#Amena

[hellofriendhawke]

*proceeds to talk about having a not-baby together*

[thornysort]

murderbothering / print

[bakedbananners]

tough crowd

[gafurtle]

Amena, Murderbot, and Violence

Thinking today about Amena and violence in The Murderbot Diaries.

Like, Amena is from Preservation, a planet whose murder rate is barely above that of an uninhabited planet, where finding an unexpected dead body is so shocking that they close the entire space station IMMEDIATELY. And the other characters from Preservation tend to...let's say look askance at Murderbot's murdering. There's Gurathin challenging whether Murderbot has the right to kill Mensah's captors or Thiago being really upset at the thought that Murderbot might have killed the raiders who were trying to kidnap and/or murder the survey crew. There's also the moment that Murderbot thinks about how it's never killed anyone directly in front of Ratthi, and how it wants to keep it that way, so that Ratthi will keep thinking the best of it.

And Amena was raised on this planet, and so far as I know hadn't really left up until the survey assignment in Network Effect, who suddenly finds herself kidnapped along with Murderbot. And Murderbot is losing it because it thinks ART is dead, and ends up ripping one of the Target's lungs out in front of Amena while messily murdering it.

And Amena's response is...shockingly chill? Like, I guess she's also in shock and scared and Murderbot is the only person on her side at the moment, but it's still an incredibly violent killing done right in front of her and she never really seems to blink at it. Later, the very second that Ras shoots Murderbot, Amena jumps onto his back and tries to choke him out. Like, that's her first and immediate reaction--and this is like 30 minutes after the "Murderbot rips someone's lungs out" thing.

And there is something touching about how "ride or die" Amena is with Murderbot even though she thinks it doesn't like her. And about how willing Amena is to deal with whatever is happening. How at the end of that day, when they've been in a space battle and kidnapped and Murderbot did some murdering and Ras died and Eletra was almost fried and Murderbot was having multiple emotional breakdowns...Amena is worried that Murderbot is mad because she didn't defend it enough when Ras & Eletra were being verbally mean. Like, THAT'S what she thinks might affect their relationship.

I don't know what I'm getting at, exactly, except that I think Amena is a fascinating character.

Things Amena gets upset about:

Murderbot interrupting her date with a predator

Murderbot forgetting to talk in stressful situations

Casual racism (bot-ism?) from Ras & Eletra

Murderbot & ART not talking

Things Amena does NOT get upset about

Murderbot doing the killing

[ghostcashewart]

"I was in an environmental suit now and Amena had made my hair fluffy (she was trying to make me feel better)."

i've become obsessed with the murderbot diaries

[riseandfallofsecunit]

I made a comic of one of my favorite Network Effect scenes!

This was so fun!! I love Murderbot!

[foxprints]

Happy Pride Month 💛🏳️‍🌈

Featuring Murderbot, ART-Drone, and Amena. Can you identify all the flags featured? There are 13 total!

[eagleeyethree]

I probably should have just stopped talking, but I didn’t want to hurt Amena’s feelings.

Network Effect, pg. 182-183

[homosekularnost]

network effect (2020)

[leguinning]

so i just somehow realized that amena is continuously stress eating chips throughout a large chunk of network effect and honestly. same.

[squiddlysq]

Finished System Collapse the other day & Murderbot has never been more relatable

First image based on this post by @murderbot-moodboard

[hellofriendhawke]

re-reading network effect and jeez Amena and Ratthi are the biggest Murderbot/ART (platonic or otherwise) shippers of all of us. The bathroom scene for one, and all the times Amena played inbetween the two (omg the scene when MB is like 'I want to talk to ART alone' and Amena is like '...about your relationship???' and when she was explaining to ART how MB reacted to it's 'death' like come on) and towards the end when Ratthi is desperately trying to get MB to understand that ART threatened to kill a bunch of people for it and Thiago is like 'we don't really got to talk about this :/' and Ratthi just gets louder.

They are so personally invested in Murderbot and ART's ~~~'mutual administration assistance'~~.

[m00nymonster]

Tag You're It

Prompt: chaos

SecUnits, as a rule, don't interact with young humans. We're barely tolerated to outright feared by adults, and adult humans try to protect their young. The smaller they get, the less exposure they're given to us. At least, on the Corporate Rim.

