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]

"Thank you. My entire brain practically lives in this thing."

[ferratus]

"And now you have three of it," he says. "Keep one close by and one somewhere safe and synchronize them every so often, and let me know if I need to make you a new one."

[she_sells_seashells]

"I will," she says, letting him go at length. "I think I'll leave one in my room here, which is safe if not always particularly accessible - though more so soon, assuming we follow through with Sherlock's plan of me moving in with you and I can just slip through your doors sometimes."

[ferratus]

"It's a good plan," says Tony. "I like that plan."

[she_sells_seashells]

"I'm still sort of hoping we find a way to cheat massively before I go home and write a note to tell my parents I'm running away to Atlantis and stow myself on your train."

[ferratus]

"Cheating massively is a better plan," he agrees. "It usually is."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Yep."

She picks up her recorder. She pets it. She also picks up and pets the backups. She puts them all in her pocket.

[ferratus]

That is terribly adorable.

[she_sells_seashells]

It rather is, isn't it?

Bell realizes this only after she puts the last one away, and then she looks embarrassed. "I got into the habit of doing small, visibly eccentric things at home," she says. "The 'some kind of touched in the head' reputation works for me. And here people are never from home and don't know if it's normal for me to pet things or talk to myself or eat my potatoes counterclockwise."

[ferratus]

"Well, I think it's cute," says Tony.

[she_sells_seashells]

Bell doesn't seem to know what to do with that information!

[ferratus]

"Let's go find Sherry," he suggests after a moment.

[she_sells_seashells]

"Okay." She leads the way, tracing a line on the wall with her fingertips as they go.

[sicaria]

Sherlock is minding the sign. No takers yet, apparently.

[she_sells_seashells]

"I have backups," Bell says cheerfully.

[sicaria]

"Congratulations."

[she_sells_seashells]

"I guess I'll make another circuit. I appreciate you manning the sign for me."

And off Bell goes, looking for more people she hasn't investigated yet.

She talks to four, three briefly and one with interminable rambling. None produce anything she's interested in; the first and third don't even let her get far enough that she asks. She swings back by the sign to look in on Sherlock.

[prima_sequentem]

There is someone reading the sign just as Bella walks up.

[she_sells_seashells]

"Hello," Bell says, smiling brightly, sitting down, and plucking away the away notice.

[prima_sequentem]

"What exactly do you advise people about?"

[she_sells_seashells]

"Taking over the world, usually. One person was only interested in a town. On several occasions I've adapted to fit my advice to fit things like taking over corporations instead, handling uninhabited islands that can be colonized from scratch without any native competition, keeping one's own mindscape orderly, and a world takeover plan that would be suitable for novelization."

[prima_sequentem]

"Fascinating," says the stranger. "Was that a metaphorical or metaphysical mindscape?"

[she_sells_seashells]

"I'm not entirely sure. I wasn't invited to visit it. But my guess is on the latter, since anyone so keenly interested in the advice is probably not dealing with metaphor."

[prima_sequentem]

"How about criminal organizations," she says. "Any of those?"

[she_sells_seashells]

"Not so far, but I'm happy to try," says Shell Bell.