NAS&MEbn38 (but let's just call it the Mail Exchange)

Following the mission co-ordinates would land Sleuth and Hyde in the centre of a circular red carpet, in the middle of a spacious antechamber with a high, domed ceiling. The floor beneath the carpet was white tiles, and a series of four fluted columns marked the corners of the chamber, reaching all the way to the dome above. Between the columns on three sides, wall-length windows recessed and curved outwards, given a feeling of roundness to the architecturally square room. the view beyond the windows was partly obscured by gauzy drapes, but seemed to look out over a sprawling metropolis of some kind.

Directly ahead, the remaining wall was occupied by what was patently a reception desk of some description. It rose to chest height, and was made of white stone, with a patterned marble top, and formed a broad curve. The space behind the desk formed an alcove, with a further billboard above, marking the location as 'Netopia Ad Service and Mail Exchange Branch 38'. To either side of the desk, stairs curved away upwards, to a second floor that apparently housed lifts, transit lines and other jumps for getting about the data space. Despite the height of the counter, the female manning it wasn't obscured from sight; chances were the desk was elevated precisely to give the impression of having to look up to the receptionist. Either that, or most of the people who visited here were just really tall.

The woman behind the counter had pale pink skin and white hair, which was cropped into something of a pixie cut. Half-rim glasses with silver frames didn't block her ability to make eye contact with either Sleuth or Hyde when they arrived; her eyes were an overly bright blue, verging on radiant. For what either would would be able to see upon approaching the desk, she was wearing a professional black blazer with a blank name badge on the breast. Quit the breast it was, though; at least one size or two above what might be considered proportionally average for her build. The blazer buttoned low enough to show a white blouse underneath, which in turn was buttoned low enough to show a notable tract of cleavage. Other features of note included a pair of neat horns that emerged from her temples and reached up to delicate points after only a couple of inches, as well as what appeared to be a long sinuous tail with a heart-shaped point at the end. the tail was moving about taking small cylinders from various slots in the wall behind her desk and inserting them in others at a fairly continuous pace. If either Sleuth or Hyde approached of greeted the woman, she would look up from some piece of paperwork in front of her and smile for them with a set of full, pout-ready lips that bore enough red to set them apart form her skin tone without conflicting it.

"Welcome to Branch Thirty-Eight of Netopia's Ad Service and Mail Exchange. What can I help you with today?" Her voice was smooth and welcoming, but also bore the hints of rote repetition; this was probably understandable though, all signs given.

Determined not to let Hyde ruin the first impression again with another ridiculous horse-and-pony show, Sleuth showed up unfashionably early, immediately after accepting her mission through the GNA. She was pretty tall, but not exactly "really" tall by navi standards, so Sleuth found that the desk was a little taller than she was comfortable with. "Still... mail exchange, hm? This is certainly a professional, if inconspicuous, start to an investigation, if there ever was one," Sleuth thought to herself, though there was no evidence so far that she was actually solving a mystery this time. "Not that there's anything wrong with that. It certainly bodes a certain shareworthiness that was lacking in the Case of the Missing Diddler."

The centerpiece of the room was definitely the mail-sorter at the center of the room, who, by Sleuth's estimation, was significantly overqualified for her position in terms of sexiness, granted her figure, manner of dress, and her devilish features. "Oh! How intriguing. It's like something from a cartoon... Mail sorters evolved to e-mail, then e-mail to navis, and then navis to mail-sorters! Dohoho," she chuckled, starting it off right with a possibly offensive joke. "Ah, but then what am I, a detective who relies upon interviews and theory-crafting in a world of codes designed to retrieve information in mere milliseconds?" Spreading her arms wide, she attempted to step to the side of the desk a bit, possibly to get a better view of the horned lady, or just so that she'd stop feeling so short leering over the desk.

"My dear lady! I am Sleuth; here, have a business card. You might call me up some time, if you have a mystery that needs solving," she advertised with a wink, offering a card in one gloved hand and retracting it back into her coat if it was not taken. "And to whom do I have the pleasure of addressing?" a vacant smile adorned her face as she got what was likely a brief response, given that the lady hadn't offered her name to begin with. "My associate, Hyde, who shall arrive in mere moments, and I are here to assist in... hmmmm... an issue of relaxation! However, I have no client name, only this mysterious identification: 'MD832'. But perhaps all you need is an extra pair of hands," she offered, wiggling her fingers as well as her eyebrows. "To help sort the mail?" she added, grinning like a fool.

Hyde arrived at the mail exchange with all of her clothing on, her cape drawn around her, standing up straight, and perfectly silent, all good indicators that she was in her less excitable mental state. Her arrival just barely preceded Sleuth offering a business card and introducing herself. She took a moment to glance around her: she wasn't familiar with this type of facility, and imagined that only those who regularly worked in one such facility would be. She idly wondered how common foot traffic was in the area.

The doctor cleared her throat, stepping towards the desk and smiling politely. "Greetings. My name is Hyde... I'm afraid I don't have a business card. I'm a licensed doctor, but not currently practicing... In any case, as Sleuth has said, we're hoping to make contact with the anonymous client who spoke to us... is that you, or are we intended to receive... mail correspondence from them?" She was venturing a guess carefully now: she'd gotten a better look at the other woman, now. She knew it wasn't fair, but, inside, she was desperately praying the mail sorter didn't have anything to do with their mission. Her appearance had a not-subtle sensuality to it that immediately recalled memories of other acquaintances she'd met recently. "With Sleuth around, it's a sure bet that she'd pull us both into her perverse games... I need to be the respectable one here."

For the sake of politeness, Hyde moved an arm out of her cloak to grab her hat and move it in front of her, holding it in both hands. After doing so, Hyde surveyed the room again, idly, with a different set of eyes. She cast her eyes forward to the mail sorter again. Her eyes didn't rest at eye level, now, but a bit lower. "I think our client may be the type of person who has interest in 'massages,' of sorts... You know, you look as though you might be one such person! You and my partner both look as though you might need shoulder massages rather frequently," she added in a polite tone. She moved her hand to cover her mouth, presumably to stifle a giggle (Sleuth would probably recognize it as more of a snigger). "Not that I'm judging! Or complaining."

Upon being offered Sleuth's business card, the receptionist took it between the fingers of one hand, then passed it back over her shoulder in a single smooth action. When the card left her fingers, it disappeared in a small puff of flames; a charitable person might assume she'd stored it away safely, and that the flames were just her personal aesthetic. Someone feeling less charitable might think... otherwise. Either way, her expression didn't change as she listened to the two women who had show up at her desk. When Sleuth mentioned the contact name they'd been given, though, she let out a small, derisive laugh that she quickly cut short.

"That trull? Hah... She's got far too much work to be seeing visitors." She looked between Sleuth and Hyde, unimpressed, and raised an eyebrow as Hyde delved into some slightly suggestive entendre. "Especially not that kind of visitor. That's what got her in trouble in the first place." Even so, she shook her head and sighed, then shrugged, gesturing to the stairway on her right with a pen held in her left hand.

"Up the stairs, take the third elevator to the eightieth floor, third hallway down, second door on your right. Tell her that if she doesn't make her quota today she can expect another demotion, and remind her from me that if she gets herself any deeper she'll be on replication work before long." directions aside, it might be a bit awkward for the mystery solvers to give a 'from her' to their client, since the reception lady hadn't given them a name, even when asked, and her name tag was perfectly blank.

Regardless of how they took the professional distance and mutual employee derision, it seemed that the receptionist was, thankfully, just that, and had pointed them towards their actual contact. though one might wonder why they hadn't simply been linked to the once they were supposed to meet more directly. If they followed the directions accurately, they'd find that the decor of the home page continued in the same polished, professional style; not extravagant once they were up the stairs, but simple and smart. The carpet remained underfoot the whole way. At the top, they found paths with signs that led to other departments of the buildings, and emergency exit pad against one wall, and a lift lobby that contained eight sets of double lift doors, four on each side.

A sign on the wall advised that, in case of emergencies when page evacuation was required, to be familiar with the most direct route to their nearest emergency exit, and not to use the elevators at such a time. It came with a diagram plan of the page, with a neat 'you are here', and a dotted line leading back to the exit pad they'd just passed as being the nearest.

If they pressed on and called on of the lifts a they'd been instructed, they'd find the interior mirrored, but silent. There was another sign just next to the buttons, which informed Sleuth and Hyde that the processing floors of the page were under a blanket data protection and redaction filter, with regularly updated certificates, to ensure the privacy of all mail that passed through the centre; as a result normal jack out processes wouldn't work on these floors, though emergency systems would not be impeded. this might explain why there were designated evacuation paths in place, and possibly why their client hadn't been able to offer a more precise location.

