thinking about the potential for mech pilot body horror/dysmorphia. seeing something high above you or farther away than you can easily traverse with your own body and feeling a rush of vertigo, as though you should be able to reach out and touch it, or clear the distance in a single stride. after so long spent inside the mech that it’s become like an extension of yourself, it can be difficult to adjust to being human again.
the mech adjusts to you, as well. pilots being uncomfortable with new or reassigned mechs isn’t just a matter of personal preference. an old mech whose previous pilot is no longer fit for active duty (or no longer alive to undertake it) carries the muscle memory of that pilot in its own synthetic tendons, which protest against learning your own body’s movements and shape. a new mech has to be broken in. it’s like teaching yourself to walk again for the first time.
physical definition isn’t all that remains, either. a mech can come to carry echoes of a pilot’s consciousness, well-worn grooves of thought and memory imprinted onto its circuits. a mech that has been piloted by the same person for long enough can be said to develop a personality of its own, reflecting that of its pilot. and mechs that lost their pilots in particularly brutal combat can become haunted by ghosts in the machine, and react violently to the presence of a new body and mind in their cockpit, unable to accept anything different that tries to fill the emptiness left behind.
ALT