[OPEN] Ilda’s April Catch-All

[ilda]

Characters: Ilda, you, your bibiru, anyone!
Date: April 16th to 30th
Location: all over Aifaran
Situation: selfies, putting up advertisements for/with Yato, affinity things
Warnings/Rating: none, but will update when something comes up


A - IT’S SELFIE TIME! (open)

[ Perhaps her friends would regret encouraging her. Or even simply giving her the idea in the first place. But Ilda, barely a month in Aifaran, has decided that she has a life goal: to be queen of Xa Xa! As she’s told Bakura before, if she’s gonna be laughed at anyway, why not make money out of it and have fun at the same time?

So she’s been exploring the city, during various times of the day (and night) and in varying weather conditions, looking for interesting and unusual things and places and even people to take selfies with. Rooftops! Under bridges! Under tables! Beside a stranger’s feet for his mismatched pair of socks!

She’s not even asking permission. She just comes zooming in, a quick clickity click, then poof! Off she goes, laughing at her own selfies!

They’re not even pretty. Some of them are blurry. Most of them either have too much of her face, or too little of it. Like just her forehead. ]


B - DOUBLE TROUBLE (Meta 1, open)

[ Wait, is that Ilda again? What does she want now? Another selfie? And why can’t she use her own yimo for that?

But now that you think about it, the first Ilda actually seemed kind of... off. By Ilda standards. This one looks more like her usual self - bubbly, chatty, with no care in the world.

A wild Ilda approaches! ]


C - EXPLORADVERTISING (closed to Yato)

[ Ilda remembers what she and Yato are supposed to be doing today, but she can’t quite recall if he’d said that he would bring the posters. So she’s taken the initiative to procure some customized ones! They’re basically large printouts of a really adorable cat poster she found on Xa Xa, and she’s handwritten Yato’s name and a message on each of them.

She sticks up one on a random wall, then leans back to look at her work, quite pleased with herself. Fitting, eh? BELIEVE! IN YATO! MAKE A WISH NOW! ]


D - WILDCARD (open)
[ Hit me up at notanybunny for a specific starter! :D ]

Comments

A.

[spoilsfun]

For once Conan had been attempting to mind his own business. He had a book he hadn't read yet, a cup of decent tea and a table to himself. He'd come here with intentions of doing nothing but reading for the next few hours.

He doesn't even make it beyond the first page before he is interrupted by the flash of a camera. His first reaction is panic. Even in this world he didn't like the idea of pictures of him being available just anywhere. That is quickly overtaken by annoyance as he jumps to his feet and he catches a glimpse of the selfie.

"Oi! Wait up!" he chases after Ilda, leaving his book abandoned at the table.

It was bad enough having his picture taken. He refused to put up with it being a bad picture on top of that.

[ilda]

Ilda stops just by the door of the café, realizing that someone was calling after her. She turns around, and... hey wait a sec, that kid looks familiar! Where has she seen him before...?

Then a look of recognition appears on her face. Oh, right! She fumbles with her yimo, retrieving her latest bad selfie. There! The little grump at the back! He’s so grumpy, it’s almost adorable.

“Hey, kiddo.” She grins, holding up her yimo. “Want another picture?”

[spoilsfun]

"Of course not!" He stomps after her. "Especially if its going to be as bad as that. Did you even focus it? And what about photo composition?"

[ilda]

Ilda blinks, suddenly lost and confused. First, because he's said that he doesn't want more pictures. Who doesn't want more pictures? Is he really that grumpy and boring that he doesn't want to partake in such a fun, completely harmless activity?

Second, apparently it's a bad picture. She looks at her yimo, frowning. But he's adorable! Well, it's a little blurry, but still.

And third: the barrage of words that don't really make sense to her.

"What do I have to focus? What's photo composition? Do I have to write a letter to accompany my pictures? For each one of them?"

[spoilsfun]

Did she not know anything about photography?

"The camera. If you don't let it focus, the image will be blurry. Photo composition is when you pay attention to how the different parts of the photo are arranged."

[ilda]

Alas, she knows nothing about photography. The technology for that has long vanished from her world; they've gone back to paintings being the closest thing to pictures.

"So how do I let it focus?" she asks. She understands the concept, at least. She has, after all, been told many times (mostly by her twin brother) that she needs to focus on her life and whatever she's doing, or else she's going to get terribly lost. She supposes that's what Conan means by the image blurring if the camera isn't focused, although she finds it funny that objects need to focus, too.

She's more confused by composition. "And there's a correct way for arranging the parts of a picture?" She's seen all sorts of pictures over at Xa Xa, but she's taken it to mean that you just have to snap away at anything and everything.

[spoilsfun]

Conan gives her an assessing look, and decides that a demonstration is needed. He pulls out his own device and takes a quick photo of a nearby bench, then turns it around to show to her.

