Drugs and Pharmaceuticals

While a number of highly secret and proprietary drugs are part of the official Power Curriculum program, and well-tested medicines with miraculous results are available only within the city proper, most drugs are considered illegal in Mirai City. Access to cigarettes and alcohol exists, but given that most of the population is under 20 (legal age) many stores don’t bother to stock them. Penalties for illegal drug use and small-time trafficking are not quite as heavy as elsewhere in Japan and the rest of Asia when cases involve minors, but smuggling or dealing by adults is dealt with quite harshly. There are some very strange labs set up to mimic stolen formulae from labs, and these are occasionally sources of explosions (rather than psi powers, for a change). Notably, these illegal labs also make useful drugs at times, such as cyberware anti-rejection drugs and biomod stabilizing drugs – although both still to support illegal modification.

With the exception of highly toxic drugs like Body Crystal or Blue Fire where side effects and negative consequences are described in the text, addiction, side effects, or other types of possible Complications are left for roleplaying purposes.

PHARMACEUTICALS

Aiteva: With the prevalence of psychics among the psi student population, this psychedelic interferes with most methods of telepathic communication or control. Like mechanical psi jammers, it is not guaranteed to be effective, especially against high-Level psychics, but very useful for lower-Level interactions. The downside is that is leaves the user a little woozy and makes it hard to concentrate on detailed tasks.

Dynomorphin: The user feels no fear, and is incapable or perceiving of anything as a threat, which can be good, or very very bad.

Lymoza: A performance enhancer, it decreases muscle reaction time and improves brain reactivity, speeding up the user’s movements. Unlike Tsusira, side-effects are more likely to include muscle and joint pain for a day or two afterwards, from moving too quickly.

Trinitex: A stimulant, it allows the user to go for 48 hours without feeling tired or drowsy. Prolonged use is not advised; if used for more than a week straight, the user will fall asleep at the end of the 8th day and be nonresponsive in a coma-like state for at least 4 hours.

Tripizoid: A PTSD treatment that allows people to forget traumatic experiences after re-enacting it under the influence. Described by some participants in trials as creating a memory ‘wave’ that ‘swept up the memory and washed it away.’

Tsusira: Technically a hallucinogen, Tsusira enhances the brain’s receptiveness to external stimuli. Although it can create feelings of anxiety with the overstimulation it gives the user, this hyper-awareness can be good in tense or combative situations.

Xarcluance: A stimulant that gives the immediate boost a body needs in moments of high stress. This comes at a cost, exhausting the body’s resources.

STREET DRUGS

Ability Crystal: Although called a more official “Vrilazipin” in some documents, this is more commonly known as Ability Crystal or more ominously, “Body Crystal”. Not uncommon in Mirai City, since many students are looking to boost their abilities. Extended use can induce comas or even death.

SPOILERS Considering it is known to some to be derived from psi students’ neurochemicals, perhaps a morally fraught choice of substance.

Black Bugs: A street drug only, it induces euphoria but is highly addictive; even a single dose can hook some people. Rumors that it’s made from some kind of ground-up lab bugs, hence the name. Can be hard to find though, and some swear it’s a life-changing experience.

Blue Fire: This highly dangerous poison always comes with an antidote capsule. It enhances neural pathways (and many psi powers) dramatically, but burns the user out within minutes if not neutralized. Another lab reject chemical that made its way into street drugs. People under Blue Fire’s influence have noticeably hot breath and overheat, yet start to turn blue from lack of oxygen.

Feathers: A pre-programmed hallucinatory experience, sometimes described as being like VR but without the headset. Although the exact details are never quite the same from person to person, the scenario is the same between users of the same ‘feather’; an innocuous one might code the experience of being a farmyard chicken on an old-fashioned farm, while another might deliver two hours of nightmarish falling into a void. Feathers are colored by the type of experience: blue are light and calming. Red are intense and violent. Black are nightmares for thrillseekers or the jaded. Yellow are strange and surreal.

Level Upper: Not exactly a drug, Level Upper is a song (using the term generously, ‘noise’ might be more accurate) passed around with claims that it will bring your Level up if you listen to it enough. Especially tempting since, what harm could sound possibly do?

SPOILERS Unfortunately, Level Upper can link multiple psi students who hear it repeatedly over a long period of time into an artificial gestalt, ultimately creating an id-conglomerate once enough people have joined.

Objectivism: Originally a pharmaceutical lab creation, it turned out to be unmarketable as an anti-depression drug and made its way onto the streets instead. It brings the user to a lower level of sapience, often with the subject feeling as though they are a chair or table – emotionally and mentally stunted. Feeling like everything is shallow and easy and surface-level can be tempting, but unshakable dread often follows in the recovery period.

Trance: Another failed pharmaceutical project, this drug actually makes people more susceptible to psi powers and even mundane hypnosis. It was initially developed in attempts to make non-telepaths create mental links – which it doesn’t work for, unfortunately.

Window: Rare and difficult to find, this drug increases a telepath’s powers but also reduces all their mental defenses to zero.