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

"What are you giggling about, you batty woman?" Hyde told her partner, pressing herself against the right side wall and leaning against it thoughtlessly. "Stop having fun and get that arse moving... you don't want Little Miss Horny getting thrown in the dungeon, do you?"

In the middle of her speaking, she got a quick reminder that leaning against the wall was not going to be an effective method of relaxation in this particular room. She felt a package swiftly emerge between her shoulder blades. Trailing off in her addressing Sleuth, Hyde observed the offending package. "These feisty ones ought to be easy... but I feel like I owe this one for getting a bit ornery." Hyde plucked it from where it was being held, opening her mouth wide so she could suck on one end of it and work it with her tongue. She inserted it tracer-end away, such that she could still tell what port it was supposed to go to. She saw the other chest-height package appear at the same time on her right wall, and casually swiped it to begin rolling it against her now-coated stomach with deft hand motions.

She heard the detective give some advice at about this point, and muttered back a cheerful "Scwoah Yoo" around her mouth-package in response. Rolling her eyes, the doctor settled her manic eyes down on the packages which had emerged at waist height. Without a second thought, she used one leg to bump the pinkish package back where it had come from. This left her free to focus on the white one. "Ownit Ossh," she helpfully informed Sleuth. She turned her back to the white package and knelt down, rubbing her shoulders and back of her neck against the white package in port. This left her neatly tucked in and out of Sleuth's way, while allowing her to appreciate Sleuth's good work as well. The doctor grinned around the item occupying her mouth.

At the last second, Hyde noticed the bright red package to the right of her head, on the back wall. "Shut," she muttered. Figuring the one she'd been rolling against her stomach ought to be fine enough now, she quickly put it in the hole to her left. She then grabbed the nearly-ready package with her free hands and turned around, rolling it only a slight bit before putting it in its designated hole on the right wall. If the package which had previously needed attention at her waist still wasn't red, she'd give it some more rubs with the outer thigh of her raised right leg before giving it a nudge in. As she did this, she used her now free hands to get some gel from the back right corner, beginning to apply it to her stomach where she'd used it earlier.

In that orientation, Hyde was caught by surprise when Sleuth decided to help with her application. The doctor barked a laugh, allowing the package to fall from her mouth and onto the floor, not bothering to pick it up in spite of the fact that it must be far past ready. "Mmm... is that what we are? Good friends...? Well, by all means ...!" The doctor didn't make any moves to stop her partner, even as more packages would probably be surfacing around them. She didn't do much to hide her apparent arousal, either... Hyde reached her arms behind her to casually rub her hands against Sleuth's legs. "Ah, what an excellent motivator you are! I can, mm, feel I'm becoming quite the hard worker...!" If a sense of responsibility was going to be the thing to break up their fun, it was going to need to be Sleuth's.

With both ladies getting quite into the spirit of their energetic exchange, most of the packages got passed along in swift order. Unfortunately for both of them, the slower ones seemed to take a while to warm up, gel or not. Apparently being coded as a MailerDaemon really did make a big difference. Each of the very pale ones they'd worked on had only just reached a state where they were becoming red, and attempts to dock them in the correct holes had resisted slightly; they weren't quite ready yet, it seemed. For now, they had rested in the ports they were intended for, all except the one that Hyde had dropped, but the girls would need to give them a little something extra before sending them off.

In the midst of things, it seemed as though Hyde's quick bouncing of one package went unnoticed, and indeed, it really seemed to have no ill effect on anything at all, other than saving time. Of course, time was at a premium right now, because the work flow wasn't slowing down, even as Sleuth and Hyde got a bit distracted in each other... and in appreciating the temptingly appealing sensation of holding a package close. the warmth, the pulsing vibrations from the more revved up packages, such things seemed like they might ultimately be detrimental to timely data processing, rather than helpful reminders, all things considered.

For now, new tubes had arrived even as they worked; a pale white one in the centre of the left wall, at waist height with a line that posted it towards the back wall, a pinkish-red one in the back left corner at waist height that pointed towards the same port that Hyde's dropped package needed to go to. Also at waist height, a deep red tube had arrived at the back of the right wall, though this one showed no tracer, and beside it, a much brighter red one drew a trail across the space towards the other wall. This one would feel very warm indeed to the touch, and would buzz and pulse fiercely the moment either woman came into contact with it. Finally, for the waist height arrivals at least, another worrisomely pale tube had appeared on at the mid section of the right wall, aimed towards the port nearest the door on the left.

On the higher level, they were no more spared: a bright red parcel jutted out from a port on the left, with a line leading back into the same wall a little further along, and a pale white one in between the two points. This one's tracer went towards the back wall. A deeper red tube had shown up near the door on the right, pointing towards the far side of the back wall, while yet another pale one near the back right wanted to go to the front left. Last of all, for the moment at least, a pair of tubes had peeked out of ports on the upper right, with tracer lines that seemed to point to each other's holes. they were both bright, and would barely need a moment of contact each, if any at all.

It would be becoming increasingly clear why Maidy had been hesitant to give the job over to Sleuth and Hyde directly; without being naturally designed to it, the work-load could very easily get on top of them, even together, and that would be if they were fully focused. It seemed more likely, however, the sleuth and Hyde getting on top of one another might be an even greater distraction that the work itself could entertain them with.

While they worked in their isolated, sound-proofed little room, it would be hard to tell how much time was really passing, but at one point during their adventures, the sound of something heavy thumping rapidly down the hallway outside passed by with a vibration that they'd both feel through the floor. There was no real telling if this was unusual or not, as odd as it might seem, and the mail tubes weren't going to service themselves. It probably wasn't worth checking on anyway, since there were far more pleasing distractions right here before the ladies.

"I expect we'll both be quite exhausted by the time we're done here. Just remember: if our employer is planning to meet with Miss LushLady in the same way that we met with Miss LushLady, she could be gone for quite a while. The two of us best get busy. Not in the same way she's getting busy. Oh hush and unhand my leg! Focus on the mission, you little hussy," Sleuth chuckled, giving her ally a little squeeze beneath the shirt that didn't seem at all related to doing real work. "Look at all these fussy fellows, trying to interrupt us. We'd better get back to it."

She'd learned from experience now that the white packages weren't quite so easy to send on their way... almost like they objecting to the teasing and wanted to go all the way. Or maybe that was just Sleuth's mind wandering. Whatever the case, Sleuth wasn't sure if that was part of the deal, or at least hadn't seen Maidy doing it, and it would be quite something to explain to their employer if she was wrong. Instead, she continued to give the packages the same sort of attention she'd started with. It really was quite a cramped space... she didn't think either one of them could actually lie down in this space if they needed to. In fact, she was certain they couldn't. "Not a mission for the claustrophobic," she reflected as she reached for another package in the front-left corner. This one was already red to bursting (or whatever happened when these things got too red), and thus, she slid it along to its destination.

However, on reflection, she realized that their same strategy wasn't going to work this time around. If she focused on the left side and Hyde the right, she'd only be dealing with six packages tops while Hyde got nine. A more even distribution would be seven to eight... to do that... "Miss Hyde, let's change our plans. I'm going to take all of those around chest height and you take all of those about the waist. I think that's how most fans of ours would choose to distribute themselves anyways," Sleuth joked. "To get out of your way, I will..." she murmured, lifting one leg and placing the pad of her bare foot against the wall, while supporting herself with one leg. "I can't keep it up forever, but let's try it this way!" The next step was to pick out those needing the most attention and give them the primo spots. Bracing herself against the right wall with one hand, she reached a hand behind herself to grab one white package and stick it back down her bikini bottom, vertically between the cheeks. At the same time, she dipped her shoulders to grab the other white one at the left wall in her mouth, then begin throating it while her eyes scanned for other packages.

That would limit her peripheral vision a bit, of course, so she had to grope around a bit to find the other one behind her. She moved her hand along the shaft of that one quickly, back and forth, while finding the right wall packages. One other was in such a position that really, her head was the only option... She'd have sighed, but her mouth was full. Instead, she began to switch between the two back-right corner packages, fellating first one then the other in turn. The pinkish package ought not to take too long, so once it was ready, she'd be able to move it along. The back right corner still had many packages to deal with, and she was running out of limbs. She moved the hand bracing herself with a bit and used her shoulder instead, while grabbing up packages one after another from the corner, attempting to stick them into their proper holes. For two of the red ones, that wasn't hard at all; the lines were pointing to holes right next to one another. She believed two of them might have touched going by. "Hopefully they aren't testy about that! Some boys don't like to 'cross the beams'," she thought to herself improperly. She would have vocalized that thought, but her mouth was quite full.

