[Hitomi Tachibana]

A world of darkness
A world of silence

The english interlude of her song presented as a lonely Hitomi Chihiro Tachibana sung her song alone in the skylock. The irony of her being in the skylock was not lost on her. Apparently stars were nice to look at, bright little things that dotted the space around them. When sitting in on an engineering lecture one of the first weeks she was aboard she was asked a question on what the instructor had just said. And she gave an honest reply.

"You know what I heard blah blah blah the universe blah blah blah something about space."

Well how were you supposed to get a blind girl interested in a universe she was never going to see? To have to listen to the wonders of creation when all around her was shrouded in black? It was really annoying how slow people were when it came to her impairment at times though Hitomi usually took a far different approach to her feelings on the matter. Mostly she felt bad for people having to redirect lines of questionning or topics because of her not being able to see to make her, and themselves, feel more comfortable.

For Hitomi being comfortable was a rare time indeed. She broke it down once when she had nothing better to do. 80% when she was asleep in her sense deprivation chamber of a bedroom and the other 20% was when she was alone and working on her songs in the skylock. The girl had a lot of free time. Before the colonists started waking up and causing havoc life had been pretty quiet, she hadn't been called upon or needed that much. Now? She had broken up more fights than she cared to recall and scared most of the colonists half to death with her eyes not to mention how she managed to fight and kick the asses of their friends in front of them. Then she had to go get her nanos checked then she had to spend mroetime in the infirmary helping clean up the messes the colonists left over peoples faces then then then it just kept adding and Hitomi soon had enough and simply wandered off to the skylock at stupid o'clock in the morning just to be on her own.

The music box melody continued though her singing fell into her humming the song as she focused intently on the sound, constantly picking fault with it, trying to make it perfect. It was something to get her thinking, focusing on something worthwhile rather than letting the bad thoughts in. When she was satisfied she softly sang out again, illuminating the room with the sound of her voice so she could "see" around her. The skylock was the second place out of the whole ship that she couldn't "see" in. Though she did kind of like that.

What she didn't like was being watched. Someone's heartbeat gave them away. Snapping her music locket shut she stood and walked to the centre of the room her eyes now open, pure white, staring intently at the being who decided to disturb her. Though of course she meant them no harm. Rather the opposite. She would want them to stay, talk to her, just give her soemthing. Make her feel better, tell her everyhing would be fine.

No the girl didn't want much.

"Who's there?" she asked gently of the figure before her.

[Commander Triona Rust]

Triona tried to get up to the SkyLock as often as she could in order to enjoy in the beautiful reaches of space surrounding the ship as it sluggishly moved towards their destination. Though she supposed its general speed was very relative. Compared to any vehicle on Earth this vessal was racing through the stars at high speed, a multi-ton bullet. But compared to the single-person spacecraft she'd trained on... this thing was like a snail... in slow-motion. It drove her crazy sometimes. But if they were traveling at high-speed all the time then she wouldn't ever be able to stop and see the stars.

And so it was after dinner that arrived on the SkyLock deck, smiling as the sound embraced her ears lovingly. She knew Hitomi often came up here, songwriting and practicing, but Triona never was sure of the time. The fact that they ran into each other tonight after dinner was wonderful, and would provide some good, and definitely missed, company.

Though she smiled as the blind musician stopped and walked towards her. It was a bit of a bittersweet moment. The music that she loved so much had nearly ebbed away, the last few bits of it echoing softly around the chamber. And yet Hitomi had sensed her presence and was ready to start a conversation, curious as to who had arrived.

"It's good to see you, Hitomi." The pilot infused a smile into her voice, knowing that her friend couldn't see it herself. "I came up to enjoy the scenery after dinner, mind if I join you?" She walked forward, stopping a bit short of the young woman. Her time with Hitomi was always well-spent, and she never seemed to stop learning things in the blind woman's presence. "How's the music coming?"

[Hitomi Tachibana]

Hitomi eased up visibly, shoulders dipping an exhale of breath, as she heard her good friends voice.

"Triona-ka, you should know better than to try and sneak up on me. I always win hide and seek you know, even in the dark."

Her smirk efficiently covered the darkness of her humour. Hitomi got to spend a lot of time on her own, thinking. The closest thing she could find to describe herself, her life and her situation, aside from food analogies, in english, was bittersweet. Hitomi had amazing talents, in fighting,singing, and other abilities. Her only trouble was that she couldn't "see" past her constant feelings of lagging behind.

Or her modesty.

Even when she was offered many a contract to sing back home, or when the masters of her main four styles of martial arts petitioned to make her a Sifu, a master, in her own right through her creation of new stlyes she just didn't get it; it didn't click that this girl had overcome obstacles. This was because, at the end of the day, she was still blind, alone and scared the crap out of most people. Either that or they hated her. Either for kicking their ass or because of her nano enhancements. On this ship they were surprisingly taboo in certain places. And sadly Hitomi had to spend a lot of her time in those places which didn't help her confidence any. Which was why having Triona as a friend was a blessing.

Least now she had someone to talk to, and try to bring her out her shell.

Her white robes still wrapped tightly around her Hitomi shuffled towards her, the sound of fabric echoing around the skylock.

"As best as can be expected when I don't have any time to work on it. I'm surprised Tolbert-Daijo has let you have some breathing space it's been a disaster all day. I've been fighting, helping out the infirmary with all this chaos going on and despite of it ALL I still haven't met Quin-sama..not once."

Sighing, the last part meant to be mostly to herself, she hung her head and leaned against the wall nest to Triona.

"This is one of those days that..."kicks your ass for you" I suppose. I was going to mediate for a while in my chambers...glad I changed my mind. How have you been?"