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She wonders if Coin would be late to fewer things if she gave her a teleportation power.
She's saying so, to Sherlock.
And then instead of the ruins of flooded Europe she's in a featureless white room facing some grumpy person in a blue robe, wearing everything she was wearing, less her coin bandolier but including her crown, and something's wrong, her thoughts are slow and won't speed up, her memory's as slippery as it ever was before she met Stella, and how did she get here, why doesn't the brainphone work, where's Sherlock?
Where are her coins? Where's her magic? She can't teleport either, not even across the room - she bites her lip just a little and she can't even remember how moving pain left to right is a thing and it goes right on stinging without regenerating -
Where is she?
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arenaria
"Yep," Eights says cheerfully. "Nobody else would touch it, Chainsaw's nasty. But I happen to like him."
arenaria
Shell Bell nods slowly. "Thank you," she murmurs.
(The back of her mind is a kind of constant hum of Sherlock Sherlock Sherlock Sherlock now. Thinking about someone happy to endure pain on her behalf is not making this go away one bit.)
(The back of her mind is a kind of constant hum of Sherlock Sherlock Sherlock Sherlock now. Thinking about someone happy to endure pain on her behalf is not making this go away one bit.)
Sunnily: "You're welcome."
arenaria
"Whose idea was it to punish - things done in life -" (Shell Bell does not consider putting the Capitol on the moon a crime) "with torture? Do you know?"
Eights shrugs.
"It's been like that forever," she says. "What's it matter?"
"It's been like that forever," she says. "What's it matter?"
arenaria
"It matters because it's awful - you're doing a good, good thing but you shouldn't have to - and it ought to stop and whoever or whatever set it up would be a good place to start figuring out how to un-set-it-up," says Shell Bell.
"Good idea," says Eights. "Don't try it. The judges get mean about that kinda thing."
"Yep," she says. "That's how it works. They can't directly sentence you for poking your nose into their business, but they can sentence you for a lot of things, and they can find out everything you've ever done just by looking at you. So annoying them is a bad idea."
arenaria
"Is it harder to get a contractor for that later? I mean, this isn't the kind of thing I'd ask someone to do for me causally, but you seem pretty - chipper. And from the size of this place I have the impression that if I did manage to unfuck the system it'd be a big deal."
...Eights regards her thoughtfully.
"It's a little harder," she says. "You don't get a week's grace on post-arrival sentences, and people aren't usually as sympathetic. But if you're that keen on it, sure. Come to me if you get in trouble."
"It's a little harder," she says. "You don't get a week's grace on post-arrival sentences, and people aren't usually as sympathetic. But if you're that keen on it, sure. Come to me if you get in trouble."
arenaria
"Does the library have a list of things they can sentence me for, so I can work on being a tricky target if I do annoy someone who abuses their power?"
"Probably," says Eights. "It'll take you a few years to get to know it, though."
She nods.
arenaria
"Okay. I guess I have a project, now. Which is good since I'm pretty sure I'm never going to see my loved ones again. Gotta keep busy." She takes a deep breath and lets it out. "Does anything - formal happen, regarding the sentence transfer thing, or is that done?"
"I go put it into my computer," shrugs Eights. "You can watch that part if it helps, but it's pretty boring."
arenaria
"I'm curious to have a look at the system. I haven't done this a million times," Shell Bell points out.
"Okay."
Eights leads Bell down the hall behind the receptionist's desk, giving her a wave as they pass. Naturally, she has office number eight.
Once there, she sits at her computer and types in Bell's res code from memory. It displays a copy of Bell's sentence papers and asks her if she would like to take the sentence, which it reminds her is 9:00 CH, and for which the grace period ends in six and a half days.
She clicks 'Yes'.
Eights leads Bell down the hall behind the receptionist's desk, giving her a wave as they pass. Naturally, she has office number eight.
Once there, she sits at her computer and types in Bell's res code from memory. It displays a copy of Bell's sentence papers and asks her if she would like to take the sentence, which it reminds her is 9:00 CH, and for which the grace period ends in six and a half days.
She clicks 'Yes'.
arenaria
"Straightforward," Shell Bell says. "I don't understand why this is even allowed. Why combine something so sadistic with this - I hesitate to call it a loophole, but this - flexibility?"
"Beats me," shrugs Eights. "That's just how it is."
arenaria
"For - 'forever'?" Shell Bell says. "And people don't die again here, I was told, so if it's been that way forever, some people who are still around must have been around - forever. Do any such people have known locations?"
"Nope," says Eights.
arenaria
"Of course not. This place is the most perverse fusion of convenient and cruel."
"...Y'know," says Eights, "I'm gonna remember that line. That's a good one."