"He's petty and mean and sharp, but in a way that feels like he's acting in defense. He doesn't know what to make of kindness, he uses barbs to try to push people away. But he likes stories--he internalizes them. The first time I talked to him, one-on-one, I brought my media player up to the bridge and started watching a serial, and he came out to join me. We both prefer fast-forward through the scenes where people are doing pairing things. Though I don't know if he would still, if we watched again."

And Murderbot understands something about media, about stories as a form of escape. Something something, a little under 35,000 hours of movies, serials, books, plays and music combined. If it had the power to create its own worlds, mightn't it lean into the tropes that are familiar?