Event # 2 "Alive and kicking (mostly kicking)"

[Misha Charisse Quinn]

As soon as she found herself out of the entrance hall and into the plaza, far from the group, Misha quickly located the smallest, least likely to cause an avalanche of debris rock she could find, and kicked as hard as her feet allowed her. Carefully, she followed the object’s movement not with her eyes, but with the sound of it’s weight hitting the ground again and again, as she let out a long, heavy sigh of frustration. She needed to let out some steam before she exploded – and caused today’s fourth death, and second suicide. Ah, very funny, Misha.

She was so fixated on her rock’s adventures that it took her a moment to sense the presence behind her and remember that despite how nice it might have been at the moment, she wasn’t alone. Looking above her shoulder, Misha gave Naya a small, somewhat uneasy look.

 – Hm… sorry. – she weakly said, not feeling as sorry as she claimed, but still not wanting to cause a conflict between the two. She’d had enough of those. – Do you… see anything we could use? – she offered, hoping the girl could be more useful than she was right now.

Of course, she was talking to the girl who she’d caught crying at least three times today, but a girl could hope.

[Naya Zafar]

Naya followed Misha out into the plaza, relief flooding her senses when she realised she was away from the dead body. She couldn't have spent another second in the same room, her nerves were well and truly shot knowing that three of her classmates were dead. She watched as Misha kicked a rock in frustration.

"Careful," she murmured, "The floor might have caved further on."

Misha looked at her uneasily. 

"Hm… sorry. Do you… see anything we could use?"

Naya looked around. From what she could see, not much was of use. A few flower beds, not that they would be of any use. Rocks and debris. Nothing much.

"I have my phone?" she suggested, "There's no reception but we could use the torch to explore and see if there's any objects about?" She cursed herself for not being more helpful. Misha probably wasn't exactly delighted to be stuck with her again, but Naya had to admit it was nice to have the company. She couldn't have come out here alone.

[Something]

Naya's phone buzzed, flashing up, revealing a new incoming message:

Gently squeeze Misha's boobs. Now.

[Misha Charisse Quinn]

Misha decided not to give much thought to Naya’s reprimand; she understood her point and knew she was right, but… there was just so much she could take without exploding or needing to hit something, and she was past her limit.

To her next suggestion, however, she could only nod.

 – Yeah, I guess that could work. – she’d already thought about it herself when she’d seen Peyton do it, but… selfishly, she wanted to avoid having to use her phone for as long as manageable. The best she could do for now was save on her battery so she could use her phone when she truly needed it, whether it was to call for help when she’d have reception or to use it as a lantern when she would be all alone. So she’d allow Naya to use hers for now… even if that made her feel a little bad. She didn’t want the girl to be hurt after all.

Yet, just as they were pondering that possibility, she caught Naya’s phone vibrating, and her full attention was immediately brought to the possibilities that implied.

 – Do you have reception? Can you call anyone?! – she asked, feeling hopeful. Another look to her phone indicated her own still didn’t seem to have any kind of signal. Then why did Tara and Naya’s receive stuff? Was the signal just going on and off due to some damages after the earthquake, or was her phone just really bad quality? Either way, she hoped Naya could make the most of it.

[Naya Zafar]

Misha nodded in reply, "Yeah, I guess that could work."

Naya nodded as well, pulling her phone out and turning it on. Okay, it had a decent amount of battery, that was good. She wished she had her bag with her portable charger though, that would've been useful.

Suddenly, her phone vibrated. Wait, did she have signal? Was it her mum texting her back? Could she call for help? She eagerly opened the message, excited at the possibility of potentially getting out of there.

Gently squeeze Misha's boobs. Now.

Her face fell. Was this the unknown number that Tara had received a text from earlier? How had they sent her a message? She checked, no reception, so why was she getting perverted texts from an anonymous person? She racked her brain, who had her number and knew she was with Misha? Well... only Chris really. She'd never gotten a chance to get Peyton's, and she wasn't that close with the others. But she couldn't imagine Chris doing this, he was too sweet. And anyway, if this was the same person as the one who sent that message to Tara... it couldn't have been Chris, because she was in the same room as him, and nobody had seen him with his phone out. So who was it then?

