#it's mensah pov and i love it SO much

[singlecrow]

I Have Reread Seven Murderbot Books In A Small Number Of Days, and Am Now Completely Insane About The Following Non-Exhaustive List Of Things (in no order)--

let's start with the fact the first book is almost ENTIRELY a letter from Murderbot to Mensah. it's 40,000 words. Murderbot, you are an emotionless robot for SURE.

Pin-Lee. Just in general. no, also, the main character of Sanctuary Moon is also a lawyer with increasingly bizarre problems. hello. (why did they take a LAWYER on a planetary survey??)

Amena tells ART and Murderbot, in case they didn't know, that they're having a baby. They didn't know.

AMENA. sixteen years old and whiny teenager who isn't like her annoying genius family who don't understand her NO ONE UNDERSTANDS. spends rest of book being brave and competent and mighty. whatever.

Amena's little sister! I wish we had a name for her but I like Murderbot calling her Small Human, also it shows her the video she wants to see but scrubs out all the gore and violence (it doesn't care though humans are stupid)

never wanted fanart of anything so much as Murderbot, upon hearing Mensah startled by a journalist and drop a bottle of almond milk, jump over Ratthi's head, run 100m down a corridor, scream at the journalist and catch the bottle of almond milk. (aside: that story breaks my heart. you see her from Murderbot's POV as a leader of men. compassionate and brilliant and a diamond under pressure. and from her own POV she's screaming and she can't stop.)

not that all cops are bastards, only that after a meeting with them Mensah tries to persuade her partners, kids and siblings that they should give up on humanity, move to an uninhabited continent and take up new careers in soil reclamation

ART, when its blorbos die in its shows. The bot equivalent of staring at the wall for seven and a half minutes. HI ART.

"I came for our mutual friend." jesus. It picks her up and saves her and lets her hug it. She tells it fear and anger are the enemy. (and then the crew freak out at the woman who stood down a homicidal killer robot by glaring at it.) (I love Mensah the most. no one knew this.)

Amena's parents are two probably normal people plus a planetary leader and a sentient killer robot

ART finds out Mensah is coming aboard and shouts at everyone to start cleaning (ART you're so neurotic)

ART and its sister Iris

ART and Murderbot are having a baby (I know I did that one already)

Round Here We Save The World Through The Power of Documentary Filmmaking

Mensah.

#murderbot #mensah #murderbot diaries

[cactusspatz]

December recs

Whew, I read a lot of fic in December! My Yuletide recs are here and here, and I winnowed down the rest of them to a mere ten recs.

Click on for Batman, Murderbot, and Goblin Emperor fics!

BATMAN

The Time Before by @cdelphiki

One moment, Red Hood was fighting with Black Mask, listening to the idiot go on about how he'd murder Jason long before he'd become a problem. The next… Jason was ten years in the past, nine-years-old, and fending for himself on the streets of Gotham. Bruce might not know about Jason yet in the timeline, but Batman was the only one who could protect him against Black Mask. If only Jason didn't hate him so much…

Excellent time travel fic!

this kind of weather by r_astra / @heyy-its-skip

Jason’s at school when his mom dies, and that’s the only reason any of it happens. If he’d been home, if he’d been with her, he would’ve been in the wind before anyone else even knew. Even if they looked, no one ever would’ve found him. He’d have taken to the sewers if that’s what it took, man-eating crocodile guy and all.

I love Jason in this, and his friendship with Stephanie, and the identity secrets.

seventeen going under by @bonerot19

"Where's your pops?" Terry shouted down the sidewalk. "Dunno," Jason said. "Haven't seen him in a week. I stopped goin' lookin' for him a long time ago." Hell, Jason was happy with the man's absence. Maybe it would stick, this time. "He owes me fifty bucks." Terry, closer to Jason now, was still shouting. Jason spun around and started walking backwards. "What'a'ya know," he said. "Me too." AU where Jason is seventeen, his parents are alive, he works nights at a convenience store, and everything is about to go to shit.