There was one more package, quite annoyingly placed in the front right corner and intending to go to the back left corner. Unable to get it there, she nudged it back into its hole, not giving Hyde any indication she'd done so. She might have had better luck thinking about it if her brain was less occupied, but right now, she was only using her head for one thing. She noted the white ones also needed to go to opposite sides of the room, but they'd need a bit more time regardless, so she kept working on them. The pink ones, thankfully, wanted their same holes, so she attempted to push the one in her left hand back in, then the left one she'd been sucking back in as well. This would free up her hand long enough to grab some more gel, hopefully, and rub it everywhere she could reach it. That wouldn't include her left arm or inside her mouth for the moment... well, she could fix that second part. She dribbled some over the length of the shaft, then promptly went back to sucking it off. "This feels pretty kinky. I'll bet Maidy is just begging for some of that all-around tentacle loving after enough of this. An imitation makes you want the real thing," she thought to herself.

Hopefully Hyde was doing her job down below and not getting distracted with other things down below...

"Aw, f*ck work!" Hyde yelled, following it up with a tittering laugh. "Hehehee... Work f*ck! F*ck? Work? What's the difference? Dahahaha, all right." Having made herself laugh, the doctor figured she'd go along with Sleuth's plan for now. "I suppose there's probably all kinds of mischief I can get up to, unwatched and down at that level. And I bet it smells just lovely!" Smiling, the Navi curled up around floor level, shoving the package on the floor aside and making sure not to trip up Sleuth (yet). "It smells so lovely down here!" she shouted, apparently having decided that was a thought worth vocalizing.

"Blast... forgot to top off before I got down here," the doctor thought to herself. Speedily, the Navi forced her hand up against the bottom of the back left corner. Pressed so, she summoned her cane, trying to keep it out of the way and against the corner itself. She used this to extend her reach while raising her body as little as possible. This left her pressed against the back wall, using the cane with her right arm. She moved her head to the corner and opened her mouth to extend her tongue, cupping her free left hand beneath her chin to catch excess. She then winced her eyes shut and hit the lever...

... She'd messed up the position slightly, and ended up getting globs some right between the eyes and across the nose. "Pfft, hee! Learn to aim, you twat!" she laughed at no one in particular. The Navi reached a hand up to her face and scooped some of the goop down her face and into her mouth. As she did her best to get that well-coated again, she rubbed the remaining residue between her two hands again. As she glanced up one last time, she got a view of how Sleuth seemed to be using her head for problem-solving. As much as she wanted to see more, she decided she should focus on her own problems first.

To start, the Navi dismissed her can and used her right hand to grab the red package at the back left corner, directly next to her. She leaned forward to shove it in its proper hole. "Keep your fat *ss out of my face whilst we work, dear, your feet are quite odorous enough for my tastes." Mercifully, the Navi shut herself up by grabbing the left-wall white package as soon as she'd gotten her red to its destination, shoving it in her own gob.

It was at that point she noticed the package she'd left on the floor and shoved around. "Oh, you're going to act like I didn't give you anything? Well, you can make do with just the foot, can't you?" The Navi used her right foot to begin rolling the package, trying to finish it off. She hadn't put much on her feet, but she didn't think it'd take much more.

Hyde leaned against the back wall once again, this time centering herself and turning her torso towards the right wall. She found it hard to keep rolling with her right foot in such a position, and shifted to rolling it across the top of her foot using the pad of her left. If Sleuth decided to move her standing leg carelessly, she was probably going to take a splat, as Hyde was knees-up in the middle of the room. So positioned, the doctor aggressively shoved the corner-most package back in its port with her left arm and grabbed the remaining one (carefully, as it was not being calm).

In the process of passing the stimulated package towards its left-wall destination, the doctor took stock of what was still needed doing. At this point, the package she'd been foot-doctoring would hopefully be good to go. Rather than leaning forward, she would use her leg to send it rolling back towards her, then grab it with her right arm. The two packages she would now be holding (excluding the one she was ravaging with her tongue) went to the left arm, so she deposited them both in quick fashion by twisting her torso towards it.

"For the remainder, I'll need to move forward." Never one to ask permission, Hyde bent herself forward, then moved onto her knees, keeping her torso as low to the ground as possible. Seeing she was going to end up with her head in the corner, the doctor made two moves: the first was to shift the nasty, slobbery, gooey package from her head to between her breasts, which Sleuth had helpfully gotten coated earlier. The second was to carelessly bump the pale right-wall package back into its port with her left arm as she shifted to an all-fours position. In the same swing of the arm, she summoned her cane and hit the lever in the front-right corner. Luckily, Sleuth had decided to get rid of her customer there: otherwise, she'd probably be taking a strike to the chin. Dexterously, the Navi then dismissed her cane and swiped her low level package from its corner, just in time to place it beneath the falling goop. She'd have to hope that a coated package in the mouth was basically the same as a package in the coated mouth to these things...

"Are you doing all right up there, Sleuth? Kick me once for yes, two for no! Any more and I will gladly assume you are feeling sadistic. Take a seat if you're getting tired..." Having spoken, Hyde shoved the corner package in her mouth, only dimly aware that it had likely previously been slimed up by some part of Sleuth's body. "How like that sadist to leave him wanting," she thought idly as she sucked, intending to put it right back when she felt the buzz.

Hyde's statement to take a seat had, of course, been her usual bit of mischief: in Sleuth's current position, if she wanted to sit or even comfortably get standing without pressing to a wall, she was going to have to straddle a leg on either side of Hyde's back.

While the ladies played with terminology and trod close to the line of how much messing around they could do while till working, the mail packages kept coming. The one that Sleuth still worked in the back of her bikini was humming warmly, and was more or less ready to send, though the one in her mouth wasn't quite there yet — it seemed certain methods were proving a little bit more effective than others at charging the packages up, and that was something it seemed like they'd need to capitalise on if they wanted to keep pace- More popped out of various ports even as they dealt with the current ones. Many more of these ones looked like they had a longer way to travel, too, which could be problematic unless they both got a bit more creative or uninhibited.

At chest height, Two fresh tubes emerged from ports on the back wall, though only the left one had a tracer on it, pointing to a port on the left hand side. On the right wall, a bright red tube emerged, eager for a hole at the back, while closer to the door a slightly calmer red one drew a bead towards a port on the opposite corner of the chamber entirely. In the middle, another white tube needed to go to a port just beside it, but would need a good amount of warming up first. Finally, on the left wall for the upper row of ports, two more mail tubes arrived. One was white, needing much love before being sent to the port beside it, while the other was almost hot enough as it arrived, and would only need some minor attention before being sent away to the far side of the room.

Down on her hands and knees, Hyde would also get to see a new slew of fresh customers popping in all around her. As with Sleuth's perspective, there were quite a few that seemed like they'd need to spend extra time with the ladies before moving on. It seemed almost like there wasn't really enough spare space on the women, at least with the concessions they'd been making so far, to accommodate everyone, but there were always other options — Maidy had warned them about making too many false bounces, but it was still an option, and she had warned them just as firmly, if not more so, against leaving the tubes unattended in the ports, but from where she was kneeling, with sleuth standing nearby, one leg raised up high, it might come down to a question of just how mischievous and inappropriate the good doctor was prepared to be with the tubes, in order to get the job done... Or perhaps irrelevant to the job completely...

In terms of the parcels immediately demanding attention, Hyde would be able to see three arrive on the right wall; two were white, with only the barest tint of pink to them so far, and only one of them actually displayed a proper trace line, towards the dock just beside it. In between these two, a warmer red one needed to go to a port on the back wall. the back wall itself had presented two more from the lower row of holes; a white one, aimed for a port on the left, and a bright, pulsing red one that looked ready to burst, as it sent a tracer to another port further down on the left wall. The left side had three more of its own: Two white-ish tubes directed towards docks further down on the left and in the middle of the back row, respectively, as well as a third that didn't seem like it would need much attention, before being sent across the way, to the middle of the right wall. While she had a chance to observe this, the tube between her breasts had reached a warm, pleasantly vibrating buzz and was ready to move on as well.

Outside, the sound of heavy steps thumping down the hall came again, followed by several more moving rapidly. With the room being sound-proofed as it was, it was more a sensation than a sound that reached them, shuddering through the floor and door, but without checking there wasn't really any way to determine if such a thing was 'normal' in this environment or not. There was no sign of Maidy returning yet, but they probably wouldn't know that their employer was back before she simply arrived, all the features of their current situation considered.

