#turi (murderbot)

[homosekularnost]

do we think art knows murderbot said it smells like dirty socks

[lazyrezi]

[iviarellereads]

Network Effect, Chapter 17

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Murderbot Diaries, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

In which this is all a little too much, isn't it?

Designation: SecUnit 003 Barish-Estranza Explorer Task Group-Colony Reclamation Project 520972 Status:Retrieval in progress. Baseship Explorer is destroyed. Piloting shuttle to unidentified transport.

3, bless its heart, taps Perihelion requesting contact. Art asks who the fuck it is. 3 is deeply unaccustomed to AIs that think for themselves, and is afraid that non-standard contact will put its clients at risk, and it promised 2 that it would deliver them intact. It tells Art it has five of its own clients, and three of Art's, and that Murderbot 2.0 sent it. Art seizes control of the shuttle. 3 can accept that.

Ratthi and Amena meet the shuttle in the bay. 3 recognizes them from the HelpMe file, and is relieved, right up until Ratthi says Art told them 3 disabled its governor module, at which point its soul slightly leaves its body as it is WAY out of its depth.(1) At its lack of response, Art tells it in a private channel that if 3 thinks about hurting them, it will dismantle 3 to component parts before it erases its consciousness.

3 tells them that the humans need medical attention, and quarantine is recommended for the implant influence. Amena is excited and asks Art if this is its crew. Art says, only three, but it's relieved to recognize them as they come off the shuttle.

Arada arrives during the unloading. One of Art's people, Karime, says not to scan them, because they think that's how the infection spreads. Arada wonders what kind of scans that could apply to.

Amena tells Arada that 3 helped the crew escape, and now they (the Preservation crew) have to help 3. 3 is surprised that anyone would want to help a SecUnit, but Ratthi promises, they'll hide it and tell B-E it died if it wants.

3 is lost and confused and very overwhelmed with emotions it was never equipped to process.(2)

Things are moving very fast. And I have been confused, and have delayed delivering the important message. Reply: “I’m sorry, I will comply as soon as possible, but I have an important communication for someone onboard called ART.” The humans stop talking. Transport, public channel: Tell me. Reply: “The message is from Murderbot 2.0 and begins: ART, I’m going to download to the surface. Me version 1.0 is there with Overse and Thiago. They’ve found Iris, Matteo, Seth, Tarik, and Kaede—” I have to stop because the other humans become loud, then shush each other. I finish, “but 1.0 has been captured by hostiles, repeat, 1.0 is captured by hostiles.”

The humans and Art all get a little worked up over this, and nothing follows any protocol 3 can recognize or follow. While Ratthi tries to get Art to admit what the scanning-infection entails, Amena asks 3 if it has a name, or something they can call it. Feeling compelled to answer, 3 says to call it "Three." Then it remembers its governor module is defunct now, and it doesn't have to do anything.

When Art approaches the dock, communication with its remaining people is restored, and everyone's caught up on the status. Art orders all its humans to get on the maintenance capsule, but Iris wants to help her friend's friend. Art says it has it under control, but Overse says she and Thiago are in good shape, they can stay and help. Iris insists she and Matteo will help as well.

Art tells them they cannot remain on the surface, because it's armed its pathfinder drones and is holding the colony hostage until MB is returned. Everyone explodes except Ratthi, who noticed the drones in the cargo module.

3 gets overwhelmed at the speed and fervor of the conversation. But, 2 asked it what it wanted, and now it wants to help with the retrieval.(3) It tells Art it knows what to do, and can help. Art asks why. 3 says 2 showed it the HelpMe file, and… it asked what it wanted, and it wants to help. Art pauses, then says "Good."(4)

The humans are still talking, but business needs doing now.

Perihelion: Please calm yourselves and stop talking. Plan A01: Rain Destruction has been superseded by Plan B01: Distract and Extract.(5)

=====

(1) I wonder how 2, or indeed how Murderbot Classic, would feel watching it now. (2) Because that doesn't remind us of anyone. It's even less prepared than our MB, since it didn't figure out how to hack its governor module on its own, it didn't plan this. (3) 3 is a proof of concept. 3 is everything this series has been about. Because 3 had no reason to defy its programming, no inciting incident like MB had. But, when given a chance, it wants to help, it wants to be a good person, and use what it knows to help save life. I'm lightly emotionally compromised from fatigue right now but ahhhh my heart. (4) And then, Art's response! "Good." It wouldn't have tolerated any danger to anyone it cares about, but it would have accepted a SecUnit, a 3, who remained somewhat passive and less complex than its MB. But I can't help but feel that its gratitude for competent help, and its pride in what 2 managed to accomplish, and a bunch of other things are all adding up here. (5) Time to go watch a harrowing chapter or three and then PUNCH THE AIR because this is a RESCUE BAYBEE!

[morporkian-cryptid]

I've just finished Network Effect and OH MY GODS I love ART and Murderbot so much. And I can absolutely see why people ship them.

Also this is how I picture them:

I'm reading The Murderbot Diaries (Network Effect, so, spoiler alert), and man, Murderbot's relationship with ART makes me insane. It's like, you're an insufferable asshole. You're my best friend. Saying that word makes me retch. You're the only person in the universe who could possibly understand what it's like to be me. I can't possibly understand what it's like to be you. I must look like an ant to you. I've put my unconscious body in your hands and let you alter it. We both love our humans to the point of destruction. You've killed people to protect me and my friends. You only did it because you were between two jobs and bored. We watch TV shows together. I saw you have an emotional breakdown about a historical drama. You could kill me in a hundred different ways. I've brutally murdered several people to avenge you. You were ready to kill all my friends to save yours. I've brought you back from the dead. You're keeping us prisoner. I'm your only chance of saving your friends. I've lived and traveled inside your body, and you've been a passenger in my brain. We don't even know each other's real names.

