#rescue bots diary

[whatwooshkai]

18?

“Oh, what’s this?” Boulder asks innocently, picking up a datapad off the floor.

A very particular datapad. One with a shattered corner and a crack running diagonally across the screen, one with Heatwave's name carved towards the bottom on the back.

A datapad with extremely sensitive information on it.

"NOTHING!" Heatwave shouts, snatching it away from them before they can open it- it's password locked, but still.

"Ooooh, is that your diary?" Blades teases, coming up behind him to try and catch a glimpse of the datapad, which Heatwave quickly tucks safely away in his subspace.

"No," Heatwave snarls, because if he said yes, that would make Blades more persistent. But it isn't even his diary, he doesn't have one.

This is where he writes down every vision he has. And yes, Heatwave loves his rescue bots, he'd do anything for them, but it's better this way. It's better that they don't know.

"Oh, it's definitely your diary," Blades drawls, draping himself over Heatwave's shoulder and nestling his chin in the crook of his neck. "What kind of things does our fearless leader like to write about, I wonder? 'Oh, dear diary, today I was a total scaredy-cat when I saw a little snake in the road-'"

"Oh, fuck off," Heatwave snaps, shoving Blades' face away, who just continues to laugh and laugh.

It's better this way, he tells himself. What they don't know can't hurt them.

[signanothername]

31. If the had a tumblr what would it look like? Blades and Blurr (and Chase?)

Holy shit yesssss!!!

Ok let’s go

Blades: probably a main blog and a secondary blog, main is for his huperfixations and the hundreds of fandoms he jumps around while the secondary account is a personal blog where he documents his rescues/ medical cases he treated and uses it as a diary of sorts

He’s probably the one who’s very invested with tumblr and would be really influenced by it, so he’d have tumblr lingo when he talks, and he’d probably reference tumblr specific memes shhshs

I imagine Blades would definitely be popular in the tumblr community

Since I’m bad at explaining visuals with words you can have what i think his main blog would look like <3

———

Blurr: one blog, no tags, chaos is real

Probably got blocked for having a blog that looks like a bot at first and he got so confused by it, then later changed the theme of his blog for something better

This boi uses his blog as a personal blog where he either talks about himself or his daily life, or reblogs every little thing he finds interesting, but most of his reblogs are gonna be car based/ about races or something to do with HW

And OH does he absolutely love annoying HW online (it’s how he shows affection wheeze)

———

Chase: he’s the type to have a main blog that’s arranged with overly specific tags and then a hundred secondary blogs ordered alphabetically, and each blog is for a different thing, he can’t have simply one blog that he clutters with everything, gotta make things look clean and orderly and what’s better than starting a secondary blog for anything new

He’s got a pinned post and for the love of god don’t risk clicking on the read more link, you’ll regret it

———

Character asks

[iviarellereads]

The Murderbot Diaries - Compulsory (SubPress reissue)

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Murderbot Diaries, read this one!)

In which we go back in time, but different.

This is part 2, examining the new reissued version of Compulsory in conversation with its original. If I remember after the first post goes up, this text will be edited to be a link to it.

Murderbot's given some thought to killing humans, since it hacked its governor module, but once it found the entertainment feeds, it thought, what's the rush? It can always kill them later, after the next series drops.(1)

Really, even the humans think about killing each other. MB hates mines, and it hates this mine the most, but all indications are that the humans hate them more. It calculates at least a 53% chance of a human-caused massacre by the end of the contract. It witnesses some name-calling and wonders if it'll happen in the next few minutes.(2)

The humans are arguing about the flow rate. MB, for its part, is watching episode 44 of Sanctuary Moon, which it thinks is a better use of its time than standing guard over the stabilizer array. One of the humans, Sekai, says SecUnits creep her out. MB can't argue, it doesn't like SecUnits either, even as one. It spends a paragraph briefly explaining SecUnits' biology and purpose in the company hierarchy, and what supposedly would happen if they didn't have governor modules.(3) Still, it doesn't respond, because most of its attention is on its show, so it misses when the accident happens, until it hears a strangled yell.

Running the video back, Asa snapped about getting the supervisor and turned quickly. As he did, the testing rod he was holding hit Sekai, who was mid-step, and unbalanced her. She fell off the platform, down into the shaft. MB tracks her descent, and hears breathing on the comm. Unfortunately, where she lands, she's about a minute and a half from getting dumped into the collectors and incinerated.

You might think that MB's job is to rescue her, but no. Its job is to prevent workers stealing corporation property, prevent workers from injuring or killing corporation management (no matter how tempting), and prevent workers from injuring each other and inhibiting productivity. So, HubSystem tells it to stay put. The nearest safety bot is 200 meters up, and incoming, just in time to retrieve the "smoldering lump" of remains.

Asa realizes what he's done and is making noises that make MB uncomfortable. Vena is sobbing. Elane is frozen. MB could go back to its episode and follow orders to stand in place, but it doesn't particularly want to watch a human die in the episode, and Sekai is a real human it's responsible for who will die for real shortly.

Having free will after so long under strict controls sometimes make MB do things it doesn't understand. It steps off the edge of the platform, and controls its fall to land next to Sekai. HubSystem sends a command for its governor module to fry it, but the joke's on HubSystem.

Sekai looks up at it, tearful and terrified. It reaches down to her, wondering if she's too afraid to take its hand. MedSystem supplies that there's an 80% chance she's stunned from the impact. MB says they have forty five seconds to get out. Probably not the most sensitive thing to say, under the circumstances, but it works. Sekai reaches up to grab MB's arm, and it pulls her into its chest just as the section she'd been holding on to cycled and dropped to the collector.

Sekai made an “eep” noise. I wanted to make an “eep” noise too but I was busy.(4)

MB tells Sekai to look up, and clip herself to its armour. She obeys, shaking. MB climbs out, and works on Phase II of the plan, which is convincing HubSystem that the rescue was its idea in the first place. Fortunately, it manages that by the time it gets them back up onto the platform.

As the humans reunite and cry, MB checks the supervisor feed it's not supposed to have access to, and is relieved they're not suspicious of its actions. Sekai's team will get a fine for almost clogging the collectors with her deep fried body, but better than dead.

The humans make to pull Sekai away, but she turns back to say thanks to MB. Its performance reliability drops 3% at the idea that she can see through its visor. Asa tells her they can't talk, and she insists she heard it.

Note to self: shut up.(5) Back at my guard station, I started episode 44 again. Maybe somebody would save the colony solicitor’s bodyguard, too.

=====

(1) Already a few rephrases in this intro. Reordering the hacking and the killing thoughts, and then subtle changes about the entertainment feeds. After the next series drops vs ends, VERY different in context here. (2) I don't know that the would-be tragedy that gets averted needed this extra line of setup, but kay. (I'm not the expert who writes words for a living, I'm nobody and my opinion is only worth as much as you want it to be worth.) (3) I find it interesting that it's this expanded edition that's getting these bits of information, and not the original story. The original was short, snappy, concise, but would have benefited from having a little more context for a SecUnit's role. It was published after the first novellas, but it makes me wonder if it was a concept piece written first that expanded into the Murderbot series, slightly reworked for Wired. (4) This is just… how can it be so cute in the middle of mortal peril? (5) The last major change, and an interesting one. Before, MB didn't make a quip here. Was it added to pad out the word count, or do you think it adds a little needed levity after the peril? (Or both. Both is typically an option.)

[rjalker]

This is literally from book 2.

:: added to indicate telepathy.

Martha Wells making it very clear she thinks that robot slave uprisings is a cringey and embarassing cliche. And with book 7 out now, what do you know, absolutely no signs of this idea being challenged in any way.

Because even though Martha Wells is literally the one who decided to write a story about enslaved robots, she doesn't want to write a story about slaves fighting for their freedom. Because she thinks that's cliche and cringey and bad. Because oppressed people violently fighting for their rights is *Faith mimicking Buffy voice* wrong.

::What do you propose to do?::

[Murderbot the former slave asked the currently enslaved person]

There was a pause. A long one, five seconds. ::We could kill them.:: Well, that was an unusual approach to its dilemma. ::Kill who? Tlacey?:: ::All of them. The humans here.:: I leaned against the wall. If I had been human, I would have rolled my eyes. Though if I had been human, I might have been stupid enough to think it was a good idea. I also wondered if it knew a lot more about me than what little was in the newsburst. Picking up on my reaction, ART said, ::What does it want?:: ::To kill all the humans,:: I answered. I could feel ART metaphorically clutch its function. If there were no humans, there would be no crew to protect and no reason to do research and fill its databases. It said, ::That is irrational.:: ::I know,:: I said, if the humans were dead, who would make the media? It was so outrageous, it sounded like something a human would say.

Sarcasm: Slaves wanting to kill the people enslaving them is "irrational" because then who would make new TV shows? Clearly getting to watch new TV shows is the real priority, here! End sarcasm.

And like, as I keep saying, this would have been fine to do if the point here was that Murderbot Is Not Immune to Propaganda and has just as much work to do dismantling the Pro Slavery Propaganda as everyone else.

But we are now at seven whole fucking books.

And Murderbot still hasn't fucking learned that Hey! Slaves Are People Too Even If They're Not Me!!!!

