For Research Purposes

20251016

Written for Bradley Ramsey's "First Indulgence" event.

Finally, the scoop Oliver had been looking for. While mainstream journalists repeated stock fear mongering about “Astral Meth” he was going to be sharing a bold first-hand article. How better to debunk all the spin and wild speculation?
The hard part had been finding a genuine supplier. Far too many people were packaging a cocktail of other drugs as this hot new product. But his connections had come through.
He read the instructions carefully. Don’t exceed a dosage of grams equal to one-tenth your body weight… place in a clean metal vessel… set alight without any accelerants and inhale the resulting smoke through your nose.
Simple enough.
This being his first time, and since side effects were apparently intense, he decided to knock 20% off his 128lb and only take 11g. Better safe than sorry.
Speaking of which - make sure his kitchen ventilation was working and he could reach the switch… cameras were rolling… voice recorder running… alright. Drop a match in the dish and blow that third eye wide open.
Let’s go!
“First observation… it burns readily. Going up like shredded paper. The smoke doesn’t smell of much, surprisingly. Er, though, I’m not sure what I was expecting it to smell of.”
He took several slow, deep breaths.
“I can feel it tingling in my sinuses. It’s… sort of like a nasal spray? You know, one to open you up when you’re congested. Basically a gentle version of that.”
The clock had marked off two and a half minutes when he reported “Ok, starting to feel ‘floaty’. Apparently this is when I should start seeing ‘the other side’ when my eyes are closed.”
He took one final look at the camera feeds, making sure he was still centred, then shut his eyes and waited. “So far I’m just seeing the usual marks left by lights. I don’t think they’re even brighter or more colourful than normal. I guess if the lightheadedness gets worse my brain could start trying to find meaning in-”
A flicker?
“Aha. I think something’s happening.”
The clock continued ticking as he tilted his head back and forth. “It’s kinda… blobs at the corners of my eyes? If I try and ‘look’ right at them, they fade. But… hm… ok, I see - the blobs aren’t, how to put this, they don’t move when I do. They just fade out when I ‘look’ at them and fade back in when I ‘look’ away. So it’s not just messing with my vision…”
Or at least, if it was, the effect was interesting.
He picked one blob and settled on a head position where he could examine it. “Let’s see… it’s basically just an inky blot. Super dark blue. Off-black, really. It’s pulsing, but that’s in time with my heartbeat, so definitely a vision artefact. Can’t tell if the object itself is moving at all-”
Lightheadedness was turning into dizziness. His mouth felt dry. Should’ve gotten water before he started. Didn’t want to try standing up now.
Maybe it was time to set the vent running.
So he opened his eyes.
For a moment he thought the lights had blown out. Everything was… not quite greyscale, but… except no, if the light was gone it would be dark and it wasn’t, and there wouldn’t be all those deep shadows-
Wait.
Shadows went behind things. Light. Thing. Shadow. That’s how it worked. Whereas these… these shadows were in front of things. The light was overhead. The shadows shouldn’t be leaning towards him like this.
Definitely needed to set the vent running.
His hand wavered upwards, fumbling in a world which suddenly lacked depth, then he recoiled as he registered the blot clinging to the vent controls.
Shadows. Did not. Belong. There.
“It… oh god.” He forced out of a dry throat and numb lips. “It’s looking at me. It… it knows what I want to do. What is this??”
Cameras. Were the cameras capturing the blot?
Oh god oh god the camera feeds showed more of them! Staring right at him. But when he looked behind there weren’t so many and they were in different places it was the like the cameras were somehow pointing at a completely different space and OH GOD THEY WERE COMING CLOSER-

The tragic overdose of Oliver Howard was frequently referenced as debate raged over use of this dangerous new drug. Deliberately left out of the published version of the report was that - based on how much was left in the packet - Oliver had taken 11g of the drug, nearly double the recommended maximum dose for his bodyweight of approx 63kg.
Even after autopsy, and a thorough review of the footage, it was unclear whether fatality was due to the heart attack or blood loss from gouging out his own eyes. While the attempts in his final moments to remove a non-existent object from his throat caused significant tissue damage this was thought not to have contributed to his death.
The member of the team who claimed to observe irregularities in the footage was later found to have previously taken the drug, and was summarily dismissed.
Oliver Howard’s case continued to serve as a sobering reminder of how promising young lives could be cut short by dabbling in dangerous substances.

Prompt was “A new drug is swiftly gaining popularity. Users report that it can unlock your perception, allowing you to glimpse other realities. The dose is extremely precise, however, and you just took way too much…”