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Who knew fruit cake could be so good? A local bakery claims to have perfected their recipe and is giving away free samples. The good news? It’s delicious. The bad news? A few hours after ingestion, something strange kicks in. Suddenly, everything seems so colorful and bright. The music sounds so much better, everything tastes so much better—and then, it stops, and everything is an awful blend of everything. Lights are too bright, smells and tastes are overwhelming, music sounds like noise. You’re sick enough to throw up everything in your stomach—which is good, because within a few hours of that you finally start to feel normal again.
One thing that hadn't changed about Ezra was his tendency to roam the town for eateries and sample their goods where he could. When he heard that a bakery claimed to have perfected fruitcake, he knew he had to drop by to judge how true the claim was. Fruitcake was notorious for being best used as a doorstop, at least when he last checked. Heck, had he even ever actually eaten fruitcake? He didn't think so. How odd. In any case, he went off to the bakery and got in line for the free samples. After a fiendishly long wait (praise be to cell phone games), he finally got a decent-sized slice of fruitcake. It smelled decent, and it looked well put together, so he suspected nothing as he took a bite. To his surprise, it was quite delicious. Not as heavy as he expected, quite flavorful, very nice texture. 8 out of 10 at the very least, maybe even scooting up to a 9. (10s were reserved for the ultimate delicacies only.)
After getting his sample, Ezra went home, considering the excursion fairly worth it. The next two hours were consumed by aimless internet browsing until, quite suddenly, something happened. He felt as though the profound case of grump that had settled on him had lifted, and everything felt very... nice. The blanket was exquisitely fuzzy, his music sounded more melodious than usual (wow, he didn't know so-and-so had such a lovely voice!), and there was a sense of vividness to everything. Feeling a burst of energy, he threw on his jacket and headed outside.
The air was crisp without being biting, and Ezra found himself staring forward and enjoying the ever so slight breeze that came by. It felt smooth and silky, adding to the atmosphere instead of making it colder. He took a step forward, finding a pleasure in the sound of his shoes crunching the snow. It gave him a craving for snow cones, or something like that. He almost felt tempted to try and eat the snow around him, but that would be just nasty, even in his heightened state. Would there be clean snow anywhere to try? Probably not. He suddenly had a vague memory of being a child, laying face down, and licking the snow. He was such a weird kid, but then again, didn't a lot of kids eat snow at one point or another?
Ezra began to wander, taking in the lovely sights and sounds of wintery Destiny City. Even when a car passed blasting Christmas music (why?!), he felt a sense of joy about it. Everyone seemed so happy! What wasn't there to love about this time of year? Snow was so beautiful. Who needed to worry about the Negaverse? Christmas was here and full of cheer! He found himself loudly wishing everyone merry Christmas, and while most people returned the well wishes, he got a few funny looks for his volume. He twirled around in the snow some, thoroughly enjoying himself.
At some point, however, there was another shift. Maybe he did one twirl too many, but it felt like he was slammed by everything. Absolutely everything. He hit the ground, and it felt like he caused a small earthquake around him. The impact felt like it rattled his existence, and the sky felt like it was searing his eyes out. He mumbled a quiet "oh god what," then struggled to pull himself to his feet. The world around him seemed to blur; the sensation was akin to a whopper migraine. He got that drooly going-to-barf feeling, and he began to panic despite the state of agony he was in. If he didn't make it back home and ended up puking outside, that would be bad. So bad.
The thumping of his feet up the stairs sounded like someone was bashing his head in with every step. He was putting all his conscious effort into getting to the bathroom and not throwing up in the hallway, and by some miracle, he made it. The expulsion was incredibly unpleasant (as expected), and the first thing Ezra did once he got out of the bathroom was collapse on his bed and refuse to move for a good while. He tried to use his remaining brain cells to puzzle out what had happened, but alas, he fell asleep way too quickly for that.
When he woke up a few hours later, he felt so weird and floaty, but by the same token much better. The not-migraine was gone, and everything seemed to be back to its normal level of stimulation. Though he missed that spirited feeling just a little, not feeling like death was a welcome trade-off. He paused to think over what might have caused the episode, and came down to two possible culprits: a murderous migraine, or... the fruitcake. What the heck did they put in that thing?! If he spotted anyone from the sample tasting, he was going to have to ask them if anything had happened, because this was just very weird. Was this some kind of anti-Christmas spirit prank or something? One hell of a drug, that was for sure.
After sorting out his conclusions, Ezra fell back asleep. He'd had enough wild fun for today.
