voidtreckerexpress | now the sky's a little smaller

Entry tags:

now the sky's a little smaller

Who: Murderbot and OPEN
Where: Cinema Car
When: Llama 12
What: Bingewatching comfort shows? Bingewatching comfort shows.
Warnings: Likely referring to the What Their Eyes See event and all that it contained, but individual threads will have individual warnings.

Its systems were perfectly in order. Scans showed no signs of any attempted hacks, further confirming that what had happened back in the Circles were just...

Emotions. Wonderful.

There was nothing keeping it from watching The Rise And Fall Sanctuary Moon in its internal systems, but right now- right now it ~~needed~~ wanted something more than just circling up in its bunk for however long it took to watch the entirety of the series. And since it'd already confirmed that it could interface with the media controls...

It sits off to the side, holding its knees to its chest as one of the nearly 400 episodes end- and the next one starts. For nearly the entirety of the day, it'll be in here - and likely for the next day, as well.

There's not enough hours to finish it in one sitting, after all.

OOC: If you want to encounter Murderbot elsewhere on the train, just wildcard and/or hit me up! artoni#1824 at Discord or

artoni!

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People are a mess right now. Not that she blames them, the things that happened out there were cruel in such a specific way.

Being an idea gave her a certain resistance to illusions, which meant right now she was in a better emotional place than most people. Or in other words, just like a day on the job.

And she recognizes someone that doesn't need the direct approach when she sees one. Much better to open with a simpler question. "What are you watching?"

At first, Murderbot doesn't acknowledge- Death may or may not have noticed there's a few spheres hovering in the air, and the drones are just fine for Murderbot to see her through while it keeps its direct gaze on the screen. And as the silence stretches on, it tries to decide whether or not to just keep silent in hopes of her wandering away or...

...knowing the people on the train. She's probably more likely to ask louder and distract it more. So it finally does glance towards her, briefly.

"...it's called The Rise And Fall of Sanctuary Moon."

"What's it about?" She takes a couple steps into the room, but doesn't get too close. Just like she's keeping the conversation to the presumed safety of the program on the screen.

"You could always watch it and find out."

Y'know. Like it's trying to do. Nevermind the fact it's seen this particular episode fifteen times. When you're bingewatching the entire series, you don't skip.

(The current scene on the screen appears to take place at some sort of university or college, following the youngest character in the main cast; something to do with an internship.)

"You mind if I sit with you?" Watching from this position would be a little awkward for anyone else passing by, after all.

She's not sure how far this is into the series but maybe she can figure it out.

Sit with it...when there's plenty of open seats? Murderbot makes a pointed look around the rest of the cinema car, trying to figure out some way to phrase it.

"I like space."

Maybe not...super close 'with' it. But. That isn't a 'no, get out'.

She takes a seat that leaves several chairs between them. It's not completely intuitive coming into the middle of the episode at a random point in the series, but she's going to at least try to piece it together from context.

The cinema car is one of the places on the train that high priest Koumyou Sanzo actually quite likes. He usually watches action and superhero stuff in here, but with something interesting already playing? The blond man just finds a seat and settles in to watch.

He stays there for a few hours, too, before getting up and leaving after the end of a particularly convoluted episode.

The next episode goes by before he returns again, plopping into the same seat he'd been in before.

Normally, Koumyou would have made a pest of himself for entertainment, but he's just not feeling it today. When he murmurs a quietly dismayed, "I'm so lost," it's not at anyone in particular.

But there's only one expert on the show here, isn't there?

At least Sanzo is watching in silence...for the most part. Murderbot appreciates that. To the point when Sanzo speaks aloud, it only offers a long-suffering sigh.

"The supervisor's trying to mediate between the solicitor and the bodyguard since they had an argument and the bodyguard can't do their job if their client is already avoiding them."

A beat.

"It helps if you remember they're all in a relationship." It's a complicated relationship, but. A relationship.

"Ohh?" Had that detail gone right over his blond head? It's quite possible.

