holy place

[she_sells_seashells]

My alternates tend to take over the world. Advice available. Rates negotiable.

Shell Bell puts up her sign and nibbles her most recent charity meal. Not potatoes! It is not potatoes. Or fish or clams. It is rice and curry and a fruity yogurt drink. That nice person told Bar she could use his tab for four meals, and this is meal number two.

Comments

[she_sells_seashells]

"Mmhm."





(Four days later, when Shell Bell has returned home, been lectured by her father, and yelled at by her boss -

- a disc of wood hits the ground a few miles outside the boundaries of the Capitol.)

[seewhathappens]

And Kirovalin begins claiming territory under it, in a narrow column headed a mile downward.

He keeps Shell Bell updated on his progress.

With the Capitol as a second epicenter, it goes much faster.

[she_sells_seashells]

Good.

The Reaping approaches.

[seewhathappens]

He has the entire Capitol already. The question is how much of the rest of the continent he can take in time.

Maybe... enough to be going on with, even if less than he'd like.



He asks Shell Bell, in one of their conversations: "Would the day of the Reaping be a good time, in terms of public relations? I think it could potentially be a good strategic choice, for the distraction. I don't have the whole continent, but I think I might have enough."

[she_sells_seashells]

"It'd be very public. They broadcast it all live - although maybe not perfectly live, I bet they have a delay, but there's always large crowds there in person. What bits are you missing?"

[seewhathappens]

He knows what parts of the continent correspond to which districts, because she gave him a map.

"The outlying parts of Districts Six, Seven, Ten, and Eleven; all of District Twelve; and the former site of District Thirteen and its surrounding wilderness. I have everything else, and I'll have those too if I wait another month and a half."

[she_sells_seashells]

"The actual start of the Games might be nearly as good publicity-wise but the tributes might be convinced it was some sort of weird arena thing if you did it after they went out and still kill each other, and if you do it before they go out they get caught in the Capitol destruction because that's where they are during the leadup. And that doesn't buy you a month and a half. Ten and Eleven can feed themselves on current industry if they're allowed, the others can't necessarily but if you've got enough of Six you can get the trains working for you even if they're damaged... I think the Reaping would be a good time compared to other prospects."

[seewhathappens]

"I think I agree."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Probably while they're calling names in District One. ...Heh, you could say you volunteer. That's probably a bad idea, it'd confused the issue, but it'd be very dramatic."

[seewhathappens]

"I may not be able to get the timing that precise, but if I have the opportunity to make a dramatic comment, I will consider one."

[she_sells_seashells]

"It's required viewing, I'll be at a television. I don't think the delay is much more than a few seconds, maybe a minute or two, but I don't know exactly."

[seewhathappens]

"I've done some experimenting at home to see how precisely I can time claiming the last mile of surface; I'll be able to take the entire Capitol within the same few minutes, but elevation matters a lot for how fast I can get there and I don't have a precise enough map to compensate. I could be early or late by as much as half an hour, which I don't think is close enough to be sure I will arrive while they're calling names in District One in particular."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Bar might be able to get you an elevation map if you still have a manifestation there."

[seewhathappens]

"I'll ask."

[she_sells_seashells]

"What's it going to look like?"

[seewhathappens]

"Temperatures across the continent will become more uniform - warm places will get a little colder; very cold places will get warmer. Most of the large-scale terrain features will stay the same, but there will be smaller changes. Pine trees sprouting. Soil quality changing, mostly for the better. Some land might shift, but I can hold it stable in populated areas. Salt lakes might turn fresh. In areas with permafrost, it will spread. There might be fog or light rain in some places when I reach the air. In most cases, I'll be able to reverse any unwanted changes after I have all the urgent business taken care of, but I won't be able to restore true deserts, for example."

[she_sells_seashells]

"I don't think anyone's using the desert for anything. Except the occasional arena. ...They sometimes turn the arenas into little tourist traps, which is terrible, but they could be converted later into actual memorials, so if you can not mess them up too much to be recognizable while you're doing everything else that would be nice."

[seewhathappens]

"I'll keep it in mind, but I'm going to have other priorities."

[she_sells_seashells]

"I understand. They're already dead, definitely focus on the people who are alive. But if you wind up with the spare attention."

[seewhathappens]

"Yes."

[she_sells_seashells]

"And you can talk anywhere you've come up, right? To explain and take requests if somebody really needed their salt lake or whatever. Once you've finished focusing on the Capitol I mean."

[seewhathappens]

"Yes."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Good."

[seewhathappens]

"I'll confirm the plan with my advisors and see how much the elevation map helps."

[she_sells_seashells]

"Yeah."