Loosely inspired by this kind of weather (in that Jason's parents survived longer) but much heavier on the angst and h/c. I'm loving the WIP sequel as well!

coconut and aloe by merils (Tim/Kon)

Tim still doesn’t sit. “I washed it like three times, but my hair still smells like vinegar and death,” he says, and gazes intently into Kon’s eyes. …Ah. Now Kon gets it. “Tim, buddy,” he says, amusement bubbling up in his chest, because apparently Tim can’t just ask like a normal person. It’s stupidly endearing. “Do you want me to wash your hair?”

Soft and sensual and sweet.

MURDERBOT

An Unexpected Quarter by @ilovedthestars

Murderbot is captured by the company, with no one to come to its rescue. Help comes from somewhere it doesn’t expect.

Aimed directly at my id, and a great outsider POV. On a similar theme, I also enjoyed Salvage or Repair by the same author.

words left behind by torpidgilliver

"How do you stand it?" Dr. Gurathin's tone is slow and even when he asks, "Stand what?" SecUnit 3 shares its feelings with someone who might understand.

Beautiful exploration of Three's grief, and a lovely look at Gurathin's life.

Terrible Tactical Strategy by audreycritter

Three is behaving oddly. There's a surprisingly ordinary explanation, it's just that the explanation isn't fun for anyone.

In which Three has feelings about media in an entirely new direction, and a mini breakdown. Achy but kind.

Un/Safe by John_lzhc

Ayda Mensah was in her office cubby, reviewing the last of the council dispatches, when she received an urgent assistance request from Secunit. That… had never happened before. Murderbot has a close encounter of a 3-year-old kind. It is not impressed.

*cackles* Look, Murderbot is so competent that I just can't resist stories where it panics in social situations.

GOBLIN EMPEROR

The Search for Marneise Amalo by Sphragis

"Before we may attend to the truly important aims of our account, we must address a matter that we had rather not. Were it not for the prurient curiosity of the worst kind of people, we would not deign even to introduce the following subject. As we are obliged to speak, we shall keep the point brief: Pel-Thenhior was not marnis. The accusation was always and only vicious rumor." On the (in)ability of love to find expression in the historical record.

Gorgeous fic using historical research (letters, academic writing, and video/interview) to explore the edges of Thara and Iana's relationship and future. Creative and wonderful.

#fic rec #monthly recs #batman #dcu #tim/kon #murderbot #murderbot diaries #goblin emperor #gen #thara/iana

[specialagentartemis]

for the ask game: I Gotta ask for your Pin-Lee thoughts

@clonerightsagenda asked: ask meme: Pin-Lee

You both had the same idea XD

First impression

Not much of anything tbh; I had a hard time keeping track of any of the All Systems Red humans who weren't Mensah or Gurathin the first time I read it.

Impression now

She is SO fascinating. Sharp and hardass corporate lawyer from the gentle socialist planet. How did she get into that line of work? Bristly and prickly and brave but not above being petty, not a leader and she doesn’t want to be a leader but she will take charge when she needs to and is very smart and dedicated and but not happy about that. The CombatUnit of lawyers. She WILL take your company down. Workaholic who thrives when she has a goal to pursue. I love thinking about her.

Favorite moment

Big fan of when Murderbot approached her on TranRollinHyfa. Tight smile and walking carefully into a private transit car and then going off. Where were you? What are you doing here?? You LEFT.

Idea for a story

I want to write Pin-Lee’s POV of Exit Strategy sooo baddd and someday I WILL do this. She is under so much pressure!

other ideas for stories I periodically ruminate on: Overse learns that a distant relative of hers in the CR has died, and she inherits her relative’s company. Pin-Lee is wary of this whole deal, and that wariness is proven justified when it turns out that relative was murdered. They can’t all just sell everything off and wash their hands of the whole ordeal, though, because among the company assets, Overse inherited a SecUnit. Now Murderbot, Pin-Lee, Overse, Arada, and Ratthi are travelling to the station where Overse was born, to collect the inheritance, solve the mystery, meet and free and acculturate this new SecUnit, make sure that all of them are legally in the clear and not bound to any outstanding debts or contracts that anyone wants to collect on, and try not to get murdered in the process.

