#murderbot with physical contact

[imitationgame77]

Murderbot's repulsion to physical contact

We all know Murderbot hates to be touched.

Her expression had turned all melty and sentimental. "No hugging," I warned her. It was in our contract.

[Network Effect]

But it did not express the repulsion so strongly earlier.

When I came out Ratthi was still there. He grabbed my arm and tugged me past a couple of human techs and [...]

"Again, I have a court order," Pin-Lee said, grabbed my other arm, and they walked me out.

[All Systems Red]

Maybe, at this point, Murderbot was not used to not pretending to ack like a normal SecUnit, so, quick suppression of reaction happened automatically. And also, maybe in this situation when things happened so rapidly that Murderbot was too overwhelmed to comment on something which had lower priority in terms of its threat assessment.

Murderbot can spontaneously grab, scoop up, carry humans in situations that require action. In order to save them. But I thought it was noteworthy that Murderbot was voluntarily holding a hand of a human in Artificial Condition.

When Tapan woke, I was sitting on the MedSystem's platform holding her hand.

[Artificial Condition]

Tapan was being cared for by ART's MedSystem, and it was not necessary for Murderbot to hold her hand while she was just gaining consciousness.

I thought about possible explanations: (1) Murderbot had only very recently started living without the armour, thus, its no-contact boundary was less strict; (2) Murderbot felt responsible for her injuries, and seeing how young and vulnerable Tapan was, it felt holding hand was necessary like when it extended emotional support to Volescu; (3) Tapan was its first voluntary-contract client, and having been given appreciation, gratitude, apologies, and requests that it had not been used to, it also wanted to reciprocate with kindness; (4) In medias that Murderbot had watched, all the good people came out of coma or whatever state with somebody holding their hands; (5) ART told it it should do it.

Anything else?

[untitledgoosegay]

re last reblog I do see fanfic culture pushing/replicating a certain model of "what trauma looks like," "how trauma works"

this is a problem across all areas of society obviously, but transformative works are, well, transformative. they're about crafting and modifying narratives where the fan-creator sees a flaw or a lack -- often for the better! don't get me wrong, I've done my fair share of "I take a hammer and I fix the canon," it's the main thing that gets my creative gears spinning -- but what happens when that "flaw" is simply a narrative not conforming to popular expectations?

some people just don't get PTSD from events that sound obviously traumatic. they're not masking, and they're not coping; they just straight-up didn't get the permanently-locked stress-response that defines PTSD. they walk away from a horrible experience going "well, that sucked, but it's over now." some people do get PTSD from events most people wouldn't find traumatic. we don't really know why some people get PTSD and others don't. but fandom has an idea of events that must be traumatizing, of a "correct" way to portray trauma. you see the problems with this lack of understanding in e.g. fans pressuring the devs of Baldur's Gate 3 to add dialogue where the player character badgers Halsin about his own feelings on his abuse -- because he must be traumatized, and his trauma must fit a certain mold and presentation of sexual trauma, under the mistaken impression that anything outside that narrow window is somehow "wrong" and disrespectful or even harmful to survivors.

take, for another example, the very common trope of a traumatized character who hates touch or sex "learning" to like touch or sex as a part of their healing process. certainly that can be healing for some people; other people will never like, or want, touch or sex, because of trauma or because they just don't. the assumption that someone who doesn't want sex or doesn't like to be touched must be traumatized, must be suffering from this perceived lack, is seriously harmful -- to asexual people, to people with sensory issues around touch, and to people for whom healing from trauma means freedom to refuse sex or touch.

and there's a secondary trope, one that's slightly more thoughtful but ultimately repeats the problem -- that once someone has learned that their boundaries will be respected, they'll feel it's safe to soften those boundaries. once they feel safe refusing touch or sex, they'll feel comfortable allowing it on their own terms. but many people don't, and many people won't! many people will simply never want to be touched, and never want sex, and they are not suffering or broken or lacking because of it. the idea that proving you'll respect someone's boundaries entitles you to test those boundaries -- the paradox is obvious, and yet this is something i've seen hurt (re-traumatize) people i care for.

people are imperfect victims. people don't heal in the ways you expect. many people have positive memories of their abuse, of their abusers. many people hurt others in the course of their trauma, in ways that can't easily be unpacked in a 5k oneshot. very few narratives of trauma and recovery actually fit the ones put forward by popular children's media and romance novels -- which are the ones I most see replicated in fandom spaces, because they provide the clearest narrative and easiest catharsis, and so they're easy and soothing to reach for.

that's not necessarily a bad thing! i am not immune to goopy romance tropes. i am not immune to teary catharsis. not every fic has to grapple with ugly realities. but there's a problem when these narratives become predominant, when people think they're accurate and realistic depictions of trauma, when the truth of trauma is unpleasant and uncomfortable, and doesn't fit any single narrative, let alone one of comforting catharsis

[aspec-tmbd]

Song and Dance to Say ... - ImitationGame - The Murderbot Diaries (Martha Wells) [Archive Of Our Own]

Title: Song and Dance to Say ... Author: ImitationGame Rating: General Audiences Tags: #No Archive Warnings Apply #ART | Perihelion & Murderbot #Murderbot & Perihelion Crew #Murderbot #ART | Perihelion Matteo #Iris #Friendship #Showing care without physical contact #Fluff #2025 Aspec Murderbot Diaries Words: 1,394 Chapters: 1/1

Murderbot risks itself to save a human (again). There is not much they can do to show their appreciation. They can't hug it as it's touch-repulsed. It gets awkward with conversation. They come up with something different.

