On Fire or Not on Fire? [Open]

[Lily Terpsichore]

Lily sat on the edge of the fountain, the cold stone chilling her through her clothes and the water splashing up to spray her face with a gentle mist. Her eyes had the faraway look they often had when she was either deep in thought or not thinking about anything. At that particular moment, she was only staring out into the slowly passing crowd as they went about their daily lives. She was just as good as invisible to them, no one even acknowledged her presence.
Gradually her hand fell from it's perch on her lap, the sort of slow movement that happens when something is placed well enough that it'll stay for awhile but is gradually sliding down without being noticed. Without warning, it slipped and landed in the water. A chill shot through Lily, knocking her out of her little trance. She withdrew her now wet hand quickly. Her eyes now landing on the crystalline water that flowed gracefully in rhythm to the pounding of the fountain. Rippling the reflections gently.
Pulling away, Lily finally stood up with the resolution to do something with her life. To make her parents proud. As random as the though was, Lily often made resolutions as such. She always strived to be better, though more often then not, she'd just forget about the resolution and go back to being bored after awhile.
But now, she was on fire again. Not literally, of course, but she wanted to do something.

[Nai-ru]

It had been years since Noa had been to Bethanos. She didn't much like the city; it made her feel hemmed in. Almost claustrophobic. And it reminded her of her father, which was certainly not something she needed. But she had no choice. The administration at the Store had wanted her to go and make sure the next shipment of medical supplies was on its way. The last one had been late, and the matron had thrown a fit.

So Noa got sent to do the dirty work. It was typical.

It turned out that she had arrived just as the shipment left... and now she was in the city until she could get another ride out. Which probably wouldn't be until tomorrow.

Great.

She was fond of the fountain, though. It reminded her of larger stretches of water, which she actually did like to visit. So she had gone to visit it. Of course, it was her luck that she arrived just in time to practically get run over. It was only fortunate that the girl wasn't what Noa liked to think of as "human-sized," which meant taller than Noa. In fact, they seemed to be about the same height.

"Oh- sorry," she said, backing up a step. Huh. Maybe she had been the one to do the near running-down of the other. "Are you okay?" The girl looked young, maybe fourteen. Was she out alone?

[Lily Terpsichore]

Lily had hardly noticed the girl who had come up, seemingly out of nowhere until she had said something. She shook her head, her resolution disappearing from her mind and embarrassment taking its place. "Yeah, I'm fine." She said in her timid voice.
Her hand was still wet from its fall into the water and Lily slyly attempted to dry it off n the place it would be the least noticeable - her pants. Only a second later did she realize how ridiculous she was being, and she immediately regretted her decision. Letting her hand drop to her side quietly, she allowed herself a weak, but embarrassed, smile.
Finally not focusing on herself, Lily got a good look at the girl. She was older then her, no doubt. But the same height it seemed. She was used to being shorter than everyone, especially people older then her, so being around this girl. Whoever she was, made Lily feel... better, with lack of a better term.

[Nai-ru]

((Okay, just a few notes:
1) You don't have to resize your text.
2) You don't have to center.
3) You don't have to bold speech.
4) When you're typing speech and the sentence is continued after the speech is ended in a period, it should be formatted like this: "Yeah, I'm fine," she said in her timid voice.

You don't have to not do these things, either- personally, bolding speech bothers me, but I'm not going to say you can't if you don't want to.

Don't take this the wrong way- I'm just making sure you know.

Oh, and I'm an unnatural grammar freak. That's why I mentioned that last thing. ><;; Sorry.))

"Okay," Noa said, shrugging as she looked the girl over. "Just thought I might've tripped you up." The girl in question was definitely young. Noa readjusted her estimation to maybe twelve. Not much younger than that, though, she guessed. She seemed so shy... What could her parents be doing, letting such a little girl wander off on her own in the city? The city was a Hellhole when it came to numbers of Soulless- such a concentration of people meant that the things were everywhere.

"Are you lost?" she asked bluntly, propping a hand on one hip and raising her eyebrows. It was common enough to see brats running around who didn't have anyone, but this girl was clearly not one of them. She was reasonably well-dressed, for one thing. Dainty little kid, too, definitely didn't have that 'hungry' look indicative of someone who had no one.

Noa was positive that this girl wasn't meant to be out by herself like this. Cute little thing like her, a Soulless could grab her in a second. Not to mention the other predators walking around on two legs.

[Lily Terpsichore]

((Sorry, I just prefer to write/post like that. I'll stop bolding my speech if you want, and centering, but I think everything looks neater in smaller text so, I'm still going to make it small.))

Lily gave the girl a quizzical look, does she think I'm a little kind? Lily wondered, then attempted to try and imagine what she looked like to this girl. Lily couldn't help but sigh, though it was quiet and barely audible. "No, I'm not lost," she said in a more confident voice, though not so much that it seemed out of place. Though, Lily thought to herself, I have no legitimate reason to be here.
The respect, or whatever it was that she had though about the girl was now lowering. She didn't really like people to think she was really young. After all, she was still in her teens. Didn't that matter? There was no doubt that this girl though she was younger then she was. Lily simply felt like she was being treated like a child.

[Kira]

"For Pete's sake," Corrine muttered, glaring at the people in front of her. "Is is really that hard to move?" she growled to herself. The girl was stuck behind several very slow people. Judging from their expensive-looking clothing, they were from the upper district of Bethanos.
Corrine allowed an unholy grin to appear. They would hate a little lower-city girl like her to be anywhere near them. She was sorely tempted to pick their pockets, but she would allow herself a little fun. She lowered her sights, so that she was staring at their feet.
Even there, she could see their energy flowing through them. One woman's was a dirty-looking red at which Corrine wrinkled her nose at. The man had a clear-looking purple. Well, at least one had a decent-looking color.
She suddenly darted forward, elbowing her way in between the pair.
"Watch it!"
The girl grinned as she heard the man's curses. She'd predicted right. But now she better beat it out of there before they try to follow her. She kept running, nimbly slipping between people. Corrine hung a hard left, looking up to see the fountain.
She slowed down and trained her gaze to the ground, walking placidly up to it. She sat down on the stone edge, then froze.
There were two other girls about five feet to her right. Her eyes flitted over to them. One girl was saying that she wasn't lost. That was odd enough, but her color was nice at least. A pale, minty-looking green flowed through her body.
The other one had a rich-looking red-orange, a confident color. Maybe she'd stick around. They had very interesting-looking colors. Corrine grimaced to herself. She really shouldn't, but... Five minutes wouldn't hurt, right?

[Nai-ru]

Noa raised her eyebrows at the change in the girl's expression. She was very good at reading people, and it looked as though this particular little one had decided to be obstinate. She frowned a little and said, "Be nice," with a little more force than she had intended- a hint of the Suggestion crept in. She caught her breath, horrified, and backed away a step. Her expression flickered for a moment before she snapped it back into order and straightened up again.

She hated it when that happened. She was bossy by nature, but had to suppress this trait to avoid situations like this. Any time she gave an order, or even made a request with feelings above subservience, it snuck out.

"Sorry," she said abruptly, and turned on her heel to stalk away, still mortified, past a girl with close-cropped dark hair who was sitting on the edge of the fountain. She ran a hand through her own short hair, worrying her lip between her teeth where no one could see.

Ugh! How was she going to stop herself from doing this?