{ ugh so sorry, i went on vacation for a million years -- i hope app season went well! }

[ Yes, all's clear here, absolutely Nothing Wrong™. Vague pleasantries all around, though even that much is easier when there's no long con running in the background, no Phantom Thieves versus Ace Detective narrative to guide them.

In a way, it's liberating—on the other hand, it's directionless, and all he really has to go on is some bad blood, left to gauge whether or not it's worth lingering on in the face of everything else. If he's made a decision, it doesn't show, expression staid as ever. ]

Naturally. You'd do the same for any of us, wouldn't you?

[ They're co-conspirators, after all. 'Comrades.' It's largely rhetorical—he glances at the screen for himself as though to be contrary. ]

Unease is understating it. You've chosen an unfortunate time to wake up, I'm afraid. [ Or maybe he's a harbinger of the end times. Haha. ]