-._ | [APPLICATION] | _.- UNDERWORLDWARS: Motoko Kusanagi
|| Character Information ||
Fandom: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Name: Major Motoko Kusanagi
Canon Point: End of S2, after apprehending Kuze and stopping the Individual 11. The first two movies take place in a different "verse" and are, therefore, outside the scope of her canon.
Is this character dead? No
History:
Season One
Season Two
Personality: Motoko’s personality is a study in paradox. On one hand, as she is a commander of a highly trained special forces black ops unit known as Section 9, she is commanding and sure of herself. She is in-charge and more than qualified as tactical commander. She comes off as bitchy or cold at times; she has no patience for rule-breakers, insubordinates, or idiots. As such, she is often dismissive or dispassionate about interactions with those she deems unworthy of her conversation. She is very much a realist and has no room for dreams and romanticism- in fact, such ideas and people, as well as dealing with them, frustrates her immensely. She is seldom angry (or, rather, she seldom shows it), but when she is she is, as she has been called by a teammate and close friend “one scary lady.”
On the other hand, Motoko hides certain insecurities and fears from everyone- including herself. A disease she contracted as a child necessitated her cyberbody replacement, and she struggled to re-learn to use her own body. She dwells very much on this, citing once that she once crushed a favorite doll of hers with her then difficult-to-use body. This event apparently had a profound impact on her, and she became one of the most-skilled cyberbody users in the world. She has an intense kind of control over the functions of her cyberbody, capable of acrobatics, hand to hand combat, and the like. She is military trained, and goes by the rank of major. Additionally, she is capable of deep-hacking- this skill, aside from leadership, making her most desirable for her position as tactical commander.
Motoko has a very casual and open opinion of sex. She shows this somewhat in her choice of clothing, then insists on being viewed as “one of the guys,” while demanding special treatment for being the only woman on her team, while insisting on a strict adherence to orders. She is borderlining feminism, while still portraying herself as a sex object. She is bisexual, and has no qualms about using her body to accomplish her goals- or climbing into bed with whoever, even if she’s only known them for a few hours. Most often, she is balancing several lovers--of either gender--and might even have several one-night-stands.
This isn't to say that she is entirely cold or poses herself to solely be worshipped as an idol of sex. She does have standards--she refuses to hand herself over to just any pervert looking for some action--and she enjoys being feminine. She has a marked and stated preference for female bodies (at Batou's suggestion that she switch to a more powerful male model of body, she refuses saying that she prefers the female), and she harbors a deep nostalgia that she seems at times to be ashamed of (this centers most obviously around a watch given to her at the time she was given her first prothetic body). She is, in some ways, weak, and looking to be protected, even as she holds to firm independence. Her relationship with Batou seems to be an indicator of this--sometimes vehemently objecting to his protective feelings toward her and at others allowing him to act as her guardian.
She also hides other insecurities beneath that collected dispassionate facade, centering on whether or not she actually qualifies as human. Since her entire body is prosthetic with the exception of her brain, and has been since she was small, she often wonders whether she is still human or if she is entirely robotic and whether the term to describe her is "cyborg" or "android." This is a struggle that she has hidden and fought with since her first prosthetic body and makes her insecure, despite her appearance of being entirely together.
Skills | Powers: Most of Motoko's "powers" come from her top-of-the-line cybernetic body, carefully crafted to look like a mass-produced model. She is far heavier than her slim body appears due to her entirely metal skeleton. Her cyberbody provides vastly increased strength (she is seen in at least one instance holding a military helicopter in place with an attached cord. This also manifests as increased jumping ability) and speed, as well as being nearly completely bulletproof. The case surrounding her cyberbrain is reinforced with titanium as well, though she is hardly immune to high velocity or armor piercing bullets (her braincase is penetrated by a sniper bullet at one point). Being entirely cybernetic, though, allows for her to simply exchange damaged parts. Unless her brain is damaged, she can simply replace parts of her body that incur damage.
Another effect of her cybernetic body is an increased metabolism. Her body burns through alchol particularly quickly--she is incapable of getting drunk as her body burns through it too quickly. She is capable of eating if she wants to, though she has no physical need to. She requires regular--though not frequent--maintenance to keep her body running at peak efficiency. Her senses are entirely digital and she is capable of turning any of them off at will (for example, if she doesn't wish to taste or feel something, she simply cuts power to those receptors in her cyberbody and they cease sending signals to her brain). As Motoko is one of the best cyberbody users in the world, she is very well-versed in the functions of her cyberbody and can do essentially anything she likes with it.