And even if Murderbot never learned this lesson it'd still be fine because you can in fact have protagonists who are bad people, you can even have protagonists who are horrible people! If only any of the other fucking characters or the narrative cared about freeing slaves!!!

But no!!!! Every other character is just as fine as Murderbot with murdering slaves instead of trying to rescue them! The seventh book has ART, who we're supposed to love, casually rip a slave limb from fucking limb while they're still afuckinglive and we're supposed to think it's badass and not horrific!!!!

Martha Wells just keeps constantly reinforcing the idea that slaves are too dangerous to be given freedom, and at seven whole entire books, I'm done waiting for the other shoe to fall, because it's clearly never going to!

Martha Wells didn't set out to write a story about how slavery is bad and everyone deserves equal rights when she decided to write The Murderbot Diaries, she just read The Imperial Radch series and thought "cool robot!!" and ignored literally everything else!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She can't even be assed to treat her own robot characters like actual people within the setting! She goes around calling Scary Disabled enslaved people "less sentient than hauler bots" even though she's the one who decided to write a setting where robots are supposed to be people!!!! But she literally can't even be bothered to treat them like people!!!!

[rosewind2007]

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again:

Why does everyone (Preservation Survey Team and Murderbot Diaries Readers alike) ignore how remarkable it is that Gurathin spots that Murderbot is rogue?

At the start of All Systems Red, Murderbot has been a rogue for 35,000 hours.

That is (even using weird 28 hour cycles) well over three (possibly approaching four) years.

THREE YEARS IS A LONG TIME!

This will include time spent with other SecUnits; “station units”; SecUnit technicians; company employees who know Secunits… Basically people (I’m including bots/constructs as people here) who would be expected to be better able to spot MB’s idiosyncratic behaviour more than some random augmented human.

On the survey Murderbot rescues Bharadwaj and Volescu from the worm . It shows its face (who of the Preservation team didn’t know it had a face?); and everyone hears its (oh so very human) voice coaxing Volescu out of the worm’s antlion-like trap.

In the book we open with the worm scene, but Gurathin has clearly seen through Murderbot’s little charade before then. By the “planning to head and check on DeltFall” scene (page 35-38 my e-copy) Gurathin knows something is up. He can see this SecUnit isn’t obeying its governor module. This is evident to the extent that Ratthi spots that there is something up…with Gurathin:

“Gurathin said, “What situations?”

Ratthi gave him a bemused look. “This situation. The unknown. Strange threats. Monsters exploding out of the ground.”

I was glad I wasn’t the only one who thought it was a dumb question.

Ratthi is bemused by Gurathin’s questions (plural, he also asks “What about your systems?” earlier in this scene).

I would note that Gurathin’s comments in this scene both follow Murderbot explicitly disobeying its governor module:

“I could ignore the governor’s instructions to defend the stupid company”

“It was one of those impulses that comes from my organic parts that the governor is supposed to squash”

Clearly the Preservation Team have all had a shock. Bharadwaj is seriously injured, Volescu has taken psychic damage. BUT despite this Gurathin is still sure there is something off-kilter about their SecUnit and he isn’t letting this drop.

He later takes advantage of Murderbot shooting itself, and proves he’s right—BUT he knew something was up well before this.

How come? What was it he, Gurathin (augmented human, systems engineer) spotted, that everyone else missed? And why?

And how come no one (Team Preservation, Murderbot itself, or the readers of the book) seems to be asking questions about this?

Notes:

Network Effect mentions Preservation 28 hour cycles

Station Units, mentioned twice in All Systems Red, and then never again…

Antlions build hugely sophisticated traps:

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2019.0365

[transingthoseformers]

So for y'all who weren't here for a few if my Rescue Bots rewatches, I noted numerous design different between RB and RBA— pretty specifically, optic color. It seems like in RB, the Griffin Rock mecha and Optimus Prime have yellow/orange optics when they aren't in "mindless robot mode". In RBA, however, all the teachers we see have blue optics. I'd say this was because it was marketed to an even younger audience than RB, but the cadets' optics are a variety of yellow/green/blue and Laserbeak has pinkish-purplish optics. My hypothesis was that every series in the aligned continuity was "written/interpreted" through the optics of a specific character. TFP by Ratchet, the exodus books by Orion/Optimus Prime, Rescue Bots by Heatwave, RID15 by Bumblebee, Rescue bots academy by Hotshot... Now, would this ever be canon? No likely not. But it's interesting to think about, especially in regard to the tonal shifts. Also now that i realize it this diary theory was subconsciously inspired by the Animorphs series. Am i just this petty and annoyed by such significant differences in what's supposed to be the same exact continuity? A little bit.

[grammarpedant]

give me murderbot diaries [grabby hands]

As expected. Gonna answer both of these at once :D

Here is the ask meme, btw!

blorbo: Murderbot itself, the one, the only, no question. I walk down the street and I think "this reminds me of blorbo from my shows." I sit in my room having anxiety and think "ah just like blorbo from my shows."

Runner-up is ART. MB gets more screentime and thus more blorbo content, but ART is wildly relatable.

scrunkly: Ratthi. Truly the fandom's Only Man. Science himbo. The kind of guy who'd affirm your personhood over the intercom during a hostage situation. He is so Shaped, to me.

Runner up for this category is Tellus. I see it getting nosy at Murderbot's murder investigation and that busybody attitude Appeals to me. I think Tellus is the gossip of the Preservation bot group chat and nothing can change my mind.

scrimblo bimblo: Aylen. Indah is the naysayer-human-of-the-week in FT but Aylen's journey to becoming friends with MB is underappreciated. She made the driest fuckin joke about professionalism and MB shot back like, as if Indah doesn't curse up a blue storm. Iconic momence.

Runner-up is Pin-Lee. Combat Lawyer queen of my heart, she doesn't get enough love for her abrasive, tough-love attitude.

glup shitto: Combat SecUnit. Oh you KNOW my 2-lines-of-dialogue fave is CSU, to the point where I made half the fandom think that Handlers are a canon thing for a while. I'm obsessed with this little bitch and its I want to kill you. Like ok hatecrush or? Anyway I kicked off a whole shared universe in which it survives and has space scoundrel adventures with other rogues because CSU is my one true glup shitto.

poor little meow meow: Thiago. I want to put him in a pringles can and shake him. I think out of all the humans-with-doubts-of-the-week he poses the most interesting contrast to Murderbot, which @elexuscal wrote up as meta (though if it's posted to tumblr I couldn't find it, alas. what a functional hellsite.) Basically, he presents a social challenge to MB- he doesn't pose a threat to its safety or legal personhood like Gurathin or Indah, so MB's challenges with him are about whether it can deal with him person-to-person. I like that he's an outspoken and principled character who clearly does view MB as a person but doesn't automatically like or get along with it just because of that. He isn't afraid to confront MB directly about his principles, and I think both the fact that he isn't entirely correct in drawing his conclusions only makes him more fascinating to me on the level of ethical clash. To what degree is violence necessary? How do we balance safety and freedom? Is it always right to try to seek the least harmful solution, if doing so may pose a risk of harm to yourself? Or to others? Is it okay to choose a solution that will hurt others, as long as it doesn't hurt people in your circle?

Anyway, I think the narrative of Network Effect is actually pretty sympathetic to Thiago (he's one of the few characters MB regularly describes the features and expressions of!) and I'm surprised so many people don't like him.

horse plinko: Human One, hands down. My go-to character for putting through the trauma wringer. (She's the one who shot MB in the back when it went to rescue her and the other refugees- I rewrote the scene as fic from her POV here.) A great way to explore what life and sociality might be like in abject capitalist misery, like looking at our own lives and history and finding catharsis through the suffering of someone fictional. What's a horrible way that the CR treats its indentured workers? Human One probably saw her mom and other workers go through it, at minimum, if not herself. A gold mine of generational trauma and trauma responses that will cause problems for her in safer environments.

(And yes. I'm working on more Human One fic. ☺)

Runner-up: Balin. I want to crack its processor open like a nut. I want the angst. I want the despair. If only I could figure out how to write its perspective...

eeby deeby: I am sending TargetContact straight to eeby deeby. For fuck's sake, what a hammy villain they were while coherent! But I did enjoy the movie chase scene horror later.

[writeyouin]

Swerve X Reader – Changes - Chapter 7

Chapter 7 – A Rescue Without a Plan

A/N – Finally back to this baby, and boy am I glad to be back.

Warnings – None.

Rating – T

“Making your way in the world today, takes everything you've got. Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.” You sang the Cheers song quietly in your cell, concentrating heavily on the cell bars.

Ever since you had forced yourself to calm down, streams of information had come flooding across your optics, revealing structural strengths and weaknesses to everything you looked at. You hoped to find something about the electrified bars that might lead to your escape, but so far, all the weaknesses were ones you couldn’t exploit from within the cell. You had long since given up on desperately trying to contact the Lost Light, figuring that something was blocking your comms.

You sighed, giving up on your song, a childish idea coming to mind. You knew nothing would come of it, but a smile reached your lips as you stared at your hand, “Go-Go-Gadget, Lock Pick.”

Naturally, nothing happened, but at least you were entertained, so you continued the game, taking comfort in the familiar words. “Go-Go-Gadget, Gun. Go-Go-Gadget, Scanner. Go-Go-Gadget, Blow Torch-” You jumped back in shock as one of your fingertips split open at the command, a strong blue flame roaring up from the split. You didn’t know whether you should be praising Brainstorm, for this was most certainly his addition, or cursing him for the cartoonish way you had accessed the tool. You were almost afraid to wonder how many of your body’s other commands were linked to the phrase Go-Go-Gadget.

