in a heap of people

[she_sells_seashells]

They go home after a couple of days, without incident. The colors in Bell's hair are fading, albeit incompletely.

A bit later, when there is not the question of whether Sherlock can accompany her unnoticed, Tony finds a door and in they go.

Other Sherlock - whether this is their other Sherlock or some other other Sherlock, Bell cannot be immediately sure - is in the main bar area. Bell waves!

Comments

[self_composed]

"Sherlock? That's a girl's name where you're from?" blinks Bella. "Oh, a guestbook." She picks it up, reads it through lightning-quick, and then picks up the nearby pen and fills it out equally lightning-quick.

[sicaria]

"Not traditionally. Would you be at all interested in helping Bell take over our world?"

[self_composed]

"Is she having trouble with it?" Bella asks.

[sicaria]

"Considerably."

[self_composed]

"I can fix that," says Bella confidently. "I am extremely magic."

[sicaria]

"Excellent," says Sherlock. "She will be along in her own time. Would you like me to catch you up on the situation meanwhile? She summarized our troubles in her Bellbook entry, I believe, but I expect you will have questions."

[self_composed]

"Yes, please do," says Bella, taking a seat and clasping her hands over her knees.

[sicaria]

"Where would you prefer I start? I don't know how much detail her summary gave you."

[self_composed]

"You haven't read it? It says your government is lousy and she doesn't have any of her own magic, basically, but I don't know what in particular you're going to need. I can just visit and handle stuff magically myself once I scope it out, but I think she'd probably rather have her own supply. There is a slight complication to magic the way I do it, though," she adds, glancing at Alice.

[she_sells_seashells]

Shell Bell chooses this moment to walk in. "Hi Sherl- oh wow! Hi! I'm Shell Bell!" she exclaims when she spots the other her.

[self_composed]

"Hi!" replies Bella. "I've nicknamed myself Stella in your little book. I was about to ask - do you happen to know a cooperative masochist?"

[she_sells_seashells]

"...That's a weird question," says Shell Bell. "I don't think so..."

[sicaria]

"Ah," says Sherlock.

[self_composed]

"...Ah?" says Stella-Bella inquisitively. "I ask because my magic system, inconveniently enough, involves turning pain into wishes. I can be the sorceress-empress of the stars with a moon palace and all that good stuff because I have him." She gestures at Alice; the gesture turns into a grab and she kisses his cheek. "Unfortunately, one of the very short list of things that I cannot wish for effectually involves changing the rules about where wishes come from."

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice beams and hugs her.

[sicaria]

"I expect I could manage," says Sherlock.

[self_composed]

Stella peers at her. "I'm not ruling it out, but you aren't one of Alice, and I'm still frankly astounded that he occurs in nature," she says after a pause. "Wishes come in sizes. I think Shell Bell can probably manage without stars - I was planning to for a while - but she'll want at least some hexes, and those are serious business. I have only ever made one, and it was when I was hit by a van and broke most of the bones in my body. If Alice hadn't fixed me up, it's possible I never would have woken up and dubious if I could have walked again or regained the full use of both hands, even so. Does that sound like the sort of thing you could manage - regularly?"

[sicaria]

"Not with delight, perhaps," she says after a moment. "But if necessary."

[self_composed]

"There is another possibility, especially if Shell Bell objects to you being not-delighted, which is the distasteful subject of mental editing. Your entry says you don't have the mental opacity thing," Stella says to Shell Bell. "So I could - but even if you don't have the power you probably have the dislike of things fussing with your brain, I imagine that's the first thing you'll wish for. If you want and Sherlock doesn't mind I can just boost whatever Sherlock has to start with."

[she_sells_seashells]

"I'm... not mentally opaque," agrees Shell Bell. "There was this holiday here, once, and it involved... nonconsensual mind-altering drugs - run if you see red and pink and lace and this shape everywhere -" she gestures. "And they mind-altered me and I did not like it, but Sherlock, you didn't like it either..."

[sicaria]

"I didn't like it because it confused me," she says. "I am not sure what I think of being edited for amplified masochism."

[self_composed]

"Well," says Stella, shrugging, "I can also just go spend several hours in one of those bedrooms there with Alice and come out and dump a lot of complimentary wish-coins in your lap, but I think you'll want a supply of new ones, and given the time oddities of Milliways I will not always be able to respond promptly to requests for top-ups. I am happy to help, though. I have an embarrassment of riches. My magic is fucked up but I have a way to use it really, really well."

[sicaria]

"What do you prefer?" she asks Bell.

[she_sells_seashells]

"I... don't know," says Shell Bell. "Can you tell us more about how the magic works, Stella?"

[self_composed]

"That nickname's going to take some getting used to," chuckles Stella. "Yeah. It's good that you've got people working with you already, because the minting power is a little picky about where the pain comes from. I could wish myself a square's worth of pain, but I couldn't make a coin out of it - no bootstrapping. But if I wish Alice a square's worth of pain -" She does, as casually as she might poke him in the arm - "then he can make a square out of it. If I were working alone I'd have to operate solely through physical injury, which I'd certainly find unpleasant and I imagine you would too."