For Sherlock of some flavor or another

[tofightinjustice]

There's a heavy bag hung up on one of the trees at the edge of the Milliways forest. It's a little off the beaten path, which is nice, and Bryce finds that working in the cool not-Scottish air is a lot less dehydrating than working in the California sun.

For her size (she's middling tall but not very bulky), she's giving the bag a fairly thorough beating.

Comments

[tofightinjustice]

"Nothing!"



Bryce sort of wishes she could be hitting something right now, on the grounds that hitting things makes sense in a way that this conversation so doesn't.

[sicaria]

"I'm sorry," she reiterates, raising her hands placatingly.

[tofightinjustice]

"Um, it's okay."

[sicaria]

"All right."

...Now what?

[tofightinjustice]

. . . An awkward pause?

After a moment, Bryce decides to fill it by doing shoulder stretches, glancing sidelong at Sherlock.

[sicaria]

Sherlock still doesn't know what happened to this conversation, but she's okay with that. More or less.

[tofightinjustice]

"What's your name?"

[sicaria]

There's always that.

"Sherlock. Stark. What's yours?"

[tofightinjustice]

She blinks.

"Roberta Bryce Wayne. Is Sherlock a gender-neutral name?"

She'd never heard it before meeting Sherlock Holmes, and based on that evidence she'd assumed it was a male name.

[sicaria]

"Not until I decided to keep it, I don't think."

[tofightinjustice]

"Why would you get rid of it?"

[sicaria]

"Because it was meant to be a boy's name, and I am not a boy."

[tofightinjustice]

Bryce blinks.

"Well, yeah. Obviously."

Identity and gender politics aren't huge topics of conversation around Sunnydale High in 1993; Bryce is aware that drag queens and kings exist, and vaguely aware of the concept of transsexuals, but it's not something she's given much thought to.

[sicaria]

...She waits.

Surely this is obvious.

[tofightinjustice]

Not really!

Bryce frowns at her, running through possibilities in her head. Occam's razor, Henri murmurs in her mind. Find the simplest explanation first.

So she discards the complicated and vague reason -- Sherlock's parents gave their baby girl a boy's name, for some reason -- and looks for a simpler one.

Perhaps Sherlock's parents gave their baby boy a boy's name. Plausible, but not really simpler, and looking at Sherlock, it doesn't seem supported.

[sicaria]

"I have an identical twin brother," she adds, in case this helps clarify anything.

[tofightinjustice]

"Identical looking or identical?"

[sicaria]

"Identical, or it would not be relevant. We're certainly not identical looking anymore."

[tofightinjustice]

". . . You're perfect, though," Bryce says, puzzled.

[sicaria]

"I know."

[tofightinjustice]

"You--"

Not you are, evidently.

"--were a boy?"

[sicaria]

"In a sense, but only a very limited one. And now I am as you see me."

[tofightinjustice]

"Wow."

But she's

(beautiful)

for all intents and purposes perfect. It's boggling.

". . . Okay."

[sicaria]

Wryly: "And now you know how good they are at cosmetic alteration in the Capitol."

[tofightinjustice]

She nods slowly.

"The accent's a way better indicator."

Invisible clues are no clues at all.