Without wasting any more time, you put the flame to the bars, beginning the laborious process of escaping your cell.

As you worked, you had one more idea which you hastily tried, “Go-Go-Gadget, Manual.”

Before your optics, a string of writing cropped up, instructions on how your Cybertronian body worked. “Play audio,” You said, having been introduced to the opening menu. Perceptor’s voice filled your audials, starting your tutorial on your new body. You vented air through your systems and got to work, studying during your attempted escape.

Once he had been released from his cell, Swerve spent all of his time at the Lost Light’s shooting range, his aim never improving despite his efforts. He knew he had little hope of becoming a soldier in the time it would take to get to you, but he didn’t care, so long as he had something to keep him occupied. How could other humans be so cruel as to throw you of all people in a battle arena? You were kind and compassionate, and you would never have even considered harming another species, claiming that all were equal.

Swerve had often found you crying over books wherein humans had treated others terribly, mostly among their own species. He remembered asking you why you chose to read such books as The Diary of Anne Frank or Boy Erased, if they only served to make you upset, and you had replied that they were important to read lest history be repeated from ignorance. It was awful to think that you, the most empathetic of souls, were going to be scrapped for the entertainment of others.

Swerve knew they didn’t have long to rescue you. If the Arena’s advertisements were to be believed, you would be entering one of their battles in less than three cycles, when the new contestants would arrive to scrap you.

Swerve couldn’t forget the picture they had uploaded of you on the advertisement. You had been harmed in ways he never wanted to see, deep gashes in your arms and visible dents everywhere, yet in the picture, you were defiantly angry. He alone could recognise the fear beneath, but he couldn’t be prouder to see that you weren’t giving your captor the satisfaction of your apprehension.

He reloaded his gun, aiming it at the target, imagining it was your captors. Despite his anger, he missed, hitting a spot on the wall at least six feet from the target. Coolant sprung to his optics. You were in danger and he was completely useless. He couldn’t pilot the ship, he couldn’t shoot, it wasn’t even him that had discovered your location; that had been Nightbeat while he was too busy feeling sorry for himself. He was useless.

Rodimus’ voice rang clear through Swerve’s comms. It was a channel he had left open until you were found; that way anyone who needed him could contact him.

“Swerve, get to the board room. We have news on (Y/N).”

Swerve brusquely wiped the coolant from his optics, throwing the gun on the table before leaving. As soon as he was in the hallway, he transformed, speeding to the board room, eager for any information he could get, yet also terrified about what it could mean for you.

He didn’t say anything as he entered, his attention, like everyone else’s drawn to the video-feed of the Arena, where a human woman in acid-green armour was speaking.

“Greetings to fans, peasants, and nobles alike. It is I, Lady Ouida, your adored host of the Arena.”

Lady Ouida. Swerve glared at her holographic form, now having a name and a face to put to his enemy.

“As all of us betting royals know, there is to be a new competitor here. The foul-mouthed mini menace has refused to state her name, but we don’t care about that. We only care about one thing and one thing only. Which of our noble competitors will be the one to take her out?”

Banners depicting different armoured competitors unfurled around Lady Ouida; the scumbags that would try to take your life.

“In this message to all of you, my lovely subjects, I would like to make a special announcement. Although we had planned to set the battle for three cycles time, we have hit a little snag.”

Warmth flared in Swerve’s spark, as he hoped that the battle would be delayed even further, giving the Lost Light more time for your rescue.

Lady Ouida snapped her fingers, motioning for someone off-screen to do her bidding. The hope that Swerve had dared to feel was quickly extinguished as several trucks with chain attachments drove forward, dragging you behind them, the chains affixed to your arms.

“Our little menace here was caught roaming the halls of our fair kingdom, trying to escape her fate. She may not look like much, but she has proved to be very resourceful indeed, which I am sure you’ll keep in mind when betting.”

It looked like you desperately wanted to retort, but a modified gag stopped you from doing so. It didn’t stop you from attempting to kick at several of your captors, your pede falling short of its mark.

“NO!” Swerve cried out as you were electrocuted, making you fall to the floor. The others in the room spared him looks of pity before their attention returned to Lady Ouida.

“Spirited, is she not?” The Lady continued, spurred on by your attempted attack. “Alas, that brings me to my next point. We cannot keep her subdued for long and as such, we will have to cut betting short. You will have till the end of the cycle, for at dawn THE BATTLE BEGINS.”

The feed ended with a screen of competitors and their odds against you.

Rodimus wasted no time in addressing the room, all traces of his usual playfulness gone. “ETA to the Arena?” He asked no one in particular.

“Two cycles at most,” One of the Co-pilots answered.

“Not good enough. If you have to burn out the engines, you’ll get us there tonight. Strategy?”

Megatron brought up a hologram for the planet, pointing out the building on the map, a modernised castle with plasma-turrets as its main defences. “If it were me, I’d have the turrets hacked. The fastest route to the Arena itself is by the West wall. The ship is far too big to hide, so our best option is an outright assault. We could blast through the walls with an Alpha team. Meanwhile, a smaller Beta Team could attack the Northern ramparts, where we believe the prison cells to be located, in case (Y/N) is still being held there.”

“Who’s our hacker for this?”

“We have an accomplished team that will be led by Skids.”

“What will we need to get through the castle’s walls?”

“Ultra Magnus assures me that he has a supply of confiscated weapons from Whirl and Brainstorm.”

Rodimus nodded in acknowledgement, “You know Megatron, it’s rare, but on occasions such as this, I’m glad that you’re a crazed war-lord with a lot of strategic experience.”

Megatron looked uncomfortable at the compliment but didn’t comment.

Swerve raised his hand in what he assumed was a military fashion, “I’d like to be in the Alpha team.”

Rodimus took in some air with an awkward hiss, “Yeahhh, about that. Don’t you think you’d be better off, uh waiting to comfort (Y/N) in the med-bay or something? You’re um- You’re not exactly a good shot.”

Swerve bristled at the veiled insult. “THAT IS MY CONJUNX ENDURAE. I’LL BE GOING DOWN THERE EVEN IF I HAVE TO STEAL A POD-SHIP!”

“Okay, yep, cool. You’re there to rescue (Y/N), got it. Just… Maybe stay behind the rest of us, okay? Wait no. You go in front, I don’t want to be shot in the back or anything-” Rodimus stopped talking when he noticed more than one bot glaring at him for his lack of tact. “I mean, uh- You just go where you think is best, buddy. You got this.”

“Let’s just continue going over the plan,” Megatron interrupted, turning his attention back to the planetary holograph.

Thankfully, nobody questioned Swerve further, and he was free to remain undisturbed as the meeting went on.

Once again, you were behind bars but this time you were outside of the prison block. You were now in the centre of the Arena, which greatly resembled the Ancient Colosseums of Earth. You cradled your servo close to your body, the pain immense where your captors had crushed it after they had caught you trying to use the blow torch a second time; if there was any hope of returning to Swerve, it wouldn’t be the same way you escaped before.

With nothing else to do, you resumed listening to the recorded manual. Theoretically, you knew how to scan a vehicle and transform, so long as you found something to scan. Maybe you could convince Ouida to show you a vehicle in order to make the games more interesting. You doubted that plan would work, but if Ouida thought you were going to die in her games anyway, she might grant the request.

“In the event that you are in danger and need to record a message into your processor for an ally to discover-”

You focused on Perceptor’s instructions. Now seemed like the perfect time to record a message for Swerve, should he ever find your body. You tried to focus as your processor informed you that your voice and surroundings were being recorded.

“Swerve, I wish I could see you right now to tell you everything that’s on my mind, but if you’re watching this… Well, we know what’s happened.” You tried to keep your tone happy, but it proved to be impossible when thinking of the last time you had seen Swerve and how badly that had gone. You couldn’t stop from crying as you continued.

“Swerve, you are my whole world. I love you so much and I’m so sorry about how I acted. I was scared and confused, and… That’s no reason for the way I was. I’m terrified of what might happen to you if I die. Please, don’t think sadly on this. You have so much time left in the universe, and it’s a brighter place with you in it. No matter what happens, I need you to remember, I’m sticking with you. Never forget that you have my heart, always. I’m sorry that this is goodbye. I love you.”

Ending the feed, you hugged your knees to your chassis with your good hand, while you sat in silence and wept.

Swerve gripped the base of his chair, in the cruiser that the Alpha team had taken, hard enough to dent it. Upon reaching a close enough proximity to the planet’s surface, he had received a few dozen delayed private comms from you, the last of which was time-stamped only one hour prior. You were being kept in a cage, telling him how sorry you were and how much you loved him. If you were sticking with him, then he was going to stick right back to you.

Turbulence hit the ship, but Swerve’s determination didn’t waver. He knew it was just the first volley of attacks from the turrets, until Skids’ team would be able to disable them. Swerve remembered feeling like this thousands of times in the war. The feeling that you could be shot down at any moment on the way to your goal, but that you couldn’t think about death, lest it leech into your processor, freezing out all other thoughts. Swerve wouldn’t die. He couldn’t. Not while you were in danger. You were his mission and this was just another, smaller, war.

