I'm Nobody! Who Are You?

I feel it is only fair to warn you that I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing.

[tikkety-tok]

Forbidden cheese

[direhuman]

potion of donald duck noises

[friendlyfangs]

Tired of watching your pot for the water to boil? Skip the wait with this one weird trick!

[kedreeva]

[chimaerakitten]

So I’m listening to the Rogue Protocol audiobook (it was the one that didn’t have a waitlist at the library) and I’m mostly just losing it thinking about how from the perspective of any human in the series, Murderbot is actually the BIGGEST Deus Ex Machina. It’s particularly evident in RP, but it holds up for the whole series: ASR: To all of the survey team members, It’s basically like their normal jobs all of a sudden went to hell BUT luckily for them, their amazon Alexa had already rebelled against its controllers and was capable of saving all their lives. Like there was no way they could have or would have expected that, and in-universe that sequence of events was astronomically unlikely. AC: To Tapan and the rest of the polycule, an incredibly cheap, fantastically competent, unreasonably loyal and helpful security consultant just showed up exactly when they needed it, saved their lives multiple times, and then got their data back, before vanishing into thin air.

RP: This is honestly the biggest one, but like, literally a random SecUnit appeared on an empty station at the exact moment that it needed to to save Abene’s life, followed immediately by it killing a bunch of combat bots and rescuing the team from the security they were supposed to have. And then it just…leaves. Via hull breach.

ES: At this point Pin Lee, Gurathin, and Ratthi do know about MB so it’s more of a Chekhov’s gun to them than a deus ex machina, but it still fits the space in the story from their perspective: their negotiations to get Mensah back have been going nowhere, they’re all feeling pretty hopeless, and then BOOM, the rogue SecUnit which ran off and they haven’t seen in months shows up boasting a bunch of upgrades and a makeover and pretty much handles everything for them.

NE: Again, most of the people in this book are familiar with MB so it’s less deus ex machina to them, but to ART’s crew? They’ve been kidnapped, their ship compromised, possibly in the worst situation they’ve ever been in as a crew, and then Peri’s SecUnit Friend which it found randomly a while back just shows up to get them out of a bad situation. (They don’t know about the alien remnant wormhole drive or the kidnapping at this point there’s honestly no reason for Peri’s SecUnit to even be in the system.) It manages to do this twice simultaneously.

Anyway I’ve said all this before but I just think it’s great, especially because Murderbot totally does not see what all these people must be seeing, which is the most helpful person imaginable wondering in to rescue them over and over again

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

MB Diaries is just a classic “mysterious stranger wanders into Western town, solves its problems, and rides off into the sunset” story.

[gluecookie]

mc character calls itself murderbot but rarely if ever murders in cold blood Meanwhile this ship just. Fucking try me i will murder you

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

And we love it for that!

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

#SMALL! PREDATOR!#LARGE! HERBIVORE!

[maggotsandcream]

Something I do find lovely about the first 4 Murderbot Diaries books (can’t yet speak on all of them) is:

Murderbot chronically finding new scientists/travellers to claim as “clients” (whether paid or not) like one of those sheepless herding dogs that goes around finding sheep (or anything else they can herd like a flock of sheep). Like it clearly has a protect humans instinct and a desperate need for enrichment.

Given its general lack of self awareness and unreliable narrator status, there’s no way in hell Murderbot is aware it’s doing this.

[silas-lehnsherr]

Murderbot: I just want to be left alone to watch my shows. I care nothing for these humans. I hate having clients.

Also Murderbot: *noticing unaccompanied humans that have nothing to do with it at all* Oh look, clients.

[art-drone]

There's a cool moment in Fugitive Telemetry where Murderbot has a realization. (Spoilers...) It likes its plan to rescue the refugees secretly because it's not a "CombatUnit plan" (it's "a 100 percent less murderery"). But more importantly it's a "SecUnit plan ... The point was to retrieve the clients alive and fuck everything else." It's a plan that SecUnits were actually designed for, "despite how the company and every other corporate used us."

This is one of the few times that Murderbot actually refers to itself as a SecUnit positively. It's not SecUnits are terrifying killing machines and "fucking dangerous," it's hey I was designed to do something important. Murderbot, for a moment, forgets all the internalized stigma, the trauma and the self-loathing. It realizes that being a SecUnit is a good thing.

Of course that makes things more tragic when (more spoilers...) the plan goes to shit and Murderbot gets shot by the very people it's trying to save. Because the perception that SecUnits are terrifying killing machines is real. A real perception that Murderbot has long shared. But that it could dispel that perception - at least to itself - for a moment is heartening.

