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 Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 3:28 am
The Destiny City mall had a fairly extensive water fountain at its center with multiple looping pools lined by benches. Almost every inch of the tile beneath the flowing water shimmered with pocket change tossed by the passers-by over the years. Some did it for fun, others did it because it was a playful tradition, and then.. there were the people like Piper.
The bluenette had craweled on top of one of the ledges surrounding the intricate pools, putting her heads above anyone that milled around on their way through the mall. In her bright rainbow leggings, poofy white skirt and an equally obnoxious hot pink hoodie, she kind of stood out. It didn't help matters that almost everything she could add an accessory to, she had. There were multiple belts looped around her waist, her converses had tiny charms tied into the strings, and lets not even start on the bracelets.
Maybe stranger than her choice of style was the fact that she had actually climbed up on the ledge and seemed to be praying quietly to a shiny quarter she was clasping tightly in both hands. Then those bright blue eyes flashed open and she flung it out with all the enthusiasm an Olympic discus thrower might, enthralled as she watched it soar across the rippling water and land with a 'plunk' in the center of the pool.
But then, a tragedy.
As she had leaned forward to toss the coin, the heart-shaped glasses perching on top of her head slipped. Then they fell, landing face down and instantly were swept away on the lazy current circulated by the fountain. She only noticed as she crouched to climb off of the ledge, at which time she immediately began to panic. They finally tipped a little and were swept under, far out of reach, landing among the shiny piles of change.
Thus began frantic attempts to try and retrieve them, some of which called for positions that would have been highly inappropriate if she weren't wearing leggings. She tried everything short of just jumping in the pool, and as she realized her favorite pair of sunglasses might be gone, a sad and pathetic pout settled on her face.
She just couldn't ruin the holy wishing pool, but she didn't want to leave them either.
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Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 5:03 pm
The fountain itself was pretty noticeable, there was no way to walk by it without knowing it was there, and it was large. Needless to say the girl in bright colors stood out like a rainbow in a black and white movie. Tabitha actually felt plain looking at that girl with all her colors and accessories and crazy fashion. What did Tabi have? A soft blue t-shirt with a cute happy narwhal on it, a pair of jeans, purple converse sneakers and a light white hoodie. She didn't have much in the way of accessories except a pair of earrings and a watch. Yup, she felt very plain. And while Tabi had originally come here to shop for clothes originally, now all she could do was stop and stare at the girl on the fountain. What was she doing? Was she making an intense wish? Maybe! That would make sense. She was very serious about this wish of hers, apparently! Tabitha ventured a little closer to get a closer look, glad that she wasn't on patrol and this girl wasn't anything like that tiny little general. Stupid jerk.
Suddenly she moved and Tabi jumped back out of..reflex? Why was it reflex for her to flinch like that? How strange. Either way it didn't seem the girl was doing anything other than throwing her coin into the fountain and probably make her wish. Wow! Intense! Tabitha wanted to throw one in now too, opening her bookbag to find her wallet. Did she have change? She hoped she did. She didn't notice the tragedy that had struck until she saw her scrambling in her peripheral, looking up quickly to find her looking into the water. Was something the matter? "Everything okay? You didn't fall in, did you?" She wasn't wet, so that couldn't be it. Wait, hadn't she had something on her head? "Did you drop something?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 7:35 pm
"Suuuuuunny days, chasing those clouuuuuuuds away.. hmmm mmmm mm mm mmm~"
A group of rather horribly dressed teenagers parted as a girl skipped, yes skipped, right through them. Her eyes had been closed, and she looked as though she had no intention of stopping - their only choice was to part the emo seas to let her pass. They certainly didn't want her to run into them, she probably leaked some kind of happiness hormone that they did not want. She definitely looked like she was overflowing with happiness. It was downright treacherous for them.
Genevieve Prideux was pretty happy. So happy, in fact, that she had lost track of what she was doing after leaving that petite shop she'd just found. Clothes - TRENDY clothes in HER size. When she'd first seen the new shop, she had literally stood in the window for five minutes and stared. A few people had paused for a moment, but they were soon startled into walking away when she SCREECHED and bolted inside.
Now, carrying at least seven bags from her new favorite shop in the entire world, she was walking on cloud nine. Her eyes finally opened, but she still hummed the theme to Sesame Street as she tap-tap-tapped down the stairs to the first floor. In front of her, the beautiful central fountain of the mall bloomed gracefully into her vision. She smiled, but only for a moment - was that a girl perched on it's edge precariously? Oh no, was she committing suicide?
Yes, Jenny. Someone was trying to jump into a one foot deep fountain to commit suicide.