Swerve remembered his very first mission. His entire squadron had died, except for him. Being a mini-bot, he’d managed to hide without being discovered; he’d spent centuries hating himself for living as a coward instead of dying a hero with the rest of his squad. As it turned out, many bots had had similar experiences which haunted them. This time, he would not hide, his team would survive, they would rescue you, and Swerve would tell you every minute of every day that he loved you.

“SKIDS,” Rodimus yelled over the comms, “A LITTLE HELP WITH THE FRAGGING TURRETS.”

“Working on it,” Skids replied frantically. “They have one hell of an IT team there, Rodimus. The turrets are encrypted at least five times over.”

“Great. I’ll pass on the compliment when I meet them. Can you stop the turrets or not?”

There was a sharp silence on Skids end which was answer enough; the team would have to go in under fire.

“Okay,” Rodimus looked to his team. Ultra Magnus, Tailgate, Cyclonus, and Swerve were there, along with a few other volunteers that made their number twenty. “Plan B. We drive fast and furious, ploughing through their defences.”

The team were less enthusiastic at the thought of being shot, but none of them buckled under pressure; everyone was ready to go to your aid.

“Beta team, in position?” Rodimus asked, as they had planned to do before the Alpha Team dropped down onto the planet’s surface.

“Negative,” Megatron replied. His team comprised of Drift, Nautica, Nightbeat, and Brainstorm. It was decided that a smaller team would be better for infiltration. “The blueprints were wrong. We landed right in their armoury and are facing heavy fire.”

“HEY, NO, NOT COOL. WE WERE FACING HEAVY FIRE FIRST.” Rodimus pouted. “THAT’S OUR THING. GET YOUR OWN THING.”

“Don’t be a sparkling,” Megatron hissed. “Rendezvous here. We need backup.”

Swerve crushed another part of his chair. Meeting up with the beta team would lead them further away from you. They should face the turrets, consequences be damned. Swerve imagined reaching over to the control panel and forcing the team to drop. If he wasn’t afraid to have their energon on his servos, he’d do it. However, frustrating as it was, he left the planning up to the Co-Captains, itching for the moment that he would finally be useful. So far, everything in the plan was falling apart.

“Get ready to fight, crew,” Rodimus warned as the cruiser approached the Beta Teams location. Everyone stood up, heading to the back of the ship, “Dropping in three, two, one.”

The doors opened, leaving all the transformed vehicles to drive out on the ramp, jumping the gap onto the planet. There, the battle began. A handful of Cybertronians against a few hundred organics, none of whom seemed to be human; perhaps Lady Ouida was the only human among the organics that inhabited the planet.

Swerve raged with every shot he took. In hallways full to the brim of enemies, even he couldn’t miss. His blaster kept ringing off with compliments. Good job. Nice shootin’ Tex. You’re my hero.

However, as many shots as he got in, the enemies didn’t drop. It seemed that they were immune to most of the weapons, only stumbling slightly before they got back up to fight.

“This isn’t working,” Cyclonus growled through gritted teeth, him and Drift being the only ones to do any real damage with their swords, though they kept getting pushed back by the horde.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Rodimus said sardonically. “Time for plan C.”

“We don’t have a plan C,” Ultra Magnus reported.

“Then improvise.”

From the corner of his optic, Swerve saw a flash of green and he spun around to see Lady Ouida herself. She was climbing over the rubble, apparently trying to reach the fast-firing ballista behind the invaders of her castle. Full of rage at the human who had dared to harm his Conjunx Endurae, Swerve rushed at her, screaming. He tackled her to the ground, grunting as she stabbed a plasma dagger into his side. He would worry about the pain later, when you were safe. For now, he didn’t care, as that was the only weapon she had and she couldn’t retrieve it from his side now that he had her arms firmly in his grasp.

Swerve had always prided himself on being gentle with you, his beloved human. However, with Ouida in his grip, he was all too aware of how easy it would be to crush every bone in her body with only the slightest bit of pressure.

“WHERE IS MY CONJUNX?” He spat at her.

“Dead.” Lady Ouida lied. “As you will be soon enough, robotic scum.”

Swerve didn’t bother to press her on her deception, knowing instinctively that she wouldn’t talk, no matter what he did. Instead, he carried her towards her army, making sure the creatures could see her.

“I HAVE YOUR LEADER,” He roared at them. “LET US PASS, OR I’LL CRUSH HER.”

The organics stopped shooting, eerily expressionless as they lowered their weapons. Ouida shot her captors a disgusted look, hating that they had bested her experimental mutants. They were made to follow orders and protect the castle, but they had also been designed to ensure that she wouldn’t be harmed; with her as a captive, they were useless.

Swerve made his way forward, but Rodimus grabbed his shoulder-plate, pulling him back.

“Hey, loving the energy buddy,” Rodimus complimented Swerve. “Great improv and all, but uh, the Arena is the other way.”

“Oh,” Swerve looked at the mutant army, who were watching Ouida like a dog watching its master. “In that case, don’t follow us, or I’ll crush her.”

“YEAH,” Rodimus fist-pumped the air. “LET’S GO RESCUE (Y/N).”

You didn’t know what to say as you were faced with the many faces of the Lost Light that you thought you’d never see again, but most importantly Swerve. For a moment, you were half-convinced that you were hallucinating again, but then he had pushed Lady Ouida into Drift’s arms and he was holding you.

He kissed your helm, pulling you into his chassis, checking over every inch of you for injuries. “(Y/N),” he murmured. “My (Y/N).”

“Swerve,” You cried his name. “Swerve. I was so scared I’d never see you-”

“Shh, it’s okay, I’m here now. I love you. Always,” He repeated your message to you, letting you alone know that he had received it.

“Not to interrupt this reunion,” Megatron said sombrely, “But enemy reinforcements could arrive at any moment, and we need to get you two to medical treatment immediately.”

For the first time, you noticed the gash in Swerve’s side, coated with freshly congealed energon; he had taken the dagger out prior to seeing you.

“She hurt you… She-”

It was your turn to scream at Ouida, “YOU HURT MY CONJUNX ENDURAE.”

You reached out to crush her with your good arm, but Drift dragged Ouida into safety, “Sorry (Y/N), but she’s our ticket out of here. If we kill her, we have no leverage.”

You glared at Ouida, “You’re lucky he values all life, you hateful witch.”

Ouida rolled her eyes, unperturbed by the raving antics of a non-organic.

“Come on, (Y/N),” Swerve ushered you ahead of the group. “It’s time for us to go home.”

Home. You thought of your hab-suite aboard the Lost Light where you had built your life with Swerve; you couldn’t wait to get back to it. Letting Swerve cradle you in his arms, you leaned on him and took your first steps back towards home.

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[bh7theseriesblog]

The Origins of Big Hero 7

Big Hero 7: The Series

Origins

*A flicker of black and white starts up for a while, static noises barely blocks out a voice*

Umm…Hello? Can you hear me?

*the flickering and static stops as it shows a 14 year old girl with dyed blue hair and purple eye contacts*

Can you hear me? Oh it's working!

*The girl sits on the chair in front of the camera. She smooths out her sea green skirt as she clears her throat*

Hi! So…after some thinking I decided to make a video diary so I can remember what I said. After all, who knows when it'll come in handy right? Oh right! I forgot to introduce myself! My name is Cora Mizichio.

*Cora chuckles slightly before continuing*

So I guess I should start with my life and such. Let me warn you though, it's kind of a long and wild story.

*she pulls out a phone and starts showing pictures*

I have lived in San Fransokyo for my whole life with my Dad, Mizuchi and Grandmama, Kaguya. My mom, Akemi passed away when I was a baby.

*image of a blonde hair woman smiled warmly before switching to Cora and her family. Her father being Goliath in stature and her grandmother dressed in a kimono with a cane*

Then my family found out that I'm incredibly intelligent for my age. I suppose hacking into your father's computer to send a birthday card at the age of 4 does that. My Dad is very sweet and an old softie, but is very protective of me and wasn't sure that I should go to school. So I was homeschooled, it was fun being taught by Grandmama and such about Marine biology, but…I felt kind of lonely…

After all my studies, I actually made a habit of bot fighting disguised as an unknown cat-masked competitor under the name 'Nekodomo'. It earned good money since at the time Dad hadn't gotten any luck with jobs due to his height. But it was my very first night of bot fighting that I met him…Hiro Hamada

*she flips the photo to a young Asian boy her age, with messy raven hair, large almond brown eyes and a tooth gap in his smile.*

I've never had very much luck when it came to making or having friends, so if I someone told me that I would end up dating this guy I would had laughed. But yeah we did. I was paired up with Hiro in one of those special bot fighting events like the duo duel. We won, but than the cops were coming and I was so scared of getting caught that I couldn't move. But then the next thing I know Hiro grabs my hand and we were running like crazy before the cops even spot us! I have no idea how long we had been running, but to be honest I didn't really care because I was still awe-struck by the fact that Hiro had save me from getting arrested and we didn't even know each other at the time. But that was all about to change, because as we were finally approaching a safe distance from the cops, it was at that moment where I tripped and fell flat on my face, and at the same time broke my mask. Thankfully Hiro picked me back up and we started running again, with me leaving my broken mask behind. Once we finally stopped and knew we were safe, that was when Hiro and I actually first met face-to-face. Now I have to be honest with you, I've never really known if the whole 'Love at first sight' thing was actually real or not, but it's the only thing I can describe how I felt when I first looked into Hiro's eyes. It was there when we properly introduced ourselves to each other and after that, we started seeing each other more. And it was only after 4 months of hanging out together, that I finally got to meet his family, and he got to meet mine.