"Thank you for helping Amena babysit," Farai said as Tano hovered nearby. Tano looked hesitant, but nodded anyway. It wasn't like there was another option. Ratthi and Gurathin were busy working on a paper, Arada and Overse were on their own date, and Pin-Lee didn't like small humans. That left Amena outnumbered six to one. Those odds were bad for anyone, so I had...not volunteered, but I also hadn't said no when Mensah asked me to help.

She now was looking at my drone, a little worry on her face.

"Are you sure you're comfortable?" she asked. Tano made a shooing motion to the door and said, "we haven't had a date night since--well. We're overdue."

"SecUnit and Amena can handle this," Farai said with a confidence she was clearly projecting. She kissed Mensah lightly, then pulled her to the door. "We need to go, Ayda."

Mensah glanced at me.

"I've had worse odds," I said dryly. Tano laughed outright, then pulled Mensah out the door.

"Be good!" Farai said, and followed. The door shut.

"Okay," Amena started, her arms crossed. "Listen up--"

"NOT IT!" screamed one of the taller small humans, and immediately began to run. After a chorus of "not it!", the smallest started chasing the others.

"No tag in the house!" Amena yelled, but the group was already running through the house, screaming as they did so. Amena groaned.

"I hate babysitting," she muttered. I looked at her. I wasn't going to admit it, but I wasn't exactly sure what to do. Adult humans were enough of a pain and they (usually) didn't have the impulse control of a small, dangerously neurotic fauna.

The screaming intensified, and the smallest human crashed into a coffee table, knocking a vase off balance. I dashed forward and caught it before it hit the ground.

"Neysaan!" Amena growled. "You almost broke First Mom's vase!"

"My knee!" Neysaan sobbed. I can never guess ages, but this one barely reached 100 centimeters and still had the chubby cheeks of a baby. He cried loudly as blood seeped from a scrape. The other children ignored him completely and continued their game.

"SecUnit," Amena sighed, "could you--"

I had already found the first aid kit and handed her the wound sealant. It was novel to use it on someone else. Neysaan continued to cry.

"Oh, settle down," Amena ordered and sprayed the sealant onto the child's knee. His sobbing didn't decrease. "Do you want a kiss?"

Neysaan nodded. I took a step backwards. "I'll be back."

I left Amena to comfort her brother and followed the screaming to the kitchen.

"That's enough," I barked, trying to channel Mensah's tone of voice when she scolded her brood. The small humans froze comically. I'd gotten it right. "Now--"

"SECUNIT'S IT!" one of the children screamed, and they all scrambled out of the room. I glared but started to chase the one who'd screamed. I couldn't go at my top speed in the cramped space, and small humans are surprisingly fast for their size, but I still caught up in seconds. I steeled myself, then reached out and tapped them as I said, "Freeze!"

The child froze. A second dashed by, and I tapped her as well. "Freeze!" I said again. She immediately stilled, one foot still in the air, panting. I'd changed the game. A third tried to dash forward to free her siblings, but I tapped her as well. Finding the last two was not a challenge. I had just captured the last as when Amena walked in, Neysaan in her arms. He was sucking his thumb.

"You're playing freeze tag?" she asked, disbelief in her voice.

"SecUnit cheats," the last child complained. "It runs faster'n us."

"You're the one who decided it should be It," another squawked. "It always wins!"

I shrugged. "No more tag."

There was a chorus of "awwww"s, and one "But SecUnit!", but Amena growled and they quieted.

"No buts," she snapped. "Let's just watch a movie, all right?"

When Mensah returned home with her spouses, Amena was reading on the couch and I was watching episode 12 of Toward Tomorrow on the largest display surface in the living room.

"It's quiet in here," Tano said as the door closed.

"It was a little crazy at first, but we got it under control," Amena said, looking up. "Did you have a nice date night?"

Mensah smiled. "Yes."

Amena yawned. "Good. I'm going to bed." She paused. "Did you know SecUnit knows how to play freeze tag?"

"It...what?"

[honoraofthebrightmeadow]

AMENA CALLED MB THIRD MOM, RIGHT AFTER IT TELLS ART THAT IT'S NOT AMENAS CARETAKER.

I love them all.

[just-gingerkat]

Look at their happy family

[rosewind2007]

Murderbot: No, Amena—I have less than zero desire to have holes punched through my ear-flesh so I can adorn them with shiny things, anyway—they’d get caught on…

Amena:

Murderbot: Okay, gimme that needle…