Unpopular opinion

Kinda don’t know enough Popular Opinions about Pin-Lee to write an unpopular one, but I guess I tend to write/conceptualize her outward anger as an expression of fear and restless stress and frustration most of the time. She is under SO much pressure and SO much stress and she is trying to keep her team alive and out of life-ruining debt and she cannot, under any circumstances, let anyone know she is scared or upset about this because if the opposing corporate lawyers see any weakness they will eat her alive. So it comes out as anger and aggression and confrontation—but also, being afraid like this for so long can make you angry, deep bubbling festering righteous bitter anger that you have to live like this. That you have to keep dealing with this.

Favorite relationship

The TranRollinHyfa Trio of Pin-Lee, Ratthi, and Gurathin... friendship forged in fire. They've been through something no one else would really ever get. I love them

Favorite headcanon

She has a younger sister who is like, the ideal Preservation citizen. A poet, textile artist, community volunteer, and mother, who is great at talking about her feelings in a healthy and productive way. Her poetry is quite famous on Preservation. Pin-Lee has a fraught relationship with her.

Also because two people asked me you get two: Preservation has a tradition of a “service year” where once you reach adulthood as a new adult you’re supposed to spend a year doing some sort of service work for the community. It’s a way of meeting new people, gaining new social networks, learning new skills, going new places, exploring and determining what you want to do in your life. Pin-Lee’s service year involved home construction for the influx of Divarti refugees that was happening right around when she turned 20. She didn’t really take to it, but she did get an interest in interplanetary law from it. (This explains that one-off line from ASR about Pin-Lee having hab construction experience. Most Preservationers have an eclectic set of skills for reasons like this!)

#The Murderbot Diaries #ask game #ilovedthestars #clonerightsagenda #perpetual perpetual ladies night

[ineedlelittlespace]

for the ask game: ratthi murderbotdiaries?

Send Me a Character

Oh, Ratthi, my beloved...🥰

First impression

Like a lot of us, I only had eyes for Murderbot the first time I read ASR---the human team absolutely got shoved to my mental backburner while I was busy relating to MB. In the five seconds I did spend thinking about Ratthi, it was mostly in a "oh, so this is going to be the problem child, huh?" way when he almost walked outside into the worm's mouth.

Impression now

I love him, your honor.

But also, he is an all-around delightful human being. There's a kindness and an earnestness to his character that is just so endearing you can't help but like him, especially when you layer in the fact that he's excellent at his job, great at adapting to high-pressure situations on the fly, and has the people skills to successfully navigate the absolutely wild interpersonal interactions that the series keeps throwing at him.

Favorite moment

That whole sequence in Fugitive Telemetry where he and Gurathin drop everything to help Murderbot do some light breaking and entering. It feels like the equivalent of an errand hang-out, but if your bestie spends its spare time solving murders rather than picking up dry cleaning and going to Target. I love the implication that this is just what they do now, once Murderbot has settled into the group. Friends help friends with projects, right? So, obviously, Ratthi is going to help in whatever way he can.

Idea for a story

I kind of want to do more of his PoV for various scenes throughout the series. He's present for so many of the juiciest scenes---there's a lot to work with!

Also, it might be fun to do something with his friendship with Arada and Overse, perhaps with some backstory on their first meetings and how they moved from colleagues to besties.