The upper floors would prove to be fairly unadorned; the carpet remained, but elsewise the walls were white and bare, and the doors leading off each hallway and passage were marked only with a letter and number string on the name plates. the door that Sleuth and Hyde would eventually find themselves in front of was no different — indeed, apart form bearing its own unique number and letter ident, it was identical to every other door ahead and behind. Like the rest, it was shut firmly, and a perceptive eye might notice that it seemed to be sound-proofed as well.

At first, Sleuth was inclined to believe that her card had been accepted, but as the conversation unfolded, the realist in her admitted that, even amongst stereotypically ignored business cards, that particular one was unlikely ever to be called upon again. Hyde showed up soon enough, bringing her own unique brand of charming hijinks once her hat came off. Sleuth saw it coming but couldn't be arsed to stop it; she felt like she'd go mad if she spent all day trying to stop Hyde from embracing her id, and beyond that, it would probably be better if she spent a little time on the wild side regardless. It was always harder to further unravel the mystery of Hyde when she was stuck in her well-meaning, yet tragically amnesiac form.

They got off on the right foot with some tag-teaming sexual harassment; this was surely the right way to begin a vague mission with an unknown client. The girl made it clear she wasn't interested in massages, sexy or otherwise, although her coworker might be. She reminded them of their client's responsibilities but helpfully provided the location regardless. "Why thank you, miss... er... Miss," Sleuth finished, tipping her hat. Thankfully, removing her hat didn't turn her into a more perverse, frustrating version of herself, which would be fairly alarming given her ordinary propensity toward sauciness and japes. "Well, I won't be having a fun group relaxation session with our lovely, pointy-tailed friend, but I'm not the type to lose heart so easily. Another attractive option may be just behind door number two! Perhaps this one will be able to cure Jocelyn's empty-headedness, Jacky's stick-in-the-muddiness, and Hyde's... Hydiness as well. I dare to dream," she thought to herself, inserting jokes even when she was the only one who would hear them.

Hopefully, Hyde would agreeably head upstairs towards greener pastures, but Sleuth half-imagined she'd stick around after being told to leave... that would fit her motive. If Hyde didn't go along, she'd attempt to grab her under the armpits and hoist her along towards the stairs. "Come now, Miss Hyde. We've got quite a job to do, what with relaxing our charge and whipping her into shape all at the same time. It's sure to be interesting; we'll learn the truth behind all of these new-age therapies, whether it's possible to slow down and speed up all at once," she chuckled. "And if a massage doesn't work," she added, apparently still holding out hope that she was here to knead a girl over, "then I may be able to produce a little medicine that will help." The detective winked conspiratorially, before remembering that Hyde's alternate personality and here weren't friends, strictly speaking. "Oh, balderdash, what could it hurt? We're birds of a feather, we flock together," she mused, thinking that she was only slightly more tactful and less intentionally frustrating than her ally tended to be.

Once they reached the door, she'd give a gentle knock-knock, before announcing herself. "May I come in? Your personal detective and doctor have arrived, although I'm not sure you're in need of either! Don't worry; we are as much and more than we seem," she advised, smiling playfully as she pressed one earpiece to the door and waited to hear if she'd be admitted. "And if you like classic shades of deer and doe brown or nighty, sinister black, then goodness, do I have the GNA-enlisted help for you!"

"Oh, believe me, I get it!" Hyde said, barely hiding a giggle in her oversized grin as she waved a demure hand. "I'm sure she's just like you, weighed down by the burden of those huge, honking... responsibilities! Anyway, why not let me stick around and put my hands on some of those... letters? I'd be more than happy to lick... some stamps! I'd even finger..."

However Hyde intended to finish her grating pun, Sleuth had correctly predicted that her meddlesome ally would be more than happy to sit there bothering a busy-looking person as long as she was allowed, and so removed her promptly. The doctor giggled and squirmed in her grasp, buffeting her in the face with her held hat while kicking her legs. "Looks like we're both going to be moving our tails! Ta-ta, sexy receptionist lady...!"

The unruly woman continued laughing until she was in the hall, at which point she surprisingly wound down and became more still in Sleuth's hands. "You're no fun, taking me from my busty new friend with a stick up her bum. But relaxing AND whipping? How can I say no?" She kept still and raised her arms to indicate she was ready to be put down, if her ally would let her. Either way, she'd remain (physically) more or less in line as she walked along. "Oooh, my snoopy Sleuth, you would not believe the zany capers I've partaken in since you and I last met! Why, I convinced Jacky to take aaany mission I chose, and I got her right where I wanted her! Don't you want to know? Well, I-" she began, before abruptly placing her hat upon her head again.

So switched, Hyde would continue to either walk or stare forward dully as the two made their way through the labyrinthine list of directions they'd been given, assuming they were accurate and capable of being followed. If Sleuth made any effort to dishevel Hyde's hat and get a continuation of the previous conversation, Hyde would fight her off, a spontaneous action that her facial reactions didn't seem to match. "Do you know, I think I felt something interesting after we last departed. I found myself thinking of you... well, you know. Not in any particular way, just focusing on particular aspects I found admirable, such as your inquisitive nature or the manner in which you helped me learn more about myself. I didn't try especially hard, and I must admit, it's rather a trying task navigating the minefield of your personality and character-istics," she muttered, hissing the last word in a droll tone. "It was a feeling like a color... a terribly brown color. In any case, I believe I felt some of that special power I've heard of Navis developing... but I wasn't able to bring anything out of it. Maybe it's not strong enough, or maybe it isn't simply activated on demand... or, maybe, Jacky simply didn't care to. Regardless, did you feel anything of the same?"

Hyde would mostly quiet as she listened to a response, perhaps embarrassed to be speaking of such things, or simply having nothing more to talk about. If they reached their destination without incident, she'd let Sleuth introduce the two of them.

Being the temporarily more presently-minded, Sleuth was probably the least surprised to to know that they garnered no noteworthy extra response from the receptionist after she had given them directions and seen them head off. Who knew what Hyde was thinking. The most they got before Sleuth drew her colleague away was a raised eyebrow, singular, at the layered innuendo, before she turned back to her work. Interesting philosophical questions about whether they'd need to settle down to advance, or make haste more slowly, the two women followed the list of directions while discussing times past and the deepening of their mutual bondage, erm, bonding.

It was, ultimately, a good thing that Sleuth knocked as well as announcing herself; the function of a sound-proofed door would probably be fairly moot if her voice was heard by someone on the other side of it. In response to the knock, there was the sound of something on the other side disengaging, and then the door slid open to one side.

"Come in, come on. Quickly! Sorry!" In the first moments, there wouldn't be much space for either of them to take in the surroundings; Sleuth would find herself grabbed by whatever clothing a slender female hand could get a hold of at chest height and dragged into the room, while Hyde, along with her, would get the far more unusual treatment of being quickly hooked around by a deeply red-skinned leg about her waist instead. The door hissed shut behind them and both the grabbing limbs released almost immediately, giving the duo a chance to actually see what they'd stumbled into.

The room was small... really it was more of a tiny cubicle chamber than anything else; standing room only, now, for having three women in it. The floor was polished and smooth, but warm underfoot and the lighting was soft. All in all, the space was only about a metre square in total, the only furniture being four wall-mounted cylindrical cannisters in the corners, which came down to what looked like pump-press nozzles a little above average waist height. The three walls that didn't contain the only door all had a series of small, round portholes set into them, completely ringing the walls from waist to chest height, the purpose of which seemed to be similar to the task that they'd seen the receptionist performing back on the ground floor. Small capsule tubes popped out of the various ports at a rapid rate, waiting to be processed. They each fit the ports perfectly and were a couple of inches across with rounded, impact-proof ends, and presented about four or five inches of length in their 'waiting' state — the capsules were about a third that long again in total, as Hyde and Sleuth might see when the other woman in the room grabbed one, squeezed it in her hand a few times, then slammed it into another port on the other wall.

The woman in the room with them, once they got a good look at her, bore a lot of superficial similarities to the receptionist. She had what was obviously a thematic demon design; classical feminine proportions, dark red skin, and a sinuously long tail that ended in the same heart-shaped point. Her hair was the same pure white and styled in a straight-back way that fell neatly to her shoulders, while her eyes were the same shade of over-bright blue. Her horns, unlike the receptionist, were of the back-curling style; they were small and neat with only faint ribbing and were composed of a dark black material, starting just behind her temples and curving back around her ears. For those keen on looking, they'd find that while she did have an ample chest, it was probably only one size over average for her frame, as opposed to the greater assets of the receptionist. As well as this, she had what looked like a small pair of tightly folded bat wings tucked in against her shoulder blades. If the receptionist had had those, then they were under her clothes, since they hadn't been visible.

