September Catch-All [OPEN]

[be_seeing_you]

Who: Number 6 & YOU
What: Trying out the new fencing gear he got, drawing portraits, casino daydreaming, trying to steal jewelry & more!
When: September 1st for fencing, thru the month for other prompts
Where: All over the ship, see individual prompts
Warnings Potential for violence, alcohol/smoking, will warn for more as necessary



Challenge him to a friendly duel

When the notification comes that he has a package waiting in Sundries, he has no earthly idea what to expect. But, he must say, once he's torn the nautical paper off to find a fencing practice kit inside, he is rather pleased. Well, with one exception. The Epee he's been provided is neither blunted nor is it tipped with plastic the way it should be for safety. It very much seems to be a live and dangerous blade. Admittedly, he's not too sorry to have a functional weapon given the characters around here, but it means he'll have to be especially careful when practicing with it.

He's up on the sports deck making use of one of the empty tennis courts as his makeshift practice arena. In the absence of a tip protector, he's wrapped some gauze and medical tape from the infirmary around the sharp tip in an effort to achieve close to the same effect. That way, when he stabs the wall at the back of the court, it leaves slightly less of a divot.

He puts himself through some familiar drills, re-familiarizing himself with his technique and generally working to improve his stance and remember his form. It's clear just from looking that he's had some experience with this. If only he had a proper partner to fence, alas.


Have your portrait drawn

He doesn't tend to flaunt it often, but Number 6 actually does have a bit of talent for the arts. Perhaps he's not the most creative of minds, but he's rather good at capturing likenesses in portraiture. So, on various days and in various places throughout the ship, such as the dining hall, the sports deck, the library, and even in some of the pubs and bars (or anywhere, your choice), he will sit himself down quietly in the corner with a pad of paper over his knee and a pencil in hand. Anyone who catches his interest may become the new subject of his drawing. For the most part, they are flattering renditions. He doesn't mind if someone wants to observe, he'll simply nod to them and keep scratching with his pencil until he's satisfied.

Once he completes his drawing, he'll approach his subject and hold out the sketch to ask, "Excuse me, I wondered if you might like this?"


Lost in the game

With a cigarette in hand and whiskey in front of him, he sits at one of the blackjack tables idly playing against an invisible dealer. It's hard to tell if he's enjoying himself. He's got a far-off look on his face as he idly scratches the table to request another "hit." Win or lose, he doesn't seem to have much of a reaction. His mind is obviously elsewhere. He's so zoned out, in fact, that on this rare occasion even someone who isn't particularly stealthy might be able to sneak up behind him unawares.


Jewelry shopping

Right. The time has come to investigate that jewelry store. Why is it that no one is allowed to take anything? Of all the places on this ship, why there? He can be found bending over the displays, scrutinizing the various pieces through the glass. There doesn't appear to be any way to get at them. Not any way that doesn't involve a bit of violence, that is. So be it.

He goes, briefly, to the nearest bar and brings back with him one of the bar stools. Raising it over his head, he prepares to bring it down on one of the cases. Little does he know, that won't be enough to shatter it no matter how many times he bashes the glass.

But, he has to try.


Wildcard!
Hit me up with anything! Feel free to plot with me over on plurk KansaiBanzai or on discord Cmdr.Crackers#5481

Comments

[serialskiller]

"They didn't usually hit me or anything, if that's what you're asking. But I'm a SecUnit; sent into danger first because I'm expendable. And then there's the governor module, which would shock me when I misbehaved, worse for larger offenses. The shock for straying more than 100 meters from a client was usually strong enough to be fatal. I've had my memory purged on multiple occasions, the most recent time a bit over 35,000 hours before I arrived here."

It wonders if the human's beginning to get the picture, why it doesn't know how to function as a person.

"The governor module's disabled now. I'm a rogue, and would be destroyed if the wrong person discovered that, in the Corporate Rim."

[be_seeing_you]

"Torment comes in many forms, some more insidious than violence. I would know." Rin can choose to prod at that small admission or not. Number 6 can't help feeling that it's only fair to offer a little something in the way of honesty in return for all this.

"What they've done to you is unforgivable. I don't need to tell you that. But I wonder if you fully realize that you fit a very classic description of an individual suffering from Post Traumatic Stress?"

