[Brian Harris]

He wiped the drool away from his mouth. So that was still happening. He stared at his hand strangely for a few seconds, the thick line of slobber glistening in the sun.

”Disgusting.” Sasha sneered. ”Like a dog.”

He wiped his hand on his stained and tattered t-shirt, then took another swig from his bottle, shifting his back against the brick wall, his legs criss-crossed on the dirty concrete. He looked like any other homeless person. Unusually buff, perhaps, but his eyes were bloodshot, underlined with dark circles, his skin somehow both sickly and tan from lack of a roof over his head, his clothing, as previously stated, looked like they haven’t been changed in years, his hair and body were a stinking, unwashed mess, and he was sitting in a sketchy alleyway drinking cheap alcohol. In all, he looked like shit. But at least he blended in. At least no one would bother him.

He was taking another sip from his near-empty bottle when he suddenly heard some shouts from across the streets. “Give me your purse!” A desperate man yelled. Brian turned to look, his head moving perhaps a bit more slowly than he would’ve liked it to. “C’mon, give it to me!” He saw the man pointing a gun at a frightened looking older woman who quickly handed her purse over. He then started to take off in the other direction.

Clara gasped excitedly. ”Now’s your chance!”

”Try not to kill anyone.” Dennis taunted.

Brian stood up, then almost fell flat on his face. He quickly braced himself against the wall, his head spinning.

”That is if you can actually get up.”

”You are intoxicated and highly medicated and thus have difficulty with balance and motion.”

”Yes, thank you Tect.” He grumbled facetiously, his words slurring. He took a deep breath, centering himself, then expanded the muscles in his legs and started taking off after the robber. He stumbled slightly as he crossed the road, and slapped himself in the face. ”C’mon, sober up.” He muttered to himself.

He quickly bridged the gap between himself in the robber. Once he got close enough, he shrunk the muscles in his legs and expanded the ones his in arms and hands, pinning him against the wall and his arms to his side. ”Hey it’s okay.” Brian reassured the robber, his words still slurring. ”I don’t-I don’t wanna hurt you.”

”Oh, stumbled a bit on that one.”

Brian cringed, painfully aware of his verbal failure, but thankfully, he was too numb to be too embarrassed by his mistake. He easily plucked the purse out of the robber’s hand and tossed it back in the lady’s direction, but didn’t turn to see if she got it. He wasn’t really thinking about that right now, didn’t quite have the capacity. ”I don’t...I’m not gonna send you to the police, okay? I don’t wanna do that, I just-” He was suddenly interrupted by a loud bang. The gun. He’d completely forgotten about the gun. The robber hand tried to twist his hand up to point it at Brian, but with his arm pinned to his side, he couldn’t quite reach him, and ended up just shooting the ground.

”Idiot.” Sasha spat at Brian. ”Absolute imbecile.”

Brian quickly grabbed the gun and, expanding the muscles in his hand to the max, squeezed until it was not quite a mash of metal, but certainly not usable anymore, and tossed it to the ground. Looking down at the robbers arm, he noticed a series of track marks in the crook of his forearm. He felt a sudden surge of empathy towards him. ”Look, I can help you.” He said as another line of drool started slowly leaking from his mouth.

The robber spat in his face. “Fuck you.” Brian pressed his lips together. Why did interacting with people always have to be so hard?

[Adrijana Evgeniya]

Living as she now did in a far more expensive part of town, it might have been unexpected for Adri to spend much time in this worse part. Yet it was not so. She had grown up in a far less presumptuous area then where she now lived, and she still knew the old places well. Given that the bulk of her sister's rise to wealth had happened while Adri was in prison, in many ways her mind still belonged to this area and she knew its alleys and byways better than the streets on which she now lived.

She had come back to the area to visit her favorite Chinese restaurant and to show off her new dress that had just arrived the day before. That was one of the many perks of being rich; she could spend as much as she wanted on clothes. It had been fun exploring old haunts, and the fact that someone now bowed to her every so often only made it the sweeter. She made sure to grace the genuflector with a smile in every such case.

