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Shell Bell is dancing on literal air when they leave Milliways.
Stella is an even more fortuitous find than Amariah was, and Amariah was amazing. Stella has given her everything she needs. Stella is a Space Empress and Shell Bell is going to follow right after her, probably with slightly less Space.
The fact that Shell Bell has to torture her girlfriend to accomplish anything in this department is a mood dampener, but she went and had a look at the memories of those "tastes" Stella provided and - well. They're bordered pale, even the big one. She's spooked about looking any closer; she managed to neglect to ask Stella before she went back to her Empire if looking at pain-related thoughts hurts. She looked at the square-sized memory and it was... too close to call. Stella might not even know the answer - mental opacity could easily interact somehow with mindreading. Stella might be protected against painful reading where Shell Bell, with only a wished-for imitation, might not.
But Sherlock seems content, and so -
"We're gonna take over the wo-orld, we're gonna take over the world, we're gonna take over the wooooorld," Bell sings, dancing into the house from the bar. (She can dance now. She is not in the least danger of tripping, wouldn't be even if her feet were touching the ground, and if she does anyway, she will float.)
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she_sells_seashells
she_sells_seashells
"All right then. I think we probably ought to land invisible. Who knows what they have going on there."
sicaria
"Agreed," says Sherlock. She provides herself the appropriate power, appropriately mutually perceptible with Bell's, and invisibles.
she_sells_seashells
Bell follows suit, and holds Sherlock's hand, and wishes them teleported into the office of the leader of District Thirteen, or whatever location most nearly matches that description.
It turns out to be very officey, very tidy, and occupied by one very severe-looking president.
It turns out to be very officey, very tidy, and occupied by one very severe-looking president.
sicaria
[That is not a person who looks pleased with life,] says Sherlock. [Then again, I can see why not.]
she_sells_seashells
[Yeah. Opinions on spying on her for a while versus introducing ourselves?]
she_sells_seashells
They spy.
President Coin is apparently democratically elected; there is no obvious evidence to support the hypothesis that any significant fraction of Thirteen is disenfranchised apart from the underaged. They have enough of a food shortage that food scarcity is brought up as a topic in the meeting she holds with several of her staff, but not enough that anyone seems terribly worried about it or that they're discussing inequitable distributions to compensate. The residents of Thirteen all seem to have schedules printed on their forearms, which they consult when determining where to go after the meeting. Most of these schedules, when peered at, include things like combat training. Whether or not they are currently at war, Thirteen is in a state of readiness and ongoing preparation for it.
Coin's next meeting, after a fifteen-minute break during which she eats a perfunctory lunch, is about refugees, which Thirteen apparently accepts with good grace when anyone chooses their district as their destination and actually makes it over the border rather than being caught first. Bell brainphone-hmms on this subject consideringly.
Their tech is behind the Capitol, but mostly for resource reasons, not reasons of knowhow. They live underground, but going up isn't forbidden, just uncustomary. And they are all ready to descend into the lower levels and take shelter from a bombing run at any time.
President Coin is apparently democratically elected; there is no obvious evidence to support the hypothesis that any significant fraction of Thirteen is disenfranchised apart from the underaged. They have enough of a food shortage that food scarcity is brought up as a topic in the meeting she holds with several of her staff, but not enough that anyone seems terribly worried about it or that they're discussing inequitable distributions to compensate. The residents of Thirteen all seem to have schedules printed on their forearms, which they consult when determining where to go after the meeting. Most of these schedules, when peered at, include things like combat training. Whether or not they are currently at war, Thirteen is in a state of readiness and ongoing preparation for it.
Coin's next meeting, after a fifteen-minute break during which she eats a perfunctory lunch, is about refugees, which Thirteen apparently accepts with good grace when anyone chooses their district as their destination and actually makes it over the border rather than being caught first. Bell brainphone-hmms on this subject consideringly.
Their tech is behind the Capitol, but mostly for resource reasons, not reasons of knowhow. They live underground, but going up isn't forbidden, just uncustomary. And they are all ready to descend into the lower levels and take shelter from a bombing run at any time.
sicaria
[I am considering dropping a wagonload of cornucopias on their heads,] says Sherlock. [If I can duplicate them. I suppose I should check.]
she_sells_seashells
[Oh, I bet we can,] agrees Bell. [They seem... well, as decent as one could expect anyone living in Panem's shadow could reasonably be expected to be. But not so nice that I can be sure of what they'll do if that shadow changes.]
sicaria
[Well. Perhaps we'll just see what happens when we make our move on the Capitol, whatever it is. Maybe wagonloads of cornucopias for everyone would be a good start,] she suggests.
she_sells_seashells
[I am considering implementing a variant on Stella's Martian ground rules, and then picking up the entire Capitol, putting it on the Moon, and coming up with a procedure to put its inhabitants on trial,] Bell says.
she_sells_seashells
[Yes. Of course then I have to decide what to do with the guilty of various sorts, and what to do with their dependents when they have any, and, for that matter, what to do with the innocent, and what to do with the Peacekeepers who are mostly from Districts and not the Capitol itself, and so on. Very complicated.]
sicaria
[Keep the guilty on the moon,] she suggests. [In comfort but not luxury. Let everyone else come back.]
she_sells_seashells
[I'll probably wind up on something that has that as part of the scheme, but - I don't know. Snow had kids. He had a granddaughter, his kids were all grown and I didn't consider it relevant for him in particular, but I'm sure there are rotten people with small children and I'm torn about them.]
she_sells_seashells
[I'm working on that. If I had a good one I would've just triumphantly explained it,] Bell sighs. She leans on Sherlock and watches a family of District Thirteeners go down the hall past Coin's office.
she_sells_seashells
[Well. If the guilty go on a lunar prison colony and not into outright lockup, I could give kids old enough to express a preference a choice of staying there with their families or coming down and going into some kind of - facility, ideally designed to get the kids adopted. That hardly seems like a less nasty thing to do to an - eight-year-old or whatever than just sending them straight to the facility without consulting them, though. Sometimes giving a choice isn't helping.]
she_sells_seashells
[I probably would've had a more comfortable childhood if I'd passed some tests and gotten moved to a district that had more use for brains, like yours, but I wasn't going to let anyone take me from my parents, not when I was little and I needed them.]
sicaria
[Remove the children that want to go or are being mistreated; leave the rest,] Sherlock says after a moment. [Include in the ground rules of the Moon that no children can be conceived there, to limit the problem. Allow the children to come back at any time and deal with them individually if they begin making trouble.]
she_sells_seashells
[Mm. I'm probably not going to do any better than that. And then I design a facility - and I have to staff it, too, I can make the facility operate itself with respect to basic needs but kids need to be around people. I wonder if Thirteen's a potentially good source of personnel who grew up not so cowed by the Games and with adequate educations? I mean, obviously the other twelve Districts can produce smart and decent people, but it might be easier to find them here.]
sicaria
[I am not sure 'uncowed' is the first description that comes to mind,] says Sherlock.
she_sells_seashells
[Well. Anticipating war if something goes wrong is a different state than anticipating squashing if you annoy the wrong person. Thirteen used to do nukes, didn't it? The Capitol's probably at least as afraid of them as they are of it.]