"No wonder I don't understand the problem..."

Relationships are very new to him, not being something he'd even really contemplated in his previous life.

"Did their argument happen while I wasn't here?" Or had he simply missed it? One seems as likely as the other, to Koumyou.

"Mmm." That's a 'yes'. "It was stupid." But then, a lot of the things people argue about are stupid- so what's new? Especially if you're whining about someone just trying to do their job, and maybe if you didn't take so many risks they wouldn't have to push so hard...

Murderbot? Biased? Nah.

"Most arguments are, I find."

Real or fictional, but especially fictional. Gotta dial up the drama, after all!

Koumyou goes quiet again for a while, before some new plot contrivance happens that he actually pays attention long enough to follow. "--Well that's just silly."

He lights up a cigarette with one fingertip to the end, and takes a drag.

"I assume that's going to come up later and bite them in the butt?"

Wei Wuxian having found a way to swim through a world that was comprised of technology that on some levels mimicked more familiar things, like illusions from arrays or other mind-altering techniques, was thoroughly exhausted. The best (read: worst) had been the herding of unwilling locals back from the smog-filled wastelands apparently dictated over by an angry, bratty child, or at least an entity of some sort which acted similar enough.

He had a headache, he'd spent enough time not properly breathing with the air canister, and his throat and lungs burned a bit, so finding an excuse for not falling into chatty behaviour led him to the cinema car. Where, with a blink and a half lifted hand, he caught sight of one of his roommates—the one who'd created their own curtained space, which was a neat way of handling the perpetual lack of privacy their lives had onboard this soul-stealing train.

Aside from that raised hand and smile, he picks a seat within lounging distance; as a creature of social groups, choosing to be alone was not often what he did without feeling fully alienated and necessitating the fringe. He also didn't speak, beyond the politeness of a hello, and, without bothering himself on the details of what was playing, sat down to watch.

... It didn't precisely make sense with how much jargon flew right over his head, but people were people, and those themes were just universal enough in stories that he followed along well enough, most making reactionary noises when the actiony bits were happening, and pretending he wasn't resting his head during the more boring technobabble parts that cropped up, or pointedly closing his eyes during the more flirtatious scenes to give his aching head a rest. At one point two and a half episodes in, he remarked, "Didn't she just tell him not to do what he's about to do, or am I remembering wrong?"

That curtained space had been the one thing keeping Murderbot from a constant mental breakdown on this train. Instead it got to wait until yesterday with all that illusion nonsense, or at least, as close to a breakdown as it'd had in a long time. So. This? This was absolutely necessary, thank you, and Wei Wuxian's lack of approach is at least appreciated by a brief glance of acknowledgement.

...though. It does find it somewhat amusing that the other man's just as uninterested in the flirting scenes as it is. (Unfortunately there's a sex scene coming up in the next episode, but considering the rating of the show, it's hardly explicit. Still probably the most boring part, in Murderbot's opinion.)

"She did," it confirms after a moment. "He's going to regret it, later."

"... Don't they always?" In other circumstances, namely the written ones, there are scenes he wouldn't mind taking in, but somehow the visuals are just beyond what he wants to handle. Particularly with an audience, and not for any embarrassing physiological reactions: it was simply that it made him cringe.

And he read his era's pornography just fine, though fairly, he didn't get any particularly poignant thrills out of it either. It was entertaining, one way or another, and scintillating, sure, but... less so these days than when he'd been a teenager.

Exactly like the young ones that are woven into the story of this show he doesn't pretend to fully understand, but watches for what he does.

"Might just be human nature, that whole, tell me not to do something, I still do it, until I learn bad ideas aren't sometimes good because I believe so."

A mulled over thought as he shifts, bringing a leg close and crossing it over his other thigh.

Sarge likes sci fi. Sarge also likes the pictures. This? This is kind of amazing. The special effects are way better than the films he and Soldat remember, like one might imagine it. Also, the drama is kind of hilarious.

