--
Mackie decided to ignore the sign on the door banning men from this part of the Silky Doll. Whether it counted as a liberty or not, he didn't care. He knew the password. The door opened and he stepped inside a plush apartment, transplanted from another world.The scent of coffee crawled inside his nostrils, tugging at his stomach.
The pot sat empty on the table, beside an idle desktop. A plate glass window looked out over a holographic Megatokyo, living in a simulation. His feet soaked into the carpet.
The right combination of keys on the computer keyboard unlocked the doorway hidden in the glass, a single pane thinking, then hinging open. The sounds of the city filtered in, filling the room.
Mackie strode like a high-heeled Godzilla through the display, buildings folding like fog around his legs. Another hatch unlocked with hard tug, pulling him into a world smelling of ozone and machine oil.
The door closed itself with a hard clunk behind him. A short staircase carried him down to the core of the Doll – the hardsuit room. Fixed to a rack along one wall, trailing cables, four hardsuits stood looking at him. For the fist time, he met them at eye level, his sister's reflection distorting across the polished paintwork.
Something A.C. had said filtered into his mind
It would fit.
If there was one item of women's clothing he didn't mind trying on, it'd be his sister's hardsuit. Just to see...
“Mackie,”
A guilty thrill ran up his spin as she spun on a heel to face a bright smile on a familiar face. It almost felt for a moment like he'd been caught doing something illicity. He stopped a moment before his breasts did, cringing as they bounced.
“Hey sis,” he said, before noting the grey scuffs across her armour. Fine dust gathered in the gaps in her armour, on her hips, under her breasts and on her neck. “Where did you go?”
“Moon. Left a few things near the wrecksite, to see if anybody showed up or did anything noisy. ”
He tried to read her expression. Something about her eyes unsettled him in a way he couldn't quite place.
“Now, let's chat in the break room. We have to get ready.”
Mackie nodded and followed. He couldn't help but notice how they almost walked in lockstep with each other. His sister's hips swung to the same rhythm as his own, back and forth with each step. He forced himself to take smaller steps, stumbled, then forced himself to look at the machinery around him to avoid noticing. Cutting tools, armour press, hanging frames for prototype hardsuits. Spare parts on a workbench. His reflection washed over all of them.
“A.C. contacted me last night,”he said, clasping his hands shut.
“She told me,” Jet answered
“She scared me,”
“She can be a little intense at times.” And he got the sense that she chose that word very carefully. “But she'd never do anything – or let you agree to do anything – that you didn't really want to do.”
Mackie shivered, cold fingers running through his legs and up his spine.
“It's not that...”
“What?” she pushed.
“I was afraid I wouldn't want to leave,” he said. “I'd get so wrapped up in it, and that'd mean staying like this rather than just getting out as soon as possible.”
She stopped, standing in the doorway. Both their postures mirrored each other for a heartbeat. Mackie raised his arms limply in front of himself, slowly crossing them over his stomach. Her eyes pinned him in place again.
“Don't be a martyr for yourself,” said Jet. “You don't have to make yourself miserable now just to prove a point. All you do is hurt yourself in the long run. ”
He looked away, “I don't want people to think I wanted this....”
“Nobody does.” her voice softened. But those glacier eyes still froze. He knew her well enough to know what thet meant.
Mackie followed her into the break room, sitting himself in a succulent leather sofa hat tried to absorb his body. Hi sister dropped her full weight onto another, the chair cracking in protest.
“I read some of the Senshi stuff, last night,” Mackie said, choosing to ignore how his legs had crossed themselves again.“It started talking about the rest of my life and how to remain positive and find things to build a foundation on, and I really don't want to do that. It feels like everyone's trying to convince me it's wrong to want to be myself.”
Maybe she'd get it. He looked up at her, silently pleading.
“That stuff's for people who don't have a choice,” said Jet, shooting him down. “None of us are the ever same person we were yesterday. Don't be afraid of becoming someone new tomorrow.”
“But I like who I am.”
It came out as more of a whine than statement.
“Well. It's not too late to hop a shuttle to the Forge to hide out there,” she offered. “But if you want to stay here and find who shot you down, we need to sit down and talk about your cover.”
Both ideas warred with themselves in his mind. His mind warred against them both. Something screwed itself tight inside him
“Alright...”
He gave in. She wouldn't get it. But Mackie decided to trust his sister. She wouldn't hurt him.
“So, who do you want to be?”
“Me...”
