in between moments

[she_sells_seashells]

Shell Bell has not found Milliways by herself since the occasion on which she first met Sherlock.

Today, after eight months, she does.

She makes sure that Sherlock and Tony are both awake, finds that they are but do not want to join her in the bar today unless she finds something interesting, checks her coin supply and finds it sufficient, and steps through.

Comments

[she_sells_seashells]

"I didn't take any photos, but I have perfect recall," says Bell.

[pythbox]

"Then we're cool as long as you don't draw any pictures," he amends.

[she_sells_seashells]

"Or conjure them?" laughs Shell Bell.

[pythbox]

"As long as pictures do not come into existence in whatever form," he says, snorting.

[she_sells_seashells]

"Sure. If my Tony or my Sherlock ask, though, can I show them you? Not upstairs, but just -" She waves her hand at him. "Like so. Maybe Tony wants to know what he'll look like in twenty years if he doesn't quit aging before then."

[pythbox]

He laughs. "Sure, that's fine. Show him the goatee."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Will do," Shell Bell grins. "-D'you want to see pictures of them? Or lifesize three-dimensional illusions. Same size coin to do either, squares'll do conjuring or illusions either one."

[pythbox]

"Why not," he shrugs. "Might as well go for the better special effects."

[she_sells_seashells]

Square! Illusions! She includes all the ones she's met, just for fun, standing grouped, and points around. "These are mine, and this is Juliet's Sherlock, who's a vampire, and this is another pair from a world without a Bell in it, that's the Tony that copied their Jarvis for Juliet's Sherlock to bring home, and this is another vampire Sherlock from another world, who does have a Tony at home but he wasn't there when I met him, and this one unlike the other vampire one has his soul attached still."

[pythbox]

"...That is more of my nineteen-year-old face than I have ever seen in one place at one time," he says, blinking.

[she_sells_seashells]

Shell Bell laughs. "Well, I think most of the Sherlocks are technically younger. Since they're clones except for mine. The Tonies who cloned them did at age twelve and the Sherlocks caught up to look the same age and then slow down in two years."

[pythbox]

"...Kiiiind of jealous now," Tony admits.

[she_sells_seashells]

"You should be, Sherlocks are awesome," says Shell Bell. She can't really hug an illusion, but she's looking at hers like she wants to.

[pythbox]

He laughs.

"Maybe I should clone myself too," he jokes. "Get in on the game."

[she_sells_seashells]

"I have no idea what doing it at your age would wind up looking like," Shell Bell says frankly. "You might not even get a Sherlock; maybe Sherlock is only what you get if you clone yourself when you're twelve or have a twin naturally, maybe you'd get some complete other personality for a clone you made now. I'd suggest putting you in touch with Juliet's Sherlock so he can have a complete set, but he's pretty attached to Juliet and she's sort of a superhero in her world and really oughtn't leave, and you're probably pretty attached to here, and besides there'd be two Jarvises which could be weird."

[pythbox]

"...And I would also feel awkward filling in for a dead me," Tony points out.

[she_sells_seashells]

"That too," Shell Bell acknowledges. "The relevant Jarvis was pretty even-keeled about it as far as I could tell, but I guess that's a little different? Also the worlds are closer neighbors -" She gestures at the relevant cluster of Sherlocks and the one displayed Tony. "These three all seem to have the same kind of vampire, similar magic systems, that sort of thing, my set's the odd one out in more ways than one. All the Bells are from very different worlds. The most similar pair are Stella and Golden, who had identical histories until they were seventeen, moved in with their versions of our father, and Stella encountered magic like what I have now and Golden encountered a different kind of vampire."

[pythbox]

"There are a lot of vampires in this story," Tony observes.

[she_sells_seashells]

"Yeah, there really are. Stella thinks Golden's kind is neat so she turned her boyfriend into one." This is punctuated by illusions of all three named parties - Stella, Golden, and Alice. "This guy's template also crops up a lot. We call them Whistles - bells and whistles, it's apparently a saying some places? - and three of us have them."

[pythbox]

"He looks vaguely familiar," says Tony. "Not that that means anything."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Does he?" Shell Bell asks curiously. "Maybe there's one in this world too. Do you remember where you might've seen him? Here's the others who have Bells," she adds, and she throws in pictures of Kas (with Petaal as a snake, that being how Amariah depicted them for the Bellbook) and Micaiah, "and here's another one," she adds the Joker, "and there was reportedly a little one, eleven years old, who found his way into the bar and has a Bell but I've never seen pictures of either one and so it's possible it's a case of mistaken identity, though Angela and Stella didn't seem to think so."

The room is looking crowded. She dismisses excess Tonies and Sherlocks. (She keeps her Sherlock. She likes having her there.)

[pythbox]

"Nah," he says. "He kinda reminds me of somebody, but I don't think I know him."

[she_sells_seashells]

Shell Bell shoos all the illusions except, again, her Sherlock. "Maybe I'll see if I can teleport to him if you get bored of chatting before Darcy gets bored of holding the door, just in case. I like knowing about all these far-flung alts."

[pythbox]

"Just try not to walk in on him naked," he says, amused.

[she_sells_seashells]

"It's possible I should work out a way to boost the teleportation power so it can live with complicated algorithms like 'on the far side of the nearest door to so-and-so', but that doesn't rule out the possibility of somebody being naked in that room," Shell Bell says.