[OPEN] There, by the Waterside

[givesalittlewhistle]

Who: givesalittlewhistle & OPEN
When: Mid-June IC/Beginning of April OOC
Where: Around the City
What: Part One: Hikari has her new Camera and wants to try it out | Part Two: weapons training (sort of)
Rating/Warning: (possible talks of fighting involving children)


I.

[If there was one positive thing about that last ViViD game she'd entered...it was that, combined with her school allowance and other savings, it put her at more than enough credits to buy the camera she wanted.]

[It was small. Easy enough to hold in her young hands, and light enough to carry around her neck on a string. Right next to her whistle, and atop the crest of light she kept beneath her shirt. It was also stylish, with a silver casing and even a little view screen in the back so that she could see the image she'd just captured without having to print it out first. Even better, thanks to the small card she was able to insert to add memory, she could take hundreds of pictures before having to delete any and make room for new ones!]

[It also meant she had plenty of leeway to experiment! Which is precisely why, for most of that particular morning, anyone might come across the eight-year-old girl wandering aimlessly around the city looking for things to shoot. She took pictures of the trees. The school. The shrine. The shops.]

[But...what she found she enjoyed most were taking pictures of the people. Especially when they barely had time to pose.]

Smile!

[Click]


II.

[The camera wasn't her only purchase, though this one had been a little more...spontaneous.]

[A glimpse in a window that inspired something she'd been wondering in the back of her mind for some time. Ever since that awful fighting game. She had come away from it mostly unscathed, yes, in no small part due to the fact that she'd reached for a weapon. Not a sword or bow and arrow or anything she could have hurt herself with, though. No, Hikari had reached for a long staff. And wielded it quite well for a novice.]

[Which was to say, she didn't smack herself in the face with it once. Success?]

[So, when she found a rubber training version of the same weapon with foam ends, it was like a sign. It didn't cost much, and when she first held it in her hands, it was even lighter than she remembered the wooden version being.]

[She took it to the park. Tailmon hovered as always, although this time on the ground. More than once, she swatted a little at the staff edges as they came near her, and it was only because of how soft they felt compared to most weapons that she wasn't more concerned. In fact, if anything, the little digimon looked proud of her partner for wanting to better defend herself though slight put out she hadn't opted for the bow and arrow.]

I just wish I knew more so that I could teach you myself.

[Hikari was currently practicing spinning it in her hands, getting used to the way the weight shifted and the center of balance followed its movement. She didn't dare turn her head until it stopped, and called out to Tailmon without taking her eyes away from her current task.]

It's okay. I can...probably...figure this out...by myself...

[Or until somebody else came along to help her.]

Comments

[iseaghosts]

Shank you.

[ She still thinks her expression is funny though. ]

You too.

[givesalittlewhistle]

But I'm not even in the picture.

[Though she did smile at the compliment. It was really sweet of the girl to say! ...even if some of her words were a little strange.]

[iseaghosts]

Ooh, then we should take one of you too.

[ She smiles really widely. ]

[givesalittlewhistle]

[Her smile turned sheepish, and she waved a hand in the air.]

No, that's okay! I don't need to have my picture taken. I'm much happier taking everyone else's picture.

[iseaghosts]

Why? We can be in one together.

[ They're kind of sort of making friends with each other, right? ]

[givesalittlewhistle]

[The friends part, she wouldn't object to in the slightest. Just...the picture part. A little.]

Ah...I suppose...if that's what you really want.

[Nope, just kidding; the older girl seemed so excited about it, she couldn't bring herself to protest.]

[iseaghosts]

Yes!

[ She smiles and puts her cold cheek against the girl's for the picture. ]

[givesalittlewhistle]

[Hikari couldn't help a small wince as the cold cheek touched hers. Both from the sudden close proximity--again, so forward!--and also because...she was really, really cold! It didn't make sense....]

[Still, a promise was a promise, and she held up the camera awkwardly and attempted to snap a shot of the two of them. Her own smile was faint and reserved, with a slight hint of uneasy. Definitely not a fan of being in front of the camera quite so much.]

There.

[And she turned it around so they could see how it came out.]

[iseaghosts]

[ She clasps her hands together and smiles brightly as she floats around to be face to face with her instead. ]

You look adorabubble.

[givesalittlewhistle]

[Such a strange way of talking. Almost like a digimon....]

May I...ask you a question?

[As she discreetly rubbed at her cheek, still feeling the residual sting from the other girl's skin.]

[iseaghosts]

Sure.

[ She flaps her fin expectantly. ]

[givesalittlewhistle]

[Now...what was the most polite way of asking about the speech and the cold?]

...you're not a digimon, are you?

[There. Not meant to be insulting at all, but also not making a solid assumption.]

[iseaghosts]

What's that?

[ That would be a no. ]

[givesalittlewhistle]

[Definitely a 'no', but since she asked...]

It's a type of creature that comes from the Digital World.

I only asked because...you can fly...and your skin is kind of cold, like Yukidarumon's. Only you don't look like a giant snowman.

[iseaghosts]

huh? No, I'm a mermaid ghost.

[ Also a monster, but. That's like the whole people part, ghost permaid is her species. ]

[givesalittlewhistle]

A...mermaid ghost?

[The 'monster' part would have been accepted a lot sooner, actually--given that the mon in digimon was, in fact, short for monster.]

[iseaghosts]

Yeah.

[ It's easy to figure out by looking at her, right? She's a see-through mermaid who can faze through things. ]

[givesalittlewhistle]

[...well, there was literally no other way of getting around this question, so Hikari was just going to come out and ask:]

Does that mean you're dead?

[iseaghosts]

No? Not really?

[ She was... undead? Technically? ]

[givesalittlewhistle]

No?

But I thought ghosts were the spirits of people that died. If you're not dead...what are you?

[iseaghosts]

Nooo, I was unborn like this.

[givesalittlewhistle]

[How could somebody be unborn?]

Oh. I see.

So you're...just something different. That's all. [Not a digimon, but definitely not human.] That's...pretty cool.

[iseaghosts]

It is? I guess, I've never met normies as friendly as the ones here, that's cool too.

[givesalittlewhistle]

[Normies.]

[Hikari was going to assume that meant...either humans, or else simply people who weren't like her.]

How come? You seem really nice. Why wouldn't anyone want to be friendly around you?

[iseaghosts]

[ Sorry, no one has told her not to call humans that yet. She's a bit of an air fin. ]

Because normies and monsters don't really get along where I'm from.