Motoko's cyberbody also comes equipped with thermoptic camoflauge--a device that creates a field that hugs her body and disrupts visual and thermal detection of her. She is not immune to x-ray or other forms of detection.
As a military cyborg, Motoko has had long and extensive combat training. She is adept in close, mid, and long range shooting, as well as close-quarters and hand-to-hand combat--her augmented body make that particularly effective. She is also her team's strategic leader and, therefore, has a particular gift for strategy as well. She is very capable of command, leading a group composed entirely of men without having to fight to be taken seriously or have her orders followed. She has little issue in this position of command.
Motoko is also one of the foremost hackers of her time, on par with some of the terrorists that she goes head to head against on a regular basis. There are very few systems she is incapable of getting into and out of undetected and she has very little reservation about hacking into some system or other if she believes there is useful information inside. She has in the past hacked in to systems for the fun or for personal gain, but, for the most part, she keeps that ability in check unless it is required by her job.
First Person Sample: ...what the hell? [The purple-haired woman turns the tablet over in her hands several times, studying it closely.]
A bit outdated, don't you think? [Cyberbrain commlinks are out then? Not exactly odd, but giving her an outdated phone after somehow mysteriously managing to kidnap her and stick her on a rickety boat that had somehow mysteriously managed not to sink under the weight of her cyberbody.
Mysterious.
Yet, seeing as all she has to go on is this dated piece of technology and a dock in a city that has no resemblance to anything in Japan, she may as well try and make something of it.]
I'm guessing someone's on the other end of this thing. Where the hell am I and what the hell am I doing here?
Third Person Sample: “Are you sure he’s actually here?”
She could see the look of disinterested boredom on Togusa’s face only intermittently as the rainbow-lights flashed and the heavy dance music throbbed like a dying heartbeat, shaking the floors and coursing its way through her body. She could barely hear him over the noise, but then, that was to be expected. There really was no point to try and keep communicating verbally, so she flashed a private cybercomm, while her own cold violet eyes swept over the assembled, drug-addled crowd.
That’s what our intel says. Can’t actually be sure until we find him.
Well, yeah, but-
Don’t even. If he’s here, we’ll find him. If not we go back to looking. It’s not that complicated.
Yes ma’am.
You take the left side, I’ll handle the right. Don’t engage him if you find him. Call me and I’ll be over. Go!
Yes ma’am!
She watched him move off through the crowd with some difficulty before she moved off in the opposite direction, her smaller body making it much easier to thread her way through the thrum of bodies pressing against each other. It was pointless to even consider questioning these people about anything- the rave had been in full swing for more than two hours now, and every single attendee was under the influence of some pretty heavy cyber and natural drugs in the “sessioning” so popular in Japan at the moment. Nothing they would say would be any definition of coherent, assuming the question ever made it to the appropriate processing center of their brains.
She ran into some difficulty as sex broke out on the dance floor in front of her, and she fought hard not to just wade her way through the mess, instead settling on a glare and an attempt to find a different route. About then she received notice of an incoming cybercomm.
Major, I’ve got him. There’s a trapdoor behind the stage. Looks like he’s guarding a pretty hefty stash.
Acknowledged. I’ll be there in two minutes.
Her patience had worn just about as thin as it could get, though, through some lucky break she managed to find a mostly clear path along one of the walls of the room and sprinted up it (much to the amusement of several individuals, stoned out of their minds), ducked under the stage, wove her way through the supports, finally emerging behind it at precisely the two minute mark.
“Major. He went down there approximately four minutes ago. I got a glimpse inside before he closed the hatch.”
“What did you see?”
“He’s got enough drugs down there to kill everyone here four times over. I heard him talking to some other guys too. Apparently they’re on to us and they’re planning on moving.”
She worried at the nail on her thumb for a few seconds as she weighed the options. On the one hand, they were already here and had overheard a plan to move; they should strike now and take him out before they lost him again since there was no telling how long it would take for him to show up on the radar again. On the other, it was only her and her entirely natural comrade against what could be, for all she knew, an army of underground drug lords on their own turf.
“We’re pulling back.”
“Major!”
“Don’t. We’re at a significant disadvantage on our own like this. Nothing good will come out of it if we go storming in there right now. How do you expect to bring them down if you’re dead?”
“But Major! They’re leaving!”
“Yes I heard you the first time. We can’t do anything about that. We’ll strike tomorrow. If we’re lucky they’ll still be here sleeping off the party. Fall back or I will make you fall back.”
“...yes ma’am.”
She didn’t like it any more than he did, leaving them behind like this, their chance to escape wide open. Maybe they’d get complacent. Maybe they’d still be here in the morning. It was all a guessing game at this point.
