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

[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."

[sicaria]

"It's all right," says Sherlock. "Who is Voice?"

[arenaria]

"Voice is a torturer. That's all I know, I never saw them, they never touched me, all there was was - their voice. Most torturers aren't so bad, if you get one's attention you're in for a bad few hours or a day maybe unless they think you're special for some reason but then they get bored. Voice kept me in their basement for - for a long time, I don't know how long, I asked for paper and they gave me paper but it took so long that I couldn't remember what I wanted to write anymore, except -"

She hesitates, still staring at Sherlock.

Sherlock is terribly important.

There is one other terribly important thing in Shell's head but she doesn't know if they're connected or not.

[sicaria]

"Except?"

[arenaria]

"Just the same thing, over and over, I couldn't remember anything else, I just wrote someone loved me once," Shell says. "I think that's true. I really think so. My apartment looks like it, too."

[sicaria]

"It is true," says Sherlock.

[arenaria]

"I thought so!" says Shell. "Anyway, Voice had me for a long time, and then they let me go, I don't know why it was when it was, and - I couldn't remember my residence code or anything - so I just - walked. I torched every few days because I couldn't usually find water."

[sicaria]

"...Would you like to come upstairs and sit down?"

[arenaria]

"Yes," says Shell, because this person is terribly important and I'll go anywhere with you sounds forward.

[sicaria]

They are now upstairs. In a smallish bedroom. Sherlock is standing still and looking as expressionless as she has for this entire conversation.

[arenaria]

"Oh," says Shell, in much the same tone she used when she found Milliways. "Oh, magic."

And she sits on the bed, and crosses her ankles, and uncrosses them, and finally she sits on her feet and her hands both, to hold them still, because they're shaking and it's annoying.

[sicaria]

"I don't know what to do now," Sherlock says quietly.

[arenaria]

"Why not?" asks Shell. "I didn't interrupt you doing something, did I? You're very very important and I don't want to mess up whatever you've been doing. - I'll help you, if I can, but I'm not very good at anything."