Maybe something else was going on. Maybe... someone was causing all this to happen. The earthquake, the texts... Was the floodlight falling on Ellie some Phantom of the Opera chandelier shit or what? Had Amanda been pushed? Kairi murdered? Possibilities ran through her head.

Well, she wasn't going to be the next. There was just the slight problem of having to squeeze Misha's boobs in order to survive.

Naya had two issues with this. One, she didn't know the proper etiquette for breast squeezing. Were you meant to announce that you were going to squeeze them, or did you just go for it? Naya had never touched another girl's boobs before on purpose, although she'd thought about it sometimes. How the hell did you do this and not make it weird as hell? Two, it was Misha, and that was where most of her anxiety lay. She wasn't sure about Misha's feelings towards her, though she suspected they weren't exactly fantastic considering Naya had woken up on top of her and immediately used her as a human tissue. She certainly didn't want Misha to feel uncomfortable, freak out at her, or worse, leave her alone. But Naya didn't want to die, so she supposed that if Misha did storm off she could always go back to the entrance hall... where the dead body was...

"Do you have reception? Can you call anyone?!" Misha's voice broke her out of her thoughts. Naya looked at Misha's face, then her boobs, then back at her phone.

"No..." Naya replied slowly, "But I got a weird text..."

She took a few deep breaths. Come on, you don't want to die! she inwardly chastised herself, Think of your family!... Actually, no, don't think of your family, that just makes it weird. Think of... 

Ah, fuck it.

She took a few steps so she was close to Misha. Way too close...

"Look, I really don't want to die, so I'm gonna do what this text tells me to, so... uh... sorry, and please forget this ever happened because I will be bleaching my brain as soon as we get out of here..."

With that, she closed her eyes, reached forward so she was just touching Misha's boobs, and squeezed.

[Misha Charisse Quinn]

Misha looked at Naya in anticipation, waiting to see if they’d finally be able to call their much needed help; even if, really… people MUST have noticed there had been an earthquake here. It couldn’t have been the ONLY place affected. So help should already be on the move, right?
What she hadn’t expected was for Naya to look so confused and uncomfortable, and even less to suddenly glance down towards her boobs. This attitude instantly had Misha curious; was this even still because of her phone… or?

"But I got a weird text..." this had Misha even more curious. What did she mean with “a weird text”? Could texts get corrupted by lack of signal, or… "Look, I really don't want to die" the girl continued, instantly getting her attention back, and causing Misha’s eyes to grow wider than ever. What the hell..? "so I'm gonna do what this text tells me to, so... uh... sorry, and please forget this ever happened because I will be bleaching my brain as soon as we get out of here..."

The rest happened rather abruptly.

She didn’t fully react to Naya reaching for her at first, still unsure where she was going with this, though she did tense up, feeling nervous at the idea of what the girl would do to “not die”. The last she’d expected was for her breasts to be her victim of choice, and she’d barely had time to register the assault on her body before her hand moved, quickly slapping the hand away and grabbing the girl’s wrist, holding it away from her. Honestly, Naya was lucky enough she hadn’t been slapped straight to the face.

 – What the fuck do you..?! – before she could think of a proper insult, Misha caught sight of the girl's phone again. Frowning, she moved her other hand to snatch the device away from her hand, and gave the text a quick look, her expression changing to one of disgust. – What, it’s because of this shit you decided to just go and grope me, because some asshole is sending us perverted stuff?! – it didn’t require much thought to guess that this was probably the same person that had messaged Tara earlier to force her to confess to something that no one in the room cared about, but that had clearly embarrassed the poor girl. And now it was targeting them

Misha felt her blood boil in her veins. She’d worked in night bars for a while now and was used to… unwanted attention, though it wasn’t something she’d ever be okay with. But the idea of someone playing with them like this in such a situation… and that Naya would actually be stupid enough to fall for it… It made her want to punch something, and considering Naya was the closest “thing” she had right now, it was probably for the best to calm down… after she’d make things clear.

Letting go of her “attacker”’s hand, the redhead quickly started typing. She didn’t know how this person managed to send messages at all, and honestly she didn’t care. Clearly they were able to manipulate their reception somehow and they were about to receive a good talking to.

