open | excuse my ego, can't go incognito

[sophos]

Who: annabeth chase + perhaps you!
When: post emergence event, mid may into mid june
Where: thorne, the horizon, nocwich
What: post event stuff & catch all
Warnings: none right now! will add if/as needed!



[ open & closed starters in the comments! feel free to reach out communism or romanitas @ disco for wildcard plotting/custom starters, or adjust the set up of a prompt as needed! ]

Comments

CASTLE THORNE | OPEN

[sophos]

[ annabeth is a semi-frequent-flier in the castle's library, despite how little she's been in abraxas compared to other summoned. since her first few attempts at helping re-stock went sour due to misread labels and misunderstood sorting, she's a little less inclined to keep at it, preferring to simply gather a few and take over a table. after literally everything that's happened to her lately, this is familiar and a comfort, even if the subject matter is all new - but she's choosing to be excited about that newness. she knows how to research, and it's almost a soothing habit. she looks like she might have even been living here for a few days, if her absolute rats nest of curls tied into a haphazard bun and faint under eye bags is anything to go by. though perhaps that's also just standard annabeth. she is not nearly as put together as her stupid god self was. ]

[ the problem, of course, is it takes her much longer to read the books despite her voracity for it. even though it's not english and she magically knows it, the letters still spin and more often than not she's frowning in frustration as she stubbornly and determinedly plows forward, even if it sometimes gives her a headache. occasionally she can be found pressing her forehead with one hand and pointing through the words with her other. ]

[ and sometimes, the headaches and her general state of fatigue win out and annabeth straight up passes out at the table. she's slumped over, one arm stretched out, the other bent to serve as her pillow. even in sleep, her expression is a little hard. in her defense, her sleep schedule is the worst, and she is suffering a lack of coffee in this world (or if there is, she hasn't found it yet). she's a light sleeper, so it won't take much to wake her - even standard footsteps are likely to cause a stir, barring a set of twinkle toes. ]

[glaciare]

( Jill occupies her days when not learning magic by doing odd jobs around the Castle, eager to earn what small money she can -- she and Clive have never talked about moving out of their given room, but they don't need to exchange words to know that neither of them enjoy relying on Thorne for anything. Tending the library -- organizing books and reshelving others is an easy enough task to do for the sake of having their own funds.

Which is how Jill stumbles across Annabeth, though she doesn't mean to wake the teenager. Her tone is soft, but not timid as she addresses her: )

My apologies for waking you.

[sophos]

[ she jerks herself upright when she hears someone nearby, embarrassed but pretending not to be about falling asleep in a public space. she just hopes there aren't any red marks on her face from leaning on her arm too long. ]

[ still, despite being upright, it takes annabeth a few moments to gather her wits. she can be a monster to wake up on a good day. she takes in the sight of the woman, familiar in an idle way - she was at the welcome party, which simultaneously feels like yesterday and forever ago. ]

[ annabeth shakes her head, to both jar herself and brush off the apology. ]

It was more like an unintended catnap. Better you than a flying book. [ she doesn't need to acknowledge how light a sleeper she is, especially when she's by herself. ]

HORIZON | OPEN

[sophos]

[ annabeth's domain sits at the edge of what looks like a summer camp. she'd been a little wary about coming back into here after - whatever the fuck that whole god illusion was, but she couldn't stay away, for a lot of reasons. she was already fascinated by it beforehand, and if the singularity is going to fuck with her again, the least she can do is try to understand the part of it she can access in the horizon. so, she tries to pop in at least once a day, half out of spite against her fear of what she became in that strange fake future. she will figure it out, or else. ]

[ there is a part of her that still feels the small temptation that comes with the power of creation here, and even though she's very much giving into her imagination, annabeth is just as determined to never come close to who she was as the patron of the craft. she has to understand it. this time, she always seems to think, she'll keep a better hold of herself. ]

[ the athena cabin - a grey, studious looking log cabin with an owl for a center piece along the roof - marks the official start of her domain, planted firmly at the edge of a wider camp half-blood shared with other demigods. in the distance, there's a climbing wall flowing with literal lava and several other cabins, all with their own unique decors. if the door is open, annabeth will be at work decorating her cabin's interior. in theory it resembles a summer camp layout: multiple beds shoved against one wall, trunks, shelves, and tables, but this one is also full of what some might consider "nerd shit" - books and scrolls, planning boards, workbenches, maps, alongside miscellaneous classical looking weaponry and armor. frowning thoughtfully, she folds up one of the beds into a chair, then slides it away the wall. people should have a place to sit? she guesses? any footsteps will immediately be met by her head whipping around and a slight glower on her face at being interrupted. ]

Does Horizon etiquette preclude knocking?

