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I remember them saying they had a medical professional on set explaining what would be happening to Benji and Simon did amazing showing it!

By the time he gets to "Grace (gasp) did you find (gasp) the switch?" He's running out of air.

Then from "Okay, shut it off / Open the panel!" onwards, he's just not breathing anyone.

Not breathing AND YET STILL TALKING.

His last words being a strained "Hurry..." as Paris puts in the pen as he's doing everything he can to will himself to breathe

This sequence was [chefs kiss]

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Put SecUnit in Research Transport. research Transport perfec t size for put SecUnit in to watch m\edia! inside very Friendly and Help SecUnit watch media privacy put SecUnit in Research Transport. no problems ever in researrch transport because good Facilities and Support for SecUnit disguise flimsy of little SecUnit form. Aresearch Transport yes a place for a SecUnit put SecUnit in research transport can trust transport for giveing good maintenance to SecUnit. friend transport

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It’s not an ex-SecUnit.

You can’t be an ex-SecUnit until you’re dead.

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An aspect of Rapport that I really enjoyed was how well it illustrated that Murderbot, unreliable narrator that it is, has an extremely high opinion of ART.

Because there's no point in Artificial Condition, or even later in Network Effect, where SecUnit ever assumes that ART simply can't do something, aside from parsing the full emotional/visceral context of media by itself. If there is a thing SecUnit can think of doing, naturally ART could do that too, probably better.

But we see that's not the case during the mission on the corporate station. We kind of knew this already from its difficulty keeping track of Tapan and the ComfortUnit on RaviHyral, but here we see that ART just isn't the hacker SecUnit is. It's extremely powerful, but only in areas that it already controls--i.e. itself and any system that SecUnit gives it access to. The team is surprised that it even got into the security system at all. That, by itself, is a huge leap forward for them. But it can't simply reroute the security drone somewhere else, or cut the team out of the security cameras the way SecUnit can, even after SecUnit showed it how to doctor surveillance footage. It can't hack the weapon scanners so they can smuggle more equipment in. ART has immense processing power, but it doesn't have the innate ability to convince resident systems that it's just a regular component and it's supposed to be there.

ART has limitations, and it is keenly aware of them, which I think is what prompts its sarcastic suggestion to the mission team they blow up the corporate station: It's sending its crew into an active war zone, and the only thing it can really do to help is talk them through it, and it's really feeling that powerlessness, even after all the new tricks it learned from its new BFF.

This mission would be trivially easy if SecUnit were here. Without it, they're in constant danger from everyone on the station.

It calls into question a lot of the points in Network Effect and System Collapse where SecUnit blithely assumes that ART is just humoring it. Because it sees ART's abilities as greatly superior and not different. (And ART is a know-it-all and a sarcastic asshole with better processing hardware, but it's also a spaceship and not a security system specifically built to anticipate, identify, and resolve threats.)

(Which is also why ART is bad at de-escalating conflicts and leaps to threats when things go badly despite the fact that it is a huge softie who can't even cope with bad things happening to fictional people on television. It's a gunship. It doesn't have any tools for de-escalating things. It has concealed rail guns. That's what it's got. SecUnit may have energy weapons in its arms, but it was designed to keep damage minimal to humans and expensive company property.)

The disparity between the perspectives of Iris, who thinks of Peri as her precocious sibling, and Murderbot, who thinks of ART as an omniscient nigh-otherworldly being (but still an asshole), is really enlightening.

And now I want something from Seth or Martyn's point of view.

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the light that is everything was such an incredible read. idk if you're thinking about it but i would love to see ratthi's reaction to murderbot's video

Thank you so much! Ooh, I hadn't thought about that, but that's a very good idea, thank you!

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I loved the light is everything so so so so much. Ive reread the whole thing twice and reread a few of the chapters several times more than that (Ratthi snapping at Unpleasant was sooooo good). Would it be totally weird if I wrote fanfiction of your fanfiction? There's a couple of scenes I keep imagining from Ratthi's point of view and that's one of the things I love to write the most, but I've never been inspired to do it with someone else's fic rather than the source material before and I wouldn't want to cross any lines

Thank you so much! That's so lovely to hear <3 I would absolutely love it if you did that! If you post it to AO3, please use the "Inspired By" feature so I can link it!

