caughtinanetwork | III // [video / dream: rising sun] of shoulder-riding and promises

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III // [video / dream: rising sun] of shoulder-riding and promises

[The scene clears out into a forest, the ground covered in snow, the branches almost completely barren. The sky is a light grey and slightly cloudy, but this is far from depressing or foreboding. In fact, listening carefully, one can hear the sounds of laughter coming from a man and a small girl - those who know Ilya will recognize her voice right away, but the man's is an unfamiliar one. While Ilya is donning her familiar purple winter wear, the man is wearing a long black coat. His hair is black and somewhat long.

Of note is the fact that she's riding on his shoulders.

Pointing here and there every so often at the trees, they continue to smile and laugh. They sound like they're having a nice conversation, when the man suddenly stops, bends down and lets the girl off of his shoulders.]

Listen, Ilya.

[The man then reaches out to Ilya and wraps her in an embrace, catching her by surprise. A slightly confused expression passes by her face, as though she's not sure what to make of this situation.]

Kiritsugu?

Can you wait for me? Even if you're lonely, can you hold on until I come home?

[A silence falls between the two of them. Ilya stares out into the sky for a moment, before giving an enthusiastic nod and a smile. If one looks carefully, though, the smile might seem almost... sad?]

Yeah!

[A satisfied expression - or is that a sad smile? - passes by the man's face.]

I promise you, then. [A pause.] I'll come home straight away.

[And then, just when she is again buried in the other man's embrace, Ilya awakens. She says nothing, although she has a rather sad look on her face...]

//ooc: You're all welcome to talk to Ilya after the dream, as well!

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[It's more curiosity than any sort of fear, but Ilya finds herself looking at the strange animals - can she even call them animals? - with a mix of wonder and delight.]

P-pokemon? [She says the foreign word slowly.] Is that what they all are?

[In any case, it seems like they're Bianca's friends, and she doesn't sense any bad intent coming from her or them. So Ilya walks slowly over to the other girl, still looking at the pokemon while trying to figure out what they are.]

Mhmm, they're creatures that live in my world! But you don't need to worry, they're all really friendly! C'mon on over and say hi to them!

[In which a couple of them waited until Ilya came over.]

Go on, you can pet one of them! They don't bite!

[Which one will you choose, Ilya?]

O-oh, okay...

[While Ilya's still a little perplexed about what these... pokemon are, she doesn't ask any more questions, but simply decides to take Bianca's advice. All of the pokemon slowly gather around her, and she looks around at each one of them.

Maybe the pink anteater pig?

Carefully, Ilya reaches out to touch the pink pokemon with her right hand. She's not expecting some violent response or anything, but... this is a completely foreign creature to her, after all. What if something happens?]

[In response, the pink pokemon simply let out a small laugh before returning the touching.]

See, you got nothing to worry about! They all just want to meet you!

[And then Bianca let out a small grin]

Oh, I have an idea! Do you want to play hide and seek with them?

[She's a little surprised that the pig creature is nuzzling back in response, but it's gentle and... strangely cute, so Ilya doesn't mind. This definitely isn't her usual kind of stuffed animal.

At Bianca's suggestion, she looks away from the pokemon next to her and at all the other ones.]

They know how to play?

[Wow, these are some pretty smart creatures. Kind of like familiars, maybe?]

[It's a stuffed animal that can hug right back at you! As he nuzzled right back, one of her pokemon didn't say anything. Instead, she still stared right back at her. Hm...]

Mhmm, of course! Shall we start right now? Because....I think you might be it!

[And then...off they go!]

[All of a sudden, the pokemon scatter off, leaving the two girls in the middle of the park. Ilya is about to chase after them, but then she remembers that that's definitely not how you play hide-and-seek... so she stops, covers her eyes and begins to count.]

Ten, nine, eight...

[This is a nostalgic feeling. When was the last time she played hide and seek? It was years and years ago -

- oh, right.]

... seven, six, five, four...

[Her counting slows slightly, but not enough that it throws off her pace. She goes on, but she can't help but think of the person who taught her this game.]

... three, two, one!

[Ilya opens her eyes. It almost feels like she's playing the game with him again... except that's ridiculous, of course. She smiles to herself and sets off in search of the pokemon, but the thought still sits at the back of her mind...]

[Bianca and her pokemon weren't that far away from the girl. If anything, they were near where her apartment was! One pokemon was hiding in the bushes behind the building, another was probably just right behind her, and Bianca...was kneeling down behind a trash can somewhere.

She's got to be really quiet or else she'll find her! She doesn't want to be caught that quickly yet!]

[So it's... the fire pig, the pink pig, a green monkey, a giant dog, a weasel and a chandelier? Well, the dog is pretty big...

Ilya looks around for rustling or other sounds. At least, that's what she learned from playing a really long time ago - no, she's not going to dwell on that. That's over.

Shaking her head, she walks towards the building, and then she notices a slight shake of the bush.]

Found you!

[And Ilya runs toward the bush as quickly as she can, shoving the branches out of the way...]

[Pretty much. Pokemon is a strange strange place.

As Ilya makes her way around the bushes, Simisage wouldn't help but let out a small pout.

"You cheated!" He said before letting out a sigh. He might be bad when it comes to losing but he knows when he is defeated. With a sigh, he simply bows his head and gives his hand out.

It was different compared to losing to a pokemon and to someone so young...

But Bianca couldn't help but look at him from the small gaps. One down, 6 more to go...]

[Ilya watches with interest (and a little surprise) as the leafy monkey gave her a pout. It definitely wasn't something she thought would have happened - with a pet(?), no less - but it was funny.

Well, then! Time to look for everyone else.

