Noara quickly checked her available mana.
[MP: 36/100]
Ugh, enough mana to use the skill once, and that's all…
She had spent all her mana and passed out, but the resting and the food had helped her body to recover.
She immediately puts herself between Nando and Sueli, while the shouting around them gets tenser and more hysterical by the second.
"What do you two think you're fucking doing?"
Her voice cuts, sharp and cold like a knife, just loud enough to be heard without shouting.
The very portrait of a cool leader.
Yet, nobody was paying attention to her or even noticed her.
Sueli was scrambling, trying to flee, while Julia tried to hold Nando, who was trying to keep punching the small woman, ignoring the girl who was standing between them, with eyes filled with rage.
"HEY! I'M TALKING HERE!!!"
Her shouting got drowned in the midst of all the other screams, as the fighting threatened to spill to other people.
Why isn't anyone listening?
Flashbacks of the situation by the door earlier passed through her mind.
No, I can't let this camp become like that… It will be our deaths. If we freak out, we die. If we freak out, we die. We can't freak out. I can't freak out.
She was hyperventilating, as her successive attempts to grab everyone's attention failed one after another.
What should I do? What can I do…?
Then it hit her, like an epiphany.
"Velvet snare."
She had intended to just activate the skill, but she spoke its name in the process, without even noticing.
But she didn't direct the skill onto a specific person to change their emotions.
She just tugged everyone's thought processes onto herself. She didn't try to calm their emotions or manipulate them directly. No, she just projected her presence. It was the emotional equivalent of a 'hey!' shout, putting herself into everyone's attention.
[MP: 3/100]
And now, thirteen pairs of eyes were locked onto her, the panic loop temporarily interrupted.
***
The weight of the group's attention felt heavy on Noara's heart.
"Everyone. We don't know each other, and we have no idea what is going on. Yet, we managed to build this little camp, this small reprieve from the destruction outside. And, until a rescue operation arrives or we find a way to go back home, what we have here is all we have."
She spoke in a composed manner, with her slightly risen face transmitting some sort of gravity to her words. Yet, in her mind…
What the fuck should I say? Where's the police? Mom, I want to go home… Please, be well.
"We need every millimeter of water and every gram of food to be rationed and partitioned so everyone can have their share. No one 'keeps for later' unless they're assigned runner duty. Taking water or food beyond your own rations is objectively robbing the whole group."
Why am I managing to speak so calmly and with so much confidence? Is this an effect of the skill?
"Yet, violence inside the barricade is a threat to everyone. You all should remember the system's warning about freaking out. Starting violence is a disruption of the little peace of mind we've carved with our sweat and blood. It's robbing us of that little peace."
The group watched her in silence as she spoke. But after the last words, someone had to complain.
"But we should punish theft! We can't let her think that she can just grab our water and get away with it!"
"Yeah, punish her!"
"But the woman is right, we shouldn't act without thinking! Gratuitous violence will be our death!"
The presence generated by Noara's skill was fading, and a sharp pain was surging behind her eyes, but she raised her voice to grab their attention back.
"You are all right. Both sides of the argument are right. But punishment doesn't need to be physical violence, does it?"
Everyone stops their arguments, looking at Noara again.
"Julia, put Sueli on cleaning duty. The bathrooms will be under her responsibility. And Nando… I understand that you had good intentions in mind, but if we signal that strong people can hurt weak people, that would be bad for everyone here."
Ugh… what punishment should I give him? I would've given him the security role, but he has already shown weak emotional control and a propensity to violence.
"Nando, until we stabilize, you're on hauling duty. You'll work under Clara to retrieve supplies from the neighboring buildings, always with her or Lu at your side. Only moving weight, that's all. You don't touch anyone again."
She stares at everyone in the small gathering of people.
"This is how this camp will operate. If you don't like how we handle things here, a porta é a serventia da casa. The door's open right there. Just leave."
The barricade doesn't have a literal door, of course. But the meaning is obvious to everyone.
[CRISIS AVERTED]
Internal violence suppressed.
Resource conflict stabilized.
Group cohesion preserved.
+20 XP awarded.
[BEHAVIOR PATTERN LOGGED]
***
The last hours of the night pass in a blur of motion and short naps.
From time to time, a new refugee would arrive, but there weren't any further conflicts, inner or outer.
The sounds of chaos in the distance also seemed to calm away, inducing a relative sense of safety to the people.
Then, right before daybreak, a girl came running from downstreet, her clothes torn apart, exposing parts of her body, and her eyes filled with terror.
While Julia was tending to her, giving her water and a bit of food, Noara sat at her side and posed a question.
"What did you see down there?"
The girl, called Samira, looked at Noara and answered with a trembling voice.
"I was in the Roosevelt Plaza when the system appeared and everything changed. The military police there… they tried to assert control through violence, and the local drug dealers answered in kind. My boyfriend…"
She couldn't say more, as her voice was cut by her sobbing and weeping.
Noara waited patiently, patting the girl's hair in reassurance. After some time, she managed to speak again.
"There was an intense shooting, and the drug gang won. They now control the plaza, and they are planning to expand. They killed my boyfriend because he… He tried to stop them from taking me."
The girl's gaze towards the state of her own clothes was all Noara needed to understand what happened.
At that moment, the sun rose over the buildings, illuminating streets filled with debris and corpses.