There Is Extremely Little That MB Thinks About From Its Old Life With Even A Hint Of Positivity, But

There is extremely little that MB thinks about from its old life with even a hint of positivity, but it does remember the safety notices on one installation that actually seemed to expect humans to read them. Were they phrased as threats about how much money an incident would cost? Yes. But they did seem to help.

You can't afford to lose your scrap, now can you?

something about those old safety posters are so fun to me, just the way theyre drawn. reference and un aged version below the cut

edit: added image ID's.

If I, some rando, were to be in charge of the Murderbot show 1. It would be animated. 2. It would be framed from the perspective of Murderbot retelling its story to us. So it would have drones the whole time that most of the footage would be shot through, or stationary surveillance cameras or from its own perspective. Very found footage. During silly moments we'd get future Murderbot's internal monologue VO and during serious moments that would subside to let the audience live in that moment. But most importantly, every time MB had its helmet off in the first book, it would be shot from behind or there would be a convenient leaf or something over their face. It gets to the point that you can tell it's deliberate. That finally changes when it makes the decision at the end of All Systems Red to go off on its own, only then do you see its face as an act of self determination and vulnerability.

little murderbot fic snippet I wrote inspired by the discord a while ago! it appears the cracker wrapper incident from rogue protocol left some lasting damage...

"Oh SecUnit! You're early!"

To be honest, Ratthi hadn't actually expected SecUnit to show up, but he was still pleasantly surprised to see it here. Since Gurathin's apartment on the station was too small for him to host his own birthday party, Ratthi had volunteered his own for the occasion. SecUnit had returned from its latest trip with the Perihelion quite recently, and Ratthi had figured that it would still be working on recharging its limited social battery, and unwilling to subject itself to even the small crowd that would be here. He gestured with an enthusiasm he hoped it would pick up on and said, "Come on in!"

SecUnit didn't reply verbally, but it sent an acknowledging ping to Ratthi's interface as it marched past him, followed by a small flock of its surveillance drones.

"I'm still getting some things ready in the kitchen, but feel free to make yourself at home," he called after it. SecUnit's idea of making itself at home involved more patrolling and hazard assessments than the average person's, but it was nice to see it feel comfortable here, in its own way. Ratthi hoped that the way he had arranged the decorations this time wouldn't get him another written notice about unsafe obstructions to the automated fire suppression system.

He closed the door, making a point to lock it behind him, and followed SecUnit down the hallway and into the kitchen, where he found it standing completely motionless, staring at his sink wearing the most appalled expression he could ever remember seeing on its face.

"SecUnit?" he asked. "...You okay?"

"There's a cracker wrapper in your sink," it said, pointing a finger at the offending wrapper. Its voice was flat, a striking contrast to its face, which now looked like it had when Ratthi told it that the newest season of Sanctuary Moon had been kind of boring.

Ratthi was too afraid to ask what kind of horrible security hazard could be caused by a stray cracker wrapper, but he carefully reached past SecUnit and fished the wrapper out of the sink and put it in the waste bin.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't know you were so tidy," he said, flashing a smile towards its shoulder. "I'll get things straightened up before the party starts, don't worry."

SecUnit was apparently too shaken to even acknowledge this. It kept its eyes focused on the now empty sink, which Ratthi quickly checked himself just to make sure there wasn't some insanely poisonous spider or something hiding there. Nope, nothing but some crumbs that he didn't think deserved this kind of horror.

The silence stretched on awkwardly. Ratthi broke it to say, "I'm just gonna--"

"I need to go check the perimeter. I'll be back soon," it interrupted, and it was out of the room before Ratthi could muster more than "Okay?" as a response.

Well, he supposed that everyone had their own eccentricities.

Finding friends who understand your buffer phrases, who know your Tapbacks/emojis/gifs/memes (and other mostly wordless “pinging” feed communications) are an expression of presence, affection, and investment, friends who not only get you but know your whole deal and yet like you anyway: yeah.

It knows they’re not going to abandon it, and that’s why it’s ready to give anything it’s got for them.

.

(Technically paraphrasing from System Collapse at the end there, but I genuinely can’t see how this is a spoiler in any way.)

Murderbot's buffer and autism coding

Various and sundry spoilers

One thing I absolutely love in this series is Murderbot's buffer. When it's too busy and distracted, Murderbot's programming takes over and it delivers canned phrases that may or may not communicate what it wants to communicate, and this is so fucking relatable

(Personal autism paragraph) I've actually used this series to explain to my wife what happens when I try to answer a complex-for-me question in conversational "real time", and why I get frustrated about things that I've cheerfully agreed to. (I don't know wtf is going on and I need to answer in NT time frame! Quick, be super agreeable!) (Currently trying to learn the new buffer phrases "let me think about that" and "give me a minute")

Back to Murderbot God I love this detail so much. It's partly just for comedy, but it's also dead serious, like so much of this series. It's about being programmed and how that programming takes over. "This unit is at minimal functionality and it is recommended that you discard it." Murderbot has been treated like a thing and that's so ingrained in its systems by now that sometimes it's just going to come out its mouth, like it doesn't want to be abandoned, but that's how it's lived for so long. ARGH

Also I love love love in Network Effect where Overse knows about the buffer and what it means and interprets it for Thiago. She knows what that tone of voice is (it's a canned response) she knows why it happens (it's from when Murderbot was enslaved) and she knows what it means ("it's too busy to talk"). I love Murderbot's friends so much I totally understand why it keeps risking horrible fates for them.

Really I don’t think it’s impossible that ART allowed the booby-trapped shuttle knowing it would force its new friend to let it demonstrate its trustworthiness.

That’s very fucked up and uncool and inexcusable, but also fascinating if accurate.

ART’s moral calculus is questionable - which makes its one comment about morals and kindness (iykyk) register as yet another gray moment.

*If* it is ruthless in that way, the question becomes whether that’s actually wrong. If the results of manipulation are always benign or even helpful, (even MB notes it would have been screwed without ART’s interference) are the mechanics of that manipulation a factor?

-excerpt from the transcript of Perihelion vs PUMNT, probably.

Do we think ART sabotaged the first ship MB was going to take in Artificial Condition? It had mysterious hauler bot problems and I just feel like ART might have done that...

TIHI

been repeating this in my head all day