imitationgame77 · 9 hours ago
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Ratthi is Murderbot's human friend but...
The only tag I can access on Ratthi is a partial that says my human friend.
[Exit Strategy]
Thiago had said he felt like he should apologize and talk to me more about it. Ratthi had said, “I think you should let it go for a while, at least until we get ourselves out of this situation. SecUnit is a very private person, it doesn’t like to discuss its feelings.” This is why Ratthi is my friend.
[Network Effect]
Ratthi is a lovable guy, somehow strongly associated with the phrase "For fu*k's sake, Ratthi!", first uttered by Pin-Lee in All Systems Red. He seems naturally accident-prone, but is a competent biologist, loved by everyone. He was quick to accept Murderbot's humanity, getting indignant about how SecUnits are treated, and was sensitive to MB's social anxiety.
He is everyone's friend, and even MB finds it easy to talk to him and ask for assistance, as long as it is not something dangerous.
Ratthi was the one who was quick at picking up something between MB and ART, and ask that directly - "So, you have a relationship with this transport".
And yet, when I think about who the most important friends in MB's life are, he comes the 3rd at the highest, after Mensah and ART. And I wondered why - apart from his screen time.
My conclusion is this - Ratthi is very nice and sensitive to MB's needs, but he seldom brings MB out of its comfort zone. He did try to talk to MB about its emotions in ASR, and he did ask about its relationship with ART in NE. But he did not push it much.
Mensah and ART both pushed and challenged MB, and brought it out of its comfort zone. Made it question itself. Made it experience something it was reluctant to try. But also, importantly, they were there to have its back. Ultimately helping MB grow as an independent being.
Additionally, being out of comfort zone results in physiologically and psychologically heightened state known as arousal in psychological term. When you experience it with someone who is there for you, you are more likely to develop positive attachement for this person. (known and "misattribution of arousal")
I have no doubt that Ratthi will be there for MB if it needs his help, but I've got the feeling that Ratthi is too nice to push it out of its comfort zone.
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imitationgame77 · 1 day ago
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Awwww ❤️
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That one scene,,,, because they make me kind of insane
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imitationgame77 · 1 day ago
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Awww so sweet!
Aaaand I found Ratthi's fauna! 🐈
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24 Hidden
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imitationgame77 · 1 day ago
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To be ART's trusted friend
I saved a backup copy and hid it where only a trusted friend could find it.
[Network Effect]
When Perihelion found its beloved crew gone after a forced restart, and alien remnant installed on its wormhole drive, it decides to seek help from Muderbot. Not from its university colleagues. When it considered the possibility of itself being deleted by the targets, it made and hid its copy in such a way that only Murderbot could find and reinstall.
This is such an amazing level of trust. And even more amazing when you think about the fact that they had only known each other for just over 3 weeks. Yes, I know that the duration doesn't matter - it's the quality of the time spent together.
When they met, all MB asked for was a ride to RaviHyral. It asked for nothing else, and ART certainly didn't need anything from it. Even though a rogue SecUnit was something new to ART, with its capabilities, it didn't need to speak to it at all. ART could have taken anything under control.
But ART chose to speak to MB. It wanted to get to know it. It decided to befriend it, and help it survive. For MB, it was something extraordinary - to be wanted for something other than its functional values. All ART asked for initially was to watch media with it so that it can understand the context.
ART had no ulterior motive at all to help MB. Knowing this somehow made it easier for MB to ask for ART's help when it faced problems while working for Rami, Tapan and Maro. ART watched MB do much beyond what was required for that contract - which was really just a way to have access to RaviHyral. It saw how far MB went to protect the humans it barely knew. ART, as a research transport, is not supposed to be impulsive or jump to conclusions, but it comes to like and trust MB very, very quickly and completely. Which is heart warming.
Their friendship was founded first by ART really wanting to know this curious rogue SecUnit, mutual, implicit understanding of each other through joint-media viewing, and again by ART's selfless desire to help its new friend survive. It was such a rare, unexpected fortune that MB met ART almost as soon as it started its life as a rogue SecUnit off inventory. Someone who wanted to be its friend, not for its functions.
Everybody else MB met and interacted was through its job (or a pretend job). Fulfilling its functions (esp. the ones it likes, like protecting people, thinking of a clever way to protect them) is very important to Murderbot, certainly. But starting a friendship where nothing except it being itself is asked for must have been very rare and special for it. Just by being itself earned ART's complete trust - with its life, and its crew that it cares about so much.
I'm rambling - sorry. It's just their friendship is so special - to borrow MB's expressions somewhat, I like them being together, and want them to keep on being together!
