Author: she_sells_seashells | Shell Bell has not found Milliways by herself since the occasion on which she first met Sherlock.
Today, after eight months, she does.
She makes sure that Sherlock and Tony are both awake, finds that they are but do not want to join her in the bar today unless she finds something interesting, checks her coin supply and finds it sufficient, and steps through. |
Author: sailorheavymetal | A potentially familiar person is sitting at the bar with a wooden tankard of Asgardian mead. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Potentially familiar? Bell remembers everything now. She sits right down. "Hi, Darcy!" |
Author: sailorheavymetal | Darcy blinks a few times.
Then it clicks.
"Whoa, hi!" she says. "How's the revolution coming?" |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I found another of me who gave me kickass magic and now I am the sorceress-empress of Atlantis," Bell says proudly. She hasn't been wearing her crown; she squares an illusion of it into place for illustrative purposes. "How's heroing going?" |
Author: sailorheavymetal | "That is awesome," says Darcy, "because I totally couldn't come through on talking to Stark. I went to Asgard and they had a little bitty civil war and now I'm stuck until they rebuild their teleporting bridge thingy. Uh, but the hero training's going great!" |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "If someone where your door is would hold the door for me, I could come through, teleport you where you want to go, maybe fix the bridge, and teleport back to go through the held door," Shell Bell says. "Actually, if whoever would be willing to hold the door long enough I'd be really curious to meet your Tony." |
Author: sailorheavymetal | "That would be really handy!" says Darcy. "I could ask Sif, I guess. But I can't promise anything about Stark." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Well, if he's a jerk or he doesn't want to talk to me, I'll just go back through the door." |
Author: sailorheavymetal | "Okay," says Darcy. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Lemme know when you want to go," says Shell Bell, and she orders a milkshake. "I hope the civil war wasn't too terrible as such things go? Mine basically began and ended with me putting the entire Capitol on the moon." |
Author: sailorheavymetal | "Well, long story short—the old king was in a coma, so the heir apparent took the throne, but he decided to work out his daddy issues by starting a war of the non-civil variety and almost blowing up a planet, and I had to kick his ass," says Darcy. "The whole thing was over in like two hours." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Is everybody else okay?" |
Author: sailorheavymetal | "Mostly? Some people died, but not a lot of people, especially considering he was trying to wipe out a whole species." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I don't know yet if I can resurrect the dead," says Shell Bell. "None of us with this kind of magic have tried it yet. I'm going to, though, soon, once everything's settled down from the change of management and I know they'd have a place to go." |
Author: sailorheavymetal | "Good luck." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Well, what I mean is that as long as I'm going to your world, if someone will hold the door, if it's not more than -" She makes a quick count of stars on her bandolier - "a couple dozen people, I could try and see. If they've only just died then there won't be a question of there being someplace for them to go because they could just as easily have not died. But I can't promise it will work. It might be too big a job for even a star." |
Author: sailorheavymetal | "...Maybe," says Darcy. "It's probably gonna get complicated. The Asgardians and the guys Loki started the war with really don't like each other, so even if you could resurrect everybody, they might just go back to killing each other." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Maybe just a few people, then. But it's sad when people die and if I can undo it I should. I can afford to wait in my world because all the people who have died there will still have died there in six months and then I'll have figured out how to reintegrate them. Everyone who lost the Hunger Games, everyone who was executed as a political dissident, and then I'll start taking special appeals when we've gotten through all those - if it works." |
Author: sailorheavymetal | "We'll see, I guess." She glances at the door. "Okay, so if I take you to Asgard, will you try to fix the bridge? Because otherwise I don't actually think taking me back to Earth would help. Unless Sif wants to go too. But I don't think she does. And it would be," she smiles ruefully, "complicated." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Well, I'll fix the bridge if I can, although it's possible that it's not amenable to fixing with the coins I have. What would be complicated?" |
Author: sailorheavymetal | "I want to go back to Earth because it's, you know, my planet, but Sif's Asgardian and she's the one who's giving me the hero lessons, and if I did take her back to Earth we'd probably have to okay it with the nice people from the government," Darcy explains. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Oh, right," says Shell Bell. "Governments that aren't me! Annoying!" |
Author: sailorheavymetal | Darcy snorts.
"You better let me handle the diplomacy while we're in Asgard," she says. "They take their kings kinda seriously." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "They won't be diplomatic with an offworld empress?" Shell Bell asks. "Even a slightly flippant one?" |
Author: sailorheavymetal | "Ye-es," says Darcy, "but their idea of diplomatic sometimes involves challenging people to single combat. I get to skip a lot of that because Mewtwo's on my side." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Is magic allowed in single combat?" |
Author: sailorheavymetal | "Good question," she says. "Please don't find out the hard way." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I'll let you do the talking," Shell Bell agrees. |
Author: sailorheavymetal | "Thank you." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Shell Bell sips her milkshake. "Is there a lot you'd want done as long as I'm there? Should I bring my girlfriend along? I can't make more significant magic without her, it's actually kind of a problem, the last time I met one of my alts I couldn't pass along the nifty magic because I was all out of coins from meeting the last one before that." |
Author: sailorheavymetal | "I think fixing the bridge is pretty much it," she says, shaking her head. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Okay." Sip sip. "I want to go check the Belltower in case there's anyone there, but then I'll be happy to go back to your world - unless you're waiting for something or someone here?" |
Author: sailorheavymetal | "Nope! Just hanging out with my best bud," she says, patting the hammer at her side. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Shell Bell finishes her shake, teleports up, finds the tower empty and nothing new in the book, and teleports back down. "Shall we?" |
Author: sailorheavymetal | Darcy likewise finishes her mead.
"Let's!" she says, and opens the door. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Shell Bell goes through, looking for someone to ask to hold it for them. |
Author: sailorheavymetal | How about the tall woman with the ponytail and the spear?
"Sif!" says Darcy, waving. "This is Shell Bell, I found her in Milliways, she says she can maybe fix the Bifrost, do you want to hold the door for us so we can go talk to Heimdall about it?"
"You have the most interesting friends," Sif says dryly, coming to take the door from them. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Shell Bell waves and smiles but doesn't talk, because she's not sure if this counts as one of the people Darcy is being diplomatic with for her or not.
(She has quite forgotten that she illusioned up a crown - she'll remember if reminded, of course, but it's slipped from her attention without the weight on her head to remind her.) |
Author: sailorheavymetal | "Thanks," says Darcy, and she turns to Bell. "Can you take us straight to the end of the bridge?" |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Which end? I have to specify a unique location," says Shell Bell. |
Author: sailorheavymetal | "Sorry—there's only one end that's the end," she explains. "The other end is the beginning." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Shell Bell laughs and teleports them to the not-beginning end of the bridge. |
Author: sailorheavymetal | It looks extremely broken. The jagged end of a beautiful slab of crystal, stretching out toward the stars.
