A Sci-fy Romance Novella In The Making

do you think about how amena, sofi, and the others will someday be full adults? and mensah and the rest of team presaux will be gone? and murderbot will be surrounded by humans who have loved and cherished it seemingly their whole lives? how it'll be surrounded by humans, both in mensah's family and across preservation and the university in general, who don't remember what life was like before their first encounter with a secunit?

do you think about how someday some of these adults who love it will have their own children? and it will see that first gross little bundle of human offspring and be shocked by the size and frailty? it'll resist offers to hold the baby for fear of hurting something so small and frail (and also some other fear it can't name) (and also: gross). but eventually... something will happen and it will oblige and hold a baby for the first time in its whole existence while the parents run around dealing with whatever emergency. and it'll be absolutely rooted to the spot, thinking about how the baby is actually a bit heavier than it had guessed, thinking about how there isn't even any ROOM for bones in such a small body, thinking about how the baby looks doubtful and a little scared of it. until one of the human adults sweeps by and recommends that it smile and coo at the baby. well, it's not sure about "cooing" but it does get woken from its fearful stupor and hurriedly ups its body temperature, softly bounces the baby like it had seen humans do, and smiles — nervously, but it counts. and the baby... melts. the small little mouth and brows and eyes all slip into a delighted chubby-cheeked smile, still looking up into its eyes. and murderbot thinks, okay, maybe i'll try cooing. do you think about that?

do you think about how someday amena and sofi and the others will be known as nannas and grandpersons themselves, and murderbot will still be beset by children who want to watch shows with it and curl up against its chest when they're sad or hurt? and how sofi can still be found napping on its shoulder, though now she has more wrinkles on her face than naja ever had? and how amena's still bothering it for details about its relationships, anxious to see it loved and cared for after she and her siblings are gone?

do you think about how someday murderbot and its creaky old joints and worn ports are only still functioning because of a dedicated team of university researchers who'd put in thousands of hours into determining how to not let living construct consciousnesses become trapped in failing bodies and developed a protocol for training future researchers in proper construct geriatric care? and can you picture how it will have a few dozen children gathered around it at a cultural festival — their families camping in and around the ancestral home, together once again for the holiday — all those tiny voices clamoring to once more hear the story of how it and their great great great great greatnan amena defeated the aliens and saved the colonists, and could they pretty pretty please meet ART the next time it docks at preservation station?

debates i didn't know existed + a very humorous distinction

hostiles = antagonists that Murderbot is worried about 😳

my giiirrlll my giiirlll I love herrr 🥺🥺🥺

Some Iris (Iris..es?) and a doodle of a scene from Rapport

PNGs after the cut if anyone wants them!

this incredibly feral hauler bot:

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Three: "Numerals"

Murderbot (very cool and mature): "NuMeRaLs"

ART gave it a makeover and a perm.

Nothing to see here: Just Murderbot being cool and normal in the Rainforest Café section of the space station.

Murderbot, you cringe-ass Millenial. (Same)

Not beating the Third Mom allegations.

You know, like, when you just know your homie the way your lungs know air, the way your skin knows warmth, the way your blood knows your heart. Just bro stuff, humans wouldn't get it.

Murderbot: "Rip Bozo. Couldn't be me though."

(No but seriously. I'm dying at Three's unwritten B-plot in this book. The way its shenanigans haunt the narrative.

At some point it was SUPPOSED to come back to the shuttle, but instead it casually started a Secunit uprising and then just sat in the dock a few hundred feet away from the shuttle waiting for Murderbot the way my cat bolts out the front door when I open it only to sit at the end on the driveway like, "I hadn't thought past this part, and now I'm scared." Waiting for me to come pick it up and bring it back in.

And Three is just. Shows up at the end. I have had a lovely walk through the Torus. I gave a bunch of SecUnits the power of free will and self determination. I am going to get a good grade in being a person, something that is normal to want and possible to achieve