[ or, if the door is closed, follow the path that begins just outside it. it starts as dirt and turns into work-in-progress cobblestone weaving through lemon trees and a few statues. at the top, there is annabeth looking very deep in thought as she stares at the other piece of her horizon - a house. one that looks midway through some construction. ]

[ the house is currently missing a few windows and an entire roof, but it's starting to resemble a very large, two story log cabin, with a long wrap-around porch and nearly quadruple the size of the athena cabin. the front door - also missing - is wide, and a glance inside hints at bookshelves and lots of space. it takes her a few moments to realize she has company. ]

Don't go inside.

[ it's not dangerous, it's just not done. ugh, company. staring hard at the house and not the aforementioned company, she begins shaping the roof, plastering shingles on meticulously. ]

[diametrically]

[ Cassian has stayed away from the Horizon for the same reason that Annabeth has: he doesn't trust it. If he hadn't already been paranoid about this magical in-between place before (he was), he certainly is now (and probably more than before). But no matter how hard he may try, he can't push aside the ever persistent tug of something calling him back towards it.

The trips are short-lived, less than ten minutes at a time. He's only there to ensure that his perpetual mess of a scrapyard is in place and that Bee, the only reason he's there at all, is okay. As much as common sense rages against this make believe magic the part of him that is still tied to Ferrix is called back time and time again. He can't abandon them. He will not forget.

Just before he's about to leave that day he notices a new domain has emerged in the distance. So many of the domains here are in stark contrast to his but he can't deny his curiosity. Without thinking he takes off, Bee quietly whirring along beside him to keep him company as he has done every time he comes to visit.

Following the dirt path eventually leads him to the owner of the domain. His heart aches slightly with a foreign familiarity at the sight of her in a way that he has to fight to push down. The last time they had spoken they'd fought, butting heads against a reality that was inevitable and a dream that had dug its claws into them. Thankfully being as consumed as she is in her work gives him some time to collect himself. By the time her stern warning comes all of his emotions are back in check - including his wryness. He raises an eyebrow as he steps up beside her, Bee flanking him to peer curiously at the building from behind his legs. ]

Do you usually spend time with people who would just walk right into a building under construction?

[sophos]

[ she recognizes the voice, and it trips her up in her ministrations - one of the shingles bends as she sets it into place, and annabeth scowls, disappearing it entirely to start it over. but she pauses in her construction and draws in a breath, trying to steady herself. it's not that she was avoiding cassian (alyx? she should ask him). she was kind of avoiding everything. ]

[ but even just hearing him reminds her of their fake familiarity and closeness that still feels a little real to her. there's a part of her that is almost sad it wasn't real, because all things considered, he'd been a good brother to her for eight hundred years. she's had some shitty experiences, to say the least. the last time she saw him she'd been resisting the truth, arguing and fighting him, and knowing now how much it took to get her out of it, she feels like she should apologize to him too. ]

[ she'll get there. first she has to turn around and face him. which she does, jaw tight in a weird nervousness without the same time to brace herself for it. he didn't have to approach her, but he's here and tried to engage her, so maybe things won't be bad. she's still a bundle of awkwardness that she's trying her best to hide by holding herself up high and proud. ]

Yes, actually. Sometimes it's where you need to go. [ she's including herself in that, but she's not going to say that. her attention flickers immediately to the robot beside him, and her curiosity breaks through some of the tension lining in her bones, her train of thought pivoting briefly. thanks, adhd. ] You have a robot?

[diametrically]

[ Because his eyes are fixed on the roof that she's working on he notices the way a meticulous shingle should have been and how it's punished for the mistake of bending. He manages to wrestle the twitch of his lips into stillness - but it is a sign that he hadn't been the only one between the two of them that might not have been expecting this interaction. At least not this soon.

Living in close proximity, confined as pets on a pedestal in a castle means it's difficult to avoid the other Summoned. It was only going to be a matter of time before they crossed paths. It might have been similar to this. Or maybe their reactions would be reversed. Eight hundred of fake knowledge still lingers at the back of his mind and he can pick up on the slight strain of a young woman trying to appear like everything is perfect and that everything is under control. That she isn't bothered one bit about someone becoming a perfect stranger again.

