Milo is the cause of world food shortages. (buganda) wrote in mnhttnprjct, @ 2010-03-18 01:06:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log, lillian poole, milo zhang-barbashov |
WHO: Lillian Poole and Milo Zhang-Barbashov
WHAT: Yeah riot!
WHERE: Paddytown Riot 2029.
WHEN: After 12:15!
RATING: PG-13, for a bit of swearing, and oh nos people being shoved around!
STATUS: Logged like a protected redwood forest.
Lillian's heart jumped to her throat as the crowd started pressing in against her. She wrenched her head around to look for Sue, but she was gone. And Sora-- And Zack. And Milo. She started shaking as people pressed against her. Someone grabbed onto her arm and started pulling her away, but she shrugged them off, and tried to head in the general direction of the crowd. "Sue!?" she screamed over the din. "Sora!" Someone hit her in the gut as she called out, and she doubled over, trying to keep moving forward with the crowd, trying to keep out of the way of incoming traffic. She felt fingers against her arm, and then against her face, and as she wretched her face away she felt her earring tearing out. "Fuck!" She reached her arm up and elbowed the guy, immediately taking her earrings off and dropping them on the ground, terrified that she was going to wind up with a lot of blood on her shoulders. "Milo! Zack!" One of them had to be around. She'd pull out her iHolo, but it'd probably be trampled on, and they'd probably not hear it. "Sue!" This was Milo's third St Patrick's Day in America, and while he hadn't bothered go out on other St Patrick's Days (he was, after all, underaged, and had things to do), he was pretty sure that this was not what normally happened on a holiday that should really be called Ye, There Be Faux Irish Accents and Drinking. At least, he was pretty sure that this wasn't normal. This was more like the riots he'd seen on TV, and though he hadn't been in one before, he found it fairly exciting, actually. Someone pushed into him, and the pilfered bottle of Dos Equis he had been drinking was dropped to the ground. He was already tipsy, so the loss didn't bother him that much, but he realised he had lost Zack and the girls he was with in the fray. On one hand, he wasn't that worried, because they were all big kids. They could take care of themselves. But on the other, leaving them there seemed distinctively unchivalrous, and he looked around for a familiar face. Craning his neck over the crowd, he saw what looked like Lillian, pushed his way through the crowd until he got to the figure he saw was her. Looping his forefinger through one of her belt loops, he said, "You okay?" "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god," said Lillian, grabbing onto his arm too tight. "I'm ok." She touched her ear again. It still smarted, but she couldn't feel any blood. She was shaking a little, nervous. "I--I'm okay." But she also felt like she was about to cry. She wanted to speak up to people, to try and change things, but there were very big reasons why she tried to stay away from crowds like this. "Are you?" She took a deep breath and looked around, blinking back tears as people shoved at them. "Oh fucking--please, can we get out of here?" She tried to move forward with him, her grip on his arm getting even tighter as she started to move, unsteady on her feet. Oh lord. Was there an etiquette on how to treat girls when in the middle of a rambunctious crowd? Was there something you were supposed to do? On one hand, he kind of wanted to stick around and see what happened. Especially because people had been shouting (he wasn't sure if it was in a good way or a bad way) about the Eleventh Hour's song about redistricting, and he wouldn't have minded a good argument. However, someone stumbled into him, clearly having just been shoved, and he grabbed Lillian's hand. He wasn't extremely tall, but he was tall enough to look for Zack, Sue, and Sora, and he couldn't see any of them. "I'm fine. We'll get out if we can, it's kind of -- " Milo's sentence was interrupted by his being pushed, forcibly, into Lillian. "Sorry," he muttered, trying to regain his balance so that he didn't knock her over. He tried to squeeze through the people in front of him, so they could find the door, but it turned out that one skinny guy forcing his way through an aggressive crowd was a lot easier than a skinny guy with a girl attached to him. As the people were rushing at her, Lillian was completely forgetting about Milo. She was thinking about her mother, and about the way that she'd died, about how it could have been something like this. And about all the noise, and wondering what was going on, where the safe place could be. The alcohol was definitely having an affect on her balance, so she cringed as she pressed through the crowd. She looked at Milo, as though she had hardly even noticed him being there a moment