Bell turns over the crate to her parents. They believe her about finding it on the beach. They open one can to celebrate, and then Shark very sensibly insists that the rest of it be stored until it is needed.

The next few days, leading up to Tony's victory tour's stop in Four, see her ferretting out her remaining stash and distributing it between her parents and Lynnis's family until it's all gone. They're assuming a ship lost a lot of merchandise at once. Bad weather, one assumes.

She stops replacing her shells by the doors. But she does show up to work, until the day before when she has to leave. Then, she fakes sick enough to stay home, spends the day sleeping, and - at night - is rested enough to execute her plan.

Dear Mom and Dad.

I'm going for Atlantis. It's okay! I have a plan! I'll come back and get you when I can and then we can all live there. Please tell Mr. Carrasen I'm sorry about the canoe. I'll bring him a new one after I get there! I love you! It's going to be great!

- Shell Bell

...the idea, after all, is to instantly convince them that she is dead. That she is too foolish and unprepared to have any chance. That there is no point in worrying about her any further, and they should move directly to grieving - certainly not wasting time looking for her or reporting her as a missing person. The fact that she's not swiping any of the cans and only one water container - is not even bringing a fishing rod - is another clue, of course.

Shell Bell wears her nice dress - it'll attract less attention in the town than work clothes, on a Victory Tour day where everyone's supposed to celebrate, and the town in question is big enough that her mere unfamiliarity won't catch her out immediately. She packs one more practical change of clothes, sticks her stick in her hair, and puts one salty roll in her pocket to eat at around midnight and a few strips of dried salmon to nibble on as necessary through the walk. She's also wearing the less remarkable-looking of the two protective amulets she traded for during her stay in Milliways. It looks like a lump of white glass - it could even pass for sea glass. The other stuff she obtained is waiting for her in her room in the bar.

She melts the lock on the canoe shed and buries it deep in the sand. She drags out a canoe. Briefly, she considers actually canoeing to the next town up, but while she knows how to row like any District Four resident does, she's worried about being noticed on her way in, and it'll be easier to avoid that if she's not in the place where all the actual industry goes on, namely the shore. She pushes it out to sea regretfully. Saltwater spatters her dress, but it dries as she goes.

She talks to her recorder in the dark silence.

And just before dawn peeps over the ocean, she's picked her way through the sleeping town to the train station and she's pretending to be a premature, eager celebrator.

