Masquerade

Drug: Ice

Origin

Rumor has it that the guy who invented it came from back east somewhere and the demand started to shoot up for it so much that the Dealers and Gangs started to go to war over it. Two rival gangs, one South American and one Asian wanted his formulas but he wanted money. In this case, he wasn't smart enough to cover all of his bases and the gang-to-gang war got him. One major gang got the formula for Jade the other got Ice.

Effect

Each dose of Ice comes in a small, blue, crystal-like pill that is taken orally.

The initial effects is similar to meth with a few interesting side effects. Upon taking the pill, the mouth of the user will feel extremely cold and, upon exhale, 'smoke' will be visible as though they were breathing out on a cold, winter's day. After approximately ten - fifteen minutes the effects of the drug will start to take effect depending on the size of the dose. A faint numbing sensation can be felt in the fingers and toes as though the user were in a cold climate. This 'chill' is the starting phase of a multi-phase drug. The second phase is identified by a warming sensation in the chest - much like if you were laying down in snow and your body was trying to conserve its heat. The warming sensation is accompanied by a hallucinogenic state whereby the user believes themselves to be caught in a wintery environment of pure joy. One could almost say that this is a 'snow day' in pill form. The joy, exuberance and thrill of being out of school as a child rushes through the person sending all of their inhibitions on vacation at least for the next hour or so depending on the dosage.

Essentially this drug grants a temporary Charisma buff of +1 for approximately forty minutes or so.

Within forty minutes the effects of the drug will wear off and the user transitions into the last phase of the drug whereby they can either go one of two ways: the Grinch or the Santa. Grinching, as it is known, is when the person is coming off of the drug and becomes incredibly sour and bitter towards any and all people around them. They hate everything and everyone. This feeling will commonly persist for several hours and will eventually fade into a quasi-hangover state by morning. The alternate state, Santa, is when the person is coming off the drug and seems to want to be as helpful and giving as they can be. Often they will give anything and everything they own to anyone around them who seems needy. Clothing, wallets, watches and the like are not uncommon 'gifts' but it can also range to cars, houses, and sexual favors depending on the dosage.

After a few bottles of water the side-effects are remedied and they can continue with life with the usual 'hangover' effects lingering until the next morning.

Repeated abuse allows the user to extend the period of Joy but at a cost. Overdosing has been known to cause people to enter a near hypodermic state during the 'chill' phase and slip into a deep sleep as though their body were attempting to protect itself from over exposure to the cold.

Availability

• There are only a few distributors for Ice within the city.
• This drug is commonly found sold by South American gangs, their distributors or connections.
• No one has been able to successfully reproduce the formula and the sellers have gone to great length to protect its secret and their profits.
• Ice Dealers, called 'Snowmen', are hard to find. Almost everyone of them keep a low profile for fear that a rival dealer would roll up and take them out to get at their product.
• Many of the 'Snowmen' will have people that they deal with who are the go-betweens for the product. Rather than broadcasting their location and putting out a 'for sale' sign for everyone to see and know about, they have a handful of people around the city who know how to find them or how to get in touch with them to make deals possible.
• Snowmen will often give 'samples' to their go-betweens to encourage repeat customers and attract new clients.

Drug: Jade

Origin

Rumor has it that the guy who invented it came from back east somewhere and the demand started to shoot up for it so much that the Dealers and Gangs started to go to war over it. Two rival gangs, one South American and one Asian wanted his formulas but he wanted money. In this case, he wasn't smart enough to cover all of his bases and the gang-to-gang war got him. One major gang got the formula for Jade the other got Ice.

Effect

Each dose of Jade comes in a small, green-button like pill that is taken orally.

The initial effects is similar to Ecstasy in that the user has a heightened state of awareness of physical sensation. After approximately ten - fifteen minutes the level of heightened senses becomes nearly superhuman.

Essentially this drug grants a temporary perception buff of +1 for approximately twenty minutes or so.

Within twenty minutes the effects of the drug will wear off and the user becomes incredibly thirsty almost to the point of dehydration. After a few bottles of water the side-effects are remedied and they can continue with life with the usual 'hangover' effects lingering until the next morning.