The major difference that was immediately notable was in her outfit; the receptionist had been all professional business-style in her carriage, while this woman, presumably their client, was wearing what looked mostly like a two-piece black bikini with a shoulderless top bearing a front clasp, and a double side-tied lower portion with a hide-nothing g-string back.

The other point to note was that she seemed a lot busier, and flexible. She had grabbed the two ladies in quickly, but hadn't really slowed in what she was doing, which seemed to involve grabbing onto, holding, moving or pushing back down the various capsules as the popped up. She seemed quite able to do this with any part of her anatomy, even to the point of pushing a pill back the way it came with one foot while she tended others with her hands, or returning another with a bump from her rear even as her tail pulled another out of its slot and fed it in elsewhere. Sometimes she would hold onto one of the capsules for longer, rubbing or squeezing it before sliding it back, though why some got this treatment and others didn't would likely remain a mystery for now.

"Hi, sorry! Um, I'm... one sec... ugh... I'm number eight-three-two, Um, MailerDaemon, that is, um, just call me MaiDae, or whatever you like, I guess." The way she pronounced it, much as she had her formal name, sounded out the diphthong classically, so Sleuth and Hyde would likely hear it as something between 'Maidy' and 'May-die'. She continued, talking apace in a way that matched the busyness she seemed to be working with. "I'm the one that sent for you. Sorry, could I just..." In the small space, Maidy had to squeeze around the other two to continue her work, curling and flexing her body in whatever various ways she needed to to get some part of herself to the never-ending pops of new cannisters.

"So, look... Job's pretty hectic, not so satisfying... hang on, if I could just.. ah, thanks... It's stressful, and there's a lot of pressure. We're a combined ad service and mail relay, you know? Not much chance to relax. Not much time off. Gotta make it count. There's this lady I see. Sorry if you're bashful, but she really knows how to press all the buttons at once, and she's so attentive and kind. Makes me feel like someone's actually paying attention to me, you know? Hard to come by, when you're just one of several thousand, you know? Sorry. So anyway. I see her every four days, in my time off. Been so busy lately though. All I can think about is the next time I can see her. there's a process, you know? It's kinda... you know, not really a reputable service? I guess? I don't know, people are stuffy. I'm supposed to visit her, two days before each appointment, to confirm it and stuff. She's got a lot of people she helps, I think, and she only takes walk-ins from first time referrals or people she really likes the taste of. Um. Forget that bit. I just need more pairs of hands! You know I haven't had a solid jack-out session for over a week now? Normally they jack us out every few days, for full system down-time, you know? But this past week, it's been all hands for some reason. The grapevine has been on fire. Who knows why. I need to unwind more than ever. All I can think about is my next session with LL, but I can't even slip away long enough to confirm my booking!" The frustration of this predicament seemed to hit a particularly desperate note with the demon-girl, and she paused long enough to put her hands to her horns and grip, rather similar in gesture to someone who might have been tearing at their hair. A moment later she was back to ducking and twisting about the other two women trying to get to everything that popped into the tiny room.

"I need to ask you to go and make sure the appointment is confirmed with her for me. I'm getting over-heated just thinking about it, but I need to keep working! I mean, I guess you could stay here and try to do my job while I dash away, too, maybe. I can try to explain it to you, but it's very, um, energetic. There's two of you, so I guess one could go and one could stay and help me, too, maybe... it doesn't matter, I've just got to be sure I don't lose my slot with LL or I'll die from stress!"

It was clear that Maidy wasn't going to slow down or stop doing her job while she waited for an answer from Sleuth and Hyde, though in truth she hadn't really had the freedom to make that much eye contact with them in the first place.

Hyde's squirming was no less than Sleuth expected; she kept a tight grip to make sure the troublemaker didn't slip away. "Yes, Miss Hyde, and isn't it a funny coincidence that those of us with such large burdens are often burdened with you as well?" she joked. Though, truth be told, it felt like she had more in common with Hyde than the other lady, despite their looks and tendency to be sexually harassed by Hyde. The mailroom lady seemed like the type that Sleuth would be at odds with, the kind that would generally be pestered by her and would be unlikely to come to enjoy it. That didn't mean she wasn't fun for Sleuth, though. That said, the two would have to try their chances further in, as this particular quarry was through with them.

As she walked along with Hyde, releasing her once she realized how hard it was to climb steps carrying her that way, she couldn't help but smile. "We're too peas in a pod! Troublemakers who act with reckless abandon," she found herself reminded. "Come now! Am I not busty enough for you? And you've even searched my bum already! Why start back at zero when you've got such a great buddy already?" the detective chuckled, giving her friend an elbow in the side. "Any mission you wanted? Why, I'm surprised the girl can still show her face in her usual social circles," Sleuth laughed, though she had yet to see Jacky demonstrate she had any social circles to speak of. She was about to ask about that, when she realized that Hyde had swapped back to her other self, who was worse for a laugh but better for predictability.

... Well, ordinarily, she's predictable. But this is actually fairly out of the ordinary! I've never really seen this Hyde push her way back to the surface before, unless under extreme duress," she reminded herself, frowning thoughtfully as she crossed her arms. "That could be useful... it might mean something," she figured. "The day is young. I'll have plenty of time to contemplate," she closed the book, while listening to Hyde speak without innuendo for once. As it turned out, this line of questioning was kind of evocative itself. "Thinking of me? Well, I do try to have that effect on people, Miss Hyde!" she giggled; it meant more coming from the Hyde that wasn't as expressive on average. "Oh, and a fancy for brown is only natural. It's perfectly reasonable that my fashion sense would rub off on you as well," she continued, throwing an arm about her friend and patting her on the shoulder.

She was very excited about the prospect of finding out more about Hyde... she really couldn't think of a question life had to offer that she cared about more right now. "And what a fine gift that is, for one to give a detective such as myself," she smirked, her eyes scanning over Hyde's caped figure, as though looking for something. "Oh, every now and again, a fling of mine remarks that they think I lack the teeth of a true Creamland girl, and in those moments, you spring right into my mind!" Sleuth japed, grinning and showing off an annoyingly perfect row of chompers. "But to be serious, there are far more interesting aspects to you than your teeth, my dear girl. When I dedicated myself to solving your mystery, I did it earnestly! It is only a matter of time before I find the answer... and so, may it set your little heart aflutter to know that you are always on my mind~"
The tall detective leaned over to try to give Hyde a quick peck on the cheek, then guffawed heartily, whether she managed it or not. No sooner had she bucked up and withdrawn her lips than the door in front of the two opened and a hand slung out to grab hold of her coat. "E-Easy there! I do all of my own tailoring!" she protested, as the room's occupant yanked her through the crack in the door.

Sleuth took a look around... thankfully, there wasn't much to look at where the room was concerned, because she was far more interested in inspecting the room's owner. There was plenty of opportunity to inspect the lady from all angles, as she twisted all around the room to address various... well, Sleuth wasn't quite sure what she was doing, unless it was sorting mail. Regardless, it gave her a chance to admire the mission giver's form, and she liked what she saw. "Good gracious! If only society allowed me to work my profession dressed that way, I'd find it so much easier to coax answers from the riff-raff," she laughed, ignoring the fact that she frequently ended up dressed that way before her investigation was over, one way or another. "You wear it well!"
For the moment, she stowed the jokes, as their employer had a lot to say and it would be a criminal offense to make her lose her train of thought in the middle of it, all things considered. As Maidy described what she needed, Sleuth thought of a certain other form of therapy, or perhaps the same one, that the "LL" initials pertained to. "I will know for sure once I see the address," she noted. "For now, I'd best keep that thought to myself... I think my employer might worry about my focus or possibly even my stealing her appointment if she knew what I'd done the last time I chanced to meet a 'LL'." Whatever service Maidy typically enjoyed when she visited LushLady, assuming that was who she meant, Sleuth had to suspect it wasn't quite so thorough as what the proprietor, Hyde, and she herself had arrived at last time.

"Your request is almost disappointingly straight-forward, but it is nice, in other ways," Sleuth responded, raising her arms to allow the other girl to reach around her as much as needed. "As fun as playing standing, 360 Twister seems, and as limber as I feel that I am for the task, I also feel as though it may be wisest to yield to your expertise and proceed as you've suggested," she agreed. The detective found herself curiously pondering whether the sorting task would be easier or harder with two people. The amount of physical contact would probably be fun, but she felt sure she'd just get in the way. She also knew that leaving Hyde here would be a terrible idea... as soon as the demon lady bumped Hyde's hat, her productivity would in turn be bumped down to zero. Disrupting this lady's job would be very simple and Hyde would have a field day doing it.