Thankfully there's a buffer: Bee.

His eyes flur from her and back down to Bee who now looks up at her with the same curious air. ]

Droid.

[ He gestures. ]

This is Bee. He's a friend.

[ There's whirring as the droid wheels in front of Annabeth, his metallic voice ringing out. "Nice to meet you, A-a-a-annabeth. Your domain is very nice. It's doesn't look like anything I've s-s-seen before." ]

[unresponsives]

I was just about to now.

( which heather really had been, her footsteps echoing more than she'd expected on the wooden floor, her hand raised towards the door, but annabeth had heard and caught her before she could do it.

it's the first time she's visited someone else's horizon, outside of istredd's introduction, anyway, so she's not quite certain what to do. or what this is. but she'd wanted to check in on annabeth )

Hey.

[sophos]

[ the harshness in her expression at being interrupted dampens once she hears and sees it's heather, becoming something a little apologetic. annabeth gets in the zone and gets annoyed when it's disrupted. some things never change, and maybe it even comforts her a little when she realizes. ]

Sorry. [ she hurries it out quick, genuine but no less eager to get it over with. ] Hi. Um. Welcome, I guess.

[ she liked heather well enough before the collective hallucination, but she knows they got closer during it, and maybe it's a little hard to shake. and it's not like she knows how to... welcome people into her domain, not when she sort of wishes she didn't have to. at least it's the athena cabin. ]

[ but it's also the first time she's seen heather since they've been back, and she's still in the midst of grappling with who she was for a few fake centuries, so there's a little underlying awkwardness even as she stands up tall and pretends otherwise. ]

[satanicpanics]

Jesus Christ.

[ It’s pretty clear that Eddie hasn’t run into a whole lot of closed doors in the Horizon. He’s been in Abraxas for two years, and he’s meandered his way through new and old domains with minimal resistance. But he gets it—even if the edges of domains are blurred and hazy, this is still her place. So he rolls his eyes, takes a step backward, and knocks “shave and a haircut” on the wood of the open door. ]

There. Better? All forgiven?

[ Of course it is! He grins and doesn’t even wait for Annabeth’s response before he steps back inside. He lets his gaze sweep over the beds and trunks and tables, and he doesn’t know what’s with these kids and their summer camp thing but hey, what does he know? He’s never been to summer camp in his life. Maybe it’s a truly religious experience. It doesn’t matter anyway, because he doesn't dwell on those things. He's all about that collection of nerd shit--the books, the armor, the maps. When he takes that in, his grin only widens. ]

You know, maybe it was the whole owl thing, but I thought I smelled a nerd.

[sophos]

[ there is a lot for annabeth to still learn about horizon rules, and she might have bypassed that in favor of immediately getting creative with her own. perhaps that backfired a bit, but at least she's really getting the immersive experience as people meander in without warning. ]

[ she wrinkles her nose when he belatedly knocks, barely resisting the urge to roll her eyes. but he did grant her the knock, albeit in the most sarcastic way possible, and the snark of it almost feels like something she might do, so she'll let it slide. he steps inside immediately after and she tries not to grimace, because that was the whole point of setting up the athena cabin this way - the starting point. she's literally here redecorating to create a space for people to just burst in. ]

[ except when he drops the nerd word, she physically cannot restrain it, and her eyes finally roll. ] Because no one's ever called me a nerd before. The owl is a symbol of Athena.

Do I know you?

NOCWICH | OPEN

[sophos]

[ it was closed when annabeth was first pulled into this world, and she has to admit there was disappointment - the horizon is well enough to find people in other territories, but it's different to be in person. she's also just curious about nocwich in general, a cove of werewolves and vampires that she doesn't even question existing. she hails from a place where hellhounds and empousa are real. so when it re-opens at the start of the new month, she and percy are there. maybe their friends will be too. ]

[ she wanders about oleuni square, attention bouncing between the layout of the square itself - the designs, the positions, the stage - and the bustle of the crowd. there's a lot happening, and it's all incredibly new, so her brain is trying to take in everything at once - which she's not too bad at when things are this busy. she has a fairly easy time observing, and she doesn't miss a beat - or a familiar face, though whether it's only familiar thanks to eight hundred imaginary years as a god is another story. eye contact with another summoned has her going for the first thing that pops in her head to avoid anything about heralds or patrons and anything in between. ]