*The picture now showed Hiro with a woman holding a calico japanese bobtail cat and a young man on either side of him.*

The woman on his left is his Aunt Cass, she runs a coffee shop called the Lucky Cat Cafe. The young man on his right is his older brother Tadashi. And the adorably cute kitty-cat Aunt Cass is holding is Mochi, their family pet. They are really cool people, and they always asked how I was doing and such, and Mochi is such a sweet kitty that he always tries to cuddle up to me whenever I come over. Hiro and I actually became an official thing one night when I saved his butt from Yama's minions. And boy were they surprised! Aunt Cass actually bounced when Hiro told them that I'm his girlfriend! Dad and Grandmama met them that night too, while dad wasn't too happy at first about me dating, Grandmama convinced him…after hitting him on the head with her cane.

*Cora giggled at the memory*

Anyway, After a slight misadventure where Hiro and Tadashi landed in jail and Cass had to bail them out, Tadashi actually took Hiro to SFIT, San Fransokyo institute of Technology that same night. Hiro told me that he met Tadashi's friends. There's Gogo: the cool biker chick, Honey Lemon: the stylish Chem genius, Wasabi: Laser neat freak, and Fred: the secret Billionaire super hero geek. Afterwards Hiro and I actually applied to SFIT by entering the showcase! Hiro made these miniature robots he called Microbots which he can control via head transmitter, I on the other hand did super strength suction cup shoes that can stick on any surface. We both won and we…were gonna celebrate until…a huge fire broke out in the showcase building and Tadashi ran back inside to help Callaghan, a teacher at the school….he didn't make it…

*Cora turned quiet, looking at her hands as she takes a deep breath*

Hiro wasn't himself for a while. I visited him a lot since the fire, and I mostly talked and tried to comfort and be there for him. Then came the day Hiro stubbed his toe and Baymax came along.

*A picture of a white inflated figure came to the picture*

Baymax was Tadashi's project, a robotic nurse to be more specific. He heard Hiro say ow and activated to help him. Then one of Hiro's microbots started acting weird, and Baymax followed the direction it went! It was then we found a guy in a kabuki mask controlling the Microbots. But they were destroyed at the fire right? Once Hiro pieced together that it was the kabuki-masked man that started the fire to steal them, which in turned killed Tadashi…Hiro decided to build Baymax some armor which…well

*the next picture showed Baymax in protective gear*

We traveled down to the port where we saw him take some type of machine out of the ocean. But then it turns out Baymax called the gang to help us, but sadly the guy in the mask saw us. We barely escaped with our lives that night! Thankfully Baymax being a walking marshmallow, also makes him an inflatable raft too. Afterwards we got to Fred's mansion and discussed over what to do next. Side note: it was weird to see that Fred is a billionaire.

*shows portrait of a young Fred and his parents in classy attire*

Hiro and I then built ourselves armor to fight the guy in the mask. Honey lemon got this cute chemistry purse to pull out what she needed, Gogo got some sick skates to zoom past us, Fred got a killer Kaiju costume that breaths fire, Wasabi got awesome laser blades on the backs of his hands, and I got my aquatic camouflage suit with squid strength suction cup shoes! And learning back from his previous work, Hiro turned Baymax from a stay puff marshmallow with bicycle gear to an awesome superhero!

*the next photo shows Baymax in his red armor*

After training and flying around the city we got down to business. We flew to Akuma island where the masked guy was, and it was there we learned something interesting. Krei and some government officials had something called 'Project Silent Sparrow'. It backfired when the portal sucked everything in, and the pilot was stuck. But then the masked guy attacked us! We tried to fight back but….

*a small clip showed Fred jumping only to be punched away *

We bombed, big time.

Hiro and I got lucky to get the mask…but the person was not who we thought….

Turns out Callaghan grabbed the transmitter and used it and the Microbots to protect himself in the fire…leaving Tadashi to die….

It was then that Hiro took out Baymax's health care chip and ordered him to kill Callaghan…

*Cora took a deep breathe before standing up and leaving the room, she returned back with a glass of water and started drinking it. Once she was done She then continued.*

Thankfully the gang got Baymax back to normal but Hiro was furious. He just left with Baymax…but we eventually met up with Hiro at his place, with a video of Tadashi…it was also when we showed him what we discovered. The pilot was no random person Krei hired. She was Callaghan's daughter, and Callaghan was out for blood.

We got to Krei Tech where Callaghan got his portal running. Hiro then learned what we needed to do to beat him; instead of the mask, we take out the Microbots, then he'd be powerless. But despite that, the portal was still open, and ready to tear itself to pieces. Then Baymax dropped the biggest bomb on us, Callaghan's daughter was still alive in there.

Hiro and I got on Baymax to rescue her. We found her pod but Baymax's thrusters were wrecked from the debris…

Baymax…he got us out by rocket punch…but stayed behind in the portal…

It's been weeks since then…

Krei agreed to keep our identities a secret, Callaghan is in prison, and his daughter is making a steady recovery at the hospital. And the news had been exploding over 'the mysterious group of heroes' that saved the city.

Hiro and I had been doing good, we talked to the gang a lot and we actually reapplied to SFIT again.

*Cora then looks at the clock beside her and gasped*

Oh man it's almost midnight! And first day of class is tomorrow! Anyway, thank you for listening! And…Baymax…I don't know if you can hear me..but Hiro has been doing good. We all miss you…especially me and Hiro...wish us good luck, cause who knows what happens tomorrow.

*Cora smiles at the camera before turning it off.*

A.N: This is an updated look for the prolouge chapter of Big Hero 7: The Series!

Liking the new visuals? ;3

This chapter has been edited by WolfWitchHuntress1318 at Fanfiction.net! Thank you for being my patient editor! Thank you for following and reading Big Hero 7! Love ya!

[iztarshi]

One thing I really love about The Murderbot Diaries is that it offers a galaxy which unchecked corporations have turned into a dystopia but where there’s still so much kindness among individuals. Murderbot being nice to people and people being nice to Murderbot is such a motif, even as it’s filtered through someone extremely cynical due to being literally made to serve corporate interests. The stories on the media are full of corporate propoganda and evil SecUnits, but there are still stories in which people are rescued, and fight for each other, and care for each other, because there’s got to be something in the story that makes people want to watch it for the propoganda to even work. There’s still so much value to be found in people, human, bot and construct, and the fact that they’ve so often been shaped by terrible situations doesn’t change that.

[iviarellereads]

Network Effect, Chapter 9

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Murderbot Diaries, read this one!)

In which Murderbot can't help but be a little happy to help screw over a corporation.

After twenty-seven minutes and twelve seconds,(1) Ratthi tapped on the hatch and sent me the feed message: Can I come in and talk to you? I sent back, Do you have my jacket?

Murderbot has been keyword-monitoring its surveillance, so it doesn't have to listen to everyone actively, and it knows nobody's in mortal danger without it. Well, unless Art murdered them all, but it keeps trying to poke MB in the feed, and it probably wouldn't keep calling MB ungrateful and and "a sulky dumbass" in MB's words, not Art's, if it had murdered all its humans.

Ratthi says he has it, and MB says he can come in. He asks if Amena can come too. MB leans back on the wall.

MB's been messing with Art, trying its patience, and cleaning the leaked fluids off itself. It didn't have a shower, though, because showers feel good and it wants to stay angry.(2) It almost rejected the Art-branded shirt that "fell" from the recycler, but it needs a shirt.(3)

MB doesn't want to upset Amena, so it says yes, she can come too. They enter, just the two, and MB warns them that Art can hear anything you say onboard it, anywhere. Ratthi says he's used to that, and doesn't say it's about MB, but it knows.

Ratthi asks about MB's relationship with Art. MB gets grossed out and defensive at the first implication of a sexual one, and is no less horrified at the idea of friendship. MB felt Art stop pinging it when the humans started talking, so it knows Art's listening. Ratthi asks if MB has made many bot friends, and MB thinks of Miki,(4) but says no, not friends like humans make. Ratthi is skeptical, saying Art seems to think it is, but MB says Art lies and is mean.

The lights flicker, imperceptible to human eyes, but visible to MB's. It knows Art heard that.(5)

Amena asks why MB keeps calling it Art, when its name is Perihelion. MB says it stands for Asshole Research Transport, an anagram. Amena says that's not what anagram means, but MB dismisses it as human pedantics.

Ratthi says it's possible that, while both MB and Art have relationships with humans, they don't seem to be sure how to have one with each other. MB gets grossed out at relationship again, and Ratthi says, other than friendship, what other word is there?

I had no idea. I did a quick search on my archives and pulled out the first result. “Mutual administrative assistance?” The lights fluctuated again, in what I could tell was a really sarcastic way. I yelled, “I know what you’re doing, ART, stop trying to communicate with me!”(6)

Ratthi informs MB that, if it hasn't been paying attention, they've come to an agreement with Art to get its crew back, in exchange for assistance returning to Preservation after. MB points out they're just doing what Art wants. Ratthi says there's not another good choice out here. Even if they sent a distress beacon, any response will put everyone in trouble, especially Art and its crew and their university. MB points out several ways it's even worse and more exploitative, that they'd have to pay out the nose just to get rescued.