"Very well! And since I did not introduce myself earlier, I am Sleuth, as you probably suspected, and this is my good friend Miss Hyde. I'd offer you a card, but it might be mailed to someone by accident," she continued, tilting her head slightly as an arm reached past it, threatening to knock off her hunter's cap. "Is that all you wished to say? If so, then simply provide the address and I will be on my way post-haste to secure your spot!"

Hyde listened to Sleuth with her usual curmudgeonly measures of forgiving the detective's overly playful tone, returning her curious gaze with one of her own. "Well, I hardly see what about my teeth should inspire the particular interest," the doctor commented, seemingly without irony. She cast her gaze forward again, probably in attempt to use apparent detachment to ward off further teasing. That backfired when Sleuth gave her a tiny but, nonetheless, embarrassing public display of affection, causing the doctor to jump. She slapped her own cheek as though a mosquito had landed on it, glaring at Sleuth with a red face.

Before Hyde could get out any words of rebuke, however, Sleuth had gotten the two of them pulled into their next encounter. Hyde grabbed her hat and held it to her head as she was pulled into the confined quarters.

The woman took a moment to let her eyes adjust to the low lighting, then to the strange woman who had appeared in close proximity before them. "Goodness, does nobody understand the concept of personal space anymore?" she complained in a low whisper that was probably meant only for herself, but would obviously be heard in this situation. Her eyes scanned the room curiously, what little of it there was to scan. She wasn't able to come to any conclusions about the nature of the work from just what she was seeing, though, so she turned her attention back to demonic-appearing woman. She did her best to considerately keep out of her way... it was probably safe to assume Hyde was avoiding any body contact with the scantily clad client she could help.

Listening to the explanation, Hyde soon became aware that this would be her second recent encounter with a client that needed less-than-reputable services to deal with her stress. On the other hand, while she had no idea what had driven Damson to need an outlet for her sexual frustrations, it was relatively clear why her new acquaintance needed a way to unwind. Hyde thought about asking her just how much of the day she was required to spend doing this, then thought better of it. "We can't all love our jobs," she remarked, internally.

As she heard more of the description, she began to think that her deja vu was the result of more than just coincidence. Unlike Sleuth, Hyde wasn't a detective: when she heard about services that weren't reputable and the initials "LL," she immediately jumped to the conclusion that MaiDae was referring to a mutual acquaintance of theirs. She thought about saying so, but then thought again. She began to think that their experience with LushLady might, in this case, be more of an impediment to their successful completion of the job than a boon. They hadn't left the woman under the best terms last time. Although they'd become quite intimate in some ways, and although she still wasn't one-hundred-percent on the details, Hyde knew enough to tell that, whatever their intentions, they'd misled the masseuse, a fact which she learned after giving them complementary service. She agreed that LushLady seemed to have a particular set of pride and principles that accompanied her work. She didn't know if the Navi would entertain their follow-up visit...

"Certainly," Hyde responded in a distracted tone, putting her hand to her cheek. "You clearly have a lot on your plate. I'd be negligent to let you continue without relieving your stress as you felt healthy. Sleuth and I would be happy to help, but... before we get ahead of ourselves, do you mind quickly explaining what you're doing here? While I don't know if Sleuth and I can handle it as efficiently as you, depending on the nature of the task, we might be able to keep things moving while you briefly step away..."

She didn't want to admit it to their client without discussing with Sleuth first, but the doctor and detective pair might actually be particularly ill-suited for this request. If they stayed and did MaiDae's work, there was a chance they might put her even further behind... or, whatever calamitous episode she'd had described to her second-hand could take over again, throwing things further out of whack. On the other hand, if they left and tried to schedule the appointment, they could end up being the exact wrong two people for the job...

"Pish tosh, what am I getting all bent out of shape over?" she asked herself, forcing herself to come to a decision. "We're reasonable women. Well... generally speaking, at any rate. It isn't an appointment for us, it's for MaiDae, who is apparently a client in good standing. Why shouldn't we simply meet with LushLady and secure the appointment?"

"The final decision is up to you, MaiDae," Hyde told her client. "My impulse is it would be more efficient for Sleuth and I to go meet with the woman, but if you'd like to pay us to simply get away from the office for a bit on your errand, we certainly wouldn't begrudge you that decision." However, even though she thought staying and doing the work was the less preferable option, she didn't retract her question regarding the work being done. She was genuinely curious.

The pace at which their employer worked at tending her duties continued, though she did manage to catch sleuth's eye with one brow raised when she complimented her skimpy choice of attire. Her quietly muttered answer varied a bit in pitch and volume as she responded, due to her frequent twisting and flexing, but both ladies would manage to make most of it out.

"Yeah, if you don't mind people thinking you're a stripper or a pleasure navi. Trust me, I'd cover up more, if it wouldn't get in the way of the job!" Then something a bit.. odd happened. One of the capsules that she grabbed a hold of with her right hand made her roll her eyes, then give a small apologetic glance to Sleuth and Hyde, before she leaned in and put the tip of it in her mouth, running her tongue around the rounded end. It lasted only a moment before the pulled back, then removed the tube, turned it around and replaced it saliva-end first, and slammed it back down hard.

"Big attachments, need a bit more oomph to get speed, you know?" Was her explanation for now. Sleuth seemed ready to get on with playing messenger-girl, but Hyde had an incurable thirst for answers first, and it delayed the girl in getting around to sending them on their way. Oh well, more time for Sleuth to enjoy the close proximity, and more time for Hyde to feel uncomfortable about it.

"Oh, it's um, it's not hard, really. Looks more complicated than it is, you know?" Another tube quickly flicked from one port to another by the girl's tail, and other held and squeezed for a moment or two before being sent on its way. "We just serve the exchange hubs and handle ad distribution and stuff. Um.. So, each port is another node that we're connected to, right? There's thousands of us, but every work space is identical, you know? It's filtered so the load is even for everyone, or it's meant to be. Anyway. Ah, if I could... thanks... Anyway. Packet pops up, I touch it, that tells me where it has to go, and how far and how fast, and I do that, you know? It's what we were designed to do, but other people can temp the job just fine, you just need to use the contact gel that's in the pumps. It's just 'cause you're not actually MailerDaemons, you know? There's special coding and stuff. Physical touch, skin to data, is how we send them on their way. Longer you're touching a packet, the more speed it goes out with. The gel is a booster, and it has all the same code functions, so temps can do the job. Helps us too, for the tougher work, but any fluid intermediary like that works. It's why I..." Despite having skin that was singularly good for hiding it, it was still easy to tell that the girl blushed for a moment, then brought the end of one tube past her lips as she moved it with her tail, giving the end a delicate lick before sending it down a different port. "Well, you get the picture. wearing less makes the job easier to do, you know? And if I've got to use the gel, because I'm worn out or sore, or I need a boost, then I'm not going to get good clothes messed, you know?" If anything she blushed brighter and was no longer trying to make eye contact with either woman while she worked. "Look, please, don't blame me, ok? Blame the perv who designed this hub, and all of us with it." She swallowed and looked deliberately away for a moment.

"This past day, seeing LL is all I can think about, and I've started to imagine..." She trailed off and cleared her throat and focused back on her never-ending work with renewed vigour. In the too tight space, if either woman had a particularly perceptive nose, they might detect a personal scent from Maidy that was slightly more suggestive than the one of a healthy work-out... though even if either woman became aware of this, drawing attention to the fact that their client was warm from more than just exercise would probably mortify her to death. "Sorry. Look, I don't mind what you do, but let me know quick, this room is crowded with three. LL works in a public net, in a little shop, but if you say you're there about my appointment, and you say something about, um, drugs, or taking a trip, you know, she'll know why you're there. It's sort of like her code word for the other business she runs. I'll give you the address if that's what you're doing."

"I mean no offense! Can you blame me if perhaps I was hoping you were a pleasure navi? Though I'd never take you for a stripper, there's not much ground to lose there," Sleuth continued teasing, unable to help herself as the surprisingly prudish, yet scantily clad girl opened herself up for further prodding. Sleuth didn't mind the girl's pauses at all; on the contrary, each was accompanied by some physical action that was pleasingly erotic, causing her to drum up her efforts to envision the red girl's sessions with LushLady a bit more vividly. "All that red wrapped up with all that green... why, that sounds as steamy as Christmas in July," she mused, the corner of her mouth tilting up into a more devilish smile as she daydreamed.

Sleuth had to admire Hyde for considering all the options. "Perhaps she ought to be the detective," Sleuth considered jokingly. Further, the detective was glad Hyde had asked... the job sounded like it would be awfully fun to perform with a companion. Imagining the demure Hyde jolting around in her underwear, all oiled up, was an image too good to pass up. Then again... that wouldn't last long. It would only be a minute before her hat would get knocked off and the two of them would fail Maidy entirely, moving on to some useless or perhaps even counterproductive diversion. "Oh, I'm not blaming anyone," the tall, brown-clad girl reassured Maidy, but the pleased smirk on her face showed she'd rather thank the person who'd designed it instead. "Though, perhaps it feels less saucy and more degrading if you do it day in, day out, twenty four hours a day," she reminded herself.