"Stop!" She cried out, barely managing to run down the rest of the stairs without tripping and faceplanting onto the floor. She stumbled the rest of the way, suddenly reminded of that scene in New Moon when Bella was running through the fountain to reach Edward in time - oh, Kristen Stewart was such an amazing actress~
..Focus! Jenny stopped at the edge of the fountain, put her bags down, and reached out for the girl. "Please! Stop! Don't do it! Life is worth living!"
Spectacle? Thy name is Genevieve Prideux.
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Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 8:50 pm
Piper had been crouched on the ledge with both hands gripping it and her right leg extended as far as she could manage out into the water. Halfway there, two things happened. First, Tabitha had intervened to ask her what was wrong. Second, she realized that even if she could stretch her leg another foor, she would get both her sneakers and her leggings wet - she might even lose a charm.
She recoiled instantly, suddenly afraid of all of her sneaker charms plopping into the water, and brought both knees up to her chest where she was now sitting on the ledge. She curled her arms around them protectively and glanced up with a pathetic pout at Tabitha as she came over.
"No, I just - " except there was no time to finish that train of thought.
Suddenly, from across the mall there was a scream. Piper's eyes turned to look over her shoulder at the tiny figure bobbing along and practically rushing to her side. She wasn't alone, either - Jenny had managed to catch the eye of nearly everyone in the vicinity that wasn't plugged into a phone or iPod.
As she reached the edge of the fountain, Piper pushed herself back up to stand on her feet. She was probably going to get down, or attempt to move away from the pushy stranger, except Piper wasn't the most graceful of creatures. How she had managed to balance so easily on the ledge before was baffling - probably just dumb luck. As it was, the moment she was back on both of her feet, gravity decided to remind her why she mustn't do these things.
With a comical flailing of her arms and half an attempt to reach for Jenny's hand belatedly, Piper went tumbling backwards into the pool of water. With her arms and legs splayed, she made a huge splash that was equally large and loud. Luckily for all concerned, the fountain wasn't deep, and she managed to sit up instantly with a little splutter and a cough that suggested some of the coppery fountain water had gone down the wrong way.
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Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 12:12 am
It all happened so far. One minute the girl on the fountain was playing the role of contortionist trying to get something in the water without actually getting in the water and the next there was another girl running at them like she was auditioning for a scene in a terrible, terrible movie based on a book about strange vampires that were defined as monsters by the fact that they looked like they'd rolled around in a vat of glitter, the herpes of craft supplies. Why was she in such a panic? Stop? Do--gah! Tabitha jumped back away from both girls as Miss Panic approached them, at least she did until she saw Contortionist Rainbow was falling. Oh no! She'd get all wet and what if her head hit something?! She'd get hurt! "Look out!" She cried out in a belated warning. Too little too late! Tabitha's attempt at trying to help someone falling by telling them 'look out' and feebly reaching out to grab Contortionist Rainbow and Miss Panic was rewarded with a splash of water right in her face, squealing and whirling around to turn her back to the fountain and cough up the water she'd just swallowed. Eugh! Gross! All those coins and the metal in the fountain must have been why the water tasted so gross!
Wait! The girls! Were they okay!? Tabi turned back around, picking at her shirt and dropping her bag on the ground. She didn't care that there was now a whole crowd of people watching, most of them laughing at the spectacle. A couple guys were catcalling, wishing the girls were wearing white t-shirts. Ugh! Really! Miss Panic looked her age! Tabitha pouted at the group that was doing nothing but watching, taking the initiative to help them herself! She rolled the sleeves of her hoodie up and climbed onto the fountain ledge, jumping into the not-deep-at-all-are-you-freaking-serious water and trudging through it to get to Contortionist Rainbow. "Are you alright? What were you doing climbing on the fountain?" She asked Contortionist Rainbow and Miss Panic, offering a hand to the former to help her up.
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Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 12:59 am
NO! She was too late! She could feel the brush of fingertips barely managing to touch her own before the girl fell back into the fountain. Jenny hopped up onto the ledge that Piper had just been standing on, and watched the spectacle in slow motion.
She would never know the beautiful girl who had given up her life. She would never know what was such a horrible fate that she had to end it all like this. She would never know what-
SPLASH.
"Nooo, these shoes are so not waterproof!" Jenny hopped around, as if somehow hopping from one foot to another would keep her shoes from being wet.
It didn't.
She slipped the shoes off and shook them thoroughly, before settling them as far away from the girl in the water as she could reach. Then, she pinched her nose with two fingers (it's one foot of water, Jenny. Come on.) and jumped in. Her feet were immediately soaked in cold, up to the shin, and she squealed at the frigid wetness. A moment of ohmygoditssocoldwhydididothat later, she bent forward and held her hand out for Piper, as well.