He loiters in the train car doorway a moment before spotting a familiar face in the seats and weaving his way over. "Well, this looks amazing. Mind a little company while you watch?"

...that is not Soldat. Murderbot can only sort of stare at Sarge for a moment, blinking in noncomprehension, but this is also not- not that other one, either. It's only the fact that the episode before this dealt with a multiple that it realizes;

"You're another one."

...was that rude to say aloud. It has no idea. It makes an awkward face, shifting as if to make itself smaller in the chair.

"...if you want." Olive branch?

He snorts a brief, amused laugh, clearly not offended. Relieved, more like, that somebody gets it without having to explain. "Yeah, I'm another one. There's technically four of us in here." He taps his temple, but does come in to sit two seats down from Murderbot. "Soldat's still off dealing with their shit, and the Asset's really not good at anything that doesn't involve shooting or punching. So. You all get me for a little while." Then, because unlike Soldat, Sarge understands the importance of names, he adds "I'm Sarge."

Okay, good. Murderbot seems slightly relieved, or at least just a bit less tense as - Sarge? - laughs it off and seats himself. Four, then. "The Asset's the one I saw with the...fuckery." Right? It's assuming so, anyway. Though Sarge did mention a fourth...

"Must be nice to be able to go away for a while." Put another personality at the front? Great. Can it be a non-screwed-up-one? Murderbot is quite aware it has that whole 'anxiety' and 'depression' thing, but wouldn't it be nice to just sit back and watch Sanctuary Moon while someone a bit more emotionally capable deals with people...

"Nice for Soldat, maybe. Shitty for me. I hate being out here this long." He leans back in the theater chair, propping his feet up on the one in front of him. If this were a real theater, he'd never do that, but it's not like there's anyone in front of him to complain or bother. "The other one was the Asset. Yeah."

Sarge thinks over the last time they met, sorts through memories that are not quite his own, and winces a little. "It's kinda low on the, uh, compassion meter. So. Sorry it was kind of an asshole to you."

There's a shifting in one of the seats next to Murderbot, and should it look, a familiar face smiles back at it. Rich is exhausted, sure. Drained physically and emotionally.

But he knows so many others had it worse than he did. All he did was wander around some off-limits buildings and then through some bullshit labyrinth. The others had stronger, more painful illusions than he did.

And if he wasn't strong enough to help fight them off, the least he can do is listen.

"...Is this a new episode?" He's only seen one or two of them with Murderbot, but he found them intriguing enough.

Murderbot doesn't need to look; it has drones. But it looks anyway, because humans are weird about that kind of thing, and then looks back at the screen.

"I've seen it before." It's seen...the entirety of the show before.

Doesn't make it any less...enjoyable? No, that's not the word. It just...likes. Watching it.

"Yeah? I was just, um, asking because you showed me a couple last time. Sorry." He can probably enjoy it regardless of whether or not he's seen it before.

"...This must be your favourite then, huh? I wish I had recordings of the stuff I liked here."

The scrunch of Rin's face suggests a bit of frustration. People are hard, damn it. Why does Rich think he has to apologize?

"The show is," it affirms, eyes on the screen. "I brought others, but Sanctuary Moon's...classic."

That doesn't really feel like the right term, but good enough.

Rich finds himself looking away, a little sheepish. He didn't mean to frustrate Rin, though he supposes they only talked a little bit after the incident with Jack. Maybe Rich doesn't understand how to connect with them as well as he thought.

"It seemed good from the little bit you showed me. What do you like about it?"

Ghost seems to pause to see something actually on in the cinema car, on his way to the front of the train for breakfast and all of that. It's the first time he's seen Rin actually, you know, out in places without a specific purpose.

He gives a hand-wave of greeting before continuing on his way, but he's back an episode or two later, this time with a book and a notebook alongside a thermos of coffee. At that point, he climbs into one of the hammocks at the back and settles in, for all appearances just taking the serial as background noise to his continued studying.

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now the sky's a little smaller

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late but you knew this was coming