[polyhexian]

God what did martyn and Seth and turi think when three was like "murderbot is on the planet and has found Iris Matteo, Seth, Tarik, and Kaede" like. They barely know what the fuck is going on as it is. The SecUnit standing in the corner suddenly went rogue and rescued them and they're back on the ship and it's free now??? Somehow?? And who the FUCK are these people, why is there a teenage girl here, and then they find out their team members, including for Seth and martyn their teenage daughter, are on the planet with a rogue SecUnit named fucking "Murderbot." No, sorry. Hang on. "Murderbot 1.0." there's two fucking Murderbots in play here. And then you're like okay, our giant incredibly intelligent research vessel who's function it is to rescue and protect oppressed people's, what do we do? And the ship is like I'm going to shoot bombs at those people until they give me my fucking Murderbot back. I'd think I was hallucinating

[murderbotseptember]

Prompts

(Plain text below the cut)

Plain text

Prompts:

Jollybaby | Preservation station | non-corporate political entities

Tlacey | Graycris | alien remnants

Kaede | Timestream Defenders Orion | augments

Holism | Pansystem University of Mihira and New Tideland | teaching and learning

Supervisor Leonide | Barish-Estranza | corporate life

Don Abene | Sanctuary Moon | repairs

Tapan | RaviHyral | stations and rings

Human one | BreharWallHan | refuge

Tellus | Medcenter Argala | medical treatment

Three | Barish-Estranza explorer ship | governor module

Thiago | DeltFall | planetary surveys

Eletra | Worldhoppers | contract labour

Wilken | HaveRatton Station | weapons

Newest free SecUnit | Adamantine | colonies

Tarik | Valorous Defenders | entertainment feeds

Miki | Milu | [insert here] gone wrong

Rami | Goodnight Lander Independent | bot pilots

Councillor Ephraim | Lineages of the Sun | advertising

Serrat | TranRollinHyfa | communication

Murderbot 2.0 | The Company | AI

Amena | Drama Sun Islands | childhood

Captain Seth | Corporation Rim | buffer phrases

Dr. Volescu | PreservationAux | planets

Balin | Port FreeCommerce | sentience/sapience

Officer Aylen | Palisade | bots

AdaCol2 | Bharadwaj's documentary | Hubsys/Secsys

Tano | Preservation | non-human life forms

Senior Officer Indah | Preservation life-tender | space travel

Tlacey's comfortunit | Ganaka Pit | constructs

Turi | Starchy Foods | sustenance

Alternative prompts:

“There is a lot about what is going on here that I do not understand but I am participating anyway.”

“You are incorrect, iris. I can bomb the colony.”

“I don’t like you.” / “I know.”

“Priority change rejected.”

“I have a court order.”

“I have gotten clients out of situations that were <9% survivable.”

[aspec-tmbd]

My armor is your armor - molecular_machine - The Murderbot Diaries (Martha Wells) [Archive Of Our Own]

Title: My armor is your armor Author: molecular_machine Rating: General Audiences Tags: #No Archive Warnings Apply #SecUnit 3 #Murderbot #ART | Perihelion #Overse #Turi $POV SecUnit 3 #Communicating is Hard Words: 102 Chapters: 1/1

Three has trouble articulating its offer to Murderbot (Yes, it had taken 2.3 minutes of questioning by both me and ART and Overse and Turi to figure out what it was trying to tell us.) -from System Collapse

[rosewind2007]

Especially when you consider that Turi is an adolescent!

ART’s human Turi WHO WAS YOUNG LIKE AMENA!

You set a kid to tackle your rogue AI’s creative accounting!

I too am starting to wonder just what kind of university this is…

😉

This is the wildest thing in the book actually. What is it up to.

[ineedlelittlespace]

Turi and Peri discuss the finer points of creative bookkeeping.

[waffles-xd]

Inspired by @rrainbowmagnet ‘s height and voice headcanon list, I shall be providing some of my own headcanons.

PresAux (plus Amena and Thiago)

Volescu: 5’10, mid/late sixties, a very sweet old man

Mensah: 5’8, late fifties, trans woman, soccer mom vibes, would probably own a minivan

Thiago: 5’9, early fifties, Izzy Hands OFMD season 1 vibes

Gurathin: 5’7, late forties/early fifties, trans masc, the energy of an overworked and underpaid IT guy, glasses, sounds kinda like Jon Hamm

Arada: 5’5, mid forties, very good at fixing things, basically the unofficial official PresAux handywoman, owns a ‘women love me, fish fear me’ hat

Overse: 6’2, mid forties, the introvert to Arada’s extrovert, looks kinda like Abby Mueller

Bharadwaj: 5’ll, late thirties/early forties, wears a lot of oversized sweaters and turtlenecks, loves books

Pin-Lee: 5’3, mid thirties, chihuahua vibes, just a feral little ball of energy, looks kinda like Andrea Macasaet (specifically from Six)

Ratthi- 6’4, early/mid thirties, wears glasses, sexy biologist moment, Phichit Chulanont vibes

Murderbot: 6’5, mid twenties, looks a lot like Vico Ortiz (specifically as Jim in OFMD season 2)

Amena: 5’6, sixteen, idk why but I feel like she’d be really into tennis

Perihelion + Crew:

Seth: 6’0, mid forties, looks kinda like Miles Morales’s dad in ITSV/ATSV, the fun dad

Martyn: 5’10, mid forties, the reasonable dad, the “you better have my daughter back at 9 sharp, young man” dad

Three: 6’6, late teens,

Kaede: 5’8, mid thirties, Mari Katsuki from YOI vibes, wine aunt (gn)

Matteo: 5’9, mid thirties, idk why but Ivan from OFMD vibes, would really like watching opera

Tarik: 5’4, early thirties, good friends with Matteo, a little bit of a know it all, also likes watching opera

Karime: 5’6, early twenties, has terrible taste in men, only rivaled by Ratthi

Turi: 5’5, eighteen, good friends with Iris

Iris: 5’9, seventeen, very good at karaoke, she and Peri were absolute MENACES as children, Anathema Device vibes

Perihelion: ~ 800x1250 ft, seventeen, its voice is not distinguishable as being masculine or feminine, it simply just IS, yellow PJs kid from Polar Express vibes

This took way too long to write lol

[homosekularnost]

Turi | Starchy Foods | sustenance (day 30)

[elexuscal]

Addendum: Key Characters and Groups

These books have a large cast, and so for the sake of brevity, I will only be mentioning characters who are likely to show up/be mentioned in next book. Hopefully I won't miss anyone!

