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Maybe. I don't have anything for com...parison.

[He blinks and gives a slow sort of nod. Because he is not quite sure if he even believes all that.]

Dr. Daniel Schreber...? [Offers a handshake.]

[Handshakes, he can do! He clasps gently but firmly.] Balthazar. No real surname, though I can make one up if it makes you feel better.

Doctor of what?

Hah! Some... of us are, yes. But I'm not a routine example. [Hopefully his new friend will not go too fast because he has a bad limp and gets out of breath quick walking.]

[Hare slows down a little. He's pretty tall and has one hell of a stride, but he's acting like he's just lazy right now. Didn't notice the limp at all, nope, just doesn't want to walk fast tonight]

Everything breaks ya though. Fallin' to far, gettin' hit too hard, diseases, old age, chemicals an' shit. Ya guys sure die pretty easy an' all that.

[His handshake is less firm but he tries!]

Don't make anything up on my a...ccount. My degree says I'm a psychy...atrist, but I'm more comfortable in a lab working... with brain chemistry.

[Dr. Schreber is breathing a little harder now, audibly, but he nods and tries to keep up.] Yes and no. On the one hand we're more fra...gile than some other animals, but on the oth...er hand I've been through every...thing on that list but old age and... then some, and I'm still here.

Fuckin' weird. S'all I'm sayin'.

[Hare's sort of huffing and puffing too, more than once going to stop and start hacking and coughing violently. Smoke and soot belch out of his frozen jaw, and he has to smack his head a few times to try and knock the nasty, sooty build up out of the mouth that refuses to open]

S'at why yer all gimpy an' shit?

[He does not mind the chances to stop and wheeze a little, and he won't say a word because he knows what it's like. It makes him think maybe the mechanical man is not in such good repair, though.]

...My former captors did not reward disobedience. [He winces but nods.]

That's well out of my realm of expertise, I'm afraid. I suppose, outside of my Heavenly career, I'm more interested in art. And theft.

...Theft? Just... in general? I'm sorry, I don't really know... much about art.

[Hare hasn't seen decent repairs in over a hundred years, Danny. One if his eyes has even burned out, all he has is the one]

Fuckin'- Those guys again. Goddamnit, did someone come over there an' beat 'em ta death at least?

Yes, actually. [He sounds cheerful about that part even if he is wheezing. They are such a pair, with their mismatched eyes and breathing problems.]

They're all dead now, and They... were the last of Their species... as far as I know.

Fuckin' good. Pieces a'shit. Ain't nobody got no right ta treat folks like garbage. Ain't their place ta do that, who're they ta judge, amiright, Danny? Fuck 'em. Fuck all of 'em, hope they rot in hell.

They... weren't judging, pre...cisely. They were using us as a scien...tific experiment to find the hu...man soul. [He really hopes that bar is close because he's wheezing worse.]

It started by necessity. I took a few things with me when I left Heaven.

[The lights for it aren't too far away]

Who gives a shit, they coulda done it ta find the cure fer cancer, they still treated someone like garbage ta do it!

[It takes him a moment to soothe his temper again. He's starting to act like he cares, Jesus]

Yeah... well it's over now, right? It don't even matter anymore, right?

They... were trying to save Their... own species, actually. They weren't human.

[He's kind of touched by all this cursing and enthusiastic vindictiveness on his behalf. But he's smart enough not to say it.]

That doesn't make it... right, though, no. But... it is over.

I think I understand... that. I mean, not the Heaven part, but...

Ya don't save lives by ruinin' other folks' lives....

[Probably for the best, he'd rant about how he's not trying to be nice here]

Yeah... s'over an' shit.

[They were at the bar, Hare pushing his way in. For a moment it looked like the guy at the door was going to stop him, but one cycloptic eye and a sneer convinced him otherwise]

About necessity? I'm sorry. [He flashes a sympathetic grimace, then sits lightly on the edge of a wall nearby.]

Are you in pain?

They failed. I can't... say that I'm sorry.

[Dr. Schreber tries to flash the bouncer a twitchy little smile and hurries to stick close to his metal friend. He's not sure which of them should be saying 'he's with me' but either way they're in! Maybe they can do a booth? That way they will be at least a little less conspicuous.]

[He smiles weakly and nods.] I've... done some things I'm not... proud of, but my options were limited.

[Schreber makes a kind of dismissive hand-flapping gesture but he does limp over to the wall and sits, and that is a very bad limp.]

Not much, today. I'm all right.

[Nobody is questioning them, so long as Hare is there to glare around with his ugly fucking face. May as well say you're with him.]

Good. S'what they deserve.

[Hare takes up a seat in the back of the bar for now, breaking into another coughing fit. He blasts a suffocating cloud of coal smoke out of his vents, before catching his breath again and shaking the fit off]

Awwright, whaddya want, Danny?

[Dr. Schreber has to wave a hand a little to clear the smoke and coughs a couple of times from that. He needs a minute to catch his breath, too, and checks his own heart rate and pulse out of habit, pulling out a pocket watch to time it.]

Running... fast, whiskey might... be safe, tonight. [He'll drink it slow. And you only live once anyway, what has he got to lose?]

Whiskey, got it.

[He waves over a waitress and... Witness an incredible change. He can barely make eye contact, and when she goes as far as to flirt mildly (as per the job), he tugs his hat down a little over the one eye and huffs, managing to ask for a whiskey before he tried to vanish under the table.

He was going to have to work double time to get that blustering confidence back now]