Our favorite friendly/cranky android stopping in to wish you happy Pride Month and showing off its asexual, aromantic, and agender pride! This was done as part of a series on the Murderbot Discord, so there’s probably a flood of Murderbot-in-a-AAA-shirt arts by different fan artists floating around now! Looking to compile them soon.
I decided to actually make this shirt design into a digital art, mostly because I want to wear this T-shirt and failing to find other people doing the design can no longer stop me >:D
Edit: Redbubble apparently has decided I’m a bot. Here’s a Teepublic link instead. I mostly made this because I wanted the shirt and didn’t order from Redbubble before they suspended me, so I’m ordering this one asap >:C https://www.teepublic.com/t-shirt/31375633-aaa-battery?store_id=1563018
“SecUnit—” Arada started at the same time as Ratthi said, “I don’t think—”
ART interrupted, SecUnit’s earlier statement that I “lie a lot” was untrue. I obviously cannot reveal information against the interests of my crew unless circumstances warrant.
Arada nodded. “Right. We understand. I think SecUnit is looking out for our interests—”
i’ve been wanting to draw this scene since i first read ne and finally got around to it HSDJKS
this is an excellent choice of scene and masterful execution thereof and also i am absolutely TAKEN OUT by Murderbot’s expression. the scowl isn’t just impressive, tenowls has also fully captured the petulance of a toddler trying to stay mad to keep from melting down into a hurt and upset puddle, and brought that energy to an adult’s face.
i mean just LOOK at the crimp in the corner of MB’s mouth, here; it is doing its level best to flip off ART with both middle fingers AND the deep pinch of its eyebrows and i FULLY buy that this show is to keep its expression from crumpling into angry tears before it has to go hide in the bathroom again. it’s making ME need to go have an emotion on its behalf, dangit!!
I’ve always loved retro sci-fi and horror pulp covers and wanted to try my hand at replicating one. So I did a digital painting of The Murderbot Diaries in something like that style. I used a bunch of different pulp covers for reference and inspiration.
SecUnit is looking down at her. “You can hug me if you need to.”
“No. No, that’s all right. I know you don’t care for it.” She wipes her face. There are tears in her eyes, because she’s an idiot.
“It’s not terrible.” She can hear the irony under its even tone.
“Nevertheless.” She can’t do this. She can’t lean on a being that doesn’t want to be leaned on. Of all the things SecUnit needs, the only ones she can give it are room and time in a relatively safe space to make decisions for itself. Becoming a prop for her failing emotional stability won’t do either one of them any good.
I am reading the murderbot diaries and oh boy there’s emotions in this. I would die for murderbot. and also if anything happens to miki i refuse to take responsibility for my following actions
“SecUnit—” Arada started at the same time as Ratthi said, “I don’t think—”
ART interrupted, SecUnit’s earlier statement that I “lie a lot” was untrue. I obviously cannot reveal information against the interests of my crew unless circumstances warrant.
Arada nodded. “Right. We understand. I think SecUnit is looking out for our interests—”
i’ve been wanting to draw this scene since i first read ne and finally got around to it HSDJKS
Contrary to what everyone would expect, Ratthi actually orders his coffee black, while Gurathin orders the sugariest lattes available.
[ID: Ratthi, in a pink button-down shirt and blue undershirt, stands smiling with his plain black coffee. Beside him, Gurathin, in a black turtleneck and dress pants, looks away with a long-suffering look holding his whipped cream latte. The barista confused their orders again. /End ID]
Oh man what if Bharadwaj was Mensah’s grad student… Mensah was Bharadwaj’s primary graduate advisor… that would make so much sense ahhh
They’re well-matched. I think they’re both environmental scientists? Mensah would be a FANTASTIC advisor, I bet. Bharadwaj got her calm, patient, supportive professionalism, and it was a critical part of her own growth as an academic and a professional. And maybe Bharadwaj helped organize Mensah’s campaign for planetary administrator… which gave her a lot of experience in expressive persuasive outreach when it comes time to, say, make a documentary about Construct Rights
alright so people learn to express themselves through observation, right? it’s one of the reasons facial expressions and perception there of vary country to country, why people might end up more expressive/stoic depending on your parents/guardians pattern of behavior. andmurderbot didn’t acculturate itself watching people around it, it hates watching real people. murderbot developed it’s sense of self watching soap operas. tens of thousands of hours of soap operas. We already know it’s face is painfully easy to read, and while murderbot attributes it to not having practice controlling it’s expression without the benefit of armor:
Then she added, “You know, you can stay here in the crew area if you want. Would you like that?”
They all looked at me, most of them smiling. One disadvantage in wearing the armor is that I get used to opaquing the faceplate. I’m out of practice at controlling my expression. Right now I’m pretty sure it was somewhere in the region of stunned horror, or maybe appalled horror.
Mensah sat up, startled. She said hurriedly, “Or not, you know, whatever you like.”
I said, “I need to check the perimeter,” and managed to turn and leave the crew area in a totally normal way and not like I was fleeing from a bunch of giant hostiles.
I would argue that it’s not just lack of practice being neutral—due to it’s particularset of formative experiences, it’s default facial expressions are, in human terms, almost absurdly overexaggerarated. That look of horror is the same one the sanctuary moon terraforming supervisor had when she discovered her twin sister was sleeping with her second husband, and they were both planning on framing her for the death of the colony representative.
ok so uh not to be like “i think the robot’s autistic” or whatever but picking the murderbot diaries back up after learning that i might possibly have little an autism has been an experience for sure
![[id: three, a tall, broad construct with dark skin, wearing a really fancy outfit. a full-skirted red dress, with a black jumper/jacket with a chest window. the jacket is trimmed with row after row of pearls, and three is wearing pearl earrings. it is 'barefoot' aka has its construct feet on display.]](https://64.media.tumblr.com/28461365b3f8bfadf2611466c6a85459/7f6d0e613152e2f2-4f/s640x960/60c75a770a2170e6e85faf0e06824d221749e8a1.jpg)
ALT
