deercountry | [Open] The Entertainment Feed -- March

Entry tags:

[Open] The Entertainment Feed -- March

who: Anyone & Everyone
what: Open Post for The Entertainment Feed
when: All month
where: The Entertainment Feed

content warnings: see individual starters. Docu-Lore: being observed/recorded.
Note: This post includes open prompts for The Entertainment Feed. Feel free to write TL's and tag each other.

Everything in the universe had come to a halt. (Book Club)

This month, the book club meets Tuesdays March 14th and 28th. It is reading The Girl Who Grew Nasty Things by Will Mara, available via written or audio formats.

Maddie Dragonette doesn't like people. A loner, she prefers to be among the rare plants she grows in her greenhouse, plants that can cause great pain. When Maddie doesn't get a part in the school play, her anger grows as wild as her nasty plants. What happens when anger and hate grow out of control?

How do you handle anger and hate? What manifests them? Are those manifestations themselves evil? Are the plants in Trench evil, sick, a natural part of the cycle?

Trench's 11… (Silent Disco)

This month, the silent disco happens Fridays March 3rd, 17th, and 31st. Headphones and music are available. Play your own music or listen to DJ's mix. (open)

Each night you will hear a mix of music from soundtracks of Ocean's 11 movies and other casino heist movies. Murderbot may mix in some other general casino and heist music to keep it fun.

They say taupe is very soothing. (Movie viewings)

This month, The Entertainment Feed shows double features every Sunday and Thursday featuring heist & gambling movies.

1. March 5th: Ocean's 11 | Ocean's 12
2. March 9th: Ocean's 13 | Ocean's 8
3. March 12th: Army of the Dead | The Italian Job
4. March 16th: The Pink Panther | The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
5. March 19th: The Usual Suspects | Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels
6. March 23rd: Uncut Gems | Tricheurs
7. March 26th: The Hustle | The Color of Money
8. March 30th: Owning Mahowny | Mississippi Grind

Stuff-A-Squid. (Kid's Corner)

Children's programming includes building your own stuffed animal this month.

Children's programming is now an ongoing part of The Entertainment Feed. Children may come to the Kid's Corner at any time this month and build a stuffed animal of their choice. Options include squid, deer, bear, dog, raven, and trout. Other animals can also be made. Little clothes are also available to dress your stuffed animal. Murderbot thanks Sansa for helping prepare the unstuffed animals and little clothes.

We listen with more than our ears. (Docu-Lore)

Murderbot has started filming events in Trench via its drones.

Perhaps a drone sees you acting weirdly. Perhaps one accompanies you to the new city or alternate world. Contribute to the video collection of lore for Trench! (Can be arranged ICly or OOCly)

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Nasty Things (Book Club)

CW: spoilers for The Girl Who Grew Nasty Things could come up

Blood pollution and with it corruption are part and parcel of life in Trench. The plants overgrowing everything exceed the norm. They're a damned if you do damned if you don't situation. Some of them grow bigger and nastier if they somehow get blood; they start whispering weird ass shit if they don't. There's no good end. No matter whether they're due to the Moss King or Riteior or anyone else, shit nasty.

"In Trench, with corruption, with blood magic, we all have the power to do or make terrible things," Murderbot says, "Given this book and the state of Trench, I'm focusing this conversation on making terrible things. Things that can extend beyond our control and even break free. They didn't ask to come into existence, to be made the way they were. However, they are the way they are. How do you think of them? How do you judge their actions? What do you think should be done about them?"

Steal a Song (Silent Disco)

CW: N/A

During the Silent Discos and only during the Silent Discos, extra copies of CDs, tapes, and vinyl records of the albums played during the silent discos are hidden around The Entertainment Feed. Murderbot stays in the room of the disco itself, while its drones monitor the Feed. Can you pull off a heist?   Murderbot will monitor all heists via its drone networks both because it knows all locations and again that drone network. Do your best, and if it impresses Murderbot, you'll get away with your loot—normally forbidden.

You can punch me if you want. (Movie Night)

CW: References to gambling, debt, bad ends for those

These movies start off as lighthearted fun heist movies. Fun capers. Fun times. These are in honor of Moss King's general role running gambling halls. Murderbot enjoys them as much as anyone else, sitting in the room, quietly amused. It's happy to discuss the movies afterward, whether you're someone who likes to discuss the feasibility of a heist or jive with the fun antics.