Her nose was well-trained enough to detect a new smell present in the air, but she was already smirking hard; she couldn't smirk any harder. "Yes, this must certainly be our same LL, to solicit such a reaction. This poor, horny -ha, the pun- girl is captivated by that same luscious lady," Sleuth thought to herself. Maidy confirmed as much with her following statements. "You know, Miss Maidy, you look as though you could use a bit of time out of the office! Why don't you put on something respectable and let Miss Hyde and I take over for a bit. We may not be as good at it as you... lack of practice and what not... but the two of us can both put our backs into it," she affirmed, already beginning to pull off her coat. "What do you say, Miss Hyde? You said it yourself! It would be cruel not to allow the poor girl a little time away from her job."

There wasn't much of a place to hang her coat in the office, so Sleuth simply folded it and placed it upon the floor instead. She removed her cap and began to fiddle with the vest-like separation at the chest of her bodysuit, but continued gabbing. "So, how will we know what sort of gentle nudge-nudge each of these little packets needs to get on its merry way? I notice you brush some while giving others a very professional fellating," she remarked, as if there was nothing embarrassing about the act. "I assume there's some indicator of how fast each packet must travel and how it must be handled?" To punctuate her statement, she'd already cracked open the chest of her skinsuit; now was about the last call to stop her if anyone wanted to go another way with this plan. Her chest amazingly looked even more obscenely large as it spilled free from her bodysuit, clad in a light brown, velvet bikini top, the center of which was fastened by a gold pin clasp. The way the whole thing jiggled might make one concerned for the pin's security. "See? It's gold! I go all brown except for the skivvies," Sleuth reminded Hyde and informed Maidy, although it was clear to both of them that the bra was definitely brown, not gold.

Hyde gave MaiDae her best sympathetic doctor's nod in response to the woes related to the mailer's provocative design. Still, she wasn't able to avoid raising an eyebrow at the woman's more undeniably suggestive methods of dealing with certain packages. She kept her mouth professionally shut and, instead, listened. The Navi was a good listener... that was part of her basic programming. Of course, her bedside manner usually dealt more with patients fighting for their lives, less so clients frantically licking packages to keep their jobs.

The Navi's unbroken calm focus, however, cracked when she realized what her ally was saying. She side-eyed Sleuth, letting out a little gasp when she saw Sleuth was taking off her coat. Hyde was about to protest, but she realized she couldn't really argue with Sleuth's point. That aside, it was possible Sleuth had even weighed the same concerns she'd been struggling with, and decided this was the best course of action to ensure the mission success...

A humorless frown crossed her face as Sleuth continued her line of questioning and her dressing down. "Not likely," she conceded. It was far easier to imagine the busty detective was far more interested in hijinks in a tight space, or perhaps showing off her underwear. As usual, a potential joke flew over Hyde's head, and she simply assumed Sleuth was talking about the pin on her bra when she mentioned gold.

Hyde sighed, turning back to the mailer daemon Navi and spreading her arms to pull her cloak apart, showing the outfit beneath. Despite the obvious impact the aesthetic of her outfit was likely to have, seeing as the bright colors and skimpy nature conflicted so heavily with her apparently stodgy demeanor, she didn't seem especially concerned about it. She began reaching for her hat, pausing with her hand on the brim. "Er, I think my friend has a good point and some good questions, but, perhaps the two of us go too far, you would confirm if you're comfortable with that arrangement? While it might be outside our ordinary wheelhouse, I feel we'll be competent enough to hold down the fort while you run your errand."

Their client elected to avoid Sleuth's questionable compliments about her status as a call girl, and her lack of clothing — it was icing on an already over-topped cake, really, and the girl was already in a furious blush about other people seeing her in her working conditions. As it was though, her brief explanation of the job seemed to have changed both women's minds about staying rather than going. She nodded briefly and tired to give them more room to strip down, though she didn't stop working for as long as she was still with them.

"I... Yeah, a little while to rest myself and just go... talk to Lush would be great. The rostered breaks we get aren't nearly enough, and with no jack-out time in over a week, I think a lot of us are wearing thin. It's easy, look here..."

As she moved around the pair, Maidy reached out a hand to squeeze some of the gel from one of the wall mounts into a hand, and promptly pressed it to Sleuth's hand in turn once her gloves were off. while she did this, her body leaned and twisted expertly to keep up the pace, bouncing one data tube back down with her rump and somehow managing to grip another with the curl of her toes for a few moments before pressing it back down as well. The gel would feel warm and slightly tingly on Sleuth's skin — vaguely like a surface glitch, though gentler and more tame. There was no doubt the substance was heavy on some kind of auxiliary code. the scent was faintly sweet. "Ah, this'll do... hold this." The detective would then find one of the mail tubes thrust into her gelled up hand; a glance would show that on contact, it took on a faint pink glow now, to her eyes. A small tracer line of light trailed from one end of the tube, too, leading away to a port on the wall to her left. As she held the object, the pink glow began to warm up swiftly, until it had reached a hot red. When it did, Maidy took it from her again and thrust it down into the hole that the line had connected it to. The moment the tube was out of her touch, though, the glow and the line were gone from sight.

"Like that, see? You'll need fluid contact, with the gel, to see everything, and to charge them up, you know? But then it's just, follow the lights. Get it hot and send it along, or, if you can't get to everything, you can bounce it them... just push it back down the way it came. Try not to though. Some things are bad sends and you've got to bounce them anyway, but, we get in trouble for bouncing too many legitimate messages, you know? You try some, both of you. Doesn't matter what you do it with, just as long as there's the gel fluid, and it's skin to data contact. The more skin contact the faster it'll gain speed."

Maidy had continued working pace while she spoke, and it was clearly very energetic work, but she didn't seem the least bit out of breath from it — perhaps MailerDaemons after her design really were designed to do this kind of work tirelessly... or maybe she just had fantastic stamina built up from doing the job. She made room, as best she could, for Sleuth and Hyde to begin getting involved in her work once they were both as stripped down as they intended to get, but there was still the occasional jostle and bump in the cramped space. It would be much easier with only two bodies, probably.

If the tow women started to experiment with servicing the various holes, and lubed up appropriately for it, they would discover that the tubes that popped up started at varying shades from a delicate pink, almost white, to very nearly red already — the further from red they were, the longer they'd need contact from some part of their slicked up body parts before being sent to the line they pointed out. some occasionally showed no trace line at all — these were ones with a bad address that needed just to be bounce back to their sender address. Maidy watched the two to make sure they were getting it right.

"You can't leave them sitting the port — that's important. We can't let the tubes clog up, you know? As long as you're touching it, that counts as fine, but don't leave them sitting there unattended!" If the two women took up their duties without major incident, Maidy began to gradually do less and less herself, letting them begin taking over the task and extricating herself from the mass of limbs, towards the door.

"I'm kinda worried about leaving you here. it's my job after all, and I don't want to end up down in duplication... those brutes... it's not gentle work down there, trust me... but I'll try not to leave you here too long, I promise! Will you be alright, is there anything I've missed?" She hadn't changed her clothes at all, and it was possible she didn't really have anything else, considering the way her life and job had been described so far, but she did seem every bit as eager to get going as she seemed concerned about leaving them to work.

The big smile Sleuth always wore curled up a bit more at one side; the detective was equal parts surprised and pleased to see that Hyde was going to go along with this suggestion. "I like surprises! It's like my birthday's come early," she teased as Hyde opened up her cloak. For a moment, she was worried that her partner planned to lose the hat quickly, but she hesitated. That was good; Sleuth thought it would be better for everyone if Maidy didn't know about the doctor's sinister alter ego, at least not until she came back. "Damage control will be mine to handle this time around. If I let Miss Hyde run too far amuck, that failure will be entirely on me," she reminded herself.

Next up, she needed to quickly finish stripping down; a bit of an arduous task, given her layers of clothing, but she had practice, at least. With her cap already off, she'd started with the suit, but before that could finish being removed, she'd have to unclasp her coat. Upon doing so, she folded it neatly in one corner, then continued opening up the suit and stepping out of it, down to the legs. Here, she paused to remove her boots, then finished, leaving her the bikini underwear and her gloves. For anyone interested, the bottom matched the top, including the questionably not-brown color, but there were no latches to be seen. The coverage was fair, but the fit was cozy... then, it was hard to imagine Sleuth wearing anything that wasn't at least a bit cozy. With most of her clothing removed, her body was exposed, revealing features that were as though someone had performed a fantasy draft of toned and squishy parts to build her body from.