Unpopular opinion

In all honesty, I don't feel like there's too much pressure re: popular vs. unpopular opinions in the Murderbot corner of the internet. The only thing that comes to mind with Ratthi is that I think we tend to...soften him a little too much sometimes. There's a tendency to focus mostly on his skill as a people person or a friendly face, not necessarily on the fact that if he wasn't so good at his actual job, he probably wouldn't be on Mensah's team. We see him tackle gory jobs like cleaning up the battle aftermath on ART in Network Effect, we see him jump into helping with medical emergencies, and in Fugitive Telemetry, he immediately identifies that "someone was dead here" when they come upon the scene of the murder because the physical signs are obvious to a biologist. As far as the humans of the series go, Ratthi is very capable!

Favorite relationship

Aside from the obvious friendship with Murderbot itself, I really do love that he's best friends with Arada and Overse. I love that these three stuck together for the next survey to follow the disastrous events of ASR. I love that their friendship is so obvious and loud that even Book One Murderbot could immediately point it out. I just really like seeing healthy platonic friendships (especially ones that coexist with and do not compete against healthy romantic ones involving some of the same characters), okay?

Favorite headcanon

The infamous "Who's this?" line from ASR was a full-on my-brain-is-short-circuiting-and-my-mouth-got-ahead-of-my-mind moment, not necessarily an ah-yes-a-stranger-to-be-introduced moment.

#thank you so much for the ask! #i love these games #ratthi #the murderbot diaries #murderbot

[pdanno]

i finished system collapse and i really liked it!! My favorite parts are those little lines that imply so much bts stuff but aren’t really lingered on. and anyway poor murderbot

one thing i wish we saw more of would be those more emotionally open conversations. like the quote when it said it doesn’t know what’s wrong with me and mensah said i think u do but don’t wanna talk about it. like… idk man. i know it’s not really gonna happen because of how murderbot is the narrator and actively avoids these conversations and will never dwell on them. like that was just two lines about a past conversation we never actually hear. we spend half the book not knowing what the incident was, even though we know murderbot must have had one.

this is why i campaign so fully for a full length novella or novel from another characters perspective of murderbot LMAO. about what it’s like being around murderbot. i think that would add so much. i do LOVE the one from mensahs POV. anyway. i digressssss enoguh about what i didn’t get but wanted. that book was really good and i loved it. probably one of my favorites in the series. but i love every book in the series too…

#murderbot #system collapse #system collapse spoilers #murderbot spoilers

[captainsupernoodle]

reading the books of the raksura is an experience full of so much cognitive dissonance which probably isn't helped by the fact that i gulped down the first three books in under a week i think and therefore had minimum higher thought engagement involved beyond "hey i'm. not a fan of reverse sexism as a trope."

the way it ends up feeling is like wells really wanted to play with the concept of a fully nonhuman race based off of colony insects (which is cool! i'd really love to see more delving into species that function drastically differently from humans from their pov instead of from an outsider pov!) and then did not fully engage with the fact that uuuuuh a biologically mandated caste system has some really fucked up implications when carried over to a sentient species! and a biologically evil species is also fucked up!!

(also between the way raksura courts work and handwaving mensah's planet in murderbot as a utopia i'm feeling an overarching tendency towards "this one place is a great place where everything works well all the time because of reasons.")

from a reader's perspective it really grinds some of my gears (let moon actually fight a queen already!!) but from a writer's and worldbuilding perspective there is So Much fascinating, juicy stuff to play around with. (also frustrating stuff. how come everybody is afraid of shifters because fell and nobody has ever seen raksura but raksura can't convince anybody fell are real and very dangerous and also how has nobody heard of raksura when there's a whole bunch of them in that forest and they have enough regular friendly contact with other species to speak the trade language but have no concept of how valuable gemstones are and??????????)

BUT FASCINATING. courts seem to be technically run like large extended families. my memory is not the best and i've not done an actual analysis but i'm pretty sure courts only have like a few hundred people in them?? except they live in trees so huge they support platforms the size of islands? like every court is an independent small town. everybody knows everybody else. they're all more or less self-sufficient, apparently. there's no over-arching government between courts, just allies. how big are the reaches? how many courts are there? it seems like the populations of fell and of raksura are actually pretty tiny, but why? hey, is the narrative ever going to engage with the fact that the only non-fell descendants of the forerunners are in a tight symbiotic relationship with a totally different species where they're always on top of the political structure and don't contribute to the running of the court except as scholars and a "better" warrior class?