However, in the second half of the month, Moss King opens up his grand gambling scene—a gambling scene that ends in many people's deaths if they don't have their token at the end of the night. The movies take a dark shift toward gambling with dark ends. Murderbot doesn't expect direct warnings to work. It does what it can, what it knows best. It shows you through media. Murderbot forces itself to sit through every showing. It stays afterward for anyone wanting or willing to talk. It's miserable about it all but tries to bury those emotions under so it doesn't ruin anyone else's time. After all it's still entertainment.

You Made It. (Kid's Corner)

CW: N/A

Murderbot remains uneasy around small humans. They're illogical and not to be trusted with scissors. Fortunately, Sansa completed all the work requiring scissors. Once children finish stuffing their animals of choice, Murderbot or another responsible adult will close the bottom of the animal off, and tada, they can choose to dress it. No sharp implements required. It eases the anxiety a little.

Even so, Murderbot sits at the small child-size table it acquired looking oversized—monstrous it fears—and switches between hunching over to appear smaller and sitting in a 'relaxed' pose to appear approachable. Eventually it works on stuffing a plushie it requested especially of Sansa, a spaceship, though others might think it looks like a weird squid. If it is going to be at this activity table for hours, it's going to make one for itself.

Edited 2023-03-12 22:19 (UTC)

CW: references to the plants in the event prompts. References to other events and event dangers likely to arise. CWs will be added as needed.

Murderbot, the Nightwalker, the proprietor of The Entertainment Feed, despises social interactions as a general rule. So too does the person they've invited/requested/otherwise made known it's for the good of the community that he show up... to The Entertainment Feed's front door in the middle of the night. The good news is that it means no one else should be around. Murderbot ran an analysis of traffic in and out of the Feed, graphed it, and included it in the invitation. The chosen time is the one with the fewest visitors per the numbers in the time the Feed has existed. Outside means they are nearer the plants, the immediate problem Murderbot wants D's help with. The front door is right there, so it's not like there's far to run if they need to.

Murderbot stands, eyeing them warily. It hasn't left the Feed much yet this month, enough to talk with Sansa and collect the supplies she provided. Given the Moss King has iced over the shore to such a degree, there hasn't been a point looking for anything washing up. It stands there, without any human jitters, only the normal rustling movements a human makes trying to stand still (these thanks to an algorithm), and waits.

"Well...it depends. I don't think they're evil or anything, but if they're going to kill people, it's better to destroy them before more people die. But...if there's a way to make them not kill people, that would be better. It also depends on what kind of thing was made. Like...if it's a person with it's own reasons for doing things, because if it's a person it can probably change, but if it's not, then probably not."

And so that leaves them to figure out if the murder plant in question is, in fact, a person.

"If it's sentient, whether or not it's a 'person' by our standards, it might not have the choice whether or not to kill people," Murderbot says, "Then you have the problem that it's a danger to others and could kill, but you're killing a sentient being if you kill it. You're the one with free will. So who's the bigger monster?"

There's nothing personal about that question at all. Oh no, Murderbot didn't want to see anything about itself with the plants. It's never leaving the Feed for the rest of the month.

"But if it's sentient, doesn't that automatically make it a person? But in that case...I guess it's only okay to kill it if there's no other way to stop the killing."

Murderbot does its best to hold even for a few seconds. Yes, it has an incredibly fast processing speed, and it needs a few seconds. It pulls out a copy of that part of its memory, strips out the background noise, until it has a track purely of Luca's voice. It saves this to its personal permanent records.

"You'd think so," Murderbot says, "You've convinced me."

At least that's how it should be. Reality... gets messier.

"Oh. I have?"

He's surprised at that, since usually adults weren't convinced of things so easily when it was a kid saying the thing.

"Well...I'm glad. Because I know some humans don't think of sea folk as people, and some sea folk don't think of humans as people, but in the end if everyone that someone didn't think was people didn't count as people, then no one would be people, so clearly I'm right."

Because it makes far more sense that everyone discussing who was people would definitely qualify as people if they could have such a discussion.

"Makes sense," Murderbot says. "There's probably some people out there who prefer the no people definition, but they're assholes."

It still swears around kids. However, it might just might get a little bit why ART likes young humans.

"As people get older, the whole us/them thing takes over a lot more than with kids. There's some things kids are a lot better at than adults."

"Yeah...I hope I never stop seeing other people as not people, though."

Because the thought of turning into someone like Ercole is just horrifying.