“I don’t know who the fuck you are and what the fuck kind of brain damage you’ve got going on” she typed furiously before sending her message, her eyebrows furrowed in anger “but people are literally dying right now, so instead of using your signal to sexually harass people, how about you start calling some ambulances or something USEFUL before more people get injured, you fucking weirdo?”

[Naya Zafar]

Naya's eyes welled with tears as Misha slapped her hand away and grabbed her by the wrist.

"I'm sorry! I..." she stammered out, "This is... I was thinking about..." Thinking about yourself, Naya, she thought, How could you be so selfish? How could you be so vile as to do what that person told you to do? 

Misha snatched the phone out of her hand, looking at the text, growing more angry by the second, "What, it’s because of this shit you decided to just go and grope me, because some asshole is sending us perverted stuff?!"

"I just... I thought... I... I'm so sorry, I was being selfish... I didn't want to die, I thought..." She tool a deep breath, hoping she wouldn't start crying again, "I thought because they had signal and they know where we are and they know we're alone that they could have the potential to hurt us... I didn't want them to kill either of us..."

As she spoke, Misha was furiously texting the number back. She can have the phone if she wants, Naya decided, feeling like she wanted to throw up, I deserve it after doing that.

"I'm so so sorry... This isn't me at all..." Stop making excuses! "I'm... I'm going to go look over by the flower beds... Maybe I can find some clues or something..."

She turned away so Misha wouldn't see her crying. God, she'd never felt worse... She'd assaulted her friend, well, she'd considered her somewhat of a friend before this. She doubted Misha even wanted her around now. Why had she been so foolish?

One perverted text and suddenly you think you're going to die so you fucking squeeze someone's boobs without their permission!

She knelt down by the flower bed, her shaking hands groping in the darkness, seeing if she could find anything but flowers. She wanted to run away and hide, but where? What could she do when her school was in ruins, people were dying, and someone or something knew where she was and who she was with?

How could you be so stupid? 

[Something]

Misha's phone buzzed inside her pocket.

Give Naya a french kiss.

[Misha Charisse Quinn]

Misha felt her frustration and anger only grow at Naya’s attempts at an apology. Her pursuit to explain herself was only making her more and more frustrated at the whole thing.
Truth was, maybe it wasn’t a huge deal, but Misha had had enough of people trying to grope her where she worked to be more than done with the whole thing, and the fact it was coming from a supposed friend was pissing her off incredibly; though not quite as much as hearing her trying to act like it was warranted. But what was really, REALLY getting to her, was the fact that there really was some kind of asshole out there targeting helpless victims of a tragedy to make their lives more difficult, when they currently had at least three people to mourn for already.
Who could possibly be sick enough to get caught in an earthquake, see disaster and injured teenagers all around them, and decide it was the best moment to mess with them emotionally?
I’ll punch them when I find them. She decided. For now, Naya had retired herself to a corner of the room, pretending to attend to the flower bed. Misha wasn’t stupid. She could tell the girl was shaken up beyond words. Witnessing dead people and being coerced into assaulting your club members did that to people. But she couldn’t act like she wasn’t mad at her, either.

After a few seconds of thought, she looked down at the girl’s phone. Nothing. No answers. Coward. She clicked her tongue in disgust, before slowly making her way towards Naya, careful to stay at a angle where she couldn’t see her face. She didn’t know in which state the girl was right now, but she could guess Naya didn’t want her to see it.

 – Here. – she held the phone down for her to grab, and waited a few seconds. – For the record, it’s probably just some really bored asshole who doesn’t realize the kind of shit we’re all in. It’s not like he could do anything to us.

Of course, there was the fact he knew they were together, which had her wonder if some surveillance cameras were still working… or if They’d been the one to bring them where they’d woken up in the first place. Neither of those options was really appealing, but she had to keep a strong face. All in all, Asshole was probably as trapped as they were and trying to blow their nerves on them. The police and their rescue would have to arrive eventually; it’s not like anyone had been physically hurt by whoever this person was.
Just as she was about to turn around and leave Naya to her tears (pretty sure she was the least qualified to make her feel better right now. Not that she’d had any success all day, anyway), Misha felt her phone buzzing. Feeling less hopeful than she had the first two times she’d heard that noise since the incident, she carefully took the device out of her pocket, looked down at the screen… and frowned.
Oh. There was Asshole again.
As she read the words in front of her over and over, Misha felt her blood boil even more, causing her right hand to shake. That fucking creep… was laughing right in her face. They’d seen how pissed she was at the whole shit, they’d probably received her texts, and they’d decided to use it to mock her further. This was a life and death situation, and they were just going to keep on pushing teenagers into ridiculous and heartbreaking affairs while they were supposed to look for food, shelter, or a way out. They just… didn’t care at all.