Author: she_sells_seashells	Bell turns over the crate to her parents. They believe her about finding it on the beach. They open one can to celebrate, and then Shark very sensibly insists that the rest of it be stored until it is needed. The next few days, leading up to Tony's victory tour's stop in Four, see her ferretting out her remaining stash and distributing it between her parents and Lynnis's family until it's all gone. They're assuming a ship lost a lot of merchandise at once. Bad weather, one assumes. She stops replacing her shells by the doors. But she does show up to work, until the day before when she has to leave. Then, she fakes sick enough to stay home, spends the day sleeping, and - at night - is rested enough to execute her plan. Dear Mom and Dad. I'm going for Atlantis. It's okay! I have a plan! I'll come back and get you when I can and then we can all live there. Please tell Mr. Carrasen I'm sorry about the canoe. I'll bring him a new one after I get there! I love you! It's going to be great! - Shell Bell ...the idea, after all, is to instantly convince them that she is dead. That she is too foolish and unprepared to have any chance. That there is no point in worrying about her any further, and they should move directly to grieving - certainly not wasting time looking for her or reporting her as a missing person. The fact that she's not swiping any of the cans and only one water container - is not even bringing a fishing rod - is another clue, of course. Shell Bell wears her nice dress - it'll attract less attention in the town than work clothes, on a Victory Tour day where everyone's supposed to celebrate, and the town in question is big enough that her mere unfamiliarity won't catch her out immediately. She packs one more practical change of clothes, sticks her stick in her hair, and puts one salty roll in her pocket to eat at around midnight and a few strips of dried salmon to nibble on as necessary through the walk. She's also wearing the less remarkable-looking of the two protective amulets she traded for during her stay in Milliways. It looks like a lump of white glass - it could even pass for sea glass. The other stuff she obtained is waiting for her in her room in the bar. She melts the lock on the canoe shed and buries it deep in the sand. She drags out a canoe. Briefly, she considers actually canoeing to the next town up, but while she knows how to row like any District Four resident does, she's worried about being noticed on her way in, and it'll be easier to avoid that if she's not in the place where all the actual industry goes on, namely the shore. She pushes it out to sea regretfully. Saltwater spatters her dress, but it dries as she goes. She talks to her recorder in the dark silence. And just before dawn peeps over the ocean, she's picked her way through the sleeping town to the train station and she's pretending to be a premature, eager celebrator.
Author: ferratus	The train pulls into the station far earlier than the itinerary would indicate, and Tony gets off it with a minimum of fanfare, bringing only Sherlock. He's been doing this the whole tour, because of course no one in the Districts is going to hear about him doing it at the previous stop. And he likes the quiet; it gives him time to gear up before all the speeches. Since he's been exquisitely well-behaved the whole time and is the quintessential crowd-pleaser, not to mention perfectly punctual, the crew are happy to indulge this little quirk. Of course, no power on Earth will possess anyone but Sherlock and the train operator to be up this early.
Author: she_sells_seashells	Bell waves! Hi Tony! (If anyone is watching, she still looks like a premature celebrator, waving at the celebrities she is there to celebrate.)
Author: ferratus	Tony grins and waves back, because he's Tony Stark and that is how he works.
Author: sicaria	Sherlock smiles indulgently and takes a few steps away from Tony to scan the area. The coast, so to speak, is clear. She beckons Bell onto the train.
Author: she_sells_seashells	Up Bell gets. She trots forward. "Hi!" she says, in a whisper.
Author: sicaria	"Good morning," she murmurs back, and leads Bell through the silent train to her room. After some initial shuffling, Sherlock has ended up with the back half of the very last compartment, Tony with the front half of same. Everyone else on the train is no end of pleased that this means they can sometimes go hours without seeing her, if she stays back there with the door shut.
Author: ferratus	Tony follows. "Okay, so brilliant plan," he says, opening the door between Sherlock's room and his. "...Would have been to tuck you away in Milliways and come get you when we get home, but apparently today is not my day. I'll try again in a few hours."
Author: she_sells_seashells	"That's the amount of time it takes not to count as a retry?" Bell asks, peering around in fascination.
Author: ferratus	"Pretty much," he agrees.
Author: sicaria	Despite the fact that she had no influence on the decor, the space is still very... Sherlock. Pretty in an understated way, but ultimately functional. One thing she did do, however, is close the steel shutters on every window. They have been closed the entire trip. She can't sleep somewhere with a transparent window; everyone who knows her knows that.
