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[right][b][color=black][indent][indent][indent]10[/indent][/indent][/indent]
"Producing and developing,
Producing without possessing,
Doing without presuming,
growing without domineering:
this is called—"[/color][/b][/right]

[color=black][b] "Magic?"[/b][/color] The enigmatic girl evoked a soft laugh through closed lips. For the briefest moment, those watching may have noticed the corners of her lips curl upwards. That straight stare remained, though, a different sort of complexity.[color=black][b] "No— Lao Tzu preferred 'mysterious power', 'the constant', 'the [i]Way[/i]'."[/b][/color] 

She brought her drink to her lips yet again, unmoving eyes frozen upon the girl who questioned her. Uncertainty, hesitation, confusion ran through all of them, and immediately some would let their minds become fogged—drift into the irrational. Not her.[color=black][b] "Take your pick, Zoey,"[/b][/color] she said, flicking a gaze towards the girl who had arrived second and already searched desperately for order in purgatory. The girl took another drink, then another, and another. She tried to tell herself it was to keep her mind clear.

More folks trickled in after that. First came a heavily-tattooed girl who was certainly underdressed for the weather, but then, weren’t they all? Next came someone, who by the girl had guessed, was mute due to her scrawled messages in place of any verbal correspondence. When the group started to exchange introductions and rattle off questions at one another, she dropped her hands back onto the bar, falling into a seat gently and silently atop the counter. She settled closer to the wall once Penny had moved behind the bar. Her intentions were unclear, but her demeanor was easy enough to spot. She was relaxed, but her back was judiciously kept away from the parade of strangers.

She wasn’t one to speak up when it wasn’t all that necessary, particularly when her newfound horde was busy interrogating one another. She did observe with an unscrupulous eye, perhaps for the briefest moment showing a glimpse of perplexion. [i]They all talked so strangely[/i], she thought. [i]All suspicious and knowing.[/i] Of course, she wasn’t one to judge in that department. That was her whole deal, after all.