[right][h2][color=999999]Lost in Translation[/color][/h2][@Tlazolteotl][@silver21][@Auragreedia][/right]

[color=lavender]The silver simmered in its glass cage.

Teresa had been right to be wary of her drink, considering Sirpa’s deteriorating speech capabilities after a mere few sips of her own. Alarm rose somewhere in her chest. Were they ingesting a part of the man when they drank something here?

‘[b]Are you alright?[/b]’ she asked Sirpa. ‘[b]Speech aside. Is the drink affecting you in any other way?[/b]’[/color]

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[right][h2][color=#7ece73]Vicis’ Catharsis[/color][/h2][@Tlazolteotl][@spiral origin][/right]

[color=7ece73][i]Oh? How intriguing.[/i]

The weather was particularly splendid today, so much that Vicis had been moved to make his merry way to the village of Theseus (not to be mistaken for that philosophising human king he’d heard of). Clear skies on a sunny afternoon; a perfect accompaniment for an early dinner! Whoever said elder wyrms held no taste for good weather was an uneducated nitwit.

Then again, Vicis supposed such products of society were unavoidable when humans held the reigns for most of the open land. Any human who stumbled across Vicis typically had two predictable responses: screaming, or running [i]and[/i] screaming. This was because Vicis was a 20-metre-long... how did the humans put it? [i]A monstrous snake with the spines and scales of a dragon.[/i] Was it too much to ask them to notice the dashing stripes of sandpaper yellow that patterned his scales? What about the sharp ridges along his jaw? Truly, humans were nothing if not reductive with their descriptions of species that failed to resemble them.

Their geographical landmarks, too, seemed to be taking blows from their collectively stunted intellect. The path he had taken that was supposed to lead him to Theseus was leading him underground instead, with an unnaturally steep slope that disappeared into the bowels of the forest. With great bemusement, Vicis found himself wandering into a spacious cavern, dimly lit by glowstones set in the walls. It seemed a place between the constructed and the natural – rock formations hewn into artfully placed tables and stools, jutting stone ledges turned into platforms for visitors to sit themselves.

And there [i]were[/i] visitors in this strange place. Mostly creatures – mage beetles, storm dragons, a couple of elder wyrms that Vicis sent awkward polite blinks to – but there were a few [i]humans[/i] loitering around too. They all seemed unbothered by the company they shared. Everything in this place seemed to accommodate everyone present, from the shortest human to the biggest dragon.

[i]Were the villagers I ate last week drunkards?[/i] wondered Vicis. [i]No, this is far too late for an onset of second-hand ill effects. What in Serpent's name [/i]is[i] this place?[/i]

At the head of all this stood an entity behind a bar of stone. It was neither human nor creature; this, Vicis deduced from the strange aura emanating off its form. Difficult to look at, even with the lack of shadows or miasma enshrouding its form. If anything, it exuded a pleasant demeanour as it went about serving the guests sitting at the bar. Vicis noted one of them to resemble a human, but he had never before seen one with silver hair. He wondered if it did anything for flavour.

Best not to stir trouble in another’s domain, for the moment. He slithered up to the bar, skipping a stone stool in favour of pressing up against the countertop to loom over the entity.

‘[b]Quite the charming establishment you have here.[/b]’ His words were raspy around the edges, sibilance more pronounced than it might have been from other creatures. He blinked slit pupils of poison green down at the silver-haired woman, then reverted his gaze to the entity. ‘[b]Do you perhaps offer cuisine for those of an... [i]acquired[/i] palate?[/b]’[/color]