74. [Text/Action for Club H] Backdated to Monday
[Oh, man. Oh man, oh man, oh man.]
[It had taken an entire year.]
[For a couple months past 365 days, Heather's life had been blessedly free of something she'd always known was possible but had never seriously considered would happen. Lulled into a false sense of security by her general good luck regarding which people from her own world showed up ( Read more... )
[It had taken an entire year.]
[For a couple months past 365 days, Heather's life had been blessedly free of something she'd always known was possible but had never seriously considered would happen. Lulled into a false sense of security by her general good luck regarding which people from her own world showed up ( Read more... )
There's no shortage of free moments in Johto, Heather. What do you want to talk about?
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[He touches the thought himself - of the people he wouldn't want to show up in Johto - before he states, simply,]
It's different this time around.
[She's got the upper hand.]
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Yeah. It is.
Plus, he doesn't have any of his cronies here.
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Did the sect die with him?
[Now he's mostly asking out of curiosity.]
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It didn't die the last time its most powerful leaders got killed off... s'probably still around...
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Can you tell me more about it? What kind of cult it is?
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What... kind?
[She sounds sort of blank for a second or two. It's not like she's had experiences with any cults but the Order.]
It's... religious?
[hurrr]
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How would you describe it - as a doomsday cult? Is it destructive, manipulative, introversionistic?
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... All of those sound pretty accurate.
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[... sigh.]
That makes for a nasty cocktail.
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They're a pretty nasty group of people.
I... was in it, when I was pretty little. Not everybody's evil, just... twisted. Brainwashed. The ones at the top hoard all the power.
... Also, they run a big drug ring.
... Although maybe that was busted since I was a kid... dunno if it's still running. [Or still running at the same strength it'd been back in the day, anyway.]
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[Annnnd cause he once worked with the DEA, the most natural thing to ask isssss]
What kind of drugs?
[He's not disinterested in what else she's telling him -- but that sounds pretty typical for a cult so far, so there's no need to expand on that.]
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[She does, however, have an answer for THIS question!]
White Claudia.
It's kind of a local one... you can get it from the seeds of a local flower or something... s'a hallucinogen.
Originally I think it was just used in traditional rituals and shit because it'd make people have visions, but I guess at some point somebody got the bright idea to start selling it to outsiders and the cult wound up making a mint off of it...
[Get the gullible tourists addicted and the money just started flowing.]
... They also used it to control and blackmail people into doing stuff for 'em. [Poor Lisa... not to mention the countless other people who had likely wound up in the same position as she had.]
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What kind of "stuff"?
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[She knows better now, needless to say.]
Whatever they needed.
Anything sleazy and underhanded that they needed to make sure the people involved stayed quiet over... staff for underground operations... drug runners... anyone involved in the ways they had to make bothersome people 'disappear'.
They'd get people hooked on the drug and then withhold it if they wanted out...
M'sure a lot of the cultists themselves were on it, too.
[As much numbing dread as it filled her to look back on the memories of that first childhood, in hindsight the only explanation Heather can think of now for Dahlia's delusions of grandeur and wild schemes is that she was probably tripping the fuck out ALL THE TIME.]
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That wouldn't be surprising.
[He sorts of throws the words out, like they're something unwanted (probably making it obvious how much he absolutely detests the whole drug-thing to begin with). Then he goes into cop-mode, speaking fairly quickly - just trying to break down facts and get behind it all. It's probably not even important, but hell ... what else is he supposed to do with information if not process it?]
It would be readily available. Not to mention ingrained in tradition and belief. But I don't quite understand why they would give something like that to strangers - if it's from a local plant and used in the cult itself, I'd imagine it to be much more exclusive. Only for the chosen ones.
... of course, it could be a variation. Something less potent.
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