Her fingers flew over the tactile keyboard without a second thought.

Kiss my nonexistent dick, you fucking twat. I hope you’re the last one out this hell.

[Something]

The moment the redhead hit the "send" button she felt how her throat has started to burn. With each passing second less and less air was coming in and out of her body. Misha was suffocating. Her face already turned purple and when she didn't have any strength to stand on her feet and fell - the suffocating heat has stopped. The girl could breathe again.

Misha lost 1 health point.

[Naya Zafar]

Nothing in the flowerbed. Not that she'd ever expected to find anything, she just needed an excuse not to look at Misha. She felt awful for feeling sorry for herself, why was she feeling like this when Misha was the victim here?

She could hear footsteps behind her, but refused to turn around. Luckily, Misha didn't seem to want to look at her face, instead holding out Naya's phone for her to grab. She took it after a moment, tucking it away in her pocket wordlessly.

"For the record, it’s probably just some really bored asshole who doesn’t realise the kind of shit we’re all in. It’s not like he could do anything to us."

Naya shook her head, murmuring, "That doesn't mean it wasn't the worst thing I've ever done..."

She decided to leave it there. Misha probably wasn't impressed by her constant crying, and Naya wasn't going to say anything else that would cause the waterworks to start again. Plus, the redhead had probably heard enough apologies and excuses, even if Naya still felt absolutely awful. She must've looked awful too, what with all the tears and the falling and everything that had happened. Luckily she had a tissue on her, and decided to- gross!- spit on it, before opening her phone camera and using it to wipe away the black smudges under her eyes. 

Out of the corner of the camera, she watched as Misha received a text. Great, now whoever it was was targeting Misha too? Luckily Misha wasn't as naive as Naya, not as willing to blindly follow orders... Just as she expected, Misha's reaction was to seemingly send back an angry text. Thank god for that, Naya thought, she's braver than I could ever be. She turned her attention back to her makeup.

Almost as soon as the thought crossed her mind, Misha's face began to turn purple. Naya turned off her phone and span round, confused.

"Misha?" she questioned. Was this a joke? It sure didn't seem like it, especially as it looked like Misha was struggling even more to breathe by the second. Oh fucking fuck, Naya thought as panic rose in her, they really can hurt us!

She watched as Misha suddenly fell to the floor.

"Misha!" Naya cried, jumping up and rushing to her side, making sure not to touch her or make her uncomfortable. She racked her brain for what she could do. Come on Naya, you're going to be a vet! Whatever you do, don't let her die!

"Sorry," she mumbled, gently moving Misha onto her back and making sure she was in a position where her airways were open. She hoped this would work, if not, she'd perform CPR on her, as much as she didn't want to violate her boundaries anymore than they had been. 

Don't let her die, don't let her die, don't let her die...

[Misha Charisse Quinn]

Misha felt mildly satisfied as she sent her message, refusing to let herself be manipulated so easily. She didn’t really expect an answer, since whoever it was didn’t seem to want to communicate in any way but dares and seem to be getting a kick out of causing fights and conflicts; but at the very least, she got it off her chest for now, and she hoped Asshole wouldn’t bother with trying to get her to do anything in the future if she clearly showed she had no interest in playing their game. She would probably have to ignore any other texts, however, if she didn’t want them to end up enjoying pissing her off. The least they got out of her the better, she thought, as she awkwardly cleared her voice, feeling her throat ache. She hadn’t realized her anger had gotten to her this badly, and she brought her free hand to her skin, trying to soothe the uncomfortable sensation.
Or at least she would have, if said sensation hadn’t almost immediately switched to one of flaming spasms going through her pharynx all the way down to her lungs.
This took her so much by surprise that, for half a second, she stood there unmoving, as if her organism was trying to assess her situation; before immediately reaching for her throat, not in a soothing manner this time, but as if to get it to work again.
She couldn’t breathe.
Her upper body was burning, and she couldn’t breathe.