Are the... plays any good? [ sure, small talk, she'll give it a whirl. better to start there, given the proximity to the stage. she knows a few good greek ones, that definitely don't exist here. ]

[ at one of the stalls she picks up a spool of yarn, mouth opening in a small 'o' of surprise at how soft it is. it feels weird to use werewolf fur for something, considering what she thinks she knows about how they're supposed to work (they're still people, aren't they? sometimes?? it also feels rude to ask here in their territory, and she forgot to preemptively look into the exact mechanics of lycanthropy of this world, her bad), but it's tempting nonetheless. apparently she can weave. maybe she can knit too? catch her thoughtfully comparing two different spools in conjecture with her disbelief that she's actually considering it. ]

[cryptsleeper]

Define good.

[Alucard is well aware of how the crowds are ebbing and flowing at the moment. The Square being closed for three months has brought even more of Luna's and Ikorr's residents to space, never mind the Summoned who have all due cause to see each other in person.

Hemming closer to the theatre at the moment is a consideration for space and little more. The stalls are nigh impossible to walk through at the moment, and Alucard is not as rude as to elbow others at the moment.]

[sophos]

[ she pauses over the question, trying to decide how to answer him. good is pretty subjective, she supposes, and she has no sense of what the standards might be. ]

Entertaining? Either in a so bad it's laughable kind of way or genuinely charismatic. Presumably they don't have any Sophocles here.

[ not that she even knows if this man will understand her reference. annabeth has met people from other planets, where ancient greek playwrights don't exist anymore than they do in abraxas, so it's well within the realm of possibility. ]

[beautifullies]

[ Claire's trying to find ways to distract herself, to not sink into thinking about what things could be, what she's lost literally in terms of her garden and bees, and the false life she'd truly loved. There isn't anything she wants to purchase, but she doesn't mind browsing.

The sound of someone dropping a large stage prop causes her to glance over, and she meets Annabeth's eyes, causing a flurry of feelings in quick succession. The remembered warmth of a mother-in-law who wanted a daughter, who loved this connection she had, causes her eyes to warm. Then the forced realization that it was all manufactured by the Singularity, causes her heart to drop.

Mustering a small smile, she slips her hands into her skirt pockets. ]

I...wouldn't say they're awful. It can be hit or miss, depending on the story.

[ She pauses a beat before quietly adding: ]

Hello, Annabeth.

[sophos]

[ she recognizes the voice and turns a little slowly, trying to swallow back that sense of deep familiarity she gets with it - the warmth and affection of a mother-in-law who treated her like a regular daughter. it was all fake, but she finds she misses a lot of those close connections she had - even while she struggles against who she became during it. ]

[ annabeth is so unused to warm mothers. it took ages for her to accept sally's freely given affection, and looking at claire, something in her aches a little missing it from her too. but it's not like she knows how to... navigate it, especially when she feels like she's done very little to warrant it. ]

Hi, Claire. [ well. she's certainly a far cry from the god she was when they first "met," now back to her regular teenage self. she overcompensates her internal awkwardness by simply pivoting back to the plays, even though she doesn't actually care to talk about it that much. ]

Sounds like most plays. But I've never seen a werewolf performance before. [ she pauses. ] Percy said you're in Solvunn, like, normally.

BORREL | OPEN

[sophos]

[ there's a lot to do and see in borrel, and that's without the upcoming start to the festival. annabeth arrives with percy and is repeatedly seen with him during the course of the day here, but he flitters in and out, and she succumbs to her own distractions. the lack of violent storms certainly makes it easier to get a sense of the town. it's also just nice to get out of the castle for a little while. ]

[ she likes the sea glass. her hand absently goes to her neck, where her camp necklace is not resting as always, so she just scratches a fake itch before dropping it back to her side as she continues to admire the abundance of it. the architecture here is not dissimilar from thorne proper, and she's starting to notice the patterns of this territory, but there is something that stands out to her immediately as she takes in the structures and design of borrel. ]

[ speaking to absolutely no one, except perhaps the building she's standing in front of: ] They use a lot of clay...