"It's not guaranteed," Murderbot says, "Some industrial meat processor you're getting pushed through."

Murderbot taps a physical copy of the book.

"If that were the case, there'd be no point to these book clubs."

"Oh. Right. Of course. I guess I knew that, since it was an adult human back home that convinced the other humans not to kill me."

And Massimo had even been raised to think sea monsters were evil, so there's always hope for people to turn out okay, no matter what their background was.

Except that ART goes into exceedingly dangerous situations, Murderbot wishes it could plonk Luca aboard it and tada problem solved. Perhaps the better solution would be Preservation. It has bodies of water, and those bodies of water don't have pirates on primitive boats obsessed with sex.

"That's okay. When you see a lot of adults who forget that over and over again, it's easy to forget," Murderbot says, "That's also why I'm glad adults come to these book clubs. Even when they're books for kids, the lessons are for everyone."

It's getting a little meta, but what, did people think it chooses books at random?

D finds Rin to be an acceptable person to spend time around except for the fact that they often make requests and assumptions D doesn't like.

He isn't an actor. He doesn't want to appear in videos. But he has made some allowances for things that benefit the sleeper population and Trench. They both share a common goal in creating infrastructure and reducing corruption and beast problems at their root rather than by spilling blood, even if D still does spend quite a bit of time violently solving the problem.

The plants reach for D and then recoil once any part of them gets without about three feet of him. He could extend that range further, but he chooses not to.

Right. The plants keep dying. No one else is coming to the Feed, even via the Lamp. It's as quiet a nice as one gets in Trench. Muderbot's uncomfortable because having one on one conversation with someone is guaranteed to be some form of uncomfortable, even with the best of them like Vi. It... labels Chizuru as one of its people, but the girl has caused Murderbot great emotional distress lately. Actually, that's an optimistic thought. Talking with D probably (probably) won't be as horrible. If D has secretly started some form of a romantic life, Murderbot is marching back inside, it swears.

"We repeatedly have conversations for exchanges like this one," Murderbot says into the silence, "They are similar in natural. If possible, I'd like to minimize the need to go through the same song and dance when the question seems only a matter or what we're providing each other, rather than whether we'll do it.

"No matter the form, the point is the community in the end. Not us. If we keep that in mind, it should be possible."

"Yes. You're proposing an ongoing contract or retainer contract instead of negotiating each time," D says. He's not opposed to it. So far he's provided more services at Rin's request than he's received, but Rin's work is also important for the cause they both pursue.

Even if he would prefer that it involve using his face less often.

"As long as you take efforts to avoid requesting things that will have more people following me."

Another point in D's favor is that he's familiar with ongoing contracts and retainer contracts. Admittedly, Murderbot is used to being the one kept on retainer, but it now has a community center it runs (everyone on Team PreservationAux would be so proud Murderbot would have to backburner every feed with their faces on it if they were here). It needs the retainer more than D does because he already has a construction crew, a security force, and whatever other retainers the Outpost has (it's harder to slip drones into a remote location than around Trench).

"In December, people were violently hunting and attempting to kill each other. That may be temporary but is still traumatic to most people," Murderbot says, "With exceptions for instances like that and the welcome video where it saves lives which, to my records, has not led to a long term increase in fans, I will take those efforts."

It does not understand the appeal. D has symmetrical features, but oooh aaah so do pretty much all entertainment actors. He's not that special! (Besides being in Trench). In fact, Murderbot feels more in common with the plants pulling away from D than the people who gasp and sigh, at least so far as reactions go.

D nods in agreement. It's sometimes useful, and D has certainly put it to use himself, but he hates doing so every time. It's almost as bad as commanding people.

"You're a darkblood, aren't you? I'm working on a project that will require a large amount of blood magic and darkblood in particular. If you're still a blood virgin, a virgin bloodstone is suitable payment, if not, then bloodstones every few months."

It's a payment that means D won't have to deal with her very often, and won't lead to another awkward situation of watching one another sleep or other favors D doesn't need to get specifically from her.

The cloud of drones above Murderbot's head rustle with activity, scanning D more actively for some means of detecting personal information about Murderbot. Performance reliability drops 4%. It doesn't go around telling people its blood type because its blood type is irrelevant with the lack of blood magic its been doing for the whole six months and more it has been in Trench.

It stares at D's nose specifically, suspecting that's what gave it away. At least that's all it gave away. It hopes. If there's anything else, D hasn't mentioned it. That's a blessing. Murderbot hopes he keeps not mentioning it so that they don't turn into an even more uncomfortable conversation.

