ＳｅｃＵｎｉｔ [ ʇoqɹǝpɹnW ] (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ungovern) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
diademlogs2026-02-07 12:44 am
ungovern) wrote in diademlogs2026-02-07 12:44 am
[open] february catch all
Who: Murderbot + others
Where: Various, around Panorama and the Fringes
When: Throughout February
What: Luxfilms, the wedding diffusion zone, and some closed prompts
Warnings: violence mostly
[ OPEN ] Luxfilms;
[ OPEN ] Wedding Crashers;
Where: Various, around Panorama and the Fringes
When: Throughout February
What: Luxfilms, the wedding diffusion zone, and some closed prompts
Warnings: violence mostly
[ OPEN ] Luxfilms;
[ The shows on general broadcast were alright (it was something new, at least), but the lure of an actual theater got me to Luxfilms, and from there: deep regret.
I did my best to find the least populated theater I could, but even the documentary with the giant poison mushrooms had a handful of youths hanging around, chatting, not even watching the show but there nonetheless. Breathing, fidgeting, snickering, and worst of all, talking during the show. I could’ve altered my sensory input and filtered ambient conversation out, but not without distraction, and that was the whole point of it. Seamless, easy immersion. They were ruining my immersion. ]
You.
[ I modulated my vocal output, adding a touch of the robotic muffling and resonance the helmet of my armor used to create, for a little flavor. (I missed my armor. This would’ve been so much better if I had my armor). I pointed directly at the offending, probably teenaged immersion ruiners. ]
Shut. Up.
[ Silence. The youths were captivated. Frozen in fear. It was magnificent. I let it hang for a few seconds, just to ensure the point was made, then dropped the resonance from my voice. ]
Thank you.
[ And sat back down. For the next 30 seconds, I enjoyed the show in blissful peace.
Until a piece of popcorn bounced off the top of my head, and the youths broke out in giggling fits behind me.
Fuck.
I swallowed down a groan and sunk deeper into my seat, accepting my embarrassing defeat. Next time I’m coming at 5 AM, when all the sleep-needers are sleeping. ]
[ OPEN ] Wedding Crashers;
[ Taxi driving wasn’t quite the highly lucrative business I’d been hoping for, and the one client I had for security consulting was paying me in books. Unfortunately, Yom Crook doesn’t exchange media for debt resolution.
That led me to scavenging, and scavenging led me to diffusion zones. However, this fancy human party with all its flowy fabric and weirdly colored confectionaries and string lights wasn’t providing much in the way of valuable scrap. The food wasn’t useful to me, and the early proceedings weren’t much for entertainment.
But then, it got interesting. Arguments broke out, secrets were spilled, tempers were rising. I usually fast forward through the romantic scenes in my shows (body fluids - ew), but it was hard to deny the draw of interpersonal drama in a chaotic group of maladjusted humans.
Two of the men were about to throw hands when some other fluxdrift asshole bumped a chair behind me and a rude screech broke through the scene. I jerked around, eyes narrowed. ]
Shh. [ In a hushed whisper, I filled the newcomer in on what they’d missed up to this point. ] The Best Man is infatuated with the Bride, but the Groom has a romantic history with the Maid of Honor, who’s carrying the unborn child of the Bride’s brother.
[ closed ] for frank
It would’ve made the start up of my new venture into security consulting in Panorama much smoother, in that, I would have any idea at all how to approach it. Instead, I, like an idiot, posted my number to a local forum, and took the first offer I got. Real smart move, Murderbot, real fucking smart.
The client was an asshole, big surprise, but this asshole paid well, so... whatever, I guess. I didn’t know the business he was into, and frankly? I didn’t give a shit. All he wanted to do was stroll through a shadier part of town and talk to some other assholes in some other asshole shops. Between myself and the 3 other bulky looking humans he brought with for protection, it was turning out to be an easy job. Low commitment, easy enough to keep surveillance of the area with my (ART’s) drones keeping a low profile perimeter, and plenty of time to catch up on my Medcenter Argala rewatch.
Unsurprisingly, the shadier part of town had a lot of shady people skulking around, but none looking too interested in my client, and the surrounding buildings were clear of snipers. The Bulky Guys had it covered.
I knew better than to trust humans to run effective security. But Dr. Arlox and his crack team of surgeon-senators were about to attempt a full spinal cord transplant on the alien diplomat in zero gravity, narrowly averting intergalactic war.
That’s when my threat assessment module spiked directly before Bulky Guy Three decided to abruptly bleed out from his bulky throat, courtesy of Hostile One/Some Fucking Guy with a knife.
Damnit.
I minimized my feed, shoved Bulky Guy Three’s meat shield body in front of my client, and got in close to snatch the knife out of Hostile One’s hand faster than a human really should. Imagine my surprise when Hostile One’s fingers didn’t come off with it. Huh. That usually works. ]
no subject
He does his research. Learns the guy's haunts. Learns his bodyguards, learns what their deal is — two are long-time loyalists, two are new hires probably in the wrong place at the wrong time. That means he's got no compunction about putting two down, and the other half... what happens to them is their choice. They can either leave and live, or they can make the wrong choice and go down with the ship.
