[success! they're not friends... yet!!! but this is definitely a start. things are already looking up, and Mikhail's easygoing smirk returns.]

Sure! You'll dish out some of that vigorous Ardainian discipline, if I step out of line. [nevermind, he's back to being gross.] But seriously, you don't have a thing to worry about. I... am a changed man. Or in the progress of becoming a changed man, anyway.

[redemption's never that easy, especially for someone who spent centuries stewing in misanthropy. but... a lot of things have been reminding him of how things used to be. even here, in this bizarre world after death, he can see faint traces of Emperor Hugo in Mòrag's steady glare.]