50th Winter 517 AV
Riot at Seaside Market
"Speech"
Riot at Seaside Market
"Speech"
The Seaside Market, she had learnt, wasn't the most well-kept of marketplaces, but it was certainly fascinating. When she wasn't busy sailing, cooking, or drinking, she could be found wandering the myriad, filthy streets of the subjectively good city of Sunberth. That day, she merely wanted to reach the market, to browse and perhaps pick up some questionable cards or booze on the cheap if nasty side. The few mizas in her pocket clinked together cheerfully, as if eager to escape into the clutches of whichever lucky merchant managed to scam her out of her hard-earned wages. Meriann hummed softly, singing a scratchy song from her youth. The words meant nothing, but the song itself bounced from her lips with an enthusiastic if meandering tunefulness. She had almost reached the market, it must surely be around the next corner, but... It was not to be, even if she did not yet know that.
Meriann rarely spent time analysing the patterns of Sunberth's streets. She wasn't a hawker or thief, the only patterns she needed to know were the swell of the ocean currents. But it was clear to anyone, even an ocean-tossed woman such as herself, that there was a commotion up ahead. That was unusual enough to warrant further investigation, and as she did not know an alternative route she would have to go this way anyway to reach her destination. She sped up, walking at a slight trot to round the corner and find out what was going on. With Sunberth, it could be anything.
Immediately as she walked past the rustic building that stood sentinel on the corner, she reeled to a stop and scanned the gathering. Her heart fluttered and sank. It was going to be difficult to get past this writhing mass of people. But what was happening? Meriann stood on her tip toes, like many of the other curious Sunberthians, and tried to see what was happening. There was a great deal of shouting, and a plaintive crying wailed from the centre. What could it be? A stranger beside her pushed in closer, and Meriann pooled into the gap he left. Now she was hemmed in on each side, but in the heat of the confusion she didn't pay attention to this fact. Instead, her eyes widened and she suddenly stumbled forwards as the crowd surged. A young voice screamed a piercing noise that was worse in the way it was cut viciously short. The gathered people began heaving, some in front trying to escape backwards whilst others behind her began to push forwards to further see what was happening.
Meriann couldn't breathe as she was squashed between two people with blurs for faces. She could hardly speak in the press, but with a heave and a grunt she pushed the people off her. "What in all of petch?" She swore violently in Fratava and tried desperately to avoid the maelstrom of human bodies, but it was no use. They roared as if they were an ocean, but there was no grace nor amazement of swirling waters, only sheer human anger and sweat and chaos. Meriann was not small enough to squirrel out, and she took a step backwards, looking around wildly for any kind of exit. But her step backwards fell on something she had no hope of seeing, and the owner of said something roared and shoved Meriann in the back.
It was enough that she was trapped in this mess, but now someone wanted to shove her? She rounded on the man, who was red-faced and weaselly, wearing a ragged long cape that had seen better days. She saw none of this though, and only eyed daggers at him as she lunged forwards clumsily to push him square on the shoulders. Apparently he hadn't expected her to retaliate, and the man staggered and only grew more incensed as he rounded on her. Around them, other such similar fights were breaking out, as people reacted in the only way that people could. Order was ignored, and could only be ignored until the simmering disquiet had boiled over and run it's course. Meriann was an unwilling participant, but by gods she would give everything she had to get out of this mess. She haphazardly raised her fist and began to swing it at her assailant, hoping to Hai that he'd back off. Not realising that by retaliating she was only contributing to the growing mob that fluttered violently on the street. The dead girl in the centre of the mass of people lay, still warm, as people fought over her without even knowing her death was the cause of this crazed mob.