She visited her playroom first and had a simply wonderful time with her guest there, and then she'd gone to lunch and ordered Orange Chicken and Mongolian Beef and Cashew Shrimp and vegetable rice and fried bananas. The manager had come out, bowed, and told her that today her meal would be free, and Adri had been so happy she had seized him in an embrace and kissed his forehead. After her meal she'd visited an ice cream shop and she was walking down the road savoring her ice cream when she hears the scuffle in the alley.

She glanced over. Despite this part of town not being the best, public physical alterations took place far less often than the comics would have you believe. Most fights happened in houses, between boy and girlfriend.

In this case it clearly wasn't that, though it might have been two boyfriends. Two men faced each other in the alley, one bigger than the other, the small one's back against the wall. The bigger one was hot, in a frazzled, post-apocalyptic sort of way. Adri's lips curled. By the look of things, she'd arrived just in time for yhe show.

"What are you two up to?" she called from the mouth of the alley. She wasn't scared. Her flames made her the equal of any dozen men, and she had three knives on her. She wore black, knee-high heeled boots; she had a triple scoop chocolate xtreme cone in one hand and a cigarette in the other. She brought the cone to her mouth and ran her tongue over it, eyes flashing. An attention-grabbing gesture if there ever was one.

"Why are you just standing there? Hit him!" she shouted.

Brian Harris

[Brian Harris]

”Listen to me, please.” He begged the robber. ”Other people, they’re gonna take you to jail. They’re gonna, they’re gonna...Look, I’m not gonna do that. I can help you. I can.”

“You?” The robber looked at him with disbelief. It made Brian feel extremely self-conscious.

”He knows you can’t do shit.”

”You do not have a plan to help this person.”

It was true. He didn’t have a plan. He didn’t quite know what he was doing. He knew what he wanted. He wanted to stop criminals and help them find a better way of life before they found themselves in the prison system. He simply didn't know how to achieve that. He’d stopped a few robberies, but wasn’t able to do anything before the cops arrived.

”I...I don’t know how, but I will, I promise. I’m sorry.”

The robber scoffed, and wiggled in his grasp. “Can you just let me go, man?”

”No, I-” He was cut off as he heard a voice from across the alley. He stared at the woman, dumbfounded. She didn’t seem quite real. Was he hallucinating? He shouldn’t be, the Haldol should be taking care of that. As he stood there, without him realizing, his grip on the robber began to loosen. At the woman’s command, Brian suddenly felt a fist across his face, it hit hard, harder than he expected. He fell backwards, landing awkwardly on his ass. By the time he got to his senses, the robber had made his way down the alley, turned the corner, and was gone.

”I guess he took her advice.” Clara giggled.

”Fucking idiot” Dennis spat

He shook his head, his muscles shrinking back to normal size, and, remembering the woman was still there, tried to leap back to his feet. He stumbled, and fell flat on his face, but hurriedly and clumsily picked himself up. He swayed when he stood.

”He-he had a gun.” He quickly explained. ”He-he stole a purse, I was stopping-I was stopping him I…” Words failing him, he fell back to his usual mantra, ”I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

”Look at her, dressed like a slut.” Sasha scoffed, ”Well, at least she makes an effort.”

”I think she looks cuuuuuuute!” Clara whined, ”Tell her she looks cute!”

”No, I’m not gonna-” He stopped himself abruptly, realizing he was speaking out loud. He felt the urge to apologize again, but decided against it, not wanting to draw any attention to his...mental peculiarities.

”I didn’t-I didn’t wanna hurt him. I’m sorry.” An outpouring of saliva fell from his mouth as he talked. I decent sized drop fell on the ground. The rest he wiped from his mouth, embarrassed. ”Sorry.” He didn't dare meet the woman's eyes.

[Adrijana Evgeniya]

Her words caused a distraction for both men. But the smaller one must have recovered first, because he slugged the bigger one, knocking him to the ground, and ran off. Adri's lips formed a pouting gesture. She'd been hoping for a good prolonged fight to cheer for.

