I'll be there for you as long as it works for me

          "Hoo hoo hoo! This is living!" Logan crowed the words out, his voice a mixture of tension and excitement. His words were punctuated by the sound of a bottle hitting the ground somewhere behind him, of a -thunk!- of a bullet burying itself into the wood of the wall towards their left. His finger rested against the cool metal of the trigger of his own gun, claw ticking the tiniest bit against the metal as he shifted his finger in anticipation. This was what he came here for. This was practically what he lived for. Oh, the food that you could get was great and the romps that he had in multiple bedrooms with the various hosts were great as well; they stoked his fires and let him feed his indulgences for as long as he really wanted to but that was stuff he could do in the real world. He wanted something that was a little more grounded in what the park could provide, he wanted something that you couldn't experience elsewhere.

        You didn't really start to feel alive until you were out into the depths of the park he had found. The first time he had played it "safe". He had done the tourist shit, following the storylines and seeing what the whole place had to offer, what it might become if given the funds and the time to grow. He had given it the critical eye of both a customer and a businessman, the eye that no one seemed to think that he had simply because he enjoyed himself quite thoroughly in his wealth and his notoriety. He never bothered to tell them that you weren't born a Delos without being forced into that knowledge from an early age. There was no escaping being able to read into a situation and see what money could be made of it. Let them think what they wanted.

        The second time he had started to do the same as his first trip, but he had gotten bored about halfway through the exact same storyline that he remembered from the first time around. He'd done this before so why should he have to sit through it again? He had done the only thing he could think of to do, something he was very good at - stir up some chaos. He had pulled his gun from the holster and shot one of the hosts point blank. It had been invigorating, exciting, it had resulted in his first "injury" of one of the hosts shooting him and had given him such a shock and a rush as he duked it out with the remaining hosts that had turned on him when he had shot down their fellow. It was only downhill from there, really, now that he had discovered this freedom and this adrenaline rush that was more addictive than any other drug.

        Was there any wonder he had taken great joy in pushing his boundaries since then? It was just like drugs - worse, really. He was always trying to replicate that same feeling that he'd encountered before, that same rush of excitement as he realized who he was and what he could do here. That was why he was hiding behind a bar next to his "guide". The other dog was currently muttering curses under his breath as he removed the spent bullets from his revolver. "Relax, Teddy, this is fun!"

        "Fun," the mutt barked the word out, disbelief and disgust warring in his tone as his blue eyes stared at Logan with incredulity. The brown mutt's ears laid back against the side of his head, pinned somewhat in how much they could move by the hat that was perched haphazardly on top of his head, askew from when they had dove behind the bar. Teddy pushed himself up a little, just enough so that he could let off several shots. It was hard to tell if anything had hit, really, because Teddy was forced to drop right back down next to him quickly and heavily, a soft rush of air escaping from his muzzle as he did so.

        "Yeah, fun," Logan said around a laugh. "Well, fun for me. It's not like I can die, after all." Another laugh bubbled out of him in his joyful excitement and he popped up, taking way less precautions than Teddy had just a moment earlier. He could feel and hear the bullet that whizzed by him, could feel his heart pounding in his chest, and a grin spread across his features. This, as he had just told Teddy, was living. He swept his dark brown eyes over the situation as quickly as he could, scanning over the room and taking it in even as he pulled the gun up. One of Teddy's shots had hit hard and true, a host's body sprawled over a chair that it had fallen over as a bullet took his life.

        The other bullets that the mutt had fired in quick succession before he had ducked back down to reload hadn't found purchase in anything more than the wall, though, and the three of the remaining hosts were obviously out for blood - metaphorical blood when it came to him, though they had no idea of that fact just yet. "Oh, we're going to have some fun," he announced to no one in general, his gun raising up as he took a quick aim. The shots mostly missed their mark, but the other dogs dove behind anything that they could find in order to try and gain some sort of cover. Logan let out a laugh - a higher laugh than normal, an almost manic thing - as he felt the rush of the situation, of the high stakes, wash over him yet again. That feeling was rudely interrupted, however, by a sudden tension on the back of his coat.

        There was a tight hold on the fabric of his clothing and he was suddenly yanked off of his feet, back down onto the ground and next to Teddy as another few shots rang out, smashing into the wall and through one of the bottles on top of the bar. The alcohol poured over the bar, some of it dripping off of it and onto Logan's head in between his ears, a few splashes pattering against the brown of Teddy's hat as the mutt glared at him, blue eyes hard. "Are you crazy, mister?!"

        "Hey, we're still doing the mister thing, huh?" Logan questioned, ear twitching a little as some more of the alcohol dripped down from the wood and onto it. "Nice. I told you I dig it."

