Murderbot's Back

[awkwardbot]

The second time I found Milliways (or it found me, because that seems to be how it works), I'd been trying to get into one of ART's lesser-used storage holds.

Speaking of ART, it had been very interested in hearing about the Bar at the End of the Universe. And watching all the recordings I took there (multiple times). It was also very interested in some of the media I brought back with me, especially Star Trek. ART requested that if I ever went back, I should look for some media with constructs or bots (or whatever the local equivalent was) in it. It might be interesting to get a fresh perspective, ART said.

Well, I was back, and I could find what ART was looking for. But there was something I wanted to do first.

The lack of cameras in Milliways made me nervous. (I mean, more than usual.) Not just because I couldn't keep tabs on potential threats (not that I'd seen any so far, but the thing about threats is that you don't see them right up until you do), but because I had no fallback if (when) I got into an awkward conversation and had a hard time maintaining eye contact.

I didn't know what the local attitude towards surveillance was, but it seemed like it might be similar to how people felt on Preservation - that it was invasive and generally not okay. That and the constantly shifting layout meant that permanent cameras were out of the question. So I got simple camera drones instead, very small ones that don't even do their own recording. They just send their audiovisual input to some other system that records for them (in this case, me). I could recall them and store them before I left.

Once I got them placed on rafters and in corners so that I had good coverage of the main bar, I felt a little better. I backburnered the feeds from the drones, sat down in one of the big armchairs by the fireplace, and started searching through the Bar's media.

[OOC: Please read Murderbot's bio before responding, if you have not done so already. Feel free to have your pup notice a drone sitting somewhere (they are matte black and about the size of a golf ball) - they can even try to mess with it, but Murderbot will notice and react. Thanks!]

[Tinytag: Murderbot]
 

Comments

[daringyoungman]

There's a small black thing in the rafters.

There is also a teenage boy in the rafters, because this is where teenage boys who are also aerialists hang out if they're trying to self school with middle school math.

Predictably, autonomous drones are way more interesting than middle school math, so as soon as Dick notices it he leaps over to the rafter in question and picks the thing up.

[awkwardbot]

I had just found a movie called Terminator in the Bar's feed when one of my drones in the rafters alerted me to an abrupt positional change. I pushed the feed aside so I could pay attention to the drone's audiovisual pickup instead. The drone's camera seemed to be looking directly into someone's face at very close range.

I figured this might happen. But since the (presumably) human who had the drone didn't seem to be trying to hack, dismantle, or destroy it (yet), it wasn't an urgent problem. Of course, that could change.

[daringyoungman]

Give him a second. Dick wants to have a really good look at the thing first, rotating it in his hands, peering into the lens.

As soon as he's established it's some sort of camera, he taps it on the lens and says "hello?"

Taking it apart is going to be next.

[awkwardbot]

The drones didn't have a broadcast capability (or even a feed relay - not that it would have been useful in Milliways anyway), so I had to get up and walk to the spot under the rafters where the small human was poking at my drone. "Hi," I said. "That's one of my drones."

[daringyoungman]

The small human doesn't put the drone down, but he does drop to hang by his knees and grin upside down at the person.

"Hi," he says. "Is it working okay? No interference from magic?"

If there's surveillance going on, Dick wants in on it.

[awkwardbot]

Shit. That was a thing I had to worry about, too? And I think it showed on my face, but I couldn't be sure because someone had moved the camera I would have used to look at myself.

"Not so far," I said. "I'm only getting interference from curious small humans."

(That was a joke.)

[daringyoungman]

Good joke. They get a grin for their effort.

"Catch."

Dick, being a miniture Bat, is as desirous not to be filmed as he is to be the filmer. So he tosses the drone back down rather than put if back where it could point at him.

(He doesn't understand, unfortunately.)

[awkwardbot]

I could have made the drone fly under its own power, or caught it one-handed, but catching it in both hands seemed like the more typical human thing to do, so I did.

(Actually the most typical human thing to do would be to fumble it or miss it entirely, but no way was I doing that.)

“Thanks,” I said. I could put it back later, when the kid was out of the rafters. “Do you climb around up there a lot?”

I hoped this wouldn’t be a regular thing. But if it would be, I wanted to know.

[daringyoungman]

"Uh huh," Dick confirms cheerfully. He gestures with a hand over to where the trapeze equipment is currently stashed safely away so the untrained can't get at it. "That stuff's mine. Just like it better up here, you know?"

There used to be more rafter people, but it's currently mostly just him, and he's fine with that."

[5ame_heart]

Fives is right in the middle of taking his helmet off as he comes into the bar, scrubbing the heel of his hand against his brow like post battle exhaustion will just rub off.

It doesn't, but a tall glass of something iced, spicy and caffeinated might help, as should the promise that a waitrat will bring him something to eat as soon as he's found somewhere to sit.

And that somewhere may as well be near Rin. He lifts the drink in a wave (his helmet is tucked under his other arm) and heads over, picking his way through the tables to join them.

[awkwardbot]

I’d set an alert in case my drones picked up someone who seemed to be approaching me, so I saw Fives coming. But even an augmented human wouldn’t be able to pay attention to drone inputs while working in the feed, so I did what a human would do in that situation and waited for him to come up and get my attention.

(Short version: I was not ignoring Fives. I was just trying not to blow my cover.)

[5ame_heart]

Funny, he thought he had their attention. But when they don't respond to his wave he waits until he gets closer and leans into their field of view a little to get their attention properly.

"Hey, Rin, you with us?"

[awkwardbot]

I jumped a bit, like I’d been startled, and looked up at Fives. “Sorry. I was working in the feed.”

