Board Thread:Role Plays/@comment-25389303-20190127200805/@comment-25389303-20190515105945

Helldrix nodded along with everything Alexander said. His explanation was almost identical to those provided by the many medical textbooks he had accumulated at his workstation during his relatively recent interest in human biology.

"I suppose some would find that knowledge reassuring. However, typical SBS is not what I wanted to discuss with you: it was actually the unexpected ramifications of your patented psychoactive drug - the one the Mistralian underworld calls 'Darkening'."

The young doctor had encountered many victims of this so-called 'combat stimulant'. Most of them younger men and women, unable to thrive in the kingdom's unforgiving slums without performance-boosting chemicals. They reaped the benefits of the drug, but suffered the consequences soon after...

"I don't know how much attention you have devoted to studying the drug's long-term side effects, but allow me to share with you what I have encountered in my patients. What I found in the worst addicts was nothing short of severe neurological damage, caused by repeated suppression of the left hemisphere and the gradual erosion of the nerves connecting the two halves. The increased aggression and the removal of the body's natural limiters are merely the results of decreased brain function."

Helldrix followed Alexander's gaze, and stared out at the wide ocean below. He hated water - almost as much as he hated the dilemma he now faced. Should he tell the doctor the truth? Or would the paranoia it would undoubtably cause get in the way of their future research?

"Smiler suffered from that, you know," he eventually said in an even voice. "His autopsy was very enlightening, as was my brief meeting with him prior. Old police reports had painted him as a cold, methodical killer - as vicious and callous as he was intelligent. But when I met him, I saw little intelligence there. He was a madman, through and through. Angry and vengeful, but also...unsettled and confused. It was almost as if the dominant, high-functioning psychopath had been suppressed, and the quiet sociopath within had been released untempered on the world. It begs the question - is there another consciousness within us? And if so, have you discovered a way to release it?"