Never Eat Your Own Supply [Inv / Meara]

"This... This can't be right." Kim's mind said aloud, looking around the scenery of East City's outer residential suburbs. Kimono had returned to Earth as soon as she could after her calming across the stars with every intention of finding her cousin Meara once more. Despite all of the grief that Kim had given that woman, and the numerous problems she caused across the galaxy, Kimono knew if she could trust anyone, it would be the only other outcast of the clans that they had previously called home.

This travel back home, however, took her down an extremely odd turn for Meara of all people. The faun was notorious for avoiding large crowds of regular humanoid earthlings, her appearance wasn't exactly something too common in a world of zoanthropes and human-types, she was a blend not seen very often. Any amount of public viewing was for a good reason. Yet, despite this, she did not find Meara in a lovely park or a gracious dinner party, or even as mellow as an apartment downtown. Instead, after peering through the veil of the magical spectrum and following the life strings of her cousin to track her down, Kimono found herself in the rundown part of East City's slums. The streets covered in destitution and clearly no love from the city government, the locals peddled questionable goods and products and offered services considered illegal in the main city, such as washing your car's windows with unapproved cleaning agents, or murder if that was more your fancy. Deep in this grotto of vice where those who chose the life of crime festered, Kimono's link tracked the woman she seeked to a set of small, forested woodlands bordering the houses of the suburban road. She had hopped a fence line behind someone's home, her Hutong spider legs gracefully forcing her body through the deserted brush and dead leaves of the ruination that they called local arborism until she came across a small clearing.

The area was obviously used for nefarious purposes, where a homemade laboratory of questionable design once stood, now laid a coffer of wooden crates and magical ingredients. A cauldron of large iron make sat at a patch of dead grass, below it a blazing blue flame that boiled water of even more questionable color and origin. Finally, surrounding the entire clearing across the floor was plant matter that Kimono could not decipher the origin of. Mushrooms, thin grasses, and small beans resembling the Senzu beans she was somewhat familiar with, all of which possessed an odd purple tinge to their design. It was as if they had been poisoned and left to die, only to thrive instead of meeting their end. Whatever weed killer they attempted to use on these wild plants failed horribly, modifying them it seemed.

"M-Meara? I can feel you nearby. What is this place?" She would call out, hoping her cousin was nearby and could answer the question for her. "And why here of all places? I'm not a good person and even I felt wrong being here. Some dog guys with concealed blasters were eyeing me the entire time I was coming back here. Did you get so desperate you'd open up shop in the literal worst neighborhood in the worst city on this kami forsaken planet?!?" She would sigh a defeated sigh, her eyes rolling at the thought of it all. "I'm homeless and even I don't come to this city for a reason. West City is the best for demi-humans and the cursed. It also helps that Komashitsu formed that cult that seems to think I am their goddess or some shit to that degree. You can couch surf in my church if you're really that desperate."