"For one of the happiest people on the network," he says, deadpan, still holding out the drink. In a metaphysical sense, he is very still, keeping all of him wrapped up tightly. To Balthazar, Vanadi carries a tint of something not quite human, but it does not feel xenian, nor dead; merely, perhaps, absent. The closest comparison he can make to any experience from his own world is a golem, but there's no sense of magic, and much more vitality. Vanadi doesn't seem to see him for what he is, but then, that mask is hiding half his face.

The drink is, incidentally, some sort of terrible fruit punch and vodka, with a gummy worm floating in it.