[5ame_heart]

For a moment Fives stares at them confused, but quickly remembers: "right, I guess that's..." he waves a hand in front of his eyes like interacting with a Holo that's right there.

"Occular implants, sorry. Didn't mean to sneak up on you."

He drops his helmet from under his arm and sticks it on the table next to his drink that he'd put down to get Rin's attention, picking that up instead as he sits back. "Working on anything interesting?"

[awkwardbot]

“It’s okay. Usually you ping someone’s feed if they’re working and you want to get their attention, but that doesn’t really work here.”

Nobody else had access to the feed except Bar, and it was never not going to be weird.

“I’m actually looking through Bar’s media library.”

[5ame_heart]

"Like holos?" Fives guesses. "There anything good in there?"

Maybe Fives could get a holoprojector hooked up so he could have a look. He's in no hurry to get any implants.

[awkwardbot]

“There’s something called Star Trek. It’s kind of uneven but definitely has its moments.”

(Of all the media I had brought back, Star Trek was ART’s favorite.)

“If you want comedy, The Muppet Show is pretty good. There’s also a historical family drama called Dallas that looks promising.”

[configuration_birdwatcher]

Bastion immediately recognises the little black sphere as a recording device when they see it perched on the lid of the trilobite tank. They can sense that it's wirelessly relaying data to somewhere, in addition to the visible lens, though it was also clearly put up by someone with the basic sense to encrypt the feed so that strange robots can't just walk up and break into the data of what it sees and where it's sending it.

Which is to say, the drone's current field of view is mostly taken up by a combat bot tilting their blocky head at the camera and making whirring noises that sound similar to a human humming curiously. There's a bird on their shoulder.

[awkwardbot]

I got an alert from my drone on the trilobite tank that something was close to and/or obscuring the camera. The “something,” when I checked it, was a big block of metal with a narrow glowing rectangle in it.

I pushed myself up from my armchair and dropped Bar’s media library so I could take a look through another camera. It turned out that the big metal block was attached to a big, blocky bot. With a bird perched on it. That was bizarre, but so was everything else about this place.

The bot didn’t seem to be performing a task. It was just there, looking at my camera. And none of the humans seemed to mind. It was just another guest.

I tried to ping its feed. That was pretty stupid because it wasn’t a bot from my side of the Door and didn’t use the same connection protocols. I wasn’t sure it even noticed the attempted contact.

[configuration_birdwatcher]

The camera continues not visibly doing anything. Ganymede chirps a short, impatient birdsong tune as if to point this out. Its data stream is still live, but if it can move on its own it's doing a great job of hiding that.

However, an incoming message notification pops up after they've been staring and making puzzled noises for about two minutes. It's from Bar. Why doesn't she do that more often? Materialising napkins seems like it must take more energy. It says they received a message that couldn't be directly delivered because the incompatible network protocols 'confused the fish', which isn't elaborated upon and leaves them wondering if it's meant literally or metaphorically. It's a ping from someone named Rin. Bar offers to pass along a response if they'd like.

Bastion turns their head and torso to face the Bar as they compose a reply. // Hello. Is this your camera?

[awkwardbot]

Roughly .7 seconds after I sent my ping to the unfamiliar bot, the Bar notified me that I had an incoming message, and would I like to view it now? I accepted, but opened the message in an area of protected memory. (Call me paranoid if you want to, I don’t care.)

The sender was someone named ‘SST Laboratories Siege Automaton E54 (“Bastion”)‘ followed by something that I think was supposed to be a serial number. The message was simple text. // Hello. Is this your camera?

I guess it had noticed my ping after all.

‘Siege Automaton’ sounded like some kind of combat bot. Generally speaking, I tended not to have good experiences with combat bots (because generally speaking they’d been trying to kill me and/or my clients). I’d never had one try to make conversation with me. I think it was more uncomfortable than just having one try to kill me, honestly.

I composed a text message and asked Bar to send it as a reply. Yes, that’s my camera.

[configuration_birdwatcher]

Bastion receives another message from Rin via the Bar soon after the first one, answering their question in the affirmative.

// What are you using the data for? they write back, head inclined at an inquisitive angle as they compose the message.

[awkwardbot]

I didn’t think the bot had seen me, yet, but of course I’d already seen it. It didn’t have a facial expression but somehow managed to look...curious. (Or maybe the other thing. Inquisitive.)

I had already thought of how to answer if someone asked what I was using the cameras for. And it was really awkward, but probably less awkward than giving people the impression I was recording them and data-mining their conversations or something.

Sometimes it’s hard for me to maintain eye contact when I’m talking to someone and it’s easier to switch to a camera view where I can watch us talking to each other from the outside.

[configuration_birdwatcher]

It's true, Bastion has no idea who or where Rin is, except that they're a patron currently in the bar or on the bar grounds. And that's mainly because they're using Bar as an intermediary for this conversation; the T-Minus network is proof that even though the portal cuts off most telecommunications, it's possible to route a signal between universes with the right equipment.

They've been looking in the general direction of the bartop as they converse. // Did I startle you by looking at it?

A lot of people in their universe would definitely be startled to see a Bastion unit look straight into their camera.

[awkwardbot]

Bastion may have been a combat bot, but it was reminding me of a certain human-form bot more than anything else right then. (Poor Miki.)(It didn’t seem quite as irritatingly chipper and naïve though. So far.)

A little bit, but this is the first time I’ve seen a bot here other than the Bar.

(And me.)

I see you by the trilobite tank. I’ll come over. Since we seemed to be talking now, we might as well do it face-to-face. Or face-to-block. Whatever.