"Oh, I'm not going philosophical on you. I just notice you keep your body clean of 'warez and stuff. Not many people besides the Awakened do that. Even the Awakened start modifying their bodies these times. I hear bioware is 'safer', but I'm staying away from that stuff. I've seen what it does with people's auras. And saw some bad things in the past... Good thing my 'reception parameters' weren't good enough."
Stryker shudders, and the usual half-smile disappears from his face. He looks at the rest, and sighs.
"I'm not saying it's bad in general. I know 'It's Evolution baby'..." That last part he almost sings. "It's just that this wasn't met to be a part of a human body. It's damaging in a more mystical way... Like your body is something more than meat and bones, and the more you loose of it by replacing it with chrome, vat-grown stuff and synthetics, the less of the original you is there. People feel it. Now, the Awakened like me use their powers through themselves. I channel the raw Mana from Astral Realms through my mind, body and soul... You've seen already what it can do to me, when something goes wrong. Now imagine that conduit becomes riddled with holes stuffed with metal and fake flesh... I'd loose my magic with every mod... Burn out, like one of those beetleheads, and want nothing more than to feel the flow of Mana again. But I'd never even come close to it, cut off and forsaken by the Manastreams..."
He slumps at the back of the van, and continues after a moment of awkward silence...
"I never had a family. I was a corporate property, raised and trained to do their bidding. Mind-fucked by the best psychos they had... But they had to miss something. On my first 'combat assessment' I did see things with my own eyes. I saw they sent us to wipe a bunch of kids playing gangers. Kids, just like me. Only... Free. Dirty, ragged and scarred, but free. And I froze. And took a bullet that should have killed me... But I was saved by the very gangers after the squad fell back, leaving me there for the vultures. I've had my place, people who treated me like a person - even if that meant trying to off me - and teachers, who showed me what my Gift really is. But I've seen bad stuff when I was a corp-toy. Stuff of nightmares, that would turn your hair white, even if they're not your own anymore. I was one of the lucky ones, deemed useful only for security services. So they didn't stuff me full of freaky meds, experimental wirings, nanobots, or vivisected. So, you can see where my fears come from... Heh. If not for the smell of raven feathers, I'd be a wagemage that's trying to fry your rear end during a job..."
