Video

[mangata]

[ The number on the network seems to be the same as a certain Marina Santana that people know - including a few newbies now. It's taken from a low-quality camera phone, and the background seems desolate, and the blue-haired girl the video is looking at has shorter hair than Marina and, quite notably, has both of her eyes intact.

She sighs, and waves at the propped-up camera. ]

So it looks like we're getting new additions to this network for the first time in a while - and from what I've caught looking over the network, it coincides with a new wave of oddities.

[ Not-Marina leans in closer, eyes narrowed. ]

To everyone new, if you notice that I look identical to a certain Marina Santana, there is a good reason for it. Over a year ago, our planet created copies - doppelgangers - clones - what have you, of some of the reincarnations. Mirrored selves... and some of us are still alive. You may call me Umi Ryuuzaki, the name of Marina's past life, because I was in a hurry to be my own person and the name stuck well enough.

[ Yeah Marina, she doesn't really care how you feel about people talking about your past life. Just sayin'. ]

To everyone else, if this trend of strange occurrences continues, you'll be hearing and seeing more of me than you have for the past year or so.

It's... a pleasure. Goodbye. [ Although she'll chat with anyone who wants to.

Comments

[mangata]

That is fine as well. The stigma attached to it is quite significant.

[dictator_ko]

I don't know how they live with being hated by so many others.

[mangata]

Hated people still find a way to get by because that's what people do.

[dictator_ko]

...I guess so.

[She's already had to deal with being hated due to the incidents with her terrible temper. The incidents in which people got hurt. But she's not eager to add being a known Numbered on top of that.]

[mangata]

I haven't gotten used to it myself. That is why I am where I am.

[dictator_ko]

Where're you, then?

[mangata]

In the midst of the American wasteland.

[dictator_ko]

What, seriously? That's no place to be.

[For a cute girl, anyway. For ugly thugs, maybe.]

[mangata]

Precisely. We are avoiding people, because people suck.

[dictator_ko]

[She thinks about how everyone'd turned on her just because she lost her temper.]

I suppose.

[mangata]

You've seen it, I'm sure. Arbitrary hatred. And here I am, not just someone who is arbitrarily hated - but a copy with no past of her own, no life of her own, and my purpose, protecting the earth, already served.

[dictator_ko]

That's so sad! I'll let you stay at my place!

[Mina isn't very given to thinking things through--this is a rather impulsive offer.]

[mangata]

...um... thank you, but I have to decline.

[ Well that was sudden. ]

[dictator_ko]

[Mina had a whole script in mind. She'd offer, Umi'd accept and she'd have a new cute friend. So she's taken aback at the refusal.]

Why not?

[mangata]

[ Sorry for ruining your everything! ]

I have plans.

[dictator_ko]

Plans? Well, can we at least hang out sometime?

[mangata]

[ Sigh. ]

If it is convenient.

[dictator_ko]

[Was that a brush-off? It feels kinda like one. Well, she'll leave it be.]

Anyways, I hope your plans go well!

[mangata]

Thank you.

[ It is a brush-off, because wow too perky, but it's also a matter of Umi being off in the middle of a wasteland. ]

Once I have gotten along with them, traveling and visiting might be easier.

[dictator_ko]

[Yeah, Mina tends to be on the perky side when she's not upset or in a rage.]

That's good. The wasteland isn't a place for you!

[mangata]

So you say... I can't really disagree, but I have survived it.

[dictator_ko]

You deserve better than just surviving.

[mangata]

I'm young, give me some slack.

...frankly, there was a point where I was not sure if even that was a priority of mine anyways.

[dictator_ko]

That's too sad!

[mangata]

Is it? Do you think I didn't notice?