[thirtheenprimes]

Getting ready to write a story about the Preservation team interacting with Three and being taken aback when they realize it doesn't mind eye contact, has no problem admitting when it's confused or upset about something, and has no inhibitions about physical touch and likes to give hugs (maybe struggles with strength output at first?)

Then they go back to their favorite Murderbot and just kind of smile at it, and Murderbot tries to ignore them but it knows they care about it.

[do-u-know-this-autisticcharacter]

Do You Know This (Non-canon) Autistic Character?

Evidence below the cut!

Murderbot is extremely uncomfortable with eye contact and physical touch. It watches a lot of shows but it has one show that it watches over and over and over again. It has difficulty understanding and processing it’s own emotions.

Both submitters also added that Martha Wells is autistic, but did not intend Murderbot to be so, just wanted to write something she related to. The author found out she was neurodivergent after many people asked about Murderbot.

First Submitter added:

I would kill to be able to use drones instead of eye contact. (Pixie: Mood sometimes ;_;)

Second submitter also commented:

Murderbot is a human/robot construct, created to be better security than a robot but also forced to follow orders unlike a human. It has a lot of difficulty dealing with the human side of itself because of being used as a tool in this way for so long and even though it is free now it still has a long way to go figuring out who it is and what it wants.

[followerofmercy]

I'm starting my goodreads review era and I'm just copy/pasting what I said about Murderbot here

I don't think Murderbot is the single most groundbreaking story discussing what it means to be a person without being human, but it's certainly one of the more entertaining ones.

I've talked about this a lot with my friends and I love this series because it's an incredible... sensory experience? I rarely enjoy first person narration, but the way Murderbot's mind works is simultaneously so strange and so relatable that I can't help but get sucked in. For one, I think I have a bit of aphantasia or something. I do not think in images. Murderbot doesn't either. Its narration follows the information that it decides is important, which does not include lengthy descriptions of surroundings and people's physical features. You'll get whether someone is a threat or not, maybe a gender and sometimes a skin tone. This is great for me, who would not process it anyway, but it's a sticking point for the people I know that Need the visual.

Because of the lack of extraneous information, the pace is incredible. Being a partially organic, mostly machine entity, Murderbot is always doing something - usually multiple things - such as rewinding and reviewing the recording of the conversation that happened seconds ago to mentally facepalm for the stupid shit it said, watching its Emotional Support Soap Opera, hacking into secure systems to download more soap operas or evaluating its surroundings for potential threats.

It also responds hilariously to its severe social anxiety. Mild spoiler At one point it's so uncomfortable making eye contact that it turns to face the corner and are having a conversation with the research team like that, which, mood.

This book also hurts because Murderbot's internal narration is very sarcastic and snarky and then it drops shit like how it's so stressed out that it's literally decreasing its system integrity and suddenly you feel a little bad for laughing. But hey, you laugh to keep from crying. Just like Murderbot.

It's a very fun book about Some Guy with a very charming way of talking, except the guy is classified as a weapon instead of a person and it's simply trying to get by without anyone realizing that it IS a person.

[fandom-space-princess]

An Audacious Undertaking, Even to God

Fandom: The Murderbot Diaries

Rating: Gen

Additional tags: Book 5: Network Effect, Book 7: System Collapse, Canonical Character Death, Canon-Typical Violence, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Queerplatonic Relationships, 1 & 2 do still die but not for very long, 3 needs its friends back :( , studies in construct relations

Chapter: 1/?

Summary:

SecUnits are hard to kill, but it does happen. Unless... AU: through the combined efforts of ART & co, Three rebuilds and reboots One and Two. It isn't easy. Everybody has a bad time, then a weird time, then a better time. Is that the right order?

Read chapter below, or on AO3.

——————————

Designation: SecUnit-003 Barish-Estranza Explorer Task Group 520972

Status: piloting shuttle to network-external transport [vesselID(“Perihelion”), registry(Pansystem University of Mihira and New Tideland)]. Contact: UNAUTHORIZED.

Operational overview:

- Threat assessment: 64% immediate probability of harm to clients, 27% medium-term probability of harm to clients assuming pursuit of mitigation strategies

- Risk assessment: [additional data required]

- SecSystem access: OFFLINE

- HubSystem access: OFFLINE

- Deployment group status: SecUnit-001: OFFLINE; SecUnit-002: OFFLINE

- Performance reliability: 87% and falling

The transport completes the docking process for the shuttle without my input, which is for the best. My attention is divided. This is a violation of the protocols associated with both client retrieval and piloting. Under the circumstances, however, it is not a situation I am able to remedy.

