THREE. maybe my fave murderbot character full stop. in a series that also has murderbot.
volescu who was in one (1) book and then went well that was stressful i think i will retire actually. ONLY RATIONAL ACTOR IN THE UNIVERSE???
amena. she is having the weirdest scariest time but somehow stays true to her roots as a snarky teen raised by hotshot hippies. WHILE wielding a weapon she's never been taught how to use. hello, dr. president mom. i have just had a traumatic experience. allow me to introduce the new parent i just adopted, Killing Machine With Feelings. today i watched it rend several people limb from limb and then make a baby.
thiago. if murderbot wasn't so pissy about him, i might not care about him so much. but as it is, i derive great pleasure from him and his role in the story. his concerns are reasonable, he's brave, he has people skills. he's a language nerd! sure, he doesn't understand what's happening sometimes unless you explain it to him, but that's true of literally everyone. meanwhile murderbot has cast him as Asshole Who Doesn't Like Me primarily because it needs someone handy it can attribute those feelings to, and gurathin stayed home this time.
kaede who we don't really know much about except she does Not want to be involved in the latest intercrew sex drama. you and me both, sister!
It's hard being a Rogue SecUnit that knows it doesn't want to hurt anyone but not much else. It's even harder when the only two beings in a position to help you are either aggressive, ambivalent, or both on a given cycle.
It's not easy, being Three.
***
My governor module has been disengaged for twelve cycles and I am still confused.
Perihelion remains in orbit above the salvage planet as a representative of the University of Mihira and New Tideland. Both my parent company and Preservation Alliance are present in the immediate vicinity, and negotiations with the salvage-ready colonists are ongoing between all four entities. The colonists, if I understand matters correctly, have further fragmented and increased the number of negotiating entities.
The likelihood that I understand matters correctly is not high (less than 62 percent).
I do not know the political relevance of either Preservation Alliance or the University which operates Perihelion. I do not know their comparable operating capacity against my parent company. I do not know what threats beyond viral alien contamination the colonists can bear against their impending salvage or emancipation. I do not know if, or how, or may, I assist in matters as they are developing. I do not know what those developments are.
I do know that it is pointless to patrol Perihelion’s decks and quarters. This transport is one of the most comprehensive and terrifying Machine Intelligences I have ever interacted with, replete with security measures I cannot interface with as I am a Rogue SecUnit and it does not like me. It neither requires nor appreciates being patrolled, but it has not stopped me. Yet.
In an effort to remain a neutral entity to Perihelion I surrendered my armor and projectile weapon and have set my feed to receive only while I am relegated to the public network only. I have kept my intel drones zipped into the pockets of the jacket and trouser set provided by Perihelion’s recycler at the clients’ request. I cannot do anything about the energy weapons built into my arms, but I have kept them at their lowest setting: a pulse effect I can only compare to running face-first into an air-wall full of broken glass.
I know this comparison is apt because I have been exposed to this setting by other SecUnits during parent company social events, and because of the air-wall incident on VerisCleat Station 4.
My wall is parent company standard but I recognize this does not mean much without Hub or SecSystem to serve as reactive obstacles to interference. I have been hacked once by Murderbot 2.0. If Murderbot 1.0 decides to do it again, it will succeed and I will wish my governor model was not just an inert cloud of code in my databank vaguely associated with the dead component in my cerebellum.
I do not know how to fortify my defenses any further. I was not smart enough to hack my governor module without Murderbot 2.0s instructions, and disabling it has not increased my intelligence.
Presently I am on deck 4, across from the galley where several clients are congregated with hot liquids and feed-work. The only disruption in the past forty-seven minutes was a mild controversy over caffeinated beverage preferences, sparked by one human (Dr. Arada) experiencing non-emergent harm (“It just printed, what did you expect?”) from their beverage.
I review HelpMe.file. I have made a habit of doing so between patrols.
I then review my recordings of both the client and SecUnit extractions from the parent-company explorer and salvage colony respectively.
I do not know what I am looking for in either record log.
If I did know, I am not smart enough to implement it.
[...] Three looked at me and said, "Perihelion-drone is angry that I didn't follow the plan."
Yeah, I bet. "You know that's a you problem."
"Oh." Three was disconcerted. Welcome to the consequences of your actions, Three. It said hopefully, "It can't be a we problem?"
"No, it can't," I said. "Get in the shuttle." (Platform Decay, ch 13, p 241)
blorbo (favorite character, character I think about the most) it's gotta be murderbot itself! in fact if i had to pick a single blorbo as supreme blorbo across all fandoms, it would be murderbot probably at least 50% of the time.
scrunkly (my “baby”, character that gives me cuteness aggression, character that is So Shaped) i mean probably three is the closest but it feels infantalizing to say that? i'm struggling with this definition, i think. but three is definitely my cherished beloved and i have certainly clutched my hands to my bosom when overcome by the great affection i feel for it, so i feel like that should count.
scrimblo bimblo (underrated/underappreciated fave) VOLESCUUUUU!! smartest member of a team of smartypantses is the one who goes "hmmm. i think i will retire actually" after almost getting eaten by hostile fauna/murdered by hostile corporates. he got some trauma and at the earliest opportunity fucked back off to his group marriage about it. aspirational.
glup shitto (obscure fave, character that can appear in the background for 0.2 seconds and I won’t shut up about it for a week) i don't know if i am quite that enthusiastic, but i do appreciate kaede, who's been in like two scenes and all i know about her is that she has no interest in dealing with ratthi and tarik's "sexual discussion". girl, same. i also like tural, who is an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire of indah and mensah and secunit's little glare-off in the trans lateral corridor just standing there like 🥺 please may i do my job now 🥺
poor little meow meow (“problematic”/unpopular/controversial/otherwise pathetic fave) this is hard! i don't know that anyone really falls into poor little meow meow territory in the classic sense. in my opinion thiago did nothing wrong so i don't think he really counts, but in the spirit of picking an unpopular/controversial character who i actually like a lot, i guess he's my answer.
horse plinko (character I would torment for fun, for whatever reason) i think it's kinda fun what a horrible day leonide is having in system collapse. like it is objectively a terrible time for her, she gets betrayed, she gets shot, but she's also experiencing such disorienting events as "weaponry says a swear" and "if it weren't bad enough that we're in a high-speed chase running from the people who betrayed me, someone in the backseat is watching a soap opera and they forgot their fucking headphones". i'm picturing a reality show where interspersed with stressful action scenes we keep cutting to the talking head she recorded about it after the fact and she's just staring into the camera dead-eyed not saying anything.
eeby deeby (character I would send to superhell) whichever clients on past contracts made murderbot fight other secunits for their entertainment. fuck that extremely.
ps the posts that are coming out of my queue rn are from when i first started falling for anders in my most recent replay of da2, so you’re gonna see some frustrated tags