"Insults to my hygiene will not be tolerated," was about all the joke Sleuth could manage, with her mouth full of oblong parcel and the rest of her body and attention similarly occupied. She gave Hyde a little kick, though it was hard to tell if that was supposed to be "once for yes," or if that was her being agitated. She watched in amazement as a truly difficult number of new challengers presented themselves on all sides. "My word! It's nice to be popular. Though I never thought I'd be treating this kind of situation as work. What a strange place the net is," she commented breathlessly. It was becoming increasingly impossible to imagine how Maidy ever managed to deal with this many "customers." "Not having to use the contact gel would certainly help, but could it really allow her to service an entire room... I count five johnnies to every wall! Give or take." There was hardly time to count them all.

There were at least four tough customers who needed a lot of TLC before they'd move along, so Sleuth decided she'd focus her greatest efforts on them. First off, though, she'd need to soap up. She used both hands to grab up copious amounts of the stuff from two corners, rubbing it all over her body, including the parts beneath her bikini. Without hesitation, she even soaped up a little further beneath her bikini, as signs were definitely pointing towards the possibility she was going to need to "dig deep," so to speak. By now, she'd put together a bit of speculation, as she could not help but do. "Miss Hyde," she asked, while grabbing hold of the two most stimulated packages to her right and throwing them off to the other side. "Has it occurred to you that perhaps we are being watched? In fact, I should say that it only makes sense someone designed this method of package handling with voyeurism in mind, given Maidy's normal routine and that she clearly had no role in designing it. I believe someone is enjoying the show... and I wonder if this increased package volume is because we're handling them poorly or because someone has cut the rope to allow in every Dick and Harry?"

Speaking of allowing in every Dick and Harry, Sleuth realized that the one she'd had in her mouth was not ready yet; it was taking a while, she noted with a frown. "What's the matter? Picky," she grumbled, before sticking it back in as far as she could get it without gagging. The time for talking was over; she untucked the one she had in her pants and sent it along, then just as quickly replaced it with one of the whites. While she planned, she grabbed another, tucking it down the front before thinking about what that was going to inevitably do to her. "Brr," she shivered, but couldn't say anything more that was on her mind in her present state. She grabbed the other pinkish one across the left wall and placed it not between her breasts this time, but rather, inside the tight covering of her bikini, so that it rested across the peak.

Even still, there were two white ones left that needed attention and had so far only gotten a few cursory glances from her. She had a sort of an idea what she might do with those two, but she had to admit, as much as she loved showing off, she wasn't sure she wanted someone walking in and seeing the fun new way she figured she ought to warm up the packages. Of course, if someone was watching, that was probably just what they wanted, and the packages seemed like they'd probably warm up even faster if she went along with it. On the other hand... she hadn't seen Maidy do that and there was always the possibility she'd be grossed out if she came back to that.

There was another deduction to make, though... the heavy, agitated footsteps that sounded a bit like pacing... what if it was someone outside, giving a performance review? If they were upset that Maidy wasn't making her usual quota, whatever that might be, then she might be putting both herself and her employer under the gun. "Time to take one for the team," she thought to herself, nudging aside the lowest point of her bikini bottom a bit to rub her most sensitive point with the tip of one of the white ones. If it felt alright, she'd push it in, and provided she didn't suddenly perish from that mischief, she'd watch the last one. "Well I'm not sticking another one up my bum, at least not until I see how this works out. My bikini only has so much real estate," she resolved.

Unable to think of another place to put it, she decided to go with the next best option: now spreading her legs to straddle Hyde on either side, she reached back to grab a hold of the other girl's panties. From this angle, she'd end up starting by giving the other girl a wedgie, but she'd quickly change that to pulling the panties down. She only managed to get them part of the way down, of course, but she figured that'd be enough. She rubbed her slime coated fingers suggestively between her partner's buttocks for a moment, then began to slide her package up and down against the client she was supposedly going to help investigate the cause of a mental disorder at some point. She hoped that the more rigorous contact would help it to heat up quicker. She kept her head tilted slightly to watch the other girl's behind, as well as the package she was wielding, so that she could send it along once it became pink. She wasn't sure how fast the ones in her bikini would cook, but hopefully, the vibration would tell her when it was time to pull them out and move them on.

Hyde had only just fetched the drool-coated package from her mouth and shoved it back in the corner hole she could readily access when she saw a neighboring package emerge, and looking none-to-ready to go. The doctor let out a groan of irritation as she observed even the one wall she could glimpse without turning her head was already littered with new customers. "Bother... Surely some of you chaps can enjoy the show and handle your bloody business yourself? No, I've got to do it for you? Tch." This level of catering to responsibility was way outside of the mad doctor's wheelhouse, but the particulars were so agreeable to her that she couldn't complain... well, couldn't fairly complain.

The Navi was perturbed to see the packages next to her were going to take so much effort to move, yet need to go practically right back where they'd come from. "What I wouldn't do to get my hands on the bastard who designed this infernal system. Seems like I could have given the fellow the works right there and saved some mail daemons a fair bit of trouble, hm? If the bloody twat had been thinking with his head instead of his..." The doctor trailed off, realizing her complaining time wasn't helping (she didn't care) and was also slowing her down (more important). She grabbed the package close to her head in the front right corner and placed it in her mouth, figuring she probably had enough goop to press on as the last one hadn't taken much.

The thought that someone might be watching somehow hadn't occurred to Hyde, and the idea put a smile back on her face. "It's always nice to think your work has purpose...~" she thought to herself, unable to speak with her mouth occupied. It wasn't particularly advantageous for her to stay in this position, as her head wasn't facing any wall, so carefully tucked herself in to turn in place. Feeling a vibration between her chest, now, she quickly stuffed that package in its back wall hole using her left hand, then swiped a ready package from the wall closest to her right hand to stuff it in the back right corner. Before withdrawing her hands, she swiped the two white packages from the right wall, one in each hand.

"Blast, how am I supposed to get the gel steady down here?" the doctor mused, summoning her cane in one hand. It wasn't too much effort for her to pull her lever-mashing trick once again, since her deviant state of mind came with a handy dulling (or, really, delaying) of all soreness such exertion might cause. The time impact, though, was another concern. Even as the goop came down, Hyde used her left hand to shove the package she was holding between her breasts and into her top. The right hand caught salve while the left scooped the package she'd just dropped, then both were shoved into the front of her bottom as she planned to quickly soap up...

It turned out that move left her very crowded for Sleuth's next maneuver, yanking up her underwear. The action forced her to lose grip on the package, which pulled itself vertical in an attempt to stabilize between the Navi's legs, leaving her hand splayed between her crotch and the fabric of her garment. "H-haah!" she screeched, helpless to stop the package from falling from her mouth as she exclaimed. For Sleuth to pursue her course of action from there, she would have to move her own package into the real estate occupied by Hyde's, but Hyde was happy to use her right hand to alternate the movement and keep both grinding. The buckles keeping the Navi's garments fastened together strained against the action. "Aah... you're not just going to tease with that, are you?! You better- ah- How am I supposed to focus..." The Navi trailed off, apparently losing the concentration to even finish her sentence as an excited grin spread across her face. The hand she'd managed to slide up went to waste most anywhere except for the packages between her legs.

The Navi had at least enough presence of mind to know she couldn't leave the left wall completely untouched, or a more duty-minded detective might need a time out to deal with it. Absently, she swiped the back-left corner's hottest customer, nearly dropping it with her tenuous grip before she could shove it to her left. She then scrambled for the two left wall white packages, pulling them out only to have them roll across the floor. "F*ck! I'm swimming in these things!" she shouted, somewhere between a yelled curse and a hysteric giggle. The Navi shifted her legs across the floor to soap them up in as much unused residue as she could collect, including what she'd spilled earlier, then placed the entire crus of each leg against the two packages she scooped earlier. She tried to roll both with her soaped-up legs, unwilling to move herself into a more convenient position and adjust. That said, her left hand was free, again: she tried to move the package she'd taken from her mouth into the now-unoccupied front of her bottom. This essentially made a "U"-chain of packages in her bikini briefs, the outer two moving the inner against the lowest point of her.

That was really about all the limbs Hyde had available without turning around, meaning the red package at the front-left was "out of sight, out of mind" for the time being. Hyde didn't even notice it, but if she had, she'd likely have ignored it. "Dearest butt buddy, mm, do you think you could help with the lubricant business? I fear it's- ah- a bit hard to get about at the lower level... In return, you can use as mmm! Much of my body and as many holes as you please for your work!" The Navis words came out as a rushed gasp. "I know I can trust you to be quick and professional..."