(Again, there are spoilers!)

====== Murderbot: Snarky, depressed, half-human half-robot who's adjusting to freedom. Dr. Ayda Mensah: Brave and compassionate research scientist, ex-planetary admin of the Preservation Alliance. Needs therapy.

ART/Perihelion: Extremely advanced AI teaching and research vessel that secretly conducts anti-corporate espionage. Threatened to bomb a colony to rescue Murderbot.

Amena: Mensah's teenage daughter. Originally resentful of Murderbot, the two became fire-forged friends. Has a particular talent for mediating Murderbot and ART's arguments. Pin-Lee: The foul-mouthed and foul-tempered PresAux lawyer.

Dr. Ratthi: A kind-hearted and somewhat ditzy PresAux biologist. Skilled at navigating inter-personal issues.

Dr. Arada: An optimistic and sweet-hearted PresAux biologist. Promoted to survey head in Network Effect. Married to Overse.

Overse: 'Scanning expert' of the PresAux team. More of a realist than her wife, Arada.

Thiago: Linguist of the Preservation Survey, and Dr. Mensah's brother-in-law. Suspected Murderbot of emotionally manipulating Mensah, but re-evaluated after getting to know it better.

SecUnit Three: A very newly rogue SecUnit and the only survivor of a set of three. Might not always understand what's going on, but willing to help anyway!

Murderbot 2.0: A killware copy of Murderbot with the original's attitude combined with ART's know-it-all personality. Went out in a blaze of glory against TargetControlSys.

TargetControlSys: The operating system of a so-called alien hive-mind running on a mixture of crystal fungi and human wetware. Humans contaminated by it often have grey skin and oddly thin builds. Infected colonists tried to spread the infection by kidnapping ART and inserting control-chips into peoples' necks.

Barish-Estranza: Company that's attempting to take ownership of the abandoned colony (and "employ" any surviving colonists). Not thrilled about the alien contamination.

Eletra: Rank and file Barish-Estranza employee. Was kidnapped and chipped by infected colonists. Spent a significant time on ART, but due to medical tampering, has a fuzzy memory of the whole ordeal. Returned to Barish-Estranza.

Supervisor Leonide: The apparent leader of the Barish-Estranza colony retrieval team. Tried to kidnap Arada; fucked around and found out.

Iris: A young augmented woman and "ART's favourite". Cool under pressure.

Captain Seth: ART's captain and Iris's father.

Martyn: Member of ART's crew, biologist, and Iris's other father.

ART's Crew: Also includes Karime, Kaede, Matteo, and Turi. Dr. Bharadwaj: Scientist Murderbot rescued from becoming worm chow, but who was seriously injured in the aftermath. Developing an AI-rights documentary with interviews featuring Murderbot.

Dr. Gurathin: The augmented data analyst of the PresAux. While initially mistrustful of Murderbot, now is very ride-or-die.

Murderbot Diaries Book Summaries

The release of the 7th book in the Murderbot Diaries series, System Collapse, approaches in November!

I've seen at least one person looking for a summary of past events... So I've made just that! If it's been a while since you read previous books (or you just like hopping into series half-way through), this will get you up to speed!

That said, this absolutely has spoilers, so if that's not your jam, turn away now.

====

Short Story – Compulsory: A recently-rogue Murderbot decides on a whim to rescue a miner who falls into a ventilation shaft. We see its developing love of Sanctuary Moon and what is implied to be the first time it violated its orders to protect someone.

All Systems Red (ASR):

Murderbot is the contractually-obligated security guard on a survey of "surprisingly nice" scientists. Dr. Mensah particularly impresses Murderbot for her level head and kind nature. It turns out their survey is being sabotaged by the cut-throat corporation GreyCris, who don't want them uncovering alien remnants. Murderbot and the scientists go back-and-forth protecting one another. The survey team discover that it's rogue. After some initial tension, they accept it as a team-member. They escape GreyCris, although Murderbot nearly dies in the process. When it wakes up again, the scientists have bought/freed it. In the name of self-actualization, Murderbot runs away.

Artificial Condition (AC): Murderbot sets off to investigate Ganaka Pit, the facility where it supposedly killed a large number of its own clients. On the way, it discovers the spaceship it's travelling on actually dangerously hyper-intelligent. After some initial threats/tension, the two bond over TV. The Asshole Research Transport (ART) helps disguise Murderbot as a human. With ART's help, Murderbot uncovers that the mass death was a tragic accident caused by ComfortUnit malware. Posing as a human, the pair help rescue a trio of researchers and their data from their shitty ex-boss, and set a ComfortUnit free.

Rogue Protocol (RP):

On an impromptu quest to get blackmail on GreyCris for Dr. Mensah's ongoing legal battle, Murderbot investigates an abandoned terraforming facility. It meets a cheerful robot named Miki who immediately declares themselves friends. Miki is helping a human assessment team who become imperiled when they're attacked both by CombatBots and their own double-dealing human security. Murderbot reflectively rescues them, posing as a Definitely Normal SecUnit, although the team's leader clearly sees through that claim. Murderbot manages to collect the intel on GrayCris and protect the humans, but not before Miki performs a heroic sacrifice.