#pay attention to the implications of your worldbuilding!!! #the subtext when you think about how raksura and fell actually work and how we don't know why they split. hm. #there's some fucked up potential in there. curious to see how the last two books deal (or don't deal) with it. #listen if you don't pay attention to your subtext it can twist your text in all kinds of ways #books of the raksura #raksura #noodle reads #noodle reads the books of the raksura #noodle speaks

[needlesandnilbogs]

arada and/or overse for the ask game!

Arada

First impression: Oh, hey, a lesbian couple! And this one has a name that sounds a little like my friend!

Impression now: Okay but what's going around in her head. She's competent and kind and she's learning how to lead and everything and she's also smart and probably autistic and the narrative doesn't even say anything it's just normal! (She is everything I want to grow up to be, let's be clear)

Favorite moment: We don't get to see that bunkroom scene in Network Effect, but it spins around my head constantly. Onscreen in the actual books I also really like every little moment in Network Effect where it's clear she knows what she's doing when it comes to leadership.

Idea for a story: … I should just paste my entire list of ideas here. It is easier to list the story ideas that don't involve Arada than the ones that do. But specifically: my February goal that's not close to being met is to finish a fic that's just her pov of network effect (current title when I talk about it is "arada pov of network effect" but I have a different working title for it)

Unpopular opinion: SHE DESERVED BETTER IN SYSTEM COLLAPSE. We do not see anything of her and we didn't see anything that even alluded to her leadership in Network Effect. I am very extremely mad about this still and think she should have gotten to go with SecUnit instead of Ratthi.

Favorite relationship: The obvious one when you look at what I write is her relationship with Overse and the infinite ways it can manifest and change depending on how they're changing, but the one I'm really enjoying exploring right now is her relationship with Mensah -- we don't see anything special here, unless you count the line from ASR where it's Mensah and Arada overriding everyone talking to mb about feelings, but I'm really enjoying the space that gives for her to be learning about leadership from Mensah but also knowing when not to take advice. Also I like figuring out how Ratthi fits into Arada and Overse's relationship as best friend but also third wheel.

Favorite headcanon: I really really love the idea that she and Overse are both transfemme demiromantic asexual lesbians and their relationship is non-normative for Preservation. In any universe where they have kids, she's also definitely got three teenage kids for whom she shares responsibility with Ratthi and Overse but she's the primary person to deal with Kid Things. Also also autistic Arada is something I basically don't think about as headcanon anymore because there's serious textual support for it but I guess that counts and it influences how I write her.

Overse

First impression: Aww, lesbians, I love them already (see above)

Impression now: She's the sensible one everywhere but she cares so much and she's doing her best to be supportive all the time and also she's got so much going on we don't see so tell me more about her.

Favorite moment: In Network Effect where she stops in the hall and reminds Arada to be like a bulkhead. Why that metaphor? I must know!

Idea for a story: Oh, so many things. I really want to know what she does for a living, though, so I want to see her growing up and trying six quadrillion different things before she ended up with a large set of vaguely related skills that's somehow perfect for survey work.

Unpopular opinion: also deserved better in System Collapse. See above rant about how Arada deserved better, they both did. They should get to be the ones doing fun stuff sometimes it doesn't always have to be Ratthi!

Favorite relationship: With Arada, but I also think it would be really cool if she was close friends with Pin-Lee, if something about them being the only two without a doctorate meant they ever had moments where they were like. Do my friends understand common sense (or other things where they could both Get Each Other that way). basically I think she and arada should both have more friendship onscreen with the rest of presaux.

Favorite headcanon: Why does she have weapons training in ASR? I have overanalyzed that implication to heck and back and decided the answer is that she grew up in an area of Preservation known for aggressive fauna that think humans are yummy so to go do camping things or anything she had to get medical and weapons training at a young age.

