(Untitled)

[oblique_wisdom]

Who: electroniccrane, oblique_wisdom
When: Tonight
Where: Carnival
What: They're killing time. Sheik's proving his worth. Bad stuff will probably happen.

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[electroniccrane]

Kusanagi rounded the corner from the stairwell, the only preparation she'd made for their excursion being to put on a long-sleeved shirt. The bats scratched, and the thermoptic film could only take so much abuse.

She took in the man who used Zelda's comm with one flick of her eyes. He was taller than she was, but that was hardly unusual. "Mr. Sheik." Using the English honorific might have sounded silly if delivered with anything less than Kusanagi's usual detachment.

[oblique_wisdom]

Sheik didn't know who she was talking about, but it certainly didn't sound like the type of guy he wanted to sit down for tea with. In consequence, he paused briefly, something he wouldn't even consider a pause. She didn't need him worrying about her. Unlike her, he couldn't act as quickly. His reflexes weren't nearly as good, although in comparison with a human, he could overshadow quite easily. He'd proven it the night he assaulted that Meth woman.

A single glance to her and without a second's more hesitance, he made a break for the trees as uncomfortable as they seemed to be. A tree was just a tree, however, and he wasn't against the idea of hoisting himself up into one, which quickly became the plan of action as he reached for the nearest branch and grasped tightly.

[elegante_masks]

"Boo!" shrieked the Counsellor, popping out of the trees to one side. His hair was filthy and matted and blood covered his chin and the shirt on his chest, as well as his arms up to the shoulders. He gave a high-pitched whinny of a giggle and immediately made a bee-line for Sheik, zig-zagging and rolling, breath catching as he quickly began to gain and then--

He leaped, trying to take down Sheik in a tumbling flurry of limbs.

[electroniccrane]

Kusanagi believed in oracles--for about 500 milliseconds into the future, anyway. After that, the reliability her short-term prediction algorithms started to break down. Half a second was more than enough time for her cyberbrain to range, target, and then guide her arm in whipping the stone she'd picked up at the Counselor's head.

She was always vaguely amused when she used her classified military subroutines and billion-yen combat cybershell to do something like chuck a rock.

[oblique_wisdom]

Sheik couldn't say he was accustomed to loud noises, although to some degree he'd been around plenty of commotion. It wasn't like the Counselor, though. He knew well enough to evade the reaching arms and drew his right hand to his mouth where he drew back the bandaging. Pushing his palm down, his other hand steadied him and the moment he felt the heat release from his palm, he refrained.

It was a rock. The Major had thrown a rock, something to throw the Counselor off. And Sheik was relieved.

[elegante_masks]

The Counsellor avoided the blast from Shiek's palm well enough, but the rock was more difficult. Half his skull spattered outwards in a grim explosion and the Counsellor sagged and dipped on his feet, drooling a hissing black liquid.

One eye was totally out of focus, and it was difficult to move, but the Counsellor liked to give his all!

"Iff'aye had wurrdz t'mehkka dayfurr yu--" he slurred in song, still close enough to Sheik to be within spitting range. The melody played in his head. "Ayed mehkyu a mahwrrrrrn-"

He spat with his last breath, and little droplets of the acid rained forward onto Shiek as the Counsellor stumbled again, then dropped down to the ground. He was thoroughly dead.

Hss body began to dissolve, and the timer for his respawn began to tick down steadily.

[electroniccrane]

The Major closed the rest of the distance and offered Sheik her hand. "He'll be back. Possibly within a few minutes, possibly hours. More likely some time in between."

It was the voice of experience. She'd killed the Counselor more than once, usually working as a team with Batou. The two of them were really too high-level for that particular encounter, but it was better than the enforced idleness of the rest of the ship.

[oblique_wisdom]

The acid. That caught his attention first and threw him in a collective panic. He would have said it was him being collective, but anyone else probably would have seen the panic. Off with the bandages of his head. Off with the bandages adorning his neck. Off with all of that, leaving what little he could, rips and tears of the Sheikah eye that adorned his chest.

Then he took the Major's hand, as odd as it was, "I'm not interested in staying around to find out when he's coming out. Let's move on." With his other, he drew it over his face as though it dawned on him that without his bandaging he showed far too much of himself.

[6_of_swords]

"Here," the woman said, stepping out of the forest and drawing a cloak from around her shoulders. She offered it to the rapidly stripping Shiek and offered a vague smile to the Major. "You shouldn't kill him. It's best to wound him, so he doesn't learn your form."

[electroniccrane]

Kusanagi raised an eyebrow, and shifted her stance so she could more easily engage with the stranger if she had to. 'Non-lethal' was not her forte, but she filed the advice for reference. "The alternative was allowing my companion to be injured, but I'll bear it in mind for the future."

[oblique_wisdom]

He eyed the cloak warily. Could he really trust anything from an inhabitant of Carnival? The Major hadn't said anything about not taking it just yet. Perhaps she'd just never encountered this one. In quick maneuvering, Sheik wrapped the cloak across his face, over his pointed ears, over a single shoulder, and down the right arm.

"Who are you?" he thought was the obvious question to the woman who'd lent him her cloak. He lifted an eyebrow at the Major.

[6_of_swords]

"You don't recognize me?" the woman asked, looking back and forth between them. "Motoko, your own mother?"

[electroniccrane]

Kusanagi had been half prepared for that, but if anyone was expecting her to start considering Herz a brother, they were in for a disappointment.

"Ah," she said, her expression unchanging. The Major had little use for family, and she simply stored the woman's physical characteristics, as she did for any new acquaintances. "Thank you for your help."

Thanking the person who brought one back from the dead seemed like the polite thing to do.

[oblique_wisdom]

Motoko's mother, except not it seemed. Of course, from what he knew of the Major, she wasn't the sort to make a big deal out of family anyway, so whether this woman was or was not didn't appear to make a difference. Sheik knew he'd never seen her before, and he'd never even stepped foot into Carnival. Therefore it left him ultimately befuddled by the whole situation.

"Yes. Thank you," he managed to reply, although gratitude wasn't a strong suit for him. With their new companion, however, what was their next plan of action? Had they come looking for something in particular?

[6_of_swords]

The woman smiled at Motoko warmly.

"Have you forgotten the real world?" she asked the cyborg. "Or do you really think that Japan was anything but a terrible dream? No, it was all an illusion, and you're safe here and now."

She looked to Sheik. "You're welcome. Be careful."

And with that, the woman picked up her basket with mushrooms in it, and walked over to the base of another tree. She crouched down and began brushing away the dirt.

[electroniccrane]

Kusanagi watched the woman who claimed to be her mother. "'All data is both reality and fantasy,'" she murmured, quoting Batou from a conversation they'd had long ago.

After a moment, she pushed the existential questions aside. There would be plenty of time to to think when she wasn't in an elaborate deathtrap with a biological encumbrance.

"Have you seen what you came for?" she asked Sheik. "Or do you want to kill a bear?"