Exit Strategy (ES):

After discovering Dr. Mensah has been kidnapped by GreyCris, Murderbot rushes to save her. This forces it to re-unite with the other survey members; Pin-Lee, Ratthi, and Gurathin. While unsure of each other, the team manage to rescue their friend. Murderbot attempts a self-destructive last-stand against a CombatSecUnit, only for the humans to save its ass. The team escapes on a company gunship, but not before Murderbot melts its brain fighting off killware. When it rebuilds its systems, it decides to stay with its humans in the Preservation Alliance for a while.

Short Story - Home, Range, Niche, Territory:

Shortly after Exit Strategy, Dr. Mensah reflects on her time in captivity and her new friendship with SecUnit. Apparently she's been avoiding getting treatment for her extensive emotional trauma. She has a panic attack when she's cornered by a journalist, who's scared off by Murderbot.

Fugitive Telemetry (FT): A human is found dead. Murderbot is called in as a consultant on the case, in the hopes of building good will with Preservation Security. Eventually it manages to prove itself, particularly after it succeeds in a daring rescue of kidnapped corporate refugees. One of the refugees realises it's a SecUnit and shoots it. The dead human turns out to have been a liberator of indentured labourers, and the killer was actually the Port Authority robot Balin, who was secretly a disguised CombatBot acting on outside orders. The local bot community intervenes to stop Balin from hurting anyone else.

Network Effect (NE):

Murderbot is providing security for a Preservation Alliance survey which goes south when raiders attack and try to take Dr. Mensah's brother-in-law, Thiago, hostage. It then goes doubly south when, on the way home, the team's ship gets attacked by... ART?

It appears that ART has been deleted and its crew has gone missing, replaced with mysterious grey people. While protecting a team of its humans, including Dr. Mensah's teenage daughter Amena, Murderbot manages to reboot ART. ART kills the grey humans but refuses to let everyone go until and unless they help it retrieve its crew. Everyone reluctantly agrees, but Murderbot is pissed.

Eventually Murderbot and ART make up. Then they create a sort-of-baby in the form of a killware copy of Murderbot who dubs itself Murderbot 2.0. Half of ART's missing crew is found on a local planet's surface, though Murderbot is captured while helping them escape. Murderbot 2.0 manages to rescue the other half from a spaceship with the help of the newly freed SecUnit 3. The local colonists are discovered to have gone a liiiiitttle bit kooky due to infection via an alien fungus. ART threatens to bomb their colony to get Murderbot back. Murderbot gets infected, but Murderbot 2.0 does a self-sacrificial attack to save it and destroy the fungi's primary host. Meanwhile, the humans, ART, and SecUnit 3 work together to rescue Murderbot without any more bloodshed.

Murderbot has a bit of an epiphany that all its various friends do in fact love and care for it. When an understandably pissed and confused Dr. Mensah shows up like a month later, the groups decide on forming a mutual partnership. Murderbot tells Dr. Mensah that it would like to work with ART for a little while.

[chelshiart]

Part 2 of 2: Team Perihelion (and Three!)

(Click here for Team Preservation!)

At first I was going to draw them all in crewniform, but then got tired of that quickly enough 😂

[iviarellereads]

Network Effect, Chapter 20

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Murderbot Diaries, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

In which Murderbot needs to have emotions a few more times than it's used to.

Murderbot wishes it could stay unconscious, but it restarts in time to limp out of the shuttle and onto Art, before passing out again. When it wakes this time, at first it thinks it's surrounded by unfamiliar humans, until Amena warns Art's people that MB doesn't like to be touched. It sees 3 to the side, out of its armour and in Art's crew clothing, looking like it has no idea what it should be doing.(1)

The humans figure out how Art can delete the contaminated code from MB without scanning it, but want to do some first aid to ensure MB makes it through the process. They confirm nobody's shooting at them or in pursuit, they just have to pop the B-E stragglers back over to their own transport once they can be sure they won't carry the contamination.

Arada tells Iris that Art told them what its real purpose was in the system. Iris seems nervous and defensive, but Arada says they'll gladly sign a contract saying they won't betray that confidence, if it helps, though Ratthi points out they'll need an explanation of some sort. Amena agrees, saying her second mom isn't easy to lie to. Kaede asks about this.

“She’s the head of the— She was the head of the Preservation Alliance Council,” Amena explained. “Dr. Mensah. She was in the newsfeeds a lot in the CR—she was kidnapped by a corporate called GrayCris and rescued by a SecUnit on TranRollinHyfa, and there was a company armed ship that was attacked and another ship from a security corporate that got blown up.” “Rescued by a…” Matteo trailed off and they all stared at me.(2)

MB complains to Art that MB was under the impression that Art had told its humans about it. Art says it told them it met a rogue SecUnit, not that that SecUnit was the same one that every mention of a SecUnit in the news in the last year was referring to.

Art's humans are still a little shocked at the scope of this, and Ratthi confirms the TranRollinHyfa part of the story, at least, since he was there. He offers that this gives Art's crew some leverage about the Pres lot. Iris asks if they can just agree, for now, that they're allies and keep each other's secrets? Matteo adds, and that neither party likes B-E. Arada agrees readily.

Thiago and Overse arrive with the emergency medkit, and MB shuts down again for a while. The patching-up process is messy and biological. At some point, 3 figures out it can go wherever it wants, and leaves. They set up an isolation box so Art can still feed-connect with MB without contamination, and they watch Timestream Defenders Orion together.

Martyn, still undergoing decontamination himself, is video-conferenced in to consult. He asks how many SecUnit friends Art has, but Iris says this is the one they were threatening to bomb the colony to rescue. MB says that sounds fake. Ratthi confirms it, though, and Art clarifies that that was plan A01, and he went with plan B01 which was more complicated but more effective. Ratthi suggests Art play back the video record, and MB wants to see it.