There is a man in elaborate golden armour standing on the very end, gazing out into eternity.
"Heimdall!" says Darcy. "This is Shell Bell."
"I heard," says Heimdall. "Can you repair the Bifrost, Shell Bell?"
"You can talk to Heimdall," says Darcy. "He's cool." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Okay. I can certainly try to repair the Bifrost! There's not, like, more than one way for it to be 'fixed', is there? If there is then I have to know what I'm aiming at or my wishes get confused." |
Author: sailorheavymetal | "It stood here once," he says, gesturing to the empty space past the broken end of the crystal on which they stand. "Unchanging, for many thousands of years. You speak of a magic that is not known to me, but if it needs only a clear example, it will not lack one." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "It's good at following examples," says Shell Bell. She tries a pentagon, but it's not heavy-duty enough. She tries a hexagon. There it goes. "All better!" |
Author: sailorheavymetal | Heimdall chuckles.
"Great," says Darcy, and impulsively gives Bell a hug. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Shell Bell is all for hugs!
"Will Sif mind waiting with the door while I go see if your Tony here is worth talking to? I barely ever find a door, if she lets it close I might wait a year and a half before I could go home." |
Author: sailorheavymetal | "Tell you what," Darcy suggests, "take me back to it and I'll hold it for you." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Okay," says Shell Bell. Teleportation occurs! "Do you want me to put you on the brainphone so you can let me know from here if you get sick of standing in one place?" |
Author: sailorheavymetal | "Sure," shrugs Darcy. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | [Like so,] says Shell Bell. And she turns invisible and teleports to wherever Tony Stark might be on this world. |
Author: pythbox | Tony Stark is in bed. With a sleeping red-haired woman. He has a tablet PC and is quietly fiddling with some kind of schematic on it; she is cuddled up with her face turned the other way and her shoulder pressed to his hip. The blanket covers her body and his legs. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Hmm.
That's a weird thing in his chest. She wonders what it is.
Also, he doesn't seem really prepared to receive visitors. She hops to just outside the house, and attempts to add the local Jarvis to the brainphone; this'll simply fail if there isn't one, but she thinks her world is the odd one out there. |
Author: pythbox | Success. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | [Hi, Jarvis! I am a friendly visitor from another world.] |
Author: poeticterms | [Are you by any chance invisible?] he inquires dryly. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | [Yep, could you see me anyway? I do that when I'm teleporting somewhere unfamiliar. I apologize for appearing in Tony's room, but I didn't know where he was and the way the teleportation works is I specify a unique location, like 'near Tony'. I have one of him on my world and I heard that this world had one too so I have come to be sociable, but since he doesn't seem ready to receive visitors right now I thought I'd go through you, figuring there was probably a you too.] |
Author: poeticterms | [And here we are,] says Jarvis. [Shall I let him know he has a visitor?] |
Author: she_sells_seashells | [Yes please!] |
Author: poeticterms | After a few seconds, Jarvis inquires, [Is your time here limited?] |
Author: she_sells_seashells | [I don't know. Do you know how to open a door to Milliways at will, like the other Jarvis? Because if you don't, I have as long as my friend is willing to hold the door for me.] |
Author: poeticterms | [No,] he says, [it's safe to say I don't.] |
Author: she_sells_seashells | [Then my time here is limited unless I want to let my friend close her door and wait until I find a door myself, which has been known to take up to a year and a half.] |
Author: poeticterms | [Limited it is.]
More time passes. Not very much of it.
[Do you have a name?] |
Author: she_sells_seashells | [Bell Swan. People call me Shell Bell.] |
Author: poeticterms | [One moment, please.] |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Bell waits patiently, invisibly, outside the house. |
Author: poeticterms | [You may teleport into the living room,] says Jarvis. [Visibly, please.] |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Shell Bell visibles and teleports at the same time into the living room. |
Author: pythbox | Tony is dressed and sitting on the couch. The arc reactor glows faintly through a black T-shirt.
"So," he says, "what kind of other world are we talking about here?" |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Mine, you mean? I call it Atlantis, and it has a one of you in it, only he's my age and he has a twin sister. It's in the future relative to here, and it was until recently a pretty nasty totalitarian state where it wasn't just post-apocalyptic, but I have since acquired magic and fixed the place up a bit." |
Author: pythbox | "Good for you," he says with a quirk of a smile. "Just so we're on the same page: by 'fixed up' you do mean 'took over'? The crown's a hint," he explains. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Oh, did I leave that there? This is only an illusion crown, I left my real one at home." She waves her hand through it by way of illustration. "Yeah, I go around wearing a crown, calling myself Empress of Atlantis, putting bad guys on the moon. There's lots of me, in various worlds, too, and this is a thing we do is take over worlds and be nice to them." |
Author: pythbox | Tony laughs. "Aren't you kind of young for an empress?" he asks, half-smiling. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "One of me did wait until she was twenty-three, but she had a bit of a setback with the previous rulers of her world, she didn't have such nice magic to work with," says Bell. "And if you'd said that to her, given that she still looks seventeen, she'd raise one eyebrow like so -" Bell demonstrates - "and say that she's in her forties, so you've only made a lucky guess that I am in fact nineteen as of recently. So what? I'm doing a dramatically better job than the last dictator. He was evil. He propped up a system that had teenagers killing each other on live national television for populace-quelling and fun and profit. Your alt was on the show, so was his sister, they both won but they had to kill all the other contestants to get out alive." |
Author: pythbox |
Tony blinks, head rocking back slightly, like this news is a physical blow. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Yeah. I wasn't on it, I got picked in the lottery once but my district had this system to train particularly - likely-looking kids to go, so everyone else would be safe and they'd have a reasonable shot," shrugs Bell. "But anyway. I'm glad I didn't wait to take over the world until I was the right age for an empress. I was ready to do it when I was thirteen, if I'd had what I needed then. I probably could've done it younger, but thirteen is when people started recognizing me in Milliways and saying I looked like any of various Her Majesties, and then I knew I could." |
Author: pythbox | "That is a shit deal," he says. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Yep." She pauses. "I wonder if you have an alt of the last president here, too. There were two other worlds that had yous in them and also had hims. You never cloned yourself, did you? In my world you've got a twin, she's called Sherlock, but in the others you clone yourself when you're twelve and get alts of Sherlock instead, only mine's the only one who's a girl." |
Author: pythbox | "...No," he says, looking at her a little strangely, "I have never cloned myself." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Did you even think about it? But anyway, clearly alts don't all come together since you haven't got a Sherlock - I've met a Sherlock without a Tony but he had one originally, his died and his Jarvis too but then another Jarvis copied and another Tony installed the copy in his world so he'd at least have him, he was a wreck about it, the matched sets are all really close... Anyway, the last president of my world was named Coriolanus Snow but he had a different name in the other two worlds, Obadiah Stane." |
Author: pythbox | "We had one of those," says Tony, with a closed-off tone and expression. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "You got rid of him? Good. They're trouble. In at least two worlds he killed your parents." |
Author: pythbox | "In this one," Tony says flatly, "he almost killed me." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "In another world he actually did kill you, and Jarvis, and turn Sherlock into a vampire, and in mine there was the whole being an evil dictator and also really fucking creepy prostitution backroom deals, and yeah, it's a bad-news template. But hey, all the ones I know about are gone now. What's the thing in your chest?" |
Author: pythbox | He looks down at it, up at her.
