"You think if I had a patch of ice right now I wouldn't jump on it? It's about survival. You've been in--and under--the Box. You know how it is." Yet despite that, Algidus still was somehow not expecting AJ to actually cave in and sit next to him. Then he realized that he had somehow talked himself into a metaphorical corner; now what did he do?

Nothing, apparently. Ever since his differentiation he had never just sat with anyone before. The alien actually fell silent, thick plumes of freezing mist billowing from his uncomfortably dry gills as he breathed.