(reinitialize from backup::failure::retry)

I have a number of responsibilities to fulfill. My primary duty is to ensure the welfare of my clients. (I have realized that even in the absence of punitive enforcement, I still accept and desire this to be true, which is a source of mild curiosity.) My secondary duties are laid out no less clearly, yet—

(reinitialize from backup::failure::retry)

—“Hello? Are you there?” The exterior hatch has retracted. Two humans peer inside curiously. The one who has spoken bears feedID(“Amena”), gender(female), note: juvenile. The other—feedID(“Ratthi”), gender(male)—moves tentatively toward me. These humans are not unknown: they feature in the memories shared with me by Murderbot 2.0. This is a relief. Nevertheless, I step out of the piloting compartment before they can enter, and attempt to gently herd them away. Based on the information I have about them, threat assessment deems them unlikely to panic in a way that would be detrimental to the safety of themselves or others. While I accept this knowledge as accurate, it is still better that they be encouraged to stay outside the shuttle.

(reinitialize from backup::failure::retry)

(performance reliability: 85% and falling)

Ratthi is speaking to me, introducing himself and Amena. He is very animated. He tells me that Perihelion knows I have disabled the governor module. He tells me they do not intend to hurt me.

The transport has different ideas. It establishes a private channel, which it promptly fills with vivid and comprehensive descriptions of the physical damage it will inflict on me should I attempt to threaten its clients, or itself.

(reinitialize from backup::failure::retry)

(failure::retry)

(performance reliability 82% and falling)

“All clients require immediate medical attention,” I tell them. “They have been implanted with technology of uncertain functionality, and may remain under hostile influence, or represent vectors of contamination. Temporary quarantine is recommended.”

Amena replies, but my attention is pulled inexorably elsewhere. I turn my focus on the open hatch, and the dim interior of the shuttle piloting compartment. 

(failure::retry)

In my periphery there is movement, and noise. Another human has arrived. The humans and Perihelion exchange information with one of the transport’s retrieved clients, Karime. I have drones recording this interaction for later review, but I am currently preoccupied with my other functions. My awareness of this moment feels very far away.

(performance reliability 77% and falling)

(failure::retry)

“Hey.” There is a human hand hovering near my elbow. Ratthi’s face swims into vision. I blink, and try to refocus my eyes. This is only partially successful. One of my drones descends out of its patrol pattern overhead, and I examine him more closely through its camera. His eyebrows pull together. “Are you all right?”

The transport is in my feed. I feel it bear down on me. I do not understand what it is, or the limits of its capabilities. I know only that its presence is massive and imposing, its agitation palpable. It likely still believes me to be potentially hostile. It should be terrifying.

If I had the spare processing capacity to consider it, it would be terrifying.

(performance reliability 72% and falling rapidly)

Perihelion: Your resource utilization is near maximum. What are you trying to do?

(failure::retry)

(failure::retry)

Amena’s voice comes from within the piloting compartment. She would have had to walk past me to get inside it. I must have seen her do so. I have no memory of seeing her do so.

“Oh, no… um, Arada? There’s a body in here.”

(performance reliability 64% and falling rapidly)

I start toward her. I have no idea what I am about to say until my buffer produces it: “Equipment maintenance is in progress. For your safety, please step back.” One of the transport’s repair drones shoves past me into the compartment, which interferes with my balance. I put a hand against the wall for support.

(failure::retry)

Amena: “Perihelion, this isn’t one of your crew, is it? This must have been one of the corporate hostages.”

Perihelion: No, Amena. This is a SecUnit.

(failure::retry)

My primary auditory input glitches, and their words become garbled. I lean against the bulkhead. Standing has become difficult, but I still have a responsibility to perform.

(reinitialize from backup::failure::retry)

(performance reliability 51% and falling rapidly)

And I am going to perform it, or be rendered nonfunctional in the attempt.

(critical performance drop::system restart)

——————————

[Before]

SecSystem: Ship status: on approach. Space dock arrival anticipated: 180 seconds. Tactical team deployment unit(s) acknowledge.

SecUnit-001: Unit acknowledge.

SecUnit-002: Unit acknowledge.

SecSystem: Baseship sentinel unit(s) acknowledge.

SecUnit-003: Unit acknowledge.

(While I do not resent guarding the ship, I have always disliked being the one left behind.)

SecSystem: Cold contact protocol in effect. Hazardous condition assessment: POSSIBLE/LIKELY. Backup to HubSystem external storage and mirror local copies to group.

SecUnit-001: Backup complete.

SecUnit-002: Backup complete.

SecUnit-003: Backup complete.

Though we are designed for redundancy with each other, not co-dependence, I have never functioned optimally when deployed separately from 001 and 002. I know this to be true for them as well. In the past, after activities that required splitting the deployment group, I have often reviewed their cached analytic data. Our performance individually and collectively is more reliable on average when we are assigned to the same task.

I try to avoid reflecting on why this is true. Idle reflection is counterproductive to the efficient performance of my duties.

