"You're on the right track, but no... we were more or less zombies. It sucked for a lot of reasons, and not everybody who found out was thinking along the lines of a cure even though we didn't want to hurt anyone. I wound up kidnapped and experimented on, that's what actually killed me. They were picking the next test subject so I volunteered, to buy everybody else more time to be rescued."

Drake delivers this rundown completely straight, expression fairly neutral but entirely genuine. He's not hiding anything, anymore, and the reason for that is about to become apparent.

"When I woke up in another world after that, I was still a zombie, but in that place it was easier to manage most of the time, and it was so constantly dangerous there... my condition meant I could better protect people. So I lived like that for almost two years before asking to be made human again." If Patch is observant, she'll notice that at this point his hands shift a little, so he can start twisting a band on his ring finger. "Which I am, now. Nobody here's in danger from me, promise, that's why I figured it was safe enough to tell you."