You initially approach with some hesitance, attempting to read the proverbial room; at a glance, though, it doesn't seem like anything especially hostile or weird is going on.
You take a deep breath and march toward the discussion.
"I--" you announce, "was attacked by a giant-ass opossum."
"...Oh damn you were right," trails off the young man in the hoodie.
Kate, with a slight hand-to-throat motion, ignores him and turns to you. "You got the stuff?"
"Yeah." You nod, and hold up the backpack.
"Yo. Lagi," says the young man with an upward nod.
"Plaire," you reply. "I, uh... wanted to ask about Brainsate."
He gives a small shrug. "Mood stabilizer and anti-psychotic in one, only short term side effects are eye pain and loss of appetite. Take as needed, prob'ly not more than two a day. I got 50mg, and... yeah, I got fifties. That's it."
"What are the long term side effects?" You're honestly surprised how smoothly he worked through that opening spiel.
He sniffs. "Same as any antipsychotic. Somnolence, anhedonia, hyperglycemia, tardive dyskinesia, gynecomastia--I think that last one's just dudes, though--and y'know, like, studies suggest antipsychotics might be tied to cortical reconfiguration and degradation of gray matter, but people that gotta do antipsychotics also tend to do shit like smoke an' don't eat right. Most antipsychotics you gotta take every day anyway, so at least with Brainsate you can kinda pace out what long term means. Ya mean?"
. . .
What the fuck is this town
"So why did they take it off the shelves...?," you ask, bracing for Dr. Deals Drugs Out Of His Trunk to hit you with the scientific facts.
"It was the cheapest part o' like, five big drug cocktails," he replies. "...Of which I only tried like three, and I heard one's not really worth it. Anyway they shut all that shit down before it could get widespread, all the Brainsate I got is what I could grab outta the back o' some trucks."
Ok, well we have really rough level that you should probably use for oil infusions. Do you know any weird drugs offhand? Like, more than usual?
Edit: Or actually, do you know of anything strange in general? We think something's Up, and we kind of fell face first into the thick of it. We bought the spooky house. It was cheap, we were desperate.
+1 to being upfront about the quality of the level, and asking about more drugs. We should also ask about the nightmare preventing one, I think it was called Somnal?
+1 to all of this, and maybe make a passive compliment telling him you're impressed with his clinical level of knowledge, it's not something we would normally remember off the top of our heads.
+1 to all. He might be another candidate for dungeon raid sleepovers; maybe feel him out in that regards. At the least, another pair of drug-enhanced eyes might help suss out more of the house's secrets faster. (Unless he doesn't actually do drugs? I don't recall).
Another idea: He might appreciate a place to do his business that normal people (narcs) are unable to remember the existence of. Possibly offer him the use of our backyard as a further type of payment/bargaining chip/whatever.
+1. Explain low-quality level, ask about Somniplan, food & drug interactions, and compliment Lagi.
-1 for telling Lagi about the Alcazar dream or the Spooky House's secrets; sure he's probably not in Mondol's pocket, but they're not the only player in this game and we've literally just met him. We can tell him that we're living in the Spooky House and try to pump him for rumors, but we should seriously talk it out with Kate before revealing anything more than that.
One thought: ask about the manufacturer of Somniplan. Probably a dead end, but if the drug turns out to have mystical properties or messes with the Alcazar somehow or installs a psychic link to Rill Parsons in Plaire's brain, we might be able to get a bit of advance warning. Who knows, the company's name might be as obvious of a pun as "Rill Parsons".
...also, if he has Somniplan, make sure that none of it came from anyone connected to Rill or her secretary. I wouldn't put it past Rill to try hacking the house through mystic drugs.
Also, the slight hand-to-throat motion means they were *totally* talking about us before we walked up XD I wonder what Kate said? That we walk like a cop or that we're super cute? :P
But specifically, enlarged breasts in *men.* Drugs that cause gynecomastia generally don't affect women in the same way (I believe due to how the body converts sex hormones into one another), so we can't expect to start looking like we come from a beach volleyball game if we take it regularly XD
I think that Plaire tried that game and didn't get any powers out of it. And her shifting size inside the Alcazar is more of a dream-effect, not a game-effect. Probably.
Well, I guess we'll present the Level and ask how much Brainsate that'll get us. ...Bearing in mind that it may very well be of questionable quality and not worth much. (No need to ANNOUNCE this, but definitely admit/agree if it is pointed out.)
Also ask about the dollar price of each dose.
Maybe also ask the most convenient days of the week to call for another transaction if necessary.
...And maybe also ask if we should be ready to fend off giant mutant rodents on the way here next time, too.
We should also consider taking a mix of brainsate and cash if our stash is valuable enough. We need brainsate, but it doesn't make sense to tie up all our money in it if we don't have to.