SecSystem: Sentinel unit(s) resume patrol pattern. Tactical team unit(s) ready for deployment.

In the ready room that we share, 001 continues fitting its helmet into place. I acknowledge the alert to return to patrol. I must walk past them to reach the door and exit the room, and as I do so, I extend a hand loosely in their direction.

Tactile input is critical for calibration of construct balance and proprioception, among other core functions. We are expected to touch objects around us for many reasons, including ongoing orientation in physical space.

001 gently taps the back of my hand with its knuckles, tock-tock-tock. I reply once in kind—tock. 002 likewise repeats 001’s gesture as I move past, and again, I do the same: tock-tock.

I validate my expected sensor readout against the physical contact data, and log the results with HubSystem. There is an echo in the team feed as first 001, and then 002, do the same. And if we could achieve the same result by tapping a wall or a hatch… well.

On this choice, at least, our governor modules offer no feedback.

——————————

[noahsbookhoard]

📚March 2024 Book Review (Part 2/2)📚

Last post for March and there is only good and really really good books here!

The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare famous telling of Julius Caesar's last days, the conspiration against him and the aftermath of his assassination.

In honor of the Ides of March I finally read Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. It's always fun reading a new Shakespeare play as someone who didn't grew up in an Anglo-Saxon culture: every time you fall on one quote and get to say "oh, THAT'S where the idiom comes from!". The fault in our stars, e tu brute... I didn't know they were Shakespeare's before (growing up I've always heard Caesar's last words being "Tu quoque fili" (you as well my son) and that's apparently from a 18th century biography)

Overall it's a good play although it's not my favourite. I especially love Mark Anthony's funeral speech (it is well know for a good reason). Plays are always best appreciated live so if anyone knows a good scene or film adaptation I'd love to see it!

Veiller sur elle by Jean-Baptiste Andrea

Mimo (short for Michelangelo) is a poor yet extremely talented sculptor, Viola is the clever and adventurous daughter of the rich Orsini family. These two that nothing destined to meet will quickly become the closest friends, but this friendship is put to test with the rise of Mussolini.

Mandatory French literature read and second book of my adventures in Goncourt land! This one is a total succes and I'm glad I finally picked it up after glaring at the red "Prix Goncourt 2023" dustsleeve as if it might bite. I was also hesitant because of the period: WWII and fascism can be very interesting themes to explore in a novel but I read one too many where it was token-ish and just a convenient setting. Nevertheless I read very few book about Italy under Mussolini so I gave it a go.

From page one the style took my breath away. It's funny (he describes coming back to Italy as "Welcoming it with open arms" before clarifying that he tripped getting off the train and fell flat, face first on the platform, the image stuck with me) and it's tender, it's hard sometimes but Mimo's life is and it doesn't sugarcoat it.

This is the story of two souls that were meant to met but found each other and never let go. Mimo and Viola can lose contact for years and meet back again as if the saw each other yesterday. There's nothing they can't forgive the other, no matter how terrible. And they will do and say some truly awful things to each other because they are trying to adjust to a world that grows faster and madder every day. But in the end the two friends will always be there for each other, looking after ("veiller sur" in french) each other. It felt like reading about my best friend and me sometimes, it was touching. I appreciated that it never ever was even a mention of romantic feelings between Mimo and Viola, to me it made all the tenderness and softness between them even more endearing that there was no ambiguity in it.

The story is told in alternate between Mimo as an old man dying in a monastery and Mimo as a child then a young man, both are in Mimo's point of view. There is a mystery of sort, too: when the sculptor moved in the monastery he asked specifically to be near her. And this feminine figure is shrouded in secrecy, no one can see her, only the abbot has the key, because she is said to turn people mad. As the story unfolds there are more hints but never any physical description, up until the very end and a really good twist that pulls together the past and present memories of Mimo. I felt like I should have seen it coming. I might have cried a bit too.

A huge book crush, I am currently lobbying at home to have my sister and mother read it. And I hope it gets translated because I want so hard people to enjoy that book as much as I did.

All System Red (Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells

The diary of a Security Unit Cyborg who overrode its programming and preferes watching soap operas to working. However the scientifc expedition it is assigned to is attacked Murderbot, as it calls itself, will have to involve itself more than it wishes to.

Another serie I started because Tumblr was gushing over it. Also I wanted to get into SciFi which isn't a genre I read much of as a kid. I like my alien and spaceship on TV so there were no reason I wouldn't enjoy it on paper!

In this future projects are handed to the lowest bidder and lowering security is a good way of driving cost down. I could definitely picture it, that's basically how they handle infrastructure and equipment repair at my job! The future is beautiful...

Murderbot is really relatable. I too would love to slack off at work watching series and just checking that things are not going to hell (more than usual) once in a while. It has an interesting balance between the disinterested SecUnit with professional detachment but and the Cyborg who unlocked the emotions its programming had locked down. The awkwardness of the relationship with the human crew was really funny.

I was expecting a full length novel not a novella (my fault entirely for doing my research) so the plot felt very quick. I'll be adjusting my expectations for book 2.

