#farai

[maz737]

It’s a bit late for that now

[katamine01]

From panicking at proximity … to initiating (and even enjoying?) touch

[razielim]

Thinking about how... Farai and Naja keep backing it up. In the first half, yes, but increasingly so in the second half, all while Murderbot keeps planning to ditch them or otherwise keep them out of the fray and shoulder all extraction, travel, security, disguise responsibility by itself.

"I'm a strong construct who don't need no human backup!"

>Farai helps it maintain low levels of scrutiny by not letting it wander off to save Leonide's family alone. She and Naja coordinate in advance to ensure its compliance in this, having caught on to its ill-advised intention to ditch all three of them. >Farai works their cover by engaging the tech repair place so Murderbot can do reconnaissance. >Meanwhile, Naja is doing some brilliant escape vehicle planning with built-in redundancies. >Farai quickly and efficiently carries out the objectives Murderbot had assigned her for their flash-incursion into the apartment. >Farai wrecks the fuck out of the bed Janity is chained to. >Farai manages Janity by liberally applying mothering to the situation when the anxious teen locks up in place, delaying their escape. >Farai and Naja help it hide all its bulletholes as it's pulled out of the water, graciously interface for it with all the humans it has to get past on the boat, and otherwise help maintain its "plausibly augmented human" identity in a very crowded situation. >Farai and Naja share ground vehicle driving responsibility with it, allowing it stretches of time to watch its shows, which isn't quite a restart but makes a big difference for both its well-being and job performance. >Sofi (!!) contributes a plan to get across the large port with speed and comfort when all the adults are stumped, discouraged, out of ideas, and out of performance reliability, which helps them all regroup somewhat before the final hurdle. >Farai and Naja double down on managing the group's appearance at the food kiosks as Murderbot's performance starts to drop off and directing extraction strategy increasingly becomes the only thing it can manage on its own. >Naja reliably continues to the shuttle with the two younger kids, ensuring Three can get them to safety without confusion or panic. >Farai stays to back Murderbot up in an emotionally fraught situation, providing the additional warmth and empathy to Janity that Murderbot wouldn't have been able to offer the adolescent on its own, and her contribution was just as valuable to Janity's strength in facing away from her second father as Murderbot's reassuring guarantee of physical protection.

Not an exhaustive list of all the support Murderbot received in its extraction goal from the very humans it was extracting, but I can't sit here all day.

...this started out as a Farai post that ended up having to include Naja's activities in parentheses but I gave up on maintaining that more narrow focus; just gonna give both women (+ Sofi!) their flowers. 💐

[mensahbotcule]

[grimbarbarityposting]

Oh, Farai. I can see why Dr Mensah loves you. Murderbot and Farai are best friends now.

[securityunit-ese]

All Systems Red / Platform Decay - Survival blanket

All Systems Red - alone

The first scene Martha Wells wrote for Murderbot was the one where it makes it way into the ready room, wraps itself up, leaking fluids and all alone in a cubicle.

It is isolated and all alone when Mensah approaches it in concern, the only human to do so.

And it just doesn't know how to respond to someone caring about it. No-one has ever cared to ask before and it's being perceived: it hunches down and tries to hide itself from her, tugs its hands tighter around itself and insists it is fine:

Mensah doesn't believe it is fine, but she listens to it and leaves it sitting, injured and wrapped up in a survival blanket, alone:

Platform Decay - together

SecUnit makes its way to the boat. Even before it arrives, it's not alone. It reaches out to its humans. Strange humans help it to safety. It is wrapped up in a survival blanket and its wounds hidden from view. It doesn't have to do any of this, this is all done for it:

Everyone is concerned, including strangers it has never spoken to before. It is surrounded by friends and so incredibly not alone.

Sofi, Mensah's daughter, asks it if it's okay, just like her mother did all those cycles ago:

And instead of withdrawing, instead of tightening the survival blanket to hide itself from view. It reaches out and opens up itself to being touched and to being seen.

And when it says it is fine, it is believed, because they can see it and they can be with it. It is sitting there, injured and wrapped up in a survival blanket, but it isn't alone. Because it has Mensah's family with it:

[king-of-kaoss]

your idea has been secunit approved! 👍

[rincewind87]

OKAY THIS IS WHY I USE PRONOUNS IN MY EMAIL

Six chapters into the audiobook for Platform Decay before I realized that Farai is a woman's name.

Six fucking chapters!