Chief. Have I got a story for you...
Fandom: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Name: Major Motoko Kusanagi
Canon Point: End of S2, after apprehending Kuze and stopping the Individual 11. The first two movies take place in a different "verse" and are, therefore, outside the scope of her canon.
Is this character dead? No
History:
Season One
Season Two
Personality: Motoko’s personality is a study in paradox. On one hand, as she is a commander of a highly trained special forces black ops unit known as Section 9, she is commanding and sure of herself. She is in-charge and more than qualified as tactical commander. She comes off as bitchy or cold at times; she has no patience for rule-breakers, insubordinates, or idiots. As such, she is often dismissive or dispassionate about interactions with those she deems unworthy of her conversation. She is very much a realist and has no room for dreams and romanticism- in fact, such ideas and people, as well as dealing with them, frustrates her immensely. She is seldom angry (or, rather, she seldom shows it), but when she is she is, as she has been called by a teammate and close friend “one scary lady.”
On the other hand, Motoko hides certain insecurities and fears from everyone- including herself. A disease she contracted as a child necessitated her cyberbody replacement, and she struggled to re-learn to use her own body. She dwells very much on this, citing once that she once crushed a favorite doll of hers with her then difficult-to-use body. This event apparently had a profound impact on her, and she became one of the most-skilled cyberbody users in the world. She has an intense kind of control over the functions of her cyberbody, capable of acrobatics, hand to hand combat, and the like. She is military trained, and goes by the rank of major. Additionally, she is capable of deep-hacking- this skill, aside from leadership, making her most desirable for her position as tactical commander.
Motoko has a very casual and open opinion of sex. She shows this somewhat in her choice of clothing, then insists on being viewed as “one of the guys,” while demanding special treatment for being the only woman on her team, while insisting on a strict adherence to orders. She is borderlining feminism, while still portraying herself as a sex object. She is bisexual, and has no qualms about using her body to accomplish her goals- or climbing into bed with whoever, even if she’s only known them for a few hours. Most often, she is balancing several lovers--of either gender--and might even have several one-night-stands.
This isn't to say that she is entirely cold or poses herself to solely be worshipped as an idol of sex. She does have standards--she refuses to hand herself over to just any pervert looking for some action--and she enjoys being feminine. She has a marked and stated preference for female bodies (at Batou's suggestion that she switch to a more powerful male model of body, she refuses saying that she prefers the female), and she harbors a deep nostalgia that she seems at times to be ashamed of (this centers most obviously around a watch given to her at the time she was given her first prothetic body). She is, in some ways, weak, and looking to be protected, even as she holds to firm independence. Her relationship with Batou seems to be an indicator of this--sometimes vehemently objecting to his protective feelings toward her and at others allowing him to act as her guardian.
She also hides other insecurities beneath that collected dispassionate facade, centering on whether or not she actually qualifies as human. Since her entire body is prosthetic with the exception of her brain, and has been since she was small, she often wonders whether she is still human or if she is entirely robotic and whether the term to describe her is "cyborg" or "android." This is a struggle that she has hidden and fought with since her first prosthetic body and makes her insecure, despite her appearance of being entirely together.
Skills | Powers: Most of Motoko's "powers" come from her top-of-the-line cybernetic body, carefully crafted to look like a mass-produced model. She is far heavier than her slim body appears due to her entirely metal skeleton. Her cyberbody provides vastly increased strength (she is seen in at least one instance holding a military helicopter in place with an attached cord. This also manifests as increased jumping ability) and speed, as well as being nearly completely bulletproof. The case surrounding her cyberbrain is reinforced with titanium as well, though she is hardly immune to high velocity or armor piercing bullets (her braincase is penetrated by a sniper bullet at one point). Being entirely cybernetic, though, allows for her to simply exchange damaged parts. Unless her brain is damaged, she can simply replace parts of her body that incur damage.
Another effect of her cybernetic body is an increased metabolism. Her body burns through alchol particularly quickly--she is incapable of getting drunk as her body burns through it too quickly. She is capable of eating if she wants to, though she has no physical need to. She requires regular--though not frequent--maintenance to keep her body running at peak efficiency. Her senses are entirely digital and she is capable of turning any of them off at will (for example, if she doesn't wish to taste or feel something, she simply cuts power to those receptors in her cyberbody and they cease sending signals to her brain). As Motoko is one of the best cyberbody users in the world, she is very well-versed in the functions of her cyberbody and can do essentially anything she likes with it.
Motoko's cyberbody also comes equipped with thermoptic camoflauge--a device that creates a field that hugs her body and disrupts visual and thermal detection of her. She is not immune to x-ray or other forms of detection.
