estoria | [OPEN] There, by the Waterside

Entry tags:

[OPEN] There, by the Waterside

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.]

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[ See, how can he stay mad at that! No way, he'd practically be a monster if he even tried as much. So he just dopily smiles, at least seeming a little less in pain than a few moments ago. ]

Ahh, what a good girl. [ Yeah, he seems completely endeared already. It's not hard when it's Shinpachi.. ]

Have you been going around taking pictures or something? I admit it's a pretty impressive-looking kinda place.

[ Not to mention the shopping district is always bustling - he can know, working in the middle of it. ]

[She nodded.]

Mmhmm. I just bought the camera with some of the credits I won from the last ViViD game.

I wanted to get as many pictures of all the people I meet here as I can.

Hey, won't you show me some of the pictures? [ Since he still feels.. a tiny bit dizzy from that hit just now, so he figures some distraction before he goes back to work can't help. He even finds a spot to sit so he won't absolutely tower over the girl. ]

We didn't have those where I come from. [ Pointing at her camera. ] So it's all still kinda new to me.

Of course you can see.

[She had to fiddle with the settlings a bit, still getting used to the new technology. Before long, she had the menu open and the gallery of her past pictures ready for scrolling. There weren't many. About a dozen in all. Mostly random faces of people that may or may not seem familiar. The first two pictures, however, weren't of people, but of...what looked like little animals.]

[A white cat with purple markings, curled into a tiny ball. Sleeping. And an orange creature with bat-like wings, peeking one eye open with its little mouth formed into an 'o' of surprise. Both seemed to be taken in the same apartment.]

Where is that? [The place where he's from, that was.] How come you don't have cameras there?

[ Well, those animals sure are different.. But then again, Shinpachi is used to a lot by now. He's seen all kinds of weird creatures here, both good or bad, so he just assumes it's some special kinds of animals that only live around here. The cat isn't too weird, anyway, it's just the blob with wings that's a little.. odd.

But not odd enough for him to stop smiling encouragingly, so he just keeps going, waving his hand a little in dismissal of what she's saying. ]

I'm from.. well, it sure feels weird for me to say it, but I guess it's the past for most people here. [ Even though it's still very much the present for him. ] We didn't have a lot of all this technology stuff there. We didn't even have electricity-- that's what they call it, right?

[...the past...]

[Hikari was only just starting to learn more about the timeline shenanigans going on here. The difference between her and her friends and brother were...minimal, relatively speaking, but Taichi had already begun mentioning a digimon she had yet to encounter.]

You don't have electricity where you're from?

[She was from Tokyo in 1999. The thought of no electricity was almost beyond her.]

How far in the past?

Keiou 3.

[ Sorry, he's still not really used to modern years.. he scratches his head a little as he tries to remember what someone once told him it was in modern years.. All these youngsters and their modern ways of putting things. ]

I think it's, uh.. 1867. Something like that. [ He nods a little to himself. He could be a few years off, but whatever, it probably conveys things well enough as "the past." Just like if someone told him they were from around 1600. It's just a long time ago. ]

Must be a long time ago for you, huh?

[ Especially if she's already used to these fancy things like electricity and cameras. ]

[She recognized the name of the era. Barely. But before she could do the math in her head, he offered the date and--ah, that made more sense.]

Really long.

It was August of 1999 for us.

Ahh, that long? [ At least he doesn't seem surprised. Not anymore. He's seen enough weird stuff in this place and another place that the time difference is just about the least surprising thing to him by now.. Instead he just smiles at the girl. ]

Well, I guess it won't be too much of a problem as long as you don't call me an old geezer! [ He lets out a hearty laugh. ] I'm only 28, y'know! I'm still spry!

I would never call you something like that.

[Even if he was more than three times her age.]

That would be rude.

[ Oh gosh, now you've done it, Hikari. In a good way though, since Shinpachi's smile grows even wider and he moves his arm forward to lightly ruffle the girl's hair. ]

What a good girl! Your parents must've taught you well. [ Because Shinpachi has known several kids who would have called him old.. for sure... And even some people who don't even have the excuse of being kids anymore. ]

It would be a lie to call me super old anyway, right? You seem like the kinda girl that doesn't lie.

[She...tended to prefer it when her big brother ruffled her hair, but as long as the man's intentions were well, Hikari still squinted her eyes shut and took the gesture well enough. Smiling faintly at the compliment. Nodding when he mentioned her parents.]

I try not to, no.

[She just tended to...not mention the whole story, particularly if that story involved her or her emotions regarding any given subject.]

