The streets of Starlight City were bustling with activity as street merchants hawked their wares, carts trundled down the roads, and the sounds of conversation all melted together into a loud noise as the crowd went about their business. It was a good day to take a nice stroll down the street. The sky was only a little cloudy, not enough to think it might start raining any time soon, but enough to keep the summer sun overhead from being scorching.

One person in the crowd stood out as they walked, the large figure standing several feet above and several times the width of the average pedestrian. His wooden, stilted sandals that increased his height just a little more clicked as he walked across the stone street and people moved to the side, not wanting to be in the intimidating creature's way. A huge mouth of fangs and tusks smiled wide, not really caring about their impression on those he passed. His pink fluffball of a tail that was nearly as large as he was swayed behind him as he walked cheerily, a gourd in his hand occasionally rising and emptying some of its contents into his mouth.

Yasei was enjoying his stroll, casually drinking a bit of his sake from his gourd now and then, when he suddenly heard someone calling out to him.

"You there! You look like you handle your drink well. Care to come help me out by testing a few of my brews for me?" A man called to him from a doorway, the shop having a window display filled with bottles of different colored liquids. The sign above the door read "The Great Wizard of the West's Stars's Potion Emporium".

"Free drinks. you said? Haha, sure! I could use a drink!" Yasei responded cheerily, walking right in without a second thought.

SPOILER: Click to show

Quest Name: Drink Up
Participants: Two or more
Location: Anywhere
Post Requirements: 5 post per person, 200 words per post
Reward: +1 Renown
Description: A local potion maker has crafted a set of new potions, many of them aimed at helping people, even if in strange ways. They are in need of a few testers, brave heroes willing to take a chance and test some of these potions. They are willing to pay a small fee and spread your name across Charon. Be warned however, these are untested potions and alchemist are known to try wacky things.

It had been many years since Del found herself in Starlight City. Her time in the Crescent Isles had been in the hard to reach rural areas, the mountains of Amethyst Falls, the dense jungles and the misty, rocky shores not populated by people hellbent on escapism.

Then again, what harm was there, really, in a little escape?

Though the Crescent Isles are relatively safe for her, Del had no desire for complacency in Crown controlled lands, even if it was a society she was familiar with. It wasn't exactly that her presence needed to be a secret of any kind, but the Sylvan elf did her best to not draw attention to herself, especially not after the reason she came here in the first place; some clientele could be so demanding. Still, that was the easy part, or so she thought; the scarves with which she covered her hair and her smooth, unhurried gate left little to be of any interest.

Unfortunately, some people had a knack for spotting those who did not want to be spotted.

"Excuse me! You there! Yes, you with the scarf and the face!" Del's eyes shifted his way, a wary glance-- he was indeed gesturing to her. Her brow furrowed slightly with suspicion, she approaches carefully, eyeing the sign on the door. 'Great Wizard of the Star's.' He beams, entirely nonplussed by her dubious expression. "Thank you for taking the time to speak with me, fair lady. You look like a person of integrity, a salt-of-the-earth type, a woman of the people!" When Del simply gives him a glacial blink in reply, he presses on, "Have you a moment to spare for a humble entrepenur's critique? I have some special brews I think you would benefit you, maybe even the whole of Charon, if I can get a few investors. Your testimony would be extremely valuable. What do you say?"

"What's the catch?" Del inquires, arching her brow.

The proprietor holds up his hands, palms out. "Why, no catch at all! You drink, give me your feedback, let me know how it effects you signtheliabilitywaiver and we're good to go! You don't need to pay a single solar."

Seeing Del wasn't a hundred percent sold just yet, the proprietor gives her what he hopes is a sincere look. "You seem such an honest sort, and all I want to do is help people. Will you spare just a bit of your time to help me help Charon?"

Del squints a little more, but it's a losing battle. He did seem very earnest. Del sighs, relenting. "Alright. Through here?"