She walked into the alley, licking her ice cream. The man stood up, stumbling, gazing around wildly. He seemed to be listening to something, and he started to speak before cutting himself off.

Adri walked up fearlessly until she was within an arm's length, looking him up and down. A bit of drool dropped from his mouth. Definately not all there mentally. Adri had known a number of women of the sort in prison, the perpetually short of funds California prison system forever lacking enough money to see conditions properly controlled. She licked her cone again and raised her eyebrow.

"Gosh, you're a hot mess," she said. "You look like a crazy person. Are you a crazy person? I am. I've got all sorts of diagnoses!" She giggled.

"Here," she said, pulling a rolled joint out of her top and extending it towards him. "Try this. You'll feel better."

Brian Harris

[Brian Harris]

Brian stood frozen in place as the woman approached him. Fight or flight wasn’t an option for him. Not at the moment. His brain decided to chose freeze for him this time. It always seemed to have the most inappropriate reaction to adrenaline for the situation.

”Look at her go,” Clara ogled, fearless.”

”Slut.”

”She knows how much of a little bitch you are.” Dennis spat. ”Why would she be afraid of you?”

Crazy. His skin turned cold. Crazy. Could she read his mind? Did she know what he’s done? How much did she know?

”You fucking idiot.” He sneered. ”You don’t have to be a mind reader to see how much of a lunatic you are.”

Clara giggled, ”She called you crazy.”

”Crazy? Crazy, I’m not-I’m not crazy. He fumbled.

”Yes you are.”

”Why-why would you think that? I’m not crazy.”

”Yes you are.”

”I’m not crazy.”

”Yes you are.”

”I’m not crazy!”

”Yes you are.”

”No I’m not! His face turned a sickly pale when he realized he was no longer talking to the woman. ”Sorry, sorry, sorry. I wasn’t yelling at...I’m so sorry”

”You are crazy.” Tect noted before adding, ”You drink too much.”

Brian had to agree with Tect again. As numbing as the alcohol was, it always did make him a little looser. Not like that was going to make him stop anytime soon.

He’d been so focused on the accusation that he didn’t notice the woman’s other words. Was she...like him? Would she understand? No, that was stupid. No one was as fucked up as him. No one would understand. He was in this alone. That’s the way it always was and that’s the way it always would be.

He looked the woman up and down as she handed him a joint. He still wasn’t quite sure she was real. At a muscular six foot four, Brian was far bigger than her, but he felt so much smaller. He felt smaller than everybody, but this was especially the case with her. It was like she had two feet on him. He felt so miniscule, infantile. It was uncomfortable.

He stared at the joint for a while. He hadn’t had marijuana before. He’d always been too afraid to approach any dealer about it. But god did he want it. Anything that could possibly take him out of his mind he’d happily ingest.

”It is poison.”

He carefully plucked the joint out of her fingers, hands shaking, and brought it close to him, holding it like it would explode if handled improperly. ”Um...do I...light it?” He asked, cringing at his awkwardness.

[Adrijana Evgeniya]

The man disagreed with the assessment that he was crazy. Disagreed so much, in fact, that he repeated it over and over again. Adri almost chuckled. This guy was seriously messed up and she loved it. He might have been a lot bigger than her, even with her heels, but his body language bespoke vulnerability and confusion and Adri found it simply delightful. She threw him a huge smile. "That's exactly what a crazy person would say!" She giggled. "Don't worry! I never get mad at anyone for being crazy. Crazy people are way more interesting than boring normal people." At his question about how to light the joint she exclaimed, "Oh! Silly me," and touched the tip between her thumb and forfingers, lighting it. "There!"

She watched as he took the first draw. It wasn't ordinary MJ; it was Persephone's MJ, and that meant a smoother pull, a better taste, and, yes, a faster and stronger higher. After sampling Persephone's stuff Adri simply couldn't go back.

She leaned against the wall next to the man and bit her ice cream cone and breathed in and out smoke.

