Empress awkwardly filtered trough boxes and crates in the storage room. She had asked Bloo for supplies for the research station ages ago, and Bloo has reassured her that they must still have some equipment stashed where they put their other DPIP-provided resources. She wasn't sure why the Belemoid hadn't mentioned it before, but she supposed late was better than never. "There's so much stuff here." Gideon said, wiping some sweat off of her brow. "I never knew we had all of this stuff, what even is inside of these?" Empress shrugged. She lifted another box off of the stack, this one labeled "emergency rations". "Bloo said there was all kind of stuff here." she set the box down on the ground, and stood on her tiptoes to see the next item on the stack. "He said that they kind of just appeared in the clearing one day, and that he wasn't sure what to do with them." Gideon frowned. "That's uh- strange. Do we still not know where this stuff came from, then?" Empress shrugged, shaking her head. "Not really. I think I remember us going trough it one time, and it didn't seem like there was anything suspicious

in it." Gideon shifted, clearly a tad uncomfortable. "Ah- well that's good, I suppose." Empress sighed. "Someone should really go trough all of these. Can you please bring that box with emergency rations to the food storage? It's probably better off there than here." Gideon looked at the box in her hands "Oh! Sure, you're right." and with that, walked out. "I'll be right back!" Empress huffed as she lifted the next box, unlabelled, and opened it up. This one seemed full of medical supplies- gauzes and salves that Empress herself couldn't really place. She rummaged trough it for a bit not finding anything of use to her. "Hmm. Suppose that this should be brought to the clinic." she muttered to herself, pulling out a pencil and a notebook and writing a quick note on the box. "Still not what I needed though." She hummed thoughtfully, carefully setting one of her hind legs onto the box, testing to see if it could hold her weight. She slowly climbed up, peering over the stacks of boxes. They were labelled with various things, some seeming more outlandish than others, but eventually her eyes fell on a box near the back wall of

the room. The note on it said "research equipment." Just as she start climbing over boxes, the doors opened and a confused Gideon stepped back into the room. "Ah- are you- good?" Empress perked up- banging her head against the ceiling in the process. "Ouch! Ah- yes. I found the stuff I was looking for, but it's all the way in the back. Can you bring that box over there over to Matter while I grab our boxes?" Gideon seemed to hesitate as Empress climbed over more boxes. "Uh- if you're sure you'll be okay?" "Yea yea! I'll be fine! They're right there, I can just grab them, and then lift them out." "Hmmm. Alright, then." Gideon answered, and Empress could hear the box being lifted up and the door shutting behind the other Tsabhua. About two hours later, an exhausted Empress finally reached the other side of the room. As it turns out, the box she had wanted to grab was way heavier and bulkier then she had thought at first. It had been a struggle to get it back to the front of the room, but she had managed it eventually. Pretty much immediately after setting the box

down, the door opened once moor, and Gideon appeared. "Sorry! Matter asked me for help sorting trough it all. She seemed really happy to have it, though!" Gideon paused. "Is that all you got? I thought there's be more." Empress heaved a sigh "There *is* more, but most of it is all the way in the back. This box was way heavier then I expected." Gideon chuckled softly. "I guess we'll have to ask Seal to sort trough these boxes sometime, then." "I know that now." Empress pouted. "I was just so sure I could do it myself." Gideon ruffled her mane. "Well, for now let's bring back this box and see what's inside. Whatever it is, I'm sure the research station could use it."