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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
she_sells_seashells
"Krakens in the well, little prophet girl, I don't go to the Capitol when I can help it," says Cerulean. "Being a victor's not like actually being one of them. You don't know what it's like."
"I know it needs to stop being like that," says Shell Bell.
"I know it needs to stop being like that," says Shell Bell.
she_sells_seashells
"Why me?" Cerulean asks.
"I looked up all the victors and you seem more approachable than the more recent Four victors and you go to the Capitol more often than the -"
"- not because I want to go there!"
"I looked up all the victors and you seem more approachable than the more recent Four victors and you go to the Capitol more often than the -"
"- not because I want to go there!"
seewhathappens
...That most emphatically did not sound like someone who wants to go to the Capitol.
she_sells_seashells
Shell Bell clenches her jaw. "Can you get me there? If I have to wait to smuggle a disc with one of this year's Careers they may well not have a chance to bury it and it'll be delayed until at least the Reaping, which won't help."
"You don't even know what you're asking. And anyway, no I can't get you there, especially not without going myself."
"You don't even know what you're asking. And anyway, no I can't get you there, especially not without going myself."
seewhathappens
"We don't know what we're asking," Kirovalin agrees; this much is clear to him. "But we must ask anyway. Whether you help us is up to you."
she_sells_seashells
"You go to the Capitol two to four times a year, not on any set schedule," Shell Bell says to Cerulean.
"I - yeah."
"If you go now," she says, "it could be the last time. There can stop being any Capitol to go to. Soon. In time to save the tributes, before fever season hits, before another winter goes by and freezes and starves a few thousand people. If you don't go, and if I can't get anyone else to go either, there will be time for another visit or two before Kiro can do anything."
Cerulean is not making eye contact.
"I - yeah."
"If you go now," she says, "it could be the last time. There can stop being any Capitol to go to. Soon. In time to save the tributes, before fever season hits, before another winter goes by and freezes and starves a few thousand people. If you don't go, and if I can't get anyone else to go either, there will be time for another visit or two before Kiro can do anything."
Cerulean is not making eye contact.
seewhathappens
"Underground, preferably at least a few feet deep. I need to go about a mile down from there before I can start spreading out to surrounding areas, and it's much faster and quieter through natural terrain than anything constructed by mortals."
she_sells_seashells
"There's - plumbing and such, under the Capitol. A subway," says Cerulean.
seewhathappens
"If leaving it lying in a tunnel is the best you can do, I can work with that, as long as it's touching natural dirt or stone and no one comes by and picks it up for a few hours at minimum. If you bury it somewhere and I have to thread my way around tunnels to get far enough underground without disturbing anything, that will slow me down but not intolerably. For that matter, I'll get better than nowhere if you throw it out the side of a train on the way into the city before the built-over areas start - again, as long as no one picks it up for a few hours afterward. The important parts are that it must be connected to the landscape and it should be left alone afterward for as long as possible."
she_sells_seashells
Cerulean picks up the chocolate and eats it like he's hoping it's poisoned.
"Thank you," Shell Bell echoes.
"Thank you," Shell Bell echoes.
seewhathappens
Kirovalin doesn't say anything more.
(He could offer Cerulean some blessings, but that would be... potentially un-strategic, if he's watched closely enough for a change to be noticed. There will be time enough after everything is settled.)
(He could offer Cerulean some blessings, but that would be... potentially un-strategic, if he's watched closely enough for a change to be noticed. There will be time enough after everything is settled.)
she_sells_seashells
"Now, just - get out of my house," mutters Cerulean. "I'll chuck your disc out a train."
"Thank you," Shell Bell says again, getting up and making for the door.
"Ugh," says Cerulean.
"And sorry."
"Ugh."
She lets herself out and sighs and starts hiking home.
"Thank you," Shell Bell says again, getting up and making for the door.
"Ugh," says Cerulean.
"And sorry."
"Ugh."
She lets herself out and sighs and starts hiking home.
she_sells_seashells
"Mmhm."
(Four days later, when Shell Bell has returned home, been lectured by her father, and yelled at by her boss -
- a disc of wood hits the ground a few miles outside the boundaries of the Capitol.)
(Four days later, when Shell Bell has returned home, been lectured by her father, and yelled at by her boss -
- a disc of wood hits the ground a few miles outside the boundaries of the Capitol.)