So, Art pauses TDO and plays the security archive. MB gets more than a little overwhelmed at how everyone endangered themselves to save it.(3)

When the med patching is done, they move MB's consciousness into the isolation box for Art to clean up its code. Art leaves a part of its consciousness in the box for company. After finishing some TDO, MB says Art and Amena were right, and 2 was a person, even if it wasn't like a baby. Art asks if MB regrets deploying it, and MB says, no, because without that, they might all have been contaminated by now.

MB brings up how Art told its humans about MB. Art says it just told them it helped a rogue SecUnit get to RaviHyral, it left out the Tlacey bits. MB accuses Art of making it sound safe. Art says its humans understand how dangerous the corporates are.(4)

Art says it's finished removing the damaged code, but while MB's consciousness is returned to its body, Art has a proposal: it thinks MB's help would be "invaluable" on an upcoming mission of Art's. MB worries Art's crew won't like MB being involved, but Art says it will discuss the matter with them. MB doesn't even make a joke about Art's idea of what a discussion with humans looks like.

MB, for its part, is still having trouble with the bit where so many humans were figuring out how to rescue it, when the whole point of constructs like MB is that they can be abandoned in an emergency.

ART said, I know you have difficulty making decisions so you don’t need to give your answer right away.(5) I do not have difficulty making decisions, ART, you’re full of— I said, but it had already dropped me back in my body. And of course, my performance reliability crashed immediately and I had a forced shutdown.

MB wakes up in Medical, and with access to camera feeds all over the ship. It checks in on each group. Amena is nearby, browsing the catalog for Pansystem University.(6) MB tells her it's conscious, and she smiles and says she'll warn the others.

Before it can think too hard, MB tells Amena that Art asked it to come on a mission. She asks how long, and it says, for the duration of the mission. Though, to itself, it thinks Art intends for a longer partnership.(7) Amena asks if that's like asking someone to stay with your family over the holidays to see if everyone gets along "before you get serious". MB says it doesn't really understand what she means by that, but since Art doesn't jump in to say she's wrong, maybe.

Amena thought it over. “I guess I’m not surprised. How do you feel about it?” My expression must have changed because she rolled her eyes. “Oh sorry, I used the f word there.” Again, I have no idea why ART likes adolescent humans. “I don’t know,” I told her.

Amena asks what MB thinks Mensah will say. MB doesn't know, so asks what Amena thinks. She snorts, and says she was just getting used to MB, but it might be a good idea… except for the part where Art's work takes it into the CorpRim a lot. MB admits that's a factor, though it thinks privately that Art's cargo missions are probably a form of spy recon that no corporate would ever suspect.

After some thought, Amena says Art definitely cares about MB, a lot. The only reason it sent the killware was because it thought that was the best way to keep MB from having to do anything dangerous. She doesn't think Art would invite MB to come with it, if it didn't think the trip would be good for MB.

Three cycles later, the humans leave their quarantine. The B-E crew are returned to their transport with their own shuttle. The transport tails Art a little, as if making sure they don't still try to steal the system out from under B-E. Which, of course, they still plan to do if they can.

The other problem is that they still have 3. Amena and Ratthi suggest MB help it to adjust, but MB thinks it would want to be left alone, under those circumstances, and 3 hasn't even voluntarily sat in a chair yet, it's probably not ready to talk.(8) Still, after those three cycles, MB notices 3 shadowing it, and asks what's up. 3 brings up how MB continued doing its job, even after disabling its governor module. MB asks if 3 wants to go back. No, it says it won't, but it doesn't know what it will do.

MB explains that it kept doing its job because having choices, making changes, is terrifying. 3 says the Preservation crew said it could go with them. MB says 3 can trust their word, though it thinks 3 might think it's delusional.

Still, 3 asks for the rest of the story, for documentation of what happened besides what the HelpMe file outlined. MB thinks about how its memories are a how-to file for fugitive SecUnits, and says it'll copy out the relevant pieces and send them to 3. 3 looks "almost pleased", and thanks it.(9)

A whole twenty cycles after arrival in the system, it's a Preservation ship that arrives first. Arada says they couldn't have gotten here so fast unless they left mere hours after Art did, but Art says they might have: it made a message buoy detailing what happened, and set it to eject when the wormhole drive turned on, hiding it from TCS.

Amena is surprised and asks why Art didn't tell them. MB thinks how Amena still doesn't understand what an asshole Art is.(10) Art admits it didn't tell them because it would have made it harder to convince them to do what it wanted.

MB asks if they can call the Pres ship on comms, suspecting who's aboard. Art does so, and MB first asks if Mensah is aboard, then when she confirms, it gives her a code response. Mensah's relief is audible, as she asks what the hell happened. Amena is annoyed MB has a secret code with her second mom, but MB is just annoyed it has to change it now.

The humans talk, and by the time the responder reaches Art, its crew agrees to tell Mensah their true mission. Pin-Lee is along as well, and an alliance with Preservation would open another experienced corporate contract negotiator to their arsenal. The humans talk and negotiate while MB watches Sanctuary Moon and Art cleans with its drones again in excitement about meeting Mensah.

Introductions in person go swimmingly. Later, Mensah comes to sit with MB in a lounge. Of all the things MB wants to say, the first thing it blurts is to ask if Mensah started the trauma treatment. Drily, she says yes, she had her first appointment, before her daughter and brother-in-law and her friends were kidnapped. But, when MB seems hesitant over asking more, she says it was, or will be, fine, and she was fine until this kicked off.

MB asks if Amena told Mensah about its "emotional collapse". She says no, so MB regrets saying anything, and explains that it thought Art was dead. Mensah says Ratthi's told her how close MB and Art are. MB says Ratthi exaggerates,(11) but it feels bad about not telling Mensah about meeting Art.