"Now, what kind of crazy person are you, exactly?" said Adri. "I have cluster B personality disorders, like antisocial personality disorder, histrionic personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, and I'm type R which means I resist treatment because I bit a psychiatrist once! I've got the MacDonald triad too." Her voice rose in pitch as she spoke, till at the very end she was singing rather than talking. "I had to go to therapy and be put on nasty drugs, but it's all right now!" Abruptly she stopped singing. "So what do you have? I'm Adri by the way."

Brian Harris

[Brian Harris]

He wanted her to stop saying crazy. He so desperately wanted her to stop. He knew he was crazy. He hated that he was crazy. He hurt people because he was crazy. He hated that about himself. He hated everything about himself but he hated that more than anything.

”Crazy.”

”Crazy.”

”Crazy”

”Craaazy”

They always had to remind him, didn’t they. Everytime he felt bad about something they just had to hammer it in. She was right though, that is exactly what a crazy person would say, especially someone who hated the fact that they were crazy with every fiber of their being.

Boring normal people. Oh how he wished he could be like them. Even with his…bitch of a mother, if he was like all those other boring normal people, maybe he would’ve turned out all right, or at the very least functional. Instead he was this disgusting, drooling, alcoholic, psychotic mess of an excuse for a human being. He had to wipe the drool from his mouth yet again. He caught it this time before it got too bad, but he still felt horribly self-conscious. ”Sorry.” He apologized.

His eyes widened slightly as she lit the joint using just her fingers. ”So you’re a…” Meta. She was a meta. Like him. And, in her own words, crazy. Like him. He rarely comes into contact with someone he has anything in common with. Maybe, just maybe…

”You think you can make friends?” Dennis scoffed. ”You’re more delusional than I thought.”

That shattered the miniscule amount of self esteem Brian had built up. He was alone. Horribly, horribly alone. And nothing would ever change that.

That was until he took a draw on that joint. Instantly, he felt his muscles, which he didn’t even realize were tense, relax. His mind slowed. He felt...not quite happy, but content. Almost. More content than he’d felt in a long time. Any doubts he had in his mind vanished. Yeah, this woman was definitely real.

”What kind of crazy…” He repeated listlessly, smoke coming out of his mouth as he talked. He thanked god for his mother’s smoking habit. He’d learned how to smoke seamlessly from his mother’s stolen cigarettes. No embarrassing choking here. He leaned against the wall of the alley. “I know what cluster B means.” He mumbled, taking another draw. ”You know the Macdonald triad involves bed wetting.” It took a second for him to realize he probably shouldn’t have said that, but when he did, he cringed, ”Sorry.” But he didn’t apologize with much intensity.

”Drugs are good.” Brian retorted. ”Drugs are real good.” He repeated looking down at the blunt held between his fingers. This magical little thing...He took another draw. ”Adri. Hi Adri,” he greeted, blowing out smoke, “I’m Brian.”

”What do I have...I got these clothes. Just this shirt and pants nothing else. I got superpowers. I got...I got schizo and depression and real bad anxiety.” He took another pull. ”All of it’s really bad I guess. I got voices. Four of them. They’re all assholes.”

”Hey!” Clara butted in.

”Well, Clara’s alright I guess.” He said. ”Sometimes.”

”Why’d you bite your psychiatrist?” He asked.

[Adrijana Evgeniya]

She gave him a dirty look when he brought up the bedwetting component of the MacDonald triad, but it only lasted a moment before her expression relaxed. “So what if it does? Besides, you're sort of leaking body fluids yourself,” she said, gesturing at his mouth with a giggle. She threw him a wide smile. “We can be leaky together!”

He told her his name and she made a contented purring noise. “Mmmm. Brian. Such a nice name.” Her ice cream cone was almost done and she ate it in three bites before licking her fingers. His revelation that he heard voices didn't phase her at all; she'd met several people who had voices when she was in prison and she knew a thing or two about dealing with them. “Yeah, voices can be jerks, can't they?” she said sympathetically. It would be hard to say that Adri had friends, exactly, but she at least understood mental illness on some level, and that created a connection between herself and Brian that she really could feel. Yen might be a cold and calculating, emotionless sort of sociopath, but Adri's sort of sociopathy wasn't like that. She felt things- erratically, randomly, and with far more urges towards violence mixed in than in a socially healthy individual, but she felt things all the same, and in the right circumstances her heart could be moved with genuine pity.