"Arc reactor," he says. "It's a power source." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "What's it for?" |
Author: pythbox | "Keeping me alive," he says, lightly, like a brush-off. Except not at all. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "...D'you want me to fix whatever it's protecting you from?" she asks. |
Author: pythbox |
He gives her an intensely suspicious look. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "What? I'm not going to hurt you. If I wanted to hurt you I wouldn't ask permission." |
Author: pythbox | "Okay, on this planet, that is not a reassuring thing to say," says Tony. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Sorry," says Shell Bell, spreading her hands. "I can leave whatever-it-is alone, you seem to have it under control with your arc reactor, it's very decorative and everything." |
Author: pythbox | He snorts. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "But, you know, even though you're not my Tony, you're recognizably a Tony, and it would be sad if whatever-it-is killed you, and I can almost certainly help." |
Author: pythbox | "What... would you, hypothetically, do about it?" |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "My magic works around wishes. I take a wishcoin, I wish for the problem to be gone, if it doesn't work I try a wishcoin with more angles on it, if the seven-pointed star doesn't work I can't do it but I bet if you're fixing it with a little glowy thing I can fix it better with a pentagon or a hexagon. The wishes are pretty smart but not all that smart, so if the problem is at all complicated you probably want to actually tell me what it is first. If, hypothetically, you wanted it taken care of," she shrugs. |
Author: pythbox | "It's not that complicated," says Tony. "The reactor powers an electromagnet that keeps tiny little pieces of shrapnel from entering my heart." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "So if the shrapnel just disappeared you'd be fine, or would that be a bad idea? Because that's just a square." She bites her cheek and appears a square in her hand. |
Author: pythbox | "The shrapnel disappearing would... definitely be an improvement." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "So do you want me to do it? Or I could give you this square, and you could do it yourself," she shrugs, "the coins work for anyone, it's just only certain people can make them." |
Author: pythbox |
He reaches for it. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | She presses it into his hand and rocks back on her heels. Then she hops into the air and spins for no reason. |
Author: pythbox | The square disappears.
"Thanks," Tony says quietly. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "You're welcome," says Shell Bell. "Your alts are very nice, you know, I wouldn't be so quick to hand out even a little coin to a random person." |
Author: pythbox | He quirks a smile, reflexively, like he doesn't really believe it. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "They are. Absolute sweethearts. Maybe it's the Sherlocks," she suggests. |
Author: pythbox | —He laughs. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I could go get mine, if I teleport back to the door on Asgard and go in with my friend from here and stick my head out the door and call her over. My Tony, too, if you want." |
Author: pythbox | "Are they both your age?" |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Yes." |
Author: pythbox | "Maybe I'll pass," he says wryly. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Why does their being my age have to do with that?" |
Author: pythbox |
He shakes his head. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "...Is this about the thing where it seems like every template but mine immediately gets a room when they meet their counterparts?" asks Shell Bell wryly. |
Author: pythbox | "No," he says, looking appalled. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Then what?" |
Author: pythbox | "I just... it would be weird," he says plaintively. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "How does their being my age make it weird? I met a me who's in her forties, I mentioned her, it's not weird - not even that she's married to someone who's not a you or a Sherlock and has a kid." |
Author: pythbox | "It just is, okay?" |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Being not-me seems so confusing sometimes. Not knowing what's going on in your own head," Shell Bell muses, flipping over in the air. "You are what you're thinking and you can't even figure out what it is. But okay, if you don't want to meet them, that's fine." |
Author: pythbox | ...Tony shakes his head and smiles. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "How old are you?" Shell Bell wants to know. |
Author: pythbox | "Thirty-seven." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "How'd you come to be full of shrapnel? Is that from when your version of Snow tried to kill you?" |
Author: pythbox | "How'd you guess," he says dryly. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Well, it was either that or an awful lot of people have been trying to kill you," says Shell Bell. |
Author: pythbox | "Okay," he admits, "very logical." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I actually managed to take over my entire world without anybody trying to kill me and without having to personally kill anyone, which was way better than our initial projections. Although one of my alts came for a visit and killed someone for me. And I burned down a couple of buildings, but I chased everybody out of them, I didn't catch them on fire." |
Author: pythbox | "...Definitely better than the alternative." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Yeah. So what do you do? I bet some kind of engineering, but I mean specifically." She glances around the house for clues. "I'm pretty clueless about what my Tony gets up to in the basement with the gadgets, and I know less about what it'd take to write a Jarvis, which mine didn't do." Pause. "Hm, the only Tony with no Jarvis is the one who had a Sherlock all along, I wonder why, maybe the writing Jarvis and the cloning are both about being lonely or something." |
Author: pythbox | "...I do pretty much every kind of engineering," says Tony. "And some superheroing on the side." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Ooh, superheroing. Need any help, as long as my friend holding the door isn't impatient yet?" |
Author: pythbox | "Nah," he says, "I'm good, thanks." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Okay." [Hey, Darcy, I've just been referring to you as "my friend who's holding the door" so far, do you care if you come up in conversation enough for identifying you to make sense?] |
Author: sailorheavymetal | [...Nah, not really,] she says. [Wait, are you actually talking to him? He didn't just blow you off?] |
Author: she_sells_seashells | [I went through Jarvis; when I just teleported invisibly to where he was he didn't look ready to have a visitor right then. And Jarvis wanted to know if my time here was limited and I said it was so my guess is that mattered.]
"My friend who's holding the door is learning to be a superhero, too," volunteers Shell Bell, since this is apparently okay. |
Author: sailorheavymetal | [I'm impressed,] says Darcy, although she doesn't specify by what.
"Really?" says Tony. "And here I thought I was the only one." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "You did? I could maybe introduce you, but I'd have to take you to where she is, since if she leaves the door it closes and I have to wait to find a new one and that will take months, possibly many. I'm not as lucky with the door as some people."
[D'you wanna meet him if he's up for it?] |
Author: sailorheavymetal | [...Sure!]
"Where, in fact, is she?" wonders Tony. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Asgard," says Bell. "...Is Asgard public knowledge? I think it may be another planet. I went home with her so I could fix their bridge." |
Author: poeticterms | "Asgard," Tony repeats, and shakes his head.