The struggle to keep up with their mail orders seemed to be getting progressively worse for Sleuth and Hyde, and the pair discussed the possibility of unannounced voyeurs as they got ever more daring in their efforts to stay afloat. Strangely, though, with their many hands and even an orifice or two full, the steady flow of new mail gave them a very fortunate breather, for now at least. they'd left themselves with mostly long-distance packets, and as expected the ones in the more risky locations, with more warm skin contact, did seem to be getting there faster.

For her own most mischievous experiment, Sleuth would find that slipping one of the mail packages into a distinctly personal place didn't feel bad by any stretch of the imagination. If anything, the contact gel that was present seemed to be having as much effect on her more sensitive skin as it was on the cylinder itself, and once she'd put it in as far as she dared and let her bottoms slip back into place to cover it, the very faint, warm hum of the package slowly gaining energy would feel dangerously enticing. It wasn't exactly the vibration of a ready package, not yet, but when pressed and hugged by much more sensitive tissue it was clear that the hum was there faintly even before they were really warmed up. It was also doing said humming while pressed against places that appreciated it more than was proper for a working environment.

The other occupants in her bikini bottoms were getting there faster than the ones in her hands, with the one having mouth attention somewhere in between; there was no doubt that the one most deeply entrenched in her body was warming the quickest, though even it wasn't quite done yet. It was hard to tell, actually; the hum was growing stronger, and making itself the cause of progressively stronger sensation down below, but it didn't feel like it was vibrating as forcefully as previous ones had. Maybe just a little longer... It would be fine for a little longer, surely... Besides, taking it out again once she was straddled over Hyde and poised to begin using the other woman's 'ports' instead of her own would probably require standing up again, and there was work to be doing — the silvery tails stretched out from the packages in her mouth, the front of her bikini top, and the ones in the front and back of her bottoms, reminding the detective where each of those four were headed.

Down below, Hyde was struggling with a long work order of her own, and running out of territory to cater to it all. Her efforts saw each piece warming gradually — by the time she felt Sleuth dropping down to straddle her back and begin toying with her undergarments, the one in the centremost position would be feeling about ready, vibrating firmly against her delicates, while the others were just beginning to feel warm. The ones between her legs were taking a bit more time, as were the ones that had taken unfortunate spills before being recovered, but on the whole it looked like they might have a few spare moments to tend to their current handful before more continued to drown them. With so many of the packages stashed about her person, following the silvery trails that guided the packages to their correct destination had begun to look more like a spider-web connecting Hyde to the various walls, but at least she should, probably, still be able to see where most of them belonged. The one at the bottom of the 'U' bend inside her bikini, in particular, had begun to reach a point of warm vibration that was proving to be a very teasing, will-power eroding method of saying it was ready to move on...

The slow up of new packages might be related to the sounds outside; what had started with a set of footsteps, and become another, heavier set moving more quickly, now returned as what sounded like several sets of feet running hard and heavily. Something was definitely going on out there; whatever else might be a factor in play, it as a general rule of thumb that people didn't run in office buildings unless something was going wrong. No-one had interrupted them yet, however, or knocked on their door.

It was at about this point that a tube popped out at a port just by Sleuth's head, where she rode astride her companion. This one was a rich purple, a colour that hadn't show up so far, and which Maidy certainly hadn't briefed them on. It hummed and pulsed, vibrating fiercely in its port while it waited to be picked up, and the first two inches of it that could be seen from here bore written script on the side of the package, reading "—mon 8-3-2" It looked like the end of the text, and Sleuth would need to pull it out fully to read the whole line.

"Come now, Miss Hyde! Listen to you squealing down there, and those butterfingers! Steady hands are important for a doctor," Sleuth teased her companion, for the few moments where her mouth wasn't involved with a package. This could be a pretty fun pass-time if their employer's livelihood (and other people's mail) wasn't tied to it. "You dirty birdie! You're asking me to put somebody's mail up your bum. Do you even know how ridiculous that sounds?" she asked, as if putting it in the other hole wasn't about as questionable. Obliging only a little, she fell into Hyde's masturbatory rhythm as best she could, generously nudging right around where her partner wanted it without actually sticking it in. She giggled at her partner's provocation, finding another moment to pull out the package in her mouth, with a sloppy pop of her lips. "I can use any of your holes? Well, I know one that would be just divine to stick my sock into," she joked. "On second thought, that's a pretty filthy place to put my good stockings~"

Soon enough, it was time for Sleuth to stop worrying about what she was doing to Hyde and start worrying about what she was doing to herself. Her actions might be cause for worry, but her own perspective on the experiment's outcome was pretty rosy. "Ooo la la! I should have tried this sooner," she thought to herself, pleased with the result. "I should see if I can get my clients to submit investigation requests this same way!" Sleuth added, as though she didn't ultimately have to seek out all of her clients personally. The white lines trailing out all around her brought to mind some other imagery, but she still had a ways to go if she wanted to get to that point.

Remembering that Hyde had requested another application of goop, Sleuth lubricated her free hand and licked some off of it, then sloshed it around while rubbing more of it into her bosom and panties. She reflected that it almost seemed as though the ones in the naughtiest places were the ones lingering the most... "Ha! Or maybe I'm just leaving them in longer. Some detective I am, mistaking causation like that," she corrected herself. But back to Hyde. The detective slapped one hand onto the buttocks of her partner playfully (and hard, remembering that her partner liked that), then squeezed her fingers into the slick surface and jiggled it appreciatively. With that done, she explored all inside Hyde's bikini using that soaped up hand, intending to replenish Hyde's supply of lubricant. Of course, they were far beyond the point of decorum, so she spared none of the more scandalous parts.

Thankfully, the one in her mouth was one of the easiest to check on, so she pulled it out and sent it on its way after confirming its redness. That was good; she was beginning to feel not herself, without being able to run her mouth whenever something witty came to mind. The one between her breasts still needed work and, from a quick look at her panties, she confirmed she had two more late bloomers. "Really now! These are world class," she sighed, grabbing hold of the central point of her bra and giving it a series of dangerous tugs, bouncing herself to hurry the package along. She gave the other two some attention from tail to tip with her fingers, then pulled them free to send them on their way, but her attention was much more heavily focused on the one inside of her. She thought it must be satisfied by now, but as she went to pull it out, she let out a happy moan in spite of herself, and found herself slipping it back in... then repeating that action a few times. "It's instinct! A detective can't fight her intuition!" she insisted to whatever part of her was feeling guilty for blowing off her work right now.

She was jerked back into reality by the arrival of a new purple package and the realization that the flow of other packages had ceased. Certainly something important was going on right now... something she needed more of her brain capacity to figure out. "Miss Hyde, I seem to have an oddly purple visitor. My, my! I hope he's getting enough oxygen," she joked, peering closely at it. She thought it might be some priority message, which piqued her curiosity almost so heavily that she forgot about the other package she'd been prioritizing... until she realized she had no idea how to open the things to begin with. Well, this one appeared to be carrying a more easily obtainable type of message, written along it.

In all of her focus, she barely acknowledged that someone was running around just outside the room. What could that be about? If it was related to their activities here, certainly someone would have burst in by now? But if it was something she didn't know anything about... that drove her batty just to think about, as a detective. "Miss Hyde. Would you venture a guess as to what the bloody blazes is going on out there? Don't they know we're working in here?" she asked idly, frustrated with herself for not being able to posit a hypothesis.

Back to the task at hand, she decided that the only solution to the purple package question was to grab hold of it and pull it out further, which she did quickly and decisively hesitation. What happened next would certainly depend on what was written on that package (assuming it was the same type of package as the rest of these to begin with and not embarrassingly connected to someone). Her only early suspicion for what might be written on it was "daemon", referring to one of the Mailer Daemons... perhaps it was a private message for their employer? Not that she could really peek, regardless.

"W-what?! ...You're not going to...?!" Hyde gasped in outrage, although she couldn't sound too upset in the current situation. "Mm, oh, stuff your stockings! I want a 'special delivery,' heeheeha...~ Well, don't worry about me... I'll just be down here doing my thing, take your time... ah..."

