Bell can listen as fast as she can read. Paper would be better for recording her life, but with her nifty little device, it's a close contest; besides, she's used to this. She glances at Sherlock occasionally while she directs the playback to skip around, reviewing this chat on physics and that on why Panem is economically implausible and the other on what books she ought to read (she thinks she's read them all, now, but she may as well check again if she'll be ushered back to Milliways at any moment.)

Usually Bell doesn't even reveal the recorder's existence in front of anyone. Having crossed that hurdle, she doesn't mind that she has to speak aloud in front of Sherlock to find what she's looking for.

Author: she_sells_seashells	Bell can listen as fast as she can read. Paper would be better for recording her life, but with her nifty little device, it's a close contest; besides, she's used to this. She glances at Sherlock occasionally while she directs the playback to skip around, reviewing this chat on physics and that on why Panem is economically implausible and the other on what books she ought to read (she thinks she's read them all, now, but she may as well check again if she'll be ushered back to Milliways at any moment.) Usually Bell doesn't even reveal the recorder's existence in front of anyone. Having crossed that hurdle, she doesn't mind that she has to speak aloud in front of Sherlock to find what she's looking for.
Author: sicaria	Sherlock just sits.
Author: ferratus	After a few hours, Tony knocks on the intervening door.
Author: she_sells_seashells	After a silence, Bell says, "It's your room."
Author: sicaria	"Come in."
Author: ferratus	"Hi," says Tony, opening the door and stepping through and closing it and opening it again. He doesn't retreat immediately, but hesitates, watching Sherlock.
Author: she_sells_seashells	"Hi," Bell says. "Um, how are you?"
Author: ferratus	He shrugs. "Better. You?"
Author: she_sells_seashells	"I'm all right. Been listening to old conversations. At least four people I've talked to in Milliways think that the economics of Panem make no sense. I'm trying to think of a way to swat the economy so it falls over like everyone seems to think it ought. It seems like the Districts would do better in that case than the Capitol would as long as everything fell over hard enough that the Capitol couldn't feed an army. Especially the ones that are food exporters, but I think even Twelve and Eight and so on produce a lot of their own food, just not enough to send to the Capitol."
Author: ferratus	"...Why's everybody think it'll fall over if you smack it?"
Author: she_sells_seashells	"Well, actually, I don't know if they think it should fall over or if they just think everyone is being really stupid. I should read more econ," Bell says. She directs her recorder to one of the conversations: "Wait," says a man's voice, "where are the financial systems in the Districts? Why can't people get loans? Your mother makes her income sewing and she can't afford a sewing machine, but she could be ten times as efficient if she had one, it would pay for itself, any sane lender would give her the money." Bell pauses the recorder. "That's the sort of thing they say. So I guess the question isn't so much why it doesn't fall over as why it doesn't... puff up like a blowfish. Why there's so many inefficiencies around that could be exploited. Which is less interesting for a project of overthrow. But more interesting for a project of building everything up again afterwards."
Author: ferratus	"Good question," Tony says thoughtfully.
Author: sicaria	Sherlock smiles just a little.
Author: she_sells_seashells	"So I'll read more econ," shrugs Bell. "But I think there's probably some law on the books forbidding loans, or something, and that's all there is to it. Your family used to be rich, was there any lending going on? Any complaining about it not being allowed?"
Author: ferratus	"I was too young to really pay attention back then."
Author: she_sells_seashells	"I wonder if Bar has a copy of Panem lawbooks. Now that would be educational. I can't think why I didn't ask her before - probably I figured they'd be more like people's diaries than like publications, but it's still worth a try."
Author: ferratus	"Good plan," he says, grinning a little.
Author: she_sells_seashells	Bell grins back at him.
Author: ferratus	Awwwwwwwwwww.
Author: sicaria	Sherlock smiles some more.
Author: she_sells_seashells	"What do you usually do during downtime on a train?" Bell asks, looking around her like the answer might be written on the wall.
Author: ferratus	Tony glances at Sherlock.
Author: sicaria	"Not very much," Sherlock says dryly.
Author: she_sells_seashells	"You don't even have, I don't know, a deck of cards?"
Author: sicaria	"We might. Shall I find one?"
Author: she_sells_seashells	"The only game I actually know that I learned in Panem and not Milliways is Herringbones," Bell admits. "I don't think it's played outside of Four."
Author: sicaria	"That would fulfill the time-spending requirement, I think."
Author: she_sells_seashells	"I can teach you," Bell says.
Author: sicaria	"Then I will find cards," she says, and gets up.
Author: she_sells_seashells	"It's an easy game," Bell says. "But if you have two decks of cards we can play the more interesting variant."
Author: sicaria	"Noted." She commences searching Tony's room. It doesn't take long to find two decks of cards, albeit in wildly different styles.
Author: she_sells_seashells	"Okay!" Bell sets about setting up three open hands to play a few mock rounds of two-deck Herringbones. She fudges the draws to demonstrate edge cases. When she's gone over everything once, she sweeps all the cards together and deals.
Author: sicaria	Sherlock is attentive.
Author: ferratus	Tony is enthusiastic!
