silver stars

Like, we know emotions bleed through into the feed. I think MB's feed presence is extremely emotional in a way it can't control and isn't really aware of. That's why bots trust it so easily: it's feed presence is extremely honest and expressive, and they can tell that it doesn't want to hurt them.

Perihelion has been loved and nurtured since its creation, and despite it being in many hostile situations, it tends to witness happy endings. People rescued from corporate slavery, colonies made independent with the power of quick wit and subterfuge. It's plenty able to take care of itself, and spends weeks in solitude on its cargo runs.

When Perihelion first let SecUnit aboard and then threatened it, it was probably doing so in the same way that it gave shit to new human passengers. It would make a comment about its ability to blow up the whole station in three shots, the humans would jump a little and glance nervously at the crew, Matteo and Iris would chide it and reassure the passengers, they would all laugh it off, and the new humans would see it as more of a person. What it didn't expect was for its new tag-along to immediately freeze, curl up, and start cataloguing every possible way Perihelion could hurt or kill it.

Bc like. The most important bots it meets are all from vastly different situations and backgrounds than it. ART has been valued and loved by humans its whole life - its dad is literally the captain and its sister is one of its crew! And they clearly cherish, love, and value ART. Miki is a less sophisticated bot, but also so clearly loved and cherished. They ordered it to protect itself! And it had the capability to reject that order! That says a lot about the love, trust, and mutual respect they had for one another.

Even Three, another secunit, seems pretty different from murderbot. It was made by the company it’s working for and the vibe I got was that it and the other two secunits were sort of permanently assigned to that ship?

Which, look. Humans imprint on anything and build familiarity. The more time we spend with something the more sentimental we might get about it. If Three was on that ship for a long time, I wouldn’t be shocked if at least some of the humans on board were pretty chill or even affectionate towards it (in a condescending and dehumanizing way probably, but still). And even so, the length of time spent around the same secunits clearly allowed Three to establish bonds with its fellow secunits if nothing else!

But being a rental unit means murderbot went from group to group. The other secunits it worked with were always Temporary Company (will never see them again after this contract likely) and also Active Threats to murderbot bc they’re the most likely to notice murderbot is rogue and be forced to report it. Even the humans were Temporary, so even if there were Nice Humans they’d be swapped out with Bad Humans soon enough.

Like. No wonder it insists it doesn’t have friends. If you don’t have Feelings about people then those feelings can’t be hurt when you’re inevitably torn away and never allowed to see them again (or have your very memories of them torn out of you and erased)

(Feelings about media are okay because the media can go with you, right?)

Fandom reference! I tried to note every time a person/thing got a physical description, as well as additional info like how augments work, etc. Please note that there may be spoilers for all five books, but especially Network Effect.

This post contains:

Murderbot, Body

Murderbot, Armor

Murderbot, Outfits

Corporation Rim Work Clothes + Business Attire

Safety Suits/Environmental Suits

EVAC Suits

Other posts: Part 1; Part 2