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

[sicaria]

She catches it out of the air.

"Yes. Got anyone else for me to assassinate?"

[seewhathappens]

"If I do, I'll let you know."

[she_sells_seashells]

"I assume you must have some sort of actual justice system not usually administered by assassins, even if you have a low enough crime rate that it seldom comes up," Shell Bell says.

[seewhathappens]

"Yes," says Kirovalin. "But there is also room for assassins, in times of war. On another advisor's suggestion, I've recruited her."

[she_sells_seashells]

"...Another?"

Meanwhile:

Scattered throughout the country, some people attack Peacekeepers for various reasons.

There is a panicked near-riot of miscellaneous civilians within the Capitol outside some official government buildings.

The Reaping lady is being carried off by some District 1 teenagers without much regard for her well-being.

A few people without tongues are trying to escape the Capitol and some people with tongues are trying to stop them.

Someone in District 5 turns out to be violently allergic to strawberries.

A member of the Hunger Games orchestration organization is getting into some kind of scuffle with his co-workers.

[seewhathappens]

"With or without the official title, you're certainly advising me."

Kirovalin makes decisions about the appropriate response to each incident. A blessing for health will help the person with the allergy; people attacking Peacekeepers may be left alone or asked to stop or interfered with directly by obstructive flora; more obstructive flora can assist the people trying to escape the Capitol; the scuffle amid the Hunger Games orchestrators bears further watching; the panicked citizens can be listened to, and perhaps asked to calm down if he judges it more helpful than otherwise...

[no_return]

Somebody's already on the case with the Reaping lady.

"You guys aren't thinking of harming your fellow citizens, are you?" he inquires, following. "I hear you can get in trouble for that."

[alicornucopia]

"She's from the Capitol," someone says derisively.

"Aren't you the Career for this year? She wanted to cart you and your girl friend off to get killed," someone else adds.

The Reaping lady whimpers.

[no_return]

"Yes, I am the Career for this year," says Jewel. "And I didn't hear our new god-emperor saying 'I welcome you all as new citizens, except anybody from the Capitol, fuck those guys'. Way I heard it, seems like you're about to break the law." He picks a cloudberry off a newly sprouted bush and eats it. "Also about to kind of annoy me. Up to you which one scares you more."

[alicornucopia]

"He wasn't talking to her," says the first guy.

[no_return]

"Hey, Kirovalin," he says. "Are they allowed to beat up this lady?"

[seewhathappens]

"No."

[alicornucopia]

Well, that's sort of hard to creatively interpret.

"She's a fucking Capitol murderer," snarls one of the people carrying her.

[no_return]

"You really think she's personally murdered anybody? Look at her," says Jewel, gesturing illustratively. "She's not an organizer, she's not the President, she's just the girl who reads out the names. It's not her fault. She's just kind of clueless and pathetic. I'm not gonna hurt somebody for being clueless and pathetic, and I'm not gonna stand around and watch you do it either."

[alicornucopia]

The guys look at each other, and then at more or less the same time they drop her and stomp away.

She sniffles.

[no_return]

"You okay?" says Jewel.

[alicornucopia]

"Of course not!" she exclaims.

[no_return]

Jewel shrugs slightly. "Anything I can do?"

[alicornucopia]

Sniffle. "They might come back. ...Assuming you were telling the truth about not wanting to hurt me."

[no_return]

"Yeah, I was. There's people I'm pissed off at, but you're not one of 'em."

[alicornucopia]

She sits on the floor of the new forest and picks at a new imperfection in her outfit.

[no_return]

Jewel sits, too. He eats berries. They are tasty.

[alicornucopia]

She does not talk.

[seewhathappens]

The day wears on.

Kirovalin has to collapse several more buildings on various people who are attempting to harm their fellow citizens with advanced weaponry. He has to clarify the law to many other vengeful District residents. He assures many people that the berries are both real and edible. He distributes blessings of health and resistance to cold.

Some of the people in the Capitol who need to be dealt with are not neatly tucked away in entire buildings full of other people who also need to be dealt with. Kirovalin sends Sherlock to handle those. He blesses her with health, endurance, reflexes, and danger sense, and she kills troublemakers with stunning efficiency and precision. In her downtime between assassinations she introduces him to her twin brother, who is happy to be consulted about local technology.

More people than just Tony and Sherlock and Jewel distinguish themselves as helpful. Many of these people receive on-the-spot appointments to the priesthood. They go on to help organize things - distributing food, calming agitated people.

Kirovalin's new citizens learn that saying his name really does get you an immediate response. They learn that harming one another really is firmly discouraged. They learn to recognize the round wooden pendants that indicate a priest.

The edges of his domain spread out visibly across the last few corners of the continent. District Twelve is still mostly unclaimed, but according to his maps it's the only inhabited land he has yet to take. And he's working on it.

[she_sells_seashells]

Shell Bell has one of those pendants. It's kind of aggressively handmade, but she does have a round wooden thing on a necklace.

Someone assumes she's a priestess, after an enthusiastic convert in the local Peacekeepers volunteers her comm for inter-district information-sharing.

"Um. I'm unclear. Kiro, am I a priestess?"