I enjoyed it, it has some really cool character, good world building. I think I missed what everybody found so brilliant about it, and that's definitely on me since this book and several others in the saga where finalist or won the Hugo and Nebula. I'll probably read the next book, as of the time of writing this post it is on the TBR.

The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fischer by E M Anderson

83 year old Edna Fischer is as surprised as anybody when a wizard comes to her nursing home with an announcement: Edna is the Chosen One, the woman who will save the Kights from the dangerous Sorcerer who rages for months in the land. Armed with her knitting needle and her cane, she will have to face this fight and maybe find it is not so black and white as she thought.

I was drawn to this book for this prompt alone: the Chosen One is not another teenager, it is an old woman in flowery dress and knitted cardigan. This was nothing I had ever read, although there is among the cast of character ye old smart mouth 17 year old. I was also surprised to find it was more of an urban fantasy that the traditional medieval setting but if your hero is an octogenarian you might as well have her fight dragons in a city!

I really liked all the little twists on the genre's cliché: those I had as a reader (the Sword of Destiny, the Big Final Fight...) and those other characters had that helped the main cast (or sometimes caused them more trouble).

Edna was believable as an old woman, healthy but with the difficulty of old age. She is kind, patient, compationate. I would have wanted her as a grandma. Yet she is also determined and won't let people walk on her toes. There is some good ideas to circumvent those mobility issue (Edna would NOT have been able to trek and sleep in camps) that makes also for some very nice companions and side quests.

Some elements were somewhat predictable but still deeply enjoyable. I especially liked that there was some chapter with the Sorcerer's point of view, which isn't usual in this type of novel. It really sets everything up for the ending (i won't say more than that.)

In conclusion a really good read, a nice twist on a genre and the chance to picture YOUR granny fighting a dragon (there is a physical description of Edna but I couldn't help imagining my own grandmother). I think the author is on tumblr? At least that's where I first heard of thos book. If I can find the url I'll add it here.

[esevik]

Chapter 4

They manage to set up a workable plan to save Mensah, or at least to be able to locate her. It almost goes south but they manage to recover. Now Murderbot has about two minutes to try to get Mensah back while the rest of the humans try to get to safety.

I think it's quite interesting with Murderbot and its human "crew". Because even though we've seen Murderbot interact and protect/care about other clients these humans are special. They know it's a rough unit but still respect and value it and its life. Like Pin-Lee giving a heads-up before touching Murderbot since she knows it doesn't like physical contact so she gave it a moment to mentally prepare.

Of course this doesn't mean that they all have some perfect friendship. Just look at Gurathin. The two are fairly hostile towards one another (though it seems most of it is due to the both of them are individuals that can't help but be suspicious of almost anything). Despite this they still work together and Gurathin makes attempts at understanding Murderbot. And Murderbot in kind responds with a kind of passive agressive care (I don't care about you but let me make sure you survive this).

However Murderbot's most interesting relationship with a human is Mensah. This is because as was stated at the end of All System's Red Mensah is its favorite human. But Murderbot also doesn't know what type or relationship they have or what it wants them to have. Now Murderbot is pretty clearly aroace (and sexrepulsed on top of that) so any type of lover is out of the question. It's also unclear if the favorite part is a platonic love or a more general like. Either way it feels a bit weird calling them friends since Mensah technically "owns" it. But they also very clearly care about one another.

It's clearly a complicated issue Murderbot doesn't seem to want to think too deeply about. I just hope it can get Mensah back safe and sound.

[iviarellereads]

Network Effect, Chapter 16

(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 I half wish this wasn't the POV we got.

Murderbot 2.0(1) Deployed aboard Barish-Estranza Explorer Mission Status: Delayed

TCS recognizes 2, so 2 taunts it. Something makes contact, 2 assumes it must be a Target, because it uses their language. TCS wants to know what it is, so that they can use or delete it as the situation calls for. Something about TCS's interactions with targetContact make 2 think that TCS isn't an alien intelligence.(2)

2 finally interjects in their conversation to answer the question of what it is: a SecUnit, and killware. TargetContact shows 2 some video footage from the planet, of 1.0 being captured.

Me Version 1.0 is on the planet and has been captured and we are seriously screwed now. I’m sorry, ART. I’m sorry, humans and Me 1.0. That was when I caught a tentative secure contact from SecUnit 3. It had just disabled its governor module.(3)

2 watches 3 testing its new freedom, knowing what its thought process must be in this moment. The first thought, it can do whatever it wants. The second, what the heck does it want? Murderbot 1.0 is still stuck on that question, but that's alright. 2 asks 3 what it wants, and 3 says, to retrieve their clients.

TCS tries to neutralize 2 in the system, but it activates some of the stray code bundles 2 left hanging around. TargetContact is linked somehow to TCS, and reacting physically to the data pain. 2's code bundles lock all hatches except those between 3 and the shuttle, fry all the targetDrones, and cuts the connections to the humans' implants, as well as life support to the bridge, for fun distraction times.