Of course, that wouldn't stop her from murdering Brian if the urge ever struck her, but nobody's perfect.

She looked at him, and her eyes went wide and she gave him another once-over as he described his situation. Only the clothes on his back? That struck Adri hard, in a way she hadn't expected. To not have any money for clothes... for shopping... it sounded awful and it made her recoil in horror. Even in prison she'd had more than that. But she didn't have time to think much on that before Brian's question directed her towards more pleasant thoughts. She smiled at the memory. “Well,” she said, taking a draft of her cigarette, another giggle escaping her lips, “they'd already put me in the four points, you see, but they hadn't put the bite mask on yet, and I knew if I didn't do it then I'd never get my chance, and you know how when you're in the four points you can still lunge your body up and if someone is close you can-” she leaned in slightly, baring her teeth and bringing them together with a snap. “After that I was officially a member of the seven point restraint club. You ever get put in the seven points? I bet a big guy like you they'd have trouble holding down for them.” She rubbed at the tattoo on her neck. “That's seriously all you've got, the shirt and stuff? S**t, that really sucks.” Her eyes lit up. “You should come to my place! My sister got it for me, which is good because I probably couldn't hold down a job and she's loaded anyway, and it's already set up for leaky people.” She cackled.

Since starting her story of the biting she'd been speaking continuously without a pause for him to get a word in edgewise. Now she stopped, and looking at him with expectation and perhaps a little bit of longing. There was something in her heart for this man. A resonance, however small, in the similarities of their situation. Now she looked at him, and she smiled, a wide, hopeful, inviting smile.

“'Sides, that's where I keep the rest of the MJ,” she said.

Brian Harris

[Brian Harris]

Her comment about his drool made him self-conscious. He automatically wiped his mouth which, indeed, had started leaking again. ”I suppose we can.” He mumbled, looking at the glimmering line of slobber on his hand before wiping on his shirt. Well, at least she wasn’t too insulted by his comment.

”Brian like brain.”

”Brian like fucked up in the brain.”

”Ooh, that’s good, you should tell her that.”

”I’m not gonna tell her that.” He grumbled, then stopped himself, but not has immediately as usual. Turns out a mixture alcohol, weed, and heavy antipsychotics really loosen the inhibitions. Besides, she understood, didn’t she? She seemed like she understood. He was feeling a connection. To a person. To something. Anything. It was weird. He hadn’t felt anything like that in...forever, but mental illness always builds bridges, doesn’t it. The few connections he’d ever had with people were built over shared mental health experiences. Of course, those connections never lasted long.

He felt another pang of self-consciousness as her eyes drifted over him when he mentioned his lack of...well...anything. He rarely thought of himself as homeless. That would imply he was worthy of a home in the first place, that he deserved anyone’s sympathy or pity or charity. He was just...empty. He had nothing and deserved nothing. It seemed like she felt bad for him. He didn’t deserve to be empathized with. He was human trash. Nobody should feel bad for trash.

“I...wasn’t always this big.” He said. “Only happened about a year ago, when I got my powers. But yeah...four point, seven point, been in the chair...better question is what I haven’t been in.” He muttered somewhat ashamedly. He took another pull on the joint. ”I have bitten someone before...I think...I’m pretty sure, I don’t know my memory can get a little spotty when things go haywire up in here.” He pointed to his head. ”But I recall spending a couple days in the Quiet Room after a stint in the four point I think because I bit someone.” He shrugged. ”I might’ve just been clawing at someone. I don’t know. Maybe it was both.”

