@Summer Hearst
Summer of 2018

"Though this be madness, yet there is method in't."

There was nowhere that compared to these towns. The lights that reflected in the eyes of Alexx taught her lessons of truth and honesty. These were ones that she would never forget. She was taught of culture and life, and those were what slipped passed her when she intended to indulge herself into any other lifestyle. Understandably, Alexx found a home out here in the wild, where the flashes of signs on the sounds of car horns danced mercilessly before her, existing only when the sun fell down away from the vision of those night crawlers who preferred to dwell at these hours.

The shouts were louder than usual tonight, however. A crowd surrounded a streetlight, their words a mix of heated debates and swears from many languages. Pushing herself forward out of curiosity, she tugged at the jackets of the angry businessmen who made up the majority of this crowd. Her voice attempted to rise above that of the crowd, but it was mostly to no avail. "Excusez-moi!" She hollered, tugging again at the blazer. "What's happening here?" She inquired, cocking her face to the side. The man looked down at her, and he shoved her away with a sneer on his face, shaking his head, muttering something in Italian that she didn't quite understand. Stupido ragazzino or something like that.

Stumbling back, she dusted herself off, glaring at the Muggle man. How rude of him! The nerve of some men out here these days! Gosh, if Tex were with her- but he wasn't. Tex was busy off doing... Tex stuff. Whatever he did these days. After leaving Hogwarts and "losing his purpose", which seemed a lot like bullshit to her, but she wasn't one to judge. So, stuffing her hands back into her pockets, she elected to circle the crowd a number of times, listening in on what was happening. "This is madness!" One man shouted. Another followed with "What about our children?", which appeared to be just an excuse thrown into the argument. The shouts got louder, and Alexx had heard enough. Surfacing herself towards the poor neglecting shop that these people found themselves in front of, she spotted a blonde girl.

Trudging to the girl, who seemed like she might have been caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, Alexx decided to encounter her for some answers. "Are you here to argue about your wages too, or is this a total coincidence?" Alexx jokingly asked, nodding back to the crowd that was ever growing. "Kidding," she quickly followed up. "I don't even know what this mob is all about. Or how to get out of it, for that matter. Probably shouldn't have gotten into it to begin with, now that I think about it..." Glancing in at the owner of the shop, he looked frustrated with the people's decision to hold their meeting in front of his place of business. That was understandable, Alexx decided. She would be annoyed as well, as it was likely holding up his customers and potential customers.

Tapping her chin, Alexx looked at the mob. "Say, do you know where I am? I took a train from Manchester earlier today, got a little lost in the progress." The girl sheepishly admitted, rubbing the back of her neck as she did. It wasn't every a proud moment when she had to admit that she had done something dumb and gotten herself lost, however she still needed help from a local. So, pushing all her shame to the side, it was her decision to inquire about the directions. This had already been quite the adventure! She got lost, found a mob, and was now (mostly) trapped in the middle of it. And this poor girl, whoever she was, was also stuck here.

Summer had been taking a walk down the streets just past her home. She had hoped to stop by some stores and buy a couple of things for herself, but it hadn't been as easy as he hoped it would have been. The small trip had started off fine, she had made it to the local confectionary within in a few minutes. After allowing herself to indulge in some freshly made chocolate fudge, she realized it had been quite some time since she had told her father she was heading to the store.

Deciding that she would be in trouble if she didn't get home soon, the petite blonde exited the shop. She chime of the door's bell was nearly lost as she stepped out onto the street. Instead, the sounds of honking cars, angry voices, and loud chanting resonated through the boulevard. Her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to make sense of what was happening. A crowd of men and women were marching through the streets, and somehow managing to block nearly all of the automobiles also traveling down the same path. Their loud cries and protests could be heard, and Summer deduced that this must have been a riot of some sort. She stepped off into the streets, hoping to push her way through the mob.

It didn't exactly work out the way she had imagined it would.

Instead, the girl was swept up into the crowd. "Excuse me!" She yelled, but her words were muffled by the surrounding swarm, and sadly, her lack in height didn't do anything to help. "I just need to squeeze through!" No one took heed to her words, and they continued their enraged advance.

Summer was just about to launch herself onto someone's back to get attention when a voice sounded nearby. Oddly enough, the words seemed directed towards her.

"Are you here to argue about your wages too, or is this a total coincidence?"

She turned, spotting a girl nearby that looked just as out of place as she did. The other girl had the strangest air around her, seeming calm and collected even in an environment like that. Summer gave her a quizzical look and the girl continued.

"Kidding. I don't even know what this mob is all about. Or how to get out of it, for that matter. Probably shouldn't have gotten into it to begin with, now that I think about it..."

So she is talking to me. That cleared things up. Summer chuckled at the girl's statement. "No, this isn't my ideal evening." she replied with a grin. "I don't usually like to insert myself into mobs filled with angry business people, believe it or not. I don't know how the riot started up so quickly, I swear I was out here just a while ago."

After a moment of silence, the girl spoke again.

"Say, do you know where I am? I took a train from Manchester earlier today, got a little lost in the progress."

"A town in Brighton, though I have no idea how long a trip all the way from Manchester would take. I recently moved here anyway." Summer said. She did know the girl had come from somewhere quite a few hours away though. She held out a hand, introducing herself to the other blonde.

"Summer Hearst, nice to meet you. Even under these, uh... circumstances."