Crowd Work

I asked for silence, but got more noise instead.

I gave it a moment, then asked for silence, again, a little louder. The noise got louder in response.

I debated my next step carefully. Just raising my volume a second time would be pointless, that clearly wasn't going to work.

I decided, instead, on starting my prepared statements, hoping that ot would become obvious to all that they should stop talking at this point.

I'd gotten halfway before there was any noticeable change to the volume of the crowd.

Unfortunately, it was a change towards a still higher volume level.