He took another pull. ”Come to your place…” He repeated listlessly, blowing out smoke. He was trash though. Why would she want trash in her place? No, he wouldn’t go. He would just ruin another life. Besides, he shouldn’t go and dirty up the place with his presence. That would be, as Sasha would put it, unspeakably rude. He opted not to accept her invitation.

Then she mentioned the weed.

”Absolutely. I’d-I’d love to come to your place.” He said with almost too much enthusiasm. Anything to get him more of this magical little plant. Besides, he liked this woman. Was it too much to hope something would come of this interaction? A connection, perhaps? A friendship?

[Adrijana Evgeniya]

Taking Brian by the arm, Adri led him out of the alley and hailed a cab. The driver looked dubious as they opened the door.

"No smoking," he said, Pakanese accent thick.

"You sure?" said Adri, giving him a bright smile. From inside her purse she drew out three hundreds and handed them to him. "How much for a smoke?"

"Ahhhh," said the driver, eyes wide as he stared at the money. "Ahhh. Ahhh." He glanced at Adri, back at the money, then snatched the money and turned to face straight ahead. "Where would you like to go, madam?"

Adri laughed and motioned for Brian to get into the cab. They were pressed close together for the trip, and Adri found herself staring. With quiet giggle she reached up and ran her fingers over his right pectoral, an unconscious cooing noise emitting from her lips, her tongue snaking out from beneath her upper lip.

They came to the gated compound. Adri leaned out the window to shout at the intercom and the gate at last let them in; she had the driver take them to the west wing and paid him and went inside.

It was as it always was: elegant, expensive decor marred by Adri's absolutely horrendous housekeeping habits. At least it didn't smell; that was usually the thing that finally got Adri to call a maid.

"Well, here it is!" exclaimed Adri cheerfully. "Home sweet home! Look around, have a seat, help yourself to the fridge. Take anything you want!" A wide grin split her face. "You play video games? Wanna give it a try?"

Brian Harris

[Brian Harris]

Brian typically would’ve flinched away from her touch, but his mind was so fogged so...calm he didn’t really care. He just let what happened happen. He’d never been in cab before. He’d always been too anxious. Too much trust involved, too much human interaction. But he was under a fantastic combination of drugs. And he felt safe around Adri. She seemed strong, powerful. He felt like she would protect him.

”That’s a lotta money.” Clara ogled.

”Nothing you haven’t seen before, isn’t that right Brian?” Dennis teased, ”Nothing you don’t see when you break into those banks.”

”Shut up.” Brain grumbled more exasperated than truly bothered as he followed her into the cab.

His large body took up a lot of space in the cab. He felt claustrophobic, but again, wasn’t too bothered by it. He felt like he could breath. He took another draw on the join that was slowly getting shorter and shorter. It made him anxious, thinking it could run out, but was reassured by Adri’s assertion of more when they got to her place.

He squirmed under her touch, uncomfortable. “Oh I'm...not...into...girls...I don't think.” He apologized. “Sorry.” He’d never had much time to think about his sexuality, but he was near certain that he was far more into men than women. He’d never been in a relationship, so he couldn’t be sure, but he’d never found women particularly attractive. There had been some men...but he didn’t deserve to like anyone like that and no one would ever like him back so he’d purged those thoughts from him mind whenever they’d appeared. There was no hope romantically for him.

Brian’s eyes widened as they approached the house. He’d never seen anything so big and fancy and modern.

”Impressive.” Sasha stated earnestly, high praise from her.

He followed her inside, somewhat nervous. He didn’t feel like he belonged here. This was too high and mighty for him. Sure, Sasha felt right at home, but he and Sasha had very different ideas for what exactly constituted as comfort.

His discomfort was somewhat assuaged as they walked inside. The house was expensive, beautiful, but the place was an absolute mess.

”Ugh,” Sasha scoffed, ”I take it back.”

He felt at home in the trash. He felt like he belonged. Anything too clean made him uncomfortable. He was glad he and Adri had a similar mindset.

He was somewhat taken aback by her welcomeness. Make himself at home? He’d never felt at home. It was such a strange concept to him. She offered for him to take whatever he wanted, but he knew he wouldn’t touch a thing without her permission. He was far too anxious.