Mensah says she doesn't tell MB everything, either. MB says that's because she knows it doesn't want to know everything, and in the same breath, says Art invited it to go on a mission. Mensah asks if it would be temporary or permanent. MB says it doesn't know, but it doesn't want to never see Mensah again. Mensah says she feels the same way, but it can always come visit Preservation between its time with Art. MB says Preservation is the first place it was really a part of on its own terms, and it wants to stay a part of it, but it likes being with Art too.

Mensah asks about the rest of Art's crew, and MB says it doesn't know them yet.

“Working for them temporarily could take care of that problem. If you decide to do that.” She smiled a little. “The good thing is, you do know what you want.” I sort of did know.(12) It was a weird feeling. “That’s new.” She smiled all the way. “I wasn’t going to put it quite that way, but yes.”

Art's crew are resting, except those working on the legal case. Mensah took Amena and Thiago back to the Pres ship, with Amena promising to tell MB how it goes when Thiago makes his apologies to Mensah for misinterpreting her relationship with MB. MB is just glad it doesn't have to be involved.

MB goes up to Art's control deck, where they can have a private conversation, and says if they're going on a mission together, they'll need more media. Art says it's made a collection from its university's archive. MB starts skimming the index, and suggests they pass some along to 3, since it's probably leaving soon.

That’s not why 3 wanted your files, or not the only reason. I asked it why it wanted to help retrieve you, and it said, “stories in the HelpMe.file.” I think your memories are providing it with the sort of context you obtained from human media. I didn’t know what I thought about that. I would never have thought to just hand my files over to 3 the way 2.0 had. And if 2.0 hadn’t done that, targetControlSystem would have won.(13)

MB thinks how it was also a little surprised that 3 almost had a friendship with its fellow SecUnits. It wonders if it was always the exception to SecUnit personality, and if 3 will have better luck communicating with other SecUnits than it obviously does. It thinks it should get 3 a copy of the full documentary Bharadwaj made.

Whatever. For now, keyword searching ART’s index, I think I’d found something even less realistic than Timestream Defenders Orion. I showed the description to ART, and it started the first episode.

=====

(1) Murderbot thinks it's pretty sure on this read, and why shouldn't it be? It's been almost exactly where 3 was. For all its plans on independence, it never really thought about breaking out of the company's control for real. Those first days of freedom, before it left to explore its history? Yeah I bet it knows all too well what 3 is feeling. (2) Yep, their sweet asshole Perihelion really caught a keeper of a rogue SecUnit for a bestie. (3) They love you, pal. Like, your humans love you, and your bestie Art loves you, and even its humans appreciate it so much they wanted to help you purely on Art's very vague word that it met a good rogue SecUnit. You are GOOD, Murderbot, you are worthy and you are loved and you are so good. ;~; (4) I'm realy not sure what the implication here is. I lean toward "Art's humans know the risks of this universe, and a rogue SecUnit just looking to answer whether it's still a danger or not is not, in fact, probably much of a danger" I think? But I don't know. I welcome alternate suggestions in the replies! (5) You snarky asshole! <3 (6) Anyone else feel like this will come back in a later book? (7) Art is a little bit selfish, it likes to keep an eye on those it cares about. Look at how it lost its mind when it lost its crew! And how it threatened to bomb a planet full of people to get MB back. It would never countenance that sort of behaviour under normal circumstances, and the only way to avoid it is to make sure it can keep an eye on everybody forever. Art has its own share of trauma to overcome from this book's events. (You can't accuse me of anything for this one, I'm writing this well ahead of System Collapse's release and I haven't got an ARC.) (8) 3 is an individual, though. It's also a SecUnit, but not from MB's former company, and not one that chose this over a longer period of time. (9) Hey, MB, you ever stop to think that this is included under what the humans suggested in helping 3 adjust? (10) But it's such a lovable one! (11) Do you read these sorts of protests with an aggrieved fondness? I sure do. MB loves its humans the same way Art loves its crew, only its love language is grumping. (12) It only took… how many books? But MB finally has a Want. They grow up so fast. (13) I cannot fathom someone coming up to me and saying "will you be my role model for How To Exist As A Person?" Like, this is the most real reaction.

[blessphemy]

Names in The Murderbot Diaries (character spoilers)

All Systems Red:

Ayda Mensah — "Ayda" is of Arabic origin, meaning “returning, to come back." Mensah is a Ghanian surname (most common surname in current-day Ghana), apparently meaning “third-born”

Pin-Lee — Chinese. Could mean a several things, depending on how it is written.

Ratthi — Possibly a derivative of Hindu goddess of love “Rati.” The surname “Rathi” originates from/is often found in Northern India.

Bharadwaj — A Sanskrit name common to northern India. “Bharadwaja,” was a Vedic saint of ancient India, a renowned scholar.

Arada — In Spanish, "arada" means "plowing." In Turkish, “arada” means “between.”

Overse — “överse” in Swedish translates to “overlook, disregard (the faults of others), ignore, tolerate, forgive” or “to oversee, to review, inspect, monitor, survey.”

Volescu — Possibly Romanian

Gurathin — A mystery. Possibly a variation of the Sanskrit "Krithin"

Artificial Condition:

Eden — Biblical: garden of Eden

Rami — of Arabic origin meaning “archer” or “thrower.” (Etymology honorary mention: the word “tercera” describing Rami’s gender identity, is a spanish word meaning “third”)

Tapan — Hindi name meaning “summer,” “fiery”

Maro — Multiple cultures use the name “Maro,” (Japanese, Greek, Armenian, Hindi)

Tlacey — My bet is this is a space future evolution of the name “Tracey,” which has historically been a masculine name that later became feminine. It means “warlike,” “fierce”

Art — Yes, I know it’s an anagram acronym, but as a human given name, it’s English in origin.

Rogue Protocol:

Rin — Japanese name “dignified, severe, cold,” but may just be a short moniker that Murderbot chose for nondescriptness.