Author: she_sells_seashells	Bell plans to use the fact that she has had practice at this game and they have not!
Author: ferratus	...Yep, she is so gonna win.
Author: she_sells_seashells	She does. She is unapologetically smug about it.
Author: sicaria	It is kind of sweet.
Author: she_sells_seashells	"Another round?" Bell says. "Traditionally I take a handicap now - I skip the first draw. Handicaps just keep accumulating if I win anyway."
Author: sicaria	"By all means," says Sherlock.
Author: she_sells_seashells	Bell deals. The dealership doesn't rotate; it doesn't affect the game. She does not draw when it first comes time for her to do so. She wins anyway. Shark likes this game; he plays it with his friends in the evenings when the salmon boat's in port, and Bell sits in the corner, shucking clams. She knows strategy. Well. She did. They've certainly found the note by now. "I'm down the first two draws," she says. "Onward?"
Author: sicaria	"Onward!"
Author: she_sells_seashells	Tony wins this time; Bell is much less facile when she's run out of cards to work with, and... Sherlock keeps dropping things that her brother scoops up. Bell looks at her quizzically but doesn't remark on it. "Tony's down a draw," she announces at the end of the game.
Author: ferratus	"Fine by me."
Author: she_sells_seashells	Bell deals again, and she pays attention to Sherlock's card drops. For some reason this time they favor her. "Sherlock," she says, after the third time the card she wants is placed tantalizingly in the fish-skeleton formation on the table, "what are you doing?"
Author: sicaria	Sherlock laughs. "Amusing myself."
Author: she_sells_seashells	"If the game isn't sufficiently amusing as-is, you guys could teach me one," Bell says. "Or I could scan back and see if I can reconstruct the rules to something I learned in Milliways from audio only, though that's dicier."
Author: sicaria	"Do you not enjoy it like this, then?"
Author: she_sells_seashells	"With you literally throwing it to me? Not especially. Throw it to Tony again if he doesn't mind or try to win yourself."
Author: sicaria	"All right."
Author: she_sells_seashells	Shell Bell scoops up the dropped advantage anyway. Even with that, Sherlock wins. Twice. "Nicely done," says Bell.
Author: sicaria	"Throwing the game requires more effort, and is therefore more interesting," she explains.
Author: she_sells_seashells	"Because you have to figure out what cards we want?" Bell hazards.
Author: sicaria	"Precisely."
Author: she_sells_seashells	"What are my tells?" Bell wants to know.
Author: sicaria	"You look discontent and stare longingly at your desired values."
Author: she_sells_seashells	"Huh. I'll see about curbing that. Or at least staring at misleading random cards."
Author: sicaria	"A wise plan."
Author: ferratus	Tony laughs.
Author: she_sells_seashells	Milliways continues to be obstinate. It continues to be obstinate for long enough that Bell has the chance to observe: "Sherlock, do you even sleep?"
Author: sicaria	"Occasionally," she says. Bell may know Sherlock well enough by now to detect an evasion. Or not.
Author: she_sells_seashells	"Less than I do, such that you're not groggy when I'm waking up or yawning when I'm falling asleep," clarifies Bell. "That kind of occasionally? Or more like a not-since-I-came-on-the-train occasionally?"
Author: sicaria	"The latter," she admits. "I don't sleep where anyone can see me."
Author: she_sells_seashells	"I can't see you when I'm asleep," Bell points out. "Would it help if I re-oriented so I wound up with my head under your bed? Or under the bed entirely? I don't want you kept up at night on my account, whether or not Milliways is being obnoxious."
Author: sicaria	"'Anyone' includes an open window with no one on the other side. People sleeping under my bed likewise qualify. I expect I will survive until we get home."
Author: she_sells_seashells	"It can't be pleasant, though. You don't think it's worth the risk to put me in Tony's room for a few hours out of a day so you can catch catnaps?" (District Four does have cats. Big, mean ratters. But still cats, and still they nap.)
Author: sicaria	"No."
Author: she_sells_seashells	"Okay, if you say so. You know more about your tolerances than I do."
Author: sicaria	She nods.
Author: she_sells_seashells	"Still, I hope Tony can get the door to work soon. I... am now sort of worried that it can tell he's trying on my behalf, and whatever makes it stay away from me so long is contagious like that. Do you suppose that's possible?"
Author: sicaria	"It's possible," she acknowledges. "But I do not think it very likely."
Author: she_sells_seashells	"Maybe next time he should open the door while pretending it's for you, regardless."
Author: sicaria	"I don't expect it to help. But I will suggest it anyway."
Author: she_sells_seashells	"I'm always afraid I'll never see it again. I mean, I act like I'm not. I leave things there. I walk out the door, I never waited until I was so hungry I had to crawl. But I'm always afraid of it. And once I made it onto the train I wasn't, for a bit, because I wasn't going to be the one trying, and now I am again."
Author: sicaria	"I'm sorry," says Sherlock.
Author: she_sells_seashells	"Not your fault. Fucking Milliways." (Bell is quite willing to discuss her displeasure with aspects of the establishment when she is not actually in it.)
Author: sicaria	"Agreed."