Hello World!

"I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts!" Aveira was singing as she hopped from one grave to the other. "There they are, standing in a row!" She back flipped onto a crumbling statue of a weeping angel. "Big ones, small ones, some as big as your head!" She laughed and twirled as she raced through the night, never touching the ground. She was playing a morbid version of the iconic children's game The Floor is Lava.

"Give them a twist, a flick of your wrist!" She judged a gap between a stone monolith and wooden bench before leaping in the air. "That's what the showma--Ahh!" Unfortunately, the wood of the bench had long since become rotten. As Aveira landed, the wood gave way and she found herself lying on the ground. Her head was bleeding, her back was sore, and she couldn't feel her ankle anymore.

"A bowl, a ball, a penny, a pitch," she continued to sing in a voice laced with agony. "That's what the showman said..."

Hana was snoozing on the far side of the monolith, butterfly swords at her side and in the middle of a very pleasant dream. She was standing naked in a field of flowers. She took one step forward, and all the flowers lifted up and flew away. Hana giggled to herself as she found that they were all actually butterflies. "Hana," said a genderless voice from behind her. As she started to turn, still smiling, her eyes widened in anticipation. The first person to see her naked was-

WHAM!

Hana jumped up, one hand on her heart and one hand on her swords. "What in the name of a chocolate muffin?" She noticed a strange looking woman lying on her back, babbling to herself and bleeding profusely from a head wound.

"Err..."

Aveira sighed as the agony rushed through her. Her ankle was broken in three places, and she definitely had some minor bleeding in her brain. She'd hit something on the way down that was much harder than rotten wood. The metal hand rests, perhaps? Ah well. Aveira smiled blissfully as the pain pressed in around her. It hurt so bad that she cried. It felt so good that she moaned. She was caught in the in-between world of pleasure and pain, and it felt so wonderful.

Then it stopped. Her ankle healed itself and her bleeding stopped. The pain drained from her body as suddenly as it had come. "Come back..." she whispered after it, too late. She was left alone again to face a world that she didn't belong to. She was so caught up in her disoriented thoughts that she didn't even realize that someone else was standing near her.

Hana blinked at the woman laying prone before her, to shocked and confused to make a sound. She shook her head, though, knowing that screaming or anything of the like would just serve to create a weak image, and undermine her own fortitude. Instead, she did two things. The first was to pull out a concealed chocolate bar that she recently "aquired", unwrap it, and begin to munch on it. The second was to prod the woman with her foot, unwilling to crouch down and leave her open to a surprise attack. She was taking a risk just being near her.

"Helllloooooooooooo...."

Aveira groaned as she was interrupted. she turned her head to gaze forlornly at (or rather, near) the girl, her eyes blank. She could feel the blindfold around her neck where it had dropped during the fall. "I'm stuck," was all she said. With the bench squarely above her and bits of rotten wood surrounding her, there was no easy way to get out. She probably could have pushed the bench off, but with her ankle bones still weak from the mend, she didn't dare try it. She loved pain, but knew it was a very bad idea to give in to it too often. She never knew when her body would give out before she could get home.

"Do you think you could push this bench over?" Her voice was calm and even. She was an addict that had just gotten her fix, after all. The shreds of her sanity were closer than usual, leaving her clear minded for the moment. She blinked a few times, trying in vain to make her useless eyes see. They were gazing somewhere to the left of the woman's shoulder.

Hana waved her hand in the direction where the strange woman was looking. Odd...

"Sure, I can do that," she said, putting one foot firmly on the bench and shoving it on its side with a single fluid motion. Keeping her voice even, despite the growing fear of what she was dealing with, she asked, "Are you alright? What happened?" She brought her fingers slightly closer to the her eyes to see if they would focus. They didn't.

Aveira blinked again. Her mind's eye could see the woman moving her hands, but wasn't able to tell what it was. Her mental vision was blurry and unfocused, made more of feelings than actual images. It was useful to a blind person, but nowhere near as good as actual site.

Sitting up, Aveira rubbed her head. her hands came away bloody, but the wound had already healed. She wondered for a moment how she must look. Dirty and blind, her hair caked together with blood, she must look like a homeless person. Ah well, she thought. I suppose that's right, in a way. "Thank you," she said aloud. "I didn't realize the bench was so old. It's hard to tell..." She gestured to her eyes, pale lavender and unfocused. Now that she was facing the girl directly, her blindness was much more obvious.

"Oh, I see," said Hana, then winced at the insensitivity of the statement. "You are a positive mess!" she exclaimed. "We should get you cleaned up! What's your name?" she asked as she unraveled a twig out of the woman's hair. "My name is Hana Kochou. I haven't really been living here long, and was hoping to make quick friends that know their way around." Hana grinned at this. "And it looks like, despite your blindness, you know your way around quite well." Tossing the twig behind her back, Hana pulled a brush out of her purse and took it to the stranger's hair, brushing out some of the dirt and caked blood. "Oh, well, I hardly ever use this stupid thing anyway. It's nice to see it to some use," she rambled. "I'll probably wash it when I get home."

Aveira closed her eyes and smiled. She really enjoyed the feel of the brush going through her hair. It was soothing. Besides that, every once in a while Hana would tug a bit too hard, creating a sharp pain that made little tingles go down her spine. She decided she actually liked this girl, despite her incredibly happy nature.

"My name's Aveira," she said softly. "I've lived here for most of my life. I'd be happy to show you around some time."

"All your life, huh? That must either be incredible or incredibly boring. What keeps you here?" Hana asked, tugging at some snags in Aveira's hair. "Never heard the name Aveira before. It's certainly uncommon, if not unique. And I'd love to be shown around sometime," Hana ended with her voice bubbling with excitement. "You know, I get a strange feeling that it's going to be really exciting staying here! I mean, you know, not in a graveyard." She let out a nervous laugh. "Of course, I don't know what I'm doing here. Obviously, I'm not fleeing from the angry store manager that threw things at me and tried to hit me when I stole a couple of chocolate bars. That would just make no sense," she continued rambling, taking periodic bites of her candy bar. "I was just...looking around. You know. I even have my own place!" she brightened at that thought. "You should take a bath!!! I think you'd find it to your liking."

Aveira smiled, her eyes still closed. She pulled up her blindfold, sliding it into snugly place. "I stay here because I feel like I have to," she said honestly. "I've been to other countries, of course, but I've never stayed for more than a month or two. It just doesn't feel like home unless I'm here." She stood up and stretched. "If you really don't mind, I'll take you up on that offer for a shower."

She reached a hand down to help Hana up. "I should warn you, though. I'm not always this...lucid. I have a memory problem. Sometimes I get a little confused. That's why I'm here. I can't actually remember if I have a house anywhere." She blushed slightly.

Hana stuck her bottom lip out at her new companions warning and propped her hands on her hips. "Well, I, for one, am not worried. I mean, how bad can you get, right? And as for your memory problem, I don't think it'll be too much trouble, either!" Hana's face lit up with a smile as she shoved her brush back into her purse. Walking back over the the obelisk-like structure, dusted off her butterfly blades, and strapped them back on under her purse, runes gleaming in the moonlight.

"Well, shall we be off?"

Aveira nodded and followed Hana, noting her swords with interest. She liked the way they looked and was pleased to find that her new friend was more dangerous than she let on. Like Aveira, she was not the girl she seemed to be. Perhaps they were more alike than Aveira had thought...

((New thread coming soon!))