downside

[arenaria]

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.

Comments

[temporal_affairs]

"Not a vampire anymore," Nathan points out. "Bond was toast. I'm fine, this place isn't so bad, for me. Not overwhelmingly popular among some audiences, I guess, but me, I'm a Timer. But babe, I died a hundred years ago. I figured you never knew this place existed, how'd you find it?"

[manofmyword]

"Ran into somebody else I knew that died and went here," he explains. "One'a Goldie's alts. I didn't know you were here, or anything, but... well, the way she was talking, I wanted to check. See if you wanted a ride home."

[temporal_affairs]

"One of Bella's alts got here? Shit, why isn't the place remodeled to her satisfaction yet?"

[manofmyword]

"Looks like her magic didn't stick," he shrugs. "She didn't come out of it too well. Doesn't remember much."

[temporal_affairs]

"Eegh," Nathan says. "Well, I dunno. How long's it been on your end? How's the munchkin?"

[manofmyword]

"Oh, sweetie," he murmurs.

"I unkilled you. Took a pretty big wish, but you came back good as new. Except now there's two of you, I guess."

[temporal_affairs]

"...That sounds profoundly awkward?" offers Nathan.

[manofmyword]

He shrugs.

"Well, maybe. It's up to you, sweetheart. I'll take you if you wanna go."

[temporal_affairs]

"I don't think so fast anymore," shrugs Nathan. "D'you want to hang around for a bit while I think about it? See the sights? I avoid torturers but you might like some of Eights's friends. There's a decent restaurant in my neighborhood, I eat food now."

[manofmyword]

"I'd love to," he says. "Got somebody holding the door for me, though. I'll go see she feels about being a doorstop for a little longer."

He holds out his arms.

"One for the road, sweetheart?"

[temporal_affairs]

"Sure, babe," says Nathan. He's not wearing anything under the covers - it has not been time to get dressed yet - but he gets up from under them and hugs his ex-mate.

[finaldiscussion]

(Elsewhere, Strat is just leaving Shell's apartment, having come back from Milliways with a lovely beer to keep him company for a bit.)

[manofmyword]

The Joker hugs him back, smiling.

"It's funny," he murmurs, "I feel like saying I missed you, even though I never really had time to."

[lookingforwardtoit]

"I'm voting you two for most adorable afterlife reunion of the millennium," says Eights.

[sicaria]

For certain values of 'meanwhile', Sherlock is just coming in from the lake.

She starts walking across the room, spots Shell as she passes in view of the front door, and

stops

walking.

[arenaria]

Shell sat down to be a more effortless doorstop.

When she sees Sherlock, she gets to her feet in a clumsy scramble. The door swings closed behind her, forgotten.

Shell stares.

And stares.

[temporal_affairs]

"Wouldn't know, I haven't seen many," Timer comments to Eights.

[lookingforwardtoit]

"I've seen a few," she says, "and trust me, you're one of the cutest. Also, out of all the ones where one party found the other in bed with me, definitely the least awkward."

[manofmyword]

The Joker giggles and runs his fingers familiarly through Nathan's hair. He doesn't seem inclined to let go terribly fast.

[sicaria]

"Bell?" she murmurs.

[arenaria]

"I'm Shell," says Shell. "But you're - terribly important and I don't know why."

[sicaria]

"Tell me everything about you," she says softly.

[arenaria]

"I don't remember very much," Shell apologizes, and her hands twist in front of her, because this very important person wants everything and Shell does not know how to give her everything, "but I can tell you what I remember - but I don't know where to start."

[sicaria]

"Start at the beginning. Or as close as you can get to it."

[arenaria]

"I - well - I don't remember dying, but I must have, because I'm from Downside and everyone there is dead - and I've forgotten everything else before Voice, and I don't even know if that's what they're called or anything about them because I never saw them and Voice isn't even their name probably, I made it up, but anyway I don't remember this part but before Voice I met Strat, because just a few hours ago I ran into him and he torched me because I was out of water again and he knew where I resided because before Voice I told him, before I forgot - so he took me back there - but that's not the beginning anymore. I'm so sorry."