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Shell Bell finds Milliways once when she is eighteen. She has been there for two days now, setting up her sign ten minutes out of every waking hour, wiping down tables for her quarters in the staff area, eating buttery potatoes (she has been told that this is a complete nutrient package, for humans). Her wand is holding a bun of hair in place on the back of her head. Her shells are stashed safely in her room; she's budgeting carefully and she'll pay her tab when she leaves.
No one's talked to her due to the sign yet. They don't always. She sets it up anyway, like clockwork, so everyone gets the chance.
she_sells_seashells
sicaria
"I have frequently suspected that whoever arranges the movements of the front door does so at least partly for entertainment."
she_sells_seashells
Bell looks like she'd dearly like to say something snide but doesn't quite dare.
she_sells_seashells
"I wonder if me's keep running things where they're from, not because we're power-hungry, but because we're just easily annoyed by how things are run and have - well, not counting me - decent luck."
she_sells_seashells
"Because you can get me to the capital and I can point my stick at stuff?" Bell asks. "I don't think that alone will help. I need to know more, have a look at stuff, maybe talk to your brother about building some things."
she_sells_seashells
"Yeah, but we don't know how the timelines work. And I can't really saunter into District Three. So unless he gets a lot of time off to visit shell-collecting clamdiggers on his Victory Tour..."
sicaria
"I was thinking that I would leave you holding the door while I go and find him," she says. "It would not be long. Both the door and Tony are in our house."
ferratus
When she returns, it's with someone much more... perhaps the word is ebullient... in tow.
"But you never meet anybody at Milliways, Sherry," he's saying as they turn the corner at the end of the hall, and then he spots Bell and smiles a smile that lights up his whole face, and hurries the rest of the way.
"Hi!" he says, offering his hand as soon as he's through. "I'm Tony."
"But you never meet anybody at Milliways, Sherry," he's saying as they turn the corner at the end of the hall, and then he spots Bell and smiles a smile that lights up his whole face, and hurries the rest of the way.
"Hi!" he says, offering his hand as soon as he's through. "I'm Tony."
sicaria
"Bell has expressed a tentative interest in helping me overthrow the Capitol," says Sherlock.
ferratus
"Gotcha," says Tony. His friendliness doesn't exactly vanish, but it is definitely serious time now.
she_sells_seashells
"But there's not enough to work with yet. I have a stick, and I don't think it's Capitol-overthrowing material, although it could be part of a plan to accomplish same," says Bella, leading them back over to her booth and sitting them down. She flattens her sign to the table so it won't be visible from across the room. "We need more stuff. Tech they don't have, magic nobody has."
ferratus
"We can have all the tech we want if I can figure out somewhere to put it," says Tony. "Our house doesn't have the tools to manufacture anything big, and the places that do are watched closely enough that even if they couldn't catch me lifting the merchandise, they could catch me covering my tracks. Plus transport is a problem. Less of one now that we've got the bar, but still, problem."
she_sells_seashells
"I don't think there's a reason to prefer big stuff. Does your house get searched regularly or anything?"