Rabbit

Rabbit (aka SD, aka the Steel Detective, pejoratively known as the Tinman.)

Rabbit's official history:

Rabbit was born in 1776 in a suburb of London. He studied in Cambridge and Oxford, and eventually joined the faculty of Oxford as a professor of Chemistry while he pursued his studies in climatology and the effects of coal use on the atmosphere. Things took a turn for the worst in 1804 when he was working at a nearby orphanage. The building was destroyed in a terrific explosion of unnatural gases. These mysterious fumes apparently transferred Rabbit's psyche via unstable plasmic currents into that of a nearby velveteen rabbit he had donated to the orphanage. Rabbit then took on his pseudonym and vowed to find the perpetrators of the incident and bring them to justice. Over the years he has pursued this foe, the fox, over land and sea in hopes of foiling his diabolical plans.

Until 1866 Rabbit worked as a detective in England and abroad, searching for signs of the Fox's activities with the aid of a comrade from Sussex, Thaddeus Burnest. "Tad" and the Rabbit worked symbiotically; Rabbit hid under Tad's hat while he did the legwork. Tad and Rabbit fought the Fox's plans to destroy Cairo in 1821 and defeated him again in Beijing 1844. Rabbit's amazing longevity promoting medicines allowed Tad to fight long past his prime, but even so Thaddeus died in 1866 uncovering the secret cabal, headed by Fox, that assassinated Lincoln. Fortunately, six months later Rabbit recovered a strange gorilla floating in the Bermuda triangle who was later to provide him with a mechanical option for replacing his missing body.

Rabbit has been battling the Fox for ages from his base in London, the tower of London. He has been on retainer as an investigator for the British government since he rendered certain services in protected the colony in India from an insurrection in 1886. As such he is well known to law enforcement authorities around the globe and has definite pull with British officials. He speaks Hindi and Mandarin, which he picked up while travelling in the East.

For more information about Rabbit, read on about his manservant hare, his nemesis fox, and his body.

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Rabbit's real history, and the history of his war with the Fox: (Spoiler alert: no one living except the Rabbit and his Nemesis know this information. Other characters will not know this.)

Rabbit was once a scientist by the name of Edward Moreau, born in 1776. His work in the field of climatology and the increased use of coal in Britain was unfunded until an anonymous donor began supplying him with large sums in exchange for information. He was asked to essentially spy on the other faculty at Oxford and report back on their projects. This work became increasingly unsavory, but now his patron began blackmailing him by threatening to reveal his previous indiscretions.

This culminated with his final project, which was to recruit another noted scientist for his patron's research by kidnapping his daughter. Edward reluctantly did so since he was promised that it was only a threat, and that Edward would be allowed to see to her to safety. Edward snuck into the house, took the girl with the aid of a sleeping draft (along with her velveteen rabbit) and was in the process of sneaking downstairs when he heard the sound of police at the door. He fled to the back of the house and unfortunately ran into the midst of the scientist's laboratory. In a terrible accident, Edward over turned a table of highly volatile chemicals causing a catastrophic explosion. Edward's spirit was transferred into the rabbit as a curious side effect apparently caused by a combination of strange fumes, curious geological formations in the area, and strange sun spot formations. The girl died, the house burned down, and half the police were killed.

The mysterious patron: fox. This is what rabbit knows about Fox:

Fox used Edward as much as he could, then set him up to be captured by the police. For this reason, Rabbit hunts him, partly to redeem himself, and partly to find out what other damage he caused.

Fox attempted to destroy Egypt and succeeded in unleashing a plague on Cairo (1821) but Rabbit successfully found and destroyed the factory manufacturing the pathogen and saved 4/5 of the city (those still living).

Fox tried to unleash nerve gas in a test incident in Beijing. His activities were sabotaged by Rabbit in 1849.

Fox apparently helped instigate the Civil War, and did succeed in framing John Wilkes Booth for the assassination of Lincoln. Rabbit discovered this after the fact through his investigations in 1866 and chased Fox out of America.

Fox started a death cult in Punjab and tried to use them to overthrow the British government. Rabbit lead the authorities in a successful raid that prevented this (1886).

Fox wiped out twenty settlements in Northern Canada (1901) near a new mining shaft. Rabbit discovered this and traced in back to the Fox in 1904, but was not able to determine why it happened.

Rabbit knows that Fox can change his face and body at will, and apparently has the ability to control the will of those around him and develop wonders of science and engineering. Rabbit does not know that Fox's goal is to create constant warfare and chaos across the globe. Fox wants the world to be as mutable and chaotic as Fox is.

Fox's trademarks are mysterious disappearances, sudden cult uprisings, and destruction for the sake of destruction.

Oh, and Rabbit doesn't let on about his unsavory origin. He tends to hide that little part. Hence his two dots in cipher.