new) and as a result I've ended up in multiple well-established Discord communities for this fandom, trying to get a read on the vibes and figure out where I'll fit in best, you know, as one does.

At one point I notice that a lot of the biggest, non-official servers all seem to have had overlaps of people but those people have since left each other's servers, and I wonder what the hell that's about. Then, as an offhand aside, in a Dead Dove server for this fandom that I'm also in, I mention that I'm trying to get my bearings in these other servers/communities.

Turns out, one of the people in THAT server is the equivalent of a fandom old (in the sense that they're someone who's been here since the beginning) and who knows ALL the tea about why everyone has left each other's communities.

The answer, probably to no one's surprise: most of the active, non-officially affiliated groups for this fandom are chock FULL of hypocritical antis and they all HATE each other. Layers of ship drama, treating fictional characters as real people, 18 year old minor discourse, harassing people who don't fall in line with someone's particular clique or headcanon, it's all the usual shit. And since the fandom is still very small and developing, they've entrenched themselves as the main "authorities" for this fandom on other sites outside their own communities, so to speak.

The oldhead actually warned me not to make myself known to these people, so as to avoid harassment, but listen. I'm old, I'm stubborn, and I'm not afraid of a bunch of bullies that think just because they got here first, that makes them the most "valid" authorities on how to operate in this fandom.

In fact, maybe it's time to start my own community...with blackjack, and hookers. Wish me luck, porch-dwellers. ;)

--

Ohohohoho!

[gamebird]

Were there racism and misogyny accusations, too?

Good luck, anon. You're going to need it. :D

[rosewind2007]

Numbers in the 20-29 range in the Murderbot Diaries:

This is such an only of interest to me kind of thing, but I like the number 27 and I’d noticed that Martha Wells seems to, when looking for a number between twenty and twenty-nine, prefer twenty-seven too: or so I thought

There are fifty-seven (57) mentions of words involving the word “twenty” in the Murderbot Diaries. Given that from twenty to twenty-nine there are possible ten such words, if they were randomly distributed you’d expect about five or six of each. In fact there are twenty-one (21) uses of **twenty**, which is a lot more than you expect.

BUT! I was right that for a number which isn’t twenty involving twenty- then Martha Wells really likes twenty-seven: it comes in second with eleven (11) mentions!

Yay me!

The numbers may be a little wrong, corrections welcome 😀

[rosewind2007]

Aha!

Systems Collapse update…

There are 13 words containing the word twenty in System Collapse

Twenty has eight (8) mentions

Twenty one has one (1) mention (in the context of 421, but I am counting it)

Twenty two is surprisingly popular with three (3) mentions

And twenty seven DOES get a mention, one (1)

Which brings us to a total of 71 uses of the word “twenty” or “twenty-something”

Note: 71 because there were actually 58 mentions of the word twenty above!

So twenty is STILL far and away the most popular—but twenty two has risen in popularity

Martha Wells appears to hate the number twenty five (25)

[rosewind2007]

And twenty seven is STILL the most popular “not just twenty” number…

[rosewind2007]

Talking about numbers with @rrainbowmagnet and they very astutely pointed out that Martha Wells has a fondness for 57 (fifty seven) too!

FIFTY SEVEN (57)

And they’re quite right!

There are a couple of slightly arguable ones:

Rogue Protocol

“One was a small bot-piloted cargo ship that was just large enough to carry supplies for about one hundred to one hundred-fifty humans for one hundred-plus cycles.”

I counted that as a “fifty”

Also:

“Actually according to their SecSystem it was 58.57 hours but whatever.”

👆I counted them as - 58 and a 57…

BUT those minor quibbles aside WOW!

Martha Wells really likes 57/fifty seven as a number

NB of all these 57s only TWO of them refer to the fifty seven victims at Ganaka Pit…

[arielmh]

David Dastmalchian in Metanoia part 5

[basingstokemercury]

why did we need Vala how hard would it have been to rescue Sha're and have her on the team alongside Daniel fighting for the same things and also dealing with the aftermath of her time as a host

[animate-mush]

oooOOOooooooh

[basingstokemercury]

Daniel deserves an awesome brilliant woman around who really loves him and isn't constantly sexually harassing him and pretending she can't help it 🥺

They can be language nerds together!

[animate-mush]

@pinkninjapj wrote:

No but seriously a Sha're Lives AU would be so interesting

And like. She's such a Dead Wife, you know? Even when she's alive. Part of why the Dead Wife trope is so prevalent is that it's a way for your characters to be romantically available (for shipping or girl-of-the-week shenanigans) without the stigma of being single. But what would the show look like if they had to actually play Daniel as married? And like, Daniel/Vala was always there for Belligerent Sexual Tension - they were never supposed to be a functional couple. How would that play with Daniel's tendency to die all the time? Would he have grabbed a nuclear bomb with his bare hands if Sha're had still been alive?

And yeah as @pinkninjapj brings up, an opportunity to actually explore her trauma, you know? Being a passive party to what was ultimately a very loving relationship - Apophis and Amonet were deeply, incongruously, in love with each other. She had a child??? That was her child that she trusted her husband to deliver, but it was also Amonet's child forced upon her (which Amonet was willing to sacrifice herself for, to ensure a healthy birth) - like, the whole harsesis plot is so incredibly messed up but like that child was LOVED by all *counts on fingers* five of its parents. Like WTF. She was with Apophis longer than she was with Daniel. Coming back from that is going to be weird.

And okay. Does she come to Earth afterwards? That's an adjustment. Does she go back to Abydos? Does Daniel go to Abydos and commute to work, as it were? Actually that would be super funny if when Michael Shanks quit instead of ascending to a higher plane of existence he just moved back to Abydos. Like, I adore Daniel's ascended arc because being a nuisance all the way up the ladder is what he's FOR, but "well I joined SG-1 to rescue my wife and then I did so uhhh peace out guys" is just very very funny. (And then if you still have Anubis destroy Abydos at the end of season 6 - which I hated by the way - they can escape back to Earth). Actually if they dealt with Michael Shanks being gone by having like 300% more Erick Avari I would not complain even a little bit. Daniel's busy you get Kasouf.

If Sha're did just replace Vala in the last seasons would that mean she'd have to deal with a second unwanted supernatural pregnancy?? That would really seem like a bit much.

..........although since that was like a bodyswap thing with those stones there is literally no reason Daniel couldn't have the baby instead. Then that could be a bonding experience for them! Just what every couple needs

ANYWAY I understand structurally why it happened but yeah. Killing Sha're was a huge cop out and if anyone has written a good Sha're Lives AU I'd love to see it.

@bluecatwriter - your Lucy Lives AU is awesome. Think you could do Sha're Lives next?

[gamebird]

New Tideland discord is streaming SG-1 3-5 times a week and it is such a fun little show! :D