She frowned. “If you really want to do this, we need to build a cover identity.”
“I've never created a person before.”
“You ever write a fenfic?”
“No.”
Nothing he'd admit to publicly. Certainly not in his current condition.
“The mark of a good female protagonist in any sort of media, is that even the men are thinking, I want to be her, when she does something awesome.” She paused, leaning forward. “Is there anyone that makes you feel like that?”
He settled back. “Not like that.”
“Any game characters you like play?”
I already know a Xiao Lin, he thought.
“I like playing Gaige in Borderlands.”
“Right. That's your name. Gaige.” Just like that, a new name for a new person. “We need a Surname, and since you have the red hair and the body for it, how about Kisaragi?”
“Gaige Kisaragi?” he tried it. Something felt wrong, but he coudn't wrap his mind around it. He thought about asking his Sister to stop, but she seemed so certain. He had agreed to this?
“It's an obvious alias, but then, you're obviously not a born woman.” A pause, he opened his mouth. “You don't be a troubleshooter for ten years without learning a thing or two about building a person.”
“Gaige Kisaragi,” he tried again. His body rebelled against the idea. A deep breath brought it under control.
“Nice to meet you, I'm Jet Jaguar,” she grinned. He ground his face into an approximation of a smile. “Now, Gaige. Where do you come from, and what do you do?” She paused. “What do you want to do?
“Be a man?” Mackie answered with a snort. Jet didn't laugh.
“That's you. Gaige isn't you. What does Gaige want to do?”
That hurt. He thought anyway. What would he want to do?
“I want to get back in a jet.”
“Great. Asagiri needs a new test-pilot, our last one went missing on the moon.”
That stung. He swallowed. She seemed so certain, staring right through him. He trusted her. He tried it on.
“I'm Gaige Kisaragi, Asagiri's new test Pilot.”
Jet nodded and smiled with her approval. It still felt wrong.
“Where're you from?”
“Tokyo, Japan?” At least, that's what his mind told him.
“Tokyo isn't MegaTokyo.”
“Damn,” he breathed.
“Maybe a Fenspace settlement?” she suggested.
“Crystal Kyoto,” he tried, hoping that maybe going along with it would make the sick feeling go away. “I'm Gaige Kisaragi, Asagiri's new test pilot, from Crystal Kyoto,”
It felt worse. She nodded, dragging him along, pulling him through. Again, he thought about asking her to stop, sitting there, looking down at his feet in the carpet
“All Pilot's have callsigns. And since no pilot gets to choose to their own callsign, how do you like being Rabbit?”
“Rabbit?”
“As in, Jessica Rabbit. Or Rampant Rabbit, it depends on the story that comes with it.”
Her eyes sparked in amusement. He winced, the mental image making his insides clench. His mind worked, coming up with something better, something tolerable.
“I had trouble with something, because of my body. Someone said it was my fault. I answered with, I can't help it, I'm built that way.”
“That works. How about, you had trouble buckling the harness on your jet tight enough. For two obvious reasons?”
His arms covered his chest as he crunched his body up in the chair “I didn't think that'd be a problem”
“Conventional harnesses hurt when you're that busty.”
Mackie took a breath, forcing the sick feeling through to his feet.
“I'm Gaige 'Rabbit' Kisaragi, Asagiri's new test pilot, from Crystal Kyoto.”
“And that's all we need to make a person,” she sat back into her chair. He knew she'd already done it through the interwave as she sat there. Gaige now existed on the system. “That's the great thing about the Crystal Millenium. It's not unusual for a Senshi to have no pre-fen background. That's all you need. Wherever you learned to fly, who your parents were, or what bathroom you used growing up, all of that's your own personal business. So long as you tell no-one anything, nobody will question it.”
And she seemed satisfied with that. Pleased even, smiling warmly at him as if to welcome into the club, as if she hadn't even noticed how he felt about it all. Or maybe she did and was trying to reassure him
“I'm Gaige 'Rabbit' Kisaragi, Asagiri's new test pilot, from Crystal Kyoto.” It still didn't fit. He hunched forwards. “I feel like a traitor.”
To himself. To everything he had been.
“When we're done, We'll know who Gaige is. What she likes, what she doesn't like,” said Jet, dragging him onwards. “Because outside this apartment, that's who you have to be. At least for the next few weeks.”
Mackie sat there, leaning with his elbows on his knees as they moved forward, unable to shake the feeling that he was being slowly murdered.