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imitationgame77 · 2 days ago
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Artificial Condition - listen-along event
The Murderbot Transit Hub Discord server is almost two months old.
Since this server was set up for beginners (as well as experts?) for the Murderbot Diaries series, we have been doing listen-along events, starting from Book 1 (All Systems Red).
With that finished last weekend, we are now in the process of setting the times and pace for Book 2 (Artificial Condition) starting from November.
For beginners of Discord Servers, our listen-along event works like this:
Event is set up, notifying you when the listen-along takes place (this will be displayed in the time zone of your login location)
You login to the General audio channel (microphone and video switched off)
One of the members (usually a moderator) will stream a chapter or two
You have the choice of just listening, or typing and reading real-time comments from other members
Each week the event only lasts about 0.5-1 hour, as we don't listen more than one or two chapters per week.
That's all.
If you are shy, don't worry! There will be no terrifying thing like you are suddently addressed or asked to respond. You can have a just quiet peek!
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imitationgame77 · 4 days ago
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Love this scene, too! This is lovely, with yet another sweet representation of ART
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I love this scene, so I wanted to try drawing it (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)
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imitationgame77 · 6 days ago
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This is so lovely
It gives me emotions!
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22 Comfort
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imitationgame77 · 7 days ago
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Special Human, Special Bot
To say that Murderbot has difficulties in social situations is an understatement. In ASR, it required persuasion from Dr. Mensah to keep its helmet off and show its face. Many books later, it is still using cameras and drones to look at people, except when it needs to make a point by making a deliberate eye contact.
MB finds it difficult to accept that people around it values it for who it is, rather than for its functions. And it thinks its functions are not entirely good, either. When one cannot accept oneself as someone worthy of love, it is difficult to love others, and admitting that it cares about anyone is out of question.
So MB does not go around showing positive regards to people or declaring/accepting friendships. It only shows that it cares about someone by doing its job - protection.
Most people around MB are quite mature, so they don't go insecure, asking it "do you like me?". Gurathin can even take "I don't like you" in his stride.
Amena, who is adolescent after all, was insecure at first, so she says "it doesn't even like me", "you didn't care about me", indicating that she wanted reassurances. Which MB does not give directly. But she kind of gets it, as she is a very perceptive daughter of Mensah.
ART seemed confident enough in AC, but later shows some insecurity in NE. Not surprising, considering all it saw after reboot was MB being very angry, and flatly denying they were frinds. That leads to the scene where MB walks in on Amena talking privately with ART where she bursts out, "ART should know how you really feel about it!"
So, it is VERY special when MB openly admits that it likes anyone. And it only does so about two special friends. Dr. Mensah, its favourite human, and ART.
MB says to Dr. Mensah in the flashback in NE, “I just really like you. Not in a weird way.” to which she replies, "I really like you, too". Very heart-warming scene.
About ART, MB again says to Dr. Mensah, “Preservation was the first place I was a part of and I don’t want to not be a part of it. But I like being with ART. I want to keep being with it.”
MB finds Mensah as the easiest person to talk to. She understands MB, and makes it comfortable.
MB seems to find it more difficult to talk about how it feels about ART, a very important friend, but it realises that perhaps it is important to let it know. So, knowing that ART is listening, it tells it indirectly by telling Dr. Mensah. ART, unlike in the bathroom scene, does not show any response by dimming the light or anything like that. But we can still tell that it was reassured by that confession, by the way that it shows a lot more confidence in interactions with MB after that.
I really love these scenes. MB admitting that it likes Dr. Mensah and ART. They deserve to know!
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imitationgame77 · 10 days ago
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That’s my favourite scene😍
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Paraphrasing again buuut I wanted to try illustrating this scene!
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imitationgame77 · 11 days ago
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Peri's first crush - a tmbd fanfic
A short story of Peri before it became Perihelion.
Just wanted to write something about very young ART, so completed it in 2-3 hours from conception to finish! (so apologies if it's rough around the edges)
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imitationgame77 · 14 days ago
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Emotional bond causing changes in behaviour
According to Murderbot, SecUnits don't use unnecessary level of violence, unless being ordered by the clients. They only use minimal force. Nevertheless, there are situations where the only sure way to protect your clients is to kill or cause serious injuries on the hostiles. That is not a vengeful behaviour. It is only rational.
And that's what Muderbot has been doing - until its interactions with humans that it comes to care about change it. People from Preservation try not to harm anyone, even when their own lives may be at risk. They try to see if they can reason with the hostiles.
Murderbot probably still does not agree with such sentiment / attitude, but it cares deeply about how its behaviour may upset the people it cares about. As a result, it has to act against its better judgement as a security expert.
