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.
When it came to sweets and treats, Regina Hopewell wasn't always the pickiest of creatures. She generally drew the line at brick like 'cakes' containing bits and pieces of candied plastic that someone inevitably tried to pass off as 'fruit' come this time of year. They always seemed as though they might be better for vandalizing property than digestion, in the long run, and while Regina might have fit into that broad scope of people considered a 'terrorist' by the media of Destiny City, she was hardly a vandal.
That said, when she'd stopped in the bakery to pick up some of the cookies Joce had mentioned favoring (she wasn't really the best at baking herself, otherwise she might have tried to make them), the offer of a free sample of fruit cake had somehow seemed far too tempting to pass up. She'd popped one small square into her mouth, snagging another after promptly experiencing a tastegasm, resisting the urge to order a whole thing to take home in the name of getting out of the bakery under her budget.
That evening when Jocelin returned home from class she would find Regina lying on the floor with her head beneath the Christmas tree, staring up into the softly sparkling lights. From time to time she would reach up to lightly tap one of the low-hanging crystal ornaments, watching as colors sparkled and lights danced. A box of assorted candy canes lay open beside her, at least one of every flavor open and half-eaten. It was accompanied by a box of cordials and two take out menus and Christmas music had flooded the apartment with sound.
For all intents and purposes, Regina seemed stoned.
Grymoire
Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2018 3:39 pm
Jocelin spent a bit of time standing near the door just looking at her friend and trying to figure out why Regina was hanging out under the tree and what in the world she was doing. Shaking her head Joce set down her backpack down just inside her door and hung up her keys before going to check on her friend.
"Regi? How much candy did you eat?" She picked up the box of cordials, raising a brow at how many were missing, before setting it up on the coffee table. The candy canes were a little more of a hassle since they were sticky and the wrappers hadn't been taken off in the best way. Once she had those picked up she put them back into their box and nudged Regina's foot.
"Actually, what did you smoke first, then how much candy did you eat?"
Her voice lulled from beneath the tree, echoing the chorus along with the music as it streamed through the sound system. It was interrupted only by Jocelin's question. "Have a holly, jolly... Oh, hello there." Regina smiled brightly as she peered at her friend through the branches, marveling at the way the little halos of light made her best friend look so pretty.
"Would you like some candy? The blue candy canes are the best and the cordials were amazing. I ordered Chinese... Or maybe it was Greek. I might have ordered both." As she spoke she patted around on the floor beside her for said candy cane, brow furrowing slightly when she came up with nothing. Had she eaten them all? No... She distinctly remembered wanting to try each and every one before deciding which ones were the best so she could eat them first and then make her way slowly through the rest of the phenomenal flavors.
"Oh! There are cookies. The cookies are in the kitchen. They're your cookies. I got them just for you."
Grymoire
Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2018 4:03 pm
Jocelin laughed softly still wondering what in the world Regi had gotten into that had gotten her this stoned. She didn't think her friend knew anyone who could have given her drugs but ... well she was gullible and someone on the street could have given her something in a baked good and she'd have just eaten it. Sometimes she wondered how Regi had survived without her around. Obviously she wasn't that hopeless but it was a close thing. "I moved the candy canes so no one stepped on them, the cordials too and I like those better when they're a bit cold." Candy canes weren't here thing at all but she didn't want to get into a sweet's argument with someone who was high.
She tipped her head slightly before looking at the two menus on the floor. "You might have ordered both? You're high as a kite and you called someone?"
She was going to have to answer the door when the delivery drivers showed up and god if they asked what was going on. There was no way Regi had talked to someone and they hadn't known she was high.
"Lets get you up off the floor. That can't be good for your back." She held a hand out to Regi hoping her friend would take it.
Regina reached up to take Jocelin's hand as it was offered, letting the other woman pull her up. The lights flashed passed her as she rose past the branches of the tree and suddenly everything wasn't so wonderful anymore. Very abruptly her head began to throb, the pulse thrumming behind her eyes.
Every light in the apartment seemed too bright-- only the kitchen light had been left on along with the lights on the tree, but it felt as though every light in town were shining right in her eyes. The music was too loud and she took her hand away from her friend's so that she could cover her ears.
"Joce... I don't feel so good. I think something's wrong. I think..."
Clumsy as she was in most cases, Regina somehow managed to nimbly navigate the sofa after knocking into the coffee table. She stumbled down the hall and into the bathroom where the sound of retching followed the solid knock of the door shut behind her.
Grymoire
Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2018 4:25 pm
"This is why you don't take candy from strangers!" Joce called out to her friend just before she heard the door shutting. After whatever she'd been given and all the sweet's she eaten it was no wonder Regina wasn't felling all that good. She probably wouldn't like the idea of whatever food showed up at the apartment either but that could be dealt with later.
Shaking her head Joce went about cleaning up the living room of the candy and went into the kitchen to put things away. She did spot the cookies and smiled. Regi had remembered the ones she'd talked about and she was glad her friend had gotten her a box of them.
After violently rejecting the contents of her stomach, Regina had gotten up of of the bathroom floor long enough to rinse her mouth out before lying back down again. Her head was still throbbing and the bathroom light was bright enough that she was starting to wonder when it had been replaced with a halogen bulb, knowing that it hadn't been.
At Jocelin's question she reached over to nudge the bathroom door open a crack, peering out into the hallway. "I've never felt so wretched in all of my life... Why is everything so loud, Joce?"
Grymoire
Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2018 4:54 pm
"Because you were, are, stoned and coming down off the high." She pushed herself off the counter and walked over to flip the light in the bathroom off. On her way past she turned off the light in the kitchen but left the tree lights on so they'd have something to see by. "What in the world did you eat? Besides the cordials and the candy canes?"
She nudged the bathroom door open all the way and offered an arm to her friend to drag her back to the couch. "If you think you're done being sick? Laying down will be good."
"The only thing," she coughed lightly as she stood, fighting back the urge to be sick again as Jocelin led her across the room. At some point she simply closed her eyes against the auras of light radiating from the tree, trusting her friend completely to guide her safely to the sofa.
When she lying down on the sofa, arms wrapped around one of the couch pillows and an afghan draped lightly over her, she tried talking again. "The only thing I had today that I wouldn't normally have bothered with... Was a free sample of fruit cake from the bakery I picked up the cookies for you at. I almost brought one home... And I don't even like fruit cake."
That didn't answer what else she'd eaten between the fruit cake and the candy she'd left strew about under the tree. Had she started tasting things on the way home?
Thank the Maker she hadn't licked a lamp post...
Grymoire
Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2018 5:47 pm
"That's odd. I don't remember them having any fruitcake when I was there last week." Jocelin frowned slightly as she sat on the end of the couch by her friends feet. Maybe they brought it out after but it seemed strange to not put out fruit cake of all things with all the other christmas goodies.
"Also your american fruit cake is terrible. It's better over in europe." At least over there it was actually edible. She had no idea what people were putting into the stuff in america but it always tasted bad and was always hard as a rock.
"That's what makes it even odder that I ate some." Regina groaned at the thought of eating anything, hoping she'd eventually reach the point where everything would stop seeming so loud and so bright at the same time. "I ate two free samples and then everything became so... Intense and fantastic and...."
She was paying for it. This had to have been what Pinocchio felt like when he'd been on that island full of awful boys who did everything their stupid little hearts' desired. She was going to stop thinking about food again. She was...
Regi winced at the knock on the door, drawing the afghan up over her head. "Make it stop."