--
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Mackie decided to ignore the sign on the door banning men from this part of the Silky Doll. Whether it counted as a liberty or not, he didn't care. He knew the password. The door opened and he stepped inside a plush apartment, transplanted from another world.The scent of coffee crawled inside his nostrils, tugging at his stomach.
The pot sat empty on the table, beside an idle desktop. A plate glass window looked out over a holographic Megatokyo, living in a simulation. His feet soaked into the carpet.
The right combination of keys on the computer keyboard unlocked the doorway hidden in the glass, a single pane thinking, then hinging open. The sounds of the city filtered in, filling the room.
Mackie strode like a high-heeled Godzilla through the display, buildings folding like fog around his legs. Another hatch unlocked with hard tug, pulling him into a world smelling of ozone and machine oil.
The door closed itself with a hard clunk behind him. A short staircase carried him down to the core of the Doll – the hardsuit room. Fixed to a rack along one wall, trailing cables, four hardsuits stood looking at him. For the fist time, he met them at eye level, his sister's reflection distorting across the polished paintwork.
Something A.C. had said filtered into his mind
It would fit.
If there was one item of women's clothing he didn't mind trying on, it'd be his sister's hardsuit. Just to see...
“Mackie,”
A guilty thrill ran up his spin as she spun on a heel to face a bright smile on a familiar face. It almost felt for a moment like he'd been caught doing something illicity. He stopped a moment before his breasts did, cringing as they bounced.
“Hey sis,” he said, before noting the grey scuffs across her armour. Fine dust gathered in the gaps in her armour, on her hips, under her breasts and on her neck. “Where did you go?”
“Moon. Left a few things near the wrecksite, to see if anybody showed up or did anything noisy. ”
He tried to read her expression. Something about her eyes unsettled him in a way he couldn't quite place.
“Now, let's chat in the break room. We have to get ready.”
Mackie nodded and followed. He couldn't help but notice how they almost walked in lockstep with each other. His sister's hips swung to the same rhythm as his own, back and forth with each step. He forced himself to take smaller steps, stumbled, then forced himself to look at the machinery around him to avoid noticing. Cutting tools, armour press, hanging frames for prototype hardsuits. Spare parts on a workbench. His reflection washed over all of them.
“A.C. contacted me last night,”he said, clasping his hands shut.
“She told me,” Jet answered
“She scared me,”
“She can be a little intense at times.” And he got the sense that she chose that word very carefully. “But she'd never do anything – or let you agree to do anything – that you didn't really want to do.”
Mackie shivered, cold fingers running through his legs and up his spine.
“It's not that...”
“What?” she pushed.
“I was afraid I wouldn't want to leave,” he said. “I'd get so wrapped up in it, and that'd mean staying like this rather than just getting out as soon as possible.”
She stopped, standing in the doorway. Both their postures mirrored each other for a heartbeat. Mackie raised his arms limply in front of himself, slowly crossing them over his stomach. Her eyes pinned him in place again.
“Don't be a martyr for yourself,” said Jet. “You don't have to make yourself miserable now just to prove a point. All you do is hurt yourself in the long run. ”
He looked away, “I don't want people to think I wanted this....”
“Nobody does.” her voice softened. But those glacier eyes still froze. He knew her well enough to know what thet meant.
Mackie followed her into the break room, sitting himself in a succulent leather sofa hat tried to absorb his body. Hi sister dropped her full weight onto another, the chair cracking in protest.
“I read some of the Senshi stuff, last night,” Mackie said, choosing to ignore how his legs had crossed themselves again.“It started talking about the rest of my life and how to remain positive and find things to build a foundation on, and I really don't want to do that. It feels like everyone's trying to convince me it's wrong to want to be myself.”
Maybe she'd get it. He looked up at her, silently pleading.
“That stuff's for people who don't have a choice,” said Jet, shooting him down. “None of us are the ever same person we were yesterday. Don't be afraid of becoming someone new tomorrow.”
“But I like who I am.”
It came out as more of a whine than statement.
“Well. It's not too late to hop a shuttle to the Forge to hide out there,” she offered. “But if you want to stay here and find who shot you down, we need to sit down and talk about your cover.”
Both ideas warred with themselves in his mind. His mind warred against them both. Something screwed itself tight inside him
“Alright...”
He gave in. She wouldn't get it. But Mackie decided to trust his sister. She wouldn't hurt him.
“So, who do you want to be?”
“Me...”