3 breaks into the room and tells the humans it's here to help them, adding that Perihelion sent it, for Art's crew's benefit.

2 fights to stay alive long enough to let 3 get the humans out. As time grows near, 2 transfers itself out of SecSystem, letting TCS revel in a pointless victory, and into the dock module, locking the Targets outside so 3 can finish the escape, with no life lost.

TCS tells 2 it will never have the ship. 2 says, alrighty then, and hops across TCS's contact link toward the planet. It hears targetContact order TCS to fire on the shuttle, which amuses 2 greatly. TCS confirms target lock, which triggers 2's last code bundle in the weapons systems. Everything aboard the explorer explodes as 2 falls through the connection.(4)

=====

(1) Excuse me, I'd like to go back to 1.0 please, pretty please, with sugar on top. No? Okay, here we are then. (2) Do you think the hivemind theory has merit? Is TCS, or targetContact, that hivemind, or is it something other? 2 certainly seems convinced it's human-driven, not alien-minded. (3) HELLO 3 HOW ARE YOU?! (4) WHEE! Oh this is going to be fun, isn't it?

[7yrannic]

$5,010 / $20,000 as of March 11th, 10:17PM UTC-6. Please do what you can.

To have suffered this much and still continue on moving forward with all of the grief and physical ailments is true strength. All Palestinians deserve peace. This one, and others, you can help with a few dollars if you are willing.

Please contact me on Twitter if you’d prefer to be removed. Even a reblog helps him get closer to what they need.

@a-shade-of-blue @virovac @lordzannis @legoyuri @golpfish @murderbot @oregano-shipment@coop-of-coffee @sweetsweethate @zone0neko @guest2621 @mabithebard @selflovejolteon @bi-worm @good-old-gossip @swallowedabug @all-alone-in-the-moonlight @pink-stuff-animals @half-asleep-star @mutualaider @bukiisheeba @axolotlsandabsolsarethebest @escaramelo @concrete-the-cat @wutario @greggory-lee @wlw359 @twigc12 @tim-the-rat @scootymctooty @foamingatthemeowth @stupid-dumb-bitch @togekissangel643 @siren-serotonin @rosemarysrules 

@c-u-c-koo-4-40k @loonarmuunar @nerdytextileartist @mushroomweirdo @gayforguzma @assassuub @fergitmenaught @starrynightskies-art @clevercolorobject @in-bituin-the-stars @thebearme @dalot-politsey @dirhwangdaseul @dyspunktional-leviathan @paranormeow7 @batricity @commissions4aid-international @artymajig @oediex @karlmarxmaybe @endy-boi @earthmoonlotus @critter0139 @leovaldeeeznuts / @skypalacearchitect @any59 @temperedxanthippe @startorrent02 @ammonitetheseaserpent @toons-thought-junk @meowingmortal @glassoddity @sayruq @zymple @smilingelm

**The Long Walk Home**

After 15 months of uncertainty, the announcement of a ceasefire came like a distant echo, a brief glimpse of hope amidst the chaos. For me, it meant the chance to return home—to Gaza City, her heart still beating for the streets, the people, the life that had been torn apart.

With only a small bag in hand, I’m, along with family and hundreds of others, began the long, grueling walk from the southern parts of Gaza, where I and my family had sought refuge. The roads, once familiar, were now filled with debris and destruction. There were no vehicles, no taxis to ease the journey. Only the sound of footsteps, the soft sobs of children, and the occasional murmur of prayers.

The scorching heat made the walk unbearable. We trudged through the ruins, each step more painful than the last. Ten kilometers. It felt like an eternity. I feet were raw, my body exhausted, but the thought of home, of the family and friends I had left behind, kept my moving forward.

As we passed what used to be neighborhoods, I couldn’t help but gasp. Buildings that had once stood tall were now nothing more than crumbled shells of concrete, twisted metal, and broken glass.

Where were the houses, the shops, the familiar faces?

We passed by what used to be a lively market, now reduced to ashes and shattered stone. A small boy in front of mine was crying, his face covered in dirt. His mother, too tired to comfort him, merely whispered soothing words, though they held little weight in a world so broken.

My thoughts drifted back to my friends. Jameel, who had been my closest companion since childhood, was nowhere to be found. The war had taken so much from us. Families, homes, lives—everything seemed to be swallowed by the endless violence

My friends we still need your support to help us face these challenges and rebuild what’s been lost.

(##167 on the verified fundraiser list by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi) (but we had to make a new gfm campaign cuz our old organizer stopped contacting us).

##dllxv-vetted-donations

[imitationgame77]

Myron and Win are back!

As I was trying to find a word to describe a relationship between two individuals, without need for sexual or physical contact, but deeply care for each other, I thought about many examples. (I thought aroace is not capturing the significance of the relationship, then, @wondernoise told me that queerplatonic is the word to use. So it is!)

Anyway, apart from my current favourite pair, Murderbot and ART, I suddenly remembered that there was Myron and Win.