[ near the end of the day, she sits in the sand on the shoreline, knees up with a notebook braced on her legs. the view of the water is very nice, but she's very focused on the drawing in front of her instead, which looks more like a series of lines and numbers, with any words written deliberately in ancient greek. she doesn't seem bothered by sitting in the sand itself rather than a blanket, and her shoes are kicked off lazily nearby. it's been a long day! she's unwinding with a free draw design, the outline of what looks like the beginnings of a house on a quick glance. ]

[ approach, however, or even cross enough in her path for it, and she won't look up as the shadow casts over her. ]

You're blocking my light.

[starscollapse]

It is yours alone?

[ The light, that is. A joke. She's...attempting a joke, though it may be indiscernible given her stoic expression. ]

I will sit, unless you wish to be left alone.

[ Spoken with her clipped Dathomiri accent similar to Russian. Her hands are folded behind her back, and it wasn't her intention, of course, to block light and intrude on what the young girl is doing, but she's curious by nature.

Should she truly wish to be left alone, Merrin will leave, but for now, she sits down in the sand, keeping what feels to her like a respectable distance between them. With her free hand, she runs her fingers through the sand, gathering some of it up within her palm to study it before letting the grains slip between her fingers. Then she looks over, nodding at the notebook and asking aloud — ]

You use this to hold your thoughts?

[ She hadn't looked closely, of course, not wanting to infringe on her privacy. She only assumes the notebook is like Istredd's, gathering thoughts and collecting data. ]

[sophos]

[ she wrinkles her nose at the joke, but there's really no argument to be had, nor does she say anything when the woman sits down in the sand. she's being respectful enough, and it's an open beach. besides, annabeth does want to get a sense of her fellow summoned. she's pretty sure this woman is a summoned, at least. the accent doesn't sound local, and it almost sounds like it could be eastern european. ]

[ annabeth briefly gets distracted by the way the sand falls through the woman's fingers, to the point that it takes a moment or two for the question to sink in. she shakes her head, not at the query so much as at herself. ]

Yeah, I guess. Thoughts, ideas, drawings. Close enough. [ she pauses and actually spares a second to make sure her tone doesn't sound rude so much as just curious. she could be from a place where papers like this don't exist. ] Have you... not seen a notebook before?

BORREL | CLOSED Ω PERCY

[sophos]

[ she's still sitting in the sand as the sun slowly creeps downward; it's not quite sunset, but it's getting there, soon. annabeth finds a comfort in being near the water, and not just because of percy. camp is on the long island sound. the smells and the sounds of the sea lapping the shoreline echo across her childhood, of year round summer camp and the first place she really felt like she belonged. ]

[ there's a basket of food waiting beside her, with a few sandwiches she picked up for dinner - a few, because she knows he'll eat at least two after he's done swimming with the fishes and weird whales some of the locals were telling her about earlier. percy's been in the water for - what, an hour? sometimes she's a little time-blind. but they'll have to head back to the castle for the night soon, and she doesn't have a knife to throw into the sea to catch his attention, so hopefully the ocean spits him out sooner rather than later. she supposes tossing the sandwich in might be an option too. he snoozes (swims?), he loses. ]

[ part of her feels silly waiting here, when she could be wandering more, seeing more of borrel, but the other part of her wants to get back to this kind of ocean boyfriend normalcy - where she hangs out on the sand and he does something stupid when he comes back out and tells her all the stupid fish gossip she doesn't actually care about but listens with stupid amusement anyway. she doesn't want to be dramatic about it. she just wants the surf to send out a regular boy so she can get the other images out of her head of a very fake life. this one in front of her is far better. ]

[ she doesn't like feeling awkward around him. but if percy doesn't come out soon she is gonna start eating without him. ]

[seaweedbrain]

[ Try as he might to put a little more effort into blending in with the other folks at the castle, the magical nerd types, Percy finds that he just doesn't have it in him. At least not yet. Maybe it's because of that woefully pathetic first attempt at magic, the one that had sent him into a trance, that has him holding back — or maybe it's the fact that being with familiar things like the ocean and the stables are some of his last ties to the life he'd left behind, with all of its hardships and responsibilities, and he can't quite let any of it go.

Either way, there's always something noticeably calming about spending a little time under the water, doubly so when he gets to speak with the fish-folk and other myriad of underwater critters. They've seriously got some of the funniest stories, and none of them involve regaling tales of his dad's sea castle renovations, which is almost a relief.