ago. "It's fucking--It's fucking ridiculous." She stuck out the elbow of her free arm, squeezing Milo's hand hard as she stepped on an aluminum can and it crunched around her shoe. "Where does it end? Oh god." She was trying not to panic, but she didn't know where to go. She felt so short and vulnerable. There was a reason he didn't like St Patrick's Day. Milo had known that there was a reason he didn't like it. The girl with him was definitely panicking, and she was kind of drunk. And even though he only knew Lillian as a friendly acquaintance, he would have been a complete douche if he just ditched her right now. He felt bad enough about losing Zack, Sue, and Sora, and he only really knew one of them, so he wasn't about to lose Lillian too. He returned the pressure on her hand, though he wasn't sure of what she had said over all of the other voices, some whispering, some shouting, some merely talking. Still holding onto her hand, he dragged her through the crowd. To make a path for them, he had to be much more aggressive than he normally would have done. He elbowed someone in the ribs, hard, so that he would move to the side, and was met by a shove back. "Just stay calm!" he shouted back at her. "If everyone panics, things will actually get dangerous!" He didn't know that for sure, but it sounded like the best advice he could come up with. "Okay, okay!" She shouted back. His suggestion sounded like solid advice, so Lillian nodded and tried to clear her head, wishing that she could take back all the beers she had had for the sake for getting away and staying safe. She wasn't the praying type, but she tried to focus on sending positive thoughts for her friends, and for Zack, as she and Milo rushed through the crowd. Lillian formed her hand into the perfect punching fist, holding it ready to have at it if she needed to. But Milo was right, they shouldn't do anything to add to the stress of the situation. She could hear the sound of sirens and knew that cops were around. She didn't want trouble, she didn't want to have any problems. She just wanted to get out of the crowd and find a place to sit and catch her breath. And to call Sue. And Sora. And Zack. To know that everyone would be okay. It took a lot of shoving, pushing, and more elbowing than he would have liked, but somehow, Milo finally managed, still dragging tipsy Lillian, to force his way through the concert hall's doors. People were pouring out onto the street, and though it was cooler outdoors, it wasn't particularly less crowded. He tried to take a few deep breaths. "What happened to everyone else?" he asked. She took a deep breath as they made it out, taking in deep gulps of air. The coldness helped keep her alert, "Don't know," she said. "Everything.. All of a sudden people were freaking out, and when I turned around, everyone was gone. I was calling out for everyone but I couldn't see anyone. " She took another deep breath, trying to see through all the bodies and find a place where they could stop and rest. Cops were pulling up, and Lillian was really glad that she was outside before the cops swarmed in. She had a feeling things were going to get uglier once cops showed up. "Let's keep going that way," she said, pointing a shaking finger in a direction that seemed a little less crowded. "Did you see what happened to anyone?" Her eyes were a little wet. Sora and Sue -- What if they had fallen down? Lillian looked back at the building, suddenly wanting to go back and check. But she didn't think she'd be able to find them, not yet, anyway. As Lillian turned back towards the building, Milo had a feeling that he knew what she was thinking -- there were people in there, including one of his best friends, and who knew what was going on. But he knew that, considering that the police may be knocking down his door about attempted arson or something any day now, he felt distinctly uneasy about the idea of getting in any trouble. Besides, putting more people in that building (cops included, he thought bitterly) would probably just make matters worse. So he followed Lillian away from the crowd, not really familiar with the Williamsburg area, or where they were going. "They're big kids, they can all take care of themselves. I'd say we should text or call people, but I doubt it'll do any good with all these noise, my Holo could've gone off fifty times and I wouldn't have heard it." He was still holding Lillian's hand as they kept walking, the crowd thinning somewhat. He stopped. They could stay here, for the time being. She whirled her head at him, obviously angered by his words. "Take care of themselves? Right, because when someone is getting trampled, you know, all they have to do is just be a big kid, and they'll be fine." Her eyes were watering again. Her mom had been older than they were. That hadn't kept her alive. Lillian found a bit of wall and leaned against