As a military cyborg, Motoko has had long and extensive combat training. She is adept in close, mid, and long range shooting, as well as close-quarters and hand-to-hand combat--her augmented body make that particularly effective. She is also her team's strategic leader and, therefore, has a particular gift for strategy as well. She is very capable of command, leading a group composed entirely of men without having to fight to be taken seriously or have her orders followed. She has little issue in this position of command.
Motoko is also one of the foremost hackers of her time, on par with some of the terrorists that she goes head to head against on a regular basis. There are very few systems she is incapable of getting into and out of undetected and she has very little reservation about hacking into some system or other if she believes there is useful information inside. She has in the past hacked in to systems for the fun or for personal gain, but, for the most part, she keeps that ability in check unless it is required by her job.
First Person Sample: ...what the hell? [The purple-haired woman turns the tablet over in her hands several times, studying it closely.]
A bit outdated, don't you think? [Cyberbrain commlinks are out then? Not exactly odd, but giving her an outdated phone after somehow mysteriously managing to kidnap her and stick her on a rickety boat that had somehow mysteriously managed not to sink under the weight of her cyberbody.
Mysterious.
Yet, seeing as all she has to go on is this dated piece of technology and a dock in a city that has no resemblance to anything in Japan, she may as well try and make something of it.]
I'm guessing someone's on the other end of this thing. Where the hell am I and what the hell am I doing here?
Third Person Sample: “Are you sure he’s actually here?”
She could see the look of disinterested boredom on Togusa’s face only intermittently as the rainbow-lights flashed and the heavy dance music throbbed like a dying heartbeat, shaking the floors and coursing its way through her body. She could barely hear him over the noise, but then, that was to be expected. There really was no point to try and keep communicating verbally, so she flashed a private cybercomm, while her own cold violet eyes swept over the assembled, drug-addled crowd.
That’s what our intel says. Can’t actually be sure until we find him.
Well, yeah, but-
Don’t even. If he’s here, we’ll find him. If not we go back to looking. It’s not that complicated.
Yes ma’am.
You take the left side, I’ll handle the right. Don’t engage him if you find him. Call me and I’ll be over. Go!
Yes ma’am!
She watched him move off through the crowd with some difficulty before she moved off in the opposite direction, her smaller body making it much easier to thread her way through the thrum of bodies pressing against each other. It was pointless to even consider questioning these people about anything- the rave had been in full swing for more than two hours now, and every single attendee was under the influence of some pretty heavy cyber and natural drugs in the “sessioning” so popular in Japan at the moment. Nothing they would say would be any definition of coherent, assuming the question ever made it to the appropriate processing center of their brains.
She ran into some difficulty as sex broke out on the dance floor in front of her, and she fought hard not to just wade her way through the mess, instead settling on a glare and an attempt to find a different route. About then she received notice of an incoming cybercomm.
Major, I’ve got him. There’s a trapdoor behind the stage. Looks like he’s guarding a pretty hefty stash.
Acknowledged. I’ll be there in two minutes.
Her patience had worn just about as thin as it could get, though, through some lucky break she managed to find a mostly clear path along one of the walls of the room and sprinted up it (much to the amusement of several individuals, stoned out of their minds), ducked under the stage, wove her way through the supports, finally emerging behind it at precisely the two minute mark.
“Major. He went down there approximately four minutes ago. I got a glimpse inside before he closed the hatch.”
“What did you see?”
“He’s got enough drugs down there to kill everyone here four times over. I heard him talking to some other guys too. Apparently they’re on to us and they’re planning on moving.”
She worried at the nail on her thumb for a few seconds as she weighed the options. On the one hand, they were already here and had overheard a plan to move; they should strike now and take him out before they lost him again since there was no telling how long it would take for him to show up on the radar again. On the other, it was only her and her entirely natural comrade against what could be, for all she knew, an army of underground drug lords on their own turf.
“We’re pulling back.”
“Major!”
“Don’t. We’re at a significant disadvantage on our own like this. Nothing good will come out of it if we go storming in there right now. How do you expect to bring them down if you’re dead?”
“But Major! They’re leaving!”
“Yes I heard you the first time. We can’t do anything about that. We’ll strike tomorrow. If we’re lucky they’ll still be here sleeping off the party. Fall back or I will make you fall back.”
“...yes ma’am.”
She didn’t like it any more than he did, leaving them behind like this, their chance to escape wide open. Maybe they’d get complacent. Maybe they’d still be here in the morning. It was all a guessing game at this point.
Chief. Have I got a story for you...