Reluctantly, she removed her gloves and set them with the other pieces. "Just once, I'd like to find a mission where I can take everything else off and still keep my gloves on," she remarked sullenly, setting them with the others. "Now, let's not do anything too unhy- oh dear," she laughed, as her hand came into contact with the tingly gel. "Are you certain that this gel is not for recreational use?" she joked, before Maidy continued the demonstration by thrusting one of the obscenely shaped packages into her hand. The detective could not repress a chortle. "I believe the late, great web designer Sigmund Freud may have designed this mailing system," she offered, noting the beam shooting suggestively out from the tip of the already suspiciously shaped object. "Very well, allow me a moment to oil up, then I'll have give ever Tom, Dick, and Harry in the place a quick go with one gentle touch or another."

Sleuth also had a little experience rubbing lotion all over her body, though not as much stripping. Still, she was quick enough, almost even professional, as she covered every part of herself with it. She wondered if she ought to take off her underwear too... it looked like their employer normally abstained from that, so she figured she ought to as well. "House rules." The next step of their urgent training would be hands on experience. To that end, she grabbed one package in each hand and began administering expert handjobs to each of them, rubbing the length of each package's shaft and tracing the tip with her thumb from time to time. She thought to herself it was nice that at least they didn't have all of the adornments of the typical recipients of such treatment, as she'd end up spending a bit longer if she had to give each of them a nice cupping as well.

Hopefully, that would redden them up to the point where they yielded a beam; if they did, she'd give each a thrust towards the hole where the beam indicated it needed to go. She thought to herself that part felt a bit wrong. "Most fellows don't like having their johnnies shoved back inside them when you're finished," she mused. "Righto, no man left behind, as they say in the military," the detective echoed her employer, moving on to another set as quickly as she could. For now, it felt most normal just to keep using her hands, but watching Maidy work, she knew that wouldn't be sufficient. Even with two bodies... if Hyde and she both used their hands, that only amounted to four contact points. Maidy, serviced at least that many in a shorter time period, given her hands, tail, feet, tongue, and buttocks. Sleuth knew she was going to have to think outside the box.

To reassure her employer, she tried working on some alternatives. The next time she grabbed hold of two of them, she worked to nudge her bottom up against another. Slowly, she nudged it up and down between the swells of her buttocks; if the thing got real sensations from that, it might appreciate the softness of the velvet, not to mention the flesh. She wanted to use her mouth as well, but that would be a stretch... she hadn't really positioned herself to reach any without breaking contact with the one occupying her butt. "Maybe later," she resolved. Provided that went well enough, she'd ease her pace just a little so that she could speak to her employer again.

"See? Well in hand!" she assured the red lady. "What do you think? Ready to depart?" She spotted one near her head now and rubbed a cheek along it until her mouth was flush with the end, then began circling her tongue around it in a terribly obscene fashion. She gave it a teasing kiss, then smiled again. There was no mystery to solve here, but this sort of thing wasn't bad once in a while, anyways.

Hyde smiled at the mailroom worker. She wasn't looking forward to the task ahead as Sleuth seemed to be, but she was happy to see MaiDae giving good consideration to her own needs. "Goodness knows, if she has to work in a place like this day-in and day-out, and she's willing to pay for the help to get away, she should enjoy it." Holding that same empathetic smile, she used her right hand to cast her hat into a corner of the room. In the same motion, her left came up with her hip-bound flask, giving her a draw. She put the cap back on her flask and returned it to her belt, although she understood the belt couldn't remain there much longer. She watched MaiDae's demonstration with Sleuth attentively, connecting the dots regarding the purpose of the gel and the motions of the task. It did occur it was the kind of thing that would probably be much easier in theory than in practice.

As Hyde listened, she undid the clasp of her cloak, setting it neatly in the corner with some effort: the limited space in the room meant she had to contort a bit just to avoid giving anyone an unintentional bump with this action. The doctor then cast her eyes down at the floor as she slid out of her suspenders. With the straps down, she then unclasped the belt, unzipped the shorts, and slid them down to step out. Removing the belt with its various attachments would be a bigger pain and a waste of time when she needed to get started.

Now in her zip-up undershirt, bikini bottom, and footwear alone, Hyde regretted not having started with the shoes. She backed against a corner in order to get out of everyone's way as much as possible... only to accidentally bump into the gel pump in that corner, sending a gelatinous stream down her backside that made her jump. She did her best to silence any external noise, but internally she was cursing, aware she'd just dumped a mess of contact gel onto her piles of clothing in the corner. Self-consciously, she tossed her hair and propped herself up against a wall to the side instead, hoping nobody had seen what just happened.

The Navi raised her pale left leg and began quickly undoing the buttons, peeling both it and the sock off in a quick motion to reveal her bare foot. She lowered it and began on the other in the same way, watching Sleuth's first attempt with a disapproving frown. Hyde understood that there wasn't any way to get out of this work ending up somewhat raunchy, but Sleuth didn't need to look like she was enjoying it quite so much. Either way, at least she was putting some effort into it. With a bit of a flush, she allowed herself to consider that Sleuth seemed to have some experience operating with flexibility while engaging in salacious "contact" as she now was.

Reservations aside, it was clear that Sleuth wouldn't be able to do MaiDae's job without sacrificing efficiency unless she had some extra help. Hyde grabbed a glop in each hand of what had ended up on the backside of her suit, shivering a bit at the cool sensation of skin contact, then began rubbing it across her own exposed skin, starting with her forearms. Compared to Sleuth, she acted in a bit of a rush. She got every area, more or less, but it was probably a good thing she was trying to get herself ready for incidental contact in various areas and not applying sunscreen on a sunny day.

The doctor moved the short distance it took to put herself back-to-back with Sleuth. She held her hands up tentatively before grabbing one red package from a tube with her right hand, rolling it across her arm, while grabbing a pink package with her left. The right-handed package was easy, and went back right next to where she'd taken it from... the lighter left package, on the other hand, was more problematic. As she began to work it, she began to realize that her mental image of Sleuth and herself working back-to-back was obviously flawed. She clamped the package in her teeth and began licking it and rolling it with her tongue to get it working, before turning and ending up face to face with Sleuth. She ducked under the detective's arm and used one of her own to whip the ready package out of her mouth in shove it in the free hole she saw.

Frowning, she grabbed another two she could reach directly in front of her. She shoved one back, seeing no address, before curling her torso awkwardly around Sleuth's back to reach the port for the other. Realizing she hadn't actually gotten that one ready at the last second, and not in a position to do much with it other than use her head, she put the tube in her teeth again and quickly finished it off with a quick, vigorous rub from her available hand. With the package red, she shoved it ahead and forced a smile on to face MaiDae.

"It won't be easy, but we'll get it done. Please, leave it t-" she started, before losing her balance and falling onto her side on the floor. Hyde winced, then used her feet to grab another package, rolling it between the pads while she absently stroked a package just above her, against the wall. "I'm quite all right! S-see? We can manage! Please, watch your feet!" she implored her partner, trying her best to keep from being stepped on before she could finish her footwork and get standing again.

As her two recruits stripped down to their bare minimums, and got practice with the method of handling the mail, Maidy looked.. not exactly reassured, and no less nervous, but she seemed to be accepting that this was the best she could do at short notice. She bit her lip and nodded to them, wincing when Hyde slipped and biting her lip. She had backed to the door and curled her tail around the handle making ready to push it open now that she was completely disengaged from the work itself.

"This is a bad idea... but I've got to see her again. Just, be careful, alright. I won't be long!" With that last hurried assurance, Maidy opened the door and ducked out, closing it behind her. She hadn't said how long exactly she'd be, and the two might want to think about what a perception of 'not long' might be, for a being who worked an exceptionally athletic job more or less around the clock with barely any breaks. Or they might not want to think about it. Either way, as their host had predicted, not being programs designed for it themselves, Sleuth and Hyde would find that simply putting their tongues to the packages wouldn't work the magic without the contact gel — if either of them did happen, by chance or intention, to get some of it in their mouth though, they'd find it tasted surprisingly pleasant — vaguely sweet, with a hint of blackcurrant flavour.

Left to work on their own, the to would find that, between them neither had to move quite as excessively as Maidy had alone, but it was nevertheless very taxing work to keep up. If either were the sort to grow fatigued, they'd understand that if they had to keep up the pace for too long, they would soon tire. Of course, she'd said that, while they couldn't leave tubes unattended, so long as they had contact or were held in the process of being sped up, that was fine, so maybe a bit of creative juggling might afford them some break time if they needed it. She also hadn't told them what the repercussions might be for sending mail down the wrong chute, but it was probably something to avoid. Finally, as they worked the shafts, they'd each find that the contact gel, while soothingly viscous, seemed to get consumed quite quickly as it was used between their skin and messages — left on the skin or elsewhere alone it stayed around just fine, but they'd need to reapply fairly frequently to places they were using a lot.

