Oolong booms something like another laugh. "My dear Herr Brauer, if we are to speak of moments of disadvantage, you have witnessed me human. I think perhaps you owe me the story if only to even the scales."

(Backhanded insults to the human species, go.)

"But of course I should keep your confidence," he tacks on, almost as if vaguely insulted by the idea that he might not.