Of course, she'd managed to further splash them when she jumped in, but it was the thought that counted.
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Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 1:16 am
Piper alternated between coughing and groaning as she tried to clear her throat of any of the foul tasting water, only to have both Tabitha and Jenny splash her again in their valiant rescue attempts. She blinked and tried to narrow her eyes at their approaching forms to make her fuzzy vision clear, but it didn't help. Unwisely, she brought up her wet hands and rubbed at her eyelids - which, of course, just made the whole mess worse.
"I was making a wish," her voice was whiny and high-pitched. She was cold, wet, and worried that she could've lost more than just her glasses now. She was also deeply worried over what kind of treacherous taboo she had just committed. Wishing fountains were not for swimming in! "What if I just broke a hundred dreams! I'm sitting on people's wishes!"
In her hysteric realization, she reached out to grab both of the hands that she could barely see, letting the pair of girls hoist her up. She wouldn't be turned away, though. If she was already in the fountain, she might as well finish the job. She turned her back on the two girls and began a very precarious waltz through the water, looking for the emptiest spots to step in, like she was traversing a minefield. Her hands went out to her sides to balance her tip-toeing until, finally, she stopped and scooped something up out of the water.
Her heart-shaped sunglasses.
She plopped them right back on top of her head, like a makeshift headband, then turned back around and repeated the same pattern of tip-toeing and wobbles until she was standing face-to-face with her would-be rescuers. She still looked sullen, which was unusual for the bluenette, but the rescue of her favorite sunglasses had helped brighten her up a little.
"I hope you guys weren't going to make a wish today, because I don't think the fountain is going to be very happy with us." Her sullen expression turned into a flat out frown then. The only saving grace in the situation was the fact that she hadn't noticed the stares and catcalls, or perhaps just didn't mind. A lot of things seemed to go right over Piper's head.
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Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 2:36 pm
Tabitha squeaked and turned her head to keep from getting at least that splashed by Miss Panic as she jumped into and waded through the water to get to them, helping Contortionist Rainbow up with Miss Panic's help. Broke a hundred dreams? O..oh! Oh no! She made a good point! Tabitha gasped and looked down at all the coins she was standing on and stepping all over and shifting out of place. They were such monsters! How could they do such a thing?! She'd never thought of it that way before! That these coins, the moment they left the thrower's hand, they became hopes and dreams. Oh no! Tabitha squeaked and hurried out of the fountain, climbing over the ledge and hopping back onto the floor. She was soaked! Her shirt was wet from the initial splash of Contortionist Rainbow's fall, her jeans, socks and sneakers were drenched from when she jumped into the water herself, and she was wetter still from Miss Panic's arrival! Her grandmother and Ophelia were going to freak. Hopefully she wouldn't need some kind of tetanus shot from getting all that metal-contaminated water in her mouth. Bleh!
Ohhh! She'd been trying to get sunglasses! Well that could've been solved easy just by getting a stick! "Um..well I was going to when I saw you were making a wish..." The fountain could be unhappy? Oh dear. Tabitha frowned and pressed the tips of her fingers to her lips, looking over the two other girls. They were all soaking wet, and there were people staring..lots of people. Some had gotten bored and continued on with the rest of the day but some people were still sticking around to see what would happen next. Tabitha glanced back toward them before turning back to Contortionist Rainbow. "Was your wish to have an excuse to buy new clothes?" Wait! Waitwaitwait! Crap! Nononono she did not mean how that sounded! Tabitha gasped. "I mean...like...! W-were you wishing...to...to you know...have people to shop with and a reason to buy more clothes? To support, like..a-an addiction? I'msorryIreallylikeyouroutfitIswear!" Wonderful, Tabitha. Just wonderful. A hot blush rushed to her cheeks and she picked up her bag, pouting a little.
..Well, hey! They were all wet! They might as well do some shopping, right? "So..you guys are okay, right? I was going to make a wish but if the fountain is angry it'd probably give me bad luck instead of good luck." Not that Tabitha was superstitious...mostly.
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Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 12:24 am
Jenny was all too glad to back out of the fountain as soon as she'd helped the girl up, and she shivered as her stockings dripped with cold. Her arms wrapped around herself, rubbing them quickly for warmth.
"I wasn't going to make a wish." Jenny responded with a fervent shake of the head. "I already had a wish come true today, I can't be selfish and ask for more. Besides, everybody knows the best wishes get granted when you throw your pennies in a real well!" She slipped her shoes back on, tapping the toe on the floor as if somehow that could keep them from soaking in too much water.
