deercountry | o1 . january catchall

[ They might be robots, but they do still need a place to live - or at the very least, a place to store their stuff and wait when they need to enter low-power mode. Rin seems to prefer the idea of living near the edge of town for some reason, but there are still plenty of options to be found. Like this one, for example! ]

The technology here is powered by moonlight, and we do not have the same requirements for shelter that humans might. Therefore, I believe that a partially open-air residence will provide the maximum benefit to us without claiming a resource that another resident of Trench may have a greater need for.

[ And with that she gestures to the prized 'partially open-air' residence, an old and rundown two-story home with a massive hole in the roof. And just to sweeten the deal: ]

The nearest neighbor is over 100 feet away from us, as well!

[ Murderbot looks... uncertain. It steps forward to approach the door, trusting that Penny Polendina will trail behind. ]

It looks alright. [ It looks like a place no one else is going to bother with, which puts it top of Murderbot's list, even if the gaping hole in the structure kind of stresses its risk assessment module. ] It's not like any humans or augmented humans will be competing over it.

[ The door is unlocked, but that might be the wrong word: whatever lock mechanism was in place seems to have rusted into unusability. Murderbot pulls open the door with a bit of force and an unpleasant sound from the hinges, and looks into the darkness just beyond.

Then it slides a look to Penny Polendina. ]

If anyone sees where we're staying, they might realize we're not augmented humans.

[ That's a factor that Penny hadn't considered. She does, in fact, trail behind Rin, only to slow to a stop when he voices concern over being accurately IDed as an android. ]

You're hoping to keep your identity a secret?

[ Fair enough, she supposes - she'd done the same once. It's just that the decision to do so hadn't been entirely hers, and it had caused har some anxiety she wasn't expecting. Maybe that's the part she should address first. ]

How come?

[ Penny Polendina says it like it— she?— can't even guess. Like this is a real question anybody would bother to ask.

For a moment, Murderbot looks pained; then it tries to shutter its expression and looks away. This... yeah, fuck, this is going to be a weird conversation. It might as well. ]

I met a friend of yours. An augmented human. Uh— pale skin, red and black hair, one red augmented eye.

She said you were a girl. [ It hesitates, here, for a long and awkward beat. ] I thought she mistook you for another augmented human.

[ This doesn't answer her question, but it has to start here, because it doesn't understand. ]

I thought you were keeping yours secret too.

[ Rin only gets a few words into its description before Penny lights up. She knows who that must be! Then Rin keeps going and her expression slides further and further into confusion - and just a touch of suspicion when it says 'She said you were a girl.' She'll come back to that in a moment. ]

Ruby is already aware that I am not human. She has known for several years now.

[ And then, with something closer to curiosity than confusion: ]

Is that something you kept secret before you came here?

[ The fact that Rin might isn't really a surprise, but the implication that it might have been successful is... well, she thinks side-by-side more people would assume Rin is an android than her. ]

[ Cool, great. That opens more questions than it answers, honestly, and Murderbot has the horrible feeling it's being an asshole here. It keeps its gaze cast away, to some unimportant part of the run-down house around them. ]

Yeah.

[ That's not much of an answer, so it continues reluctantly: ]

It would have been dangerous to do anything else.

[ The pause hangs again, a beat too long and more humiliating with every instant that ticks past. This house is suddenly too big and cold and empty, and it would be better to have something jump out at them; it would be better to have anything make her stop looking at it.

These are basic facts of the universe. It shouldn't feel like this to say them. ]

Most systems classify bots as equipment, not personnel.

Edited 2022-02-05 19:39 (UTC)

[ Ah. When Rin explains Penny understands so thoroughly she actually feels a little silly for asking in the first place. Penny wouldn't call the situation for herself back home dangerous - not any more than anyone else associated with the Atlas military - but there had been countless times when she thought it would be easier if everyone still thought of her as being human. Part of her wants to encourage it, ensure it that there are plenty of people that will accept it no matter what, but she remembers hearing her father say similar words. More importantly, she remembers hoping that he was right but never really believing it until she met Ruby.

Penny hesitates for a moment, letting the silence hang, and then she takes a few steps closer. She stops well short of entering Rin's personal space, but it's clear that her attention is on it. ]

When I was first allowed to leave home I pretended to be human. I shared a dorm room with several other students, so I know what we should look for in a residence.

[ She shifts forward, and it wishes she wouldn't. It wishes she would stop looking at it, that they could be done with this conversation already.

She says allowed to leave home and that does something to the emotions in its chest. Why is she like this, if she was ever— ever treated like just a bot? How long has she been like this?

Is this what will happen to it, given enough years away from the Corporation Rim? The thought is unfairly terrifying. ]

It's fine. We can stay here. [ It doesn't want to move into some other place where she'll keep looking at it and trying to read its face for approval. ] I just... don't want to be too obvious when we're around humans. That's all.

[ That's genuinely not the reaction Penny is expecting, given Rin's apparent unease over revealing itself to not be human. But, again, she won't push. It must have its own reasons for wanting to stay. ]

I understand. I will be careful.

[ And then, since one potential wrench is already present: ]

However, Ruby may assume or realize the truth on her own.

Edited 2022-02-08 22:36 (UTC)

[ At this, it is again quiet for too long a beat. ]

She's important to you, right? She's your... [ Crew and client don't apply, so it fumbles stupidly for an alternative term. It doesn't find one, and just has to hope its tone makes the important clear. ] Your human.

[ It could explain that it has its humans, too. That them knowing what it is, even more deeply than Penny Polendina does, is a part of what makes them important. ]

If she's known about you for that long, and she's that important... [ It hedges, here, miserably. ] Her knowing about me is only a problem if she's going to tell everyone else.

[ 'Your human' isn't exactly how Penny would have put it, but 'She's important to you' maps more cleanly onto her personal framing of the situation. ]

Ruby is my friend.

[ The words alone could be taken as a contradiction or correction, but her tone is bright and sincere. It's meant, and hopefully comes across as, more of an agreement and clarification. ]

When she learned about me she did not even inform the rest of her team, who are also close friends of hers. I am sure she will keep it a secret if I ask.

[ She can see that this is important to Rin, however, so: ]

But I will not inform her unless it becomes necessary.

[ Surely nothing will ever happen in Trench that might force either of them to reveal that they're not human. ]

[ This feels so much like interacting with Miki it wants to claw its organic skin off. Fuck. It shouldn't— it knows humans as friends is not a wholly bullshit concept, it shouldn't get like this every time she says it in her stupid trusting voice.

The beat hangs for an awkward moment as it fumbles, again, as always, for what to say. ]

Good.

Thanks.

[ And... that's settled, isn't it? Much as Penny can and has happily talked about Ruby for hours on end, she also knows that now is not the time - if only because they need to get settled in first.

So she smoothy pivots away from the subject of Ruby, instead jumping right into the subject of making sure they can secure the house as belonging to them, repairs they might have to undertake, and even assorted steps they can take to ensure that they pass as human. She ends up suggesting a sort of greenhouse to cover for the fact that they have no roof, and assorted cute furniture even if they won't need it, and on and on for as long as Murderbot will tolerate the ramble.

But the whole time she reflects that Murderbot may not have many friends here, and that's not really something she can let stand, is it? She'll have to find a way to introduce it to Ruby properly. ]

o1 . january catchall

6. i do what i want

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cw: slavery and dehumanization from here on out

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