"I'm a Darkblood, and I don't do blood magic," Murderbot says. It's not using the word 'virgin' in connection to itself. No nope not doing it. "I haven't done it the entire time I've been in Trench, and I got turned into the Terminator. Blood magic would've fixed that or gotten me out of the Sleeper Farm. Don't tell anyone, especially not Chizuru, but I uh... deleted myself? I thought I was just going to do what I did before when you brought me back, but nope full on 100% deletion. Game over. Dead. Bye.

"Which is to say if I do your bigger bloodstone payment, it's..." Murderbot scrunches up its whole face. "I've died rather than use blood magic. It's that big of a thing."

"Yeah, I'm glad, too. And I'm also glad that the adults here seem to know that already."

Maybe it's just because they're all from different worlds, though, so hang ups people have might not apply to anyone they might run into here. Even if they do, since they wouldn't match the ones held by everyone else around, it might be harder to justify holding onto them.

"I guess that's the advantage from us all coming from different places and times. When everyone's different, maybe people being different stops seeming so strange."

"Trench has a way of knocking you on the head with some ideas."

Murderbot may not like the head knocking. It would rather do this kind of thing because it has decided its head knocking days are over. However, it's never figured out how to be immune to all that.

"Everyone seems strange to me." Deadpan.

"Yeah? I guess everyone seems strange to me, since I'm the only sea monster here. Well, sort of...at the same time I guess with everyone really being a squid, everyone's a sea monster at the same time?"

It's weird, but also a kind of comforting thought. Of course, there were differences because of that background. Luca thinks he had a much easier time accepting that he's really a squid since he's always been a shape shifter, and he's always had an aquatic form as his 'real' form.

"That part is weirder," Murderbot admits. It would freak the fuck out if everyone became SecUnits, mostly because of what SecUnits can do. Governor module enabled or disabled, both were horrifying thoughts. Yes, some people in Trench were more powerful and weirder than a SecUnit, at least in this low tech setting, but... Murderbot feels a chill in its organic systems. It's still glad everyone's a squid instead.

"Everyone's lower tech, and the town is lower tech. Everyone else adopts much more naturally to that. Sure, they may have lost some tech, but shrug and on they go. It's like there not being an ocean, for you, I guess I'd try to say," Murderbot explains. "I'm here, but the environment isn't."

Some of these films came out after Sarah's time, but exist in her world; some of them, she recognizes but has never seen. (One--Ocean's 11--is ambiguous on that front.) But The Pink Panther is a comfort film, and so it's hearing about that that brings her into the Entertainment Feed properly for the first time.

It's somewhere she's always meant to go, to come check things out, find out if she can obtain any of the c-dramas she'd started and not gotten to finish, but she keeps getting embroiled in plants, which is absolutely the way of things. With no other external tasks to keep her on track, days blend together.

But she's cheerfully humming the song under her breath while looking for the individual who she believes to be the proprietor, and when she locates (Most Likely) Eden Rin before the movie starts, offers a polite, "Has he been by? Moss King. If he hasn't allow me to pass along that he appreciates your selection."

Edited 2023-03-31 23:55 (UTC)

Murderbot is used to people talking with it before, during, and after the movies at movie nights. Preferably not during. It has seen all the movies before they air, not a proponent of viewing things for the first time with the audiences it's presenting the movies to. So, it has seen all the movies planned thus far and then some.

It manages to watch the entrance a little longer, as though the Moss King might duck in and sit down to watch the movie among everyone else. Has he been by? Has any of the Pthumerians been by? The closest Murderbot knows of are Never Minds ravens which have kindly not been assholes since November.

"No, I wasn't aware he was paying The Entertainment Feed any mind."

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[Open] The Entertainment Feed -- March

Everything in the universe had come to a halt. (Book Club)

Trench's 11… (Silent Disco)

They say taupe is very soothing. (Movie viewings)

Stuff-A-Squid. (Kid's Corner)

We listen with more than our ears. (Docu-Lore)

Submit Doculore

Murderbot | The Muderbot Diaries

Nasty Things (Book Club)

Steal a Song (Silent Disco)

You can punch me if you want. (Movie Night)

You Made It. (Kid's Corner)

Contract Negotiations [Closed to D]

Nasty Things

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movie night preamble (aka it's before the movie)

March 16th