[serialskiller]

"That's something humans suffer."

This is, of course, complete and utter denial. It's malfunctioning, not mentally ill. There's a difference. It can't be traumatized. It was made to be traumatized.

[be_seeing_you]

Number 6 half expected this. Dare he push? Maybe a little. This time he will know what to do if he's gone too far.

"You have admitted that you have feelings, that it is a result of having human parts incorporated into you. Why, then, could something like human trauma not also be a byproduct of that incorporation? If you can feel, then you can be emotionally injured. Doesn't the logic follow?"

[serialskiller]

"What do you hope to accomplish in convincing me of this?"

This is definitely a deflection, but at least frustration's probably better than a shutdown, right?

There's a chain of logic here that is holding Murderbot together. If it can't experience trauma, then it wasn't deliberately created to be traumatized instead of humans. If it's not a person, it can't experience trauma. If it's only a machine, it's not a person.

The chain keeps it together (running in the shadows).

But it's already rusted. Murderbot knows, it knows that it's not just another machine. It watches serials and makes art and protects people who aren't its clients, because it's more than its programming.

Still, on some deep low down subconscious level, there's this fear that if it accepts all of that, breaks through that chain of logic and accepts that it's not just traumatized, but that it's been abused...well, the utter loss of faith in humanity, in people might shatter its capacity to continue to care for them. Why bother, in a world where you were made to be shattered, physically and emotionally?

[be_seeing_you]

What does he hope to accomplish? The question throws him for a few seconds while he grapples with the answer. Maybe it's none of his business if this SecUnit never realizes it's more than it was intended to be. But there's something offensive to the idea of letting it continue to fester in unaddressed trauma because it refuses to acknowledge that what was done to it was, unequivocally, abuse tantamount to torture.

"Healing, I suppose. For you," he clarifies. "Withdrawing can be helpful in the short term but there may come a time when that can't work any longer."

[serialskiller]

“Healing implies that I was ever well to begin with.”

It’s not completely ignorant of its treatment. Hell, that comment is very loudly the opposite, while still being a bit of a semantic stop-sign.

[be_seeing_you]

"Wouldn't that imply, then, that you were created imperfectly?" If so, then even a machine can be improved upon and repaired. Made better, more whole.

Number 6 has never been great at heeding stop signs.

[serialskiller]

“I should never have been created at all.”

Isn’t that the natural conclusion of this line of thinking?

[be_seeing_you]

"It seems callous to say, but on some level, I agree with that." No one should have made a thing that can think and feel only to use it as a slave and a tool to be discarded with no care.

"But you were made. And if you want to draw a parallel, it's not difficult to do. Does any child ask to be born?"

[serialskiller]

Murderbot relaxes visibly, like a lot, when Number 6 agrees it shouldn’t have been made. It’s a very obvious thing.

“No, children don’t.”

[be_seeing_you]

"No. And so we should be careful not to hold them accountable for having simply been created." Note, he did not say "born."

That visible relaxation is unexpected. He's sure many people would object to the idea that they should never have been. Why does that seem to soothe Rin?

"But we should not turn away from them either, should we? Now that they are in the world, they have a right to exist."

[serialskiller]

Why does it soothe Rin? Several reasons. But the fact that it knows 6 isn’t about to try to get it to feel like it should be grateful to exist is a large one. Also, being reminded of Mensah’s whole ‘hellish compromise’ speech the first time she met it, at the insurance company when it was being leased out.

Anyway, the rest of the conversation is a rhetorical trap.

“The creation of a child is not always a deliberate willful act. You can’t have something like me accidentally.”

[be_seeing_you]

"You resent your creators," Number 6 says. It's less a question and more an observation.

"Do you resent that you must continue to exist now?" Accidental or no, Rin is alive. Not even sacrificing itself can end that fact. It must go on. So, why shouldn't it deserve to ease its own suffering?

[serialskiller]

It shrugs and doesn’t answer the question aloud.

[be_seeing_you]

This time, Number 6 realizes when to back off. When the only answer comes as a shrug, he goes silent too. Choosing to pick up his pencil and return to sketching rather than press for a more fulfilling answer. He'd like to avoid a relapse like last time.