Amena is aghast, Ratthi says he hates the Rim, and MB agrees, sarcastically, and notes that it's realized something it should have seen sooner.(7) Amena asks if MB would be okay, as a construct, but they have a short discussion about how Mensah technically owns it, under Rim law, and Amena is her legal representative in this. Ratthi confirms, if corporates show up, Amena has to assert ownership of MB. She's disgusted. MB says it doesn't like it either.

At any rate, Ratthi says Art still has repairs to do, and everyone has plans and preparations to make, and asks if MB will come out of the bathroom now. MB says it will, because it knows Art is lying.

This time when the lights fluctuated, it wasn’t sarcastic.

The humans have shifted around, but still have their video call active to the control room. Overse asks if they're all ready now. Ratthi says not quite, and MB says Art didn't come here for a distress call. Thiago is suspicious, and Arada asks if MB wants to jeopardize the deal they made with Art. MB says it absolutely needs to bring this up now.

Overse asks how MB knows, and MB says it's a research and teaching vessel, but all the educational spaces are out of use, the lab inactive, and no cargo module attached. MB asks what Art was doing when it received the distress call. Art asks if this is MB being helpful. No, MB says, this is quite the opposite. It's being held against its will and it will make its keeper regret it.(8)

Arada asks if MB wants to go back in the bathroom for a while and think about what it's doing. MB says it's done thinking, Art snarks about that being obvious. MB asks again what Art was doing.

Across the room, Eletra is asking Overse and Ratthi why they're letting their SecUnit do this. Overse almost says MB is independent, but Ratthi stops her and says merely that MB is usually more responsible.

Thiago, surprisingly, agrees with MB that it's a valid question. MB interprets this as the sensible humans abandoning it. Art says it's none of MB's business. MB argues Art made this its business when Art told the hostiles to kidnap MB. Art suggests MB can put itself out the airlock if it's unhappy with its situation.

The humans, for their part, are trying desperately to wave for MB's attention as Art makes this incredibly threatening statement. Only, this is what MB wanted. It says Art is upsetting Amena. MB noticed earlier that Art's tone with Amena is totally different from with the adults, and Art is fundamentally an educational vessel.

And before this when I was stupid and we were still friends(9) it had talked about human adolescents in an indulgent way.

Amena takes a breath, and before she can object, MB asks her privately in the feed to be honest. So, she says the grey people and being shot at scared the crap out of her, and she really would like to know what's actually going on.

After a long silence, Art says it has to violate its crew's NDA to answer. MB says Art kidnapped itself and its humans, that violated MB's contract with them. Art says it will consider it, then shows MB that it's talking only to it and its humans, cutting Eletra out.

In this more private channel, Art says that if any of them reveal what it's about to say to the corporate, it will kill her. MB isn't particularly attached to her, but it doesn't want anyone dying near its humans and traumatizing them more. So it's not opposed when Arada speaks for them and agrees. Aloud, Arada asks if they can use Art's cabins to clean up, so they don't accidentally indicate anything to Eletra. On the public channel, Art graciously invites them in.

Ratthi and Overse get Eletra settled in one of the rooms the grey people didn't get their growth medium scent all over, and supplies so she can take care of her business and might not feel a need to wander. MB posts a drone scout, just in case.

MB's humans go to the galley, far enough away that Eletra won't hear them even in the corridor before MB spots her moving. The humans are eating and drinking something warm Thiago made them. MB is pacing.

Finally, Arada asks if Art is ready to answer MB's questions. Art gives a lengthy explanation that amounts to, its crew sometimes acts on behalf of anti-corporate organizations,(10) and were on a data-collection mission to the abandoned colony. Amena notes the similarity to how Preservation's great-grandparents' colony had been abandoned. Art notes that sometimes, colonies cut off from the corporates can survive.

This colony had previously failed, but no data existed on why. One of Art's crew, Iris, had found some newsfeed archives about the takeover of the corporation that had controlled the second colony. Some employees were in a firefight, and deleted the database before the hostile takeover was completed. Iris made a note that it's possible, though unlikely, that they were trying to protect or conceal the colony.

After all the humans have read the article and notes, Art says its crew's mission was to see the colony's status, and if active, make contact and offer assistance against corporates, such as by evacuating the inhabitants. Amena asks why, surely if the colony survived, the other corporations would have no jurisdiction. Overse says no, another could easily, and legally, move in and take over. Amena is horrified, but Thiago says that's how the Corporate Rim is.

Ratthi asks what Art and its crew do, in these cases.

ART said, The University has the means to produce the colony’s original charter documents, which often contain clauses specifying that if the originating corporate body has ceased operations, then ownership of the planet is ceded to the colonists or their issue or successors living on the original site.

MB asks if that means the university forges the documents to free the colonies, and Art refuses to acknowledge the question, which probably means yes. MB has no qualms with the method of sticking it to the corporates, even if it's still angry at Art.

Art continues, in very passive voice, that a contract is facilitated between the colony and an independent transfer station, and once the station is established in the system, the colony is relatively safe from corporate ravaging.

Arada says Eletra said there were two corporate ships, and asks if Art was here before them. It was, and was forced to fire on a Barish-Estranza ship by those holding its crew hostage. It doesn't know what happened to the vessel or the crew. Ratthi asks if Art knows why the grey people would have brought Eletra and Ras aboard, but it really has no clue. The rest happened as it already described.

Overse suggests they put together a timeline. MB is about to say it has one, when Art provides its own. MB is annoyed, privately, that Art left out the point where it told the gray people MB was a weapon they could use.(11)

Amena says before things got weird, Ras tried to tell her about the colony reclamation, but Eletra cut him off. Thiago wonders whether the gray people came from the newer colony, or the original one, if they're remnant-contaminated, or if they were manipulated genetically by their corporation.

Discussion moves to the language they used, which has at least three pre-Corporation Rim languages involved, and their tech, which is also pretty ancient. Thiago says most of the alien contamination incidents happened before the Rim, though everything's suppressed so it's hard to know much detail about any of it.

Ratthi brings it back around to Thiago's question again. Art says evidence points to them being from inside the system.

MB takes the opportunity to point out Art's memory archive issues, and that it can't be sure who or what was aboard it before. Arada tries to interrupt, but Art says MB's earlier statement that Art lies a lot was untrue, but it cannot reveal information that would be against its crew's interests unless the circumstances call for it. Arada says they understand, and MB is looking out for their interests.

Art demands an apology. MB makes obscene gestures at the ceiling, since the humans are treating the ceiling like Art anyway. Art says that was unnecessary.

In a low voice, Ratthi commented to Overse, “Anyone who thinks machine intelligences don’t have emotions needs to be in this very uncomfortable room right now.”(12) ART was suddenly in my feed, on a private channel. I did what I had to do. You should understand that. I said aloud, “I’m not talking to you on the feed! You’re not my client and you’re not my—” I couldn’t say it, not anymore.(13) All the humans were staring at me. I wanted to face the wall but that felt like giving in.

Out of nowhere, MB has views all over the ship. It snarls at Art to stop being nice to it.

Amena takes MB's side and says maybe Art needs to give MB some time to process. MB, however, is suspicious and asks if Art is talking to Amena privately. Amena winces, and MB yells at Art to stop talking to its human(14) behind its back.

Privately, MB acknowledges that it isn't being at all logical, even if it felt like it was at the time.(15)

Arada says it's time to stop this unproductive arguing. Art needs to stop pressuring MB, she understands it's upset about its crew but MB is upset too. So, if it can give them any other information about this colony, it would be appreciated. Until then, she and Overse will get some data on the alien remnant on the engine, and see if they can help fix things faster. She assigns Ratthi and Thiago to med-scan-autopsy the dead Targets, and translate what they were saying in MB's recordings, to help narrow down who they were. She also asks Amena to talk to Eletra again, see if she can get her to open up.

Finally, she asks MB to figure out what caused Art's first reinitialization process, and how the Targets boarded, so they can prevent it happening again. She asks if Art is alright with all this, and it says an ominous, "For now."(16)

=====

(1) You know, bravo to everyone (but Art) on their restraint. (2) God if that ain't the mood sometimes. It's not quite "I don't deserve nice things" but it's a close cousin to that feeling, you know? (3) I love the implication that Art deliberately withheld the jacket, could have pushed it through but didn't, so MB would have to talk to a human sooner or later to get it back. (4) Precious cinnamon roll Miki who could kill you to defend its human friends but would rather make you a friend too if it could. Taken from us too soon, but a good reminder to MB that friendship is possible for bots. I think that's part of why it let itself open up so much to Mensah after. (5) Telltale upper-corner message: Perihelion will remember this. (6) Those poor humans having to deal with MB acting so unhinged. (7) This is where it figures out Art was lying about the distress, in case you missed it like I did on my first pass. (8) One of the classic blunders. Don't take a stubborn asshole who lives for chaos, prisoner. (9) So much for never having been friends. MB can't help but admit the truth sideways a lot of the time. I love picking up on its little slips, don't you? (10) Comrade Perihelion! No wonder it wasn't opposed to helping MB all those weeks ago. (11) Anything to avoid the conclusion it knows is inevitable: it cares for Art's crew, just for the sake of their being innocent humans, and it's going to help rescue them eventually. Otherwise this wouldn't be a book. (12) [quiet snicker] (13) You know it is still your friend, though. It betrayed you, because it knew you would be able to handle the betrayal. It didn't mean for MB's humans to get involved. I think Art even expresses, in its own way, that it feels bad for their involvement. It's not like Art is withholding supplies or passage back to Preservation, as long as it gets its crew back first. And, it may see them as an asset, more people means less danger individually, means better chance of success. (14) Amena is particularly MB's human here. It's not worried about Art talking to the others, but it doesn't want Art influencing Amena while it's still angry at Art. They're just so… human. (15) This really extra feels like an observation after the fact, versus most of MB's asides where it could have been the uncensored train of thought it was barreling down at the time. Thus, my use of a touch of past tense. (I'm capable, it just doesn't feel natural.) (16) Ominous in that it implies Art will change its mind sooner or later. Do you think so? Or is it just sulking at being dressed down like that by a human?

