Lighting Fires to Watch Them Burn (Private

Athena sat on the edge of the Little Tiber, flicking her cigarette lighter off and on. Some might think she was a pyromaniac, which she was, according to the State of Illinois. To be completely honest, though, she was actually thinking about destruction. You see, today, Athena was depressed. Yeah, that was a good way to describe it. Yesterday, she was tired, today she was depressed, and tomorrow? To hell if she knew. And what could cheer a girl up better than an old, beat up copy of Sherlock Holmes?

Athena reached into her bag and pulled out the book, feeling its warm, beaten leather under her her fingers. She opened it up, and knew it would have that old, familiar smell that all her books had. A mixture of smoke, alcohol, and a touch of perfume welcomed her as she flipped to a random page. Maybe everyone's books had a distinct smell. What does a book's smell tell about the person who owns it?

Gods, the one time she forgot her perfume. Now the first person to smell her book would think she was some lunatic seductress who liked to drink and occasionally smoke. That wasn't true. Athena was the complete opposite of seductress.

Sighing defeatedly, she began to read. However, she got distracted about halfway through the page as she started to ponder the whole reason for smells at all. Smelling was sense that was needed for snakes and animals of the sort, true, but why did humans have so much of their brain focused on something that did literally nothing for them? It did help taste, sure, but we could live without some of that. But hadn't taste helped the first humans decide if something was poisonous or not?

Athena looked up quickly, startled at someone else's voice. The book shut quickly and her hands and thigh covered the title. It wasn't anything personal. She was just used to sneaking around, and not really used to people talking to her.

"Oh..." She said, realizing it wasn't some authority figure here to bust her...whatever she was doing wrong this time. In fact, she was pretty sure she'd seen the girl around camp before. "Laure, right?" She asked, giving her a small smile and adjusting her baseball cap so she could see her better.

The latina girl scanned her up and down. She had no idea how to judge someone's personality by what they were wearing or that sort of thing, but it made her look smart, so whatever. Skirt, heels. Athena felt pretty underdressed, with her ripped-up high-waisted shorts and a Marvel tee. She'd decided to wear her yellow flip-flops, and was still regretting the decision, now even more considering the orange footwear she was observing on the other girl.

Oh, well. "You look nice today," She said with a small laugh, hoping to make the whole staring-at-her-shoes thing less awkward.

"Aw thank you," Laure smiled, batting her eyelids. "I bought the skirt in the Zara shop in San Francisco. You like? And my top, I got it from Ba&sh in Bordeaux. They look really bubbly, like, not some bogus stuff you sometimes find in cities."

She gazed for a second at Athena, her shorts, flip flops, tee and baseball cap. Laure would never wear that. She'd look ragged in these clothes, like seriously. They were bogus. How could anyone wear them?
Of course, she kept those thoughts to herself.

"I like your hair," she said. "Which shampoo do you use?"

OOC: Meet appearance-obsessed Laure.

OOC: xD Omg like I never thought Athena would be in a semi-intense conversation about fashion and shampoo.

BIC: "Huh?" She said, surprised she was having this conversation at all. At this point, her mind basically split, one part focusing on the philosophy behind beauty and its origins, the other part focusing on the conversation. To be completely honest, though, she wasn't really focused on either.

"Oh, umm...I think its Garnier Fructis. I'm borrowing someone else's right now," She stated, as she moved the book back into her bag.

...But if beauty was a way to attract mates, would that mean beauty would be the main basis for love, making someone's beauty more important than their personality? So ugly people have absolutely no chance? But that can't be true. Maybe somewhere in our evolution love's meaning changed, which brings up the question of where exactly morality came in...

Athena sighed at the thought, defeated by the limitations of science. You know what she needed right now? Horror games. Horror games and YouTube and a steaming cup of tea...no, a cappuccino. Closing her eyes and allowing herself a brief moment of appreciation for all the things she couldn't have, she smiled a bit, before remembering someone else was there.

"Laure, do you ever think about what we're missing out on? I mean, all the normal stuff?" She said, watching the Tiber flow in front of her. After realizing that the question sounded stupid, though, she blushed. "Sorry, I mean...never mind."