Author: she_sells_seashells	"Where are we stashing me in the event that Milliways refuses you several times in a row?" Bell asks. Because these rooms are designed to hold one person apiece.
Author: sicaria	"Here," says Sherlock. "I have discouraged the rest of them from ever entering my room under any circumstances."
Author: she_sells_seashells	"Okay." Bell can sleep on the floor if she has to. The clam boat has been caught out in weather a few times and she's had to sleep on it. "That sounds useful. So as long as we're unsupervised..." She picks up the lump of glass. "I got some things. This is one of them; everything else is in my room at the bar. The guy I traded for it and the other, flashier one says it doesn't do anything overtly magical - it's like a defensive luck charm. I've been tripping less since I got it, is all I've noticed, but I haven't been doing anything physically dangerous either." Bell trips a lot. Less, since she developed sea legs - dry land is comparatively simpler to navigate - but still a lot. This is much of the reason she was flunked as a possible Career, when she went to the testing camp at age four.
Author: sicaria	"Well," Sherlock says thoughtfully. "That is... interesting."
Author: ferratus	"I better get out there," says Tony. "Gotta do the early morning routine. Sherry, you coming?"
Author: sicaria	"When do I not?" she says, smiles over her shoulder at Bella, and follows him out. The door, once closed behind her, looks comfortingly solid from this side. That is an illusion, but it's a nice one, isn't it?
Author: she_sells_seashells	Bell stays put. Is there a TV in here? She wonders if she could have it on very quietly and get a live feed of the exterior goings-on.
Author: sicaria	There is!
Author: she_sells_seashells	She does!
Author: ferratus	And there's Tony, soon enough: expressing his heartfelt condolences for Four's tributes, whom he remembers by name, and then making the crowd laugh twice and flirting with an old lady in the front row.
Author: she_sells_seashells	Aww.
Author: ferratus	He makes it look effortless. Spontaneous. Sincere. It isn't really.
Author: sicaria	Eventually, the show is over and Sherlock returns to her room.
Author: she_sells_seashells	Bell flips the TV off; it's now advertising shoes. "Hi again," she says. "You've got really good stage presence. Is it terrible?"
Author: ferratus	"Yep," says Tony, and opens the door to his room, and gives it an annoyed look, and walks back through it and closes it again.
Author: she_sells_seashells	Bell looks at her knees. "I shouldn't have asked that, huh?"
Author: sicaria	"I don't believe it had an effect on his mood either way," says Sherlock. "He is always like this after public events."
Author: she_sells_seashells	"I can't even imagine it. I was only up on stage for a minute, and even when I was panicking I didn't really expect Lynnis to defect, and then they make him talk about it a dozen times. And he manages to look like it's not even hard."
Author: sicaria	"Tony is very good with that sort of thing," says Sherlock. Bell may remember Sherlock's own victory tour, which was marked by flat affect, stilted apologies, and being whisked off the stage in a hurry.
Author: she_sells_seashells	Bell does remember that. She doesn't remark on it, though!
Author: sicaria	After a moment, she adds, "I am not."
Author: she_sells_seashells	"I saw," Bell says.
Author: sicaria	"But then, I don't believe anyone expected me to be."
Author: she_sells_seashells	"It didn't really fit with any part of the image you projected before that, no." It didn't really hit Bell, in the bar, that she was talking to Hunger Games victors, except long enough to ask Sherlock not to kill her. Now she is in the train, and Sherlock and Tony continue to exist, and, yes, they are victors and she is in their train.
Author: sicaria	"Pretending to be clumsy and incompetent before my Games began was the extent of my acting ability. Emotions are more difficult."
Author: she_sells_seashells	"I really am clumsy. It's a good thing, too, or I might have been picked at Career camp and I would have been in Tony's Games."
Author: sicaria	"What would you have done, if Lynnis had not stepped up?"
Author: she_sells_seashells	"I had my stick. Assuming I didn't get a chance to escape into the arena, most of the other tributes' mined platforms would have gone off in rapid sequence before we were allowed to move, I would have fled with no supplies into the arena, and anyone I ran into would have died of internal burns that I'm sure would look very strange on an autopsy report. And then I would have never, ever come back the next time I found a door." Pause. "That's if I actually had to go. If Lynnis hadn't stepped up, the seventeen-year-old Career girl in training would have socked her in the nose and volunteered and the girl Four Careers would have been a year younger than they're supposed to be until we hit a cohort that had two - they put in occasional backups for that in case one dies or defects."
Author: sicaria	"A sound plan," says Sherlock. "Particularly the part where you flee the universe afterward."
Author: she_sells_seashells	"Yeah. Or, you know, before, if given the opportunity. I wouldn't want to kill twenty-three people who didn't want to be there any more than I did."