Ilya continues around the building, looking for the pokemon. Okay, large hiding places, where could she look? Trees are a pretty good place, if the pokemon can get up there. So she runs out to the trees around the park area and looks up at the branches. Nope.

Somewhere else big... oh, the trash cans are a pretty good place!

Ilya walks over to the garbage cans - a little uncomfortably, since they are garbage cans, after all. But she's a hide-and-seek champion too, and a champion doesn't lose.

So she makes the rounds to the garbage cans and pokes her head around to see...]

[Uh-oh, Bianca was in trouble here! She didn't know that she would be the next one to be caught! What's even worse is that there's no where she can run or hide! She's out in the open! What can she do?

Meanwhile, one of her pokemon, Stoutland, couldn't help but feel sorry for her as he was someone who was also hiding behind the building. Should he cover for her or not? Hmm....

The look on his master's face just screams out "HELP MEEEEEE"

Hmm....

Ah-achoo? The dog let out a fake sneeze to throw Ilya off!]

[The sneeze startles Ilya from looking at the trash can more carefully, and she turns around to the direction of the sneeze. It... didn't sound like a person, that's for sure, so it must be one of Bianca's pokemon!

So the girl rushes off around the building, ignoring the trash cans for the time being. Turning around another corner, she sees this giant dog out and about.]

Wait! I found you!

[Well, there's little hope of her being able to run as fast a dog - she's not exactly very tall! - but maybe the dog plays by the rules where you stop when you get seen...?]

[As Bianca saw that her dog was found, she mouthed out a small 'Thank you' for him. At first, the dog pretended on to see his trainer. It would just mean that he would give her away.

However, he just lets out a small sigh. Unlike Simisage, the dog is a more graceful loser. He lets out a small bow toward Ilya before walking off somewhere.

Now the blond was looking around for the rest of her pokemon. There's only four more to go. However, unlike the other two, she had no idea where they were.

But they could not be too far off. Where could they be?]

[At least the dog is a lot nicer than the monkey was. Ilya reaches out and gives him a small pat on the head before he leaves. Ooh, he's soft.

But that does still leave four pokemon out there, plus Bianca. Well, Ilya's not going to give up!

Determined to win, she strikes off back in the direction of the park, taking note of all the different play contraptions. Maybe she can see something if she stands on the tallest part? So she climbs up the metal bars and wooden planks all the way up to the top and looks out to the trees...]

[Meanwhile if Ilya can see somewhere in the bushes behind some trees, there is something purple on the side.

She does hear that Ilya was walking by the park. Instead, she was trying to stand still in hopes that the girl can't see her. Sadly, Mienshao didn't seem to notice that she had been caught.

However, Musharna seems to have noticed! "Get out of there Mienshao! She can see you!"]

[Aha, behind those bushes!

Ilya rushes down from the playground - as fast as she can, anyway - and approaches what looks like a purple weasel-like creature. As she runs towards it, though, she hears a sound coming from somewhere a little further off, like a call.]

Found you!

[With a smile, she calls out to the purple pokemon. Hopefully it's just as nice as the dog...]

[Before she could even hear her friend's words, she was quickly caught by the girl! As Musharna gave out a small sigh, Mienshao simply froze up in place!

For a moment, the weasel just stared at the girl before she gave a small bow at Ilya. Just like with Stoutland, she knew when to admit defeat. It wasn't easy but hey, she won fair and square.

Then, there seems like there was some sounds coming from some bushes near her...]

[Ilya hears the sounds too! Maybe two of the pokemon were hiding together around here?

She pokes around at the bushes, but she was concentrated on the weasel pokemon when she heard the sound, so she's not really sure which direction it came from. The small girl's red eyes continue to scan the surrounding shrubbery, hoping to come across something else.

That's already three pokemon - she can do this!]

[Musharna was starting to get a little worried about this whole affair. She didn't want to go hide and seek unlike her other pokemon friends but she didn't have much of a choice. That was why out of all the others, she wanted to be found!

That was why she was making a bit of effort to make some sounds around the bushes...hm....

And yet another one of her pokemon friends didn't like this at all...]

[The noise is still continuing, so Ilya continues to look around in the area. What are the remaining pokemon, anyway? The fire pig, the pink pig and...

In any case, knowing that she has to look for colours that might stand out, Ilya keeps a lookout for some brighter colours in and among the green and brown. And then, she sees it! There's a bit of pink!]

Wait! Don't move!

[Although that might not stop the pokemon from moving away... maybe she should have waited until she was closer and surprised it?]

[Meanwhile as the pink pokemon was continuing to make some noises to make her stand out, Emboar couldn’t help but roll his eyes. C’mon, why does she want to be found like that? What’s the point in playing this game if she was going to make it easy for Ilya? She was still a kid but still...!

As she spotted her, Musharna did let out a small “Mush!” when Ilya shouted. Now she wasn’t expecting a loud shout from her! That was why when she found the pokemon, she simply just...stared.]

Found you!

[And Ilya runs up to Musharna, who just seems to be staring back at her. Well, she at least admits her loss.

Now, didn't it seem like the pink pig was calling out to someone else? Who could it be?]

Were you calling someone else just now? Is another pokemon around here?

[Being the psychic pokemon that she is, she could tell where Emboar and Bianca were but she didn't say anything. While she wanted to purposely lose, she wasn't going to do that for her other friends. Instead, she didn't say anything and stared at the girl. For a few seconds, Musharna wasn't sure what to do. It would be rude not to say anything ...but at the same time, if she said anything, it might give her an answer.

Hm....

Instead, the pokemon choose the latter. She shook her head before walking away. You're on your own now, Ilya. Now what?]

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III // [video / dream: rising sun] of shoulder-riding and promises

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