tushanshu | video.

[ THIS IS THE GROUCHIEST TINY FACE right now. shino is so damn unimpressed with like everything. for a few moments, he seems to be poking and prodding at the console, frowning intensely. eventually, though, he sits back, fingers of one hand toying with the cross at his throat. on his shoulder is a large black crow with startlingly wide, cranky-looking eyes. ]

.. People can really hear me?

[ on his shoulder, murasame croaks, wings spreading as he turns his head to glance down at the camera. ]

Shino! It's magic!

[ shino reaches up to close his hand around the crow's beak, scowl intensifying. ]

You say that like you're not used to it. [ he clears his throat, forcing his expression into something a little more pleasant. ] Anyway, I'm Shino and I'm lost, obviously, and need to go home. I'm looking for a tall, skinny guy with blue eyes named Sousuke. He'll have a mark on the nape of his neck that looks like this! [ he pulls his right sleeve up, revealing a small red mark like a peony. ]

And Sou, if you can hear me-- you're a jerk for not finding me sooner!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

People can hear and see both of you, yes. It is not magic, but technology, mostly.

However, I do not believe there is anyone similar to the Sousuke you are looking for here, yet. And returning home is... not as yet voluntarily possible.

We don't have anything like this where we're from.

.. How often do people get sent home, then?

Maybe not yet. It takes people a long time to invent the equivalent, but when they do, they develop fast to much more advanced versions.

It is not an event with a set frequency. There has been a promise that, when we finish what we were brought here to do, we'll be sent back. Until then, the disappearances are unpredictable.

[And for all that the boy's tone is precise and informative, there is a flicker of... unhappiness about that.]

Some have been here since August. Others leave after a month or two, or even less.

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