[ voice ]

[hostage]

[No video. Getting to be a habit with him these days, but really... who wants to see him looking like he does right now? Thank him later. If he sounded bad before, he sounds much worse now. The way someone would sound when they've spent a week vomiting. That's why he keeps the message relatively short and sweet.]

I tested the, um... the verstatsi. The U.E.'s drug.

In case the obvious needed stating: don't try it.

Full report coming once I can get my ass outta bed, but I can tell you it's about half-opiate, half-synthetic. The comedown's a total bitch and I ain't just talking like regular use. I mean like one shot and you're gonna need another fix in a few hours unless you like spending the next few days worshiping the porcelain god. Seriously, I'm a professional and this stuff... is bad. I don't think we got a lotta samples around here but take my word for it and don't mess around with it. I done H. This is worse than H. Way worse.

So that's your little P.S.A. and don't roll your eyes 'cause this ain't some D.A.R.E. bullshit, yo. I'm serious.

Comments

[ofgoldenfoil]

Why does this group hand out things that will make you sick? It makes no sense. People wouldn't be able to do things that needs to be done.

[hostage]

You don't get sick if you keep taking the drug.

[ofgoldenfoil]

[ Aurican frowns. That barely make any sense! ]

If you continue to take it, you won't get sick. If you stop, you will?

Why make it? What's the point of it?

[hostage]

That's the point of it. You give 'em the drug, then they depend on you for the drug, and they get sick without it, which means get get sick without you. That, and it feels real nice when you're on it. So nice you stop worrying so much about stuff like starving or being abused or worked to the bone.

[ofgoldenfoil]

[ Aurican becomes very quiet as he mulls this over. He knows of bullying, being a recent victim of it. But this . . . this is far beyond bullying. But he can't describe what it is. Only that it is worse, to make someone so ill they can't do anything to stop it even if they tried. To become a slave to their own body, even if the body isn't aware that it is dying and broken.

Aurican's young mind cannot understand the reasoning behind such a menace. ]

The U.E. Those are the ones fighting the island. Yet they give this drug to us?

[hostage]

Nah. The sample I got was stolen from them, from the supply they use on their own people. I'm worried, though, what'll happen if they find a way to sneak it to us. The Exiles coming in are already dying from it.

[ofgoldenfoil]

Why were they exiled?

[ Then Aurican remembers that woman long ago who greeted him, when he disappeared from Darlantan's side to a strange new world. ]

The U.E didn't like what they did, didn't they?

[ It was an answer to his own question. ]

[hostage]

I dunno. Some of 'em, probably. Others just ran away on their own, I think.

[ofgoldenfoil]

Is living in the U.E that bad for them to run to here?

[hostage]

Sounds like it, don't it?