For now, the two were left alone in the small room, with shafts popping up at them from all sides. In front of Sleuth, on the right wall, one emerged at chest height, slightly to her left. Touching this one would show it was nearly red already, and the tracer pointed it to a port on the back wall. A second followed it about a second later, this one from a port closer to waist level, in the middle of the wall. A touch would show that it was a mild pink, with the tracer leading across the space to the left wall. A the same time as that one, there was another on the left wall, almost at head height, near the corner, almost completely white with a tracer that went back the port just beside it.

On the other side, whether Hyde was ready for them or not, two more packets had popped forward in ports right next to each other. A touch would show one a warm pink, the other a bit closer to red. the pink one led across to Sleuth's side somewhere, while the redder one went to the back wall. along with these two more had emerged, one on Hyde's side of the back wall, displaying no tracer line when it was touched, while the other was bright red and sent its trace line back into another port on the same wall. It seemed like the thankless job would wait for neither of them, and whether they were ready or not it was time to get busy. If they wanted to discuss tactics, they'd have to do it while working, if they wanted to keep up, though of course, they'd need theri mouths free for something like that.

Sleuth was happy to shamelessly watch her partner strip down. She prepared for the worst when the hat came off, but was interested to note that the immediate drink of tonic seemed to counteract it. Perhaps the other HYDE wasn't ready to come out to play just yet? Granted, Hyde ended up still dressed fairly modestly, at least compared to her cohorts, but that the sight of Hyde's plump, pale thighs was always exciting all the same. "Oh ho ho! You reminded me why you're my favorite mystery, Miss Hyde," she chuckled while she worked. "Woah there! Careful with the teeth. Trust me, I know: it's few packages that appreciate a literal chomping," she warned her ally. Really, Hyde's clumsiness on her feet was more of a concern than that, but not nearly so fun to joke about. "Never you worry, Miss Maidy; when you come back satisfied and see how well we're treating your business, you'll have not one regret!"

That said, Sleuth herself had one regret: that the packages weren't responding to her well-placed tonguing so far. "Those ingrates! They thing just because I haven't got my tongue coated in that contact gel, my mouth's no good! Such discerning packages," she thought to herself impatiently. This brought to mind a disturbing thought... she'd need to coat the inside of her mouth with contact gel if she was going to use it for the task ahead. But... was the contact gel safe to ingest? "If it's like LushLady's lubricant, then I'm sure it is... but if it's more like traditional lotion or oil, I don't want to swallow it," she pondered. "And if it's not safe to ingest... what, do I spit it on the floor? The gentle-lady in me would never allow that." But what was she supposed to do, not suck off the various data packets floating about? She decided to get her mouth gelled or get sick trying.

Once she was finished with the package in one hand, she took a moment to push some more gel into her open palm, then cup it to her mouth and let it in. She sloshed it around a bit, noting the taste, then smacked her lips obscenely, not quite like a gentle-lady. "They wouldn't flavor it like this if it wasn't okay for me to swallow, would they?" she thought, but that wasn't quite a good enough indicator. It could be like toothpaste, fine to taste, but not to actually gulp down. "Well, she would have warned me if I wasn't supposed to." Abandoning caution, Sleuth swallowed the rest that was inside her mouth after she was finished rolling it around. "Alright! Now I can get down to business, like a true professional," she reassured her partner, assuming she wasn't currently retching the contact gel up back up the way it came.

As she moved her hands from one package to another, along with her legs, to snare packages here and there with either her thighs or buttocks to finish them off, Sleuth became increasingly thankful she wasn't one of those stay-at-your-desk detectives. The work would be as physically intense as it was degrading for the average woman, but Sleuth had at least a bit of practice with this sort of thing. That said, it was certainly annoying that her gel kept running out so quickly. "I'm going to get a fully tummy at this rate," she complained, perhaps to Hyde, perhaps to no one, shoving in another glob of the gel when she had a moment. At this point, if the stuff really was toxic in nature, she'd probably already ingested a lethal dose.

More popped out; Sleuth's eyes darted around to track them all. "Oh, you poor dear! You're almost through already," she chortled at the sight of the red one, grasping it cruelly in one hand and giving it a quick rub, tracing its tip with her thumb. She expected that one to finish up quickly, so she focused more of her attention on the one at her waist. "If I lift up just a bit... ah... right there!" she chuckled, raising up on her toes a bit to get the crevice between her thighs over the package, before clasping it in between them. "Hoo hoo, you'll like this!" She rubbed the pink package back and forth in the hole between her thighs and groin, smirking as she anticipated it reddening quickly. She began to nudge the first package back towards its hole, while noticing one more, this one at head height. "Luckily, I came prepared!" she laughed again, before opening wide, bending her torso to the newcomer, and closing her lips around it. It was a bit of a twist, but luckily, she was free to step towards it a bit once she realized she needed to.

Her witty banter would be cut off for a bit as she dealt with that one, rolling her tongue underneath the package to make sure it was thoroughly satisfied. Perhaps relieved of the one she'd held in her hand, she'd now attempt to grasp the other end of the one in her mouth and rub it between the fingers of each hand, to hasten it on its way to finishing. She assumed that with all the attention she was giving it, it would power up to the same level as the one between her legs soon enough. Once they were both ready, she'd work them both into their appropriate spots on the left wall.

Hyde exhaled the breath she'd been holding as MaiDae left the room. The Navi wanted to take a brief time out for strategy, but she realized the packages she'd worked with her tongue earlier hadn't actually gotten going, so she had to stop and work those with her hands hastily. Doing so made her aware of just how quickly abrasion was going to wear out the gel she'd applied earlier. Especially for those frequent-traffic areas, it seemed she was going to have to re-apply with some regularity.

The Navi wanted a moment to talk to Sleuth, but turned only in time to catch her putting the contact gel in her mouth. "My word, Sleuth! You have no idea what the chemical composition of that substance is, we haven't seen any safety data. Perhaps you should think twice before suddenly ingesting it?!" This was probably a late concern considering their early adventures with LushLady. Regardless, as much as Hyde wanted to push the point of responsibility, she was aware that neither of them had time to focus on it now. She finished fully rising to her feet and focused on the left wall packages that were springing up. She thought her luck was looking up when both seemed to be nearly ready to go, but pulling them out revealed tracers that showed they were actually on the way to different places. Then again, fortunately for her Sleuth had... temporarily pressed herself against the right wall as she put her thighs to use, so that meant a bit of space where Hyde could maneuver. Now facing the right wall, she quickly shoved the package she'd just finished into the back wall with her left hand, then used both hands to quickly roll her remaining package and shove it into a slot beside Sleuth's head. "Excuse me," she muttered quickly, after the fact. The voice would come intimately close to Sleuth's ear, but that was more a result of the limited space than any intention on Hyde's part. She'd sacrificed a lot of hand gel with her method, but she figured that was the easiest type to replace, anyway.

The doctor moved to the back wall now. She went to the package near the back left corner. She absently felt at it with a raised foot, propping herself against the left wall, and spent a moment getting some gel from the corner pump in her hands while she assessed what needed doing. Her mind worked pretty quick for this sort of thing, so she sent it immediately back, remembering what she'd heard about no-tracer packages. The doctor rubbed her hands together before quickly snatching the red package, rolling it in her hands, and shoving it in the appropriate slot elsewhere on the back wall.

So far, so good, it seemed, but the doctor was getting a bit miffed by having Sleuth's constant chatter replaced by the equally-but-differently peeving sound of her erotically sucking packages. Feeling thirsty, herself, the doctor made a quick shift to her front left corner, swiping her hip flask off the belt and uncapping it to take a drag.

Finishing, and feeling refreshed (and properly loopy), the doctor threw the flask on the floor in her corner without capping it, allowing the liquid inside to mostly spill out onto the floor. With the uncommon speed that came from a lack of hesitation she was able to summon in this mindset, Hyde pressed the nozzle in the corner, catching some of the gel much less tentatively than Sleuth had during her own experimentation, using her mouth. When she felt she had enough (it was, in fact, a bit too much), she raised a cupped right hand to catch the rest.

Assuming Sleuth was still busy, Hyde whirled around and moved to the detective, still holding the pool of gel in her hand. Still grinning around the gel dripping from her mouth obscenely, the doctor used her left hand to quickly stretch out the back of the bottom band of Sleuth's panties as well she could. If she'd gotten away with that, she'd swiftly dump the gel she could down the back and let it snap back into place. Viscous as the gel was, it probably wouldn't slide off quickly, so she only let fall what would do so over the course of a second, wiping the rest carelessly on her own stomach.