Here are some examples:
-------------------------------
She wasn’t afraid of me. And it hit me that I didn’t want that to change. She had just been through a traumatic experience, and I was making it worse. Something was overwhelming me, and it wasn’t the familiar wave of not-caring. Fine, I sent. I sounded sulky, because I was sulky. I hate emotions.
[Exit Strategy]
Doing this would solve the problem and get me back to new episodes of Lineages of the Sun much more quickly, but I knew Arada would make a sad face at me and Thiago would be pissed off.
[Network Effect]
(At the last second, I changed the drones’ instructions from head or face kill-hits to disabling wound-hits in exposed patches on arms and hands, even though it was the hostiles’ own stupid, stupid fault for attacking us. Thinking of Arada’s sad face made me too uncomfortable.)
[Network Effect]
I had two choices. (1) Go down to the surface alone, [...] and then Mensah and Arada would never speak to me again, which might not be a factor if I never got off the planet. (2) Take the humans with me, where I could get them killed and/or die with them. (3) Sit here until the explorer destroyed/captured ART and returned, or ART destroyed/captured the explorer and returned [...]
When you put it like that, option 2 was looking pretty good.
[Network Effect]
Dr. Mensah would never trust me again. She would never stand close enough to touch (but without touching, because touching is gross) and just trust me. Or maybe she would, but it wouldn’t be the same.
Fuck, fuck everything, fuck this, fuck me especially.
[Network Effect]
-----------------------------
When you deeply care about someone, the idea of upsetting this person is enough to change (a life-time of) behavioural principles. Murderbot cares deeply about PresAux people, in particular, Mensah. So, even though it thought the best way to ensure her safety was to eliminate the target in front of it, it still couldn't do so, causing such anguish.
----------------------------
Something similar is seen in ART, too. It is less burdened with emotions than SecUnit, and can show ruthlessness. It can manipulate innocent bystanders if that meant saving the ones it is programmed to care about (i.e., its crew).
But in Network Effect, it faces the dilemma of potentially sacrificing SecUnit 03:
This is the first retrieval I have performed without a governor module and I want it to be successful. I want to find the other SecUnit. I send a status update to Perihelion and it does not reply immediately. Then it sends, Hold position. I tell it, I must proceed in order to complete the retrieval. It said, SecUnit would be angry if I sacrificed you with no chance of success. What?
[Network Effect]
ART, before its further interactions with Murderbot, might have let Three go and search. It was the thought of what Murderbot would think that made it hesitate. And probably it is such a strange concept that it is confusing Three. Three comes across as a rather naive and gentle SecUnit, but at this point of just having been freed from its governor module, it would kill to protect its clients, without hesitation.
Mycroft Holmes in BBC Sherlock says (in a slightly different context), "All lives end. All hearts are broken. Caring is not an advantage, Sherlock."
Caring may not necessarily lead to correct decisions. But the agony caused by caring certainly gives depth to the person. What sets apart a person from a machine. And the distinction is not based on whether the being is organic based or not.
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imitationgame77 · 14 days ago
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Same! The only name I got the spelling (in my head) right was Dr. Mensah.
People who started with books seem to have a variety of pronunciations in their head, too.
I wonder if Kevin R. Free was given insturctions by M. Wells how each name should be pronounced.
I've been seeing lots of murderbot posts today and I'm so excited because I love it so much and want more content
However I am shook because I have listened to them all as audiobooks and only now am learning how all these names are spelt 😳
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imitationgame77 · 17 days ago
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This is just too adorable 🥰
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Thinking about a young Perihelion babysitting Iris and crying forever.
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imitationgame77 · 17 days ago
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MB doesn't wear any armour from Book 2 onwards - and even when offered to borrow from three, still wouldn't do that. Considering that it said "I love you, armor, and I’m never leaving you again" in ASR, that's a massive change.
Yet MB can still beat other SecUnits in full armour - and what's more ART trusts that it will win.
This art is so beautiful!
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12. Battle
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imitationgame77 · 19 days ago
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thiago*
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imitationgame77 · 20 days ago
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This is so beautiful!
I found the first dialogue,
2.0: ART?
ART: I'm here
really touching somehow.
10 Code
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imitationgame77 · 21 days ago
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Network Effect (Amena's POV) - now complete
When I read Network Effect, I wondered how the event seemed like Amena who could not see all of MB's internal multi-tasking activities.
But she was very observant in her own way, sometimes more so than MB itself or adults. And ART who liked adolescents in general seemed to find it easier to talk to her.
That was why I wanted to do the retelling from her POV.
Turned out to be a lot longer that I had expected, finally this is complete. Since it is not an AU, there is no surprise in plotline, but you will get to see (my interpretations of) what may have been said that MB did not tell us.
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