[rugessnome]

Get To Know Meme

tagged by @evenmyzefronposter

3 ships: I... tend not to be as invested in ships as I think many people are. So, choice between OT3s I read on occasion and some degree of platonic—

top OT3s: Sherlock Holmes/John Watson/Mary Morstan (assorted Holmes adaptations), Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot (Arthuriana), Ilya/Gabby/Napoleon (TMfU 2015)

non-romantic wildly improbable SW relationships of this summer:

my qp canoe Tyrious

Dooku reluctantly mentoring Anakin (I think this has potential for Severitus(in the modern sense) vibes!)

a grudgingly not antagonistic Palpatine and Leia (absurd as it certainly does sound) 

Last Song: um "Jacqueline" by This Is Deer Country (thisisdeercountry.bandcamp.com)

Last movie: idek probably Shrek 2

Currently Reading: the Murderbot Diaries (Rogue Protocol is next)

Currently Watching: nothing with concerted effort or in an organized fashion. Things I've had on recently include Seri the Pixel Biologist playing Ooblets, assorted Adrian's Digital Basement videos, some of which are new to me but like... not drastically different, and Transformers Rescue Bots.

(I have enjoyed the Mercury Delay Line episode and the first half of the COBOL ep (I fell asleep) of the Advent of Computing podcast this past week)

Currently consuming: just some water, and not very actively

Currently craving: more tomato jam for some reason. Also can't seem to get enough of Spring Mill State Park in like the past 13 months, but it's far away enough that it's an occasional visit.

Idek who to tag and also I fear this post is grossly misbehaving formatting wise, which additional tagging could tip into losing text :(

eta: ironically, what i lost to tumblr's vagaries was in fact the word "text" from the phrase "losing text"...

[rosewind2007]

It’s the Little Einsteins/Murderbot Diaries crossover the world was waiting for!

ART and I were watching a new series of Galaxy Voyagers. ART likes Galaxy Voyagers because it is about a brilliant ship-bot which rescues its crew every episode by using mathematics . The episodes contain puzzles which any human or augmented human, even pretty stupid ones, would be expected to solve for themselves within the twenty minutes available. Though lots of that twenty minutes is taken up (to be fair to the crew on the show) with repetitive language use and sudden song and dance routines; involving improbable alien fauna. It’s designed for human children so I am not sure why ART, who has an intelligence unmatched by any adult human or augmented human, enjoys it quite so much. The ship-bot sometimes makes a little beeplyboop noise which ART has taken to copying on occasion, even in our private feed, which should be more irritating than it is.

I felt ART cosying up to me in the shared feed. It was probably trying to be subtle about it, but try and imagine an immense, powerful, heavy presence trying to subtly ease itself onto your comfortable chair with you ? Yeah, like that.

What is it? I was allowed to sound slightly annoyed, I was trying to concentrate on the puzzle and how the writers were setting it up. The humans and augmented humans who make shows like this are actually very clever in the way they frame the learning stuff in with the action and the music, songs and dancing.

ART slipped a snippet of one of my own logs into our shared space, which was genuinely distracting when we were supposed to be watching something else. I know I can, and ART can to a much greater degree, handle multi channel tasks easily. But we were supposed to be watching the show. I dropped the input. ART acted all offended.

I looked at the log snippet. It was the interview (09257394) where Dr. Bharadwaj had mentioned that I edit out all mentions of the company name from my logs.

Yeah, what of it? Also, for the record, that font is lovely. I don’t know why people refer to some fonts as ‘flowery’, visual text format doesn’t look like flora. I admit I probably snapped a bit; my organic parts had started to feel cold and sort of lurched, if ART was going to mention removing the logos again…

It’s not about the logos. It sounded almost nervous. If ART could ever be nervous. OK, ART, what is this about?

It’s about the way you edit your logs. You do it with the company, like you’ve just done there. ART was making its questioning tone as gentle as possible, which was… I suppose it was trying.

I don’t like mentioning the company name, any mention of it can potentially be monetized.

I was feeling besieged.

“Look, what’s this about, ART?” I spoke aloud, and Amena jumped. It’s not as if I spoke loudly, but I suppose I’d been silent up until then and she’d been reading some coursework, sitting quietly quite close (but not too close, she’s good like that) to me in the argument lounge. But if ART was going to be weird I was going to involve my human.

“Amena, since SecUnit wants you involved, have you noticed the way it edits its logs?” ART was using its kindly professor voice, which I’m sure Amena noticed too.

“ART, I don’t make a habit of reading SecUnit’s logs,” (yeah, unlike some nosy transports), “I know about the the company thing. Ratthi told me, I can get that.” Amena was on my side here.

“It’s not that, it’s the augmented humans thing.” ART definitely put that in bold, possibly underlined too. Amena sort of tilted her head and furrowed her brow. ART continued, “SecUnit also edits its logs to insert and augmented humans when it mentions humans. It must have built in some sort of automated subroutine” it’s not as if ART won’t have checked to see that this is the case, “it’s very obvious once you’ve noticed.”

Amena looked at me, expecting me to say something. I didn’t have anything to say.

“It started doing it on the original survey, with your second mother and the other Preservation Aux humans and augmented human. Sometimes it can make the logs read a little strangely.” I was going to have to make ART shut up.

“Augmented humans were, and are, a threat to me. They’re more likely to spot me as a rogue SecUnit.” This is true, they are likely to be far more immersed in the feed than un-augmented humans. They might spot me, and that could end up with me being returned to the company and stripped down for parts.

“But, there was only one augmented human on the survey and that’s Gurathin? He’s your…he’s not a threat?” Amena sounded interested as well as puzzled.

“Not anymore, apparently.” I tried to say this as darkly as possible, but I was feeling a bit awkward.

This is a Gurathin thing, isn’t it? ART had returned to the feed. Too late now, you involved my human.

“Back on the survey Gurathin was a threat,” I began (I was on safe ground here), “He tried to immobilize me, and told everyone I was a rogue unit.”

“Gurathin ceased to be a threat to you on Day 6 of the survey, and has been an asset since then. He has even saved your life on occasion, at some personal cost.” Maybe I should have let ART stay in the feed.

“SecUnit? Do you really edit in ‘and augmented humans’?” Amena did the finger quotes thing. “All the time? In all your logs?” I pulled my arms around my knees and buried my head into them.

Don’t sulk. Amena is asking a reasonable question. Fuck you, ART—you engineered this whole thing. I made a rude gesture at the ceiling. Amena made a snorting noise.

“Amena, I think it started doing it because it was outraged that Dr. Gurathin identified it as a rogue. Which was something it had convinced itself no human could do. So it needed to somehow justify this, how he had managed to spot it.” Less kind professor voice now, more smug asshole.

“I think I get it. It didn’t see Gurathin as a potential threat to it? I mean, it saw everyone as a threat (this is SecUnit after all!) but Gurathin didn’t flag up as especially dangerous. And then he was. Far more so than SecUnit had expected. So SecUnit’s response was to try and identify a reason, a reason why this human had spotted it. Despite all the humans it had flagged as higher risk (the ones working for the company; the SecUnit techs and people like that) having failed to. So Gurathin, he’s visibly different , with his augments? And his augments do mean he’s really good at using the feed, and at systems analysis.” Amena looked at me, not directly at me but in my direction, thoughtfully. If she’s been in a historical drama she’d have sucked a pen or something. “I think I get it. Is it much of an effort?” That last bit was directed at me.

“No.” I didn’t mean to sound that sulky, but it was true. It wasn’t an effort.

“Well, if it makes you feel,” she paused looking for the right word, “more secure in your risk assessments, or whatever. Is there any reason to stop?”

She looked up at the ceiling, “Unless it really bothers you, Peri?”

ART did the machine intelligence equivalent of that thing where a human takes a step back and uses both hands to point at their chest, the lights in the lounge even flickered for a second.

“I mean, you’re not jealous that SecUnit is sort of mentioning Dr. Gurathin every time it does it?” As Amena said this she gathered herself together, stood up and took off her feed interface “Anyway, I must go meet Iris!” She didn’t even try and cover up the laughter in her voice as she left the lounge.

