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The dog, of course, was pretty calm, panting happily even though it did fidget from time to time, clearly not a fan of being held. Still, it was trained to be calm until ordered otherwise, so it took it with stride.

"Really?" He snorted, rolling his eyes as he stared at the floating tree in the distance, and the immaculate speck that Valerie claimed was Elizabeth and Sherspire. "After everything we've seen you think that-"

"Don't challenge her." The other woman sighed. "She doesn't have to be a genius to be smarter than you."

"Oh, like you're one to talk. Remind me again where the cap I-"

"Shut it."

"It's your job to find people yet you spent a full twenty minutes-"

"-I said shut it!"

She gave him a little push, he gave her a bigger push, and now the entire platform was shaking and rocking like a boat at sea. Richard "whee'd".

~*~

"Meh." Elizabeth immediately lost interest in the topic, and merely stared out into the morning sky, idly staring at the dots waiting for one to find definition. The nest was alive, albeit barely, with people walking from place to place, the odd jeep rolling behind them up or down the tree. And yet, they watched. And soon enough, a ship did start coming in, bearing Judath's flag, making for a dock near the bottom of the nest.

"I think that's us." She hummed, slowly pulling herself to her feet. "Time to skidaddledo."

It wasn’t an easy climb down, at least, not since they were taking an unorthodox route. With little else to do with her time (how did the common folk spend their time on this earth without travel, food, entertainment, and culture? At least when you’re poor you can spend your time running from the police and going hungry) she had been mapping out the entire nest. She had lost most of her old agility she enjoyed as a child, but she was still sure-footed and could instantly identify what could be walked on and what should be avoided, so together they were taking a little ‘shortcut’ she had discovered that would get them there twenty minutes faster, with only about 40% more chance of falling to their deaths.

Fortunately, neither of them died on their way down, and the two of them landed fairly comfortably on the road just outside the bay where the ship was currently slowly floating in. Or, more precisely, where it was floating still, and the Nest moved into it, swallowing it into the bay.

The ship creaked as the balloon deflated and the base landed into a series of extended magnetic grips, which securely held the ship and lowered it to the ground without damaging anything in the process. Still people were around, mindless of Emily and Carnifex as they found an out-of-the-way corner to watch in, to make sure nothing got broke any worse than it had too.

Crates were being lifted in mass off the ship, which was seemingly designed for transport, and it was hard to tell one box apart from another. Elizabeth frowned, arms folded across her chest, and huffed.

“Geeze. Which box is ours?”

She couldn't tell them apart at all. They were labeled, sure, but they were too far away to read any of them distinctly. The boxes came in all shapes and sizes, and while some were being tossed effortlessly around, others had to be moved with massive machines. It didn't help that they didn't know the first thing about whatever it is Judath was up too--it could be as light as a newly discovered gas, or it could be as heavy as a captured creature pulled from the deep seas. But as she glanced between the boxes and Carnifex, she noticed his eyes widen, and some tingle of awareness appear in it.

A moment later, he confirmed her suspicion: that was the crate they wanted.

"Well, your instinct is better than nothing, old man. Let's get to creepin'."

The box was, indeed, loaded into a separate van--little more than a motorbike than a proper auto--and sent on its way, with the two of them to follow behind as best they could. Namely, they could follow the freshly made skid marks, and simply look for the building where the bike was parked. It wasn't long before they found it was, in fact, parked just outside the lab from earlier. The forbidden one.

However, it hadn't been unloaded yet. The deliverer and some scientists were having a discussion, while the box sat unopened and strapped to the back of the bike. Seemed like now was the time to strike, but... that wasn't her job.

“Crazy distraction?” She raised an eyebrow, a sly, lazy smile crawling up her face. “Alright, you asked for it. Just keep your eyes on the prize, gramps. And don’t…”

She paused for a moment, before shrugging.

“Ah, heck, like I care if you judge me.”

She stepped forward, waiting until she was a safe distance away from Carnifex, and the side of the truck with the box, before she made a very, very loud noise—a mix of a drunken groan and what must have been a small orgasm. The conversation the men had been having stopped immediately as she staggered up to them, giggling a little, fluttering her eyes.

“Hey boys~”

She waved. They waved back, and were moments away from ignoring her once again, before she stepped forward.

“Hey. Hey, I’m frightened….”

“Miss, we’re very busy and-“

“I, I just realized… life is short, and… I don’t want to die, d-die with regret, you know?”

She hickuped.

“B-bad dreams and everything.”

“…miss, you need to go back to your room, now. You don’t-”

“I-I just don’t want it to say, on my tombstone, I was never ******** in the a**.”

“This is a- wait, what?”

“Yeah.” She lamented, hoisting up her dress and wiggling out of her undergarments, exposing her uncovered underside for the world to see. “Look at this,” She bends over, peeling her cheeks apart to show off her surprisingly well-groomed underside. “It’s all tight and… unexplored and s**t. Hey, you wanna help with that? Anyone?”

There was a stunned, awkward silence. The building could have exploded and no one would have moved.

"Seriously you can just use a finger if you want, just... make the appropriate grunts, not like I could tell the difference."