"Right. Well, it doesn't have to be fish," they say, but they know Natalia already knows that. "And, you know, ideally you're not in as bad a state as I am, and you can get by with a motivator that's a little less strong than 'the grim specter of death'."

Their smile is way weaker than they want it to be. They aren't used to making jokes about this kind of thing; they probably aren't there yet. Time to move past it. "What kind of stuff do you like doing that isn't related to school?"