Entrapta grins back at her, and leads her up to the house where she lives with Emerald; a four-storey townhouse with some weird contraptions jutting out of the roof.

"Okaaay I think my roommate is out right now," she says as she steps inside, "but this is mostly her stuff... some of it's my old roommate's stuff, but I mean, he's not coming back for it." She laughs, a little unconvincingly. "My lab is up in the attic, so, ah, follow me!"

The lab is lit by a couple of skylights, showing a space lined with cupboards, shelves, and cluttered worktables. A battered office chair is pulled up to one of them, with a partially assembled automaton slumped in it. Although there are clear areas, most surfaces are dominated by bits of machinery, things in the process of being taken apart and things in the process of being built, and things taken from the former and waiting to be used for the latter. A board with a lot of notes pinned to it hangs on one wall.

As they enter, something on the nearest table whirs to life and starts making tinny little barking sounds.