it, slowly peeling her fingers out of his hand to put her hands over her face. She slid down the wall, taking a long, deep breath. "Oh, fuck," she whispered. Her head was swimming, and although Lillian wanted a really strong drink, she could tell that what she really needed was some water. She took a deep breath, trying to keep from crying. That was the last thing she wanted to do in front of Milo right now. But after the stress of the evening, she didn't know if she'd be able to keep her tears in. Milo frowned, taken aback by her anger, and wiped his palm on his jeans. It had gotten sweaty holding hers, in the heat of the crowd. He took a deep breath. "That's not what I meant. I just meant, there's nothing we can do for anyone in there that they can't do for themselves. And going in there will just make it worse," he explained. It wasn't a good feeling, knowing something might be going wrong and not being able to do anything about it. But he was used to recognizing when he could and couldn't do something. He had seen enough suffering in Uganda to know. He wished he had a drink. It was hot and he was thirsty. "I know," she said, looking toward the door. "It's just that--" She swallowed, and started watching the people who were rushing past them, hoping to find a familiar face. But there were so many directions their friends could have gone. She took her iHolo out of her purse and set it on her lap, anxious to see if one of them tried to get in touch with her. She tried to take long, calming breaths. He was right. There was nothing she could do. "Just that what?" Milo asked, tilting his head to one side. He nodded his head away from the crowd, licking his lips because they were so chapped. It occurred to him that the beer he had been drinking hadn't helped on the whole 'being thirsty' issue. "Do you want to go get something to drink, or stay here?" He asked. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He wondered if they could get arrested just for being here. "Just that-Just that." She stood and held her head with her hand before she looked at him and then nodded. "Let's go somewhere. Anywhere. I'm just going to go crazy waiting, and I'm so fucking thirsty." She chewed on her lip and wiped her eyes, starting to walk forward without necessarily waiting for him, although not walking very quickly. When she knew he was close enough behind her, she started talking again. Faster than she had before, as though she couldn't get the story out and over with fast enough. "My mom she--died in a riot--just, just six months ago so fucking. I didn't want to be stuck and. I didn't want to be there and it's really just, such bullshit. I just wanted to have a good night." She stuck her iHolo back in her purse on vibrate, and hugged the purse against herself. "Oh." Milo didn't really know what to say to that, as he followed her, and the street lights made the tears in her eyes glint. He felt uncomfortable, as he didn't know Lillian well enough to offer any sort of comfort to her. Or, well, he could, but he had no idea what sorts of comfort would work best. "We got out," he murmured to her. "I'm sure that everyone else is going to be fine, too." He wrapped his fingers around her elbow and squeezed it, so that they wouldn't lose each other again. "Yeah." She knew there wasn't really much to say about it. What would she say if he had just dumped that on her. She wasn't really the gushy type, nor did she feel comfortable trying to comfort people. She didn't blame him for not knowing what to say. His hand on her elbow did relax her a little. She nodded quickly, one hand leaving from her purse to wipe away her tears. Her eyes were drying, now that she had gotten it all out. "Yeah. We did. And I didn't see any ... Bodies. On the floor. And it wasn't like.. Some of the things I've seen on TV." She let out a long sigh. "God, but I mean, everyone was just..." She closed her eyes for a second, but then quickly opened them as she wobbled on the street. "Who the hell starts a riot on St. Patty's? I mean, everyone's already buzzed..." She shook her head. "Anyway, I'm glad that I found you. Because I was totally losing my fucking head." There was a small late night restaurant in the distance, a blue light flickering and an open sign glowing like a nightlight. "Maybe... There?" Looking at the restaurant which was still open, Milo sighed, and gently released Lillian's elbow. He found grief uncomfortable, others and his own. The idea of so openly expressing such a private, vulnerable emotion made him nervous, and glad that Lillian seemed to have gotten her tears under control. He hardly blamed her for them, but then, what was he supposed to do? "To be honest, I don't care what we get to drink, so long as it's potable," he replied. He would've gone for just a glass of water. "I'll buy your drink, okay?" he said, and pushed open the door to the cafe. |