One way or another, Big Ben of Big Ben's Barely Legal Emporium is eating dirt tonight.
Murderbot will swiftly learn that, unfortunately, Hostile One is built different — both metaphorically and literally. The skin of those hands is a strange, textured sort of matte black that could almost be confused for a slender, form-fitting pair of sports gloves, except that they go all the way up the wrist, then up the forearm, then disappear under the sleeves of his shirt, with no visible seams anywhere along the way. Metaphorically speaking, the way he moves immediately speaks of combat training — it's a grab of the wrist, a spin, a pivot, and a twist that would break the arm of any man built less solidly, or more organically, than the one Frank is currently fighting.
He doesn't have much time to examine this lack of breakage more closely; there are still two other body guards in play here, and it seems like both of them have decided to make the wrong choice, too. It's fine. One of them was fucked anyway. MB's briefly abandoned to intercede an oncoming haymaker, and a sharp grab and thrust sends him sprawling onto the pavement. The second guy pulls out a handgun — and fires a shot wide into the brickwork of the building next to them as Frank wrenches his arm to the side before he can pull the trigger.
The target, meanwhile, has elected to bolt wildly down an alley, searching wide-eyed for a place to escape and finding only a dumpster to hide behind. )
no subject
Until some complete moron almost shot Drone One out of the air with a wide shot that was never going to hit anything helpful to begin with. This is why humans shouldn't do security. They panic, they flail, they pull the trigger just because they can, and they just get in the damn way. But at least Bulky Guy One was making a decent distraction and keeping Hostile One occupied, who apparently was still threatened by firearms (good to know). His back was turned to me while occupied with BG One. I considered my options for what objectively was 0.7 seconds, but subjectively felt like 30 minutes. I could've use my energy weapon to burn a hole through the back of his unprotected, squishy looking head. Even if I didn't want to give myself completely away with gun arms, I could've snaked behind him, got my arms under his, and wrapped over to frame his head between both palms, pressing in with the threat to pop his skull like a grape.
But I didn’t want to kill this guy. I didn’t even want to fuck him up that badly. My client was obviously some level of douchebag, and it was hard to blame anyone for wanting to punch him in the face (or knife him in the face). But my stats for client survival were pretty high, and I took a certain level of personal pride in that. Maybe it’s core programming I’ll never be able to truly purge, but it was really hard to let go of a contract once I committed. If I had to pulp a guy’s head between my hands, well, I had to pulp a guy’s head between my hands.
Still. I didn’t want to. And the more my client screamed muffled insults from the alley at his other Bulky Guys, and me, to ‘fucking do something’ (what the hell did he think I was doing, dancing?), the more I really didn’t want to. I have to screen my jobs better in the future.
Back to the action: the gun fell out of BG One's hand, and I snatched it before it hit the floor, or came into Hostile One's possession. Then, threw it out the shop door. BG One has already proved himself irresponsible with it, and clearly I didn't want Hostile One holding it either, so it went to time out. (It might've hit some passerby pedestrian. Whatever. Congrats on your new gun, take it far away from here.)
Then, I left. This is how SecUnits operate: we have no loyalty to each other, only the client. If the client flees and you're behind with another unit holding off forces, we don't stay to support. If that unit survives, great. If it doesn't, it's sacrificed to hold off enemies as long as it can. If it can be recovered and repaired, that's nice, but if not, that's fine too. We're built to be expendable. So BG One? In my eyes, in this situation? Expendable. With the hostile occupied, that's exactly what I did. Into the alley, with my panicking, belligerent, idiot client. It was blocked from the street by a locked chainlink fence. By the time I snapped the lock off, my client was already bolting through as I shimmied the fence open. Back in the store, Drone One was showing me that BG One was crashing, and Hostile One looked healthy enough to become a problem again very soon. ]
Wedding Crashers
She is startled by the sudden rush of ghosts, but once she realizes that's what they are, she leaves them alone and goes to the food. After such a long and obnoxious trip, she could use it, and she scopes out the place to see if there is anything else she can take from it to pawn. In fact, when she moves to pick up the chair, it's because she is checking to see if it is real enough to take. Furniture probably does cost a pretty penny, and she'll take it.
The screech seems not a problem to her, she doesn't care about the ghosts, but she is surprised that the perceived man nearby is, in fact, real. And a face she recognizes.]
Rin.
[ Shadowheart hasn't been paying attention to whatever story is being played out, but his description has her looking with perhaps a smidgen of interest. Well, she can stack and take the chairs afterward. She sits a few chairs down from him so as not to bother either of their personal space, crossing one leg over the other.]
I admit I've not been following the conflict.
no subject
I wouldn't call it premium quality entertainment, but...