If she'd gotten Sleuth's attention, she'd flash her a quick gel-covered grin, which ought to make it obvious who she was now dealing with. Either way, the doctor would quickly make her way back to the packages on her own side of the room. For now, it seemed she intended to actually do her job... and with the energy and haste that her swapped form allowed her access to.

Stripped down and lubed up, at least somewhat, the ladies got to work swiftly. Sleuth would find that swallowing the gel seemed to have no adverse effects, though the pleasant taste faded quickly once it had been in her mouth for a little while, so it ended up being more like eating unflavoured jelly that wasn't quite set. There was probably no harm in it, but by the same token she should probably avoid actively eating it. The bright red one that Sleuth took in her hand first needed no additional attention, and indeed as her gel-coated fingers encircled it, it began to pulse and vibrate slightly, almost throbbing. Best get that one on its way and quickly, before who knew what might happen.

As hoped, the one that Sleuth began to expertly work between her thighs gained colour as soon as it began to slide back and forth in the slippery substance between her legs fortunately for the detective, she managed to send the over-heated one away before anything untoward happened, but her attention moved quickly to stimulating a new package with her mouth while continuing to work the one between her legs — she'd be unable to see it unless she looked back down to it, but it had grown red quite swiftly indeed. By the time she thought o check on the lower tube and get it going, it, too, had begun to pulse and vibrate... not an entirely unpleasant sensation given where she was holding it.

While Sleuth was busy with these ones, Hyde had taken a more reserved approach towards dealing with her packages... at least initially. After some professional package-handling, however, she felt the need to make a switch getting down to business in more than just a hands-on way. The first port of call, of course, being to prank sleuth with a handful of slippery contact gel down the back of her panties. Oh well, at least the good detective now had an additional place coated up and ready to serve, right?

Unfortunately for the doctor-detective duo, the morning was young yet, and even as they dealt with the ones on heir plate initially, more were making themselves known. Maidy had been specific about not leaving any package unattended in its port, but with the number popping up it was becoming clear that to avoid that, they'd probably need to hang onto the slower ones while prioritising the quicker. Maidy herself had seemed often to hold a package while working others, either between her thighs, or in the crook of her knee, or other such places, though she had the advantage of giving speed to everything she touched automatically, without the need for the gel. Sleuth and Hyde might need to get creative, and at this rate they probably wouldn't practically be able to simply allocate a side each.

During the seconds that they dealt with the existing messages, three more arrived at chest height on the left wall; two seemed close to ready, but one was much paler, and would take a while to get ready. The slow one was destined for the back wall, while the quicker two wanted to be sent to a leftward port on the back, and the port nearest the door on the right wall. Two more had arrived in the middle of the left wall, one warm, one raging hot. The over-stimulated one was destined for the centre of the back wall, the more sedate one a port just a few over from where it arrived. The other one that showed up at chest level for the women, was a very pale, slow-looking package that popped up on the back wall, its tracer heading to a nearby port on the left.

This would have been busy enough, but plenty more packages were also showing up from the holes nearer their waist level as well: A very over-stimulated on on the left, needing to go just a couple of ports over, and an almost white one near it that needed to go across the room. Opposite these two, on the right wall, one that looked like it would only need a little attention drew a trace line to the far end of the back wall, while a pale pink one pointed to across the room again, to the left. Lastly, a bright red tube emerged on the right end of the back wall, shooting its line a short distance across the the right. The ladies had their work cut out for them, but might be helped remembering that Maidy had said they could still 'bounce' a package that displayed a proper address, if they needed to, but that they should try to avoid it. She'd also stressed that they not leave any unattended in their ports, but hadn't really mentioned if it was a problem to hold onto one over-long. She had been rather distracted, though.

The packages were all responding fine enough, at least in Sleuth's opinion, though the vibrating red ones were making her curious as to the nature of their work once again. "It seems rather a shame to get them hot and ready to release, then simply put them away. I feel like such a tease," she thought to herself, momentarily contemplating whether she ought to try finishing one off or not. Unfortunately, their employer had instructed that one with a light ought to be put off to its proper place and she wasn't about to risk ruining things for her employer just to find out if the data packets had a full host of phallic reactions to go along with their shapes.

Then again, as she'd worked with it, she was beginning to wonder if she ought to be thinking about these rather as self-pleasure tools, rather than, er, tools to be pleasured. That didn't seem too far off the mark, given the alarming buzzing sensation between her thighs. "Oh dear! Miss Hyde, I've made a pleasant discovery~" she laughed as she removed her mouth from a packet and sent it into its hole. As it turned out, Hyde was discovering things on her own. At first, Sleuth had figured that her partner was just picking up her pace in response to the overwhelming influx of demand, but it became clear that she'd tagged out to let her cheeky compatriot take over, once said cheeky girl let loose slippery contact gel down the back of her bottom. "Aah! That tickles, you silly goose!" she giggled, her thighs squirming a bit as the gel rolled down them out the back of her suit.

Hyde was helping to keep things fun, but Sleuth did suddenly find herself thinking that if one was forced to do this sort of thing, day in and day out, it might become quite a soul-draining task. She doubted she'd be able to keep it up, herself. "It's so much nicer to be paid to do what you love," she thought, regarding her detective work, off-and-on as it was. She found herself wondering if Hyde (either one) was as passionate about doctoring... but given the passion one of them showed for "Mama's Method" and the dubious healing properties of said method, she figured at least one of them wasn't too serious about their work.

Now, back to attending packages. While she'd been distracted, new ones had popped up everywhere; it seemed this was going to stop being back-to-back work and would become a game of standing Twister after all. Part of her thought "how fun" and the other began to seriously consider what it would look like if Maidy was handling all of these by herself. While she took mental stock of all those around, she paused to rub some more gel into her hands, which tended to lose their contact gel the quickest. She noted that quite a few of them were popping up, already red and ready, and wondered if it had been that way all along but she just hadn't realized. At any rate, that meant a lot of packages going straight into their holes, with a handful more that needed some TLC.

Noting the need not to let white ones sit at port, Sleuth moved to the left side of the door and grabbed two, one closer to the middle of the wall and the other sitting in the corner. The former she tucked between her breasts, which were still thick with slime, having remained mostly unused thus far. The other, she tucked down the back of her bikini bottom, feeling a bit naughty as she did, given that she hadn't seen Maidy using her more discrete parts to do her job earlier. Regardless, she figured those two would get plenty stimulated from that, so she turned her attention to those that needed their holes. "You get the other white ones, Miss Hyde! You may need to stretch for it!" she instructed idly. There was also another red one nearby, very close to its hole, which she gave a rub with her hand, then sent on its way with a swipe.

Even having addressed those three seemed to put no dent in the demand. Quickly, she swung her hand to try to slap an overstimulated deep red one, also along the left wall, into its hole, while shooting another red one over to the other side where Hyde was working, with only a "think fast" to ensure her ally saw it. Sleuth stretched her body to reach another white one in the left back corner with her mouth, bending her shoulders down to do so. That would shut her up for a while, as she simultaneously serviced three of the white ones. That couldn't be accomplished without movement, so she rubbed its shaft in and out of her mouth with her hand and placed her buttocks against the wall, almost smothering the one inside her panties as she rubbed it up and down using the surface as a point to bear down on. The chest one would get its jollies without much effort on her part, as she'd be bouncing plenty just from those motions.

The other crucial part of this was to make sure she wasn't blocking any ports. All of the ports Hyde would have to deal with on her left side were waist level. She'd keep mostly in the back left corner to avoid bothering her partner, but would have to crook her arm around the hole at the back left to avoid covering it. Not entirely comfortable, but she wouldn't have to hold them for long. "Miss Hyde," she spoke up, after withdrawing her mouth from around one of the packages with a lewd sucking noise. "I'm going to send these along now, but if they don't quite make it, do me the favor of bumping them in!" She'd continue holding the mouth package in one hand while removing first the package from her bottom, then the other from her top, each time pushing it off towards its respective hole. Hopefully the momentum would guide them in, but Hyde might have to help if it didn't. The one in her mouth came last, but luckily, her head was pretty close to that hole and she could deliver it herself, she figured.

"Let's work efficiently! If we work together to stay gelled up, we'll do all the better! That means finding creative places to apply and use the gel, of course... it may stay soaked into your clothing better than it stays slick on your hand! With that in mind," she chuckled, while squeezing more gel out into her hands. If she got enough, she'd reach around, attempting to get beneath her partner's armpits. She'd keep going further, reaching through the sides of the arm holes and attempting to rub it onto Hyde's breasts unabashedly. "Good friends do this sort of thing for one another~" she teased, circling with her thumbs as she did and grinning a big, devious grin.