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]

"Why?"

[sicaria]

"The two factions are likely to try to harm one another otherwise."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Yes. But there could easily be a very small number of District Thirteen folks that I ever need to bemoon, and I'm concerned about them all eventually hating each other. The ground rules should prevent actual harm, and the ex-Capitol population is much larger, it'd be easier for them to be absorbed. Maybe I should make them an - attached suburb sort of area that I can close off if there's too much friction."

[sicaria]

"Yes, that seems reasonable."

[she_sells_seashells]

Bell closes her eyes, speeds up, designs and wishes the suburb, and then says, "Come with me to confront Coin?"

[sicaria]

"Of course."

[she_sells_seashells]

"...Er," Bell says, holding up a finger, and she squares off two of the evils from Sherlock's chain, declaws them, and gives them to Tony. "Hold onto these for the next few minutes, if we don't check in... I don't think Coin has anything prepped for us appearing right now and if she did it probably wouldn't get around the protection newly added, but I'm all paranoid now, I literally just died."

[ferratus]

"You got it," says Tony.

[she_sells_seashells]

And with that, Shell Bell teleports herself and Sherlock into Coin's office.

The look on Coin's face is priceless.

[sicaria]

Sherlock smiles at her.

It is not a pleasant expression.

[she_sells_seashells]

"You're very glad you failed," says Shell Bell in a voice that might be quite pleasant under other circumstances. "It's the best possible outcome. If you had not failed, Sherlock would most likely have killed you with her bare hands. I, on the other hand, am just going to put you and everyone who helped you on the moon. In fact, let's all go there right now."

Teleportation into the new moon-neighborhood occurs.

Coin still has nothing to say, apparently.

[sicaria]

Neither does Sherlock. Although she does put the smile away a few seconds after they arrive.

[she_sells_seashells]

"You can tell me who your new neighbors are going to be," says Shell Bell, "or I can find them myself, but you made your bid, you lost, and you're now retired."

"How? blurts Coin.

"Magic," Bell snaps.

There is a silence, and Coin starts muttering names, and, at Bell's look when she stops, says, "That's everyone who knew."

Bell's lie-detector is quiet. She wishes all the named individuals up without further ceremony. "Reports of my assassination have omitted certain details," she says loudly to the assembled half-dozen people. "Such as that I'm not dead. Such as that I do not appreciate people trying to kill me. Such as that the obvious, obvious consequence of antagonizing the Empress of Atlantis is getting put on the moon. Welcome to the moon, I hope you like it, you do not get to leave. You get the same letter-writing privileges as the ex-Capitolites, your mailbox is over there, you may enter the ex-Capitol proper if desired but if you get into fights with the other moondwellers I will seal off your section, more detailed trials intended for general broadcast and summary appeals of the sentence will begin when I have calmed down."

And she teleports herself and Sherlock back to the kitchen where abandoned cupcake batter continues to rest on the counter.

[sicaria]

Sherlock hugs her.

[she_sells_seashells]

Hugs. Oh, hugs.

"I don't understand why they'd do that," mumbles Bell. "By any sane measure all their lives were getting better with me around. I really wasn't going to challenge Coin's presidency until she was up for reelection and that was years away. I don't understand."

[sicaria]

"Perhaps they cannot imagine anyone with power choosing to use that power kindly."

[she_sells_seashells]

"I don't see what else it would be for. What else would it be for?" Hugs, hugs, hugs.

[sicaria]

"And that," says Sherlock, "is among the many reasons why I love you."

[she_sells_seashells]

"I love you too," sighs Bell.

Slowly, slowly, tension drains away from her and she's issuing a much more relaxed hug.

[sicaria]

"I have lost my taste for cupcakes," she observes.

[she_sells_seashells]

"I'm not really in the mood for cupcakes either," agrees Shell Bell.

[sicaria]

Sherlock kisses her gently, and hugs her again.

[she_sells_seashells]

Hugs. Hugs, hugs. "I love you so much. I can't believe I died. I talk about living forever and then I get sneak-attacked and I actually die. I'm probably not even twenty."

[sicaria]

"I love you too," she murmurs.

[she_sells_seashells]

"What if it hadn't worked," murmurs Bell.