        "You're gonna get yourself killed."

        "Oh, don't worry about it. Didn't you know, Ted? I'm immortal."

        "No, you're crazy," Teddy spoke again, grabbing tightly onto his arm. The mutt put a tight pressure there, holding Logan in place as he stared hard into his eyes. "You keep hoppin' up like that and you're gonna get a bullet through your head, mister. You're tryin' to test your mettle in a den full of rattlesnakes. This is no place for some city boy to try and be a hero."

        Logan clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth with a roll of his eyes. "Words hurt, Ted."

        "And I told you to not call me that," Teddy said, almost as an afterthought. He shifted his position on the ground, squatting on his heels, his muscles tense as he obviously prepared himself for another round of bullets and taking his chances in eliminating their attackers. There were wheels turning in his head, calculations evident in his blue eyes, and the brown ears flicked every few seconds as he listened to the sounds of the other hosts. He was preparing for an all out assault, for them to come around the bar, for anything. Teddy Flood, everyone said, had a past. Logan hadn't cared much, to be honest, but there was something startling and enticing about seeing an almost mechanical like precision coming over the other mutt's face as he realized it was time to do his job and that he knew how to do the job of killing very well. "I'll take care of this."

        "Well, damn, Theodore, you wanna just grab a bottle of whiskey up there so I can entertain myself while you're busy?" Logan snorted, quipping the words out with a bite to them. Teddy just gave him a sour look as his muscles shifted, uncoiling as he prepared to spring up. It was Logan's turn to reach out and grab his arm. Teddy Flood had a death sentence, he was pretty sure. "You idiot! You're going to be the one to die if you just pop up there like a moron! I told you, let me do it!"

        "We don't have time to argue - quit it -" Teddy tugged at his arm, trying to yank it back forcefully enough to free it from Logan's grip while not throwing himself upwards or off to the side of the bar and exposing himself to gunfire.. "I said - no!" The last word was practically ripped out of the brown dog's mouth, a visceral fear and panic in that single word. Teddy's hand stretched out towards Logan, but the shepherd just shoved away the grip on his arm and continued with the motion, pushing Teddy down as he popped up from behind the bar.

        Logan brought his gun up, taking aim at the three remaining hosts. He fired off his own rapid shots, striking one of the hosts in the shoulder, grazing another and the last one went wild enough to draw a curse from his muzzle. "I told you, Ted. I'm-" the words died in his throat at the sound of several guns going off at once. There was a sudden stinging in his left shoulder, in his left side just in between his ribs, and in his right arm just above the elbow. They were pains that would have been excruciating if the bullets were real, but even without the true feeling of pain they still stung, still burned somewhat, and the force of them - along with his surprise -  propelled him backwards. His back hit the wall harder than he had thought he would have and that, combined with the stinging pain of the bullet "wounds" momentarily took the breath out of him as he crumpled to the ground, sliding down against the wall into a wheezing heap.

        Teddy, of course, had no idea that his wounds were anything more than what a person might have gotten during a paintball match and he must have missed the lack of blood because the other dog let out a guttural snarl as he rose from where he had been half-crouched, arm still supporting his weight as he watched in a kind of horror as Logan was propelled backwards by the shots. That cold, machine-like quality that he had seen a moment ago, that calculation, was all gone and in its place was a fire in Teddy's eyes and in his movements that Logan had never seen in all of the times that he had been around the host. He rose up quick, moving with a speed that was almost hard to track and unbelievable, and he struck like a viper in his fury. His hand fanned over the hammer in a quick succession, nothing but a brown blur,  jaw set in a determined line, as he turned from side to side, making sure that he caught the other hosts in the hail of bullets that came from his onslaught.

        In a moment - less than a moment - it was all over and there was a sudden, deafening stillness in the room save for one small sound. It was the sound of another body dragging itself across the floor, shaky breathing and clothing scraping against wood; it was the sound of a desperate and broken flight. From where he was still laying, trying to catch his wind, Logan saw Teddy moving across the floor, his boots making a soft noise as he crossed over it. With a hard, almost merciless resolve, Teddy clicked the hammer back on the gun and fired one more shot directly into the other host, gun smoking. He stared down, long and hard, at the body on the floor before he holstered his gun. There was a light panting coming from him - a reaction to the emotions and the adrenaline, Logan was sure - and then the brown mutt turned back towards where Logan was still sprawled on the ground.

