Case Fourteen
[Though sleep wasn't necessary, Motoko decided to give in to sleep just this once, only to find it filled with nightmares and visions of her former coworkers being slaughtered mercilessly around her. Her friends soon followed. She could see her own body having its skin peeled off down to the various wires and other parts that made up her prosthetic body, only to have those fall off easily until the ghost contained within burst free, only to fade away as she woke up after the three hour time limit. As she had been connecting with her Sphere so often, fragments and pieces of her nightmares flashed over the network occasionally.]
[When she finally woke up, a crowd of familiar faces were standing around her room. -Surely her room hadn't been large enough to accommodate them all before.- The Chief and everyone else from Section Nine, Kuze, her two friends, Aoi, and a few others, regardless of their state of liveliness and level of acquaintance from when she had left them.]
What the hell are you all doing here?
[Batou, a big guy with prosthetic eyes and pale hair tied back, is the first of the group to step forward.]
Major, why did you sleep? You could have forgone the nightmares the other passengers were experiencing, just as you weren't able to sleep but never suffered the effects of sleep deprivation.
[Before she could answer, a young man with a light brown mullet in a tan suit, Togusa, somes to stand next to Batou.]
Really Major, you're a full cyborg. You don't need sleep, you don't need to eat, or anything else a human needs to do to survive and maintain their livelihood like I do. You're not even human anymore.
You're just as human as the AI ladies or the Tachikomas.
That's bullshit! I have a ghost, just like all of you. Batou, you don't have much room to talk because you've got a full-prosthetic too!
Yeah? But I'm not the one who needed a prosthetic body at the age of six. And how long ago was that anyway? None of us know your real age. You've synchronized information with so many people, how do you know that your memories and your ghost are really yours? You've even had your ghost trapped on the net for months on end. I've never done that, but it sure as hell ain't normal for any human.
[The scowl on her face remained as she gritted her teeth. So while she looked like she wanted to punch him, anyone who studied her long enough would see a bitter sadness in her eyes. It didn't need to be said that what they were saying hit home, and hard. It was as if the people she had once known had now turned against her. What she was failing to notice, was a shadowy figure to the back of the group whose face wasn't visible yet.]
((Blue is Batou, green is Togusa. If I introduce any of the others in the comments, I'll make note of it. Also, in case it was missed, because of Motoko's nature as a cyborg, pieces of the nightmare I described went over the Sphere network.))
[When she finally woke up, a crowd of familiar faces were standing around her room. -Surely her room hadn't been large enough to accommodate them all before.- The Chief and everyone else from Section Nine, Kuze, her two friends, Aoi, and a few others, regardless of their state of liveliness and level of acquaintance from when she had left them.]
What the hell are you all doing here?
[Batou, a big guy with prosthetic eyes and pale hair tied back, is the first of the group to step forward.]
Major, why did you sleep? You could have forgone the nightmares the other passengers were experiencing, just as you weren't able to sleep but never suffered the effects of sleep deprivation.
[Before she could answer, a young man with a light brown mullet in a tan suit, Togusa, somes to stand next to Batou.]
Really Major, you're a full cyborg. You don't need sleep, you don't need to eat, or anything else a human needs to do to survive and maintain their livelihood like I do. You're not even human anymore.
You're just as human as the AI ladies or the Tachikomas.
That's bullshit! I have a ghost, just like all of you. Batou, you don't have much room to talk because you've got a full-prosthetic too!
Yeah? But I'm not the one who needed a prosthetic body at the age of six. And how long ago was that anyway? None of us know your real age. You've synchronized information with so many people, how do you know that your memories and your ghost are really yours? You've even had your ghost trapped on the net for months on end. I've never done that, but it sure as hell ain't normal for any human.
[The scowl on her face remained as she gritted her teeth. So while she looked like she wanted to punch him, anyone who studied her long enough would see a bitter sadness in her eyes. It didn't need to be said that what they were saying hit home, and hard. It was as if the people she had once known had now turned against her. What she was failing to notice, was a shadowy figure to the back of the group whose face wasn't visible yet.]
((Blue is Batou, green is Togusa. If I introduce any of the others in the comments, I'll make note of it. Also, in case it was missed, because of Motoko's nature as a cyborg, pieces of the nightmare I described went over the Sphere network.))