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The beer tree. No matter how much she thinks on it, Mei-Xing just can't make that work in her head.

But there it was. Mocking the laws of nature.

With a shrug, she tugs off a brew and pops it open, taking a sit. At least it's not bad beer. She settles down under the tree, leaning against the trunk, and sips again.

It's not where she usually hangs out, or where she'd even prefer to do her business, but there was a powerful, stable gaiasphere here, and if she was going to be putting her magic on things, she'd rather have a stable environment. Until the guy with the monster problem arrived, she'd just be sitting here. Drinking. And using magic to flick pebbles at any animals that got too close for comfort.

Flick. Flick.

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A tree that grows beer. Eva's seen precious little encouraging scenery on this giant flying meatball and yet, there's a tree growing alcohol. For the millionth time since she got popped, she mutters "why not?" to herself. Why wouldn't a giant ship made out of living tissue have trees that grow beer? It's already got superheroes, aliens and enchanted goddamn hammers. She's half expecting to run into the Cheshire Cat or a reincarnation of Salvador Allende.

"I need to get used to things I'm not used to," she says, talking to herself as she frequently does. She doesn't notice that there's a woman sitting under the tree until she's close enough to be seen herself. Trying not to look like she's cursing herself for her carelessness, she waves. "You don't happen to know if this thing'll sprout a bottle of Cabernet, would you?"

Mei-Xing hears her before the woman spots her. Elf hearing. That, and living on edge for so long kept her senses sharp.

When she finally gets addressed, she laughs out loud. "Cabernet? Maybe if you sold your soul. No, but it is the greatest beer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70Ak4nW1Rg8) I've ever had."

Beer tree--there it was. And nearby was the woman Ren hoped would handle his problem.

Holding onto a small mirror, he came closer, with Darkwing some distance behind. He hadn't been sure if Darkwing needed to be here for this, but in any case, if he could get him inside the mirror as soon as possible, it would be for the best.

"Much as I enjoy the finer things in life, I don't think I'm quite ready to make a deal with the devil over a bottle of wine. Yet. The food they have here may make me reconsider that," Eva laughs. "Do you come here often?"

"Yeah, the Yama Kings'll screw you." She gives the other woman a friendly smile. "Naah, I usually stay in the city. But with the spectacular clusterfuck that thing's turned into, well. This is a good place to clear your head, at least."

And she's much, much more powerful here than in the City. But she'd rather people didn't catch on to that.

"Yama Kings?" Eva plucks a beer and takes a seat down on the ground. "Oh, the sickness thing. Because life wasn't hard enough getting yanked out of our worlds, being told the whole thing went kaboom and that we have to fight aliens. Now we get space flu."

She takes a sip. "Damn, this is good."

Zhiai'kahn didn't know what a beer tree was, and probably wouldn't have cared much about it if she did. No, she only cared about the fact that there were any trees at all on this ship. The ship in general had had a slightly plant-like quality to it, but it was too much like a building for her tastes. Her species were tree-dwellers, and she was happy to find a place on the ship that felt more like home.

Though, the beer tree was interesting, as she'd never seen a tree grow something that looked like metal before. She had the urge to climb, might as well go with that one. She made her way towards the tree, looking very much like just another animal that belonged in this place, albeit one with a set of bags strapped to her and a comm ring around her front most left wrist.

She stands when she spots him, lifting her beer in greeting. "Hey, there." Mei-Xing walks towards Ren, closing the distance half-way. There's a small flicker of distaste across her face when she's close enough to tell he's Japanese, but she covers it up soon enough and peers over his shoulder, searching for his pet monster.

"Mei-Xing." She focuses back on his face, giving him a nod. "I'm a mage. Dealing with spirits is one of my specialties back home. This shouldn't take too long."

"Devils. Bad drek." She makes a face and waves her hands, trying to brush away the subject. And, while Eva's distracted with plucking a beer from the tree, she looks over her shoulder nervously, just to be sure. "It'll be handled soon enough. They have science on their side." Cue eyeroll.

"It is the greatest beer in the world. Or, at least, better than the stuff they serve in the tavern. That drek tastes wrong." Speaks the girl who has never had proper ale.

The trick to just looking like a random animal, is that your signature in the astral plane is totally different from a regular animal. The depths of emotions, the strength of the aura, it's all different from a non-sentient.

She watches the furry thing trundle up, raising an eyebrow, then sips her beer and goes back to flicking pebbles.

It's not who she was waiting for and it's not addressing her. So it's none of her business.

"The sooner, the better," Ren answered as Darkwing screeched in displeasure. The large bat was not happy at all, and Ren couldn't say he felt any sympathy for him. Too much time spent tolerating him out of necessity only.

She falls into a completely different body language as it screeches, standing a little taller. Her eyes glaze over just a bit as she looks at Darkwing in the astral plane, and she makes a face.

Snapping back to reality, she focuses on Ren. "Okay. Call it over. I'm going to need to look at this thing more closely." She pauses, then looks down at his hand. "Is that what I'm going to be binding it to? Has it been used as an anchor for a ritual before?"

