[ Let's be real, Venom is invested in keeping this poor kid out of any more of their 1984-cultivated Bad Life Choices, so he'd be content to leave Solid well enough alone for the rest of his stay, if possible. There's only so much one man can take with regard to Snakes and Bosses and bipedal robots before it all gets a bit Much.

Cipher, the Boss's Will, Outer Heaven— that's all been Ishmael's story to write. All Captain Ahab is really required to do is try to kill the whale before the story ends, so he won't try to press Solid for details that are beyond his jurisdiction to control.

The answer seems to satisfy Venom. 'A drill instructor', huh.

Good to know that they'll all stay suckers for punishment. ]

Probably would have been better for you if you never did. [ That's as much of a sorry as he can give without it getting too trite. Really, there's nothing he can say or do to change what Solid already knows, and he won't do the guy a disservice by invalidating his trials with platitudes.

THAT SAID...]

Last thing. Forget whatever Kaz's told you about me. [ uh ] He tends to exaggerate. [ uh

Please interpret this as: 'if Kaz tried to tell you I'm a good person, please forget about it because it probably won't help. My bad.'

That said, he makes a motion with his remaining hand. 'Dismissed.' (Some habits die hard.) ]