"Traditional home of the Norse gods," volunteers Jarvis. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I met a person called Sif there and another one called Heimdall who appeared to have been supervising a previous conversation without having been present? Is that informative?" |
Author: poeticterms | "Yes," says Jarvis.
Tony shakes his head and smiles. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I don't tend to get mythological references and so on, I have a spotty and culturally impoverished education. I've been going to Milliways since I was six and staying until I ran out of seashells to trade for food, so in some ways I'm very cosmopolitan albeit without much information about what things are and are not common across worlds, but I spent the rest of my childhood in a beach town pretending to be slightly crazy, attending an underfunded school designed to turn out docile fisherfolk, working on a clam boat, and generally existing in a context that has lost all its previous ties to Earth history that isn't a fictionalized version of the Roman Empire." |
Author: poeticterms | Tony blinks. "Okay, that's impressive." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "...Which part?" Bell asks, tilting her head. |
Author: poeticterms | "Being an empress, on a resume like that?" he says. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Oh, I could stay in Milliways for a long, long time if I brought enough seashells and didn't eat much," says Bell. "I talked to everyone and read a lot and watched a lot of video and learned everything I could. And after your alt and Sherlock put me on their tab instead - they're rich, you got a lot of money for winning on the TV show, everyone else outside the Capitol was dirt poor - then I stayed for months instead of weeks until I faked my death and stowed away on their train to move in with them. It's possible I'm actually twenty now by subjective time, but I've never added it up." |
Author: pythbox | Tony shakes his head. "Yeah, no, still impressed." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "All right, be impressed, then," laughs Shell Bell. "So do you want to come meet Darcy?" |
Author: pythbox | "Darcy... your superhero friend?" he hazards. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Yeah, she has a magic space hammer that only lets the worthy lift it that she calls Mewtwo because she can't pronounce whatever its real name is and she is learning superheroing from her friend Sif." |
Author: poeticterms | "Mjolnir," supplies Jarvis. "In all likelihood." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "That doesn't sound very much like Mewtwo at all," Bell remarks. |
Author: pythbox | "Cultural reference," says Tony. "To a videogame. Jarvis, how do I explain Pokemon?" |
Author: poeticterms | "A question for the ages," Jarvis says dryly. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I know what a videogame is," says Shell Bell helpfully. "I've never played one, but I've heard of them." |
Author: pythbox | "That's a start!" says Tony. "Mewtwo is a... rare and powerful imaginary animal from a videogame about collecting imaginary animals and making them beat up other imaginary animals for you so you can collect those too." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "That actually sounds kinda fun," says Shell Bell, "if the imaginary animals don't spend the whole time being miserable about beating each other up." |
Author: pythbox | "Nope, as far as I remember, they're mostly weirdly cheerful about it." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "That's good, then. Now I get Darcy's reference. Are we gonna go introduce you or talk about video games?" Shell Bell giggles. |
Author: pythbox | "Video games," he says, pointing at her emphatically, "are serious business." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Perhaps I'll borrow one from Milliways on my way home and collect some imaginary animals." |
Author: pythbox | "Anyway," he says, "I think I'll pass on the interplanetary travel." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | [He says no interplanetary travel for him,] Bell relays to Darcy.
"You're not particularly adventurous," she comments. "...At least not when someone else drives." |
Author: pythbox | Tony grins. "You got me." |
Author: sailorheavymetal | [Reasonable,] Darcy concedes. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | [If you want to meet him bad enough, then Sif could hold the door and I could pop up and get you, but I dunno how much you care.]
"I do know several of you," Shell Bell points out, "even if you're older than all of them and less Sherlock-having." |
Author: sailorheavymetal | [I don't think I care that much,] says Darcy. |
Author: pythbox | "Yeah," says Tony, "that's still weird, by the way." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I suppose not everyone has desperately wanted to meet their alts since they were thirteen." |
Author: pythbox | He smiles. "Well, none of mine are empresses of anything, right?" |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Not as far as I know, although there's a girl Sherlock, maybe there's a girl you somewhere too, maybe she's an empress?" shrugs Bell. |
Author: pythbox | He laughs and shakes his head. "Who knows." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Not me, yet, but I plan to live forever and maybe in all that time I will find out," says Shell Bell pleasantly. |
Author: pythbox | "Ambitious," says Tony. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Ambitious is that I want pretty much everyone else to live forever, too, and today I plan to see if I can raise the dead," says Shell Bell. "Planning to live forever is self-preservation." |
Author: pythbox | "...Yeah," he says, "it's self-preservation if you can do it." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I can," says Bell. "I'm magic. All I have to do is quit aging - when I've decided I like some age I am instead of wanting to see what another year looks like on top - and not get really sick or injured." |
Author: pythbox | "Well, good for you," says Tony. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Thanks," says Shell Bell merrily. "You know, the goatee really works for you, I should suggest it to my Tony." |
Author: pythbox | ...He laughs. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "What?" asks Shell Bell. |
Author: pythbox | "I could not even begin to tell you." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Ah, fine. You seem less stunned than I was when I first found out about alternate worlds," Bell observes. "But then, I was six at the time." |
Author: pythbox | "Alternate universes are old news in physics," he says with a shrug. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Does physics have an explanation for alts? 'Cause none of mine know why there are half a dozen plus of us running around." |
Author: pythbox | "In theory, if there are infinite alternate universes, multiple versions of the same person in different settings isn't impossible," he says. "As to how you'd all end up meeting each other, your guess is as good as mine." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "How and when the doors appear is not at all a known thing," says Shell Bell, "alas. Although there's one - well, two, now - Jarvises who can open doors at will, which is very convenient. And my Tony can summon it on purpose one try out of three." |
Author: pythbox | "Good for him," Tony says dryly. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I was floored when I heard about that. When I was little I lived for trips to Milliways - I'm sure I'd be brain-damaged from malnutrition by this age without it, actually - and it would only come by after months, sometimes longer. I was so jealous. But neither him nor Sherlock started finding it until after they won their respective Hunger Games." |
Author: pythbox | "...That just sounds mean," he says. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Oh, trust me, if I knew who ran the place that wouldn't even be the first thing I complained to the management about. Although it'd be the second," says Shell Bell. |
Author: pythbox | "Dare I ask...?" |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "If you ever open a door and it leads to a bar instead of where you thought you were going? And it's decorated for - you have Valentine's Day here? Lace and pink and red and white and -" She makes the heart shape with her hands. "If you find Milliways and it's decorated with that crap you bolt." |