"This is how it looks when you don't focus." He turns and takes another photo of the same bench, this time taking care to use the focus settings. He turns and shows it to her. "See how much clearer the photo looks now? As for the rest of it, the way you arrange the different components of a picture can change how people view it."

Putting away his device, he pulls out a notebook and draws a quick diagram of a photo with several objects arranged it. Then below it he draws several diagrams of the same photo, but with the objects arranged in different patterns.

"See, if there is no pattern to how a photo is arranged, someone looking at it won't know what to look at first. It just looks like a collection of objects. There are several ways you can make it more interesting. For example, if there is too much going on in the background of a photo, you can zoom it in to minimize the background distractions. The human eye is naturally drawn to lines and shapes, so you can use that to change how your audience views a photo."

C.

[minorgod]

[ Yato hadn't actually brought posters, though he did have a stack of business cards (all handmade, he hadn't had the time nor funds to get nice ones done yet). With a flash of light, he appeared next to her with a wide beaming smile. ]

Hey! Ready to paper the to-- oh!

[ He's just spotted the cat picture, and only after that, registered that it has his name on it. His expression cycles through baffled, to surprised, to delighted. ]

You made these?

[ilda]

[ Ilda turns to Yato at his arrival, her expression unintentionally mimicking his own: baffled, surprised, delighted. It's her first time to see anyone appear from out of nowhere, and in a flash of light, too! Not even their queen does that. Is that how it's supposed to be done? ]

How did you do that? [ She's almost tempted to ask him to do it again, but she stops herself just in time. ]

Well... [ She's suddenly shy, her smile sheepish. ] Not really. I found the picture in Xa Xa. Then I asked a nice lady at the market to make big paper pictures of it and I wrote stuff on them. Sorry, I can't write very well!

[minorgod]

[ Yato blinks owlishly, for a moment not realizing what's shocked her so much, before it dawns. ]

Oh, appearing? All gods can do that. Plus, it's the easiest way to get around.

[ He looks again at the poster, his confusion melting into something genuine and maybe, slightly, a bit sheepish. ]

No, it's fine. It's cute, and I think it'll get noticed more than the ones I've been doing.

[ilda]

[ She clearly looks jealous. ] And you can go anywhere? Lucky!

Really? [ She’s beaming now, glad that he likes what she’s done. She’s not sure why, especially because he’s supposed to be a god, but she really wants to help him. Perhaps it was seeing him long for a shrine, for a home. ] Oh! You made more of those little paper cards?

[minorgod]

Well, not anywhere. I need to have some idea of where I'm heading, or have an active connection to the place-- but it's still really convenient.

Yeah, business cards. But the posters are better for areas with higher traffic. Between the two, hopefully I'll get some jobs soon.

[ilda]

[ She pouts, although there’s a teasing twinkle in her eyes. ] And the rest of us have to walk. What injustice!

[ Then she laughs, in case it’s not clear that she’s kidding. ] Posters, and me shouting at people. High traffic areas happen to be my specialty. Ilda, marketer of the marketplace, at your service!

[ She picks up the backpack she’s left by the wall; it’s not zipped closed, the posters sticking out from inside it. Ilda’s far from being organized, but she gets things done, at least. And she’s ready for action. ] Where next?

A

[ninjainviolet]

"What the hell?!"

The last thing the ninja had expected as she walked down the street was to be grabbed, have a yimo stuck in front of her and a flash go off, temporarily blinding her. However, that hadn't stopped her from reaching out towards the person to grab them once she had been released, blinking her eyes as they adjusted.

Grabbed or missed, the ninja quickly recognizes the blond hair and blurts out, "Ilda?! What in the name of Martel are you doing?!"

[ilda]

Ilda lets out a squeak at being grabbed, but it quickly turns into laughter. “Sheena! Finally caught you! And look, our first picture together!” she says excitedly, holding up the yimo for the ninja to see.

It wasn’t a blurry photo, but Sheena kinda looked like a deer caught in headlights.

[ninjainviolet]

"Yeah, literally," the ninja replies dryly while rubbing the flash effect from her eyes. "Not exactly how I imagined our first meeting would go," she adds with a chuckle as she looks at the picture.

And rubs her eyes again. Nope. She still looks like that.

"I don't take surprises very well," she says lamely. And quite obviously.

[ilda]

At least Ilda has the decency to look sheepish. "Sorry about that. I just get so excited... and I sometimes forget that others don't always feel the same way, haha."

She gestures to their photo on the yimo's screen. "Want me to delete this and let's start over or something?"

[ninjainviolet]

Sheena chuckles. "There's a really good reason why I reacted the way I did, and I'll tell you. But first..."

