*Fortunately he sends another message a few seconds later.
His hood is still up (cause its cold) but his mask is off. He doesn't look so great under it. His face is rather gaunt and terribly pale (lack of proper nutrition or sunlight for years will do that). His hair is messy and clearly cut by himself with no style other than to keep it short. He has a similarly scruffy and patchy start of a beard that's only barely beyond its five-o'clock-shadow phase but already obviously uneven.
His eyes are rather hollow and haunted, but he smiles anyway. Its awkward and out of practice, but its a real smile.

His voice is still hoarse though. Getting your sanity back doesn't east years of speaking as little as possible.*

Uh, hi. I-

*He cuts off for a few moments to cough. At least he doesn't spit anything up.*

--I'm different...for now. My death price is...I-I don't know. Loss of self? But I'm....

*Oh god, where was he going with this? What did he even want to say? He could have just...pretended everything was normal. But Zell was...his friends deserved to know. And he wanted to pass on something he'd never get the chance to do again.*

Thank you. While I can, I wanted to say-- *Short coughing spell goes here.* --to say thank you. For willing to be my friend.