Author: pythbox | "Uhh," he says. "Okay." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Milliways thinks it's cute to celebrate the holiday with little darts of mind-affecting love drugs," Shell Bell explains. |
Author: pythbox | "Creeeeepy," Tony opines. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Ayep. Me and Sherlock managed to sleep through most of it, and I found it useful - I was straight, they gave me the material to go straight-with-an-exception - but it was awful. I cried." |
Author: pythbox | "Hey, I'm sorry," he says awkwardly. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Not your fault, I'm just warning you, run if Milliways is decorated for Valentine's. I'm fine, now." |
Author: pythbox | "Consider me warned." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Good good." Pause. "Hey, I should probably apologize - I didn't know where you were, so earlier, I just teleported to the-place-you-were, invisibly - I have to specify a unique location or I can't go anywhere. I wound up in your bedroom, but I left to outside the house right away and talked to Jarvis. I don't know if he told you or not, but he noticed me, invisibility notwithstanding." |
Author: pythbox | "Yeah, he mentioned," says Tony. "We're cool as long as you didn't take pictures." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I didn't take any photos, but I have perfect recall," says Bell. |
Author: pythbox | "Then we're cool as long as you don't draw any pictures," he amends. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Or conjure them?" laughs Shell Bell. |
Author: pythbox | "As long as pictures do not come into existence in whatever form," he says, snorting. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Sure. If my Tony or my Sherlock ask, though, can I show them you? Not upstairs, but just -" She waves her hand at him. "Like so. Maybe Tony wants to know what he'll look like in twenty years if he doesn't quit aging before then." |
Author: pythbox | He laughs. "Sure, that's fine. Show him the goatee." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Will do," Shell Bell grins. "-D'you want to see pictures of them? Or lifesize three-dimensional illusions. Same size coin to do either, squares'll do conjuring or illusions either one." |
Author: pythbox | "Why not," he shrugs. "Might as well go for the better special effects." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Square! Illusions! She includes all the ones she's met, just for fun, standing grouped, and points around. "These are mine, and this is Juliet's Sherlock, who's a vampire, and this is another pair from a world without a Bell in it, that's the Tony that copied their Jarvis for Juliet's Sherlock to bring home, and this is another vampire Sherlock from another world, who does have a Tony at home but he wasn't there when I met him, and this one unlike the other vampire one has his soul attached still." |
Author: pythbox | "...That is more of my nineteen-year-old face than I have ever seen in one place at one time," he says, blinking. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Shell Bell laughs. "Well, I think most of the Sherlocks are technically younger. Since they're clones except for mine. The Tonies who cloned them did at age twelve and the Sherlocks caught up to look the same age and then slow down in two years." |
Author: pythbox | "...Kiiiind of jealous now," Tony admits. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "You should be, Sherlocks are awesome," says Shell Bell. She can't really hug an illusion, but she's looking at hers like she wants to. |
Author: pythbox | He laughs.
"Maybe I should clone myself too," he jokes. "Get in on the game." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I have no idea what doing it at your age would wind up looking like," Shell Bell says frankly. "You might not even get a Sherlock; maybe Sherlock is only what you get if you clone yourself when you're twelve or have a twin naturally, maybe you'd get some complete other personality for a clone you made now. I'd suggest putting you in touch with Juliet's Sherlock so he can have a complete set, but he's pretty attached to Juliet and she's sort of a superhero in her world and really oughtn't leave, and you're probably pretty attached to here, and besides there'd be two Jarvises which could be weird." |
Author: pythbox | "...And I would also feel awkward filling in for a dead me," Tony points out. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "That too," Shell Bell acknowledges. "The relevant Jarvis was pretty even-keeled about it as far as I could tell, but I guess that's a little different? Also the worlds are closer neighbors -" She gestures at the relevant cluster of Sherlocks and the one displayed Tony. "These three all seem to have the same kind of vampire, similar magic systems, that sort of thing, my set's the odd one out in more ways than one. All the Bells are from very different worlds. The most similar pair are Stella and Golden, who had identical histories until they were seventeen, moved in with their versions of our father, and Stella encountered magic like what I have now and Golden encountered a different kind of vampire." |
Author: pythbox | "There are a lot of vampires in this story," Tony observes. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Yeah, there really are. Stella thinks Golden's kind is neat so she turned her boyfriend into one." This is punctuated by illusions of all three named parties - Stella, Golden, and Alice. "This guy's template also crops up a lot. We call them Whistles - bells and whistles, it's apparently a saying some places? - and three of us have them." |
Author: pythbox | "He looks vaguely familiar," says Tony. "Not that that means anything." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Does he?" Shell Bell asks curiously. "Maybe there's one in this world too. Do you remember where you might've seen him? Here's the others who have Bells," she adds, and she throws in pictures of Kas (with Petaal as a snake, that being how Amariah depicted them for the Bellbook) and Micaiah, "and here's another one," she adds the Joker, "and there was reportedly a little one, eleven years old, who found his way into the bar and has a Bell but I've never seen pictures of either one and so it's possible it's a case of mistaken identity, though Angela and Stella didn't seem to think so."
The room is looking crowded. She dismisses excess Tonies and Sherlocks. (She keeps her Sherlock. She likes having her there.) |
Author: pythbox | "Nah," he says. "He kinda reminds me of somebody, but I don't think I know him." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Shell Bell shoos all the illusions except, again, her Sherlock. "Maybe I'll see if I can teleport to him if you get bored of chatting before Darcy gets bored of holding the door, just in case. I like knowing about all these far-flung alts." |
Author: pythbox | "Just try not to walk in on him naked," he says, amused. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "It's possible I should work out a way to boost the teleportation power so it can live with complicated algorithms like 'on the far side of the nearest door to so-and-so', but that doesn't rule out the possibility of somebody being naked in that room," Shell Bell says. |
Author: pythbox | "You could add an optional constraint that fails if there are any naked people visible from the landing point," he suggests. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "That's a good idea," says Bell. "I will." She does, and nods to herself. |
Author: pythbox | "You probably don't want to teleport into anybody's bathroom while they're using it, either," Tony muses. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I haven't actually had that problem because of the way the teleporter interprets 'where so-and-so is' - I mean, you would have noticed if I'd appeared literally on top of you, and bathrooms are usually too small for me to show up in one with a person," Shell Bell says, "but it's probably worth installing anyway, in case I'm ever hunting for somebody with unconventional architecture." |
Author: pythbox | "...I am suddenly really glad you didn't come looking for me two hours ago," says Tony. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Bell laughs. "Do you have," she asks, "an enormous bathroom?" |