The shop-owner brightens considerably, like flicking a switch. "Yes, yes! Straight through, you have a fellow reviewer already waiting for you back there."

She nods and enters the shop slowly, looking, up, around, down-- and up again, seeing a large, fur covered person standing not too far from her, gaze angling up towards his face, all teeth and all smiles. A... a Komainu?

"Ah... hello," Del greets the big person, a little awkward and a little awestruck. What. "You're here for the, uh. Brew testing too?"

"Yo! You too?" Yasei replied, raising a hand in greeting. He'd had to just stand here and wait while the guy running this show was finding someone else to test the drinks, so he was glad they were finally here. "So, we can start now?" Yasei asked, looking at the man.

The Wizard of the Stars was also glad to get the two participants he did. Koma-Inu, or any type of Yokai for that matter, were pretty rare. He was excited to see just what kind of effect his experimental potions might have on such a creature. It'd be interesting to see if they behaved any differently than they would on a more common species, like the Elf he'd brought in.

He wanted to get a few more volunteers before starting, but he felt an impatient glare from the large Yokai that looked like he could easily rip him in half.

"Uh, yes! Let's begin!" He said nervously, moving behind a counter and starting to pull out the various samples he was hoping to have tested. He'd just have to get some more volunteers later. He didn't want to risk such an interesting specimen walking out. Or killing him.

"This is the first potion, a simple brew to enhance one's speed." He said, placing two small bottles on the counter.

"Potion? I thought I was gonna taste some free booze..." Yasei muttered, disappointed, but picked up the bottle and drank it anyway. He was already in here, so he might as well have a drink even if it wasn't exactly what he'd expected.

"Me too," she confirms with a nod and a small smile. As boistrous and colourful in personality as they were on the outside, it seemed. She inclines her head. "I'm Del. Pleasure to meet you."

She takes a seat as the Wizard of the Stars's prompting, catching the general impatience of the koma-inu person. She suppresses another smile, wondering if the two of them were going to give this younger person the run-around between the two of them. Del watches the proprietor flit about, getting ready to test their drinks. They didn't seem suspect, but then, Del was not always the best judge of character.

"It does say potions on the door," She replies wryly, as she picks up the drink placed before her. She gives it a cursory sniff-- vaguely citrusy-- and knocks it back. It takes a few seconds, but starts to feel the effect, pupils dialating and feeling, suddenly, like the world around her was moving too slowly.

"Hmm. Hm." Del sets the cup down with a grimace-- too hard, as it bounces off the surface of the table and clattering to the floor. She gasps, startled, "SorryIdidn'trealizemyownstrengththere-- what." She scrunches her face up, trying to shake her head, but her muscles seem to want to move much faster than she would prefer. Even her mind is racing. "Speed. Enhanced? Yes." A wave of dizziness and inertia washes over her with each movement, moving too slowly for the rest of her body to handle.

"Mm. Yasei. You too." He replied, introducing himself.

He chuckled with a hint of embarrassment, scratching his cheek with one finger. "Ah, I forgot to read the sign. Got too excited for some free booze, I guess!" He said with a shrug. He could really have a one track mind sometimes, especially when he saw something that looked fun.

He pounded the drink back in one gulp, like he was taking an extra large shot. Compared to his size, it practically looked like he was just taking a shot.

"Mmm, not bad! Lemony." He gave his opinion on the drink cheerfully. It was actually a pleasant drink! He wouldn't have even realized it was some kind of potion if he hadn't been told. He didn't feel like it was doing anything either. Was it a dud?

He looked over in surprise at the sound of the glass bouncing off the counter. At Del's talking ridiculously fast, he couldn't help but start laughing, but then realized something was off. His voice was much higher pitched than before, as if he'd breathed in some helium. This just made him burst out laughing even harder, clutching his gut as he doubled over, laughing at his own chipmunk-like voice. Tears started to form at the corners of his eyes.