[ I shrugged. It was better watching than empty road passing by for however many hours until the next diffusion zone. (Not that I didn't play other media while driving (it's not dangerous, ok, I was built to multitask)). Regardless, I took her sitting down with me as an expression of potential interest in the show. I mean, wedding. (I mean show). ]
The Groom's been preoccupied with the Maid of Honor, which has been irritating the Bride. [ I pointed towards the opposite side of the venue, where the Bride and Best Man stood obviously and comfortably too close together, the woman letting out a loud laugh that drew attention from some. Not the Groom, but some. ] So the Bride's been obtusely conversing with the rival Best Man, who's been not too subtly hinting to the Bride about the Groom's affair.
[ Devious. Personally, I had no stake in the game, but I couldn't deny it was dramatic. It was reminding me of the constantly fluctuating relationships on Drama Sun Islands. Not my favorite serial, but the humans frequently and comically made asses of themselves, and it was intriguing in way that made me feel a little gross after. I pointed to another man, aggressively chugging a glass of alcohol and staring down the Groom huddled around the Maid of Honor by the cake. ]
Meanwhile, the Brother's getting increasingly angry with the Groom.
[ I wanted to stay long enough to see if there'd be a fight. It really felt like there was a fight coming soon. I'm a SecUnit, I know these things. ]
no subject
But Rin is fine. They have a tolerable connection. She doesn't feel that way about many people. Their conversation surprised her when they first met, and she keeps her opinions of people. Rin seems interested in whatever foolishness is here, and she turns her attention to observe the people it is referencing.]
They are rather shameless. Someone is going to end up stabbed.
[ This is not a prophecy. It's a reality. She knows where jealousy and humiliation leads, and while Shadowheart does not believe in monogamy for herself, she would probably stab someone for making a fool of her. She's experienced theater before where stories are played out in front of them, but she personally finds it pointless. Her missions were what she was obsessed with. Fiction did not enter her mind.
But perhaps she will take something less boring than driving hours in her stupid car. It is there waiting, when she will hopefully have pilfered enough things to make this worth it. ]
Who do you think will kill him first? I am hopeful for the wife, but it's more likely to be the brother.
[ Men protecting their family and the like. Women should stab more unfaithful spouses, if you ask her.]
wedding crashers
He’s not seated at the wedding so much as he stumbles into it, all eight feet and several-hundred-pounds of him, the clunk of his metal footfalls just as disruptive. Viktor, barely comprehending what he’s stumbled into, wears a cloak that obscures most of his features save for two glowing yellow eyes in the shadow of his hood.
Still, he seems surprised—not only at being shushed, but by the sheer volume of information relayed.]
How long have you been…watching?
[It seems rude, not that he means to be here, either.]
no subject
Quick intel gathering is a key to effective security. The wedding party was very gossipy, and I had great hearing. So did the two drones I had patrolling the perimeter. When one of them picked up the clunky, cloaked, eight foot tall, yellow eyed biped on approach, I watched my threat assessment module creep up, but ultimately backburnered it. It's scavenging, just like all the other fluxdrifts out here, and didn't exhibit any sign of hositilty, even after being shushed.
Drone Two kept eyes on it, and I split my feed between that and the heated argument going down between Groom and Bride's Brother. To answer it's question, I ran my feed back in a minimized window and checked the time stamp. ]
21 minutes, 18 seconds.
[ This wedding was ramping up into a fight soon, I could feel it, and it was confusing the hell out of my threat assessment module (or, I was in a lot more danger from the eight foot stranger than I thought, either way, I'd find out soon). ]
luxfilms.
Hey, c'mon- Jesus, dude- [ Well, the popcorn assault hasn't so much stopped as it's changed its target, instead pummeling the weedy kid who's just pushed through the doors with a rolling mop bucket. A fair amount of kernels are landing in his hair despite one shielding hand, and after a few moments he just whips the mop out, dripping dirty water in the boys' direction. ] Get the fuck out before I spray bleach in your eyes!
[ Not the most dire of threats, coming from someone who looks to be in the same weight class as the popcorn adorning his hair, but it at least annoys the guys enough that they finally stand from their seats. The language they shoot at the employee on their way out is deeply crass in nature, and doesn't bear repeating. ]
Hey, sorry about that. [ After a long-suffering sigh, the kid sticks the mop back in its bucket and heads down the aisle. ] Those assholes are here, like, every Friday night.
luxfilms
[ the movie itself is poignant, causing livio to sniffle a few times (not that it's hard), but a few teenagers are disrupting the movie, which is admittedly getting on his nerves. a man stands up and tells them to shut up and it works, but then, a few moments later, they're throwing popcorn at him and giggling. livio can see it even in the dim lightning. ]
[ he stands up, at his full height of 6'7", though unlike the other, he's not looking to intimidate. ]
Hey. Please let us enjoy the movie.
[ mildly. is this even going to work? probably not ]