It's a series written by Harlan Coben, and the first book "Deal Breaker" was published in 1995. Then, it ended with "Home" (Book 11) in 2016. There was a spin-off "Win" (2021), but I felt sad because they were no longer working together.

THEN, as I was searching yesterday, to write that post on aromanticism, I found that Book 12 was in fact published last month!! With Myron and Win working together again!

Myron Bolitar is the protagonist of the series. He was a super basketball player from his childhood to college, and just as he was about to start his career as a professional basketball player, his dream is snatched away in an accident during the game. He was broken, but he is resilient. He studies hard and becomes an attorney and starts business as a sport rep. He is tall, good looking, athletic, smart, and a hopeless romantic.

Win (Windsor Horne Lockwood III) is a friend that Myron first meets as his roommate at Duke.

In "Drop Shot", he is described as:

Win looked like his name. The poster boy for the quintessential WASP. Everything about his appearance reeked arrogance, elitism, Town and Country Parties Page, debutantes dressed in monogrammed sweaters and pearls with names like Babs, dry martinis at the clubhouse, stuffy old money – his fine blond hair, his pretty-boy patrician face, his lily-white complexion, his snotty Exeter accent. Except in Win’s case some sort of chromosomal abnormality had slipped through the generations of careful breeding. In some ways Win was exactly what he appeared to be. But in many more ways – sometimes very frightening ways – Win was not.

Win is certainly not a soft rich boy. Anything but. He has darkness in him. He can be ruthless - can be described as a sociopath. He loves uncomplicated sex with women, but never think emotional attachment is necessary in sex. He generally does not care about other people. The only people he appears loving to is Myron, and his business associate Esperanza.

But throughout the series, it is obvious that Win loves Myron (in queerplatonic way) deeply, and is fiercely loyal to him. He saves Myron's life many times, even though Myron cannot approve of the violence Win uses and enjoys.

They both seek sexual and/or romantic relationships elsewhere with women, but they are most special to each other.

In a later book, there is Win's POV:

Myron is more than my best friend. The youngsters call what we have a “bromance,” and perhaps that is apropos. I love Myron. I want—no, I need—him happy. I have missed him over the past year, though I was often closer than he knew.

That was a bittersweet ending. And 8 years later, now they are back! I am so excited! (Just started reading...)

Myron and Win are quite different from Murderbot and ART, but for some reason, I get a similar vibe - similar emotional response.

[sagareads]

I guess if I thought about it I knew that with the TV show coming out, Murderbot would get media tie-in covers. And I would have expected them to be bad, first because media tie-in covers are always bad and second because the show's already doomed by casting.

But god, I did NOT anticipate the levels of "oh HELL no" this would immediately give me.

Like. Holy shit. This looks like a fucking YouTube thumbnail.

You've already cast a lead who doesn't suit the role at all. And then you take this character who canonically HATES eye contact and prefers for people not to look at its face at all ... and have it on the cover making direct eye contact with the audience?

(Yes, the point of a media tie-in cover is to put photos of the actor(s) on the cover so that fans of the actor(s) will buy the book. But I find that proposition dubious at best, and here? Really stupid.)

The tone of this cover is SO FUCKING OFF. This gives the vibes that the book(s) will treat constructs getting dismembered as casual and meaningless, when that exact dismissal of harm to constructs and bots is part of the themes of the series.

Like, as a bookseller, I legit would not be able to sell this book. The glib, slapstick vibes of the cover would turn off the customers I'd want to recommend this book to. I'd literally have to tell people, "Don't pay attention to the cover; it's a media tie-in and they did a terrible job."

God. It already sucked for the TV show to be such a dumpster fire immediately, but at least I could just go "well I was never going to watch it anyway, so it doesn't affect me, it doesn't change the books." But here we are, changing the books.

(Note: This is an ebook cover, so I wouldn't have to physically hand this monster to someone, but that actually makes matters worse. When a publisher puts out a print tie-in edition with a bad cover, I can just order the original cover instead. But the new cover has already been automatically populated to ebook platforms, including Bookshop.org's beta platform and even Libby. So now if someone goes to buy the ebook of All Systems Red, they automatically see this shit -- and might very well go "oh, this looks terrible," and close it.)

[aspec-tmbd]

About ☆ FAQ ☆ Rules ☆ Timeline ☆ Announcements ☆ Fanworks

Even more prompts that were submitted to the Aspec Murderbot Diaries 2025 event, pasted onto the Thai All Systems Red edition cover. (These have been shortened to fit the poster—for full text and even more prompts check out our collection here!)

Conflicting needs in an aspect relationship: character caught feelings after agreeing to not be romantic.

Characters on different parts of the aro & ace spectrums interacting! Loveless Are, Gray-Are, Gra-Ace, Demi, etc.

A fic where a mashup ship name is used for a character… because they’ve touched alien remnants that fused our two beloved characters into one entity with mixed memories and traits, a la Star Trek Tuvix.

A touch-starved character seeks nonromantic, nonsexual physical contact.

Ratthi and Murderbot have to pose as corporate marriage counselors for a mission and have a 100% success rate at persuading marital groups they counsel that they’d be better off separated.

