"Go ahead then," he says to Matt, going to delete the photo of Sadde.

"Uh, maybe we should try an audio recording to see if we can get 'some but less than a photo'?"

"Yeah, could try audio I guess?" He deletes Theo's photo, restoring the imbalance. "Whenever you're ready."

"Ready," he says. "Anything in particular I should say or are you already recording and this works?"

"This works, getting weaker" and stronger for Theo "so maybe say a few more things?"

"… It feels like I'm also getting some already, so I don't think there's a zero point."

"...delightful," he says, sighing and turning it off. "Well, at least if we're roughly symmetrical, then?"

"And we shouldn't need to put me up higher than you, necessarily, because the goal is just for me to remember you're a person? So this should hopefully work."

"I hesitate to suggest the sun test again."

"I can probably cope if I'm talking to one of you again, and even if not it should be okay I think since last time I did specifically say 'I will be right back' instead of just skipping away, but it's probably more risk than I should take if we can think of a safer test. Possibly have one of you video me and then I'll at least pay extra attention to you, and then see if the balanced level for the other one keeps me okay?"

"That sounds like a reasonable test, yes."

"Okay, so, Matt should probably be the one to be extremely non-chompable because, uh. You know."

Eyebrow raise.

"… Uh, shapeshifting?"

Now it's Matt's turn to raise an eyebrow.

"Oh, right, Matt, remember when I said I'm a shapeshifter, turns out it wasn't a joke."

"Oh, right." Pause. "Ha. … Okay, but how does this help with the biting, does it also give you regeneration?"

"It's... very responsive to my emotions. To the point where I fully expect it to be able to turn my skin magically thick and me magically strong if—but only if—I need it."

"Okay, well, that sounds like a useful fallback for if this fails, then. Should I just take video of you, then, Theo, until you really feel unlike biting me or whatever?"

"Yeah, sure," he says. "I guess. Maybe see if there's a point where it slows down in how much worse it gets or if it'll just keep ramping up." Sigh. "I'm gonna have to keep away from CCTV and stuff too, probably, and we should work out if it's an ownership thing or a who-took-it thing or what."

"… Do that now, in the sun, or after the sun?"

"After the sun," he opines.

So Matt takes some video of Theo, makes sure he's definitely noticeable-or-whatever, and then they can go do the sun test.

Yup! That they can.

And given that it's afternoon smells that are moving around are more frequent. As well as the occasional passerby.

Theo feels vaguely disgusted when he notes how they're people.

And it gets worse as time goes by, since he's more and more inclined to go bite on them without thinking about how they're people.