It was lucky that new packages weren't popping up, because Hyde really only had the mental faculty at the moment to service the ones already on her plate... and even then, only because those involved simple, mechanical, and pleasant movement. She was quite aware that a couple of her packages were imminently prepared, but she was less prepared to remove them and put them where they ought to go. With very little of her mind on her mission, Hyde allowed herself to twitch and rock in the rhythm of dueling vibrations.

"All right! All right! Some of these boys have had enough fun, I need to -Oh!" the doctor gasped as she felt a hard palm against her backside. "Mmm... I love the hands on approach! You know, though, while I appreciate the thought, it's a little hard to get revved up on it!" Hyde lied with a grin and a wink. "I recently had a run-in with a well-equipped cameraman who was very passionate about his work... While I appreciate your enthusiasm and-" Hyde shuddered as she felt Sleuth's fingers get more adventurous... "technique, his attention and stamina were very flattering! I went red in the cheeks, I did!" Hyde stopped giggling for one second and listened to Sleuth with a stupid smile on her face and a raised eyebrow. "See? You sound like you're having a lot of fun by yourself right now!"

With Sleuth lost to her own devices temporarily, Hyde took the opportunity to go ahead and salvage two packages that seemed to be ready, moving a still-pink package out of the way in front of her pelvis to retrieve the one cradled beneath her. At the same time, she curled forward (careful to avoid tripping on the ones she'd been nursing with her legs) and withdrew the package in her chest with her free hand. Both of those were to be shoved into the back corner, so she slid up behind Sleuth and returned them to their holes. Moving backwards, the Navi swiped the two packages she'd left on the floor and rose in front of Sleuth, putting them uncomfortably close, face-to face. Since Sleuth would be lost in whatever mystery package she'd been going on about, Hyde would enjoy a good chuckle, getting to see the look on her face before she could fix it from the customer she hadn't yet gotten rid of.

"Hmm... to be honest, I'd been so busy banging about in here that I'd barely noticed the banging about out there. How terribly rude!" Hyde grinned at Sleuth, much more interested in making mischief than she was in indulging the new mystery. With two packages still in her bottom, the doctor parted her legs to slide one between her plump thighs, closing them to cradle it beneath her bikini bottom, and put the remaining one between her chest again, quickly using her newly free hand to coat it in new gel before doing so. "Why wear ourselves out thinking about it, though... when we can just ask?" Hyde finished her thought with a friendly grin before swiping for the knob on the door, trying to find out if she could introduce a new topic of such urgency that she could tear Sleuth from her calling. "Well, her two callings... amateur detective and professional masturbator..." The Navi snorted at her own internal joke before fixing her face again, intending to show she was perfectly serious in her dangerous suggestion.

Sleuth was fairly prompt and disciplined about sending off her remaining packages to their indicated ports, for the most part, though perhaps she could be excused for holding onto one of them for a bit longer than was strictly necessary, when it happened to be the one that wasn't showing a silver trail anyway... and who could blame her for being reluctant to move it on when it was humming away so nicely? Besides which, there were other matters to focus on, if she could manage to...

After lubing up Hyde a little more Slueth was able to claim the unusual purple package and examine it. As she had deduced, the entire line on the outside read 'MailerDaemon 8-3-2', which she would probably recall was Maidy's official name, or position, or designate. Upon holding the message tube in her hands though, a small light traced along the seems and the cylinder unrolled itself automatically. The unravelled form made the package into something like a scroll, with words swiftly writing themselves on the inside leaf even as it finished opening up.

There was no greeting or introduction on the letter, and no real preamble aside from a statement that the message came direct from the branch management in some capacity, with a series of letter and number designates that weren't liable to make any sense to Sleuth. the central paragraph of the letter however was more interesting, and if the detective could focus on reading it through the pleasurable buzz of her remaining mail package, it read:

"Effective immediately, operation expectations and resource management practices have been updated. Of concern to you, MailerDaemons 7-6-8 through to 9-8-0 will now be operated wholly in-house until further notice. This means that all jack-out breaks and privileges are temporarily suspended until such a time as our heightened stress load is relieved. Programs who are no longer permitted jack-out times will still retain regulated rest and break times, and these will be more strictly enforced to ensure that staff receive the correct legally required recreation time, however, they will not be permitted to jack out during these periods, excluding extreme emergencies, and are strongly discouraged from leaving NAS&MEbn38 during these mandated breaks."

The letter was signed off by another executive name that was simply a string of letters and numbers, but Sleuth would only have a moment to think on this before a sudden sensation down below would most likely draw her attention. Ever increasing in warmth and potency of vibration, the package she had held onto pulsed very fiercely, sending a particularly strong thrill of sensation through the parts of her that it was pressed against, and from deeper in, a faintly fuller sense, like gaps being filled in. The humming pulses stopped quite quickly as the cylinder went calm, and the whole area began to feel far more lubricated than it had a moment ago.

If she looked down to inspect, Sleuth would see as filmy silver fluid beginning to rapidly soak through her bikini bottoms, and spread in every direction from what the detective would probably be able to deduce was the source of a particular kind of accident. The silvery, slippery fluid was full of a trace-work of data bytes, but as it spilled out of her and spread out, it was fairly clear that whatever it had been before, this would never be a complete 'message' again. Inside, the mail cylinder itself was still a solid object, but it had stilled and gone more or less inert by now.

Hyde, meanwhile, was having way too much fun messing around with her own enjoyable suitors to really worry about mailing them away quickly. The most urgent ones were sent on, but the remainder got shifted about on her person, including the one that had been deposited on her by Sleuth earlier. All of them were vibrating heavily at this point, creating hot points of sensation in several quite sensitive areas for the good doctor.

This left the two in the particularly unbalanced situation of Hyde still being the proud controller of no fewer than five hot and humming tubes, each almost ready to burst, while Sleuth was left to read the letter with only her rather spent package for company. Between this and the lack of a continued good spanking, it was understandable that Hyde would see fit to throw another worry into the mix, standing up and settling her over-heated packages about her person, before quickly fumbling past Sleuth for the door with her free hand. It was covered in goo, of course, and her grip slipped at first, but she got a hold on the handle properly a moment later, and there seemed to be little stopping the mad doctor from throwing open the door and exposing their frivolity to the rest of the office.

Of particular note at this point was the fact that the running steps hadn't halted altogether, though the initial first rush had been heaviest. It sounded like a great many people were rushing down the hall, back towards the way Sleuth and Hyde had come into the area; that way most probably led to the main foyer, eventually.

(Given current image mess, and the reducing of the intricacy of what's going on, I won't mock up another image this time, but let me know if you'd like one for clarity and I will)

Sleuth had a sudden pang of worry, thinking about what sort of business Hyde's alter ego was getting up to without her supervision... well, they couldn't be much worse than what the ego was getting up to under her supervision, so there was probably no point in being concerned now. "A cameraman, eh? Sounds salacious! You'll make a lady jealous, Miss Hyde, if you cavort around with others before we've wrapped up your case," she warned Hyde. Right now, though, there was a more pressing matter she needed to take care of before it-

Her sense of responsibility had kicked in just a bit too late, and suddenly, the contents of someone's mail had been deposited into her own private mail box. "Oooh goodness," she shuddered, clasping her hands onto her face to hide an embarrassing grin. "I believe I've just committed at least one federal crime, maybe two," the detective joked, though she really found herself thinking that this had probably been a better use of that message than whatever its original intention had been. "To think! So many throwaway Christmas cards could have been used to such greater effect," she thought, just welling over with jokes. As she moved her hands out from in front of her face, she suddenly came face to face with Hyde and became a bit red in spite of herself. "What? I was just thinking of a very funny joke, you know? Don't presume to judge me," she huffed.

As it turned out, she had more important things to worry about than her partner's opinion of her, namely that her partner was going to cut the mystery of the outside happenings short by venturing out into them. "Just a minute there," she protested, reaching out to catch her ally's arm preemptively with the quickness she traditionally reserved for combat. "While I am confident that we are doing our best to preserve our employer's job while she's out of the office, I also think that it might be best if the details of how we are choosing to do it may be best kept behind closed doors," she explained, before reflecting that Hyde knowing she was bothered just meant she was more likely to do it. Realizing that, she attempted to hold tighter onto Hyde's body, keeping one hand at her arm and wrapping the other around her waist to try to drag her back. Unfortunately, both of them were very slippery and holding tight on Hyde was proving more difficult than she imagined. However, her wit as a detective reminded her that turning the knob was going to be just as hard for Hyde in her slippery condition... but she doubted Hyde's imagination was going to fail her when it came to finding other ways to notify those outside. "Miss Hyde," she began again, pausing to try to fix up her bikini bottom as well as she could given her recent venture, "I am in no condition to receive visitors!"