”Video games?” He repeated with slight surprise. He’d never played video games before. His mother had never bought anything for him, she’d spent all her money on alcohol, and he never had any friends to play with. And of course they never allowed video games in the psych ward. ”Yeah, sure.” He accepted with what amounted to muffled enthusiasm. He looked disappointedly at his disappearing joint, which had shrunk to barely a nub. ”You got anymore of this stuff?” He asked.

[Adrijana Evgeniya]

She was probing the muscles of his torso when Brian made the comment about not liking women. It brought her up short. Her eyes widened and she stared up at him. “Ooooohhh... really?” Her eyes narrowed as she studied him for a long moment, then burst out giggling. “It's okay! I have HPD! I'm supposed to be inappropriately flirtatious!” She laughed, grabbing Brian's arm and tossing her head back to finish laughing. Inside, her thought was: We'll see. We'll see.

At home she stood with her hands on her hips, head tilted, watching Brian expectantly. From his response it was clear he wasn't much a gamer, which, she realized a bit too late, probably made sense if all he had were the clothes on his back. Well. She'd just have to show him the right and proper way, wouldn't she? Her mind was already going through a best list of games to play while high. She'd go easy on him, of course. She watched him breath, chest moving in and out under his shirt, and her tongue brushed her lower lip again. She'd been told many times that her flirtatious and seductive behaviors were aspects of one of her disorders, but the truth was she'd never felt that way. The way she behaved didn't feel like a disorder. It just felt like her. It felt like being herself and becoming who she wanted to be. She didn't think of it as a disorder. It was just how she was.

He looked at the nub in his hands and when he asked for more her eyes lit up. “Of course! One sec, lemme slip into something more comfortable.” With that she turned, back towards Brian, and yanked the zipper on the back of her dress down. A moment later everything she'd been wearing was in a pile on the floor and she had raced off into the kitchen.

She emerged a minute later with a tray. Her eyes were shining. She was carrying a try. On it was a green plastic baggie and rolling papers, but it was covered in other things too: pills of several shapes and colors, a white powder, a pipe, even a syringe. She was wearing what she'd been wearing when she'd gone into the kitchen.

“Here we are!” she exclaimed. “I got lots of stuff! We can do whatever we want!”

Brian Harris

[Brian Harris]

”Your diagnoses is no excuse for the way you act.” Sasha scolded, seemingly forgetting that Adri couldn’t hear her. It made Brian chuckle a bit, which caught him off guard. It had been so long since he’d laughed he thought he’d forgotten how. But he just had. The surprise was evident on his face. He touched his hand to the side of his face, feeling how his muscles contracted when pulled back in laughter, then looked at his hand as if it had just touched something strange and magical. How odd.

Brian cocked his head to the side slightly as Adri undressed before him. Typically Dennis would be making some unsavory comment, but it was dead silence from him. In fact, his voices had been pretty quiet ever since he met Adri. Not completely quiet of course, but more quiet than usual. And less mean too, at least a bit less mean. He looked at the little nub left in between his fingers. Could this be the cause? He’d heard about marijuana helping with mental health issues. But could it just be her? She’s the first person in a long time who’s actually treated him with any modicum of respect. She talked to him like he was an equal, like he was a human being. It made him far less anxious when the person he was interacting with didn’t treat him like a smear on the bottom of their shoe. It also made him far less anxious to get high. He came to the conclusion that his improved mental condition was probably the result of both influences; chemical and social.

He was too high to really care about Adri’s nudity. Or maybe he was too gay. That was a funny thought. It made his muscles contract in laughter again, but no sound came out, he just made a happy, amused face. It felt good. He recognized it was an odd thing to undress in front of someone, not to mention someone you just met, but she was crazy, like him, and he knew better than most that crazy people do weird things. They aren’t the most socially normal. He felt in good company.

He waited somewhat impatiently for Adri to return. The joint had shrunk to nothing but a small scrap of paper and a bit of dust. He didn’t want this feeling to disappear. He didn’t want the voices and anxiety and depression to come back. He needed more.

