"Uhhhhhh."

"I lack the diagnostic tools to tell if he has a soul, but the parts of him that are me are me," he says. "Very much congruent with the soul-free version. I genuinely do not know what would happen. Except that if he turned out to need killing we would all be very doomed. Which is a large part of the reason I haven't done it."

"Yyyyyeah. The insane midget half could have any sort of effect on the process, the fact that he's like you now, before the soulectomy, could have any sort of effect on the process... I suspect this isn't a good idea."

"I suspect likewise. He can be talked out of it," says Sherlock. "The sunlight problem was a major con."

"Sunlight, crosses, holy water, invitations to dwellings, dietary requirements, it's not exactly a convenient no-strings upgrade. Also, he does not have a me at home, except insofar as his sister-in-law who he's ambivalent about ever seeing again counts, to inspire him to not eat people."

"He doesn't eat people now," Sherlock points out. "If he made it through turning with his personality intact, and I'll grant you that's a hell of an if, he'd be unlikely to start."

"He's not a vampire now. People are not particularly appetizing or nutritious now."

"People exist in a vast abundance and frequently get in his way such that killing or harming them would be a viable solution, and yet he does not," says Sherlock. "He has killed one person and I can imagine few ways in which that murder would not have been ethically justified."

"Okay... this still hinges on the intact personality thing and I'd sooner not count on it."

"Yes, I agree. But if we had a guarantee on the personality, I would wholeheartedly back his prediction that he needs no outside intervention to stop him eating people."

"You're the expert on the half of him that isn't an insane midget, and the half of him that isn't an insane midget is probably the best source on the half that is."

"He laughed, by the way. And said that you clearly need to meet his insane midget brother."

"I'd rather meet his sister-in-law, who apparently in addition to being prettier than me is also a thirtieth-century galaxy-class expert in electrical engineering, programming, neurology, genetics, and music." She waves a research paper.

"What, all of them?"

"Yep. She's only published papers on the neurology thing, but I found a press piece about her revolutionary little computing gadget and it had some biographical information on her other hobbies. She's genetically engineered for various things including spectacular levels of intelligence. Oh, and she speaks twenty-five languages as of whenever the article came out. Gives a lot of money to useful charities. Very well-traveled. I kind of want to meet her right away, and I also kind of want to run off and accomplish a century's worth of shit first."

"Well, you'd best decide which. Although I suppose the difficulty of actually meeting her might make your choice for you."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's not actually up to me."

"Well, if you wanted very badly to meet her as soon as possible, I'm sure Mark could be convinced to send you her way. There would be a slight issue where you might never see your home universe again."

"Yeah, and while my home universe is a little bit demon-infested, I feel some responsibility about that."

"So I've gathered."

"That and I have parents. And most of what I'd hope to walk away with from a meeting with Linyabel is cool stuff to deploy at home, since it seems like she's already very busy doing things I can't meaningfully help with on her end."