Author: pythbox | "Yes," says Tony. "Yes I do." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Then I am also glad I did not appear two hours ago. I apologize for not having added all these tweaks to my teleportation power before. I copied it directly from Stella and I have the impression that she usually knows plenty about where she's going and doesn't need this installed on the magical level. And is only visiting people she's already put on the brainphone network so she can call ahead anyway." |
Author: pythbox | "Brainphone...?" |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Telepathic phonelike thing?" says Shell Bell. "It's very handy, do you want in? I've already added Jarvis to announce myself when I first arrived, you could talk to him wherever without making a sound." |
Author: pythbox | "Gimme," says Tony. "That would be very useful." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | [Behold!] |
Author: pythbox | [Ooooh,] says Tony. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | [It also does text channel. And busy messages that pop up according to arbitrarily complicated algorithms, although since in this world I've only added you, Jarvis, and Darcy, I don't think you'll need those unless you want me to throw a dozen of your friends in too.] |
Author: pythbox | He laughs. [My friends all have real phones.] |
Author: she_sells_seashells | [This is more convenient. You can't lose it, it works underwater and in loud environments, and it's free. But as you like.] |
Author: pythbox | "See," he says, "I'd have to explain it to my friends." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "You got the idea quick enough," she points out. |
Author: pythbox | "The mechanics aren't the problem, the backstory is." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Darcy's not bored yet. I could help." |
Author: pythbox | "Help how?" he inquires. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Appear to them - now with new and improved anti-nudity algorithms - introduce myself, ask them if they want brainphones?" she shrugs. "Is there some non-obvious other way I could be of help?" |
Author: pythbox | "Well, Pepper's still asleep," he says, waving a hand in the direction of the bedroom. "And God knows where Rhodey is, probably in a plane, he's been known to fly those." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "It's not like I can't teleport onto a plane," Bell points out. "Pepper? That's a cute name." |
Author: pythbox | "Says a woman named Shell Bell," Tony snorts. "You rhyme." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "My real name is Bell. The shell part is a nickname. Remember how I was bringing shells into Milliways since I was six? It doesn't warn me when it's going to give me a door, and having shells on my person or not was the difference between staying three days, starving, or staying three weeks, getting a reasonable meal every day and more time to learn things and look for some magic or tech I could take home and be that little bit safer. I left bags of clamshells near every door I ever went through and pitched a fit if someone moved them. The rhyme just made it even more obvious." |
Author: pythbox | "...Yeah," he says, "I mean, I figured? Pepper's a nickname too, her real name's Virginia." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "How is Pepper a nickname for Virginia?" asks Bell. |
Author: pythbox | "That is a very good question," says Tony, "and I came up with it, so I should know the answer." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "...But you don't?" |
Author: pythbox | "Nope." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Huh. Anyway, do you want me to go see about talking to your friend who might be on an airplane?" |
Author: pythbox | "I guess," he says. "I should probably call him first."
The friend in question does not pick up. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Shell Bell waits for this result to be interpreted in the form of a should or a should-not. |
Author: pythbox | "He's probably doing something important and military," says Tony. "Or sleeping, he could be sleeping. Better not." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Okay," shrugs Shell Bell. |
Author: sailorheavymetal | [Soooo,] says Darcy, [can you put Heimdall on the brainphone from where you are?] |
Author: she_sells_seashells | [Yeah, sure, does he want in?] |
Author: sailorheavymetal | [Yep!] |
Author: she_sells_seashells | [Done,] she conferences to Darcy and Heimdall both. "I just added Heimdall to the network," she informs Tony, "so if you don't want to talk to him, you can set up a busy message instead of being surprised if he talks to you, though I have no idea if he's likely to." |
Author: pythbox | [Thank you,] says Heimdall.
"Okay," says Tony. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | [You're welcome.]
"You know, I really wish there were a good way to set up Milliways-independent interworld travel," remarks Shell Bell wistfully. "But I can't do it even with the pointiest wishcoins Sherlock ever makes for me." |
Author: pythbox | "...Hmm," says Tony. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "...What, thinking of an engineering solution?" Shell Bell asks. |
Author: pythbox | "Maybe." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | She laughs. "I'm not optimistic, if I can't do it with a star - although Stella's boyfriend has made even pointier coins, so maybe those can, although the big wishes are kind of mean - it's not even safe to use stars unless you know a certain secret - so she hasn't tried doing anything with them yet, she even calls the class of coin 'evils'." |
Author: pythbox | "It's weird that pointiness is a measure of power," says Tony. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "And," says Shell Bell, "everybody gets unique coin colors! Well, I don't know about everybody everybody, but even alts don't all have the same ones. You saw mine." |
Author: pythbox | "Yep," he says. "Weird." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "My Sherlock does a sort of gray pearly color, and none of the Tonies are mints so I don't know about them." |
Author: pythbox | "Why not?" |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "It's not a good idea to make people mints just because. One of the things coins can't do is unmint a person. I trust my Tony just fine, but he doesn't tend to go for jaunts in other worlds like I've been doing lately, he can just ask me or Sherlock for whatever he wants, and also he wouldn't be a particularly effective mint - I have the power so I can make my own triangles and squares new wherever I am, but all my big coins are from Sherlock and the other Bells who are mints get theirs from minted Whistles, because -" Pause. "Are you, like, squeamish?" |
Author: pythbox | "...Not especially?" |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "The coins are made of pain," says Juliet. "More of it gets a pointier coin and a bigger wish. Whistles love it like candy; Sherlock liked it enough that it didn't take a lot of magic to get her to hexagon- and star-making on the regular. Most Bells - though not me or Angela, we come from totally nonmagical worlds - have a sort of inborn mental opacity power that won't let anything alter our brains, and even me and Angela don't like the idea, so even we take help where we can get it." |
Author: pythbox | "...Wow," says Tony. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Kinda fucked-up magic, but so useful," says Bell. |
Author: pythbox | "Yeah," he says, "I'm starting to get that." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "One time I met an alt of me - that was Juliet - and I had just run into Angela, and I gave Angela all my big coins including the hexes, which are how one makes more mints, and including the pentagons, which would've been enough to wake up Sherlock and call her over without losing the door. I shouldn't have done that, Angela has a Whistle, she only needed two hexes to start, not anything else... And Juliet of course did not insist on breaking my arm for the sake of getting magic even though the magic in that cluster of worlds is nasty, addictive, dangerous stuff that she's been advised not to try. So I just visited her for a while and made her a big heap of squares and helped the one Tony install the copied Jarvis and then I went home." |
Author: sailorheavymetal | [Okay,] says Darcy, [holding this door is getting kinda old.] |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Darcy's bored," says Shell Bell.
[Up in a sec.]
"Questions, comments, last-minute anythings?" |
Author: pythbox | "...Good luck raising the dead?" he says. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Thanks! Bye!"
