Work Text:
"I'm tired of getting shot at, ART," Murderbot says before heading back to Preservation. It barely says hello to everyone before locking itself in its room and drowning itself in downloads.
Ratthi finally gets it to come out to see a play and afterwards asks Murderbot if it has seen the latest serial that has come out. Ratthi wants to know if it's any good. Little does he know that the show features an evil rogue SecUnit.
Murderbot ends up going on an expletive-filled rant about SecUnits in media.
"You should make your own serial," Ratthi says afterwards, reminding Murderbot about the docu-drama they made for those colonists. "You would be great at it!"
Murderbot goes back to its room and instead of watching more media it begins thinking about what kind of show it would make (if it really did make a serial). A week later it sends a script to Ratthi through the feed.
A few days after that Ratthi comes to its door with a stranger. He introduces the Chair of the Preservation Theatre Society.
"I showed the script to a few people," Ratthi admits sheepishly. "They want to help you make it."
So Murderbot is swept up into the entertainment world. The theatre people insist that it also directs (partly because it can also film with its own drones and edit with its processors). There are lots of meetings and talking and it's very stressful. But the production moves along and it has to admit that the series might be pretty good.
One day Dr. Mensah comes to visit.
"Ratthi told me you are making a serial. What's it about?"
Murderbot sends her the description tag that will be displayed when the series goes onto the feed: "An intrepid survey team explores planets and fights off hostile fauna, corporate raiders and alien remnants with the help of a heroic SecUnit."
Mensah smiles.
"What are you going to call it?"
"All Systems Red."