"And they apparently weren't giving you much in the way of food or water?" asks Ivan, writing this up gravely on his comconsole to send in with the rest of his full report.

"Usually they kept me adequately nourished," he says. His accent has slid gradually all the way back to London. "It's just this time they had me in the closet for more than a day. I really set Galen off, yesterday or whenever that was; he went all the way past violent outbursts and into cold rage." The Jacksonian accent pops back up all at once when he adds, "Which is fuckin' impressive, let me tell you. Galen can go pretty far on violent outbursts."

"I didn't have a London accent when I was five and fresh from Jackson's Whole; seeing you again dug up the old voice from wherever it was hiding. Now it's just - whatever I'm saying comes out in whichever speech pattern suits it better."

"Right. Anything else suited for the report?"

"I could produce all kinds of horrifying little details, but I think I'd rather spare you. You've got enough to be going on with, I'm pretty sure."

"Wise of you. You wouldn't like 'em."

"Not my delicate ears I'm worried about there."

"Eh. It's gotten so I can laugh about it."

"That was quick."

"Not since I was rescued," he clarifies. "Just in general. Although actually laughing in the moment tended to summon whole new levels of hell."

"Sorry. See why I'm worried about your delicate ears?"

"They will survive."

He shrugs. "Still, you rescued me, seems a poor turn to make you suffer the knowledge of exactly what you rescued me from."

"If you'd rather talk directly to the legal folks should they need more detail that can probably be arranged but they're harder to extract sympathy from."

"Is that what that was."

"...yes?"

"I don't have much experience with the concept. I'm not sure I understand how it works."

"Well, the way it works is I learn that awful things have befallen you, and then, because I have a soul, this is distressing and I feel rather like hugging you again."

"Oh. You can hug me again," he says. "If you want."

So Mark gets another hug.

"That's the way of things, yep."