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Alexis came along with a minor amount of fuss -- it was all for appearances, really; their shoes were as scuffed-up as ever and they'd let their hair down, out of the work updo.

"Y'can't just, y'know -" they mimed something incomprehensible. "Can you not just walk in there whenever y'want? ...It comes with time, I guess," they shrugged, apparently unbothered. "Come on. This corner?" Alexis rolled a small square of fabric between their fingers, giving it a half-glance, and began to walk.

"Preacher Maria," Alexis said (surprisingly, not patronizingly, although they sounded like Atlas with the weight of the world on their back), "I have been neck deep in this ******** s**t since we found Heliodora Winters' foot in the otherworld last spring. If anyone in this stupid ******** town is going to act like we know ******** about ********, it's gonna be me or any of the fifteen other people who were there with me."

A brief pause.

"...Don't sass me, is what I'm gettin' at. And yeah, I can pretty much just walk in whenever I want. Out's a little harder, though."

The foot was a topic better left unspoken of unless one wanted to cause an eye twitch in Leila Townhome or Jeremiah Mercer.

As it turned out, the construction site loomed nearby and that was, in this case, was quite fortunate because thunder cracked against the sky and a downpour started.

Somewhere, within the building, was an echoed meow.

"Oh my <********>. Maybe I should cut ya foot off, s**t." There, there it was. "Did you hear that? C'mon." She thwapped Alexis on the shoulder and jogged inside. The water ward was damn cool, but she'd bother them about it later.

"Cat?" Preacher glanced at Alexis. "Don't s'ppose it works without tha fur? It was on the third floor."

Alexis scuffed their shoes through the gravel - one-two, one-two, like a rhythm. It'd wear down their sneakers, but they seemed to have at least three separate pairs that were all in equally terrible states, so it was doubtful they minded. "If you cut my foot off, I cut yer arm off. Finders keepers." Their voice had gone low and quiet, though, because they could hear the cat -- a movement of their arm and the water dispersed, a little, the shield thinning and the rest quietly falling to the ground.

"Food down. How smart you think the cat is? People-smart, cat smart?"

If one tried to track by scent they would quickly realize that this place reeked of felines, ones that had that slight edge to their scent that marked them as not quite normal.

As in they were othercats, if that was not clear.

Peering in the elevator revealed that the lift was actually below, it's safety door opened and light flickering. A tail, familiar to Preacher, was just barely visible.

... yet the meows continued to echo from above.

"********' rude." Preacher hmphed and glanced up the elevator shaft. Nothing but darkness. Must be weird-a** acoustics. "Dun worry, I can climb just fine." She pulled out a couple of lengths of cloth from her bag and wrapped them around her hands. She wasn't about to jump straight down, but climbing would be hard on her hand.

She flexed her fingers. "Promise me ya gon help me back up, 'Lexis." Then she leapt forward, catching onto the shaft's main cable with a loud twang and a grunt. "A'ight, kitty, I'm comin'." She hoped the poor thing wasn't hurt too badly. Wrapping her legs around the cable, she inched her way down until she could feel the elevator under her feet. She peered into it.

"Cat-o?"