"My level of 'mistake' is different from other people. I don't make little mistakes, just big ones. And I don't want to do that kind of thing anymore." His view of the world had been skewed; one wrongly timed joke had changed his life and put him in a gulag. Ilya didn't know how or why, but when he screwed up it tended to be a vivid thing, and these people were too nice to inflict himself on. Really, if it hadn't been this or SHIELD, he wouldn't be here at all. He's too inadequate.

"Um, about settling in - if I get a room mate, are they, uh, going to know about the whole fifty-nine-years-on-ice thing?" That's not a story he wants getting out among the other students.