[SPARKLING WATER] - Only the best of the best for our most esteemed guests! Imported all the way from who-knows-where and rumored to taste better than heaven itself. If you don’t mind the carbonation, anyway.
The glass of sparkling water shimmers oddly, reflecting and refracting the sunlight in a way just slightly unlike ordinary water. Other guests, all around her, are tasting the imported beverage with expressions ranging from delight to disgust - which is fascinating in itself, that a seemingly simple drink to elicit such a wide range of reactions - but hers remains untouched, the subject of scientific study rather than culinary.
"A researcher at the Akademiya recently published a rather interesting paper on the science behind carbonation," she explains, aware that she must look slightly odd, holding the nearly-full glass up to the light and turning it this way and that. "And the Fontaine Research Institute, of course, was behind the development of Fonta. I find myself wondering where else this particular aspect of science may lead."
She takes a careful, experimental, and rather unpleasant sip, sets the drink down, and looks over the table, face flickering into a slight smile. "But, at the end of the day, it's also a beverage to be...in theory...enjoyed, isn't it? What do you think, Mr Zhongli?"
Enjoyment is not the word I'd use. No, the texture's simply far too wrong...
Crisp, bright, refreshing-
There is certainly something about the beverage that makes it so unlike regular sparkling water. Fascinating, if one were inclined to study such a thing. He doesn’t interrupt his companion as she wonders aloud, merely cradling the flute between one finger and the next.
Like melting ore into wieldable materials, even something as simple as water could be manipulated into something to suit different atmospheres. “While different…” As he might with wine, he pauses to let the rim of the glass rest at his lip, inhaling to find notes of flavor that would rest on his tongue. Normal water was flavorless, odorless. The featured sparkling water still managed to buzz through his senses, light and clear and cool as if the carbonation itself could act as an electric current into his system. “Perhaps the claims of heavenly properties,” An amused lilt enters his tone, though he studies it like any aspiring academic. “refer to its ability to filter through the system while retailing the initial spark, unlike its milder counterparts.”
As he says it, the vibrant feeling of freshly stirred bubbles travels towards his toes – a couple to their right choke violently as they finish downing its entirety in one go, shaking with the effects. Not normal water at all, but- “I enjoy it, though, cannot anything be pleasant, when shared with a friend?”