I'm Hikari, by the way. [Continuing her tradition of polite manners, she offered a small bow along with the belated introduction.] Yagami Hikari.

[ Sorry, Hikari, Shinpachi is just a little handsy.. but at least not extremely so with girls, so he's already pulling his hand back, instead giving a polite slight bow in return. ]

Hikari-chan, huh? [ Yeah, apparently he's not much of a guy to start off formal.. ]

My name is Shinpachi. Nagakura Shinpachi. Always good to see other Japanese people 'round here-- the names are just easier to remember, y'know?

[Apparently not. But she was far more used to being called Hikari-chan than...just about anything else, so she hardly blinked at the chosen honorific.]

It's a pleasure to meet you, Nagakura-san. [She, on the other hand, immediately went for the family name. Not wanting to assume too much familiarity with someone senior to her.] And I don't mind the different names so much. There's such an interesting group of people here with us.

Interesting is one way to put it.

[ Because it's mostly just.. well, weird to him. But he won't say it's necessarily a bad kind of weird.. he's met a lot of people he really likes too, so the way Shinpachi smiles indicates he doesn't mind it as much as the words themselves might make it sound. ]

It sure beats being stuck here on your own though, huh?

[She nodded, and her smile faded a little at the thought.]

I don't know what I would do if I didn't have Oniichan and the others here with me.

Oh! [ He blinks for a moment in surprise at that statement. Not because of the content of the statement itself - Shinpachi does a little better by himself, but he likes having his comrades around, so he gets it - but because of another part of it. ]

You have your big brother here with you? [ He assumes it's her literal brother anyway.. probably. ] That's great!

[He would assume right.]

Mmhmm. He showed up a little after me, but he promised he would find me again and I believed him. And then he appeared for real!

[Hikari was the type of girl where...even at eight, she was capable of taking care of herself. She was pretty smart and a lot stronger than she gave herself credit for. And that was just the problem; in spite of that hidden strength, she was always so much more content with letting others protect her, rather than doing it herself. Almost...dependent.]

What about you? Do you have a big brother?

[ The talk about her brother keeps him smiling. It's always good when there's people who look out for the people who can't protect themselves in this place - and Hikari sure seems to fall straight into that category. Guess this place can at least do some good in the choice of people it decides to drag in sometimes.. ]

Ah.. I haven't seen my family in a really long time, actually. [ Shinpachi doesn't seem too upset about it though, waving the concern away with a hand before she might get worried about it. ] We're not super close or anything.

You're...not?

[It wasn't an unthinkable scenario, but HIkari wouldn't help feeling a little sad at the thought. Was his like Takeru and Yamato's situation? Only...no, the two brothers will still pretty close, even though they didn't get to see one another as often as they both would have liked.]

Nah-- I left my home when I was still pretty young. Haven't been back since. [ He tries to at least make it not sound too heavy.. because it isn't to him. Shinpachi can imagine it could be to her though, so there's no need to make it sound any more serious than it is to him. ]

That was probably.. I dunno, ten years ago or so? I'm sure me and my old man wouldn't have seen eye to eye on some stuff anyway.

[ He chuckles a tiny bit. ]

Yours must be good to you though, right? Fathers oughta be good to their cute daughters!

[Though she was still a bit thrown at the thought of leaving home and not returning for ten years--longer than she'd been alive--she still gave a small nod at his question.]

Mmhmm.

Otousan works a lot, but...when he comes home, we sometimes get to sit and watch television together. We like to laugh at the game shows while Okaasan finishes getting dinner ready.

[ Thank god Shinpachi knows what a television is by now, so what she's saying isn't absolutely mind-boggling to him. ]

Guess that as long as you're stuck here, you're gonna have to make your big brother pick up the slack for that, huh? [ Just throwing him under the bus here.. But whatever, even if Shinpachi isn't close with his own family, he thinks he would do at least that much too if he had a little sister. ] Make sure he watches tons of television with you!

...but they don't have the same programs here as back home.

[Because clearly, this was the only flaw in such a plan. ~~No, really; Taichi would probably have done it if she asked without hesitation.~~]

[ See, Hikari gets it! His plans are important and without faults or exaggerations, that's the way he likes to see it. ]

They don't have anything you like watching? [ He can't.. really judge, considering he tried turning it on before and just got majorly confused. He's not exactly used to TV.. ] Nothing at all?

Edited 2016-05-23 18:41 (UTC)

[OPEN] There, by the Waterside

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