AJ scrubbed at one side of her face, obviously reacting to Carlisle's guess, obviously trying to cover over how unlikely she thought that it was, too. Crying 'bullshit' now seemed like it would scare the man off, and if he had anything worthwhile, she expected it was going to take some digging.

Moreover, she was going to have to ask around about him; she wanted to know if her impression of him as a tepid, low-key crazy man was correct or if maybe she was going to have to really start to expand her world-view to what was possible.

That ship had felt wholly metal and plastic and glass when she'd climbed her way out of it a week or so ago. This wasn't adding up.

Leaning back while Algidus pressed, she took an opportunity to cram more sea-bacon down her throat. She'd been drinking water caught in leaves and eating leaves for an entire week; this was like junk-food heaven by comparison.