Welcome to Gaia! ::

Since joining the company, Tipsy's life had been made infinitely easier with access to a salamander. The little fiery lizards made burning out logs a snap; all they had to do was start taking a nap atop her selected logs, and with a little nudging, she could scrape out a large portion of char a day. This is what she was currently doing while she waited for a batch of smashed fruit to settle.

When Above spoke, however, it startled Tipsy a bit and she squeaked. "Woah! Hi there!" she greeted cheerfully. "Oh, I'm just scraping out another barrel."

Tipsy laughed with delight, always taking joy in the curiosity of others in her work. She paused in her scraping, hooves black from charcoal up to her elbows, and went to another barrel that was full of rich, dark berry juice. "This here is the beginnings of a wonderful treat. I mix it up with my secret ingredients, then seal it up for a few months. Stuff happens to it during that time, and when I unseal it, it's become a sweet but sharp drink: Wine!"

"Oh, you better believe I sample it! It's my favorite thing." She took up a turtle shell filled with a prepared mix and poured it into the berry juice. "There we are. Now we just cover it."

She picked up the mostly fitted segment of wood that she laid over the opening, adjusting it with mouth and legs, the retrieved her malleable wax. This she manipulated into the cracks, pressing it down. "There." She nudged the blocks that kept the log from rolling about out from under it, then got up on it with her front legs and rolled it about. "I mix it in thoroughly, then we store it." She rolled it into the storage area under the roots of her tree and wrestled it into place. "Every so often I pull up some of the wax, let out the pressure and taste it, then plug it up again until I'm satisfied, and then it is like this."

She trotted down the line of logs and pulled out one with three scratches on the end. She wrestled this one out and placed it in the center area, braced it, then cracked open the hardened wax to pull off the cover. "Now, it is ready for drinking. Have a taste!"

"I have a special code," she explained. "But isn't it just spectacular? The best part is the effects. It causes euphoria, and a lack of inhibitions that is incredibly freeing. Well, if you drink quite a bit. Little sips are more for medicinal purposes. It calms the nerves, helps folk sleep. My stronger formulas can be used topically, too, to kill pain and keep wounds from festering."

She sniffed her own brew again, then tested it. "Mmm!" She spat it out into a small log that was cleaned daily. "Depends on the kin. The bigger you are, the more you can take before you are effectively drunk. But you can also build a tolerance. You, for instance, could probably only take two or three big mouthfuls and be right drunk. I'm of a similar size, and I can take eight to ten before I really feel it."