She reached down and picked up the scroll she'd just unrolled, then showed it to Hyde. Suspecting that Hyde wasn't going to read it, she explained the contents itself. "Our employer has unfortunately stepped out at the worst possible time... it seems that her rights to do so have been voided. She really ought to look for other employment opportunities, if you ask me; the benefits of this position are nice, but the hours are ludicrous," she joked. "At any rate, it hardly matters. Our mission remains the same: we focus on keeping up her job while we ensure that others do not become aware of our doing so. Therefore, to wit, that door must remain shut," she insisted, giving Hyde another slap on the butt that was either intended to discipline her or encourage her to stay in the room with Sleuth. "Hmph. I may be becoming too monotone in my relationship with Miss Hyde. If I spank her for everything, it's going to lose any meaning," she mused, though it was always so pleasant to watch Hyde's pale bottom jiggle. "Now, get on with it and deposit the rest of your packages..." Gingerly, she opened up her bikini bottom for a moment and plucked out the small package that had relieved its load earlier. There'd been no clear place to deposit it earlier... so she simply dropped it onto the floor for now. "I need a towel," the detective moaned; her status as an appreciator of sex and an appreciator of clean clothing tended to conflict frequently.

It occurred to her now that there could be one more problem they ought to address. "Miss Hyde... I'm beginning to wonder... Well, about that stampeding outside. Mankind's earliest survival instincts, as well as those of animals, taught them that if a group of like individuals are running in one direction away from a presumed source of fear, it is prudent to run with them for one's own survival. I am forced to consider, therefore, that there is a strong possibility of an outbreak of viruses or a spread of fire in the direction they're running from, or perhaps an especially dashing celebrity in the direction they are running to. We will need to consider carefully whether we wish to stay our current course or join them in fleeing," she posited, grabbing her original coat's cape and attempting to use it drying off the area between her legs. "For now, my vote is that, as we have been employed to do this job, we continue to do it until our employer returns. It looks like we have... some sort of break approaching anyway, given the decreased package flow. Honestly, I'm not sure what to make of it yet, but posing theories is the job of a detective who can't find any sufficient clues," Sleuth chuckled. "For instance: theory #1! The mailer daemons all received the same message just now about being unable to log out and have chosen to go on strike. This was the earliest rumbling of social discord, the navis rising up to demand fair wages and adequate break times! What do you think?"

She'd be very surprised to hear that Hyde had any support for this theory, but for now, it was Sleuth's only way to explain the stampede of navis without entertaining the idea of viruses, fire, etc.

It would be interesting to see if Hyde's enhanced reflexes in her alter ego would have given her enough speed to best Sleuth's combat-capable speed. Regardless, it was not to be, as Hyde didn't put up a fight; after all, in the moment, the rise was enough payoff even without consequences. "What? You don't think they'd want to hire us? When they see you, I'm sure they'll... pfft... they'll know you have it in you!" she jabbed, casting her eyes down with a meaningful smirk.

The doctor took a look at the scroll the detective had put in front of her but didn't give it much of a read, more interested in hearing it from the horse's mouth. The doctor's grin tightened into a thinner smile, as her eyes seemed to flash with some understanding of the predicament Sleuth was describing. She allowed her partner to finish her case for their work, and certainly didn't protest the additional bit of motivation, showing her teeth again in her enthusiasm. "Hee hee. Well, if you're sure. If this is the last chance our friend will have to 'stop and smell the flowers' for a bit, we ought to let her have a nice, long whiff."

If Hyde was going to act on behalf of her duty, she needed to do it quickly: it felt like she was about to get a double helping of what Sleuth got if she didn't do something soon. Sighing, the doctor left the door (for now) and turned, shifting around Sleuth to get her remaining two packages in their correct slots. "Oh, I do hope it's not a contagious disease. If I am forced to get any more responsible, I'm going to break out in hives. And, in all seriousness, how can you stand it? This blasted door is all that's keeping you from satiating your bloody curiosity. Anyway, theory #2! The two of us are f*cking about so bloody fantastically that the whole place is coming down around their heads! Tubes full to bursting, popping through the walls! Meanwhile, everyone runs about trying to find the culprit, totally unaware that the two of us are in here, having our fun...~" The doctor drew her line out, pressing her chest against Sleuth and smiling, "The architects of their destruction in our ineptitude and foolery! You know, I like the sound of it after all. Yes, let's leave Maidy to her fun a bit longer and... 'hold down the fort,'" she finished, giving a toothy grin and bringing her face close to the detective's.

As the pair of temporary mail-women worked their packages and discussed what needed to be done, the flow of incoming mail tubes had slowed to a standstill; what was left of their duties was easily fulfilled with a spare hand or foot in moments, leaving the pair sticky, messy and looking like they'd had quite the afternoon. It was getting hard for Sleuth to tell the difference between the different sorts of fluids coating various parts of her body, blending together as they all were, but it was beginning to seem like this was only a minor worry amidst the sounds of commotion around them.

A brief scuffle and argument about the merits of revealing their state to the greater office environment was diverted into discussion of their employer's predicament, and theory-crafting about what it might all mean, before the decision was swiftly taken away from them both by a sudden draught of air and a brief up-swell of sound flooding in from the bustling atmosphere beyond. the two ladies once again found themselves sharing the unfortunately cramped space with Maidy, their employer. Her eyes traced the scene, and the rather undressed and dishevelled mess that the pair was in, before leaning with her back to the closed door.

"Hi..." Here eyes closed and she put her head back, taking a few deeper breaths; she didn't seem happy or refreshed, truthfully, but it just as clearly wasn't directed at Sleuth or Hyde. After a few seconds she started again, blinking and scrubbing hands over her face.

"Hey, sorry, back, I know. Things been ok? Sorry for throwing you both in the deep. It's been so busy, but... wait..." Her eyes darted about the room, noticing only now that it was not, in fact, busy in the room any longer. The fact that both Sleuth and Hyde looked like they'd been the only ladies in a multi-man brawl didn't seem to draw her particular notice or attention, and they might guess that their antics weren't too far from what might be considered normal behaviour, maybe. Rather, the demon girl seemed suddenly; very confused and worried by the lack of package inundation going on in the chamber.

"What's... There were lots and lots of people in the lobby, but... what happened?" As she looked between them, eyes growing increasingly worried, her eyes fell on the opened purple message and shot open wide. "Hey! That's... You shouldn't— Oh but I guess I didn't tell you... here, let me see, quickly!" She reached for the purple message, twisting her body around Hyde to get to it and getting herself rapidly smeared in the same contact gel that was covering the other women. She paused still once she got it, partially twisted between them and with her body at an awkward angle, her focus entirely fixed on reading the missive without, apparently, needing to right her balance.

"Oh hells..." Much of the tense energy seemed to leave the girl as she read, and she untwisted from Sleuth and Hyde to lean against the wall, looking deflated. "They can't... I just..." She looked between them again. "They're locking in my work hours, and don't want me to leave the branch... but I just confirmed my appointment with LL!" After a few extra seconds, her eyes dropped back to the missive again and she drew a long breath.

"I'm sorry. Were there any problems? I, um, it looks like you've both been working hard, but now it's all stopped. What happened?" As Maidy questioned them both, the murmur of sound from outside was gradually increasing, though it didn't appear as though their employer had had any trouble getting in to her work station, or had really picked up much of what it was about in the first place.

"My dear Miss Hyde, we really need a straight man between the two of us. Poor Miss Jackie, having to take on that unenviable task between you, the scatterbrained Miss Jocelyn, and myself," Sleuth commented dryly, though truthfully, she was far more concerned with what Hyde's unpredictable whims than she was the incompatibility of their comedic styles. She scoffed, then waved one hand across the air, which might be a flourish of her coat's cape if she was wearing it at the moment. "Really now! I have a certain degree of pride in my ability to service many packages, as must you! Certainly we are not doing so much worse a job between the two of us than Miss Maidy can do on her own? I'm wounded you'd even suggest it!" the detective, or newly made mailroom sorter, scoffed. Then again, besides a joke, that was really all bluster... she'd seen Maidy work already and knew that their employer was uniquely suited for it in several ways: her flexibility, her dexterous tail, and etc.

