Loitering [Rin/Open - non-combat]

[NiNeLiVeS]

Varia liked dreaming.

When she was little, she had crawled into bed, even right after breakfast, hoping that she could catch another glimpse of a far-off world or even a nightmare where things were never as they seemed.

Varia was never sure if you were supposed to be scared of nightmares. Certainly her dreams - when recalled - were descriptively sort of creepy but when dreaming them Varia remembered only an odd sense of wonderment. This - this was the world. This was a world. A world completely unknown to her.

And she liked that feeling.

Today, sixteen and being nagged that she would have to figure out what to do with herself, Varia just liked getting out of the house and exploring. She brought her inhaler with her and certainly the doctor would have suggested otherwise but her parents had stopped caring long ago. Or maybe they had never cared in the first place, Varia wasn't sure. Perhaps it was supposed to be sad but she herself never saw it that way.

Each new place explored was a new world discovered. Each dirty back-alley and odd-looking tree. Each park a forest and every fountain a treat.

Today she had found an oddity. It was a pipe. Just an underground pipe. She had found the opening quite by accident. It lead somewhere, no doubt.

But this was the sort of adventure she had never - never before anyway - attempted.

What would she do?

[Rin]

Nothing ever changed.

The sky was always in twilight. The people were always dull. The trees did not even seem to change color as the cold months came. It was suffocating.

Emiliene sat on the roof of the empty house with her knees pulled up to her chest, staring at the unchanging town below. The light breeze played with her pale blond hair as she lied back and gazed at the orange sky. Letting out a soft sigh, she glanced at her hands and flexed them in front of her eyes, suddenly thinking of Konaa and the conversation they had.

She sure hoped other worlds existed. She wanted to leave this place. She needed change.

The tiny white kitten curled up next to her raised it's head and purred in curiosity as she stood up and brushed herself off. Her eyes tilted in the kitten's direction, as if saying, "Come on." The feline meowed and scampered in Emi's direction, climbing up her arm and onto her shoulder.

She walked to the edge of the roof and slid down. It was only roughly a 10 foot drop, and there were big shrubs at the bottom to cushion her fall. Spitting some leaves out of her mouth, she returned to her feet and just started walking. The streets were empty, until she came across a girl that looked about her age.

"Who do you think that is, Kitten?" She mumbled to the cat perched upon her shoulder.

[NiNeLiVeS]

It was the meow that tipped her off that others might be here. Varia whirled - long, silvery ponytail nearly whipping around to whap her on the face. It wasn't often that she met others during her little escapades. Oh she wanted to - there was no doubt about that, it was always so much more interesting to learn about a place when someone could tell you about it! - but the places she explored seemed to be curiously devoid of, well, people. Probably a consequence of wandering about Twilight Town which was not precisely renown for its overwhelming population. It was rather underwhelming, actually.

"Oh! Hello!" She said. The person in front of her seemed a year or two younger, short and childish with the most interesting cape-cloak that she had ever seen. The kitten, perched as it was on her shoulder - was even more interesting. "I'm Varia," she said, introducing herself. She managed to stop the curtsy and turn it into a little dip: no one took you seriously when you curtsied. "Varia Clown."

Usually, at this point, one was supposed to wait for the other person to introduce themselves, but Varia was much too excited to remember a boring piece of etiquette like that and instead gestured to the kitten perched on the girl's shoulder. "Is it yours?" She asked shyly. And then: "Do you think he'll want anything to eat?"

The mystery of the pipe still beckoned, but at the moment, the mystery of this girl and kitten beckoned harder.

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