>>18857273At the bar Winter Girl nurses a pint of shandy, her second of the evening.
For years Winter Girl has been lectured on the dangers of shandy, how even two pints of the stuff can humble the most powerful of men.
Good girls drank cocoa, only bad girls indulged in the Devil's lemonade.
But Cyberia didn't sell cocoa.
Why was she here? She asked herself.
Maybe it was all the pretty lights and smiling faces.
From the outside it looked like one of those places the joy in her life, which had so recently gone missing, might have gotten off to.
Across the room she notices a girl in knightly attire sharing a drink with a wild woman wearing a regal dress that somehow fits her perfectly.
They both look so happy.
She's tempted to introduce herself, but even shandy can't out wrestle inertia.
She pouts and takes another swig of her beverage.
>Drinking alone is best done with friendsShe says to no one in particular.