Don Abene — “Don” is a Spanish honorific, masculine. Google search turned up sparse results for “Abene,” with a suggestion that it may be Basque (an Iberian ethnic group), in which it is derived from the word “pillar.” “Abene” could also be a spelling variation of “Abena,” which is a given name meaning “born on Tuesday” (‘day names’ such as these used by Akan people of Ghana). “Abena” is also a Gujarati surname.

Hirune - Thin results again, and once again Basque. Meaning: “trinity, three,” and variation on “Irune”

Miki - A Japanese name, with misc spellings that can mean different things, though typically the first kanji used is “beautiful.” But this may just be intended to be a cutesy short name.

Kader - Arabic, meaning “powerful, capable”

Vibol - Khmer (Cambodian), meaning “abundant, vast”

Brais - Form of Blaise (Gaelic, Latin) English/French

Ejiro - Urhobo / Nigerian, meaning "praise God"

Wilken & Gerth - Both English names, both vaguely military-adjacent

Exit Strategy:

Jian - Chinese (“build” or “strong”), or Hebrew (“God is gracious.”)

Serrat - French surname

Network Effect:

Consuela Makeba - Consuela is a Spanish name meaning “comfort, consolation.” Makeba is an Ethiopian name, after the Queen Makeba.

Mensah’s Marital Partners, Farai and Tano:

Farai - A southern African name of the Shona ethnicity, meaning “joy, happy”

Tano - Possibly Italian, short for Gaetano. Or just a nice 2-syllable name of its own.

Preservation Survey:

Amena - An Arabic name, “honest, faithful.”

Roa - Arabic, or possibly Spanish surname.

Mihail - Romanian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Greek. Variation on “Michael.”

Rajpreet - A Sikh name.

Hanifa - Arabic name meaning “true believer”

Kanti - Indian and Bengali name. Means “beauty.”


Thiago - A Portuguese name, derivative of “Santiago” i.e. “Saint James."

Barish-Estranza:

Barish - Hindi for “rain”

Estranza - Spanish for “strangeness”

Eletra - Similar to “Electra” of Greek myth

Ras - Greek name, meaning “to love”

Leonide - Old Greek

ART’s Crew:

Iris - A flower. Also a Greek name meaning “rainbow.”

Seth - Hebrew. “Set, appointed”

Martyn - Variant of Martin. “Dedicated to Mars” (Mars = God)

Tarik - Arabic. “Evening caller”

Turi - Celtic. “Bear”

Kareem - Arabic. “Generous"

Kaede - In the audiobook this is pronounced much like "Katie," meaning "pure." "Kaede" is also a Japanese name meaning "maple."

Fugitive Telemetry:

Lutran - Possibly a variation on “Lutron,” apparently a transliteration from Greek. Which I would think is a stretch, except it means: “the purchasing money for manumitting slaves, a ransom, the price of ransoming; especially the sacrifice by which expiation is effected, an offering of expiation.”

Indah - Indonesian name, “beautiful one”

Tural - Azerbaijani, “to be alive”

Tifany - Variant of Tiffany, English name “manifestation of God”

Farid - Arabic, Persian, Urdu. “Unique, precious”

Aylen - Mapuche (Native American) name. Possibly, “joy”

Balin - Hindi name meaning “soldier, sword”

Tellus - Possibly a Latin name, meaning “earth”

Kiran (mentioned as a name MB used at TranRollinHyfa) - Used in a variety of places and languages: Indian, Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil, Gujarati, Nepali, Urdu. From the Sanskrit word “kirana,” meaning “sunbeam.”

Home, Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory:

Councilor Sonje - Variation of Sonia, an English name. Sonia itself may be a variation of the Greek Sophia, meaning “wisdom.”

Councilor Ephraim - In the Book of Genesis, Ephraim was the second son of Joseph, becoming the tribe of Ephraim.

Compulsory:

Sekai - A Shona name. “humorous, joy”

Asa - Hebrew, possibly “healer.”

Elane - Old Greek

Bonus: RaviHyral

Ravi = “Sun” in Hindi

(I’m guessing that other place/company names in the books could also be transliterations.)

[thepringlesofblood]

murderbot uses it/its pronouns, and here’s why

im just sick of seeing people try to be all ‘but its up for interpretation’ ‘it’s ambiguous’ ‘we don’t know’ ‘who can never be sure’ and I saw one of those posts like ‘but an agender/gender-neutral protagonist means I can project whatever i want onto them’ and i have simply had it. essay under the cut. *spoilers* obviously for p much all the books, mostly network effect. there’s 1 quote from FT but it’s not plot-relevant

tl;dr mb refers to itself with it/its pronouns, on top of the quadrillion times it actively rejects human ideas of gender (which is an important theme in the series), on top of its Crew and ART using it/its, on top of Pin-Lee writing it detailed legal contracts using it/its pronouns, on top of that AMA where ART says it and mb use it/its, on top of the blurbs on the inside covers & backs of the books using it/its.

disclaimer: i 100% get people who haven’t done a really close reading of the series using they/them for mb as a ‘i’m not sure what to do’ thing or a ‘given no direction i use they/them until a person expresses a preference’ thing. different people have different amounts of knowledge about pronoun usage and the queer community, and may not have a lot of experience with picking up on a character using nonbinary* pronouns in media. I understand where they’re coming from - most of what I’m talking about it is binarily gendering mb (e.g. he or she gross). although using they/them for murderbot is still misgendering, since mb does demonstrate preference for it/its as early as pg 40 of the first book (see below),  it’s still incorrect.