Anyway, an hour or so spent underwater does wonders for Percy's mind and body, its healing effects no doubt a result of his godly heritage. He feels stronger after a dip in the saltwater, and more energized, like he could run a couple laps around the nearby village and barely break a sweat. It's easy to go time-blind when the waters are generally dark anyway, but luckily for Annabeth (and his share of the sandwiches) that she doesn't have to wait too long.

The water ripples and the surface breaks, and a teenage boy emerges like he's simply leaving his room: he's completely dry, his hair its trademark windswept, and his clothing (the usual Thorne fare) dry and wrinkle-free, and very of this time. As he steps out onto the sandy beach, he stretches his shoulders and searches the shoreline for his girlfriend, casual as ever. ]

You wouldn't believe some of the stuff they've got down there.

[ Percy flops down next to her, eying the basket. ]

Also, I'm starving. Hi.

[sophos]

[ her attention snaps to him as soon as she sees him pop out of the water, and something in her sinks with relief. it's like she wants to recommit the sight to her memory, or maybe just have this be the fresher one than a sea monster greeting her at the shoreline. the casual stroll and casual look and casual everything settles her. ]

[ she much prefers percy as a boy. ]

[ he flops over beside her, and she tilts in to bop her shoulder against his, then leans in mroe to give him the quickest peck on the cheek. ]

I feel like my threshold for believability is shifting every day. Try me.

[ time to be a little mean. she puts her hand on top of the basket. ]

Who says I got food for you?

CASTLE THORNE | CLOSED Ω WILHELM

[sophos]

[ annabeth's mind is swimming roughly 75% of the time on the regular, but it's been kind of on overdrive since the singularity spit them all back out and she arrived back in thorne, with very little to do but think. most of the time she's okay with that. lately, sometimes, she would rather not. it's a good thing she's pissed off at her mother. but considering how closely she'd come to resemble her mother, it's like a cycle of agitation. ]

[ she's traipsing across the castle grounds roughly a week after returning to thorne, passing by some of the late morning sessions, when she spies wilhelm. she pauses, but he looks like he's either finished or between trainings, so she makes a bit of a beeline in his direction without giving herself time to really overthink it. ]

Hey. [ it does not sound like a proper greeting so much as a call for attention. there's a difference! she moves closer to where he's sitting and crosses her arms. she's come out of the illusion with a streak of gray through her hair, but otherwise she looks the same as before it. ] Is that bike offer still on the table?

[ should she probably ask how he's been? yes. is she going to? no. she saw him and thought of the bikes and decided why the fuck not? it's a good a time as any, and she could use distractions. ]

[ordinar]

[Since they woke up from the shared delusion that they were gods, Wilhelm has tried to settle back into his old routine. But there are holes in it, in the shape of all the hours Kelson used to occupy, and so he can't help but feel displaced. With whatever glimmer of optimism he can find, he takes it as a sign of growth — painfully inching and incremental — that he does all he can, for as long as he can, to avoid melting back into bed in the middle of the day. That can wait until the sun slants into evening at least.

This morning, when he's done training with Kyle, he tests his skills in spars with some of the greener guards. When he began his lessons, he was apprehensive of having an audience, but now he's cultivated a bit of confidence. Annabeth finds him as he's catching his breath, crumpled in the grass. Stray hair sticks to his sweaty forehead.

Wilhelm perks up, attention caught. With several centuries of fake memories scrambling his brain, it takes him a moment to remember why she looks familiar. Right. The bikes. They'd talked about it a while ago.]

Uh, yeah. You want to go right now?

[No need for how have you beens. They've all had a hell of a month. He hauls himself up to his feet, trying to set his hair straight.]

[sophos]

[ perhaps annabeth's biggest problem is she hadn't quite been able to establish a routine for herself that flowed exactly the way she liked before the singularity did its thing. she hadn't had a baseline normalcy after escaping tartarus, and even before that things were hectic at home - she's trying though. maybe a bike will be part of it. ]

[ she registers that he's been training and she wonders if maybe she can start doing that here too, at least to keep up with herself. she needs somewhere to expel energy. ]

[ she does have the wherewithal to give him a somewhat apologetic look once she fully realizes his messier state. just because she wasn't in the middle of something doesn't mean he might not have plans. ]

If that works for you. But I can always come back later. Were you finished training? [ things she should have asked first. ]