[He sets down his own mug, leaning back and swinging one leg up over the other knee, grabbing his CereVice to page through it—whether for food, a game, or a movie or show. Handy little thing.]

Heh, good! That guy's too shameless! You can't go too soft on him, man, he'll take you for all you've got!

. . . Our school history—I dunno how much it's gotta do with us ending up like this. I mostly picked him 'cuz I didn't have many other options for guys I knew and trusted. You've already got your butler and all that, or I would've asked you, actually. Mostly, while you were gone, some crap went down with CERES and all the machines and apartments—

[He sighs, no longer really paying attention to what he's doing with his device.]

It was pretty freaky. I was already feelin' kinda weird and . . . lonely, I guess, living by myself, but then I got trapped in my apartment for a while and I couldn't even contact anyone, and—I just feel safer with someone else around! And . . . it's kinda nice, too. He'd already stayed the night a few times with me so I knew we'd probably be able to handle each other as roommates. . . . Probably.

[It's pretty different, though. But it's working out so far.]