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i think it’s crazy how jarthur’s relationship is compared to the scorpion and the frog and then later in the series that same scorpion tells that same frog “i won’t let you drown” btw

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I just read "that the light is everything" and i wanted to say thanks. I'm not leaving a comment on the website since i dont have an account, but you linked your tumblr and you have anon asks on so i have no excuse not to.

I have tried reading fanfiction before, but have never been able to get into it. Something about it has always felt off. But i came across the blurb in my feed something like "its no more a threat to you than anyone else" and that resonated with me (and so many of my mutuals enjoy fanfic that i feel weird not doing so), so i decided to try again and give it a go.

I am so glad i did. The voice, the tone, the message... all spot on. It has itched my brain in a really positive way.

"I think most people [care], I think you have to be taught not to." Excuse me? Thats just the kind of thing I'm a sucker for and find to be a cornerstone of TMBD.

Sorry this is so long. It's mostly useless blather. But here's the main takeaway: Thank you. Thank you for being the first fic I have read and enjoyed. Than you for putting all the work in to make it so good. Thank you for writing. And most of all, thank you for sharing.

Ah, man. Thank you for this, truly. Fanfiction is something that I love dearly, but I also understand it feeling off sometimes, especially with a work that has such a distinct voice like Murderbot does. I really wanted to try and capture that, and write something that felt like it was of a piece with the books that I love so much. I'm really happy it felt that way to you. I'm really glad to have been your introduction to fanfiction that you liked and that you enjoyed reading it, and I really appreciate you telling me. Thank you <3

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that the light is everything (10/10) - a Murderbot Diaries fanfic

title: that the light is everything

characters: Murderbot, ART | Perihelion, Dr. Ratthi, Pin-Lee, Dr. Gurathin, Dr. Arada, Overse, Preservation Aux Survey Team, Perihelion Crew, Tarik, Dr. Mensah, Karime

relationships: Murderbot & Preservation Aux Survey Team, Murderbot & Dr. Ratthi, Murderbot & ART | Perihelion, Murderbot & Perihelion Crew, Murderbot & Pin-Lee, Dr. Gurathin & Murderbot, Ratthi/Tarik, Dr. Gurathin & Dr. Ratthi

tags: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Legal Drama, Thriller, Mystery, Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Mourning, POV Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries), Watching Media (Murderbot Diaries), The Corporation Rim Is Terrible (Murderbot Diaries), The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon (Murderbot Diaries), Post-Book 7: System Collapse

work summary:

The pings were all from Overse’s interface and routed from a transit ring called Trans-All, the kind of ping that was just are you in range – are you in range – are you in range. It was a call for help and it fucking terrified me, because I was answering it way, way too late. — Ratthi goes missing. Pin-Lee isn’t used to losing. Murderbot isn’t used to having anything to lose.

chapter summary:

Ratthi stepped into the doorway and very briefly made eye contact with me over Gurathin’s shoulder before looking away. “Hi, Gurathin,” Ratthi said. “I’ve missed you.” I’ve never seen Gurathin turn around so fast. “They shot you,” Gurathin said. His tone was completely flat. “They killed you.” “Yes,” Ratthi said. “And no, but they got an A for effort.”

Chapter 10

Read from the beginning here.

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Did you know that JRR Tolkien wrote an unpublished epilogue to Lord of the Rings? It's achingly, beautifully wistful in the way that only Lord of the Rings is. I revisited it recently because I'm guesting on my friends' LOTR podcast, and THAT reminded me that I drew a comic of the epilogue back in 2021 (all text is entirely canon). Anyway I thought folks on this website might enjoy it!

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I don't know why I liked this frame so much but I decided to redraw it

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I'd still trust you with my life doctor tbh

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was it straight and normal when i was shot and bleeding out and yet i hid it from you and told you to go because i knew you would stop saving the literal world to make sure i was okay instead? was that very normal and heterosexual leading action man of us?

