Errol: I reread your statement and mine, and as such I retract the charge of overreaction. I will submit here, however, that you still look like scum to me, and I would like to know why you believe that policy-lynching italics thanks to odd italics appearing in your role PM is a good idea.
Experimentation time.
Vector fetches his ironwood club from beneath the bar, holding his back as he bends. His sallow face is pockmarked and lined. He is young but he moves like an old man, clinging to furniture. He has a palsy in his hands and the corner of his narrow mouth, though he can still serve up ale and mead all right. There's a blessing and an irony in it, and he doesn't question his luck. He needs every boon he can curry.
"Wench," he says to the girl he hired two moons ago. She sleeps soundly by the fire, secure in her youth, apple-cheeked and pleasantly plump. "Thou. Chit! Zounds, wilt thou sleep all day? Thou art worth not even a ha'penny!"
"My name is Lettie, as you know," she says, eyes still half-closed by sleep. "What is it, Aureliusz?"
Her pronunciation is poor, and he winces.
"Today thou run... runnest? about town until day's end. Tell any wandering people thou might see that wolves run about, and that the beds here are clean and safe with few louses."
"Wolves?" she says. "I dreamed of some sort of large gray animal, whose steps shook the earth... it had a very long nose, like a beast from the land of faerie. Would it not be amusing to see such a creature?"
"Yes, yes, amusing as pox," he says. "Now get out."
"As you wish," she says, unfolding herself. She unbars the heavy door and sashays out, thick brown curls bouncing.
"Dlaczego tak przeklina?" Vector mutters. He misses his old country, its snows, the people, their graves. No, it will do no good for him to remember. He is here now, and there are beasts in the forest. Something must be done.
1. Apologies to Dakarian
2. Apologies to anyone who actually speaks Polish for any horrors wrought by Google Translator
3. Apologies to those who were actually expecting slang from the correct time period--best I can get is 1600s or so without spending hours looking for proper insults. Unfortunately, the best historical placement I could get was the late middle ages in general T_T Oh, well...