A ComfortUnit observes its human clients falling in love/lust and wonders if *that is what makes humans *human*

[acetrucys]

@walks-the-ages since you didn't ask and just called me a bigot, here's why, thematically, Murderbot immediately fucking off to go free every SecUnit after leaving Preservation would have never made sense. I even formatted it, because fuck you.

You have to consider the context behind the books. All Systems Red was intended to be a standalone short novella. It was supposed to be a tragedy. It is also established early-on in the series that Murderbot would never have lived without ART's assistance.

It needed the reassignment surgery because SecUnits have a proprietary standard unit specification that does not deviate (i.e height) that would have instantly outed it as a SecUnit. It was lucky that ART was there.

If Murderbot had left Preservation for the first time and immediately tried to free every construct currently enslaved, it would have died.

"touch averse" is an apt way to describe MB's issues with physical contact - but it is often described by itself that it's a touch aversion to humans and the physical as a byproduct of being considered an object or tool without free will.

It describes ART's feed presence in AC to be akin to a huge person leaning over your shoulder and breathing heavily... Spoiler alert. It never has an issue with this. Describing feed interactions as a physical sensation is literally in the text. It's not erasing anyone's identity if it's... in the damn text. Like, shut the hell up.

Amena gets to play with Murderbot's hair because it makes her happy. That's a development. ART-drone gets held together in the feed and fed Worldhoppers at the end of SC when they're both compromised. They're "both up in each other's business" the entire book. That's a development. You can't turn around and say "the feed shouldn't be described as a physical sensation that Murderbot is described to enjoy" if it's in the fucking text.

And if Murderbot had "preprogrammed loyalty" that was never erased because it was bought, then uhhh why did it decide that it wanted to leave with ART? That would be going against its "preprogrammed loyalty", its function to protect. Are we reading the same book. If Murderbot fucked off to free every construct immediately, it would be super fucking obvious because none of them would have time to finesse their act-like-a-human code, and ART can't do surgery on thousands of constructs that it's never met all at once so they aren't SecUnit standard.

please tell your friend to develop its critical thinking and analysis skills and to stop throwing around the word bigot like it's a trophy because it can't control what hundreds of people want to write about. This is why fanfic etiquette is a thing.

[rosewind2007]

I think (given the redacted) we can assume Murderbot and ART write fanfic: big question is…

do they ship?

The sort of obvious answer would be that ART ships and MB doesn’t (the ship ships, the SecUnit doesn’t, I mean “ugh, why would anyone even do that?”)

But remember MB at the beginning of All Systems Red with its “previously on Buffy Vampire Slayer” intro to the PresAux team:

I had actually been enjoying this contract, up until something tried to eat me and Bharadwaj. SecSystem records everything, even inside the sleeping cabins, and I see everything. That’s why it’s easier to pretend I’m a robot. Overse and Arada were a couple, but from the way they acted they’d always been one, and they were best friends with Ratthi. Ratthi had an unrequited thing for Pin-Lee, but didn’t act stupid about it. Pin-Lee was exasperated a lot, and tossed things around when the others weren’t there, but it wasn’t about Ratthi. I thought that being under the company’s eye affected her more than the others. Volescu admired Mensah to the point where he might have a crush on her. Pin-Lee did, too, but she and Bharadwaj flirted occasionally in an old comfortable way that suggested it had been going on for a long time. Gurathin was the only loner, but he seemed to like being with the others. He had a small, quiet smile, and they all seemed to like him.

This SecUnit ships…

So I reckon Murderbot writes fics which have no explicit sex at all and probably very little physical contact (let alone kissing) but which have a lot of implicit desire running through them—even if it’s not clear what the desire is for and has trouble tagging them correctly (it would argue it doesn’t have trouble, it’s other people having trouble)

ART writes mostly fluff, some really intense meta, and some weirdly poetic stuff which is frankly hard to categorize but could be pornographic

I'm a sucker for in-universe fandoms and I can't stop thinking about the idea that murderbot writes sanctuary moon fanfics when it's bored and it becomes in-universe fandom famous not only for good fic writing but also for the batshit insane chapter notes such as "sorry for the late chapter, I got shot again" and "if I told you why this chapter is late you'd be able to find out who I am through the newsfeed, so you shall continue wondering. enjoy"

the readers are going insane questioning how it's still alive. also none of them know who it is. it doesn't have any other online fandom presence linked to its fic account. it never reveals any information that can be used to figure out who it is other than it has a very dangerous job and is augmented in some way.

the name I've been going with as a placeholder is "SecRin" but I am open to username suggestions (considering something related to Eden so one of Tapan & Co can be like "I met someone named Eden once, they were very sad and very competent at security" in the big fandom discussion about who the fuck is this fic writer)

anyways Ratthi likes sanctuary moon. Ratthi reads the fics (before going on The Survey) and gets invested. he only finds out MB is SecRin when MB leaves the note and Ratthi reads it and goes "wait a second" because he recognized the writing style

also like. we can't forget the ART and MB interview.

like come on.