[The video shows the interior of a bedroom in one of the housing units, and a conservatively dressed woman in late middle age who is fiddling one-handed with the netbook and muttering to herself as she does so. Her accent is worn-down and of indeterminate European origin, more a matter of cadence and word order than any distinctive pronunciation.]

Ach, there we are. Such a contraption.

[Maria steps back from the netbook a bit, enough to show that she leans heavily on a forearm crutch for support. She props the other hand on her hip in a somewhat belligerent pose as she speaks, addressing the camera directly.]

So. The local fellows here give me to understand that what they want is help with their resistance, and it's for this reason they snatched me and all you other people up to this future of theirs. It's a very nice offer and I'm sure we should all be flattered to be so important to the cause, not to mention to have an unannounced trip to this rainy God-only-knows-where with all the expenses paid.

[Her expression should make it exquisitely clear that she considers this to be an enormous annoyance, to put it politely.]

But in my experience causes usually are a messy business, particularly when they resort to wars to do the sorting-out, and I'm in no shape these days to be running about battlefields.

So. Maria is my name, Maria Gordon, and what I would like to know is, who's in charge of the ones who do the patching-up of the people who do the revolutioning? Because I should like to volunteer for that. God knows I'm more use at doctoring than I am at most things, these days.

[She drums her fingertips against her side, thinking for a moment.]

Secondly, and besides that, who knows directions from the housing to the nearest pub?

[The feed clicks on. For a moment there's silence, just dead air, and then Rin laughs. It's short and shrill and cut off fast. Not a happy noise, even if there is amusement in it.]

... Oh my God. [Laughing again, marginally more stable this time.]

Well. This isn't so bad.

Hello! My name is Rin. Asano Rin, just Rin is fine. I guess I'm going to be fighting with all of you now? What's the deal with the weapons anyhow? How sentient are they?

I'd like to find someone to train me in swordwork if you don't mind. The trainer, that is. And someone who can teach me some field medicine, that would be good too. I don't know what I can do if you want payment but I'm all right with negotiating. What's a day like here anyway? When we're not training?

[She almost asks if anyone here recognizes her, and then catches her breath and doesn't. They'll come to her probably, when they hear her, if they're there. No need to broadcast everything.]

... Pleased to meet you all.