Bonus headcanon for both of them is that if a modern human who isn't very up to date on gender or sexuality met them they would look like a stereotypical femme/butch relationship. Because Arada has short hair and wears basically the same outfit every day while Overse has really long hair and likes to dress up and whatever and then if you look at their hobbies Arada spins and crochets and sews and cooks and can paint so many fancy nail designs and whatever and Overse is over in the corner of their home taking apart the third chair in two days with a hammer and building things and sticking her hands in guts and gore and basically the two of them are out here breaking every stereotype ever by being actual human beings but in this specific way they're exact opposites by earth standards just not in the expected way.

#fandom #murderbot

[souldagger]

btw the Murderbot short story Home (set in between exit strategy and network effect) is now available to read for free on tor's website!!!

#it's mensah pov and i love it SO much #like. so much. if u asked me to rank the mb books+stories id put this above some of the books. DR MENSAH MY BELOVED #the murderbot diaries #murderbot #.txt

[singlecrow]

I finished System Collapse and I'm fine. It's all very fine.

(Mensah. I know I say this a lot, but Murderbot is wonderful and hilarious but Mensah is. idk. Mensah is a planetary leader. I love her and I love how funny and smart and compassionate she is, and how she's a human being who is horribly traumatised by traumatic events. I just reread the short story from her POV and it's, ah, actually, it's devastating. A traumatic flashback when fetching a bottle of almond milk! the most human!

But all of that, against being a planetary leader: against a baseline institutional power and responsibility that women are just not given, in real life or in fiction, and an indomitable ethical compass. Mensah upends her society's notion of personhood, on the basis of those ethics. (This with traumatised flashbacks over almond milk.) I just. I love her so much.)

#murderbot #dr mensah #I'm thinking a lot this week about women in positions of institutional leadership #unrelated to going back to work I'm sure #and any of my broader ambitions #see also: bishop beartongue #the best constitutional lawyer in fiction

[cactusspatz]

January recs

Alright, I’ve got multiple Murderbot Diaries recs from last month, and one each for MCU (Black Widow+Spider-Man), Due South, The Hands of the Emperor, and Star Trek AOS. Enjoy!

Acceptable Mission Cost by i_have_loved_the_stars_too_fondly (Murderbot, gen)

The planetary leader of Preservation is taken hostage by a corporation and held for interrogation. Lonely and homesick, she starts talking to the SecUnit assigned to guard her cell. When it's ordered to kill her, it can't bring itself to follow through.

Yessssss, awesome alternate first meeting where Murderbot is assigned to guard Mensah! Some heavy plot reliance on coincidence but the feels are excellent.

@Perihelion: Fuck you ART by Sparrowlicious (Murderbot, gen)

And that's how I accidentally started a social feed account with a cult following. It's not my fault humans have an obsession with my opinions.

aka Murderbot discovers space twitter and commits crimes against corporate entities (ART is helping!)

I’m not usually a fan of social media fics done this far from their origin (i.e. Space Twitter is just like modern Twitter!), but Murderbot and ART’s friendship in this story is impeccable and hilarious.

Iterative User Testing by Ostentenacity (Murderbot, gen)

Murderbot's buffer is becoming a problem.

Funny but sweet story about Murderbot working on its social interactions (and also reprogramming its brain a little with ART? Friendship is magic!).

The Peter Tingle by igrockspock (MCU, Peter/Yelena)

Yelena's bored and she's got three options:    (1) Start a fire.    (2) Start a brawl.    (3) Talk to Peter Parker.

Completely unexpected but completely delightful pairing! Shenanigans, banter, grief, Peter being a nice young man who does math in bars and also dresses up in spandex, and Yelena finding someone she can be a little vulnerable with. (set after Hawkeye and No Way Home)

This Canadian Life by SpaceTimeConundrum (Due South, Fraser/RayK)

Today on our program we’re bringing you a three act investigation into a true Chicago legend. It’s a larger-than-life tale of murder, exile, culture shock, and the incredible power of human kindness as we ask the question: did Chicago have its own Canadian superhero in the ‘90s? The answer may surprise you. From WBEZ Chicago, it’s This American Life.