"Forget the fountain. I don't think the mall security's going to be very happy with us!" She giggled, looking around while fully expecting to see little segways blaring warning lights. "We should go find someplace to get dry. Especially you, poor thing." She looked at Piper and pouted sincerely. "All for a pair of glasses.. I can't blame you. You need a towel and a change of clothes! Luckily, we're in a mall. Everything we need, right at our fingertips!"
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Posted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 5:04 am
Piper followed the pair of them out of the fountain, still carefully tiptoeing around the piles of change at her feet beneath the now rippling water. She was climbing over the edge of the ledge when Tabitha began to frantically squeak something at her. Honestly, poor little Piper hadn't even caught the implication that she was apologizing so fervently for.
"No that wasn't my wish, but I can't tell you anyway because then it really won't come true." She had just gotten back on her feet on the other side when she spoke. When Jenny made her comment about pennies and wells, the brightly colored bluenette just happened to be leaning over and trying to squeeze the water out of her leggings; there was already water on the floor, what was a few splashes more? But she stopped and glanced up through her wet bangs at Jenny, looking almost offended at the implication.
"Wells are creepy." She didn't expand on the thought though because she really didn't want to talk about it - probably just too many creepy Japanese movies.
She stood up with a huff as she realized she just wasn't going to get the water out of her clothes that way. She was beginning to look grumpy, which was fairly rare for the impish teen, because she was wet and cold was settling in. When both of the other girls mentioned shopping, she managed to brighten a little. She normally only went with her mothers but this seemed like one of those emergencies her parents had given her a credit card for.
"That sounds awesome! My shoes are squishy anyway." She held out a foot and pressed it to the floor a few times to make her point - the padding of her converses made a wet squelching sound. Then she was digging around in the pocket of her now flattened skirt, finally producing a blue credit card with shiny silver letters on the front. She held it up and out triumphantly, as if searching for it had been a huge chore.
Then she turned to Jenny again. "Do they really sell towels here?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2011 1:06 am
Miss Panic's wish came true! Oh, how wonderful! Tabitha gasped and clapped excitedly, bouncing on her toes with a delighted little squeal. "Oh my gosh! Really? Ohohoh! What wish, what wish? Since it's already come true you can say it, right? She's right! I forgot saying it before it happened would make it not come true I'm sorry I was just so excited to know, I'm not quite sure what I would've wished for myself but I'm sure I would've come up with something if I'd really tried hard!" Pennies? A real well? Huh! She'd never tried that before! But..but wouldn't that contaminate the water? It totally would! Oh, but you wouldn't throw pennies into a well of drinking water. Of course not. How silly. Haha! Oops. "Like the well in Snow White?" That had to be it. But wait! Contortionist Rainbow was saying wells were creepy! Tabitha paused in her excitement to frown, deep in thought as she tried to figure out why she was saying wells were creepy. Why were they creepy? They were just water-filled holes in the ground! Was it the reflection of oneself in the water's surface that made it creepy? No, it couldn't be! There were lots of things that would be creepy were that the case. She tapped a finger against her lips and pouted, unable to figure out on her own why wells were creepy. This girl didn't watch many creepy Japanese movies..or horror movies in general. One nightmare inducing movie had been enough, thank you very much! "Why do you say wells are creepy?"
Tabitha's wide, curious eyes turned to Contortionist Rainbow for the answer to this great mystery only to see she looked rather unhappy. Oh no! That wouldn't do at all! She was about to try and do something to cheer her up when she brightened on her own just by their words. She smiled again. "My shoes are squishy too! And my pants are getting kind of heavy." She bounced a bit like Contortionist Rainbow to make her own sneakers squish, giggling and bouncing from foot to foot. That was fun! But yes, Miss Panic was right! The mall had everything! If they were to suddenly be bombarded with the zombie apocalypse? The mall was where Tabitha wanted to be. She watched Contortionist Rainbow search her skirt for something, tilting her head a bit. What was she looking for? Oh dear..did she have a cell phone in there?! She hoped not! It'd be ruined now!
"Yaaay!" She laughed and clapped as the blue-haired girl posed with the card, doing a little 'doo doo-doo doo~!' like she'd just looted an item from some silly video game. Tabitha was grinning as she nodded at Contortionist Rainbow's question to Miss Panic. "Of course! The mall has everything!"
Everything except a sign that said 'WHEN YOU MEET SOMEONE, INTRODUCE YOURSELF RIGHT AWAY!' Tabitha suddenly gasped, eyes wide and a hand flying to her mouth. Crap! Manners! She'd forgotten them! "Ohmygosh! I'm sorry! My name's Tabitha, by the way! Or Tabi. Whichever one you guys like!" It sounded like they were going to shop together, right? Rightrightright? She wasn't just getting all hopeful and assume..y?
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