Repeated abuse allows the user to extend the period of heightened senses from twenty minutes to thirty and longer. However, this continual use or multiple dosing has a price. Wherein the user would normally start to feel the effects weakening after twenty minutes, the effects essentially 'stack' and the user has uncontrolled heightened senses. Enhanced perception, greater susceptibility to overwhelming stimuli. Even the smallest sounds begin to thunder in their ears to the point of deafening pain. Anything but pitch-black darkness will nearly drive the person into a migrain-like bout of photo phobia.

The increased heightened senses is a +2 buff for thirty minutes (with repeated or double doses) but anything after thirty minutes becomes nearly unintelligible as the overwhelming stimuli becomes too painful to sort through.

Availability

• There are only a few distributors for Ice within the city.
• This drug is commonly found sold by South American gangs, their distributors or connections.
• No one has been able to successfully reproduce the formula and the sellers have gone to great length to protect its secret and their profits.

Location: Polaris Theater

The Polaris was quite a theater in its day. Built in the post-war boom when America needed a place to relax and enjoy themselves, the tall ceiling is decorated with a large crystal chandelier hangs at the center over the seats below. Each of the red-velvet seats were arranged in a perfect row allowing a degree of comfort for their customers without cramming them too closely to the row in front or behind. Carpeted isles run on either side of the main room and lead up to a converted stage now partially concealed by a large, white, framed canvas upon which the movie could be shown. High above and set in a 'u' shape around the three sides of the room, a balcony level allowed additional seating and reveals the theater's original, non-cinematic origin. A projection booth sets in the center and to the rear of the balcony to show the movie. Though not as opulant as some of the other theaters of its day the Polaris is a marvel of post-war refurbishment.

All of this...the Polaris was.

Gone are many of the red velvet seats leaving divits in the floor where they were ripped up and sold off for scrap or nostalgia. The crystal chandelier hangs limp and dull from the ceiling, threatening to crash to the floor at a moments notice and water stains mark halos of brown and tan against the decorative plaster set surrounding the light fixtures. The paint peels from the wall as though the entire room suffered from some horrific skin disease, a sign of the neglect that has rotted this aged beauty. Windowless, the room is plunged into an inky black darkness tainted by the odor of rotted paper, carpeting and more than a few dead rodents.

The Polaris Theater was, at one time: A real theater with stage productions, A Speak-Easy, A Bomb Shelter, A Cinema, and the Headquarters for a Grass-Roots, Politial Action Committee. In each of its masks it was part of the community of the city. People saw the glowing 'north star' on the front of the building and it gave them hope. Hope for a pleasant evening of entertainment, hope for change in their lives, hope for something to spark them into action. When the highway overpass was built many years ago, the theater was in its last years of operation. It couldn't compete with the multi-movie, cineplexes that were around the suburbs. Located so close to the 'fringe' of downtown, it soon became abandoned and then later forgotten.

Getting into the old Theater is not easy. The front is quite secure with plywood covering the windows and doors and large chains and padlocks covering every entrance. There is, however, a side-door that must have been for employees that leads into the lobby. Where as every other lock is a padlock requiring a key, this door's chain is secured with a combination lock. Scrawled on the brick nearby are the letters M-Z-E. Assuming that you realize the letters are actually numbers you can use the combination and get inside.

Every once in a while and seemingly without any power to the entire building, the movie projector will randomly start and show the beginning of the last movie ever shown at the theater. The movie, 'John Carpenter's: The Fog', only plays for a few moments and it's just the introduction where a retired sea captain tells a good, old-fashioned, ghost story. Click here for the movie.

For those able to perceive the presence of spirits/ghosts, there is one lurking up in the projection booth. The last projectionist - the man responsible for threading the film into the projector - still lingers in the theater. He is weak and will not physically attack anyone who enters the theater though he does, occasionally, attempt to drive them off with some tricks of the light and shadows.

He appears as a poor reflection of a man in his last years of life with white hair and a suit jacket and tie - probably the clothes he was buried in. Everyone said that even in death old 'Max' will probably still be taking care of that projector...and they were right.

Sketchbook: Wyck