I LOVE THIS SO MUCH!!! Great outsider POV in a way, and fun post-canon content that also follows up on some minor characters and the ripple effects of Fraser being Fraser.

Absurdly Discreet by breadandroses (The Hands of the Emperor, Artorin/Kip)

"Being seduced by someone who turns out to be a spy isn't a crime," Ghilly said. "It is when you're the Sun-on-Earth's personal secretary," Cliopher replied dryly.

  — The Hands of the Emperor, Chapter 63

Sharp look at that barely mentioned incident from the book, and the DEVOTION. The PINING. GAH.

the ship in port is the safer one (but it's not the reason it was made) by KiaraSayre (Star Trek reboot, gen)

The Enterprise's first mission is a boring one. Luckily, the ship more or less makes its own trouble, including: stills, toilet paper, lighting issues, awkward crewmembers, lunchroom seating politics, and, of course, the Admiralty.

Or: How Jim Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Chain Of Command.

Very fun and creative story about the Enterprise going on a shakedown cruise, Jim learning some valuable lessons about personnel management, and the dangers of a genius crew with too much time on their hands.

#monthly recs #murderbot #mcu #peter/yelena #due south #fraser/rayk #hands of the emperor #star trek #fic rec #lots of gen this month hmm

[ineedlelittlespace]

✨ Fic Writing Review 2023 ✨

Thank you so much for the tag @dendrochilums! I've been seeing these pop up and kept thinking they looked like so much fun! Like you, this was my first year contributing to the Murderbot fandom, and it's been delightful from start to finish! The community is so welcoming and supportive---you all make writing so much fun!

Words and Fics 21, 555 total words total from my 7 Murderbot fics!

Good News - Ratthi hanging out in the deployment center, waiting for Murderbot to come out of its cubicle at the end of ASR.

Trust Returned - Dr. Mensah's PoV of the assassination attempt.

The Tree that Owns Itself - Three and Murderbot visit a botanical garden.

Inverse Fears - Volescu reunites with the PresAux crew before Arada's survey team departs again.

Cinema Verite - Ratthi's PoV of the documentary-making process.

Traveling in Place - Three makes a friend and takes the first step out of isolation.

Enough - Gurathin's PoV of the days while Murderbot was rebuilding its memory at the end of Exit Strategy.

Top Fics by Kudos "Cinema Verite," coming in at 371 (which is a solid hundred more than anything else I've done)! I'm a little surprised that this is the one that took the prize when it's also one of the most recent things I've finished, but I'm happy with it! That particular missing scene lived rent-free in my head from the minute I finished System Collapse.

Fandom Fic Events 2023 I haven't tackled that particular facet of fandom life yet. They do look like fun, and I love a good theme, but trying to keep up with hard deadlines for what is supposed to be a relaxing hobby stresses me out a little too much. At least for right now!

Upcoming 2024 (currently all WiPs that are subject to change and/or abandonment at any time)

a couple of miscellaneous missing scene fics from System Collapse

Mensah's PoV of the conversation at the end of Network Effect

Bharadwaj's documentary and the little moments that led to it

Indah escorts Murderbot to Station Medical after the assassination attempt. It's totally not awkward for anyone or anything.

Amena and her time at PSUMNT.

Tag game rules copied below! I'm tagging @specialagentartemis , @the-grey-hunt , and @incomt65 , as well as anyone else who'd like to do it!

Rules: Feel free to show whatever stats you have. Only want to show Ao3 stats? Rock on. Want to include some quantitative info instead of stats? Please do this. Want to change how yours is presented? Absolutely do that. Would rather eat glass than do this? Please don’t eat glass, just keep on scrolling.

#ao3 #tag games