in a supposed democracy

[she_sells_seashells]

Snow's death is announced on television the day after it happens. The announcer speaks of "sudden illness".

There are going to be emergency elections to replace him in three days. Without advance notice and the standard scheduling of elections, they're going to be setting up polling places in the Capitol at a limited number of sites. Some outlying neighborhoods will be served by schools and the like. But most of the city will be congregating at the Memorial Dome to cast their votes for the next president.

(There follow thirty solid minutes of campaign ads. The district imports comptroller, the chairman of the traffic control commission and former Gamemaker, the deceased Snow's personal assistant, and a handful of lesser individuals are running. Bell hates them all.)

"Suppose the Memorial Dome caught fire," she says to Sherlock and Tony, frowning at the TV.

Comments

[she_sells_seashells]

"I can try to talk like a TV personality," says Bell, doing a vaguely passable job of shifting her vowels around. "But yeah, I'll default to shutting up, I'm not that good at it and could forget."

[sicaria]

"Handily, shutting up is an easier skill to cultivate," Sherlock jokes.

[she_sells_seashells]

Bell snorts. "It is. Maybe it's just because I've been coming here so long, but even the accents from other worlds don't sound as weird to me as Capitol accents do." She pauses, thoughtful. "Did you notice - well, of course you noticed. Do you know why your alt and Tony's have different accents?"

[sicaria]

"Yes," she says. "For much the same reason I can speak flawless Capitol and Tony cannot, I think. They formed their speech habits in different contexts."

[she_sells_seashells]

"What do you mean?"

[sicaria]

"I was frequently in the Capitol as a child. The other Sherlock spent much of his time with someone whose accent differed from the local one. The effect is similar."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Oh. I wonder why. He obviously didn't have your reasons."

[sicaria]

"Evidently not," she agrees.

[she_sells_seashells]

Snuggles. "Lemme know when you want to go home," she says. "I'm liable to just fall asleep if it's not soon, fair warning."

[sicaria]

"I would not mind if you fell asleep."

[she_sells_seashells]

Oh, okay then.

Bell snuggles up. And she falls asleep.

"Blue effervescence," she mumbles into Sherlock's shoulder.

[sicaria]

"Quite so," Sherlock murmurs.

[she_sells_seashells]

"Yes," agrees sleeping Bell. "Boots brightness pencil."

[sicaria]

Sherlock laughs softly.

[she_sells_seashells]

Bell continues babbling at a more or less steady rate throughout the time she spends sleeping.

Uninterrupted, this will amount to an hourlong nap.

[sicaria]

Sherlock would not dream of interrupting.

[she_sells_seashells]

Halfway through pronouncing "incandescent", Bell yawns awake. "Hallo there," she says, presenting Sherlock with a kiss.

[sicaria]

"Are you aware that you speak nonsense in your sleep?"

[she_sells_seashells]

"...Huh? Nonsense? What kind of nonsense?"

[sicaria]

"Completely arbitrary words without any syntactic structure."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Oh. That's weird. I wasn't even narrating my dream? In my dream I had a daemon like Isabella's except mine was a dragon and, for some reason, named Sponge."

[sicaria]

"No dragons, daemons, or sponges were featured."

[she_sells_seashells]

"How strange. I wonder why I do that. And how the words are chosen."

[sicaria]

"I have no idea," says Sherlock.

[she_sells_seashells]

"It just occurred to me that I forgot to add a section in the Belltower guestbook about the power a lot of us seem to have in common, which I don't have - the immunity to psychic stuff. I'm not even sure if Isabella has that," frowns Bell. "I should go add that as long as I'm here. And buy the bra." She stretches and sits up; a tendril of white hair falls in front of her face and she frowns at it and brushes it aside before wadding up all her dyed tresses and sticking her stick through them as usual. "Then home? Or is there anything else we should do here?"