"Pfffft." Michael waves a hand dismissively. "I'll be fine. If I lose enough blood, I might lose this human shape, but I can survive that. This isn't even my final form."

Now, is he excited about going squid mode in front of a bunch of virtual strangers? Of course not! But here in Trench, it feels slightly safer - they've all got squid shapes somewhere deep down. He'll just play it off as something to do with that, or some weird quirk of the mindscape. No big deal.

"I'm not whatever the hell these guys are, but I'm also an extradimensional being. This is all fairly standard where I'm from."