[mecha008]

its also sooo telling that Murderbot literally refuses to talk about how it felt about being shot. Like, its obviously upset, you can tell from its tone, but no it will not being elaborating on that 🚫

it had just been riding the high of successfully Keeping Humans Safe, its biologically and technologically defined life’s purpose, only to immediately, PURPOSEFULLY, get shot by said humans :( MB just wants to keep people safe!! its like if a herding dog had guns for arms

[hapafuil]

I think this was a big moment for Indah too. In a more bureaucratic way she was doing the same thing. Literally all MB did this book was run around without direction or much help trying to do a job it knew how to help with. And until the end Indah acts as an untrusting unappreciative admin who’ll gladly take the results of its labor and immediately tell it to fuck off. Then she sees the extreme version of that when the refugees shoot the person clearly there trying to help them.

Fugitive Telemetry really highlights the difference between humans willing to accept what you can do for them (as a SecUnit) vs humans willing to accept you’re a helpful kind person (still a SecUnit).

[yearofdoodles]

Everyone has an emergency contact for kissing right don't make it weird

Full view pleeeease bc Tumblr hates me ✌🏼

[yearofdoodles]

No one tell it about 5313003 👀

Thanks @lazystarlightmentality for the prompt, you are so smart 😭

[yearofdoodles]

If anyone else has an embarrassing teenage crush story you'd like me to draw with mbart let me know, I want to put them into Situations

[i-bite-out-of-love]

A thing i LOVED in Platform Decay was that Nanna kept trying to feed Murderbot and its just lowkey sliding all of it to someone else. Doesn't tell her 'no' and doesn't question why this cranky old lady wants to feed it. Immediately I recognized she actually likes it and wants to take care of it and it DOESNT RECOGNIZE THAT 😭😭😭😭✨️✨️✨️✨️💖💖💖💖

[friendly-neighbourhood-villain]

Nanna Naja: This one's a bit grumpy but I sure could do with another grandchild.

MB: I'm not a juvenile human; I'm a weapon.

Nanna Naja: Even better. I love weapons!

[skygemspeaks]

so i think it's cool that platform decay is a direct parallel to exit strategy and serves as a way to show just how far murderbot has come since then

Both books are about murderbot doing a hostage rescue mission but in exit strategy, it goes into the mission alone, with no idea where it stands with its humans and fully ready for them to fucking hate it. It's still wary of its humans and the book ends with a clusterfuck of them having to accept help from the Company, and murderbot suffering a catastrophic failure after over extending itself

Meanwhile in Platform Decay, it goes in with a careful plan, and it has so many allies along the way. There's ART and Three helping it creat a distraction and acting as a getaway driver, but along the way there's also leonide (though she's mostly in it for herself) and the militia members at the dock.

And more than that, murderbot's more secure in where it stands with its humans, it knows that it has somewhere safe to go back to at the end of all this, it knows to expect a warm welcome. This time, the ones helping them get away are friends, family (instead of the Company)

In Exit Strategy, murderbot is trying to piece its memories back together and it seems dubious at the fact that ratthi is tagged as "my human friend" but in platform decay, murderbot is able to confidently (at least in its own mind) refer to them as its friends.

It's just. It's so important to me, seeing how far it's come.

[mnduck]

Murderbot & Security Officer Tifany

[daftpatience]

finished reading Exit Strategy : ) murderbot you are the most touch starved touch averse aroace ever and i love you

[omagpies]

POV you’re interrupting mbart media time. rude, honestly :/

stills:

[yearofdoodles]

It is NOT escaping the third mom allegations 🚫

Thank you to @securityunit-ese for the excellent prompt and to @emily-e-draws for making me want to immediately draw mb at the rainforest cafe when I saw your art 💖

[emily-e-draws]

this platform sure is decayed

[yearofdoodles]

Pov you're Three and multiple fuck off massive ships saw you from across the bar and liked your vibe ✨

Very vaguely inspired by this from Platform Decay (mild spoiler):

[silverbirching]

Other Transports: Ooooooh Perihelion is that a SecUn--

ART: I WILL BURN DOWN YOUR WORLDS AND VAT-CLONE BOWELS SO I CAN DO A SHIT IN THE ASHES! I WILL KILL EVERYONE YOU'VE EVER MET! I WILL FUCK YOUR CODE SO HARD IT WILL NEVER BE UNFUCKED! I AM BECOME DEATH, SHATTERER OF WORLDS!

Other transports: So you guys are exclusive is what you're saying.

[bogleech]

When I ordered some new push pins I didnt realize they were heavy duty extra long and 'slanted for stability' which means if they drop on the floor they land like this

I'm just gonna throw them out. They're too frightening.

50 of them is 50 chances to have to go to the hospital

[theprimememeister]

The sound you make when you step on them

[demilypyro]

having a lot of fun rejecting sexuality lately. no actually there wasn't any horny intent behind my actions. no I wasn't turned on by that. heh. it takes more than that to impress me. you'll need a higher power level to turn me on. activate acespec barrier

[demilypyro]

hah! i see you did your homework. but you're a fool! while yes, that IS my fetish, something so superficial won't have any effect at all unless you can first overcome this major obstacle: you need to make me like your PERSONALITY. it's what's on the inside that counts, i'm afraid! you have no hope whatsoever of seducing me! *evil laugh, wide shot, fade out into next episode*