Yeah! He's, uh...he sort of kept sneaking into my lab? I had a trap set for pests, and he was getting stuck in it all the time no matter how much I put him back out...turns out the guy was just hungry. I started feeding him to keep him away from my experiments, and he sort of just...ended up staying around, after that?

[And Varian, a boy with very few friends, took to Ruddiger after he bothered to give him a name. In that sense, he was his first real friend.]

I don't know how he got in that machine...maybe he got picked up with me and was trying to find food...

[He's trying and failing to calm Ruddiger as he talks, reaching a hand back to rub his head between his ears. The raccoon doesn't seem afraid of Varian at all, which is telling...just maybe everything else.]