From this point, the rest of her reaction was devoid of any reason. She felt her nails scratch at her throat to physically open her airways as if they weren’t her own, while her mouth opened wide in vain attempts to get more air into her lungs, the whole thing accompanied by hopeless choking sounds. The aching sensation rapidly reached the rest of her body until she felt as nothing but a giant ball of pain and flames, and yet, she still couldn’t get her respiration to work, until she started feeling weak and dizzy. It wasn’t long before her legs gave up up under her and she plummeted to the ground, both of her hands too busy with her throat to break her fall.

She was so focused on desperately clinging to life that she didn’t even sense Naya’s sudden presence right next to her, nor the fact that she had been moved on her back; so when finally, the torture stopped, she didn’t immediately realize what position she was in, which only furthered her panic. But she could actually breathe, and this was all that mattered.
Thank God, she caught herself thinking, once she was finally conscious enough to do so, thank fucking God. I'm alive. I'm alive.
Still shaken up and feeling way too exposed, she tried to quickly get into a sitting position, just to end up lying down right after. The lack of oxygen was still too prominent for her to get up so soon, and she felt the sudden urge to either collapse or vomit. Maybe both.
Calm down. This will pass, calm down.
Easier said than done. She could still sense her pulse rushing like crazy as her body tried to get as much air in as it physically could and more. As she reached upwards once more, slower this time, she was surprised when gravity brought down a wetness she hadn’t felt before, and it wasn’t until she brought shaky fingers to her face that she realized her cheeks were covered in tears. At which point had she started crying?

More importantly… what the fuck was that? This had never happened to her before. She didn’t even think there were breathing problems in her direct family, and she was pretty sure that, for as angered as she was, it wasn’t enough to bring her in such a state. Then why…?

Her eyes, still blurry from crying, turned to Naya, close to her, her face deformed in what she assumed was an expression of worry. It was hard to tell when she couldn’t properly see her through her tears. But what Misha could tell right away was that Naya was probably close to another nervous breakdown, and they couldn’t afford that right now. Determined to appear confident (definitely more than she felt), she cautiously moved her legs until she could get on her knees, coughing as she moved to try and regain control over her voice.

 – Hm… I’m fine. – cough – Hm… it’s probably… I must have swallowed dirt when we fell and it must have… congested my lungs or something. Maybe I’m allergic to something that was in the walls – she coughed once more – I guess I was kind of… working myself up anyway with all the stress. – she shrugged – I’m okay now. Thanks.

She focused her eyes on Naya once more. She considered smiling reassuringly, but her body wasn’t feeling up to the task. Instead, bringing her hand over her mouth to cough once more, feeling a growing headache take a hold of her, she gave a watchful look around to try and detect anything weird. Not that she believed anyone was actually watching them from the darkness or anything, that would be ridiculous. It’s not like this was weird or anything like that. An entire building collapsing around her must have some kind of physical consequences after all, right?

[OOC: Misha made a perception check.]

[Administrator]

Dice result: 1D10 => 7
Success; you found an item!

---

Despite being in not the best state of being Misha could notice an unbelievably bright orange plastic box with a little sealed tubule still attached to it.
Item: a box of orange juice (health +1)

[Naya Zafar]

Misha's crying, Naya thought, shocked, God, how much pain is she in? As the redhead's face turned back to its normal colour, she breathed a sigh of relief, glad to see she wasn't dead, even if she was shaken.

"Can you breathe a little better?" Naya asked, "I've never seen anything like that happen so quickly before..." She couldn't help but feel that it was something to do with those texts. When she'd done the disgusting task, she'd been fine, but when Misha rejected whatever it was... well, she nearly died. It worried Naya that she may be asked to do something else, or Misha may be. She couldn't bear it if Misha got hurt again... 

"Hm… I’m fine," Misha coughed, lifting herself onto her knees,  "Hm… it’s probably… I must have swallowed dirt when we fell and it must have… congested my lungs or something. Maybe I’m allergic to something that was in the walls. I guess I was kind of… working myself up anyway with all the stress. I’m okay now. Thanks."

