"No!" He continues on, with a calmer voice, "I mean, no. Most of my work is finished. And...I would have thought of that, if I'd had time to focus, by the way."

Now he's surreptitiously...hiding things. Half-finished plans and mini-projects, like an insecure artist hiding his half-finished work so a visiting artistic rival couldn't judge it before it was done.

"Perhaps you should start telling me about your versions of the Legion and Colu, so we can understand the divergences."