She looks at the picture then at Ilda. Pointing at the screen she says, "You were smiling when you took it and after. Did it make you happy?"

[ilda]

Ilda's not sure why Sheena's asking, but she nods and answers, "Yes, it did. I was happy to see you! It's so cool, getting to talk to someone through the yimo and then actually meeting in person! And I thought, we don't have a picture together, it would be nice if we had one! Though I should've asked first." She laughs at her belated realization. "My twin always says I don't think things through. He's a doofus, but he's right."

D! I wanna know what love iiiis~

[psituational]

[X followed Ilda's Xa Xa adventures from the moment her selfies first made their unmistakeable debut on the network. He doesn't always comment, but he's far from a silent presence, and a lot of the time something she posts leaves him breathless with laughter.

He feels terrible every time he has to delay their lunch date, but things keep coming up right before they happen. Things like nearly losing two friends in the destruction of a park near the Bridge, and trespassing on their beings without permission. Things like discovering that, much like the park in question, X's gifted ability is to destroy things. Most days, he just doesn't feel like talking about people he's lost.

Today, he's sitting in plain view in the Bridge's cafeteria, next to the window he unwittingly shattered before, which someone's managed to fix in the interim. After playing idly with his yimo for a moment, he pushes a button.]

Ilda --

[-- then shakes his head, laughing at himself, and deletes the message. It doesn't feel like enough, but all he really knows about her is what she looks like. And that she's really enamoured with photographs.]

[ilda]

[ Ilda’s made some progress in her month or so in Aifaran. While she’s far from being queen of Xa Xa, she has managed to acquire a handful of followers over the network - not because her photos are pretty, but because she is quite entertaining. There’s an energy to her that seems to radiate through her pictures; perhaps it’s her eyes, always twinkling with joy.

What she hasn’t made progress on is her lunch date with X. For some reason he keeps postponing, and when days finally turn into weeks, she decides to take matters into her own hands. If he’s not coming to her, then she’s coming to him.

She’s spent the past few days asking around for him, as she has no idea what he looked like. He’s never bothered to send a selfie, or use video to talk to her. Aside from that, she somehow keeps missing him. She gets a lead, but when she gets to his supposed location, he’s not there anymore. Why so elusive, Mr. Mysterious Great Romance?

So today, she’s delighted to walk into the Bridge’s cafeteria and to find X just sitting there. Holy Queen Mother of Apodeia, she’s finally found him!

She pulls out her yimo, takes a selfie with X in the far background, draws a yellow shape around his figure and sends it to him, along with a text. ]

Spotted! ;-)

[psituational]

[The sound of an incoming message startles him -- it's still, even after all this time here, a strange feeling -- and X glances at it, just to see who wants to talk to him, still fully intending a proper voicemail for Ilda before he answers anyone else.

Only it is Ilda. It's another selfie. It's... it's a drawn-on selfie. And... that's X.

He looks up, sees Ilda, and bursts out laughing. Really, he thinks, it was only a matter of time. Why is he even surprised? Once the laughter dies a little, he waves her over, still grinning nearly too wide for his face.]

[ilda]

[ Ilda’s grin is just as wide as she comes bounding over to X, excitement clearly radiating off her in waves. When she finally speaks, she sounds like she’s trying not to explode in a gleefit. ] Oh my goddess, it’s really you!

[ Then she catches herself, her smile turning a little sheepish, and she plops down beside him. Oops, she’s not exactly sensitive about personal space, sorry about that. ]

Hi.

[psituational]

[It's a good thing X isn't really sensitive about personal space either, all things considered. Joy and humour twinkle in his eyes as he turns to face her properly.]

Hi! I was actually just trying to reach you. [He holds up the yimo. Reach her, leave her a message... same thing, right?] I'm sorry I've been so scarce. It's...

[... yeah. He didn't have the words for the message, and he sure as hell doesn't have them when put on the spot like this. X takes a breath, exhales, and smiles.]

How have you been?

[ilda]

[ Ilda laughs, delighted that he's been trying to reach her - nevermind that it's been ages. ] As long as you weren't doing it on purpose! You were very hard to stalk, you know? Even worse than my last crush!

[ But she doesn't really dwell on it. Not even the fact that he does't explain why he'd been scarce. ]

I'm pretty good. I made some new friends! I'm also helping Yato put up advertisements for his wish-granting scheme. [ She makes it sound so shady. ] Do you know Yato? He says he's a god, and it's really sad because he doesn't have a shrine so he's technically homeless, so I'm helping him raise funds for it! It's probably going to take a while, though, since he's only charging one copper rhinn and I think you'll need more than that to actually get a shrine built?

... But enough about me! How are you? [ She looks up at him, smiling sweetly, chin in hands. You know what she wants to hear, X. ]