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2026 Murderbot Diaries New Year Gift Exchange
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Published:
2026-01-31
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278
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1/1
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[Fanart] Experimental Theater

Summary:

Murderbot is invited to attend some experimental theater.

This is a piece of fanart which includes a short exchange of dialogue.

Notes:

Happy new year, Greywarrant! I hope you enjoy your gift! You said you liked when Murderbot is kind of awkward around its humans, but they like it anyway. I think there's something that feels so deeply caring about knowing someone well enough to understand what they mean even when their communication is kind of blunt or awkward, and I hope I did a good job of that with Ratthi! He's mastered the art of the Hard Sell (convincing Murderbot to go to Events in a way it will be comfortable with).

This was gonna be fanart with a few speech bubbles, but then it kind of expanded into a whole short dialogue snippet with accompanying illustration. I did illustrate the dialogue to make it look fun and feed-y, but since that sacrificed some legibility, it’s also transcribed below.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

A feed conversation between Murderbot and Ratthi, illustrated with blue glowy text bubbles. Text transcribed below.

An illustration of Pin-Lee, Murderbot and Ratthi sitting in the seats of a theater.

 

[feedID: Ratthi]
[Tags: PresAux, my human friend, stays in transport]

Ratthi: Hey Secunit!
Ratthi: [link: A Motley Crew: Interactive Theater at Makeba Hall]
Ratthi: Pin-Lee and I are going to this performance, do you want to come with us?
Ratthi: It's experimental theater. One of my friends is in it, it's going to be really funny.
SecUnit: That says "interactive."
Ratthi: They have everyone put a tag on their feed profile, and they only interact with people who opt in.
Ratthi: No one will bother you, I promise. They're really good about boundaries.
Ratthi: The effects are supposed to be really good. There's a character that's supposed to be a machine intelligence and they're doing a hologram effect but it's not a display surface, it's this old theater trick. I think it's gonna be really cool!
And I asked my friend about the MI character. It's played by a human but it's inspired by bot pilot characters in the historical media that they're spoofing, so I think it will be the fun kind of unrealistic.
SecUnit: I don't like Makeba Hall.
Ratthi: I know last time the seats were too close for you, so I'll buy four aisle seats for the three of us and you can have an empty one next to you.
Ratthi: Deal? :)
SecUnit: ...Deal.

[Later: Ratthi, Pin-Lee and Murderbot sit in the darkened audience of a theater. Murderbot is seated in an aisle seat, with the seat next to it empty. It looks up at the stage, engrossed, with a faint smile on its face. Next to it, Pin-Lee steals snacks from a container Ratthi is holding, while Ratthi glances at Murderbot and smiles.]

Notes:

Bonus artist commentary:

- I’d normally draw Pin-Lee in something formal and lawyer-y but I figured for a night out at the theater she’d want to be comfy!
- I imagine this show is some kind of semi-improv spoof on “historical” media (so like, sci fi from before various modern-to-tmbd technology was invented, such as bot characters from before actual sapient machine intelligences.) Probably not literally Star Trek parody but think Star Trek parody from the perspective of a Star Trek-ish future!
- Also yes they are doing a Pepper’s Ghost illusion, I am a theater nerd and think it would be cool if people still used cool practical theater tech tricks in a world that has hologram-level tech
- Ratthi absolutely has theater friends. Also now I do kind of want to write a whole fic about this Preservation experimental theater troupe.