Author: sicaria	"Yes," Sherlock agrees.
Author: she_sells_seashells	"Sorry," says Bell, looking away.
Author: sicaria	She shrugs. "I count it among my reasons." Hopefully she doesn't have to explicitly specify reasons for what.
Author: she_sells_seashells	She does not. "Do you want to hear the explanation of how the amulets work?" Bell asks, pulling out her recorder. "Or about the other stuff I got, from the source?"
Author: sicaria	"By all means."
Author: she_sells_seashells	"Seek: first instance within last 150 days of 'amulet'," Bell tells her recorder. "Play from nearest prior pause-mark." Obediently, the recorder plays a conversation between her and her benefactor about the amulets. The two work the same, they're only cosmetically different - the reason he has them is apparently because he bought three, not knowing which his daughter would like best, and these are the two left over. One should not trust them to protect one from anything serious. They will make physical injury - and the sorts of things that cause injury, like Bell's tripping - less likely and less serious. Often. But certainly not by enough that Bell ought to try to tapdance at the top of a staircase - though if she did, when she fell, she'd break an arm, not her neck. "Seek: first instance within last 150 days of 'generator'," Bell says, after pausing when the conversation ends. "Play from nearest prior pause-mark." Bell has apparently also obtained a generator. It is from a world with both tech and magic, and it turns the magical energy from a crystal inside it into nice clean electricity. Reportedly, it can output up to 570 megaglonns in its typical lifespan! ...There are attempts made to translate this into how many lights the generator could power for how long, but the woman who had the generator keeps clarifying "as long as the lights are, you know, reasonably modern and efficient" without being able to describe what that means, so this isn't much more useful than 570 megaglonns. At any rate, it's a device impressive enough to be in common use in a very advanced world. The same conversation also yields some batteries that can be charged from the generator, that "are designed for our devices, naturally, but you should be able to adapt them for anything with ordinary gold wire or spun-starlight". Bell's question about whether it has to be gold is immediately replied to with "Oh, or copper, I'm sorry, I keep forgetting."
Author: sicaria	"I am sure Tony will take great joy in discovering the meaning of a megaglonn," Sherlock says dryly.
Author: she_sells_seashells	"I thought so. And there's also the guns and stuff I took from that guy who wanted me to shoot at him, still. The amulet guy just wanted to help out after I talked to him. The generator lady wants a copy of anything 'particularly cunning' Tony makes left for her at the bar - she was vague about what 'particularly cunning' means so I'm going to interpret it as 'small and not terribly necessary'."
Author: sicaria	"There will be plenty to occupy him when we get back, then." This is a positive thing.
Author: she_sells_seashells	"Yeah. I sold some regular advice too - no other assignments for you or Tony out of that - but all those people had was money. I paid down part of your tab with it, but not all of it. It turns out that eating like a person for four and a half months is expensive."
Author: sicaria	"We'll manage."
Author: she_sells_seashells	Bell nods. She is pretty happy, considering. "What do you and Tony do, most of the time? I don't watch quite enough TV to know what your chosen talents to cultivate are."
Author: sicaria	"Tony had a perfectly serviceable area of expertise already. I cook."
Author: she_sells_seashells	"How's he spinning it? Probably not bombs - fancy phones? Pointless little ornaments that light up and beep? Are you actually good at cooking or is that just the monosyllable you utter when reporters demand to talk about your talent?" Goodness, Bell is full of questions.
Author: sicaria	"I am extremely good at cooking. Although," she says with a slight smile, "I am rarely called upon to demonstrate as much."
Author: she_sells_seashells	"I wouldn't think so." Bell waits a beat, opens her mouth, then closes it. Sherlock is sufficiently observant that she probably didn't just forget the rest of the questions. Bell does not want to antagonize her hostess.
Author: sicaria	"Tony has no set theme for his public creations; he makes whatever comes to mind. I find the subject somewhat tedious."
Author: she_sells_seashells	"You do? Why?"
Author: sicaria	"I don't enjoy publicity."
Author: she_sells_seashells	"But presumably you live with Tony and could be interested in stuff he makes without interacting with publicity."
Author: sicaria	"And yet, I can immediately tell what he is making for himself from what he is making for everyone else."
Author: she_sells_seashells	Bell tentatively determines that Sherlock might not want to talk to her right now. She snuggles down in her chair, turns the volume way down on her recorder and holds it up to her ear, and has it start reviewing conversations she had in Milliways at 3x playback speed.
Author: sicaria	Sherlock sits absolutely still and does absolutely nothing. She does that a lot.