She teleports up to Darcy. "So - did you pick out a dead person for me to try reviving first?" |
Author: sailorheavymetal | "...No," Darcy admits. "I don't even know all the names." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Who would be a good person to ask about that? Sif? Heimdall?" These being the only other locals she knows. |
Author: sailorheavymetal | "Definitely Heimdall," says Darcy. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | [Hey Heimdall. I may be able to raise the dead; I haven't tried it before because I didn't know anyone recently dead who'd be able to wake up to their pretty much normal life if it worked. D'you have an idea for a good experimental subject?] |
Author: pythbox | [Yes,] says Heimdall. [Ari Guthrunarson.] |
Author: she_sells_seashells | [In case this is a just-barely thing, is Ari's body available, so I can try from a short range, or would something bad happen if I attempted to visit it?] |
Author: pythbox | [Something bad could happen if you were seen to visit it,] says Heimdall. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | [Will being invisible do the trick?] |
Author: pythbox | [Yes.] |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I'm going to go try Heimdall's idea," Bell tells Darcy. "I'll know if it works or not real quick." And she turns invisible and teleports to the relevant location. |
Author: pythbox | Dead Asgardian on a slab. Currently unaccompanied. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Star?
No dice.
She tries a few wish designs - naive "make him alive", then "restore him to his condition as of just before he died" intending to patch any other injuries with lesser coins, then "reconstruct the mind that used to live here, put it in a new, living body" -
No dice.
[It doesn't work,] she tells both Heimdall and Darcy apologetically. [I'm sorry.] |
Author: pythbox | [Thank you for trying,] Heimdall says gravely. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | [You're welcome.] She teleports back to Darcy, and re-visibles. "Well," she sighs. "Now I know." |
Author: sailorheavymetal | "Yep." She shrugs. "It was a long shot anyway, right?" |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I thought it might work. Stars can do a lot. They can have big effects over entire planets. I guess they can't do this one thing." She shrugs. "Thank you for holding the door." She goes into Milliways. |
Author: sailorheavymetal | "See ya," says Darcy, and she closes the door. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Shell Bell dutifully writes down her findings in the Bellbook, but the Tower is empty; she goes home after.
She goes looking for Sherlock, solemn. |
Author: sicaria | Baking cupcakes. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Bell sits in the kitchen and watches thoughtfully. "Found Darcy again," she says. |
Author: sicaria | "Oh?" |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Yeah. I went back to her world for a bit and fixed a bridge that she needed to commute between planets and there's a Tony in her world, who I met. He's thirty-seven and has a Jarvis but no Sherlock, twinned or cloned. And then after Darcy was bored holding the door for me, I tried resurrecting a guy who'd died in a war they had recently, to see if it'd work - and it doesn't. Not with a star, anyway, I don't know about Stella's 'evils'." |
Author: sicaria | "Unfortunate," she murmurs. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Yeah. I'll push the immortality programs a little harder, I guess." She dismisses her illusion crown and picks up her real one from where it's sitting on the kitchen table. |
Author: sicaria | Sherlock pauses briefly in the cupcake process to give Bell a kiss. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Kisses are so nice.
"Well, I'm supposed to go meet Coin on that depopulated continent, talk colonization," says Bell, waving a hand. "I'll probably be back before the cupcakes are frosted, she can only take so much of me at a time. I love you!" |
Author: sicaria | "I love you too," she says fondly. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Bell teleports.
She waits a bit. [I wonder,] she says conversationally to Sherlock, [if Coin would be late to fewer things if I just gave her a teleportation pow]
And that is all. |
Author: sicaria | Reflexively, she checks up on the named location with her perception-of-physical-structures power. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | A mushroom cloud is billowing in the way that mushroom clouds are known to do. |
Author: sicaria | Sherlock stands very, very still for a very, very short amount of time.
Then she sends her power looking for Coin and brainphones Tony.
[I need a hundred thousand triangles of pain. Right now. I'll explain later if I can.] |
Author: ferratus | [What—] he starts, but he knows that tone of voice, and he trusts her.
So he turns on the agony beam to the requested amount. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Coin is sitting in her office, looking perfectly innocuous. |
Author: sicaria | Sherlock cannot deal with her right now.
Sherlock can barely deal with the coin she is trying to make.
It turns out that the pentagon that modified her perception of pain was not... quite... sufficient.
But she can't take the time to readjust. She summons the concentration to make coins out of what she's feeling, and as soon as she summons the concentration to stop, she tells Tony [enough] and spends a declawed star to declaw one of her new eight-pointed coins.
Her wish is extremely specific. She wants Bell back. Not a version incompletely reconstructed from her own knowledge or any other secondary information, but the same person who was destroyed in a nuclear explosion a minute ago. She wants Bell back, right here, unharmed and unchanged and with complete memories of her life up to the point where she was murdered. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | [-er,] Bell finishes her sentence, then blinks. "...Sherlock?" |
Author: sicaria | "Coin just assassinated you," Sherlock says flatly.
And she expands her perspective on both Coin and her own house, so as to spot any more threats before they arrive. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "...Assassinated me? But I'm here. How did I get here?"
There's nothing incoming on the house.
(Coin doesn't, actually, know where Bell's magic comes from, or she would never have done something so incomplete and foolish.)
Coin is receiving a report that the bomb has gone off and as near as anyone in Thirteen can determine it got its target. "Thank you," she tells the report-deliverer, "that will be all." |
Author: sicaria | She lifts the end of her coin-chain, on which there are still three extra evils, tangling their points with one another.
She has her suspending-contemplation-of-something-unpleasant face on. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I -" Bell looks at the evils, and then throws herself forward and hugs Sherlock hard. "Fuck. Thank you." |
Author: sicaria | "It turns out that a pentagon for masochism is not sufficient," she says, hugging back a little stiffly. "Which reminds me."
She spends a hex.
"That should be better. Now. What do we do about Coin?" |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "It's not? Oh my - Sherlock, you didn't even stop to boost that before...?" |
Author: sicaria | "It would have wasted time." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Shell Bell hugs her tighter. "I wasn't getting deader." |
Author: sicaria | "You were continuing to be dead." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Bell doesn't understand. So she looks. |
Author: sicaria | Bell continuing to be dead was more unpleasant than the amount of pain required to make her stop. And Sherlock could not be quite certain that there wasn't a time limit involved, that any second spent tuning her masochism and experimenting with Tony to find a more pleasant delivery method might not be the particular second that carried her out of reach forever. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I love you," mumbles Bell into Sherlock's shoulder. "I love you so much." |
Author: sicaria |
"I love you too," she whispers, closing her eyes against sudden tears. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Dealing with Coin is urgent, but not urgent on a scale of minutes. They can stand here hugging each other and crying for a little while longer. |
Author: sicaria | Yes. Yes, they can do that. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I'm almost surprised you didn't kill her on the spot," Bell murmurs. |
Author: sicaria | "That would also have wasted time." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "And we wouldn't be able to figure out who else was in on her plan to nuke a perfectly nice section of the ruins of Europe so easily, either," says Bell. |
Author: sicaria | "True," says Sherlock. "What shall we do about her?" |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Moon," says Bell. "Public trial for her and her accomplices. I don't know if we can get her to admit to anything, and of course whatever vid I put out the smart people will know I could've magicked no matter what happened, but it'll go some way towards not making it just look like I'm picking on a rival for no reason." |
Author: sicaria | "I suppose so," says Sherlock. "And in case of future unpleasantness, I think we should design a more comprehensive set of protections." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I can't just be - physically invulnerable, or I won't be able to make coins in an emergency," Bell says, nibbling thoughtfully on her lip. "...Does Tony know what happened or did he just - you didn't tell him yet," she sees, looking. |
Author: sicaria | "I did not tell him yet," she agrees. "I should. He is probably worrying a little." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | [Hey, Tony, c'mere?] |
Author: ferratus | [Sure. Where?] |
Author: she_sells_seashells | [Kitchen,] says Bell. |
Author: ferratus | He goes there.
