among her own kind

[she_sells_seashells]

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.

Comments

[she_sells_seashells]

"It's the best," Bell agrees. "And if Milliways cooperates it is one of the best possible ways to cheat. Anyway. Anything more to cover here - Tony, more questions about your alt, maybe? - Sherlock, am I missing anything?"

[ferratus]

"It's weird having an alt who's a superhero," Tony volunteers.

[pythbox]

"Yeah," says Darcy, "I'm hearing that."

[sicaria]

Sherlock shakes her head.

[she_sells_seashells]

"Time to go set up the sign again?" Bell asks Sherlock. "And Tony, I wanna know what you were working on."

[ferratus]

"Communication... thingies," he says vaguely. "More of a challenge than I thought; the size and the power don't wanna match up, especially not when I add in encryption."

[she_sells_seashells]

Bell blinks.

"Audio communication thingies?"

[ferratus]

"Yep. Why, is that bad?"

[she_sells_seashells]

"No. It's good. I just wish I'd mentioned this sooner."

Tucked into Bell's pocket - much more surreptitiously than the stick - is her recording device. She takes it out and holds it up. It's got a cheap plastic casing - which leaves it pleasantly waterproof - and six buttons.

[ferratus]

"Ooh," says Tony. "What's it do?"

[she_sells_seashells]

"Records, searches, and plays back audio," Bell says. "I leave it on whenever I am alone, and then I talk to it, and I leave it on whenever I'm at Milliways. It's got enough space to record continuously from when I got it to when I'm a hundred, assuming I live that long. It's restricted to respond to my voiceprint."

[ferratus]

"Shiny," Tony says approvingly. "Got a backup?"

[she_sells_seashells]

"No. I only have this. The guy who gave it to me didn't have any spare disks," says Bell, shifting uncomfortably. "It's very reliable. And waterproof and shatterproof."

[ferratus]

"Yeah, I'm gonna make you a backup," says Tony.

[she_sells_seashells]

"Can... you do that... and be absolutely sure you won't break it? All my - all my everything is on there. Which is why it is good to have backups but also why it is bad to break it."

[ferratus]

"I trust me not to break it when I'm being really careful way, way more than I trust random chance not to break it sometime in the next hundred years," Tony points out.

[she_sells_seashells]

"Okay. But be really careful. I think it's cheap junk where it came from. It works so well because it's easy for that world to make stuff work well, not because they were trying."

[ferratus]

"Trust me," he says, smiling with trademark Stark confidence.

[she_sells_seashells]

Bell squirms.

But she gives him the recorder.

[ferratus]

"You wanna come hover over me while I work on it?"

[she_sells_seashells]

"Would that affect the likelihood of you breaking it?" Bell wonders. "If you don't like being watched or it'll make you liable to slip, then I won't. But I don't want to go talk to people while I don't have it on me to review the conversations later, either. So yes, all else equal."

[ferratus]

"It won't make a difference as long as you don't distract me right at a critical moment or throw stuff at my head or whatever," he says, "and I bet you won't do any of that."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Okay. Where are you working?"

[ferratus]

"I got a room, I'll show you."

[she_sells_seashells]

Bell is shown. She watches. Nervously.