A cipher? [ of course he immediately recognizes ciphers he's... a bat... with a penchant for wordplay... and the key is right there... i hate him. speaking of that key, he points it out physically, tapping the book-- ] "V = F" means there's a good chance this is a simple letter shift. Not too hard to figure out... I... gimme a sec--

[ fine now he has an ic reason to look at the blinking light bulb because if This has a code, is there another hidden fun one in this room!

is he gonna explain why he's suddenly doing that? no. ]