Yes, the fall, of course! Naya clung to that explanation, trying to break through the voice that was telling her that the choking was to do with the text, Of course! Dirt and stress! That was it!

Yet a niggling voice in the back of her mind told her that no fall could cause something that horrific, not when it had been so long after they'd fallen.

"Mhmm..." she paused, watching as Misha surveyed their surroundings. She started getting up, thinking of checking a different flowerbed, but knowing that she needed to say something desperately first.

"Misha..." she said quietly, "I know you must be so sick of me... but... I'm really sorry for everything I've done today. The crying, the... grabbing... Can we.. maybe... perhaps not now but sometime soon, hopefully... move past this? I just... want to be friends with you, or at least friendly, and today has not shown my best side off, I know that... It's been the worst day in a horrible, horrible month, and I'm really not always this mopey or weird... So, um..." she started moving towards the flower bed, not wanting to see Misha's face, "Yeah..."

Naya felt stupid all of a sudden, and wished she hadn't said all that out loud. She needed to stop pouring her feelings out all the bloody time. 

[Misha Charisse Quinn]

Naya seemed to buy – no, to agree with her on her explanation, which was good. If she’d started freaking out now when she was still trying to recover, Misha wasn’t sure she could take it. And she was right after all, so there was nothing to worry about… unless she had another attack, but at least she would be ready… sorta.
Just as she was congratulating herself for not letting the conversation get even worse, her tired eyes caught sight of an orange form on the ground. At first she thought she’d imagined it, but upon further investigation, she recognized it as a juice box. Making her way to it, still on her knees, she carefully picked up her find and took a good look: it had miraculously survived the fall without being crushed or emptied.
It was such a small thing, yet she felt extremely relieved; something good, finally, was happening to them. It was definitely not enough to get seven injured and upset teenagers hydrated, but it was… something. And to think we should have landed in the cafeteria.

Silently, she turned to Naya. She couldn’t exactly hide she’d found food, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to. She didn’t think she would try to steal it from her, anyway; she just hoped everyone else would be reasonable enough to know they were going to have to ration food. For now, she was going to keep it and wait to see when they’d need it the most.

"Misha..." she heard a voice calling her name, and cautiously turned herself around to face Naya. Her fellow club member had a somber, guilty look on her face that had Misha frown in worry. They weren’t going to have drama again, right?
"I know you must be so sick of me... but... I'm really sorry for everything I've done today. The crying, the... grabbing... " Misha frowned. This wasn’t something she wanted to remember right now, though it didn’t seem to be the girl’s happiest memory either. “Can we.. maybe... perhaps not now but sometime soon, hopefully... move past this? I just... want to be friends with you, or at least friendly, and today has not shown my best side off, I know that... It's been the worst day in a horrible, horrible month, and I'm really not always this mopey or weird... So, um..."
Misha slowly got on her feet, listening quietly as Naya explained herself. Misha knew how bad of a month this had been for her, of course, though she wasn’t sure if Naya herself knew that. But the fact was that it didn’t excuse acting the way she did just because some random stranger asked her to. She should have known better.

… but she wouldn’t gain much of beating her moral down, when they needed all the focus they could manage, and Naya was already two harsh words away from her fourth crying today. And despite everything… Misha didn’t want her to cry again. And even less because of her. Not when she knew well how she felt.

 – Yeah, well… – she started, looking for the proper words – … just don’t go around doing what random pervs tell you to do and we’ll be fine. – she started walking towards the entrance of the plaza, one of her hand absentmindedly playing with a strand of hair as she tried to find a way out of this conversation, mumbling – … I mean, if he’d asked you to hurt me or yourself, would you have done it?

She wasn’t sure she wanted an answer to that question.

Finally, she was back at the entrance. She glanced in front of her, where their starting point was. She was curious how the others were doing, but she wasn’t looking forward to being with more people right now.

 – Well… I think we did say we’d explore the place, so… I’m going to go see what else this place has for us. – she glanced over her shoulder towards Naya – … you’re free to come if you want to.

And with that, she exited the room and turned her steps towards the nearest classroom.