caughtinanetwork | I // [video]

[The screen flickers slightly before revealing a smiling young face, red eyes wide in wonder as she stares at the camera. The girl looks very excited, or at least eager to see what this device does. There's almost a sense of pride emanating from her - after all, being in a family of magi meant that they avoided contact with modern technology as much as possible. So getting this thing to work is quite the accomplishment, and she looks around for a few moments around the edge of the screen - checking things, probably - before looking back at the camera.

Unfortunately, she doesn't notice that it's upside down.]

Hello everyone! I'm Ilyasviel von Einzbern, but Ilya is fine. I'm new here, so I'm looking for someone to be my older brother!

[She smiles again. It's not in her intention to further explain what an older brother entails, since the best older brothers would already know what to do without her telling them. Ideally, the older brother would be someone who's actually older than her, but if they act and look older than her, that's fine too. All things considered, that really shouldn't be too hard...]

I guess a big sister would be okay too... but a big brother would be better. So, someone come play with me, okay?

[Her eyes wander off to the sides of the screen again. A few moments pass by as this continues, and the girl mutters a barely audible 'how do you turn this off?']

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[Mostly a teenager trying to be cool. And lazy. Most of his speech patterns are because he can't be arsed to speak properly like his brother does. And his lacking book smarts certainly comes in to play there, too. But even with all that, he's not a bad big brother. Just made of derp overload.]

Uhm... well there's my friend Shing. He kinda acts like a big brother to me already but I don't think he'd complain or anythin' if he got a little sister, too!

Really? He wouldn't mind having a little sister?

[Well, she's definitely getting somewhere now! She smiles at... oh, she didn't this other guy's name, did she? Even if she asks the other people, she can't really tell them she got referred by 'oh, that guy with the black hair'.

Rather, she could. Still, it's nice to get to know people, and although this person seems a little, silly he's not that bad overall.]

So your friend is Shing... what's your name, then? Since you already know mine.

I don't think so! But you might wanna ask, just to make sure.

[Oh right, names.]

Rin. Rin Okumura. It's... Ilya, right?

[Sorry Ilya, he might have butchered that a bit. He tried, but the "l" still came out sounding like an "r".]

That's right!

[She nods happily, disregarding the Japanese pronunciation of her name because she's kind of used to it anyway. Rin, huh? He's very different from another Rin that she knows.]

It's nice to meet you, Rin.

[Certainly not something she first said to the other Rin. Well, that's not true - she said it, but with the full intention of killing her after. She doesn't have reason to kill this Rin... or at least, not yet.]

[Hey he only sometimes gives people reasons to kill him.

Sometimes.]

Yeah, nice to meet you too!

[Well, he's on the safe list for now. Besides, it would be silly to kill someone right off the bat when she's new, without at least getting some information out of him first.]

How long have you been here, Rin? It seems like a while.

[Oh joy, more people who want to toy with him before they try to kill him.

It's a good thing he has no idea about any of this.]

Almost a year! Some people stay a long time, some people don't.

[It's okay! She's a little less inclined to do something like killing now that she's not exactly in a war zone...]

And does no one try to find a way out of here? A year seems like a really long time...

[That kind of worries her a little, because who knows what kind of time passage is occurring between here and her home?]

Yeah. Unless the coral tosses you back there's no way to get back. But if it helps, time doesn't pass back in your world. If you do go back you'll get right back to where you came from.

[Time doesn't pass? What kind of place is this? It's completely beyond anything she could comprehend about magic, although she isn't exactly too bothered by it. Just a little bit.]

How do you know that? Did it happen to you?

[She doesn't like being at the whim of this coral, though. It unsettles her, and she frowns.]

[Unfortunately Rin has gotten used to it, but that's just how he operates. He tries not to dwell on things he can't do anything about too much.]

Yeah, once.

Oh, okay. Was it strange to come back?

[Even leaving here isn't a guarantee she won't get pulled back, apparently. But... if her fate is to end up dying and becoming a vessel, would her being here make any difference?]

A little. I didn't remember anything about Vatheon when I went home, but when I came back it was like all my memories came back, too.

[Hearing that makes Ilya feel a little better. At the very least, none of this will be here when she goes back... if she does go back. Still, how would the War progress if she doesn't leave here? She would be leaving behind her duty as the vessel.]

I guess there's no way to tell when you'll leave, is there...

[She sighs, but then remembers her manners.]

Thank you for telling me everything though, Rin!

Yeah...

[He feels a bit sorry for her. It sounds a bit like his situation, just from her tone - getting hear meant leaving something important behind, even if she's not saying what that something was.

But he figures if he could get used to it she can too.]

Heh. No problem! If you need help with anything else you can give me a call!