[Yes?]

[Admin says she has Steph available. Asleep. And something about her changed when Glory divested you of your soul.]

[I don't suppose she specified what.]

[She didn't. She did say that things don't usually change characteristics while they're inactively stored Downside. And she showed me an illusion, which was recognizable but sort of - glowed like a red Christmas light.]

[How charming.]

[It was actually sorta pretty.]

[If you want her. I wasn't sure.]

[I'm not sure either,] he says. [I suppose I have time to think about it.]

[Yeah, Downside's contents aren't going anywhere.]

[So I'll think about it. Have you got time for a snuggle, by any chance?]

[Yep. Minions are set up, I have caught Soph up, I am wide open for snuggles.]

[And I have a handy couch which is calling your name as we speak.]

Mmm, lapsitting. Snuggle. "Well, that's good, I suppose, wouldn't do to have a couch that would just never shut up."

"It would be highly irritating," he agrees, snuggling her.

She puts her head on his shoulder. "Do you want to do your thinking-about-Steph in solitude or d'you want to talk about it? For that matter, I'm also curious how you're doing with the resumed lack of soul."

"The resumed lack of soul is fucking delightful," he says. "I'm not sure what to think about Steph."

"Nice of Glory to relieve you of the quandary of feeling obliged to keep the damn thing. For certain values of 'nice'. Do we get to see your cognition cease to be oriented around misery, now that it's gone and your people are alive?"

"Who in fuck knows," he sighs. "I'm not currently miserable, but I haven't really gotten used to it yet."

Snuggle.

Snuggle snuggle.

"I loved you with the soul too, but this is how you were when I fell in love with you."

"And I'm better off this way by far."

"That's my impression too, yeah."

Snuggle.

Snuggle snuggle kiss?

Kiss, kiss!

Snuggle-kiss!

[You're insatiable and it's awesome.]

He laughs.

Squirmy snugglekiss.

Snugglekiss, snugglekiss, snugglenibble.

Mmmm snugglenibbles are the best thing.

[Snacktime?] he inquires brightly.

[I didn't doubly spoil your appetite? Then yes. It is snacktime.]

Nom.

Nnnnf. [I love how you do that.]

[I noticed.]

[I love you.] Aloud, nonlinguistic sounds to this approximate effect are forthcoming.

[I love you too, dear delicious Juliet.]

"Nnnnnnn..."

Mmmmmm.

[Hi guys! Me and Tony have retroactively been dating for like a week!] says Soph merrily to both of them, Tony conferenced in.

[Retroactive congratulations,] says Sherlock.

[Good for you,] laughs Bella.

[We made a gingerbread Jarvis and then ate it and watched Blade Runner,] Soph adds.

[A gingerbread Jarvis? That is the cutest thing.]

[I ate the gingerbread Jarvis,] says Tony. [I may yet come to regret eating the gingerbread Jarvis.]

[I helped a little, with the roof and the top floor,] says Soph. [But I knew when to quit.]

[Whereas I never know when to quit.]

Soph laughs into the brainphone conference.

[You guys,] says Bella, [are cute. Everyone's going to coo over you at the next Bellparty.]

[They totally will. Because we're adorable.]

[Am I gonna, like, get mobbed by curious Tonies?] wonders Soph, sounding like she isn't sure if this is a welcome prospect or not.

[Only if you wanna be.]

[I will have to think about that. I mean, they might not remember me even a little? Did the spell reach into other worlds?]

[It hit all the ones Jarvis can talk to, anyway.]

[Might be because Jarvis can talk to them, depending on how it works. I didn't ask the admin while I was there - she'd know, she judgesighted me.]

[You could go check, I guess.]

[Yeah, I think I will. If that's how it works I might want to, like, wish everybody not-a-carrier for the spell. If Aurora wants her end of the conversations we had about our respective sisters later instead of just having me repeat them for her, she's got coins coming out of her ears and no native opacity, she can do it that way.] Bella disentangles from Sherlock with a parting kiss and heads for a door. "Can I get me some Milliways, please, Jarvis?"

Goodbye Sunshine. Hello Downside? Maybe she can do it without a star this time; she thinks about being technically dead and tries it.

Hello, Downside.

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

[No.]

[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?]

[No.]

"Happily."

[Interesting,] says the admin.

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

[I now have both sets of memories available.]

[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?]

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

[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.]

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

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

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

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

[Done.]

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

"How's existing?"

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

[Done.]

"Let's see, anything else I should take care of while I'm here in case the door doesn't cooperate next time," muses Bella.

[Nothing comes to mind.]

"Excellent plan."

Pop. Pop. "Nope. I'm guessing less than a second has passed in Atlantis in the last while, or there would be a check-in from Shell Bell; everyone else could have just failed to find doors."

"Very likely," he agrees.

"I wonder if I should try forcing to Atlantis. Probably not worth the star, though, we don't have any urgent correspondence. And also I need to wish all you typhoid-carriers to be not. Especially Jane, she'd get everybody."

"Your logic is impeccable."

"That's why you love me." Kiss on the cheek, door Sunshine.

Snuggle. [So,] Bella broadcasts to whom it may concern, [I'm not contagious, but Sherlock is, and the admin started remembering Soph-things when he walked into Downside. So we can conclude that if people in other Jarvised worlds remember Soph it's because Jarvises are contagious with each other and worldmates. I'm gonna see about containing that, especially because when Jane's back online she'll get everybody and a number of them would not appreciate that.]

[Yeah, okay, I didn't make, like, super-close friends with any of your offworld visitors really. It'll kinda suck if Jane doesn't remember me, but... I dunno, Jarvises can catch her up from assorted camera angles? I bet she can adapt okay.]

[She can always integrate the memories like I did, I'm sure.]

[Or that, sure.]

[I don't see Jane being anything other than accepting of your existence, and she'll probably quite happily install all the appropriate counterfactuals,] says Juliet. [For that matter she probably wouldn't mind that much if I didn't inoculate her at all and she had to install supplementary memories the other way around. It's her spreading it around to poorly-defended Bells and so on I'm concerned with.]

[Yeah. I like Jane, it'll be good when she's back whether she remembers me or not, I can just flatter her about how awesome she is all over again if need be. Wish your wishes.]

Sherlock gives Bella a kiss.

[We've notified the others and everyone promises to stay put barring emergencies,] reports a Jarvis.

Snuggle, kiss.

His appetite for cuddles is endless!

It's one of his best qualities!