"This place isn't going to make me question my religion again, is it? I already had my crisis of faith," Eva groans. "Nothing wrong with science."

Eva's eyes light up. "There's a tavern?" Not to get smashed, of course, but it seems like the best place to people-watch and learn the lay of the social landscape. "And after whatever goo they've been serving us, I think anything with an actual flavor would qualify as best in the world."

Zhiai'kahn was almost at the tree when she took notice of the humanoid sitting at the base. She initially did not consider talking to them, as she was more interested in the tree. But when they flicked a pebble at a passing animal, she furrowed her brow.

"Why do you do that?"

"Depends on what gods you worship." She pauses, then examines Eva. White female... No, Latina. Probably from Amazonia or somewhere in South America. Faint accent. "Or, in your case, God. What happened?"

She nods. "It's over in the City. Has a big fake dragon on top, swords for teeth, that kind of thing. Kang runs the place, he's a pretty chill guy." She'd know who Mei-Xing was talking about if she'd seen him. "Well... There's a little bit of fruit here? And..." She looks left, then looks right. "I've got a spell I use. Instantly flavors the slop. Still feels weird when you eat it, but at least you can pretend it's mushed-up melons."

To anyone looking at Kang, it'd be somewhat easy to tell that he was deep in thought, and when he needed to think about things on the ship, he tended to take walks around the hangar or hydroponics. The physical activity usually helped him to clear his mind.

The upside of hydroponics was that he could always snag a beer from the tree if he wanted to, and he headed in that direction to do just that. It was common to see others hanging around the tree, so he wasn't surprised to see Mei-Xing sitting there.

Seeing her flicking pebbles at animals, he shook his head, somewhat amused, "Having fun?"

"Because." She flicks another pebble. "I feel like sitting here without having some great beast sticking its cold, wet nose on me." Mei-Xing rolls her eyes to the furry thing, and lifts her beer in greetings. "I didn't come here to play with animals, and this is a nicer way of telling them to 'fuck off' than lobbing manabolts, don't you think?"

"What happened when?" she asks innocently.

"I'll have to find that place. I've met individuals but I've yet to really get acquainted with the whole community aspect of this place. And it's generally better to have some idea of how a society works before you try doing anything in it." Another sip of beer. She's never been much of a beer person, but it's something that sort of tastes like her home universe.

She looks over Mei-Xing. She doesn't look like much more than an Asian woman, but appearances don't get you anywhere these days. Eva makes a mental note. For all she knows, magic's innocuous, but Eva's willing to bet it's dangerous. "So, magic. What's that like?"

Ophelia had finally found hydroponics. She had only wished she had found it sooner. It felt like home here, not artificial and claustrophobic like the rest of the ship. As she wandered deeper into the area, she stopped often to admire the alien plantlife and strange animals. She could spend hours in here, and she fully intended to. And it was only a matter of time before she arrived at the beer tree, which gave her pause.

"Oh my god. I don't believe it." She gasped.

She tilts her beer in his direction. She didn't know Kang very well, but he'd had her back in the debacle with the Council, and that was enough to make him Good People.

"Keeping the animals away." She explains, lifting another pebble into the air with her magic and flicking it with a blink. "Sometimes a girl just wants to have a drink in peace, you know?"

She scoots over, letting him have easier access to the lowest of the beers. "What's up with you, Kang? You look like someone with a load on his mind."

"Yes." Mei-Xing answers, closing her eyes with a smug grin. "I am beautiful. No need to worship, I believe all should bathe in my radiance."

Unfortunately, her smooth ego-stroking is interrupted by a loud belch. She glares at the beer in her hand, giving it a shake. "Traitor."

"To shake your faith. If it's not too personal. I'd rather not find out that one of the Buddhas is wandering around the ship, myself."

She sits up a little more, it wouldn't do to lounge around like you're almost asleep when talking to someone. "Well, there aren't that many community activities around here. We all usually just go about our own thing." She shrugs a bit. "A party here and there, missions... There aren't a whole lot of group activities that get done, you know?"

Mei-Xing snorts, as if Eva had just told an unfunny joke, but it needed a polite response anyway. "It's not too easy to describe. Ask any seven mages on the ship, and you'll get eight different answers."

"Nice one." Ophelia compliments her as she finally stops gawking at the tree and notices the woman sitting by it. "Sorry, I didn't see you there at first. The tree, it's- it's actually here."

"Nice what? That was a frog. Or something." Because she is too good to burp. Yeah. That's it.

She looks at Ophelia, then stares up at the branches of the tree. "This thing's from your world?" She looks back down at the other woman with a frown. "Lady, you've got some seriously fucked up botany. I'm just gonna say that right now."

"Of course it was." There was a little sarcasm there. "Yes! There's a whole grove of them that we protect from the demons. The only bad thing is that it's too far from the beach."

Ophelia gave the woman a curious look at her last comment. "Beer doesn't grow on trees where you come from? Where do you find it?"

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