*nonbinary is meant in a very literal sense here, as in “not within the gender binary” i.e. not he/him or she/her. I’m using it as an adjective, not an identity. I’m sure not all it/its users identify as nonbinary, and I highly doubt mb identifies as nonbinary (too much of a human word).

while the series is in first person POV, mb sometimes refers to itself in third person and always uses it/its.

e.g. in Network Effect, when mb is captured by targets near the end and hung upside down and it has to detach its hand to free itself, it remarks, “If this went wrong I was going to feel really stupid. The Targets would finally show up and be all “What the hell was it trying to do to itself?”“ (page 4 of ch 18, my electronic copy doesn’t have individual page #)

update: @chimaerakitten​ reblogged this with a citation I can’t believe I didn’t include! page 40 of All Systems Red, murderbot drops the iconic line, “Yes, talk to Murderbot about its feelings. The idea was so painful I dropped to 97 percent efficiency.” so there’s not even a “well until network effect-” justification, it’s right there in the beginning baby!

murderbot 2.0 refers to both itself and 1.0 using it/its pronouns.

2.0 is literally a copy of 1.0. it has no reason to misgender itself. there is no room for argument here.

e.g. in Network Effect it remarks “That’s one of the reasons Me 1.0 misses its armor.” (pg 5 of ch 16)

also, it works vice-versa, 1.0 uses it/its for 2.0

e.g. Network Effect “You and Amena were right. 2.0 was a person. It wasn’t like a baby, but it was a person.” (pg 9 of ch 20)

@worldsentwined made a lovely post a while back compiling all of the times mb actively rejects/comments on human gender and sex in relation to itself.

while obvs gender =/= pronouns, it’s important to acknowledge mb’s rejection of human gender, because in the series bot/construct gender is a separate thing - p much all bots use it/its that I noticed.

another thing I realized - obviously, mb not identifying with human gender includes non-binary human genders, of which there are plenty of examples in the series, many of which use they/them (Matteo, Turi, Mihail).

this isn’t to say that using they/them = having a gender, see above re: gender =/= pronouns, but it does help reinforce the point that using they/them for mb is still misgendering.

ART refers to mb with either just “SecUnit” or it/its pronouns.

ART can literally read minds, kind of. you really think they went through all of Artificial Condition and Network Effect together without it picking up on what pronouns mb uses?

e.g. Network Effect, it reassures Amena that mb is going to be just fine - “The damage to its organic tissue and support structure is easily repaired.” (pg 13 of ch 8)

also, you think ART would let any humans onboard it misgender mb? no fuckin way.

e.g. Network Effect

Amena talking to ART in private “- because it thought you were dead. It was so upset I thought-Oh, hey, you’re here” (pg 21 of ch 12)

when mb 1.0 finally gets back aboard ART and collapses on the deck - “Amena’s voice said “No, it doesn’t like to be touched!”“ (pg 1 of ch 20)

the PresAux gang use it/its

You could probably try to be like ‘well maybe the presaux gang is just using the secunit standard pronoun’ but consider: by exit strategy, mb has few to no reservations about correcting people, especially people it knows, when they’re wrong.

also Pin-Lee negotiated a contract for it hammering out every detail of interaction, including the “no hugging” clause - she would ABSOLUTELY include whatever pronoun use mb wanted.

e.g. Network Effect, ““No, it says it’s fine,” I heard her [Overse] relaying to the others on our comm. “Well, yes, it’s furious,””(pg 6 (of ch 1))

e.g. Fugitive Telemetry, ““It’s joking.” Ratthi managed to sound like he completely believed that. “That’s how it looks when it’s joking.”“ (pg 15 of ch 4)

Martha Wells did an instagram AMA as mb and ART and upon being asked what pronouns mb and ART use, ART responded w “it/its”

now obvs there’s a bajillion ways that you could tear this apart and argue death of the author, or that bc ART answered not mb it was different, but frankly my dear i don’t give a damn. it’s supporting evidence, not the lynchpin of the whole argument.

update: I finally got Artificial Condition in hardcover, and noticed the little summary blurb on the inside jacket flap thing makes liberal use of the it/its pronoun

“It has a dark past…a past that caused it to christen itself Murderbot. But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more.”

“Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue. What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks…”

in rogue protocol when mb pretends to be a human security consultant  the (fictional) off-base supervisor it makes up is called by she/her once or twice, but note that that’s when mb is pretending to be human, and not even that really since the offsite “security consultant Rin” is 100% fabricated. it/its is kind of the bot pronoun - mb uses it as a way to remind everyone that it’s not human and doesn’t want to be and that’s important and also another post in itself.

but basically: a main theme of the series is acceptance of bots and constructs and non-human entities as people worthy of respect, discrete from humans, and that mb doesn’t have to become human/make itself palatable for humans to be seen as a person, and the it/its pronoun use is an important part of that.

that’s all i got for now but when I get physical copies of the rest of the series its over baby, citations all day every day. I have electronic copies of NE and FT and ASR and physical AC and ES copies, the rest I got from the library to read and thus do not have atm. feel free to add citations in reblogs!

update: i saw a post that brought up an interesting and valid point I want to address (when I find it again I’ll link it) - as a they/them person who isn’t out everywhere, oftentimes I am misgendered and I don’t correct them because its easier - the OP mentioned experiencing the same phenomenon, and I can totally see how this applies to murderbot. If it was just everyone around it using it/its pronouns and it not objecting, that’d be a different story, and I would totally agree with the ambiguity. however, mb does use it/its for itself, and even though it’s not turning to the camera and saying ‘I use it/its’, that still expresses a preference which should be respected.

maybe mb will go by different pronouns in the future as it reckons with and thinks about its own personhood, but I kind of hope not. partly because there are people out there who do use it/its, and I can’t imagine the lack of representation they must face, but also because I think recognition of personhood outside of the human world is an important theme (allegorical to marginalized groups who want to be seen as people without conforming to every widely accepted societal ideal of personhood) (I may be projecting as an autistic person who wants acceptance).

this got too deep and too long. sorry, i just have a lot of feelings.