The Wizard of the Stars stood behind the counter, taking notes with a straight face.

It's not until she hears Yasei start to laugh that Del cracks a smile, realizing how... ludicrous their situation was. And it's not until she catches the sudden incredibly high-pitched change to his voice that she snorts, covering her mouth with her hand to laugh. The distortion of her perception of things moving faster was throwing her off; between that and the squeaky quality of his voice, Yasei sounded absolutely bonkers to her ears.

"Mmhmm, and gives the subjects a case of the giggles," the Wizard of the Stars looks to Del, brows lifted. "And what is your opinion of the flavour?"

It takes her a few seconds to get herself back under control, eyes watering with mirth. "Thoughtitwasabit... sweet." she forces herself to slow down on the movements of her mouth in order to give the young man her honest opinion that wasn't at the speed of sound.

"Wonderful!" He makes the notes and whisks himself away to go and procure the next round of beverages to try.

"How... long... will... this... effect... last?" Del leans on the back of her chair to ask, brow furrowed, and trying not to giggle at herself. To her own ears, she sounded as though she was moving in slow motion.

"I suppose we will find out!" The Wizard says cheerfully, returning with another two small vials before the both of them. "Now this potion is meant to improve one's perceptive abilities."

Del tenatitively lifts the vial and gives it another sniff. She glances at Yasei, lifts the vial his way slightly in toast, and knocks it back.

While the wizard was out grabbing the next batch of potions for them to sample, Yasei tried to pull himself together and stop laughing. He stood back up straight and breathed, putting a hand over his mouth to try and stifle any bursts of giggling that he couldn't control. He had a good sense of humor, laughing off most things and finding the joy in most situations, but this was a bit much. He tried to tell himself this wasn't that funny, he should have stopped laughing by now, but something just wouldn't stop tickling his funny bone. Was it the potion?

When the wizard came back, Yasei was leaning over the counter, slapping a hand on it as he kept laughing.

"This isn't... even... funny anymore!" Yasei yelled between bouts of laughter. He didn't even notice that his voice had returned to its normal pitch. The wizard did though, as he noted it down. It seemed the affect on one's voice didn't last long, though the giggles didn't look like they had relented.

"Hm. An interesting side effect. Seems unique to Koma-Inu, since no other volunteers have had such a reaction. Maybe you should wait before trying the next-"

But Yasei had already picked up the next drink and gulped it down in one go at the same time as Del before the wizard had finished saying anything.

Suddenly, Yasei's giggling stopped as his pupils widened until his eyes were almost entirely red. He stared off into space as his ears twitched.

The wizard waved his hand in front of Yasei's face and then wrote in his notebook before looking at Del with a shrug.

"So... uh... How are you feeling?" He asked Del, deciding Yasei was... probably fine...

She looks over at Yasei as they both finish their shot of the drink, interested in seeing how he felt-- before it was clear that Yasei was no longer on this planet. "Oh goodness." she gives the large, colourful Koma-Inu a light poke on his arm. Nothing. Well, she hoped he would find his way back from whereever he had just gone to.

Turning back to the wizard, Del tilts a hand back and forth. "So far I don't-- sorry, my volume got away from me there." Del had been about to resume her sentence that she didn't feel much different than she already did, but now that she was whispering, she could hear the thunderous noises of everything around her. The ungodly clatter of a carriage passing outside, making her wince; the sound of something bubbling in a back room; the heavy breathing of the Koma-Inu beside her as he under took some form of transcendance. It's all deafening, all around her all at once. She holds her hands to cover her ears (though this just makes the passage of blood through her veins that much louder) and winces slightly.

"I can hear everything? You have mice in your walls by the way." Del winces again at the high-pitched frequency that she can now apparently hear, setting her teeth on edge.

"A bit too strong..." The wizard quietly took note.

