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]

Shell Bell is all for hugs!

"Will Sif mind waiting with the door while I go see if your Tony here is worth talking to? I barely ever find a door, if she lets it close I might wait a year and a half before I could go home."

[sailorheavymetal]

"Tell you what," Darcy suggests, "take me back to it and I'll hold it for you."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Okay," says Shell Bell. Teleportation occurs! "Do you want me to put you on the brainphone so you can let me know from here if you get sick of standing in one place?"

[sailorheavymetal]

"Sure," shrugs Darcy.

[she_sells_seashells]

[Like so,] says Shell Bell. And she turns invisible and teleports to wherever Tony Stark might be on this world.

[pythbox]

Tony Stark is in bed. With a sleeping red-haired woman. He has a tablet PC and is quietly fiddling with some kind of schematic on it; she is cuddled up with her face turned the other way and her shoulder pressed to his hip. The blanket covers her body and his legs.

[she_sells_seashells]

Hmm.

That's a weird thing in his chest. She wonders what it is.

Also, he doesn't seem really prepared to receive visitors. She hops to just outside the house, and attempts to add the local Jarvis to the brainphone; this'll simply fail if there isn't one, but she thinks her world is the odd one out there.

[pythbox]

Success.

[she_sells_seashells]

[Hi, Jarvis! I am a friendly visitor from another world.]

[poeticterms]

[Are you by any chance invisible?] he inquires dryly.

[she_sells_seashells]

[Yep, could you see me anyway? I do that when I'm teleporting somewhere unfamiliar. I apologize for appearing in Tony's room, but I didn't know where he was and the way the teleportation works is I specify a unique location, like 'near Tony'. I have one of him on my world and I heard that this world had one too so I have come to be sociable, but since he doesn't seem ready to receive visitors right now I thought I'd go through you, figuring there was probably a you too.]

[poeticterms]

[And here we are,] says Jarvis. [Shall I let him know he has a visitor?]

[she_sells_seashells]

[Yes please!]

[poeticterms]

After a few seconds, Jarvis inquires, [Is your time here limited?]

[she_sells_seashells]

[I don't know. Do you know how to open a door to Milliways at will, like the other Jarvis? Because if you don't, I have as long as my friend is willing to hold the door for me.]

[poeticterms]

[No,] he says, [it's safe to say I don't.]

[she_sells_seashells]

[Then my time here is limited unless I want to let my friend close her door and wait until I find a door myself, which has been known to take up to a year and a half.]

[poeticterms]

[Limited it is.]

More time passes. Not very much of it.

[Do you have a name?]

[she_sells_seashells]

[Bell Swan. People call me Shell Bell.]

[poeticterms]

[One moment, please.]

[she_sells_seashells]

Bell waits patiently, invisibly, outside the house.

[poeticterms]

[You may teleport into the living room,] says Jarvis. [Visibly, please.]

[she_sells_seashells]

Shell Bell visibles and teleports at the same time into the living room.

[pythbox]

Tony is dressed and sitting on the couch. The arc reactor glows faintly through a black T-shirt.

"So," he says, "what kind of other world are we talking about here?"

[she_sells_seashells]

"Mine, you mean? I call it Atlantis, and it has a one of you in it, only he's my age and he has a twin sister. It's in the future relative to here, and it was until recently a pretty nasty totalitarian state where it wasn't just post-apocalyptic, but I have since acquired magic and fixed the place up a bit."