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]

"I guess. So you're technically there now?"

[manofmyword]

"Nope," he says again. "Her majesty didn't like my style, so she found somebody to take her to my world for a bit and she put me on a little asteroid all by myself."

[she_sells_seashells]

Bell blinks.

"...Because her boyfriend cheated on her with you?" she asks skeptically. That doesn't sound like her, let alone like the utopia-building versions of her with magic whose citizens tend to have such nice things to say. "Or because you were going to blow up more things from inside prison?"

[manofmyword]

"Well, I was gonna get out first."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Oh."

Yeah, she could see doing that.

Bell doesn't even know enough about astronomy to ask how he can live on an asteroid. She is vaguely aware that asteroids are in space.

[manofmyword]

He shrugs.

"Kinda lonely up here, but she gave me some neat magic toys, so I don't starve or get too bored. And every so often, this place shows up. That's always fun."

[she_sells_seashells]

"That's good, then," says Bell.

[manofmyword]

"So," he says, "how do people get famous where you're from?"

[she_sells_seashells]

"They go on television and outlast twenty-three other teenagers in a deadly arena, usually by killing at least some of them," says Bell. "There are other ways that I guess are more common world to world - other television, some books, some music. But most celebrities do that first."

[manofmyword]

"Sounds like my kind of game," he says.

[she_sells_seashells]

"You're too old for it, or I'd take you through my door and suggest you volunteer and some kid could stay home and live."

Bell says this as one of the kids who got to stay home and live.

[manofmyword]

"You see any of me the right age, you make an offer. They'll love you for it."

[she_sells_seashells]

"I will," says Bell earnestly.

[manofmyword]

"Thanks." He smiles. "You're a sweetheart."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Well, it helps that if I bring a terrorist home, there's some people I'd be willing to aim one at," Bell says, shrugging. "I have to overthrow a government."

[manofmyword]

"Sounds like fun," he says cheerfully. "I didn't get into that much when I was younger, though. Teenage me mostly whored around and stole stuff."

[she_sells_seashells]

"That is also fine if he's stealing from people I don't like," says Bell serenely. "They have a lot of stuff."

Then she moves on to something she does generally ask after a long enough friendly conversation.

"I'm trying to collect any magic trinkets or neat tech that I couldn't get at home. Do you have any? I mean - you're in space - so maybe not, but I ask everyone."

[manofmyword]

"Mm, not unless a shotgun's big news to you," he says, shaking his head.

[she_sells_seashells]

Bell thinks.

"I can't easily get a gun at home," she admits. "They exist but I can't casually lay hands on them. Does it need special ammo?"

[manofmyword]

"Not special to me. Probably special to you."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Then that depends on what you want for it." Pause. "It would depend on that anyway, but the threshold changes if it's only got a fixed supply of ammo."

(Tony can probably cannibalize it for parts, but that's not something she has to bring up in negotiations.)

[manofmyword]

"Tell you what," he says musingly. "Why don't you come upstairs and see what I've got?"

[she_sells_seashells]

"You said you've got a shotgun," says Bell. "Is there also lots of other stuff?"

[manofmyword]

"Some guns, some knives," he says. "I don't have much use for 'em these days, I just collected them because I could."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Can you at least give me a ballpark of what you'll want to trade? I don't have a standard complement of resources and a number of people have things they're willing to part with but don't want anything I can give them."