Seemed the recipe was a bit too potent. That was at least a much easier fix than it not being potent enough. Diluting it would be easier than concentrating it. And more profitable. This was good. Well, except that he may have to put some kind of warning label specifically for Koma-Inu. Or would it have the same effect on all of the Yokai races? He had no real way of knowing without more test subjects, but Yokai weren't very common and Yokai willing to drink a bunch of shifty potions were even less so. He'd really lucked out coming across the big guy.

Yasei stood there, staring off as his ears twitched. No reaction to Del poking him in the arm, unphased by the wizard waving a hand in front of his face. Del was actually pretty lucky the potion had the effect on him that it did. The loud-mouthed Koma-Inu might have blown her now extremely sensitive eardrums out if he was still laughing loudly like before.

"Right, well... I'll see about calling an exterminator..."

The wizard just shrugged and looked at Del, pulling out another potion. He would just have to continue the tests with one test subject. He'd probably get in trouble if he tried to test potions on the Koma-Inu while he was in this state. Hopefully it should wear off soon. The doses he was giving the two of them were very small in comparison to the doses that would actually be sold once they were working as intended.

Del glances side-long at Yasei, concerned by his catatonic state. Though his ears twitching implied that he was, perhaps, seeing something? Maybe he was only frozen, paralyzed... or he was experiencing a vision. She does not know this person, but she places a comforting hand on his shoulder, a small gesture of an intent to help, if she needed to.

Her gaze moves as the wizard places another potion in front of her, wincing only a little at the volume of his voice. "How many more of these are there?" she enquires dubiously, picking up the potion with her free hand and knocking it back.

The effect is almost immediate. The second it hits her tongue, Del feels a sudden sweltering heat rip through her, and all the scars that adorn her body began to glow a gold and lustrous hue. Her hair sprouts little, budless tree branches made of flimsy metal before scattering to the ground. Watering eyes flash gold, and as she tries to form words, ask what this potion is meant to do, they erupt instead from her mouth in a gout of flame. Alarmed, Del clamps a hand over her mouth, wide-eyed-- the hand removed from Yasei's shoulder, thankfully, before she could burn him, as her temperature had soared to make Del into a veritable crucible.

"Oh, not to worry. I only have one more for you to test once the effects of this one wear off." The wizard said in his most reassuring and innocent voice as he pushed a whole crate of various bottles out of sight. Seemed his volunteers were growing tired. He'd just have to be satisfied with the results so far and find more test subjects for the remaining potions.

He took careful notes on just what was happening to Del after she drank the potion. He reached down and picked up one of the metal tree branches that landed on the counter and examined it closely.

"Very interesting! My, I hadn't expected such a result! That potion is simply supposed to make your skin more durable. An iron skin potion, I called it. I wonder just where all this heat is coming from, and these metal branches... Fascinating." He thought out loud as he took notes as fast as he could, his quill scrawling across the paper and dipping in and out of the ink bottle almost faster than the human eye could track.

He wished he could have seen what effect it would have had on the Koma-Inu if it had such a strange reaction to an Elf. He wondered how she would react if he just poured the potion into his mouth while he was in his catatonic state. Yeah, she probably would, wouldn't she? She seemed like the kind of person to be very upset if she saw someone taking advantage of someone else.

He just couldn't stop his curiosity though.

"Woops." The wizard said innocently as he very obviously uncorked a bottle and poured it into Yasei's open mouth. "Oh no, I spilled it..."

Yasei continued to stand motionless for a moment before blinking a few times and swallowing. His pupils went back to normal and he looked confused, as if he didn't know where he was. It took him a moment of looking around for him to remember. And then he realized there was an unfamiliar taste in his mouth. He raised an eyebrow and smacked his lips in more confusion.

"What just happened...?" He asked and then looked to his side to see Del. "What's happening to-" Yasei started to ask, but his words were cut off as he suddenly felt a rising heat in his stomach. He tried to keep his mouth closed, but just couldn't hold back a belch of white flames. His entire body felt hot, just like Dels, though he didn't feel it as much as she did. He was used to his body always being warm, but not this warm.