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that the light is everything (9/10) - a Murderbot Diaries fanfic

title: that the light is everything

characters: Murderbot, ART | Perihelion, Dr. Ratthi, Pin-Lee, Dr. Gurathin, Dr. Arada, Overse, Preservation Aux Survey Team, Perihelion Crew, Tarik, Dr. Mensah, Karime

relationships: Murderbot & Preservation Aux Survey Team, Murderbot & Dr. Ratthi, Murderbot & ART | Perihelion, Murderbot & Perihelion Crew, Murderbot & Pin-Lee, Dr. Gurathin & Murderbot, Ratthi/Tarik, Dr. Gurathin & Dr. Ratthi

tags: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Legal Drama, Thriller, Mystery, Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Mourning, POV Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries), Watching Media (Murderbot Diaries), The Corporation Rim Is Terrible (Murderbot Diaries), The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon (Murderbot Diaries), Post-Book 7: System Collapse

work summary:

The pings were all from Overse’s interface and routed from a transit ring called Trans-All, the kind of ping that was just are you in range – are you in range – are you in range. It was a call for help and it fucking terrified me, because I was answering it way, way too late. — Ratthi goes missing. Pin-Lee isn’t used to losing. Murderbot isn’t used to having anything to lose.

chapter summary:

“A rogue SecUnit,” Unpleasant said. I didn’t know what to say to that. I didn’t look at Ratthi or tap him on the feed, but maybe I was quiet a second too long or maybe Ratthi had just guessed I didn’t want to answer that one, because he said, “In the sense that it’s not enslaved, yes.” “You’re saying it isn’t a threat,” Unpleasant said. “Well, I’m saying it has free will, so. Only in the ways we’re all a threat to each other, I guess,” Ratthi said.

Chapter 9

Read from the beginning here.

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I think the best part of Murderbot is its staunch belief that it’s average at its job, and it only does better because it doesn’t have a working governor module

It’s always like, I’m just a SecUnit, the only reason I’m better is because humans somehow have worse judgement than me in my very narrow field of expertise, and I have the ability to process multiple things at once, and I don’t die when I get my shit wrecked. None of these are advantages over other bots, so I’m actually just average as far as skills go.

Meanwhile, Murderbot’s track record is something like ‘regularly takes out other SecUnits, regularly hacks fairly complicated systems, takes out multiple hostiles while saving and protecting clients/hostages, beat two Combat Bots in succession, and went toe to toe with a Combat SecBot while taking out two other SecUnits, rounding it off with inhabiting spaceships and crushing the incredibly difficult and malicious killware infecting them.’

That’s not even counting the guts, skill, and determination it takes to hack your own hardware/code which is fully capable of frying your brain in the first place

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“Penelope and Odysseus are my favorite hetero ship” Nuh uh. They’re homo. Homophrosyne.

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that the light is everything (8/10) - a Murderbot Diaries fanfic

title: that the light is everything

characters: Murderbot, ART | Perihelion, Dr. Ratthi, Pin-Lee, Dr. Gurathin, Dr. Arada, Overse, Preservation Aux Survey Team, Perihelion Crew, Tarik, Dr. Mensah, Karime

relationships: Murderbot & Preservation Aux Survey Team, Murderbot & Dr. Ratthi, Murderbot & ART | Perihelion, Murderbot & Perihelion Crew, Murderbot & Pin-Lee, Dr. Gurathin & Murderbot, Ratthi/Tarik

tags: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Legal Drama, Thriller, Mystery, Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Mourning, POV Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries), Watching Media (Murderbot Diaries), The Corporation Rim Is Terrible (Murderbot Diaries), The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon (Murderbot Diaries), Post-Book 7: System Collapse

work summary:

The pings were all from Overse’s interface and routed from a transit ring called Trans-All, the kind of ping that was just are you in range – are you in range – are you in range. It was a call for help and it fucking terrified me, because I was answering it way, way too late. — Ratthi goes missing. Pin-Lee isn’t used to losing. Murderbot isn’t used to having anything to lose.

chapter summary:

“Because I trust you,” Ratthi said. “Because you’re my friend, not just my colleague, and it’s not, ah, several levels of closeness beyond previous experience.” “Yes it is,” I said. “I’ve had my hand inside your knee,” said Ratthi. “I’ve rebuilt portions of your spine.” Yeah, but that wasn’t— Oh. I was an idiot.

Chapter 8

Read from the beginning here.