After the mysterious aliens left, the group gathered around the bar and focused on drinking. The most unique thing about this tavern was that its drinkware came in all sorts of styles, looking as though it had been bought from some interstellar junk stall.
Some were wooden cups made by hollowing out sections of tree trunks. Others were pieced together from metal, and some even looked like the skulls of little monsters.
The drinks inside came in all kinds of colors as well, many in bright purples and deep blues that humans found rather hard to accept. Some were even fluorescent. Stark stared at a glass of vivid purplish-red liquor for a long while before finally taking a cautious sip.
Then the rich floral fragrance made him start dry-heaving.
"What the hell? I feel like I just drank a mouthful of Pepper's perfume." Stark grimaced, while the actual bartender who had returned, Big Beard, smiled and said, "This drink is called Summer Poppy. It's made with natural pigments from poppies, and the floral scent comes from gardenias. If you find the flavor too strong, I can get you a glass of sparkling water."
The sparkling water that arrived was green, looking rather like something freshly brewed in a witch's cauldron.
Stark took another small sip. This time, he felt a little more reassured, because it tasted like mint. The color was strange, but at least the flavor was familiar.
Stark gulped down several large mouthfuls, only to discover at the bottom of the glass that there was a pile of sticky green spheres that bore an uncanny resemblance to Venom.
Stark covered his throat and started dry-heaving again. The bartender explained, "Those are edible ball algae. They've been specially processed, so they don't have any strange taste. They're a bit