A huge theme of Recursive Systems is the intense desire to help one another.
(aka: pulls off the "Murderbot is plural" mask on Recursive Systems to reveal that it's secretly about Three's savior complex and survivor's guilt, and constructs' relationship to helping one other 🙂↕️)
This is also a huge question in the MBD series in general: what is Murderbot's relationship to helping humans and other bots (and itself)? how and when and why does this desire show up, especially with the complexity coming from a being who was created to be forced to be helpful? How does this desire both help one heal from trauma and find meaning, and hinder development when taken to the extreme?
In Recursive Systems, Murderbot is the most helpless it's been since its govmod was active. The plot is set post System Collapse, so Murderbot has become more comfortable with the idea of relying on its friends and asking for help, but it is launched into a horrible situation where its agency is completely stripped away by internal forces. A lot of this fic explores MB's internal feelings toward discovering that the Evil Being in its processes is also a lost traumatized construct very much in need of assistance, and a pivotal turning point in Part One takes place when MB registers this for the first time and feels the desire to help it.
Then there's Three. Oh, Three. Three, who (in my canon) became very dedicated to helping BE Unit 02 after it went through physical damage that left a lasting neurological impact, leading to Three needing to get creative to help keep those quirks and issues a secret from the humans. Three, who discovered a passion for helping its squadmate, who realized it had choices for the first time through those creative workarounds, who cared about 02 so much that it was willing to risk its life to keep it safe.
Three, who was stuck in a stand-down freeze for 5 days aboard the BE explorer with a bunch of injured humans, hostiles, and the corpses of Unit 01 and its clients, unable to help. Who was finally given the opportunity to assist via MB 2.0 and leaped at the opportunity. Who immediately leaped at the next opportunity to help another construct on a very dangerous mission.
In my fic, Three is called in as one of the only people who can safely assist MB with what it's going through. Three is in a unique position to help, even more than ART, and definitely more than the humans, who cannot help without making things worse. What does this position do to a construct who is secretly traumatized, wracked with survivor's guilt, and who clearly wants to help from the deepest parts of itself? Part 2 explores that quite a bit.
A line from Three's POV in Chapter 8:
There's a consistent truth that has made itself a home in my systems – whether it was an organic development, or something I was programmed with, I can't escape the veracity of it. The desire to provide assistance, especially to other constructs, acts as my sole compass in the absence of external commands, and sometimes even in spite of them. Accordingly, I will help 1.0, regardless of how unpleasant it becomes for either of us.
Another question: how can other traumatized constructs take advantage of this desire, and what happens when they do? Three is going to find out.
Ultimately, the thesis of the fic is: we must give and receive help in order to heal, but we also must learn to help ourselves first. Fortunately, we can do that through accepting offerings from others, like Three starts to do with Pin-Lee.
Some other quotes involving the words "to help" in my fic below, just for fun :)
Three: [Query: priority objectives?]
SecUnit: I need you to help me. Guard my door. Disable me if I try to leave.
1.0 doesn’t reply. Even through the trickle of our feed connection, I can feel something like fear emanating from it. I add, Let me try to help. I am more competent than you may believe.
Mensah: Thank you. I’m worried, and I want to help if I can. I don’t mean to push.
I keep remembering the final time I was given a freeze order, and could see and hear the consequences of that order in the feed and on the ship around me. I was unable to protect my clients. I was unable to help 01 and 02.
Iris: “I can talk to Peri. I know it wants to do whatever it can to help SecUnit. If that involves needing to check its ego and get help from you, Three, or anyone else here, then that’s what it will do. It’s just a matter of getting Peri to see that.”
Pin-Lee to Three: "I know you like to help others. I can see that you feel especially strongly about wanting to help with this. But maybe it would be good to take a break before figuring out how exactly you want to be involved moving forward.”
Listen, I try, scrambling a little. I want to help you. But I need you to help me. I need you to stop trying to target my humans.
I add, 2.0 wanted to help it.
It didn’t get the chance to tell me.
<3 <3 <3 thanks for reading!
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