arenaria: (Default)
Bell Swan ω "Shell" ([personal profile] arenaria) wrote2013-03-07 03:50 pm

downside

Voice lets her go.

Shell doesn't know how long it's been. She doesn't know where she is. She doesn't know how to get home, or if she has one.

She stands on Voice's doorstep. She blinks slowly at the brightness.

She walks in a random direction.

Downsiders aren't big on charity. It's not like it's going to kill her if she doesn't get help. It's not like she's unfamiliar with the effects of dehydration and hunger; Voice didn't always remember to take good care of the pet in the basement. Shell walks, and when she's tired she lies down on the ground and sleeps, and when she wakes up she walks, and every few days she curls up on the ground, waits to torch from thirst, and then gets up and goes on.

She doesn't count the number of times this happens. It doesn't matter.

She walks. She has nightmares. She walks.

On an unremarkable day on an unremarkable street after unremarkable stretches of years, she feels herself cross a telltale threshold of dizziness and headache: she cannot make significant forward progress towards Not Where She Is Currently Located until she torches or (less likely) someone gives her a lot of water. It's possible she'll be able to sleep through this torch. She sits. She leans on a wall. She should probably pick up the next sharp object she finds. Maybe a piece of broken glass will present itself. Then she can skip these parts.

She sits, and she closes her eyes, and she waits. If the buildings around her would ever have seemed familiar, they don't now.
finaldiscussion: Thinking. (| more information)

[personal profile] finaldiscussion 2013-03-08 01:34 am (UTC)(link)




It may become apparent that someone is standing over her.
finaldiscussion: Thoughtful. (~ in his bleaker moments)

[personal profile] finaldiscussion 2013-03-08 01:37 am (UTC)(link)
"Do you need a torch?" he inquires kindly.
finaldiscussion: Hurt or uncertain. (| some latent nobility)

[personal profile] finaldiscussion 2013-03-08 01:39 am (UTC)(link)
He departs.

He returns half a minute later, with a knife.
finaldiscussion: Nose and mouth and neck. (>> a daring affectation)

[personal profile] finaldiscussion 2013-03-08 01:43 am (UTC)(link)
He might have offered it to her, but he's not entirely sure she could hold it if he did. So he saves either of them the trouble of finding out.
finaldiscussion: Shirtless and drinking. (<< or at least perversity)

[personal profile] finaldiscussion 2013-03-08 01:48 am (UTC)(link)
It is not any of those parts.

It is the part where he says: "Would you like some tea?"
finaldiscussion: Smug. (<< moderately famous)

[personal profile] finaldiscussion 2013-03-08 01:53 am (UTC)(link)
Strat leads her into his house, and puts the kettle on, and sits down at his kitchen table, and invites her to do the same.
finaldiscussion: Peaceful or distant. (Default)

[personal profile] finaldiscussion 2013-03-08 01:55 am (UTC)(link)
"And I'm Strat. And it seems to me I've seen you before."
finaldiscussion: Thinking. (| more information)

[personal profile] finaldiscussion 2013-03-08 01:58 am (UTC)(link)
"What do you remember?"
finaldiscussion: Looking over his shoulder. (>> thusly announced)

[personal profile] finaldiscussion 2013-03-08 02:10 am (UTC)(link)
"One moment," he says, and he gets up from the table and goes into another room and brings back a small scrap of paper.

"I believe this is yours."
finaldiscussion: Hurt or uncertain. (| some latent nobility)

[personal profile] finaldiscussion 2013-03-08 02:14 am (UTC)(link)
"You were here once, and you left me that. And when I went to visit you, there was no sign of you anywhere."
finaldiscussion: Peaceful or distant. (Default)

[personal profile] finaldiscussion 2013-03-08 02:15 am (UTC)(link)
"Around sixty or seventy years."
finaldiscussion: Thoughtful. (~ in his bleaker moments)

[personal profile] finaldiscussion 2013-03-08 02:17 am (UTC)(link)
"I expect that they did."
finaldiscussion: Looking over his shoulder. (>> thusly announced)

[personal profile] finaldiscussion 2013-03-08 02:18 am (UTC)(link)
"You knew someone named Sherlock," he offers. "But you didn't mention anything else about them, so it might not be the same person."

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