The Wizard didn't seem very bothered by either of their distress as he continued taking notes, now fascinated by the iron spheres dropping out of Yasei's mane.

Sweltering. Searing. It felt as though every breath she took acted like a billows, increasing the temperature within her chest to an inferno that couldn't escape fast enough. She blinks the smoke out of her eyes-- or tries to. The metal branches popping out of her hair are not the gold of the bliss-flowers, but dross. They hit the table with pathetic little tink's, but some of the ones that fall land on Del, instantly hissing and bubbling the moment they make contact with her skin.

She can't tell if it hurts, but she certainly doesn't like it. It feels...

Distracted from her thoughts, Del turns, appalled and alarmed as the "Wizard" just--- tips the potion into Yasei's unsuspecting, semi-catatonic mouth. "HEY!" There's another tongue of flame that leaps from her mouth and again, Del clamps her hand over her mouth. Not only that, but her voice is still too small, godsdammit. And the heat...

The varnish of the wooden seat under her has started to sizzle, producing an acrid smell. She glowers at the Wizard angrily. He was lucky she wasn't of a mind to just simply set this building on fire. Though, they soon might not have much choice in the matter.

Yasei starts coming around, and Del looks at him with a pained expression. She wants to tell him what has happened, but if she opens her mouth again, she'll do the... oh, the same thing that Yasei just did, belching fire. Though his flame was white. How hot must he be burning to produce a white flame? Del points to the Wizard, frowning furiously on the Komainu's behalf.

CLUNK. Del reflexively leaps off the stool and to her feet as something-- several somethings hit the ground. She looks surprised as an iron ball rolls and touches her foot, stooping to pick one up. She holds it in her hand, her scars now fissures aglow with molten gold, and the iron begins to slowly turn red.

Her gaze lifts sharply to the Wizard who was merrily writing away his scientific findings. If he was going to abuse test subjects, his research was, therefore, tainted. She slips the hot iron ball into the pocket of his robes, the hot steel quickly transferring heat to the cloth.

"Hm, both produce iron objects, though the form differs between the two subjects. Perhaps more test subjects are needed to see what the relationship between the person and the objects they produce are. Both also produce flames, but the color also varies." The Wizard muttered his observations out loud as he wrote them down, keenly interested in the strange effects his potions were having on Del and Yasei.

He didn't even notice the burning hot iron sphere sip into his pocket until his robes suddenly burst into flame from the heat.

"Wha- Ahh! AHHHHHH!!!" He screamed as he began to try to pat the flames out unsuccessfully, his thoughts in a panic from unexpectedly being set on fire. It took him a few moments too long to finally begin rolling on the ground, trying to douse himself. He was nearly entirely engulfed in flames as he tossed from side to side, the area behind the counter not being very large, making rolling difficult.

Yasei held a hand over his big mouth, trying to keep himself from belching even more fire and making things worse. He didn't even realize what Del had done, just seeing the wizard flailing on the ground, on fire. He immediately moved to try and help the man, running over and grabbing a small cauldron on a side table that was full of water.

Well, he thought is was full of water. It was a clear liquid, but as he threw it onto the burning wizard, the man shouted-

"Wait, no, that's-!"

Whatever it was, Del and Yasei would probably never know as the liquid hit the flames and immediately made everything much much worse. Exploding into more flames that now spread in a trail from the screaming wizard to just in front of the empty cauldron Yasei was still holding in front of him.

Yasei's mouth opened in horror, accidentally letting out another long belch of white flames right onto the poor wizard. Yasei quickly closed his mouth and held his hand over it again, dropping the empty cauldron on the ground. He looked at Del with wide eyes and glanced at the door, silently implying that they should leave.

The wizard was absolutely dead as his screams came to a stop, and the fire behind the counter was spreading.