[ go on, lecture him. he will happily inform you of his inability to die once more. and yeah, maybe he shouldn't have been smoking back in the day when he actually had terminal tuberculosis, because that certainly... hadn't... helped matters... but there were many things the 1880s were unaware of. ]

Unfortunately, [ he says with tangible reluctance weighting down his voice. doc didn't ask to be black badge, but black badge didn't give a fuck about what he wanted. what any of them wanted. ] But that's more of a recent development. The deputyship that history records was a temporary affair in a time of need, something I immediately surrendered once it was no longer necessary to hold.

[ doc eyes him. ] Were you, now?