To say she startles him is a bit like saying water is wet. Only just beginning to settle into the water, V doesn't notice her right up until the moment she breaks the surface with a spray of water, V's attention whips around to spot the woman rising from beneath the pools surface. His teeth click together as he clips off any undignified noise that might have wanted to eke out of him, and V's eyes flick over her even as he rolls the tension out of his shoulders and carefully presses his back into the lip of the pool once more.

"So it would seem," he replies, evenly enough. Though initially surprised, he doesn't seem to have too hard of a time in resuming his composure. "And who could blame us, given the oppressive humidity in here.

"One could almost mistake the place for a real rain forest." There remains, however, an undercurrent of skepticism in his voice. After all, who could transplant such an ecosystem to a mere greenhouse?