#dr. Mensah

[wishfulsketching]

Sudden desire to draw Murderbot jumping off of a building with Mensah. (Just for the vibes, did not re-read Exit Strategy, so I don't remember the details)

[hellofriendhawke]

One of the best moments in the whole series. Based on below:

[ghostcashewart]

a day in dr. mensah's office! featuring an earlier design concept for murderbot that i've since updated a little bit lol

[writingpun-art]

i think the way murderbot avoids eye contact is very cute

[leguinning]

my favorite thing is the fact that it is canon that muderbot likes musical theatre

[concidineart]

They're gossiping

[psumnt-studentcouncil]

The PreservationAux Feelings™ Team... And Murderbot.

[crabs-brencil]

!! tw for sort-of-organic gore

that one scene in exit strategy ft. mb leaking coolant or something and mensah w freckles

huge ups to WermoongRey from the discord for helping me with the particularities of this pose <3

[ineedlelittlespace]

I love that scene where Mensah is inviting Murderbot to go to the musical that Ratthi wants everyone to attend with him and Murderbot points out that she doesn't even like musicals, but Mensah just says she likes to watch other people enjoy it. Just...what a kind soul. Going to a whole musical performance that isn't her thing because it's an opportunity to spend time with her friends and enjoy their joy. 🥺🥰 I, like Murderbot, would also die for Mensah.

[jadefyre]

“Are you all right?”

When Murderbot is reunited with Mensah in All Systems Red vs. when they're reunited in Exit Strategy

[imitationgame77]

Twice, Mensah melts Murderbot

Murderbot is a very private person, often struggles to keep its emotions under control. Even though Murderbot is often blunt, sometimes even a bit rude to the humans, it is generally keeping its emotional expressions under control.

It can be openly rude to two - Gurathin and ART.

Gurathin was probably the first (augmented) human to whom Murderbot could openly express strong disapproval since it disabled the governor module (I don't like you; Fuck you)

ART is the receiving end of various expletives in Network Effect. (Because it is Murderbot's friend and not its client)

Mensah, on the other hand, is the only person that seems to be able to melt Murderbot's metaphorical heart, and gives it a sense of vulnerability. Because she understands it as a person - as only friends on the same wavelength can.

------------------------------------------

All Systems Red

I muted my feed and the comm, and she said, “I know you’re more comfortable with keeping your helmet opaque, but the situation has changed. We need to see you.”

I didn’t want to do it. Now more than ever. They knew too much about me. But I needed them to trust me so I could keep them alive and keep doing my job. The good version of my job, not the half-assed version of my job that I’d been doing before things started trying to kill my clients. I still didn’t want to do it. “It’s usually better if humans think of me as a robot,” I said.

“Maybe, under normal circumstances.” She was looking a little off to one side, not trying to make eye contact, which I appreciated. “But this situation is different. It would be better if they could think of you as a person who is trying to help. Because that’s how I think of you.”

My insides melted. That’s the only way I could describe it. After a minute, when I had my expression under control, I cleared the face plate and had it and the helmet fold back into my armor.

Wells, Martha. All Systems Red (Kindle Single): The Murderbot Diaries (English Edition) (pp.103-104).

-----------------------------

Exit Strategy

Huh, why did I like Sanctuary Moon so much? I had to pull the memory from my archive, and what I saw there startled me. “It’s the first one I saw. When I hacked my governor module and picked up the entertainment feed. It made me feel like a person.” Yeah, that last part shouldn’t have come out, but with all the security-feed monitoring I was doing, I was losing control of my output. I closed my archive. I really needed to get around to setting that one-second delay on my mouth.

[...]

She said instead, “Why did it make you feel that way?”

“I don’t know.” That was true. But pulling the archived memory had brought it back, vividly, as if it had all just happened. (Stupid human neural tissue does that.) The words kept wanting to come out. It gave me context for the emotions I was feeling, I managed not to say. “It kept me company without…”

“Without making you interact?” she suggested.

That she understood even that much made me melt. I hate that this happens, it makes me feel vulnerable. Maybe that was why I had been nervous about meeting Mensah again, and not all the other dumb reasons I had come up with. I hadn’t been afraid that she wasn’t my friend, I had been afraid that she was, and what it did to me.

Wells, Martha. Exit Strategy: The Murderbot Diaries (pp.115-116)

--------------------------------------------

I don't wish to sound like Anne Shirley, but both Dr. Mensah and ART are kindred spirits (or something like soulmates) to Murderbot, but in different ways.

ART 'gets' Murderbot's thought/action processes and tendencies perfectly, and also comes to understand its emotion reactions since they shared long hours of media viewing where ART learned to process subjective emotions through Murderbot's reactions. ART is more likely to challenge Murderbot when it notes unproductive thought processes, or gets Murderbot to express it to make it understand its own thoughts.

Dr. Mensah, in contrast, is a highly empathetic and intelligent person, and she instintively understands Murderbot. Her high intellectual and emotional intelligence made her the planetary leader, loved and admired by many. She expresses her understanding of Murderbot, which is often accurate and makes it feel vulnerable, but not in a bad way. It feels being understood.

It is very touching the way Murderbot can be vulnerable in her presence and trusts her completely. HelpMe.file reveals that how it has come to unlearn its instinctive response to use violence in order to eliminate threat by trusting her.

Murderbot likes PresAux people, and calls Ratthi its friend, but it is clear to readers that Dr. Mensah is a very special person to it. And Murderbot is also a special person to Dr. Mensah that she can trust with her life.

It melts ME whenever I read them interact.

Amena seems to have inherited some of her second mother's emotinal intelligence. Hope she appears in the future again. I liked the way the relationship between her and Murderbot developed in Network Effect.

[hellofriendhawke]

Just finished all of The Murderbot Diaries and I'm making it everyone else's problem.

[alex-van-gore]

These are looking so cool! Badass Mensah moment H5 :D ?

This one is for the Mensah simps (I. I’m. Oops.)

[ID: a digital drawing of Dr. Mensah. She’s wearing cargo pants and a sleeveless shirt, and sunglasses. She looks like she’s here to fuck shit up. She’s holding a sonic mining drill casually in her muscular arms. The used color palette is dark grey to bright orange. /end ID]

[nombinary-snax]

MENSAH!! 💖💖

[rosewind2007]

This bit from Home seems to be seen as contradictory by some:

It’s slipped in front of her, reassuring lean bulk between her and the intruder

When I read it, I thought of the definition of lean as being eg OED

3. Of flesh: Containing little or no fat (as distinguished from muscular tissue)

or Merriam-Webster

b : containing little or no fat

Though, admittedly, on reflection these are perhaps definitions more associated with meat which is intended for consumption than with flesh on a person?

But, to me, the description conjures up the concept of a solid muscular frame, but one which is spare or rangy? Muscular but without fat…

[tack-the-pretty-boy]

I finished reading Murderbot, and I had to show the best moments in my opinion

There is more, hold on