The nickname stops him too, but after he’s paused to process it, a smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. He eats another cookie.

“That’s as good a one as any,” he obliges, evading the rest of the question, “I got to be a be a bear once. In a Rifter world.”

He looks off into the middle distance, reminiscing: “best days of my life, if I’m being honest.”