"...Why are you both so..?" |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I died briefly," Bell says. "But Sherlock fixed it." |
Author: ferratus |
He cannot figure out who to hug first.
Both. Both is obviously the answer. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Hugs all round. "So now I have to deal with the assassins - Coin and whoever actually planted the nuke and whoever else was involved - and also figure out a form of invulnerability that won't interfere with emergency coinmaking. I guess it could just go on and off at will like the regen does. Although Stella found it really useful to be able to make a hex unexpectedly that once, we're not looking at the exact situation that would make that relevant..." |
Author: sicaria | "You could make yourself invulnerable but optionally able to feel pain from thwarted injuries," Sherlock suggests. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "That sounds... confusing, but I imagine I could adjust," says Bell, and she nods and spends a hex. "Is there any reason not to cover you two similarly?" |
Author: ferratus | "Nope," says Tony. |
Author: sicaria | Sherlock considers, then nods. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Hex hex. Hugs. |
Author: sicaria | Definitely hugs. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | And eventually, "Can't decide whether to moon Coin and conspirators in the ex-Capitol or in a separate section." |
Author: sicaria | "Separate," says Sherlock. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Why?" |
Author: sicaria | "The two factions are likely to try to harm one another otherwise." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "Yes. But there could easily be a very small number of District Thirteen folks that I ever need to bemoon, and I'm concerned about them all eventually hating each other. The ground rules should prevent actual harm, and the ex-Capitol population is much larger, it'd be easier for them to be absorbed. Maybe I should make them an - attached suburb sort of area that I can close off if there's too much friction." |
Author: sicaria | "Yes, that seems reasonable." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Bell closes her eyes, speeds up, designs and wishes the suburb, and then says, "Come with me to confront Coin?" |
Author: sicaria | "Of course." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "...Er," Bell says, holding up a finger, and she squares off two of the evils from Sherlock's chain, declaws them, and gives them to Tony. "Hold onto these for the next few minutes, if we don't check in... I don't think Coin has anything prepped for us appearing right now and if she did it probably wouldn't get around the protection newly added, but I'm all paranoid now, I literally just died." |
Author: ferratus | "You got it," says Tony. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | And with that, Shell Bell teleports herself and Sherlock into Coin's office.
The look on Coin's face is priceless. |
Author: sicaria | Sherlock smiles at her.
It is not a pleasant expression. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "You're very glad you failed," says Shell Bell in a voice that might be quite pleasant under other circumstances. "It's the best possible outcome. If you had not failed, Sherlock would most likely have killed you with her bare hands. I, on the other hand, am just going to put you and everyone who helped you on the moon. In fact, let's all go there right now."
Teleportation into the new moon-neighborhood occurs.
Coin still has nothing to say, apparently. |
Author: sicaria | Neither does Sherlock. Although she does put the smile away a few seconds after they arrive. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "You can tell me who your new neighbors are going to be," says Shell Bell, "or I can find them myself, but you made your bid, you lost, and you're now retired."
"How? blurts Coin.
"Magic," Bell snaps.
There is a silence, and Coin starts muttering names, and, at Bell's look when she stops, says, "That's everyone who knew."
Bell's lie-detector is quiet. She wishes all the named individuals up without further ceremony. "Reports of my assassination have omitted certain details," she says loudly to the assembled half-dozen people. "Such as that I'm not dead. Such as that I do not appreciate people trying to kill me. Such as that the obvious, obvious consequence of antagonizing the Empress of Atlantis is getting put on the moon. Welcome to the moon, I hope you like it, you do not get to leave. You get the same letter-writing privileges as the ex-Capitolites, your mailbox is over there, you may enter the ex-Capitol proper if desired but if you get into fights with the other moondwellers I will seal off your section, more detailed trials intended for general broadcast and summary appeals of the sentence will begin when I have calmed down."
And she teleports herself and Sherlock back to the kitchen where abandoned cupcake batter continues to rest on the counter. |
Author: sicaria |
Sherlock hugs her. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Hugs. Oh, hugs.
"I don't understand why they'd do that," mumbles Bell. "By any sane measure all their lives were getting better with me around. I really wasn't going to challenge Coin's presidency until she was up for reelection and that was years away. I don't understand." |
Author: sicaria | "Perhaps they cannot imagine anyone with power choosing to use that power kindly." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I don't see what else it would be for. What else would it be for?" Hugs, hugs, hugs. |
Author: sicaria | "And that," says Sherlock, "is among the many reasons why I love you." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I love you too," sighs Bell.
Slowly, slowly, tension drains away from her and she's issuing a much more relaxed hug. |
Author: sicaria | "I have lost my taste for cupcakes," she observes. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "I'm not really in the mood for cupcakes either," agrees Shell Bell. |
Author: sicaria | Sherlock kisses her gently, and hugs her again. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Hugs. Hugs, hugs. "I love you so much. I can't believe I died. I talk about living forever and then I get sneak-attacked and I actually die. I'm probably not even twenty." |
Author: sicaria | "I love you too," she murmurs. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | "What if it hadn't worked," murmurs Bell. |
Author: sicaria | "Then I expect I would have killed Coin," she says. "With my bare hands or otherwise. And made a poor job of administering your empire." |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Shell Bell's hands clench in the fabric of Sherlock's shirt and she starts crying again softly. |
Author: sicaria | Sherlock hugs her. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Shell Bell takes a while to calm herself down.
When she has managed it and deems the calm stable, she goes back up to the moon, impresses up on everyone who has just been moved there that she can tell when they're lying, conjures up video cameras, and interviews them about the events leading up to her assassination, although she implies throughout that it never worked in the first place. She then collects all her videos and takes them to her PR manager. He and most of his staff were hired from District Thirteen, so she has a chat with him about the content of the videos, first, and finds him mercifully to fall on her side of the issue (apparently, he didn't vote for Coin). She turns over the video for editing and context-addition and broadcast, and she goes home again. |
Author: sicaria | On her return, Sherlock welcomes her with more hugs. |
Author: she_sells_seashells | Hugs are most thoroughly welcome. Oh, Bell loves her. |
Author: sicaria | Sherlock loves her right back.
Hugs. |