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My alternates tend to take over the world. Advice available. Rates negotiable.
Shell Bell puts up her sign and nibbles her most recent charity meal. Not potatoes! It is not potatoes. Or fish or clams. It is rice and curry and a fruity yogurt drink. That nice person told Bar she could use his tab for four meals, and this is meal number two.
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she_sells_seashells
seewhathappens
"Unless I turn out to be able to spread much faster than I currently think, I don't think we have a good chance against this year's Games. But giving a disc to one of the mentors still seems like it might be worthwhile."
she_sells_seashells
"And even getting to talk to a mentor would be difficult. They live in other towns and they're rich and traumatized. Ugh."
she_sells_seashells
"Twenty-four people isn't that many compared to the number who die in the Districts of miscellaneous things on a weekly basis, but it's very public, and I'm worried about your public relations - if people know that you were technically here this far in advance of the reaping but weren't in time to save them, well, none of them have any independent information on the mechanics of gods in general."
she_sells_seashells
"Not necessarily, but if I give a mentor a disk I'm probably going to have explain it. They won't bring a bit of wood all the way to the Capitol and bury it without a reason besides me suggesting it."
seewhathappens
"True. And if I do get a bit of wood buried in the Capitol, that could easily cut my takeover time in half... as well as giving me the option of taking the Capitol before I have the entire continent ready to go. I'm reluctant to use that option but it might be good to have it. I'll see what my advisors think, and I'll appreciate anything else you have to say on the matter."
she_sells_seashells
"I'll find out where this year's mentors actually live and who they are so I have an idea of how hard it'll be to get ahold of them."
she_sells_seashells
"And other victors, maybe, I think they sometimes go to the Capitol even for non-Games-related reasons. I'll find out. Anything else we should talk about before I go among people in front of whom I shouldn't talk to you?"
she_sells_seashells
"Okay."
She makes sure the remaining discs are safe in her pocket and goes home to her family.
Dinner is a small portion of scrod.
Shell Bell, in what time she has not working, finds out where all the living District Four victors live. They are not easily accessible, but they are all close together; she begs off work claiming illness for long enough to slip away and hike there along the beach. (She leaves one disk hidden at home in her room, in case something goes wrong but not catastrophically so.) It's a long hike, but she makes very determined time, and gets to her destination without being stopped. She brings a piece of string and manages to attach it securely to one of her disks in a necklace-like fashion.
She holds her fire wand, inside her pocket (the other one, not the one with the spare discs) just in case something should happen - but with her other hand knocks on the door of the most reportedly approachable victor, Cerulean Miralk, who won nineteen years ago.
"Who's there?"
"My name is Bell," she calls. "You don't know me but I need to talk to you."
The door opens slightly and Cerulean squints through the crack. "What about?"
Bell says, "It's really complicated. Could I come in to talk about it?"
"Give me the thirty-second version."
Bell sighs. "You won't believe me and I know exactly how crazy this sounds but I have been to a world with magic and brought home a god in my pocket and he's going to overthrow the Capitol but he could spread faster if you brought a piece of wood there and buried it and I can prove it."
"So prove it."
"Kiro?"
She makes sure the remaining discs are safe in her pocket and goes home to her family.
Dinner is a small portion of scrod.
Shell Bell, in what time she has not working, finds out where all the living District Four victors live. They are not easily accessible, but they are all close together; she begs off work claiming illness for long enough to slip away and hike there along the beach. (She leaves one disk hidden at home in her room, in case something goes wrong but not catastrophically so.) It's a long hike, but she makes very determined time, and gets to her destination without being stopped. She brings a piece of string and manages to attach it securely to one of her disks in a necklace-like fashion.
She holds her fire wand, inside her pocket (the other one, not the one with the spare discs) just in case something should happen - but with her other hand knocks on the door of the most reportedly approachable victor, Cerulean Miralk, who won nineteen years ago.
"Who's there?"
"My name is Bell," she calls. "You don't know me but I need to talk to you."
The door opens slightly and Cerulean squints through the crack. "What about?"
Bell says, "It's really complicated. Could I come in to talk about it?"
"Give me the thirty-second version."
Bell sighs. "You won't believe me and I know exactly how crazy this sounds but I have been to a world with magic and brought home a god in my pocket and he's going to overthrow the Capitol but he could spread faster if you brought a piece of wood there and buried it and I can prove it."
"So prove it."
"Kiro?"
seewhathappens
"Hello," says the bit of wood. (And the same word more quietly in a hundred other languages, all at the same time, each one somehow distinct and declining to interfere with the sound of the rest.)
she_sells_seashells
Cerulean blinks. "What was that."
"The god," says Shell Bell.
"...You can come in."
Shell Bell steps inside.
"The god," says Shell Bell.
"...You can come in."
Shell Bell steps inside.
she_sells_seashells
"I've already buried one of the discs," says Shell Bell. "But he needs to spread out everywhere, as fast as possible, and that's easiest if he has more places to do it from, more edges. You have a reason to be in the Capitol sometimes. If I give you one, could you bury it somewhere in or near there?"
"I. I'm still stuck on the god in your pocket, thing."
"I. I'm still stuck on the god in your pocket, thing."
seewhathappens
"I can move any object here from my original domain as long as it is smaller than this piece of wood. Suggest such an object," he says.
she_sells_seashells
"Suggest an object, he says," says Cerulean blankly.
"Kiro, does your world have chocolate? You could fit a little bit of chocolate and it would have been really hard for me to get," says Shell Bell, putting a disk flat on Cerulean's coffee table.
"Kiro, does your world have chocolate? You could fit a little bit of chocolate and it would have been really hard for me to get," says Shell Bell, putting a disk flat on Cerulean's coffee table.
she_sells_seashells
Cerulean looks at it; picks it up and sniffs it; licks its corner.
"Where did you get this?" he asks.
"Kiro has a whole continent he's the god of in another world," says Shell Bell. "There's a lot of stuff there, and he can move it around between his disks."
Cerulean shakes his head in disbelief.
"Where did you get this?" he asks.
"Kiro has a whole continent he's the god of in another world," says Shell Bell. "There's a lot of stuff there, and he can move it around between his disks."
Cerulean shakes his head in disbelief.
seewhathappens
"There's more where that came from, but I don't expect you to want to stand around all day very slowly accumulating chocolate," says Kirovalin.
she_sells_seashells
"No. Not as such," says Cerulean. "You want to - do - what - exactly?"
"He can do a lot of things once he's in a place," says Shell Bell. "But if he were being really obvious when all he's got is this peninsula, then it's possible the Capitol could just nuke it and have done. He needs to be everywhere at once, but needs time to spread and somewhere to spread from. I want you to go to the Capitol with one of these disks and find someplace to bury it, underground," Shell Bell says. "And then he can spread from there, and if necessary bring the whole city down around their ears. Getting this done quickly could be the difference between saving this year's tributes or not, depending on how sudden-death the arena is."
"He can do a lot of things once he's in a place," says Shell Bell. "But if he were being really obvious when all he's got is this peninsula, then it's possible the Capitol could just nuke it and have done. He needs to be everywhere at once, but needs time to spread and somewhere to spread from. I want you to go to the Capitol with one of these disks and find someplace to bury it, underground," Shell Bell says. "And then he can spread from there, and if necessary bring the whole city down around their ears. Getting this done quickly could be the difference between saving this year's tributes or not, depending on how sudden-death the arena is."
seewhathappens
"And I would strongly prefer to save this year's tributes," says Kirovalin quietly.