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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[He lets her speak with the most unimpressed expression on his face.]

You must know as well as I do that the Grail system has been corrupted.

[So he does know. His disgust is a little more justified now that she has a better perspective of the extent of his knowledge... but she doesn't like that he didn't say anything of it earlier.]

It is. But that doesn't make the entire premise a corrupt venture... once it is fixed, that won't be a concern.

[And Einzbern will win, the mission for which she was created to fulfill.]

Perhaps not, but a selfish one, certainly. I don't intend to see it fixed; I intend to see it dismantled. The cost to those uninvolved in the third through fifth Wars was far too great to consider any other course of action.

[He can't fault her for defending it, though. It is in part one of her family's greatest works, after all.]

[... dismantled?

On the one hand, her nature as an Einzbern is rejecting the notion as fervently as it can. Without the Holy Grail, not only does Einzbern lose the objective they strove to achieve for hundreds of years, but she herself loses her very reason for existing. And having a reason to exist - even if it's a rather lousy one that ends in her death regardless - is better than none at all.

And yet, she knows the innate problem of the Grail better than anyone else, herself being a vessel. It must be dealt with. In that case, she has to ask - ]

How do you think you'll dismantle it? The Greater Grail is deeply integrated with the land of Fuyuki itself.

[She avoids the other question on her mind. Knowing what happens at the end of the Fifth War wouldn't change what happens to her, anyway.]

I haven't decided on a method yet. As you've just pointed out, it's an operation which would require some delicate care. But I should have at least half a century until the next War to figure it out.

[He's got some ideas that he'd been tossing about with Rin before his untimely abduction, but nothing concrete-- and certainly nothing he cares to simply offer up to an Einzbern.]

But that's hardly fitting for an introductory conversation, don't you think?

[In the end, Ilya can't blame the man for wanting to destroy the Grail. It is abnormal in its current state. And as it is, she sees no way that she can fix it, in the situation she was in before being brought here. Makiri's Grail opened up a separate gate that she as Einzbern's vessel cannot close... and she was far more powerful than their little team could hope to defeat.

Upon hearing what Waver has to say, she gives a small shrug of her shoulders.]

It could be fitting, given who you are and who I am. What else would I talk to a magus of the Clock Tower about?

[Rather, what would she have conversations about with people in general? The last time she tried this, she just ended up talking about herself, but she's not sure she wants to do that with Waver.]

[At her words, Waver actually looks annoyed, rather than the general disagreeable look he always has about him by default.]

...It probably matters little to anyone but myself, but I'd like it understood anyway-- I have no intentions of representing Clock Tower's -- Or the Association's-- interests while I'm here.

[There's just no love to be lost between it and himself.]

[Although she hadn't meant the phrase to be one that associated him with exclusively the Clock Tower, it appears that the magus took it as such - and rather personally, at that.

It probably shouldn't matter to her, either, but hearing him say that comforts her a bit for some reason.]

But... what can we talk about anyway? I'm not very good at starting conversations...

[Maybe Lord El-Melloi has some ideas?]

I think the matter of Rin Tohsaka may be a fitting place to begin.

Oh... Rin?

[Right - even she's seen the... de-aging, if she can call it that.]

It looks like we can get pulled here through multiple time points even in the same dimension, if we really are coexisting like this.

...Well, that saves me an explanation, at least.

[He really shouldn't be surprised Rin found the Einzbern girl already; she seems to be an extremely social little creature, much to his personal annoyance.]

Are you going to do something with her, then?

[Ilya certainly won't. Rin doesn't take orders easily, and Ilya doesn't look old enough to be of authority anyway. Plus, talking to Rin can be... hard. Her being younger doesn't change any of that, unfortunately.]

[Waver snorts in a way that could be taken as bitter amusement.]

She was under my care to begin with, so I don't see why that should change simply because she's gone and decided to be the age she acts.

[He's being uncharitable, but she whines and pulls his hair and he will be put out if he wants to.]

Though on that note, I would very much appreciate if the circumstances regarding her future and how she came to be my charge remain vague.

[He wouldn't know what to do with a little girl who'd just found out she loses her entire family in short order.]

I // [video]

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ack, sorry about this! Hiatus took longer than I thought.

don't worry!

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