Sleuth watched Hyde's cheeky, defiant grin and listened to her idea of a suggestion; her goo-slick, heavy breasts slid against Hyde's chest as the detective placed her hands on her hips and stared her down. "The idea has a certain appeal, Miss Hyde, but I think not, for the moment," she rejected Hyde's advance. She had no objections to the company of a fellow woman in this context and the enclosed, gooey, private space was certainly appealing, plus, she figured she could even get away with it if she had to explain it to Maidy... but taking too much advantage of Hyde's altered state, at least while looking her in the face, felt somewhat awkward. Sleuth was forced to remind herself that she needed to make some headway on either curing the doctor or separating the two personalities, whatever it ended up taking.

As it turned out, she'd probably made the right call; despite whatever moral quandaries she might have, the equally important factor was their employer's arrival, and the very woman emerged soon enough, sneaking through the door. To Sleuth's disappointment, Maidy didn't look like she'd managed to enjoy a stimulating evening with LushLady... if she had, she'd still be showing some added color in her face, at least, based on Sleuth's previous experience. "Oh, it's been capital," Sleuth answered briefly, then hushed up as she realized something else was still on the other lady's mind. She listened, then leaned against the closest wall she could manage, though her balance wasn't quite so practiced; she could really only manage to rest one bicep. "It sounds like your employers need talking to. Do you suppose that I could take a crack at it? I'll remain unconnected to you, of course. I'm quite used to inventing cover stories," she recommended. "There are really quite a lot of things I'd like to ask them regardless. Perhaps it won't be too difficult to find them right now, given that regular work duties seem to be disrupted?"

She shrugged (the one shoulder that wasn't already resting, slightly elevated), then frowned. "It was much as you probably anticipated. Many packages came out, we serviced them, we sent them along. I wouldn't call it any trouble, other than the speed and number of the little buggers. It's quite commendable that you're able to keep this up day to day; it really is. But yes, I can't leave a mystery unsolved, so for now, I need two things: one, to have Jocelyn resupply me my wardrobe, and two, to wipe away a few minor mysteries outside this room that will otherwise eat at my curiosity for days. To that end: ahem, Miss Jocelyn?"

"Myes?" Jocelyn questioned, looking into her PET. "Miss Sleuth, what have you been up to? You're half-naked again!"

"The usual," Sleuth smirked in response.

"Ah, right. Detectives certainly have it rough! At any rate, I'll get you some fresh, clean clothes," Jocelyn insisted, refreshing her navi's wardrobe. "But you should towel off first. I can't do anything about that on my end, unfortunately."

Sleuth grimaced for a moment, realizing that she didn't have anything to wipe off with other than the pile of clothes from earlier. Looking at them, the upper folds were entirely coated in goop that had dripped atop them... "No, I don't think I could do this long term," Sleuth remarked again, glancing at the gooey, disheveled remains of Hyde's own costume for a moment before picking up her own coat and using the dry side to clean herself off as best she could. "Eyuk... I'm half considering a fresh jack in, but I don't want to spare the time or risk flattening everybody in this room by teleporting back in wrong, or having to go back by that receptionist, cold as she was to my earlier arrival..."

Even toweling off was hard in here, but she'd continue doggedly on unless Maidy informed her of some better option. This would also be a good time for Maidy to ask that Sleuth keep her nose out of MailorDaemon business, if she didn't want the detective snooping. "Now, once you're cleaned up a bit, Miss Hyde, let us step out and see if we can put two and two together," she encouraged her partner. "Er, can you open the door, Miss Maidy?"

"You think not?" Hyde scoffed, her good mood dissipating quickly. "Come now, there aren't even any customers! I hardly think it's that bloody important to scrub your arse while we're about to get-"

The doctor's thought was cut off by the return of their employer. "Wow! Done already?" Hyde asked, stifling a snort and putting a lid on it so Maidy could explain her speak. "We haven't the foggiest what's going on out there... up to our noggins in mail, slime, slimy mail, and female slime, you understand. Oop!" she cried, giggling as Maidy wormed her way between them. "Oh, did you want to join in too? I think we can make room for one more,~" she joked.

The doctor listened with as much patience as she could before finally yawning in an exaggerated gesture, showing most of her teeth. "So, I'm understanding we're wrapping up the funny business and getting to the brown-colored dusty detective novel part, Sleuth? As positively riveting as that sounds..." The Navi cleared her throat and picked her hat up from the corner, giving it a quick brush off that did practically nothing to clean it of the mess and duress anything left on the floor of the room had experienced. Holding it in one hand, the Navi also swept up her cloak, wrapping the gooey garment around herself without bothering to don the rest of her gear. "That should suffice," she said to no one in particular, then placed the hat on her head.

For a moment, the doctor looked spacy again, her eyes scanning the room vacantly before finally settling on Sleuth's face as a good-natured smile appeared on her own. "Very well... I could certainly use a chance to stretch my legs after... all that work," she finished, appearing to stumble at the end of her sentence. The Navi turned to the door and frowned. "I must say, Ms. Sleuth, you made quite a mess of the room. Even on the handle?" The Navi paused for a moment, awkwardly, hoping their employer would take Sleuth's cue and open the door despite the attention to its frustratingly gooey state she had just called attention to.

Still leaning against one wall and holding the purple message in her hands, Sleuth and Hyde's recently returned employer still seemed to be in a state of slightly dazed distress, glancing between the others and back to the message itself every so often as though one of the three was going to mystically supply an answer or a solution. Sleuth, leaning beside her in what was probably as close to a commiserating stance as the detective came easily, her suggestion of giving the company over-heads a stern talking to was met with startled, raised eyebrows.

"I... well, I don't think that's really a good..." She winced, then looked about the room again, seemingly still at a loss for believing her eyes and other senses that the mail stream had stopped. the fact was throwing her off, apparently. "It just stopped a little while ago?" The hub-bub and growing murmur of a crowd continued to grow, from outside, and Maidy closed her eyes, putting both hands up to grip her horns and take a few deep breaths; it seemed to be one of her stress behaviours.

Sleuth and Hyde were reaching the conclusion that no more answers would be found inside the tiny room and began to clean up and redress. As they did, though, Maidy watched them, and if either of them were watching her in return, they might notice the faint flush tinting the already red skin of her face and neck just a little darker. Unconsciously she ran a tongue over her lips. During the dressing, however, her eyes were drawn to the rather obvious trails of mangled message data that streaked the inside of Sleuth's thighs, and a moment later her gaze flicked around to search for, and subsequently find, the inert, emptied tube. It was something of a two-piece jigsaw puzzle that certainly didn't require a detective to solve, but her reaction was less dire than either of them might have expected. A small smirk cracked her otherwise stressed features, and she pointed to the tube, then giggled, putting one hand over her mouth.

"Hehe... Busted!" A small crack was all it really seemed to take, and she quickly shook out of the rest of her distress, waving a hand quickly. "Don't worry, hehe... I don't think there is a single mailer in this whole branch who hasn't, em, gotten a bit carried away, at some point or other. I'm not sure whether to call it a design flaw, or an intended feature of the system, given the perv that designed it. It's ok, it happens... sometimes emails just go missing, you know?" She swallowed and rubbed at her neck, then stood up from the wall again and flicked the purple message away; it dissolved into data before leaving her hand, so she was probably just filing it away rather than destroying it.

"Anyway, I don't see anyone barging in here to haul me off to work in duplication instead... eh, that's a demotion you really don't want, trust me... so I guess you must not have dropped the balls too often." Never mind that their entire job had bee more about shafts than balls; Maidy herself glossed over the pun, but given the occupants of the room, there was little chance of it going unnoticed. Soon enough, the other two women were prepared to leave the room, and Maidy moved to the back wall in readiness to let them both out. She smirked again, however, and shook her head when the messy state of the handle dissuaded both women; it was especially comical given what they'd just been up to. She slipped between them and around the the front, reaching for it. While the demon girl herself wasn't as liberally covered in the contact gel, a deal of it had rubbed off onto her when she came back into the room, and now small amounts managed to transfer back again as she twisted her way around them.

"So, I've confirmed my appointment, and I didn't get into trouble, so, that's all taken care of, and that's what I hired you both for in the first place. I'm sorry it's gotten strange and complicated. Here!" She reached out to hand each woman a small heart-shaped object made of purple crystal. they turned out to be customised data packets containing their payment zenny for the mission. Each crystal contained the equivalent of fourteen thousand zenny. After handing them off, however, she hesitated by the door, biting her lip.

