"Huh. Well, moot now, unless his accomplices need killing."

"I don't care about them. They probably can't escape without his help, and if they do and come after me I can kill them then."

"Right." Pause. "I think I know how he grabbed me. How'd he get you?"

"He sent me a message telling me to erase the message log and then meet him. I could have stayed in your room and had panic attacks until someone found me, and hoped it wasn't him breaking in to punish me... but you weren't home yet, and you should've been. So I figured he had you. And there might be a chance I could do something about it if I went, but not much of one if I stayed."

"...You're welcome," he says. "If that's the phrase."

"It is, usually, though nobody'd fault you for tweaking it to snark at me here, I think."

"Yeah, I brought some food back earlier but it all got cold. I could go get another plate, if you'd eat it now and don't want to go to the cafeteria."

"That would be... nice. Thank you."

Mark has progressed to sitting upright by this point.

Then he can have a plate on his lap.

"Are you going to move into this room until they want it for something else?" Ivan asks after he's set Mark down.

"I don't know. I just came here so I could be maximally depressing without getting in your way. I can go back," he shrugs. "Seems like I'm not maximally depressing anymore."

"I mean, considering the circumstances, 'oh look, a total absence of Mark, he's probably off being a lump somewhere' would have been rather depressing all by itself, if I'd been in my room rather than not."

"I hadn't thought of it that way."

"Perspective!"

"Is that what that is."

"Yep. I think so, anyway, don't let anybody tell you I'm an expert."