She frowned. “If you really want to do this, we need to build a cover identity.”
“I've never created a person before.”
“You ever write a fenfic?”
“No.”
Nothing he'd admit to publicly. Certainly not in his current condition.
“The mark of a good female protagonist in any sort of media, is that even the men are thinking, I want to be her, when she does something awesome.” She paused, leaning forward. “Is there anyone that makes you feel like that?”
He settled back. “Not like that.”
“Any game characters you like play?”
I already know a Xiao Lin, he thought.
“I like playing Gaige in Borderlands.”
“Right. That's your name. Gaige.” Just like that, a new name for a new person. “We need a Surname, and since you have the red hair and the body for it, how about Kisaragi?”
“Gaige Kisaragi?” he tried it. Something felt wrong, but he coudn't wrap his mind around it. He thought about asking his Sister to stop, but she seemed so certain. He had agreed to this?
“It's an obvious alias, but then, you're obviously not a born woman.” A pause, he opened his mouth. “You don't be a troubleshooter for ten years without learning a thing or two about building a person.”
“Gaige Kisaragi,” he tried again. His body rebelled against the idea. A deep breath brought it under control.
“Nice to meet you, I'm Jet Jaguar,” she grinned. He ground his face into an approximation of a smile. “Now, Gaige. Where do you come from, and what do you do?” She paused. “What do you want to do?
“Be a man?” Mackie answered with a snort. Jet didn't laugh.
“That's you. Gaige isn't you. What does Gaige want to do?”
That hurt. He thought anyway. What would he want to do?
“I want to get back in a jet.”
“Great. Asagiri needs a new test-pilot, our last one went missing on the moon.”
That stung. He swallowed. She seemed so certain, staring right through him. He trusted her. He tried it on.
“I'm Gaige Kisaragi, Asagiri's new test Pilot.”
Jet nodded and smiled with her approval. It still felt wrong.
“Where're you from?”
“Tokyo, Japan?” At least, that's what his mind told him.
“Tokyo isn't MegaTokyo.”
“Damn,” he breathed.
“Maybe a Fenspace settlement?” she suggested.
“Crystal Kyoto,” he tried, hoping that maybe going along with it would make the sick feeling go away. “I'm Gaige Kisaragi, Asagiri's new test pilot, from Crystal Kyoto,”
It felt worse. She nodded, dragging him along, pulling him through. Again, he thought about asking her to stop, sitting there, looking down at his feet in the carpet
“All Pilot's have callsigns. And since no pilot gets to choose to their own callsign, how do you like being Rabbit?”
“Rabbit?”
“As in, Jessica Rabbit. Or Rampant Rabbit, it depends on the story that comes with it.”
Her eyes sparked in amusement. He winced, the mental image making his insides clench. His mind worked, coming up with something better, something tolerable.
“I had trouble with something, because of my body. Someone said it was my fault. I answered with, I can't help it, I'm built that way.”
“That works. How about, you had trouble buckling the harness on your jet tight enough. For two obvious reasons?”
His arms covered his chest as he crunched his body up in the chair “I didn't think that'd be a problem”
“Conventional harnesses hurt when you're that busty.”
Mackie took a breath, forcing the sick feeling through to his feet.
“I'm Gaige 'Rabbit' Kisaragi, Asagiri's new test pilot, from Crystal Kyoto.”
“And that's all we need to make a person,” she sat back into her chair. He knew she'd already done it through the interwave as she sat there. Gaige now existed on the system. “That's the great thing about the Crystal Millenium. It's not unusual for a Senshi to have no pre-fen background. That's all you need. Wherever you learned to fly, who your parents were, or what bathroom you used growing up, all of that's your own personal business. So long as you tell no-one anything, nobody will question it.”
And she seemed satisfied with that. Pleased even, smiling warmly at him as if to welcome into the club, as if she hadn't even noticed how he felt about it all. Or maybe she did and was trying to reassure him
“I'm Gaige 'Rabbit' Kisaragi, Asagiri's new test pilot, from Crystal Kyoto.” It still didn't fit. He hunched forwards. “I feel like a traitor.”
To himself. To everything he had been.
“When we're done, We'll know who Gaige is. What she likes, what she doesn't like,” said Jet, dragging him onwards. “Because outside this apartment, that's who you have to be. At least for the next few weeks.”
Mackie sat there, leaning with his elbows on his knees as they moved forward, unable to shake the feeling that he was being slowly murdered.
--
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?