"Um, listen... So, I confirmed my booking, but the appointment is in a few days time still. They've just given me orders that mean I'm not really allowed to leave the branch, though, and I don't know what I'm going to do about that. I'm really confused by what's going on; it sounds like there's a lot going on outside, and all the mail has stopped, too. I shouldn't leave my station, in case more comes in, but, um, if either of you do get any idea of what this is all about, maybe you could let me know? I really don't want to miss my appointment!" Her voice pleaded with them for a moment, mirrored by a shift in her body language; one could surmise that if, as she said, she hadn't been jacked out for proper down time in a week, and was now looking down the barrel of that continuing, moments for proper unwinding were set to become a treasure more valuable than gold for the over-worked mailer daemon, and likely all her sisters too.

((Sleuth and Hyde paid 14000 Zenny each, for services rendered so far))

"Ah yes, well, if there's one thing I've learned in my own dealings with LushLady, it's that there's always room for one more," Sleuth joked, as Maidy managed to find a space in between the two of them. Her own dressing back was taking a good bit longer than Hyde's, given that Hyde had elected merely to put back on her cloak and hat while Sleuth was instead doing her best to clean up what garments she could and replace them. As much fun as festivities had been, she found herself desperately wishing the office had some kind of locker or cubbyhole to store clothing until the fun was done. She gave a wry smile when the subject of one suspiciously emptied message came up. "Ah, well, I'm glad you understand. My last GNA provided employer was not nearly so generous about my pleasuring myself on the job," she stated simply; it wasn't a joke, but it probably sounded like one.

Now mostly redressed, she worked on getting her vest secured while chuckling dryly. "If there were balls to be handled, Miss Maidy, rest assured, we would have handled those just as carefully! That's the level of professionalism I aim to provide," she joked along. "But perhaps such complete articulation of genitalia might have made the intent of the one who crafted this system with these employees a little too apparent." She heard a joke from Hyde as well, and forced a smile. "Yes, I've made quite a mess, all on my lonesome," the detective agreed, although lying outright didn't suit a detective very well.

Next, she accepted an exceptionally cute data packet containing an amount of money that would be silly to refer to as "cute," though "precious" could be accurate. "Thank you, Miss Maidy. And yes, I intended to nose around whether I was asked to or not, so I would be more than happy to share anything I manage to find, should any leads present themselves beyond this door. You focus on your work, such as it is, and I shall return post haste with some sort of news," she agreed, then stepped outside, still brushing off goo from her outfit where she could. She hadn't bothered to put her coat back on, given that it was the nastiest piece of all now, as it had been atop the pile. Instead, she just wore her navisuit with its vest on top. The bottom was patterned like slacks, although they too were part of the full body suit. "Come, Miss Hyde. If I can get no further on providing you answers today, I should at least do what I can for Miss Maidy."

Of course, Sleuth really had no idea where to go outside of that room. All she could do now was follow any voices, as surely some other employees would be discussing this odd development as well. If she managed to find someone talking about it, she'd eavesdrop as discretely as possible, preferably around a corner or some such thing. She'd also avoid going back out to the front desk if she could... as there was a good chance the gatekeeper out there wouldn't let her back in if she wandered out. Sleuth didn't plan to confront anyone unless perhaps they sounded like a manager... if they did, she planned to introduce herself and start asking questions. In a place with such a guilty design as this one, did managers really have any right to maintain secrecy? It was basically only morally right that they repent by offering her free information, after all.

And if they didn't, well... a person wouldn't be a manager in a place like this without harboring certain interests. Without her coat on (or even with, though to a lesser extent), she'd have plenty to offer in that department. She also recalled that Hyde was still clad rather scantily beneath her cape, though the good doctor was a bit of an acquired taste... she was half tempted to flip up her cape just to see how everyone involved reacted, though she decided not to. It would be a bit unfair to fail to advance Hyde's case at all today and also tease her at the same time.

Sleuth and the client shared some knowing smirks about an evidently shared knowledge; Hyde was absent for that reference, but she was present enough to roll her eyes at some good-natured "ball-handling" jokes. She was a bit fuzzy on what exactly they had been up to, but at the very least MaiDae wasn't withholding their payment. Whatever they'd been tasked with ("Sorting packages?" Hyde tried to recall), it seemed they'd done an adequate job. "Happy to be of assistance," she said honestly enough, gathering the packet with a smile.

Although they'd been paid and released, it didn't sound like the adventure had wrapped up outside the mailroom. Hyde had some conflicting emotions on whether they should offer further assistance: after all, she'd felt they weren't necessarily qualified even for the first part of their task. She had a feeling Sleuth wouldn't leave it at that, though... Not if there was still a mystery to be solved. She'd be lying if she said she wasn't a bit curious, as well. Therefore, it was no great surprise nor any particular unwelcome trouble when Sleuth met her expectations and offered to ask around. "I suppose if there's been some incident, I should be prepared to offer my services..." It was perfectly possible MaiDae wouldn't remember Hyde was a doctor to know what those unspecified services were. Regardless, she gave their employer a polite nod and departed with her partner.

"This seems like your wheelhouse, so... um... I suppose I'll follow your lead," she spoke quietly to Sleuth, keeping her messy cloak drawn about her but, nevertheless, feeling the cold floor beneath her bare feet as she hadn't bothered to put any footwear back on. On the note of leads, she wanted to ask Sleuth if she had any. The gap in information Hyde had left her in the dark as to what event they were even investigating... hopefully, the situation would make itself obvious. She would stay quiet and leave the talking to Sleuth. Of course, if she found that there were any injured, she'd act on an obligation to diagnose them. From what she'd heard so far, though, it sounded more like the sort of gathering that accompanied a power outage, a firing, or juicy gossip in an office building than any kind of serious crisis or danger.

Making their polite farewells, with an appropriate level of knowing smirks, to the stressed our mailer daemon, Sleuth and Hyde exited the room with a few light assurances of looking for more answers. As the door closed they caught sight of the red-skinned woman leaning against the far wall with a long sigh, and continuing to look at the various mail ports with a confused and worried expression. The fact that they weren't at this minute, filling her chamber with tubes seemed to be genuinely concerning her, but there was nothing to be done from that tiny cubicle, so it was back out into the hall that the two instigative navis went.

The atmosphere outside was much as Sleuth might have expected to find it, and potentially a mystery to Hyde, now that the good doctor was in again. There was a steady murmur and hum of a discontent crowd coming from the hall that led back to the foyer where they'd first entered the building, but on the way Sleuth did, in fact, pass a side branch that looked like it might lead to some more high ranked offices, including a helpful sign marker that mentioned floor sub-manager offices 701 to 900. Given her disinclination to be caught by the foyer secretary, and the more promising possibilities of getting information from a single individual, this side branch led Sleuth and Hyde at a different angle, down to a series of office doors that were much more widely spaced apart. The feel was lighter and airer as well, and it was clear they were now entering a different 'class' of area in the office environment.

Many of the offices now had glass window, most with blinds shuttered, that seemed to look into much more spacious and personalised offices, but the glances they got inside didn't show anything of particular note until they passed one marked as floor sub management office 83. This one was slightly ajar, and just as they were passing, or possibly trying to get a look inside, a voice called out.

"Oi, you two! You, what are you up to? In here, now, the pair of you!" It was a heavy-set male voice that sounded slightly overbearing and accustomed to giving orders. Provided they opted to go inside, the two would find that it belonged to another red-skinned demonic-looking individual. He was, as predicted, a large, heavy-looking male, and was wearing a fairly plain, if professional business suit. Similar to maidy, his hair was black and his horns curled neatly back around his ears, rather than anything fancier. The tail that lashed around behind his chair, though, was of a much thicker, heavier type.

The office he was in was, like some of the others they'd glanced, a lot more spacious and open. the demon man was seated behind an equally large desk with a console on it and several large sheaves of digital documents, a steaming cup of cyber coffee (known for being a mild brew, with a refreshing, bitter taste), and likely a lot of stress. Some of the office space seemed to have been decorated with a plant or two and a couple of posters. There was enough of a theme to gather that, if it were his decorations, the navi was fond of trips to the beach. It was a small measure of personality in what seemed like an otherwise impersonal setting.

"Right, you, what're you..." The demon looked up and stopped, recognising at once that he didn't recognise either of them after all. "Hang a tic..." As he mumbled, something seemed to scroll past his eyes briefly.

"Visitor idents... Oh boy... Ok, look, whoever hooked you two up with the backstage passes today picked the very worst time possible to do it, and no-one here is really going to have any time to spare you for anything. What're you here for and what do you need?" His eyes — bright blue, as it turned out, met each of them for a moment, then immediately went back to working the console in front of him, and occasionally reaching for a another document.