Application for Aoi/The Laughing Man (Ghost in the Shell : Stand Alone Complex)

[catcherandrye]

The door to the Sorting Room creaked open, and a dark haired young adolescent peaked around the corner. He paused, blinked, waited a while, then stepped in and closed the door behind him

Comments

[mello_n_choco]

"An internet connection takes an act of a god," I tell him. I pull out a chocolate bar and unwrap it. "You'll have to figure out which one, though, as there seem to be a few here."

[catcherandrye]

Aoi looked at the chocolate bar, then up to the blond. He didn't look him in the eyes however, it was almost as if he was looking over Mello's shoulder, though he was obviously talking to Mello and Mello alone. He waited, then eventually he asked, "Then, this would be a black out spot? I've never heard of a place that has a lack of internet connection."

His eyes drifted off to the side too survey the walls of the sorting room. "Although, the architecture of this place is ancient."

He decided to ignore the comments about god and/or gods. He hated them all.

[mello_n_choco]

It's a little strange not being looked at directly, though L is prone to that, when he bothers talking to me. "The fluctuations caused by the magic here cause a disruption to electrically based signals," I say blandly. "Some seem exempt by design, some by special effort, but not freely available."

[catcherandrye]

Not-looking at Mello again, he raised an eyebrow. "Magic?"

Aoi wasn't as shocked as another would have been. He supposed that magic was really nothing more and extremely advanced science and left it at that. Attempting to figure out why and how wasn't something he was interested in anyway.

"Is there a library within this place then?" he asked, because if separated from the internet, he would rather immerse himself in books. He enjoyed being surrounded by information, whether it was physical or virtual.

[mello_n_choco]

"Yes, magic, and a library with information on how to produce it and the history of this place and the culture that used to inhabit it," I say. I cross my arms over my chest, keeping the chocolate bar in the open. "Why? You some kind of nerd?" I ask. Rich, me calling someone a nerd.

[catcherandrye]

"For someone who chose to talk about the net, and seems to know the contents of the library, it seems a little hypocritical of you to label me as a nerd." He smiled lightly, and his eyes softened a little. Though, that was what he had been classified as when he had been committed the first time.

He met Mello's eyes this time, and gave another dangerous little smile. Bluff, he thought. He knows perhaps as much as I do.

[mello_n_choco]

I snort. "Maybe I'm just an overly trained monkey," I say, smirking at him. I take a bite of chocolate. "I have read most of it," I admit. "Though, I think I would prefer going back to the lost library."

[catcherandrye]

"I have read almost every book in the National Library." Considering it was full of encyclopaedias and documents from as far back as word was recorded on paper, it was quite an amount.

It sounded a little like a challenge. Perhaps it was, perhaps it wasn't. Aoi dropped his eyes again. "A lost library?"

[mello_n_choco]

"The one who took me there called it the cemetery of forgotten books. I found a copy of the Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta and the original me there." I shrug. "It was very different from the one in the National Library since it was a copy of the original rather than a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy ad nauseum."

[catcherandrye]

"Of forgotten books? Curious." He seemed to be replying a little quicker than when he had been before. Something had stirred him enough to be on the surface of his mind, rather than behind veils and veils of thoughts running of on every which way constantly calculating and wondering.

He frowned. "However I have no interest in gods. The sick bastards don't deserve a place in peoples lives. Lefty's catchers mitts, all of them. I would hope there are books on other things too..." He didn't like that this was the second time Mello had brought up supposed higher powers within one conversation either.

[mello_n_choco]

I raise an eyebrow. "I'm a liguaphile," I say. "I study arcane languages for entertainment. The story of Babel is therefore interesting, especially in its oldest form." I'm not sure what he means about the catchers mitt, but it doesn't matter much.

"The gods have been forced into my life," I say. "Both before I came here and sense. Gods and demons. You get used to it after awhile or you try to avoid them." I raise an eyebrow. "What is your problem with them? Did one kill you?"

[catcherandrye]

"Kill me?" He chuckled lightly. "No, I can't die. A woman I once knew taught me to live in the net independently of my body, thought I don't think she realised it. Even if this body was dismantled, I would live on until I get bored and decide to try death." He turned around and pointed to the data ports on the back of his neck, they looked a little like USB ports with detachable jacks, indicating that his body was fully cyborg.

He turned back to face Mello. He shook his head. "They've never done anything good for me, or anyone around me. Life is cruel, and I hate them for it, or the idea of them, at least." Honestly, Aoi's just a romantic and idealistic child that didn't want to accept that cruelty was integral to life itself. He wanted to protect people, everyone, from that cruelty.

[mello_n_choco]

Both eyebrows go up at that. Fuck, if Wammy's could do that...

I school my features again as he's turning around. "Only gods I've met are useless or intent on being grandfatherly and oblique. Whether either of them has any actual power is debatable. Those who ascribe any power to them would be escaping responsibility."

[catcherandrye]

He gave a soft snort. "Typical. They either don't do their jobs or exist purely to create issues." Like the CS pandemic. And then the vaccine had been hidden, given to only politicians and celebrities, while the general public paid more than they could afford for treatment that didn't work.

[mello_n_choco]

"What is the job of a god? The one we've assigned them? And, if so, doesn't that make us gods?" I ask. This is a popular topic recently. I lean back against the wall, taking another bite of chocolate as I wait for his answer.

[catcherandrye]

"They're the omniscient and omnipotent ones. Why would any creator want their children to suffer?" He narrowed his eyes and dropped them to the floor.

"Why would any god allow a pandemic to spread, and allow those with the vaccine to keep it to themselves. Simply because of one man's pride." He was speaking from personal experience here.