August of Whump Day 4: Blurred vision - Hallucinogen - Haunted.
Read the full Project on AO3 - Current chapter under the cut:
CW: Drugs
"Open up..." A raspy voice crooned at him, inches away from his face.
He recognized the smirk in his best friend's tone. He would've picked it up by sound alone, even in the middle of a roaring crowd. But in the tiny, disorganized chaos of their tour bus, Hemlock might as well be whispering in his ear.
"What--...?" Luca slurred back, the last venue's smoke still clinging to his voice. His eyes had been idly closed for the last twenty minutes or so, as he laid slumped on one of the bus' old leather seats, carelessly wrinkling his dark tailored suit. The stench of sweat, cigarettes and alcohol haunted him like a spectre. It clung to them *both*, after every single show.
The tiefling snickered at his slurred response. "I said open up your fucking mouth, Sparknotes... I don't got all day..."
But he did have all day. With twelve hours of road until their next city. They only had dead time in their hands, and very little to do, except getting as fucked up as possible.
Luca groaned halfheartedly, lifting his face towards the direction of his voice. It took every ounce of energy he had in himself. But his lack of motor ability wasn't all just exhaustion from playing the drums.
It was drow pills. Opiates harvested, pressed, and imported straight from Kortevo. Luca'd made a habit of taking them to quell his own turbulent emotional states before each show. But the habit was starting to mess with his already poor executive function. Sometimes, it didn't even let him move.
A firm hand held his jaw in its palm, thumb prying it agape with relative ease. Luca finally opened his eyes to look at him. And it was no surprise, Hemlock was donning the same smirk he already anticipated he'd have. The tiefling grinned wider at him, eyes bloodshot red from the ephel root, only about three shades lighter than the tone of his skin. Luca stared tamely at him, his own pupils smaller than pinpricks, betraying the drugs already in him.
"Stick out your tongue..." Hemlock spoke again, in that low, smokey tone he always had after singing through a whole concert. The order made Luca's loins burn. But he didn't obey it just yet.
"What for...?" His legs quivered open for a brief moment, before squeezing together again. A thoughtless reflex. But Hemlock noticed it.
He also ignored it.
"We're dropping acid. You need a pick-me-up..." Hemlock dug into his iridiscent jacket's pocket. "You keep falling asleep after the concerts, and you're ruining my whole vibe..."
"Sorry--..." Luca uttered, with Hemlock's fingers already in his mouth. They tasted like cigarettes and cologne. He left a small, crystalline grid cradled on his tongue. Tasteless. It started melting.
"Sparknotes..." Hemlock's voice dropped an octave, emphasizing his next sentence "You're about to have the trip of your life..." His fanged grin widened, brows quirking up with mischief as he placed another tab of stardust on his own tongue. Luca blinked hazily at him, already entranced by that golden stare. A familiar sense of yearning bloomed, unprompted, inside his chest.
He loved when those eyes looked at him.
Hemlock's fingers lazily combed through Luca's long, brunet hair; tugging on it slightly as he pulled him in, to place a nonchalant kiss on the side of his face.
"Happy one-year band anniversary... Sit back and enjoy... --if you can even sit..."
"--Wait, does this have stimulants in it?" Luca muttered, with a sliver of urgency.
"A little... just to put a... uhh... a pep in your step." Hemlock shrugged one shoulder.
Luca let out a soft, miserable laugh. "Nooo, Hemlock! ...what the fuck?!--..."
"--Shhhh shhh, Luca... it's fine, it's alright... You like stimulants too, don't you?"
"Well, not right NOW I don't..." Luca sighed "I don't wanna get all paranoid in a can-sized bus like this, I'm gonna freak out..."
"Listen, it's not the bus... YOU are the one freaking yourself out... okay? Just relax. Here-- come--" The tiefling sat on the worn leather seat, easily coaxing his best friend to sit up with him, and rest his head on his shoulder. Luca followed the change of position begrudgingly, but ultimately welcomed the new closeness. Hemlock's arm effortlessly wrapped around his smaller frame.
"You mother-fucker..." Luca whined a soft complain, his eyes closing heavily once again, as the mixture of magic-infused drugs sank into his system, sorting itself in strange new forms as it filled his neural receptors. "My vision's blurry... I can't even fucking see-- If you fuck me up and I can't play drums anymore, I swear I'm gonna--"
"Shhh, shut up... just shut up..." Hemlock ordered without much bite. His hand wrapping around Luca's head to playfully cover his mouth. "Don't fuck with my vibe, okay?... just shut up... you'll be fine, you're always fine..."
Luca thought to protest further. But he ran out of steam as soon as the first inklings of the hallucinogen started showing up. He pulled Hemlock's hand away from his mouth in a clumsy move; but when he did, the twinkle of something luminous and strangely beautiful followed its path through the dark.
Red light, blue light, and shades of purple and silver passed through the air. Fragments of stars he couldn't help but slowly blink at, trying to make sense of them. At first they looked bright, but hazy, like seen through a damp glass; but as they moved, they eventually faded into nothing.
He soon realized any sort of movement seemed to bring these stardust particles forth. Not just when Hemlock and himself moved. But also, when the motion of the road outside of their window reached his eyes. The city lights flashed by so quickly it felt as if they were traveling through space.
"What the fuck is this..." Luca breathed out, astounded at the sudden visuals. It wasn't his first time tripping. He knew hallucinogens usually took a while to settle in. But not these. These soon had the lights of their tour bus burning holes into his mind, colorful and gooey, like molten stained glass.
Luca noticed his pulse starting to rush and pause in erratical beats. The world entered through his ears muffled, as if he was watching comet showers through a crystal ball. A sense of heat and euphoria creeped up his chest, trying to lift him up. But his body was too heavy to be pulled by it.
"This-- hits way too quick...!" He whispered, a half-smile in his face. Pupils now blown wide, to finally take the world in. The warm shoulder underneath him felt like his only tether to the world. The last refuge of his sanity. But his mind was aching to explore. His thoughts and memories, dreamlike and fleeting, coursed behind his eyes like a thousand rotoscope frames.
Uncoordinated, he held onto his best friend's arm.
He looked up at Hemlock, whose ecstatic grin could've lit up the whole world. And in a way, it did. Galaxies also shone in his eyes. Divine fire burning behind them, and incinerating everything else in their path. Hemlock laughed, nearly vibrating with euphoric purpose.
"HEY! What'd I tell ya??" Hemlock breathed in the stars with each laugh, and Luca watched in awe and amazement. His heart consistently fluttering out of beat "...We *are* everything, Sparknotes... we are the center of this goddamn universe. Just you and me... "
"Just you and me..." Luca's voice came out surprisingly fragile, almost tearful. As if he had suddenly divinated something he wasn't supposed to know. Some piece of knowledge strictly forbidden to him.
In a moment, the lights had quickly changed. Pulsing bright, then dark. Lonely stardust flowers; in vast, open fields of night.
Otherwordly screams rang through the labyrinthine hallways of his own unraveling mind.
Water filled every orifice. Feet-first into the black.
The tick of a metronome echoed just as deep inside of himself as he was inside of it.
"Hemlock--..." His own voice called softly. But it wasn't truly him who did.
Still, a sudden vision of his last moments caught in his throat.