        It was the first hesitancy that Logan had seen in his step since the moment that he had met the guide. Teddy was cautious and slow, but he never generally hesitated in his actions but now he was. He took a step forward and then Teddy paused, just a tenth of a second, and then he was striding over. In his face was the clear worry that he was going to stumble across the man that he had been bleeding out and dying or already dead. "Idiot," Teddy said under his breath, his tone the tone of a man who thought he couldn't be heard, a deep and heavy thing. He crouched down in front of Logan and that hesitancy stirred again as he extended a hand and then it paused, wavering in mid-air. Then he reached out, pushing the lapels of Logan's coat aside before he froze, eyes gone wide as he stared at the completely unmarked and unscathed chest and clothing. "How-"

        Logan drew in a deep, ragged breath, coughing as he finally came out of the stunned moment, as he came out of the feeling of his chest being tight and unable to breathe. "I told you I was immortal."

        "But - I saw - how -"

        The silver and black shepherd shifted on the floor, wincing a tiny bit at the way that his body pulled at the spots that the bullets had impacted. They would fade quickly, be gone by tomorrow if not by tonight, but they ached enough to make him wince as if he had pulled a muscle - or maybe it was just because he had stumbled backwards and hit the wall hard. That seemed more likely than the fake bullets doing anything to him. He reached out, patting his own hand roughly against Teddy's chest even as the other dog sputtered and stared at him like he had seen a ghost. "Don't make me repeat myself, you know I hate that." He pushed back on Teddy's chest, pushing the stouter dog backwards a little - enough that he could take the pains to push himself up from the ground. He dusted his coat off, sighing and scowling at the dust and dirt that had accumulated on the black jacket and pants.

        He could feel Teddy's eyes boring into him, asking the questions that he had already asked in repetition; boring and predictable Teddy as always.  What did it matter though? It wasn't like he could tell him. Teddy would just forget the moment that Logan left the park, the moment that he died and was wiped or the moment that he was reset back into his daily routine and likely whatever weird code they'd written into him would just overlook it anyways. "You sure have a way with guns, Ted," he commented instead of reflecting on all of that as he walked over to the remains of their adversaries, kicking at one of the prone bodies lightly in a test.

        "I got things I've done," was the only answer as the other dog came up behind him, confusion still evident on his face but either that code was doing its work or he was doing his best to just ignore what was going on in favor of talking about something that he knew a little better. Not that he looked exactly comfortable talking about that either, his blue eyes shifting just a little with unease.

        Logan squatted down next to the body. "So I've heard." He reached out towards the corpse, eyes narrowed, as he pulled the gun from the lifeless hand. He switched the weight and stance of his body so he could lean in closer and tug the knife that was tucked into a sheath settled low against the hips and pull it out in one seamless motion. "Nice," he commented with a slow smirk, glancing up and over his shoulder at Teddy. "You want this? Do you even use these? I'm so taking the gun. Did you see this thing? It's classy as hell." He held the knife and then the gun up for the other dog to see, but he only earned himself a snort of contempt in response. "Okay, fine, I'll just keep 'em both for myself but you're missing out."

        He pushed himself up with a small groan from the effort. He tucked the knife underneath his arm for the moment as he pulled his old gun from its holster. He gave it a cursory, almost scathing, glance before he tossed it on top of one of the bodies. It was nothing but trash now, just like them.. Teddy gave him another look - there was never any pleasing him, was there? - and then the brown mutt just shook his head. "Are we done here?"

        "I mean, you brought me here," Logan pointed out. "But I'd say all the drinks are wasted and the company not very lively so yeah, we're done here." He reached out suddenly, hooking an arm around Teddy's neck, pulling him close against his side and leering down at him. "Why don't we have a little talk about that noise you made when I hit the wall, huh? I believe you said we have a long ride, don't we? That's plenty of time to talk, don't you think, Ted?"

        "Maybe I shoulda let them shoot you up some more," Teddy commented, pushing at him until there was space between the two of them. The mutt hadn't quite shoved him but it was clear he didn't want much contact right now. He eyed Logan for a long moment before he grunted and then turned, heading towards the door at a more clipped pace than he normally would have taken - as if he were trying to escape everything that had happened in here. For the moment, Logan was content to let him have the time to sit and stew. At least until the next shootout and the next inevitable moment where something would happen that would bring this whole situation back to the front of their minds... or until Teddy's memories were wiped.

        And, for a brief few seconds, Logan felt almost tired and defeated as the adrenaline rushed out of him, as he realized that in the end none of what was happening  here and now with Teddy was ever going to matter in the long run. It was a moment wholly unlike him and he shook it off like one might shake water out of their fur. There wasn't time for that now, not at forty thousand a day. Right now it was time for fun. He strode after Teddy, resolutely pushing everything else out of his mind for now. Later, he told himself. Later.