enjoy expertly restored and renovated architecture

[cross_and_bow]

After talking to Soph and sending her off to make gingerbread houses with Tony, Bella says:

[Sherlock?]

Comments

[ending_of]

Hello, Downside.

[cross_and_bow]

[Hey,] Bella asks, [sorry to bother you - do you by any chance know me to have a sister?]

[ending_of]

[No.]

[cross_and_bow]

[That,] says Bella, [is interesting. Would you object strenuously if, to test a hypothesis, I did something that might cause you to remember me having a sister?]

[ending_of]

[No.]

[cross_and_bow]

[Okay.]

Door. Door Sunshine. "Hey Sherlock, want to play Magical Typhoid Carrier? The admin does not remember Soph."

[eversomuchfun]

"Happily."

[cross_and_bow]

Door. Door Downside.

[How about now?] she asks the admin.

[ending_of]

[Interesting,] says the admin.

[cross_and_bow]

[Can I get a little more detail than that?]

[ending_of]

[I now have both sets of memories available.]

[cross_and_bow]

[How peculiar; that didn't happen to anyone else without specific intervention. Did you get enough detail about how it happened to tell us how the spell does that?]

[ending_of]

[The spell tried to alter my memories, but I chose not to let it finish the job.]

[cross_and_bow]

[And it only did that when Sherlock stepped in.] They're standing in Shell's old clutterful apartment, door held. [Okay, thanks. While we're here - what changed about Steph? Besides that she's a Christmas light now.]

[ending_of]

[The visual effect represents a change in her nature corresponding with the loss of Sherlock's soul.]

[cross_and_bow]

[Do you not know anything else about the change in her nature?]

[ending_of]

[Until she becomes conscious again, there is nothing else to be known.]

[cross_and_bow]

"D'you want to wake her now, or think more?" Bella asks Sherlock softly.

[eversomuchfun]

"Well, it seems a little silly to come all this way and not ask her what she thinks of the whole business."

[Could you wake her up long enough for me to ask if she wants to stay that way?]

[ending_of]

[Done.]

[eversomuchfun]

Steph appears, perched on Sherlock's shoulder, white with black spots and glowing a bright bloody red.

"Huh," she says. "That's new." She curls her tail up around Sherlock's neck. "And not completely awful."

[cross_and_bow]

"Hi, Steph," says Bella shyly.

She looked up what genets look like; but she never got to meet her.

[eversomuchfun]

Steph sits up, peers at Bella over the top of Sherlock's head, and waves a paw.

[cross_and_bow]

"How's existing?"

[eversomuchfun]

"Doesn't suck as bad as last time."