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Bell finds the bar when she is eight-almost-nine, in the shed in the back, and she grabs up her seashells - she can reach the bag by the shed door and the one by the back door of the house, her arms are getting longer - and drags them in after her.
She drags them all the way to her room, and locks the door behind her when she lets herself back out, and then she collects a mop from behind the bar and starts earning that room. She's not really sure how it works - so much time passes between visits and yet the room always waits for her. But she supposes that paying people for things in Milliways has to work the way Milliways works. She does an amount of cleaning whenever she's there and this secures her a space to stash her things.
Mop, mop.
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she_sells_seashells
blooded_poet
"You tackle problems every day. Your first two methods of handling this specific one would often work - they were good. But do you think about what you would do if they didn't work?"
she_sells_seashells
"If somebody bigger than me tried to kill me I would probably die," points out Shell Bell. "I could run away through here to some world where it's less dangerous but I couldn't bring my parents. I keep a lookout for people who want to help me, like you, in case I ever get something I could bring home that would be useful, but so far I don't have anything. So if somebody bigger than me tried to kill me now I would probably die."
blooded_poet
"So, knowing that, what are you going to do about it? Saying you would die is probably realistic, but - I'm going to take a wild guess and say you don't want to die."
She sighs a little, sadly. She doesn't like putting Bell through this. "The point of the exercise was to give you an idea of things to do, beforehand. So that when your mind is frozen with fear, so that when you're so frightened that you don't think about what you can do - you don't need to. You already know, and then you do that. That is the kind of thing that will keep you alive. I'm not saying this to frighten you, I want you to think and be aware of everything that can be used to your advantage, before you'll need it."
She sighs a little, sadly. She doesn't like putting Bell through this. "The point of the exercise was to give you an idea of things to do, beforehand. So that when your mind is frozen with fear, so that when you're so frightened that you don't think about what you can do - you don't need to. You already know, and then you do that. That is the kind of thing that will keep you alive. I'm not saying this to frighten you, I want you to think and be aware of everything that can be used to your advantage, before you'll need it."
she_sells_seashells
"I don't want to die, so what I'm doing about it is staying here until I can't buy food anymore, every time I find a door, and talking to nice people from other worlds, in case they can give me something I can use. My problem if I was under a table on my clam boat wouldn't be that I would be too scared to do anything. I'm pretty good at concentrating. It would be that I would be eight and under a table on my clam boat without any tricks to pull out."
blooded_poet
Lynn nods. "Fair enough. Some people aren't - desperation does different things to different people. For most, their minds go blank and they don't know what to do. I would try to be careful of it, regardless. Until you're in a bad situation, you don't know how you'll react."
She tilts her head. "None of my tricks would help much, I think. Unless you wanted one of my weapons?"
She tilts her head. "None of my tricks would help much, I think. Unless you wanted one of my weapons?"
she_sells_seashells
"I'm still pretty sure I'd hurt myself more than anybody else with it. Can you magic things besides weapons? Bar can make other things than food, and you have money."
blooded_poet
"I'm not good at 'magicking' things. I was not the one to make these weapons - the one who did was the ghost I tried to summon, though I did help. The best I could maybe make is something for finding objects. I'm good at finding spells," explains Lynn. "But if there's something else specific, I can pay for it."
she_sells_seashells
"She pretty much only does things that aren't magic all by themselves. A finding spell would be great, though, it would make it easier to find clams - unless it can't do live things? Maybe it could find their shells, anyway - and lost coins and things."
blooded_poet
"Then I will try," she says, gravely. "I don't think I could get it to do living creatures - but lost coins and shells would do. What would be something no one would bother to take from you or notice, something they would let you keep?"
she_sells_seashells
"Anything that doesn't look valuable or like it was made on purpose is probably safe. A stick, a rock. They let me have clamshells but if you can do something else I can keep the clamshells to buy food here."
blooded_poet
"Hm. A rock would do - a stick would rot or fall apart, eventually. A pebble, perhaps? Something easy to keep in a pocket, like it was an accident to be there."
she_sells_seashells
"A pebble's fine, we don't even have to ask Bar, there are rocks outside."
blooded_poet
Lynn nods, then stands to head outside again, motioning for Bell to follow.
"You know the rocks at your home better than I ever would. Pick one you think would work best."
"You know the rocks at your home better than I ever would. Pick one you think would work best."
she_sells_seashells
Bell goes rock-hunting along the edge of the lake and finally picks up an unremarkable gray stone. "This one is good."
blooded_poet
Nodding, Lynn takes it, turning it over in her fingers. "Alright. Give me some time, I'll need to concentrate."
She sits nearby, taking a deep breath. This is going to be difficult, for her. It's been years since she's tried spelling objects, and often they backfired horrifically. But, she can try, at least. It's not like she uses her magic very much anyway - it's not reliable. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
Quietly, she hopes this time it does. She thinks that every time she gets ready to cast a spell, but this time she thinks it very dearly. It's not for herself.
She would sit, for a little while, just mapping together the key elements in her head. Then, she attaches them to words to use, concepts to remember. Holding the pebble close, she just barely breathes the spell's words to it, afraid that it'll fail, just like spells always do.
It doesn't.
A little stunned, she holds out the pebble to Bell. "It worked."
She sits nearby, taking a deep breath. This is going to be difficult, for her. It's been years since she's tried spelling objects, and often they backfired horrifically. But, she can try, at least. It's not like she uses her magic very much anyway - it's not reliable. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
Quietly, she hopes this time it does. She thinks that every time she gets ready to cast a spell, but this time she thinks it very dearly. It's not for herself.
She would sit, for a little while, just mapping together the key elements in her head. Then, she attaches them to words to use, concepts to remember. Holding the pebble close, she just barely breathes the spell's words to it, afraid that it'll fail, just like spells always do.
It doesn't.
A little stunned, she holds out the pebble to Bell. "It worked."
blooded_poet
"Hold it, and think of what you want to search for. You'll feel it move towards the closest one," she says. It's a simple spell. There aren't any fantastic gizmos and widgets, no complications to make it easier for the user.
But it works. Lynn's still quietly amazed.
But it works. Lynn's still quietly amazed.
she_sells_seashells
"How far away can it look? How much do I have to know about what I'm trying to find?"
blooded_poet
"It'll work for about a hundred feet. I couldn't make it very strong, but I think for something like this too powerful would be bad. You could be walking for days. You don't need to know too much about it - but you do need to describe something specific. It will find a lost coin, if you search for lost coins and one is nearby, but if you try and ask it to find you the key to overthrowing the Capitol, well. I'm afraid it can't do that."
she_sells_seashells
"But I can find money, or - can it do plants? Can it do things that aren't alive that are still attached to live things, like live clams' shells, or pearls?"
blooded_poet
"Plants, no. Attached to live things, yes, if it's a separate object," she says, smiling.
blooded_poet
"A fruit, only once it's off of the vine. A clam shell would be the same, once it wasn't attached to a clam anymore. A pearl would not be," explains Lynn. "Those would always be find-able, though they're rare."