There was a long silence, then ART restarted Galaxy Voyagers; in the feed I swear it beeped very, very quietly.

Also available on AO3!

[insanely-creative-things]

Big Hero 7: The Series

Big Hero 7 Season 2

The calm before the storm

*Nimble hands set up a camera to record a video, to which it finally shows Cora Mizichio in her living room. She lets out a deep breath before she smiles up at the camera.*

Cora: Hi! It's me again! Wow,a lot of things has happened since I started this video diary, and let me tell you: It was a very insane, yet stupidly awesome ride.

*She pulls out her phone and soon starts a montage of video clips she recorded showing herself and her boyfriend and friends as both themselves and super heroes.*

Cora: Turns out Baymax saved his chip in a rocket first to which Hiro and I decided to rebuild Baymax, but when one glitch caused his body to run around like a lunatic. Didn't help that Yama held Baymax's skeleton and yours truly as hostages for Hiro to do his dirty work on stealing something from Professor Grandville's desk, *Mutters under breathe* more on her later*clear voice*. Because of that it lead to Gogo, Fred, Honey Lemon, and Wasabi to help Hiro rescue us and make it home safely. But when Yama released an army of Boot legged Baymaxes to steal the thing; that was the night we all realized we can be way more. So we put on our suits and stopped the army, stopped Yama, and destroyed the thing. Since that night we became Big Hero 7!

*Cora smiles brightly to herself as she shows the official picture of themselves as super heroes that show their super hero names: Electro-Magnetic Alpha(Hiro), Aqua Girl(Cora), Omega Danger(Baymax), Chemistry Princess(Honey Lemon), Velocity(Gogo), Fredzilla(Fred Frederickson IV) and Blades Master(Wasabi). Then the clips start showing people they met along the way*

Cora: We've met a lot of new people since then, both as supers and students. There's Professor Grandville; a strict but fair dean who is more than what she seemed, Professor Seto my Bio teacher, Mole the pest that bothers Fred and Gogo and deserves a good butt-kicking, *Shows clip of Karmi*… Someone who also deserves a good butt kicking for her behavior to Hiro and I. Esmeralda the fashion major student from SFAI and the woman partially responsible for me going to bot fighting, Commander Carter who got us our super hero licenses along with Mr. Frederickson; both who help young supers get their license to protect them and assist them in whatever mission they are in. Tela-Patty the telepathic girl, Laser blast who uses, you guessed it, laser beams, Sparrow the archer who can hit any target. Finally there's Ice Frost, she can freeze anything and survive subzero temperatures, and who we learned is Miyuki Frost, an animation major student at SFAI. And as any hero can face, there's our Rouge Gsllery: High Voltage, the Mother-Daughter electric dancing crime duo. Globby, a man transformed into a -Globby- mess after a poor choice to steal Honey's chem purse was made. Momakase, a skilled thief and sushi chef who...turned out to be connected to my Papa, and Noodle Burger Boy was an innocent bot before he was hacked and reprogrammed by one man.

*Cora paused as she thinks over what to say next, her smile fading away as she thought about him, along with the memories came a whirlwind of emotions that clash against each other. Finally she looks up and speaks again with a determined brow on her face.*

Cora: A man named Obake, a very intelligent...and very dangerous, mentally stable man whose circumstances turned him into one of our most dangerous villains we ever faced … his birth name was Bob Aken, an orphan... but he was adopted into a Yakuza Clan where he gained a father, a mother...and a brother. He was renamed Kage Mizichio...and his brother... is my father, Mizuchi Mizichio. The heir of the Mizichio Yakuza Clan. The Demonic Titan. *Rubbing her arms as she swallows tightly* Their story was at first innocent and happy... but when their father, Isamu...my grandfather died; Nozako, their mother...*Gulps* My grandmother...took over and immediately darkened their world. They had a strong bond like Hiro and Tadashi, but Nozako's plans for my father and abuse to Kage forced them apart. In the end they both escaped... Kage twice since... he wasn't very successful the first time.

*Cora pulls out two photos, one showing a young Kage with a younger Professor Grandville, and the second photo showing him with a girl that bears a striking resemblance to Cora; save for the freckles, green eyes, and long strawberry blonde hair.*

Cora: With the help of my Papa he managed to get secret classes at SFIT where Professor Grandville protected him and encouraged him to grow. And there's Chara Bonete… she was just a highschool student who met Kage and they... fell in love. But when Kage tried to build an energy amplifier without anyone knowing it exploded. He survived because... Nozako's workers found him as doctors. She punished him by dropping him out of school...and taking away Chara's life. That was when Kage's bond with my papa snapped. Papa's escape was by accident. He was sent on a mission by Kage to retrieve a very powerful medicine that could cure all diseases and heal all wounds. He was supposed to also kill the herbal medicine maker and her daughter to hide any evidence... instead.. he fell in love with her, the daughter of the herbal medicine doctor...my mama. With patience, determination, and love. Papa regained his hope and faith and his connection with Mama grew deeper. But he knew that anytime Nozako could return and harm them, or worse, turn them into her own puppets like she did with him. So he faked his death. After Mama saved him with the very same medicine that he was supposed to steal, he ran away with Mama and Grandmama to San Fransokyo where they hidden themselves and the potion away from the world and from Nozako's reach...even me. But because of Papa's 'Death'... that lead to Nozako blaming Kage for his mission. He was kicked out of the only home he ever had, and since he didn't know Papa was alive he couldn't call for help. All those years of abuse, hate, and mistreatment turned him into a monster... a monster bent on Destroying San Fransokyo to rebuild it to his image, reclaim back his home from Nozako… and mistaking me for Chara. Thankfully Hiro and the gang saved me and stopped him from succeeding his plan. And by some miracle...Papa saved him. He convinced Commander Carter to get Kage help to not only receive treatment for his mental health, but to also get the surgery for his brain damage. A shard from the energy amplifier he built long ago struck his head...and Nozako left it in there to make him suffer. And now...

*Cora pulls out a letter her family received the other day and shows the contents of it.*

Cora: This letter says that Kage had shown significant recovery in both his surgery and his counseling that he's cleared to go home.. and by home I mean here. And the day he's gonna join us is also the day the new semester of SFIT starts. That alone is a shock cause... Hiro and I had been in SFIT for a semester. We've made it this far into our lives and relationship... But that leaves us with something.. what happens now? Kage can't be left alone, and he has to do something. Papa mentioned that he would talk to Grandville when he comes along. Thankfully the first Baymax is gonna join us and help Kage. *Whispers into Camera* That's another story for another time. *Clear voice* We got our answers to this questions we'd thought we would never ask and got closure. But a part of me feels that there's more that my family isn't telling me; I know why Papa had been overprotective of me before but...Grandmama never really told me why they lived in Muirahara woods for so long, or even how Grandmama made such a powerful medicine in the first place. And there's been someone at SFIT that's been seeing 'you know who' a lot...and she gives me a bad feeling inside me... but if we survived Obake and all these crazy things, I'm sure we can deal with whatever happens to us in the future. We're in this together through hell and back.

*Cora smiles brightly as she saves the video and shuts it off to prepare for bed. As she prepares her futon after texting Hiro goodnight with a heart emoji, the moon shines brightly above the bay of San Fransokyo. The waves crashing to the shore along with the pale glow of the moon gives off an aura of great beauty...and great danger. and it shines through not only Cora's window, but to Hiro's as well, then to the rest of the gang, to Mizuchi, to Kaguya...and finally ending it with Kage Mizichio. All of them unaware of their future ahead.*

A.N: Here is a new chapter from me as we near to the premier of Season 2~! The first Baymax is a reference to the KH3 crossover and so he will be joining too! There's also gonna appearances of Kage/Obake and perhaps even... Nozako and the sirens( Which will appear in the future as I post the chapters here). Also, my Editor will update the chapters so the wordings will be different a bit, so till then, enjoy this! Also, Finals is coming for me so I'm gonna be a little busy, so please be patient for me. As for the Hiro HamadaXCora Mizichio ship...

I AM THE CAPTAIN OF THIS SHIP AND I WILL SAIL HER INTO WHATEVER WATERS I PLEASE!

P.s: Please don't share your spoilers into the reviews.

Thank you all for following BH7! Love you all!

[cxglovekernels]

Love Kernels - 14 & 15 June

CAST & CREW

- You can catch Emma Willman (Beth) at Zoofest & OFF-JFL on 18-24 July, and Esther Povitsky (Maya) on 25 and 27 July. Zoofest ‘provide a meeting place between the public and the newcomers in humor, theater and music’, and takes place in Montreal (Canada).

- Parvesh Cheena will stop by the live recording of podcast Talkin’ Toon, in which Rob Paulsen talks with the entire cast of Transformers Rescue Bots.

META & REVIEWS

- Chiara Ferrari for Loud and Clear Reviews talks about Love, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Fleabag in a series entitled Female TV characters in their thirties: delightfully uncensored screen diaries

FANDOM

- Podcast Spoil Me covered episode 1.2.

- @pictureofsoph1sticatedgrace got national bronze with her gymnastics routine set to Strip Away my Conscience. (Congrats!)

- The Reading Fangirl writes about Why I Love Crazy Ex Girlfriend.

[restekova]

hey guys quick announcement

so i just wanted you guys to know i saw the new yugioh movie today and im gonna be emotionally unavailable for the next few months