When you unlock your lab door, Blankenship eyes your patterned key but makes no comment. The lab's lights are already on. A scrambling noise sounds from behind the ring of protection patterns. Gabriel pops his head through a gap in the tightly spaced patterns. His hair is mussed like he's been sleeping. "Hi, Dr. .. Oh, and Dr. Ellison." Then he grows utterly still at the sight of Blankenship.
Blankenship ignores Gabriel, instead peering around the lab. "I see you're using mixed-thread tapestries for your protection patterns. They'll do."
There's the stuck-up Dr. Blankenship you remembered. You'd wondered if his trip to another dimension had destroyed that aspect of his personality. He's not judging your protection patterns on the quality of their construction, but what you made them out of.
Great