So... 'they' shut down Brainsate before it caught on? Competitors with inferior drugs cut some underhanded political deals to have it banned, sounds like.
Kinda expected this, or patent expiration.
Anyway, it's really nuts that supply is so limited. If Lagi's a tough haggler, you might not get much for your crap-tier level.
I was thinking about this again after the post, and I've thought of an alternate interpretation.
The impetus was the "big drug cocktails" thing. My first presumption was that these were medical mixes, but I realized that mixed drugs aren't really a thing, unless you're aiming for a drug trip. So, the cocktails would be a recreational use, rather than a medical use.
So, this would mean Brainsate was banned to hinder downstream recreational drug use.
Nevertheless, I believe this is basically compatible with my first thesis of inferior competitors knocking it off to protect their own profits. You see, this is a dystopia. And official actions in a dystopia always have two rationales: the official rationale, which they tell the public, and the true rationale, which is why the Powers-That-Be actually enacted it.
"This drug promotes drug abuse" is a good cover story for public consumption, whereas, "This drug is too effective for its competitors to deal with" is not so appealing- but I believe it to be the truth.
In fairness, the fact that Lagi has personal experience with three mixes suggests they had a point... but yeah, it probably was that effective. After all, if it's viable in that many mixes, that suggests that it's a stable substance with reliable effects. So it wouldn't surprise me if it was killed by competitors with more money than ethics.
It sounds like this guy was part of a pharmaceutical company that either went under, got bought, or he was fired from. And the last though he did before leaving was grab as much drugs as he could.
Regarding the mutant opossum, can we get the bus to show a picture of it to Kate and Cici? Maybe send a copy to Bebe and DeeDee as well, since they're still on animal control duty. And a GPS tag for the sighting location, as well. Let the pros deal with it.
...actually, if there's critters like this in the hills, it explains why Misuschaqua needs tank-grown, beefed-up animal control officers.
I have to imagine that Cherry already notified animal control through some official channel, via email or phone. Though, having an unofficial channel at hand for future incidents could be a good idea.
Actually, getting Cherry's email/phone would be a good idea, too. Never know when you'll need a quick getaway.
I know a little about how drugs become generic and the interesting part is that some countries do not have patents that cover drugs
The Indian government began encouraging more drug manufacturing by Indian companies in the early 1960s, and with the Patents Act in 1970.[74] The Patents Act removed composition patents for foods and drugs, and though it kept process patents, these were shortened to a period of five to seven years. The resulting lack of patent protection created a niche in both the Indian and global markets that Indian companies filled by reverse-engineering new processes for manufacturing low-cost drugs.[75] The code of ethics issued by the Medical Council of India in 2002 calls for physicians to prescribe drugs by their generic names only.[76] India is a leading country in the world's generic drugs market, with Sun Pharmaceuticals being the largest pharmaceutical company in India. Indian generics companies exported US$17.3 billion worth of drugs in the 2017–18 (April–March) year. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_drug#India
So basically even though the States shut down Brainsate production in MDA what if some other country reverse engineered them and sold them as generics?
You take a deep breath and march toward the discussion.
"I--" you announce, "was attacked by a giant-ass opossum."
"...Oh damn you were right," trails off the young man in the hoodie.
Kate, with a slight hand-to-throat motion, ignores him and turns to you. "You got the stuff?"
"Yeah." You nod, and hold up the backpack.
"Yo. Lagi," says the young man with an upward nod.
"Plaire," you reply. "I, uh... wanted to ask about Brainsate."
He gives a small shrug. "Mood stabilizer and anti-psychotic in one, only short term side effects are eye pain and loss of appetite. Take as needed, prob'ly not more than two a day. I got 50mg, and... yeah, I got fifties. That's it."
"What are the long term side effects?" You're honestly surprised how smoothly he worked through that opening spiel.
He sniffs. "Same as any antipsychotic. Somnolence, anhedonia, hyperglycemia, tardive dyskinesia, gynecomastia--I think that last one's just dudes, though--and y'know, like, studies suggest antipsychotics might be tied to cortical reconfiguration and degradation of gray matter, but people that gotta do antipsychotics also tend to do shit like smoke an' don't eat right. Most antipsychotics you gotta take every day anyway, so at least with Brainsate you can kinda pace out what long term means. Ya mean?"
. . .
What the fuck is this town
"So why did they take it off the shelves...?," you ask, bracing for Dr. Deals Drugs Out Of His Trunk to hit you with the scientific facts.
"It was the cheapest part o' like, five big drug cocktails," he replies. "...Of which I only tried like three, and I heard one's not really worth it. Anyway they shut all that shit down before it could get widespread, all the Brainsate I got is what I could grab outta the back o' some trucks."