#murdercat wip

[ilovedthestars]

a trick or treat for @cellarwhales, who was having mysterious technical difficulties with my inbox

you asked for something hopeful or cathartic, so i am going to share some snips from the slightly angsty but mostly soft fic that i wrote after backreading the Murderbot has a Murdercat thread on discord. this wip was inspired by the excellent fic a hero to me by kiore ( @temporalreplicsimile ) and it's really not that far from being finished, but i stalled out on looking thru the books to find some quotes to tie the various snips i wrote into canon scenes.....i should go do that so i can post this!

these snips are scenes from ASR (starting immediately after the rogue discovery scene), but if Murderbot had a cat. because it deserves one.

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A small, furry fauna streaked out of the corner and attacked my feet with its tiny claws. I was so relieved to see it that I didn’t even think before I bent down and lifted it off the floor. It shoved its head into the crook of my elbow and I had to pull my arms close to my body to keep from dropping it. It burrowed its face into my shirt and started to vibrate softly. I realized that all the humans were staring at me. Ratthi said, “Oh, is it yours?” I just stood there, trying frantically to think of a lie or an excuse that would explain why this small fauna had attached itself to me. Anything that wouldn’t lead to it being taken away. Arada said, “It came running out of the cubicle when we opened it, and wouldn’t come back. We weren’t sure how a cat got in with us, but if you brought it with you, that explains that.” Volescu said, “Is that…allowed? For SecUnits to have pets?” I tensed, and clutched the fauna a little closer to myself. Gurathin was frowning at the fauna in my arms. “It can’t possibly be allowed. It must have been hiding the cat, too. I suppose if it was rogue, it could have managed to sneak it in.” He put a little too much emphasis on the word rogue, and Mensah shot him a look. “SecUnit, I would like you to remain part of our group, at least until we get off this planet and back to a place of safety. At that point, we can discuss what you’d like to do. But I swear to you, I won’t tell the company, or anyone outside this room, anything about you or the broken module.” She considered the fauna, and added, “Or the cat.”

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When we left for the rendezvous site, I left the fauna with the big hopper. I didn’t like it, but it wasn’t like bringing a fauna to a hostile negotiation was going to help anyone. It tried to follow me to the little hopper with Mensah. I picked it up and carried it back. “Stay here.” It knew to stay when I told it to stay. If it hadn’t figured that out quickly, it wouldn’t have lasted very long. It was a smart fauna. It tucked itself underneath one of the big hopper’s seats, almost out of sight, and stayed quiet. “Good fauna,” I told it. If everything went to shit, I hoped it would find a way to survive.

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I was hovering on the edge of a system failure. I had flashes, off and on. The inside of the little hopper, my humans talking, something soft pushing against my hand. I felt the scrabble of tiny claws. It was my fauna. It was bumping my hand with its head and making tiny whimpering sounds. I didn’t want it to be scared, but my hand wouldn’t move to stroke it. Then being in the big hopper, as it was lifting up. I could tell from the drive noise, the flashes of the feed, that the pick-up transport was bringing it on board. The fauna licked my fingers. That meant the humans hadn’t left it behind.

[flaminya]

Little sketch inspired by @caparrucia's puppyverse. This verse's Cor and Nyx are amazing!

[fallowheart]

well okay you convinced me at a naming tradition superstition and also Puddlenose is such a mood (I'm legally blind so like same my dude trees are terrifying). have you posted the actual like story anywhere or is it still WIP? sorry for the fangirl dumps I need more good murder cats.

Unfortunately still WIP cuz I’ve been super busy, but no worries! I love talking about these dumb murdercats and I’ll take any opportunity to do so

[ilovedthestars]

Trick-or-Treat Snips Masterpost

All the Murderbot fanfic snips i shared for the trick or treat ask game, in one place!

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murderbot's govmod is turned on at the end of ES

murderbot is rescued from the company, with a wiped memory and a functioning govmod that thinks it broke its distance limit

crowbar and yuma have a convo about govmods

meet my secunit OC flower, it's having a very bad/very good day

mysterious ghost ship appears near preservation, MB and indah check it out

murderbot has a murdercat

murderbot got rescued from the company but isn't sure it's real

more yuma and crowbar, fixing up a new badly damaged secunit

murderbot shows up at gurathin's door a la "i didn't know where else to go"

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Thank you so much to everyone who sent me asks, i had a blast digging through my drafts and finding fun things to share 💜💜💜💜

And by the way: Some of these wips are actively being worked on, some are semi-permanently abandoned, but a lot of them are in the zone of "i'd love to finish this, but i haven't had motivation in a while." If there's one you'd really like to see more of, let me know! That might be enough to kickstart me into working on it again :)