His eyes widened when she returned, his jaw dropped, drool leaked out of his mouth but he didn’t wipe it away this time. A whole platter of mind altering drugs. Everything on that tray would guarantee an escape from his head. It was a dream come true. ”H-how do I- Where do I-” He stuttered, trying to compose himself. ”How do I use it? Where do I start?” His voice sped up with excitement. He threw the useless nub to the side. He felt his hand reach toward the tray, but he truly had no idea how to use them or where to start, so it just hovered above. ”Are we still gonna play video games?” He asked almost as an afterthought.

We can do whatever we want.

[Adrijana Evgeniya]

Brian's excitement was palpable; Adri giggled. Having someone to share excitement with was lovely. "Yeah we'll play games! Let's get high first though, huh?"

She flopped down on her stomach next to Brian, bringing her feet up and crossing her ankles. "Right," she said. She had a new joint in hand, having grabbed one while getting the other drugs. "So the most important thing is," she raised a finger and shook it at him. "Never ever ever EVER use MJ with a depressant. Seriously! Not even booze. You'll kill yourself. Also don't use tobacco with it, that's just nasty. Actually I guess heroin's technically a depressant and it's okay? Anyway!" She smiled brightly. "Fortunately nothing here's a depressant! We'll be good. Now," she indicated the tray. "We got a lot of choices here! I don't have a ton of some of this stuff, but just try whatever you want. Okay, so!" She slid a little closer to him. "The stuff that goes best with MJ is shrooms, LSD, ecstasy, heroin, and ketamine. Obviously not all at once. MJ works really well with any kind of hallucinogen, actually. You get a smoother trip and sometimes you get a more intense peak. Quick question, are you on something for the voices? Maybe don't use ketamine then.

"Let's see... Heroin is a nice high that goes well with MJ, but to be honest the MJ doesn't add much there, more of the same. So I like it better with on of the others. Honestly, I haven't used Heroin since getting out of prison. Anyway!"

She held up a plastic bag containing a dried, fibrous substance. "You want my recommendation, I like MJ and mushrooms the best. You get a real good peak and the come-down isn't as hard. Plus these are real good mushrooms, I got a real good supplier. The only problem is that if you don't know what to expect shrooms can be pretty weird. You ever tried LSD? It's like that, but not quite as out there. Anyway!" She flashed him a brilliant smile.

"What's your pleasure?"

Brian Harris

[Brian Harris]

Adri’s voice rambled on in the background as he stared, mezmorized. So many ways to escape. Maybe even something that could bring him...happiness? It was such a foreign word, such a foreign experience. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been happy. He didn’t know it he’d ever been happy. At least people with bipolar disorder got to experience happiness. He was just stuck in this thick, black goo that had been dragging him down all his life in a world polluted by gray. He would do anything to escape that, just for a second.

He wasn’t sure was a depressant was, but it certainly sounded unpleasant. He had enough depression as is. Although his ears perked up when he heard it could kill him. A part of him wanted to jump at that immediately. Death by getting high? That sounded amazing. But here he was with a friend? and he’d never had a friend before, even if it did come with a question mark after title. And here was a chance at happiness, he didn’t want to give that up. For once, he opted not to kill himself when given the opportunity.

He was skeptical about the hallucinogens. He’d been trying to escape hallucinations all his life, he didn’t need more. But maybe these would be good hallucinations, happy ones. They wouldn’t be angry voices and chaotic visions of corpses and ghosts. Why else would people take them? What happens when a schizophrenic takes hallucinogens? Super hallucinations? Guess he’d have to find out.

He grabbed the bag of shrooms out of Adri’s hand, reached in, grabbed one, and shoved it into his mouth. It tasted weird and earthy. He swallowed, and finally wiped the drool from his mouth. He didn’t know what to expect, but he was excited. ”Can we do the heroin too?” He asked, somewhat shy but with enthusiasm. He wanted to get high out of his fucking mind.